It had been more than half a month since the battle that shook the heavens.
Upper Yard, God's Island, once known as an absolute forbidden zone, was now brimming with life for the first time in four hundred years.
"One, two, heave!"
With their shouts perfectly in sync, they uprooted an ancient tree so enormous it would have taken ten people holding hands to encircle its trunk.
What was even more incredible was that the warriors carrying its left side were Shandia, bare-chested and covered in totemic markings, while those carrying its right side were Angel Island residents, dressed in guard uniforms and sporting small white wings.
For the past four hundred years, these two groups had been sworn enemies, glaring at each other whenever they met and wishing they could devour each other alive. Now they were working together in perfect harmony, cutting down trees and clearing rubble.
"War Demon" Wyper sat on a tree stump, his right arm wrapped in thick bandages.
He raised the canteen hanging from his waist and took a drink, watching the incredible scene of harmony before him. A complicated feeling flickered in his eyes.
With no god lording over them and oppressing them, and no more frenzied struggle for land, everything had changed.
That man named Ace had ended the island's four-hundred-year history of blood and tears with nothing more than one crushing battle and a command no one dared disobey.
Wyper raised his head.
Atop the tallest giant vine in Upper Yard, a massive pirate flag emblazoned with golden-red wings and a ring of eclipse flames snapped in the gale high above.
"As long as that flag keeps flying up there, no one on this island will dare harbor the slightest disloyal thought."
Gan Fall led Pierre, his mount who had turned