BOOM!
Low thunder rolled over Mary Geoise.
The night sky, red with fire moments ago, changed completely in little more than ten seconds.
Heavy clouds raced together above the Holy Land.
Dark green and black swirled together like a vast curtain blotting out the sky, slowly pressing down over all of Mary Geoise.
The wind grew stronger.
WHOOSH!
Broken flagpoles swayed violently, and the flames were nearly flattened against the ground.
HISSS!
Rain poured down.
Raindrops as large as beans hammered the rubble, paving stones, and broken statues in a dense rattle.
Blood across the ground quickly thinned in the rain, forming pale red streams along the shattered streets.
Sabo looked up at the sky. At last, a faint smile broke through his tense expression.
"A little late..."
Karasu followed his gaze upward.
Deep in the downpour,
a figure stood motionless high above, his dark green cloak snapping in the gale.
Nothing appeared to support him, yet there he stood,
as though the entire storm held him aloft.
Monkey D. Dragon.
Leader of the Revolutionary Army.
He had come to Mary Geoise himself.
Shamrock slowly raised his head and settled his hand on the hilt of Cerberus.
Aramaki narrowed his eyes too.
"The world's worst criminal..."
In the distant ruins, Maffey Palace's battered body was still struggling to heal.
Conqueror's Haki left by Bullet's punch kept erupting inside her wounds.
Whenever black patterns tried to knit flesh back together,
CRACKLE!
the newly formed tissue split apart again.
She raised her head with difficulty, her gaze cutting through the rain to Dragon's face.
At first, she looked merely puzzled.
But after a few seconds, Maffey Palace's pupils contracted sharply.
"You...?"
Dragon lowered his head, and their gazes met through the thick curtain of rain.
The pain on Maffey Palace's face gradually