In the blink of an eye, all the Revolutionary Army members were underground. They had not forgotten to bring Kuma, who could no longer move, with them. Lindbergh hesitated no longer and jumped in as well. Then the crack in the ground contracted and vanished, as though it had never appeared.
Lindbergh had not waited for Dragon to leave with them. After all, he had complete faith in their leader. He believed that with Dragon's strength and Devil Fruit ability, if he was determined to leave, no one but Kizaru could stop him. And Kizaru was still at Marineford dealing with Su Yu.
That was indeed the case. Although those ten thousand rank-and-file soldiers all knew Geppo-yes, even knowing the Six Powers, they were still rank-and-file soldiers-and could use it to pursue people who could fly or fight in the air, that only worked if the gap in strength was not too great. Both Dragon's strength and his aerial mobility exceeded what they could handle, while Kong, whose strength could rival Dragon's, was already running out of steam. This was one of the sadder aspects of the One Piece World: in the end, most powerful people lost to illness and time. Perhaps when Whitebeard chose to rescue Ace in the original story, part of him had also wanted to avoid dying in a sickbed.
Watching Dragon recede into the distance, surrounded by a blue-green cyclone, Kong remained silent. Then his gaze lowered, taking in the Celestial Dragons' residences, now a scene of devastation littered with blood and corpses. He looked desolate, his burly frame seeming to stoop.
In truth, although he was shocked that the Celestial Dragons had all been killed, his emotions were nowhere near as intense as those of CP0. Ultimately, protecting the Celestial Dragons was merely his