The figure disguised as Sengoku slowly stepped out.
According to Bartholomew Kuma's visual scan, this person was the real Fleet Admiral Sengoku, so Kuma made no move to attack.
The impostor walked step by step toward Lilith, ignoring Ain and Binz completely.
After dragging Lilith into another room, they reached out, grabbed her face, and stretched it hard, kneading her cheeks without restraint while muttering over and over.
"Why? Why?"
Lilith's face twisted in pain, her voice full of confusion and grievance.
"What do you mean, why? We agreed I only had to call Kuma here, didn't we? But what happened? Every single one of you keeps making things difficult for me!"
"And why do all of you love pulling my face, just like Cain?!"
During that night of rest at the Marine hospital, Cain had already discussed the plan with Lilith.
He wanted to borrow Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit ability to repel Doflamingo's injuries out of his body.
Lilith had learned from the Stella earlier that Kuma had already completed his final modification.
She also wanted to see this former companion again.
So that night, she contacted Bartholomew Kuma.
When she saw his expressionless face, Lilith still could not stop herself from shedding tears.
In the end, however, she still gave Kuma an order in Vegapunk's name.
And so, the "Tyrant Kuma" who appeared at Marine Headquarters the next morning was actually a Pacifista.
The real Bartholomew Kuma had already quietly arrived at Doflamingo's side.
Later, while Lilith was frantically dodging the chaotic attacks of pirates on the battlefield, she suddenly realized her body was no longer under her control.
Only after she was brought to this room did she finally understand everything.
The Doflamingo who had appeared in the plaza earlier was entirely a clone woven from strings—Doflamingo's signature technique, Black Knight.
Although the clone's color was slightly different from the real body, that difference could only be noticed if the two were placed side by side and compared directly.
Not only had Doflamingo taken the bubble gun Lilith used for ship coating, he had also made Kuma compress his injuries with the Paw-Paw Fruit into bubble bullets, then seal them inside special bubbles.
Ain's Modo modo Fruit ability had been compressed in the same way.
Afterward, Doflamingo had used strings to control the bandage ball wrapped around himself, bouncing away from the room and heading for the battlefield.
The image of Fleet Admiral Sengoku that had spoken to the entire world was also woven by him through Black Knight.
The string clone's voice and appearance were exactly the same as Sengoku's.
The only slight flaw was its color, which was why he had deliberately chosen a dim room to contact the outside world.
At this moment, Lilith felt unbelievably wronged.
She had clearly done everything Cain asked of her.
He had promised to protect her safety.
So why was she now tied up like a rice dumpling?
And why did they have to pull her face?
Doflamingo's clone was completely unreasonable.
Just then, the Black Knight clone disguised as Fleet Admiral Sengoku began to change shape.
The strings gathered and wove themselves together again, finally taking the form of a young girl.
Her hair was half snow-white and half vivid red.
It was none other than Uta, the songstress who had recently taken the world by storm, currently located on the Sabaody Archipelago.
Long before Luffy had even reached Sabaody, Cain had already planned everything.
Originally, Cain's plan had been to let himself be imprisoned in Impel Down, then rescue Ace together with Luffy.
If the rescue failed, he would instead take part in the Summit War.
On the battlefield, Doflamingo would copy Fleet Admiral Sengoku's appearance and sever the connection between Ace and the identity of "Roger's son."
If Doflamingo refused, Uta would control him and complete the plan in his place.
Because Uta had already developed her Devil Fruit ability to a deep level, she could control ninety-nine percent of the body of someone caught in her power.
That meant she could also project her consciousness over.
By borrowing Doflamingo's body, she could manipulate his strings and perform all kinds of operations.
Although the execution of the plan had deviated in several ways, Cain had previously placed a Tone Dial near Doflamingo's neck, so the final goal had still been achieved successfully.
Uta did not understand why things had developed differently from the plan, but that was not what she cared about right now.
Ain's appearance was still within expectations, at least.
Cain had also told her that Ain was his teacher's student, and that her ability would play a key role in this war.
There was nothing wrong with firing the ability bullet at Zephyr either.
But Lilith? Where had this woman come from?
Since when had Cain gained another woman by his side?
She was completely different from Nami and Robin on Luffy's ship.
During their conversations in the dream world, whenever Cain mentioned this woman and described her appearance, his eyes had been full of absolute trust.
That was Cain's trust in Vegapunk as a person.
But to Uta, it looked completely different!
This woman's appearance felt as if she was trying to steal Cain away from her!
How could Uta possibly allow that?!
The more Uta thought about it, the more irritated she became, gradually revealing her scheming side.
Several strings shot out and instantly covered Lilith's mouth.
More strings wrapped tightly around Lilith's body, binding her into a strange and uncomfortable posture.
Uta's right hand transformed into a dense mass of thin threads, weaving itself into a long whip.
Although she currently appeared in her own form, the ability she was using still belonged to Doflamingo.
Snap!
She raised her arm and lashed the whip across Lilith's body and spoke with a voice fill of jealousy.
"You damn woman! You vixen showing up around Cain! Cain—Cain is my…!"
It was this wave of jealousy she could not hide that caused Uta, without realizing it, to reveal her complicated feelings for Cain to others.
Unfortunately, Cain would never get to see this rare display.
Crack! Snap!
"Mmph! Mmph—!"
Lilith's mouth was sealed, so she could only let out muffled whimpers.
After seeing Uta's appearance clearly, she immediately recognized the songstress who had recently become famous.
But when she heard the word "vixen," Lilith instantly understood the general situation and wailed inwardly.
'Listen to me! I'm really not some vixen!'
'Inside, I'm basically a man. Would you believe that?'
'Actually, at my core, I'm just a lousy old man!'
'I didn't choose this body! Stella designed it this way!'
'Besides, I'm not even a real human. I'm the kind that can be dismantled!'
For Lilith, this was a completely undeserved disaster!
The whip struck again and again.
Even with a non-human, detachable body, she could still feel the pain.
"Hahh… hahh… mmph…"
'I'm Vegapunk, damn it! Cain! And you too Uta! I really fell into the hands of the two of you!'
…
On the battlefield, the moment Doflamingo's figure appeared, the pirates in Buggy's group felt a flash of fear toward this government-appointed Warlord of the Sea.
Even so, they still shouted Buggy's name at the top of their lungs.
In the end, Buggy was pushed to the front by the crowd, his face full of unwillingness as he was forced to directly face Doflamingo.
Unfortunately, Doflamingo's clone technique had many limitations.
And since Uta had placed most of her attention on his Black Knight clone—the side dealing with Lilith—the Doflamingo who had been acting so arrogant moments ago suddenly collapsed flat onto the battlefield without warning!
And so, everyone naturally concluded that Buggy had defeated Doflamingo.
The cheers instantly shook the sky.
"As expected of Lord Buggy!"
"He took down a Warlord of the Sea just like that!"
"Lord Buggy is freaking insane!"