"Fire—on me."
Golden Lion's eyes bulged, veins bursting red as if they might explode from their sockets.
Above, the North Blue Fleet—fifteen warships armed to the teeth and long hidden from the world—obeyed at once. Hundreds of heavy cannons swung as one, their black muzzles lowering toward the island below.
On the flagship, Momonga's arm cut the air in a sharp downward slash.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The sky split open in fire.
Cannons thundered, spewing infernos. Black iron shells screamed downward. Tracking missiles trailed fiery tails like comets. Electromagnetic rail fire hissed through the air in bursts of silver light. Together, they transformed the heavens into a storm of destruction that poured through the gaps of the Birdcage, blotting out the sun.
Doflamingo flinched, instinctively retreating toward the cage's edge. With shaking hands, he wove frantically, strings whipping into the air.
"White String: Giant Cocoon!"
The cocoon sealed around him just as the bombardment fell.
Fire swallowed the island whole.
The North Blue Fleet's flying warships were not mere relics of Germa's science—each was fitted with experimental Marine SSG weaponry, technology so new it had not yet reached formal deployment. Among the rain of shells and missiles, beams of golden light speared downward from the main cannons: prototype laser weapons, untested but merciless.
The world burned.
Mountains crumbled into molten stone. Forests vanished in fire. The land itself tore and collapsed, reshaped under the fleet's wrath.
It was annihilation. A scorched-earth hell.
On the warships, even the Marines themselves stared, stunned silent. They were the North Blue Fleet, yes—but for many, this was the first time they had seen their secret squadron's full strength unleashed.
It eclipsed even the legendary Buster Call.
After all, each of Darren's warships carried greater firepower than any battleship of that dreaded order.
"Report, Supreme Commander! The laser cannons are drained!" a messenger cried, pale and breathless.
"Don't stop," Momonga snapped, his gaze never leaving the inferno below. His fist trembled, veins taut, as he forced the words out. "Keep firing. And… use that."
The officers blanched. "But Vice Admiral Darren—"
Momonga's voice cracked like a whip. "This is his plan!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
Panels slid open along the flagship's flanks. A moment later, the guttural roar of twin heavy machine guns ripped the sky.
RATATATATATA!!
Not ordinary bullets—fragmented Seastone pellets, tearing through the air with bone-crushing velocity.
Momonga clenched his hands behind his back, sweat cold on his palms. All he could do now was believe—that Darren's so-called Indestructible Body would endure.
The bombardment intensified.
The Birdcage-enclosed island vanished beneath the firestorm, layers of earth stripped away beneath ceaseless bombardment.
One minute.
Three.
Five.
For five full minutes the fleet unleashed destruction greater than any Buster Call. Only then did the barrage begin to fade, cannons cooling as their barrels glowed dull red, smoke curling from scorched steel.
Silence.
Momonga narrowed his eyes at the sea of flames and smoke below, searching. The Marines around him held their breath, fear prickling like ice at their spines.
At the island's edge, a charred cocoon collapsed into ash, its silken strands scattering in the hot wind. Doflamingo stumbled out, pale, shaken to his core. Even from his distance, the bombardment's fury had rattled him inside his cocoon, its shockwaves still echoing in his bones.
The center of the island was unrecognizable. Smoke churned upward in black columns. Flames licked through the haze. The earth had sunk into a vast crater a kilometer wide, its depths scorched black and jagged with ruin.
Then, through the smoke—
A figure emerged.
Tall. Broad. His torso bare, scarred and blackened, shards of artillery still embedded in flesh that refused to yield.
Darren.
For a long moment he stood motionless. Then—
"Haaah…"
His breath rolled out like a dragon's, smoke curling from his mouth. He took one step forward, and then another, spreading his arms as a reckless grin split his bloodstained face.
Crackle… crackle… crackle…
Fragments of metal and rubble slid from his skin. Beneath them, muscle gleamed like forged steel—unyielding, indestructible.
A force of nature made flesh.
"Vice Admiral Darren!"
"He's still standing—!"
"He took it all and came out alive!!"
The fleet erupted into wild cheers, relief and awe bursting from every throat.
But their cries faltered.
Because from the smoke, another voice answered.
"Unthinkable… that I… could be forced this far…"
A rasping growl, seething with venom, bled through the firestorm.
The Marines froze. Momonga's jaw tightened. Doflamingo's heart stuttered in his chest.
Through the haze, a shadow loomed.
Golden Lion Shiki.
Still alive.
Still burning with rage.
To be continued...