The Awakening of the Ito Ito no Mi, the String-String Fruit, completely converted the surrounding terrain into a vast sea of thread.
Massive clusters of strings converged into sharp spikes, thrusting toward Liam one after another.
"You should have stayed in the New World. Why did you have to come here and get in my way?!" Doflamingo waved his hands repeatedly. The terrain morphed into countless threads, rising like white waves and surging toward Liam at his command.
Liam coated his entire body in Busoshoku Haki and nimbly weaved between the surging threads, occasionally kicking away any that rushed him from the flanks.
"You're just a human, yet you act like I'm beneath your notice... You're really pissing me off!" Covered in wounds, Doflamingo laughed angrily from behind the white waves as Liam kept dodging their relentless assault. "Exceptional physical strength? Even stronger Haki? So what if you can't get close? In the end, that's the difference in our domains! The power of an Awakened Devil Fruit isn't something a hot-blooded brawler relying on brute force can overcome!"
Bang!
Liam leaped into the air as a wave of string chased him. He fired a downward Rankyaku, it couldn't slice through the threads, but the force knocked the wave back.
"Break White!"
Doflamingo pulled back even farther, flinging both hands outward. The ground surrounding Liam dissolved into countless white threads, gathering into more than a dozen pointed tendrils that stabbed toward him from all directions.
"Huff..."
As Liam descended, he slowly exhaled. He recalled the feeling of using Rokuogan to finish off Gladius earlier. At the time, he had executed Rokuogan without turning off his Busoshoku Haki...
"Tekkai."
Liam's entire body turned pitch-black as he spoke in a low voice. The dozen pointed white waves slammed violently into his dark, muscular frame.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sharp points struck his body with enough force to send sparks flying in all directions.
"What?" Doflamingo exclaimed in disbelief from afar. "You can use Tekkai while maintaining Busoshoku Haki?!"
"Off White!"
Doflamingo whipped up a massive wall of white strings and sent it crashing toward Liam like a tidal wave.
Liam landed, leaped backward, and kicked the Golden Iron Rod sticking out of the ground. 'Whiz, whiz, whiz'... the staff spun through the air before smacking neatly into his palm.
"This strike..."
A layer of fluid, flowing Haki wrapped around the Golden Iron Rod in Liam's hand. Watching the tsunami of white threads bearing down on him, he muttered, "What should I name it?"
The wave of white string crashed down, completely swallowing Giorno!
Doflamingo was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a deafening BANG erupted from inside the white mass. A pitch-black figure burst straight through, shrouded in streaks of black-and-red Haki lightning and roaring flames, forcibly smashing a path open.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Cold sweat broke out on Doflamingo's face, mixing with the blood running down his forehead.
Liam charged forward, Golden Iron Rod in hand, bounding across the layers of white waves with unstoppable momentum!
"There's no way I'm letting you get close!"
Doflamingo shouted, frantically waving his hands. Dozens of string waves erupted from the ground on both sides, their razor-sharp tips coated in black Busoshoku Haki.
"Flap Thread!"
Dozens of hardened, black-tipped spikes shot toward the charging Liam like a wall of spears.
Liam neither retreated nor dodged. He brought the Golden Iron Rod crashing down directly against them.
BANG!!!
The black staff collided with the barrage of incoming spikes, unleashing violent streaks of black-and-red Haki lightning. The sheer force of the shockwave blasted every trace of snow from the sky.
'Crack, crack...'
Liam's expression didn't flicker. Muscles bulged across his entire body, completely encased in pitch-black Haki. From a distance, he looked like a solid iron juggernaut.
Step by step, the Golden Iron Rod in his hands forced the massive cluster of black spikes backward.
"Just what kind of monster is this guy...?" Doflamingo was still grinning, but an edge of panic now bled into his voice. "It doesn't matter. All I have to do is restrain you."
Liam's eyes shifted. Waves of white thread whipped in from both sides and behind, binding his arms and legs.
"You might slip through these strings with paper-arts, but you can't break them through sheer force..."
Doflamingo sneered, breathing heavily as he waved his hand again. Massive white waves closed in around Giorno.
"Break White!"
The rolling white threads bound Liam in thick, heavy bundles, burying him almost completely. Only his face and a fraction of the Golden Iron Rod in his right hand remained exposed.
"Fuf fuf fuf fuf..."
Doflamingo let out a long, ragged breath. Raising his hand, he held the white bindings tight around Giorno and laughed. "Underestimating me was your biggest mistake..."
As he spoke, he swept his other hand outward. Another wave of strings rose beside him, its point honed to a razor edge. Unlike before, this entire spear was hardened with jet-black Busoshoku Haki.
The black spike tracked Doflamingo's fingers, aiming directly for Liam's exposed face, the sole target left uncovered by Break White.
"Ever White!"
With a sharp whistle, the black spike shot forward at terrifying speed, slamming squarely into Liam's face with a heavy thud that sprayed blood across the snow.
The massive bundle of white string binding Liam trembled violently. A fingernail-sized cut split open on his hardened black cheek, blood trickling down his jaw.
He flicked out his tongue, licked the blood away, and grinned. "Not bad. But is that all you've got?"
A vein throbbed violently on Doflamingo's forehead. "Keep laughing while you still can… 'what?!'"
The white waves binding Giorno began to shake uncontrollably.
"My feet are finally on the ground!"
Buried beneath the mountain of thread, Liam grinned. "Now that both feet are planted, I can actually leverage my strength! You really want to test raw power against me, Flamingo...?"
"It can't be...!"
Doflamingo stared in utter disbelief as Giorno let out a low growl and took a step forward, dragging the colossal mass of white string bound to his body right along with him.
"Keep dreaming!"
Doflamingo spread his hands, ruthlessly forcing the weight of the white waves down to crush Giorno. "This is the power of Awakening! A mere…"
He couldn't finish.
Carrying the massive mountain of white string on his back, Giorno was actually picking up speed.
'Bang. Bang. Bang...'
Every step he took reverberated like heavy thunder, as if he were ripping the earth up by its roots while the ground groaned beneath his weight.
'Bang... Bang... Bang...'
Halfway across the distance, Liam suddenly halted.
"Come to think of it, you haven't forgotten... I'm not fighting alone, have you?"
"'Hm?!'" Doflamingo's eyes widened as the realization hit him.
Liam stood grinning beneath the threads. "This stuff can slow me down, but it can't touch him..."
Doflamingo whipped around. His Kenbunshoku Haki flared, sensing a pitch-black silhouette charging straight at him, its narrow slit eyes glowing faintly as its fists burned with red flames...
BAM!!
B.I.B. drove a fist into his chest, unleashing an explosion of black-and-red Haki lightning that sent Doflamingo skidding across the snow. He bounced several times before frantically manipulating the surrounding threads to cushion his fall and haul himself upright. When he looked up, the black figure was already right in his face.
This time, its fist blazed with blue flames.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Two colossal waves of white thread surged up beside Doflamingo, crisscrossing like giant spears toward the entity, but they passed right through its spectral body without making contact.
BAM!
Doflamingo was slammed back into the earth by B.I.B.
"Gah!"
Doflamingo crashed onto all fours, coughing up blood mixed with broken teeth. Sensing the shadow attacking from behind once more, he swung his arm up. Several thread-waves spiked around him, their tips hardened with Busoshoku Haki. "Die!"
'Whiz-whiz-whiz!' The hardened spikes thrust toward the descending shadow, but B.I.B. suddenly dispersed into countless black fragments, slipping effortlessly between the incoming points.
"What?!"
Doflamingo stared in shock as the fragments reassembled into the humanoid figure right in front of him. It lashed out with a powerful kick, sending him flying with a heavy BANG.
Blood trailed through the air behind Doflamingo. He manipulated the white thread-waves to catch his fall, relying on their elasticity to absorb the brunt of the impact. Clutching his chest, he gritted his teeth as blood trickled through his lips.
"Huff... huff..."
Gasping for breath, Doflamingo suddenly remembered his main opponent. He jerked his head toward the massive bundle of thread that had bound Giorno. The white mass was churning violently, but Giorno was gone.
"Looking for me?"
Giorno's voice drifted down from above. Doflamingo grimaced and looked up to see Giorno soaring high against the backdrop of the Birdcage, Golden Iron Rod held firm in his grip.
Below him, the waves of white string chased relentlessly upward. Liam tightened his grip on the staff, his breathing slow and measured as he plummeted back down toward Doflamingo through the sea of threads.
"Damn it... my body won't move...!"
Doflamingo roared, frantically waving both hands. The surrounding thread-waves condensed into sixteen colossal, black-hardened spikes.
"Sixteen Holy Assassin Bullets…"
Liam plummeted downward, holding the Golden Iron Rod tight. The weapon was slick with pitch-black Haki swirling around it.
"I'm really terrible at naming moves..." he muttered under his breath.
"...Flap Thread!!"
The sixteen gigantic black spikes shot violently skyward toward the falling Giorno.
"If you're calling yours Divine Execution, then I guess mine is..."
Liam swung the black staff down with apocalyptic force, smashing it straight into the sixteen incoming spikes.
"...God-Slaying Strike!"
BANG!!!!
An explosion of black-and-red Haki lightning, far more violent than any clash before it, erupted where the staff met the spears. The thunderous roar of the collision detonated across the island, echoing far outside the Birdcage.
"Is... is the ground shaking?!"
A Marine who had managed to swim clear of the sinking battleship looked down at his feet in confusion.
"Why hasn't this bizarre cage vanished yet?"
"Do you think the Donquixote Family is still in there...?"
The Marines muttered anxiously among themselves, completely helpless against the giant dome of wire enclosing the island.
Among the rescued soldiers, young Drake gasped for air, staring blankly at the barrier. He couldn't help wondering if that earth-shattering roar was the sound of those two taking on the Donquixote Family...
"Look! It's Vice Admiral Tsuru's battleship!"
The Marines shouted in excitement. Drake turned and saw a warship cutting through the distant waves, the word 'Tsuru' painted boldly across its sail.
"The battle seems intense..."
On the deck, Vice Admiral Tsuru murmured softly to herself. They were still too far out for her Kenbunshoku Haki to convey anything beyond a vague, turbulent impression.
Inside that colossal cage, it seemed someone had already been turned into a trapped bird with nowhere left to fly...
...
As the shockwaves gradually died down...
A massive crater spanning dozens of meters lay carved into the snowy landscape inside the Birdcage. At its center, a deep pool of blood radiated outward across the white terrain. Doflamingo lay broken in the middle of it, battered from head to toe.
From his chin down to his abdomen ran a deep, crushed diagonal indent, clearly visible to the naked eye. He looked like a porcelain figurine that had been shattered and left in pieces.
(End of Chapter)
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