On Alubarna's northern wall, Wolof braced both hands against the battlements and looked down at the battlefield that Takemikazuchi had swept through.
The surrendered soldiers were being taken in by the Navy in batches. White coats of justice and Guard Corps uniforms moved across the gravel flats, like they were cleaning up the aftermath of a storm.
In the distance, more than half of the rebels' Rapier Sun Flags had fallen. The few remaining ones stood crookedly amid piles of rubble, their curled edges drooping in the desert's hot afternoon wind.
He let out a long breath. It left no white mist in the dry air, but he felt as though the stone that had weighed on his chest for an entire day and night had finally been lifted.
It was over.
With the Uchiha's power, he had protected Alubarna.
He still remembered Balo standing in the audience hall that day and saying, "The three of us want to take this place now. Can you stop us?"
At the time, he had found those words grating.
Now, he thought they were the most valuable words he had ever heard.
Alabasta would have peace. The bloodline of the Nefertari Royal Family would not end in his hands, and this royal capital, centuries old, had not become ruins.
It was just that the Nefertari Family might become nothing more than puppets from now on.
He pulled his hands away from the battlements, brushed the sand from his cuffs, then turned to the messenger behind him. "Open the gates. Welcome the Navy into the city."
Outside Alubarna, Balo found Roy and Mila at the base of the northern wall.
Roy sat atop a pile of shields abandoned by the rebels, using a whetstone to grind down the chips in his blade. Half a