Thread after thread of lightning surged through it, turning it into an energy circuit overflowing with thunderous power.
Starting from his arms, it formed ring after ring behind his back, each one larger than the last.
Like an endlessly expanding spiral, it stretched toward the storm-clouded sky until it plunged into the thundercloud layer, becoming a colossal spiraling construct that covered several kilometers.
It looked like multiple orbital rings layered together like stellar halos.
An enormous amount of energy, mixed with Haki, poured into the other end of those orbital bands and into the Cursed Blade: Thousand Edge gripped in his hand.
The shattered blade fragments began to lengthen.
Then they transformed into a beam of thunderlight.
Even though his passive omen sense was screaming frantically in warning, warning him of the approaching enemy in the distance—
Ren still released the attack without the slightest hesitation.
"Thunderflame Greatblade—Body and Soul Obliteration!"
Light—
was unleashed!
There was no deafening boom, no overly piercing noise.
There was only a beam of light compressed to the absolute limit.
Whether it was the shattered chunks of white earth, the surrounding sea of broken rocks, or even Dressrosa itself—
at this moment, everything became a still canvas.
The violet light sliced through like a paper cutter, yet also resembled the tip of a painter's brush—unstoppable.
The sixteen God Threads flying toward Ren converged at that instant, merging into a single swordlike strike aimed straight at the violet light.
Doflamingo had calculated Ren's attack into his own assault.
He clearly intended to kill both the attack and Ren at the same time.
But—
the moment those threads touched the violet light—
the sixteen God Threads were instantly erased.
Or rather, the instant they made contact—
they vaporized!
"That's impossible..."
A chill ran through Doflamingo's entire body, the blinding radiance reflected in his red sunglasses.
Boom—!!
What followed was a tremendous detonation. The air was violently displaced, forming an incomparably massive shockwave.
Centered on the point where the two attacks clashed, it burst outward and kicked up monstrous waves across the entire sea region.
Then, at the very center, a basin thousands of meters wide was carved out, and beneath the drifting sea mist lay a stretch of dried-up seafloor.
Almost at the same moment, thunder roared again, and a bolt of lightning came crashing down.
From within the thunderclouds, Nami directed the lightning and struck the exact point where the Thunderflame Greatblade had pierced.
Yet a gigantic sphere of flame suddenly appeared, and the spreading fire forced the lightning away from it.
This was not Ren's power.
Nor was it Nami's.
It was the handiwork of an outsider.
"So, you've come?"
The Six-Winged Angel slowly lowered the Cursed Blade: Thousand Edge he had just unleashed, while the spiraling giant construct behind him vanished as though it had burned itself out.
He was not surprised by the appearance of the fireball.
Just as he was not surprised that the combined power of the sixteen Sixteen Holy Bullets: God Thread had been shattered by Thunderflame Greatblade.
The so-called Thunderflame Greatblade—Body and Soul Obliteration—
was a major technique Ren had developed, specifically designed as a piercing attack.
A classic point-breaking-surface move.
That's right.
Not an ultimate move.
Divine Wrath: Thunder Spear and Lightning Control: Thunder Prison were both merely Ren's minor techniques, the sort of attacks he could throw out casually.
On the same level were abilities like Myriad Thunder and Myriad Bolts.
Only something like Sumeru: Divine Thunder, which required time to charge and possessed destructive power far above those lesser techniques, counted as a true major skill.
As for Thunderflame Greatblade—Body and Soul Obliteration and Sumeru: Divine Thunder, while they both appeared to operate on the principle of gathering force, compressing it, and then releasing it—
their focus was entirely different.
The principle behind Thunderflame Greatblade actually relied on a property formed from both Haki and Qi.
It possessed the trait of infinite compression.
Just as Doflamingo could wrap extremely dense Armament Haki around his strings—
and just as that line from Assassin Wu Liuqi said: concentrate the Qi on that sharp point—
the fusion energy created from combining Haki and Qi possessed the same condition. It could continuously increase the density of that energy within a limited space.
At the same time, another characteristic of Haki had also been fused into it.
That was its ability to coat attacks.
It could coat fists and kicks, weapons, energy attacks, and even sword slashes.
The gigantic spiral star-ring behind Ren just now was, in essence, a compressor powered by lightning energy.
It continuously compressed and condensed the injected lightning and fusion energy, then applied them to the finest conductor available—the Cursed Blade: Thousand Edge.
The blade's properties of conducting energy, strong linkage, energy absorption, and indestructibility made it the perfect vessel.
It could withstand ultra-high-density fusion energy and compressed power without suffering major losses over distance.
What this major technique pursued—
was piercing power far beyond Ren's current level.
There was absolutely no way Doflamingo could block it.
Rather—
if it had only been Doflamingo, he likely would have been vaporized the instant he touched the Thunderflame Greatblade.
The only reason a fireball had appeared—
was because that energy had been diluted.
And in Ren's calculations, there was only one person who should have been capable of achieving that.
"A Lead Performer of the Beasts Pirates—Wildfire King."
Hidden within the thunderclouds, Nami uttered those words, her beautiful eyes fixed on the giant fireball as it gradually shrank.
When the flames faded, they revealed a tall figure with a metallic aura.
He stood just over six meters tall, with black wings and a ring-shaped tattoo around his left eye.
Every inch of his body, including his face, was covered in black clothing. His upper garment was a black double-breasted outfit.
He wore a mask and a goggle-like helmet, and two skull emblems decorated his collar.
Black gloves covered his hands, leaving not an inch of skin exposed.
A long sword hung at his waist, and flames burned behind the back of his head.
And in the stranger's hand—
he was gripping Doflamingo, who had lost one arm.
"That was close, Doflamingo. You should've called for help earlier, instead of waiting until you were almost beaten to death before contacting me.
If you had, you wouldn't have lost an arm."
King coldly glanced at the Doflamingo in his grasp and at the severed arm. His Observation Haki told him that Doflamingo had been gravely wounded.
And having survived that attack at all, losing an arm was nothing much in comparison.
After all, if King hadn't arrived—
Doflamingo's fate would likely have been to turn into ashes!
"That attack just now... was that yours?"
King looked toward the sky again, staring at the Six-Winged Angel high above as he asked the question.
Without waiting for Ren to answer, he lowered his gaze to his own body.
At his waist and abdomen was a fist-sized hole.
Through that opening, one could even see the seawater flowing back into the crater on the seabed.
That, too, had been caused by the attack just now.
That straight beam of light had first burned away the arm Doflamingo had tried to block with.
Then, when King arrived and seized Doflamingo, confidently using his own body to intercept the strike, it had pierced straight through him as well.
Only then had it shot into the seabed and released its enormous energy, blasting out that underwater crater.
And at the time, King had been in the flame-on state of the Lunarian race, with defensive power nearly comparable to Kaido's.
Even so, that beam had still punched through his body.
If not for the Lunarians' special nature—the innate talent to adapt to all kinds of extreme environments—and if he had not activated that trait to adapt to the power,
then transformed the remaining immense heat into that fireball—
it probably would not have ended with merely a fist-sized wound.
At that moment, the muscles on King's body writhed and closed the wound.
After all, on his six-meter-tall body, a wound the size of a fist was little more than a small hole.
This was the drawback of power that was too highly concentrated.
"That pink-feathered bird actually managed to provoke an opponent like you. What an idiot. No wonder something like that happened."
King sighed with that remark, then suddenly tightened the hand gripping Doflamingo.
"Stupid bird. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
"Cough—!"
Doflamingo violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his expression growing uglier still.
"I asked you to come, not to kill me."
"If you can't give me a reasonable explanation, then we're enemies!
And besides, I didn't come here this time for your sake.
Artificial Devil Fruits are important enough to bring Lord Kaido out in person!"
King said coldly.
"Fuffuffuffuffu... before that, let's deal with this guy first, King.
I can tell you this much—if you capture him alive, then that matter will definitely still have room for recovery.
But right now, I need to go find my family."
Doflamingo waved his remaining hand, and Sky Path appeared, catching onto the feather coat hanging from his body.
Then—
after a moment of thought, King loosened his grip and allowed Doflamingo to flee toward Dressrosa.
At that moment, Ren's passive omen sense stirred again.
His eyes swept the distance.
Out on the sea, a large Beasts Pirates ship had appeared.
A group of Beast Pirates under the command of Lead Performer Wildfire King filled the vessel to the brim.
Among them, Devil Fruit users and SMILE users capable of flight had already begun to move.
However, they were not heading this way.
Instead, they were flying straight toward Dressrosa.
"Move it! Find that guy called Tesoro!"
"Damn it, why can't we get through on the Den Den Mushi?!"
"Our employer's gone off the grid! How are we supposed to find him? Should we ask Lord Wildfire?"
"Didn't you see Lord King is busy? Get up there and search first! A golden ship ought to be easy to spot!"
"Look over there—it's Doflamingo! Why's he in such a sorry state?"
"Hey, hey, was the report just now sent back?"
"Looks like it was. Lord Kaido—"
A crowd of all kinds of Devil Fruit users streaked through the sky from afar, bringing with them a series of piercing howls.
That was the Beasts Pirates' Gifters army.
Every last one of them was a user of artificial Devil Fruits.
From several thousand meters away, King paid them no attention. Instead, he turned to look at the six-winged angel.
"Truly worthy of being called a great schemer."
That was Ren's assessment.
"In terms of decisiveness alone, you're above ordinary people."
"So I can take it this way, then? That matter has something to do with you?"
King flapped his wings and hovered in the air.
"Where is the source of the raw materials for the artificial Devil Fruits?"
Yet unexpectedly, Ren's answer was rather strange.
"Kaido... didn't come?"
"What nonsense are you spouting? Know your own place."
King frowned, unable to understand what his enemy was thinking.
What did he mean by Kaido didn't come?
Was King's own appearance still not shocking enough?
"You find that strange?"
Ren slowly put away the Cursed Blade: Thousand Edge and casually released an electric symbol as a signal.
"The truth is, when I launched the raid on Dressrosa, I had already prepared for the worst-case scenario.
For example—
the loss of the raw material source for artificial Devil Fruits,
leading to the inability to produce artificial Devil Fruits,
which in turn would trigger a chain reaction and bring Kaido here in person."