The falling "sun" was blindingly radiant. Just looking at it made one feel as if their eyes were screaming.
But the voice coming from it was familiar. It belonged to Ren.
And yet—
When Doflamingo forced himself to look directly at that sun, he did not see any six-winged angel at all.
What appeared before his eyes was nothing more than a mass of light.
Even straining his vision to the utmost, all he could make out was a vague human silhouette within the glowing sphere, with six wings faintly spread behind it.
"Where's King!?"
Doflamingo's face filled with disbelief.
Instinctively, he poured Armament Haki into the Birdcage like a madman, trying to lock his enemy in place.
At the same time, sixteen enormous waves of Shield White wrapped in dense Armament Haki surged out around him once more.
Sixteen shots of Sixteen Holy Bullets: God Thread!
But then—
He saw it. He saw something unbelievable.
The Birdcage strings that stretched outward were vaporized the instant they touched the "sun." Violent thermal energy surged through them, and the entire Birdcage was burned away in the blink of an eye!
The Ren who had stepped into this battlefield now seemed capable of destroying Doflamingo's proudest techniques with mere contact alone.
Why?
What happened?
Where was King?
Why had Ren appeared here?
And what the hell was this form!?
Questions flashed through Doflamingo's mind one after another, but he had no time to think.
The sixteen Holy Bullets around him had already been fired. Several of the more insidious attacks shot toward Nojiko, striking at the target Ren had no choice but to save.
The rest came from all directions, converging on their enemy.
At the same time, a massive amount of Armament Haki coated Doflamingo's vital points. He had clearly seized this opening.
This can work. He's different from before—he didn't bring out that giant spiral construct.
He appeared far too suddenly. He had no time to build momentum.
And there's no visible channel connecting him to the thunderclouds in the sky.
The reason his attacks are so overwhelming is because those vast thunderclouds are supplying him with energy.
If I seize this moment, I can kill him!
Doflamingo's expression turned savage, veins bulging across his neck and forehead.
"I'm going to make your death ugly!"
The distance between them was incredibly short, and the Holy Bullets flew at terrifying speed.
In such a situation—
Ren seemed to have only enough time to raise a hand.
But then endless lightning burst from his palm, as though the "sun" itself had unleashed its radiance!
"Radiant Thunder: Thunder Prison!"
A massive beam of lightning erupted from one side of the "sun," like a solar flare, only to expand the very instant it was released.
Radiant Thunder: Thunder Prison and Lightning Control: Thunder Prison were almost identical in principle.
Both released enormous amounts of lightning energy to destroy the enemy.
But there was an essential difference between them.
For example—
Just as Doflamingo had noticed, there was no channel on Ren linking him to a source of thunderclouds.
But—
At this very moment, Ren did not need thunderclouds.
He himself was a massive cluster of energy!
Boom—!!
Amid rolling thunder, lightning hundreds of meters thick expanded outward in every direction, releasing and swelling wildly like a devastating radial blast.
The sixteen Holy Bullets charging in at close range only managed to resist for an instant before they were completely vaporized by the berserk lightning energy.
But that still wasn't the end.
The gigantic lightning continued to surge forward. After spreading for hundreds of meters, it branched apart, forming a terrifying tree-like web of lightning that covered over a thousand meters.
It danced like silver serpents and giant pythons, as if intent on destroying all things, lashing everything it touched.
Buildings, the ground, even the Beasts Pirates' Gifters—
all of them vanished under the released energy as it transformed into searing, destructive heat.
They did not even have time to struggle.
By the time Ren lowered his hand, there was no toy factory left on the site.
There were no ruins, either.
What remained was only a molten region over a thousand meters long, its width impossible to measure at a glance.
That's right—
A landscape of magma!
The street that had once been there had become nothing but a flowing river of lava!
"...That's pretty outrageous."
Even Ren himself seemed not to have expected this outcome.
Let alone Doflamingo, who had been trying to seize the chance to kill him.
"...How... how is this possible..."
At the edge of the magma flow, Doflamingo—reduced to nothing but a torso—struggled to raise his head.
His Observation Haki was still working. In the distant sky, thunder exploded in furious waves, and faintly visible among them was a pterosaur weaving through the storm.
Without question, King was still fighting.
But—
If King was still fighting, then who was the man in front of him!?
Boom!
After a violent burst of sound, the distant "sun" appeared in front of him in the next instant.
Ren gazed thoughtfully at Doflamingo's twisted face.
"You're surprised? So you didn't know. No wonder... Kuzan really did tell me after all."
It was as if Ren had confirmed something. His tone became certain.
"So Tsuru's side really didn't want to see you continue down this path.
If her earlier indulgence was what allowed you to become the source of evil you are now, then giving things a little push and sending you straight into hell wouldn't be strange at all.
If that's the case, then I may still have room to maneuver openly on the Marine Headquarters side.
Interesting... It looks like things will go very smoothly from here on."
What was he talking about?
Tsuru... what had that woman who always wanted to purify him done?
Doflamingo's vision darkened, his thoughts drifting.
If not for his Armament Haki defense, he might have turned to ash just like the Gifters.
If Ren's attack had not charred and sealed his wounds, he might already have bled to death.
But as the loser—
Doflamingo could take no joy in that.
What filled his mind was endless confusion, and an unending stream of why.
Like an insect trapped in a spiderweb, no matter how he reacted, he could not escape his predicament.
Every decision he made, every result he produced, even the accidents he himself never noticed—
all of them still led him into the same inescapable corner.
If he had ever gotten the chance to chat with Crocodile or Robin—
he would probably have understood this feeling perfectly.
This was what it meant to be—
"Schemed to death!"
Faced with such a situation, it felt as if fire were burning in his chest. He was furious beyond belief, and equally unwilling to accept it.
"Don't stand there with that all-knowing look and look down on me here!"
Doflamingo roared and leapt up.
Countless strings burst from his body, weaving themselves into replacement arms and legs while also suppressing his injuries.
He still wanted to fight.
He still wanted to kill the enemy before him.
He still wanted to let out his roar at the world.
"I'm the man who's going to destroy this world!"
"You're way too dramatic. Can you just die already?"
Ren took out a Soul Stone and activated the magic for soul extraction.
Then he raised a hand and spread his fingers.
He made no grand gesture at all.
He merely released the energy restrained inside his body.
A sphere of light a hundred meters wide appeared instantly, erasing all matter it touched—along with Doflamingo himself.
Warlord of the Sea Donquixote Doflamingo — Dead!
"That side should be about done too, right? A time difference... so two against one... Doesn't look like it's the worst-case scenario.
After making so many preparations, Kaido still didn't come. Well... not coming is fine too.
That said, the Lunarian race's natural gifts really are outrageous."
Ren lifted his eyes toward the distant sky.
Furious thunder rolled across the heavens like waves, with tens of thousands of bolts chasing after their prey.
Buru~ Buru~
The sound of a Den Den Mushi rang out inside a cavern-like space.
A member of the Beasts Pirates dressed like a barbarian poked his head out from a corner.
He wore the Beasts Pirates' signature outfit—armor, belt, fur and feather cloak, along with armored gear, sword, gloves, trousers, and boots.
At his waist hung the animal-horn ornament popular among the crew.
The moment he realized the Den Den Mushi was ringing, he hurried over and picked it up.
Once he grasped how important the message was, he immediately rushed deeper into the cave to report it.
Within a stretch of deep darkness, a massive figure sat upon an enormous throne.
He was extraordinarily tall and powerfully built, with long black hair draped over his shoulders and a pair of huge horns like those of a dragon.
He had long whisker-like mustaches hanging from his mouth, and dragon-scale tattoos on his left arm.
His upper body was bare, with an X-shaped scar across the right side of his abdomen. A purple coat hung around his waist, with two golden chains dangling from the hem.
He wore wide dark green trousers on his lower body, a shimenawa tied around his waist, and a purple fur cloak over his shoulders.
Just looking at him gave off an overwhelming sense of pressure.
At that moment, he held a sake gourd with the character "Heaven" written on it, pouring alcohol into his mouth in huge gulps.
Several Beasts Pirates officers stood not far away.
"L-Lord Kaido! A message came back from Lord King's side!"
The messenger shouted from a distance as he ran in.
"Hm?"
The gigantic figure paused. Kaido turned his head in surprise to look at the man.
"It's the artificial Devil Fruit!
Doflamingo called Lord King and said the deal ran into a little trouble, but once it's resolved, supply can resume!"
the man hurriedly reported.
Kaido continued drinking, pouring more and more alcohol down his throat as if he had not fully processed the words.
But in the next moment, a furious roar exploded through the cave.
"What did you say!?"
It was as if a demon had flown into a rage. Surging pressure filled the entire cavern.
The nearby officers all turned pale, almost trembling.
"Th-that... that's what they said over there..."
the messenger stammered in terror.
"Where?"
"Dressrosa!"
"..."
Kaido suddenly rose to his feet, causing a commotion like a mountain coming alive.
"In that case, the number of Gifters can keep increasing, right!?"
"B-but they said they have to resolve a little trouble first before supply can resume..."
the messenger corrected reflexively.
"Who the hell do you think I am!?"
Kaido's bull-like eyes widened, and a tyrannical aura crushed down over everyone present.
The nearby officers instantly shrank their necks and unconsciously backed away.
Then—
Kaido suddenly grabbed the spiked kanabo beside him and smashed it straight into the messenger's face.
"I'm Kaido!"
A savage shockwave erupted with terrifying force, blasting layer after layer of holes through the cavern itself.
The messenger who took the blow shot away like a meteor, dead or alive unknown!
Immediately after—
Kaido's entire body twisted and transformed, turning into an incomparably massive azure dragon!
A mere swing of his head shattered the cave ceiling above him.
"I'm going to find Joker right now.
He was the one who promised we'd build the strongest army of ability users together.
And now he's actually trying to threaten me with this!?
Unforgivable!
I'm going to make him have a proper talk with my kanabo!"
Down below,
a group of officers stared blankly at the sight of Kaido flying off into the sky.
"This is bad! Lord Kaido got drunk, got mad, and flew off to Dressrosa!"
"That place is a member nation! If something happens there, are we going to war with the World Government!?"
(End of Chapter)