"By now, they should be back."
Hades watched the battlefield. The war at Marine Headquarters had ended roughly half an hour earlier.
While watching the fighting below, Goenitz had also opened a small Visual Den Den Mushi to follow the live feed from G-1 Fortress.
He had quickly spotted the problem with the battle and ordered a retreat.
King the Wildfire and Borsalino stopped fighting without a word.
At Crow Monster-Man Clay's command, Crute the Pighead Emperor also fell back. He led his Pighead Army onto the Flesh Flying Carpet as it descended from the sky.
They left under the eyes of countless Marines.
No one tried to stop them.
If they wanted to, they could certainly have prevented Crute the Pighead Emperor from escaping.
The Flesh Flying Carpet was not particularly fast. Destroying it would have been easy.
But doing so would have meant reigniting the war.
They would have been the ones to provoke it, and no one dared guess what terrible things the Pirates might do in response.
Sengoku, in particular, remained deeply cautious.
There were still huge numbers of islanders behind them who needed help. They could not risk an unpredictable attack.
Just as Hades had expected.
Reinhardt the Uranus evaded the CP0 Chief's attack and swept all his crewmates up in a powerful current of air.
Seeing this, Bamboo Python, Silver Snake, and the other Top Combatants moved to intercept them.
At the critical moment, Goenitz, King, and Pain arrived. They recognized the danger and easily blocked the attacks.
At the sight of three more Top Combatants,
the World Government knew it was impossible to keep the Flying Pirates' remaining elite fighters there.
By now, both sides understood that the battle was essentially over.
The World Government still held the advantage,
but stopping Pirates intent