"Fuffuffuffuffu... My, my. It looks incredibly lively down here!"
A dark, chilling laugh suddenly echoed across the heavens, completely drowning out the sounds of the battlefield.
Suspended high in the sky above the ruins, Donquixote Doflamingo looked down at the chaos with a twisted, psychopathic grin. Utilizing his Sky Path (Soradou) technique, he had attached his invisible strings to the passing clouds, allowing him to float ominously above the White City like an arrogant god looking down on mortals.
"Doflamingo!"
In an instant, the chaotic, blood-soaked battlefield temporarily ground to a halt. Both the pirates and the Marines simultaneously paused their clashes, looking up at the sky in shock.
Enel clicked his tongue, his face twisting in deep annoyance. He had been so entirely absorbed in his thrilling, high-speed brawl with Vice Admiral Tokikake that he had completely failed to detect the Heavenly Yaksha's approach on his Mantra. Glaring up at the pink-feathered interloper, Enel desperately wanted to launch a massive pillar of lightning to fry the bastard out of the sky.
However, Tokikake was staring at Enel like a hungry tiger. Enel knew he couldn't afford to act recklessly; if he shifted his full attention to the sky, there was no guarantee Tokikake wouldn't instantly bypass him and launch a devastating blitz against the weaker crew members.
"Donquixote Doflamingo," Vice Admiral Tsuru spoke, her voice perfectly even but carrying a heavy, commanding weight. "What exactly are you doing here?"
His sudden arrival was entirely outside of Tsuru's tactical calculations, and his underlying motives were completely baffling. He had just secured his Warlord title; why would he personally intervene in a Marine Buster-level operation?
"What am I doing? Why, I'm just here to make things even more exciting! Fuffuffuffuffu..."
Doflamingo let out a low, maniacal chuckle as he aggressively crossed his arms. Activating his awakened Devil Fruit powers to their absolute limit, he roared:
"Torikago!" (Birdcage!)
A massive, volcanic eruption of razor-sharp, nearly invisible strings violently blasted out of Doflamingo's palms, shooting straight into the clouds. The concentrated pillar of strings then exploded outward, raining down in a massive, terrifying dome that completely enveloped the entirety of Flevance. The razor-wire strings slammed into the earth, heavily anchoring themselves into the bedrock, forming an inescapable, colossal cage.
Immediately, the massive Birdcage began to slowly, inevitably contract toward the center of the city.
Standing amidst the ruins, Bardock calmly watched Doflamingo's every move, making absolutely no effort to interrupt the casting.
He knew exactly what Doflamingo's overarching objective was: to ensure absolutely no one left this island alive. By trapping both the White Dragon crew and the Marine task force inside, Doflamingo intended to bury them all in the ruins of Flevance, permanently silencing his enemies and any witnesses.
But Bardock wasn't terrified in the slightest.
Was the Birdcage truly an indestructible, conceptual absolute? Did it matter if an Admiral like Fujitora couldn't—or chose not to—cut it in the future timeline? None of that mattered. The absolute fatal flaw of the Birdcage was that the caster was locked inside the cage with them. As long as Bardock beat Doflamingo into a bloody, unconscious pulp, the cage would instantly shatter.
Furthermore, the slow contraction of the razor-wire dome was actually significantly more detrimental to the Navy than to the pirates. The Marines had a massive numerical advantage, meaning they had hundreds of unconscious, incapacitated soldiers scattered all the way out to the perimeter. If the cage closed in, the Marines would be shredded first.
Completely unbothered, Bardock casually leaned his golden staff against his shoulder and called out, a mocking smirk on his face.
"Oi, Doflamingo! Do you just have way too many Devil Fruits lying around your vault? Let me warn you right now, I absolutely will not accept trash-tier fruits to pay your ransom this time!"
High in the sky, the veins on Doflamingo's forehead pulsed violently, his eye twitching behind his red sunglasses.
It was a blatant, naked provocation. The battle hadn't even officially begun, yet this arrogant brat was already casually calculating his ransom fee, treating Doflamingo's defeat as an absolute certainty. Was he truly that delusionally confident?
"Vice Admiral Tsuru," Doflamingo sneered, looking down at the Great Staff Officer. "Aren't you going to execute this insolent brat?"
"Oh, it's quite obvious, isn't it?" Bardock interrupted smoothly, a wicked gleam in his golden eyes. "Vice Admiral Tsuru simply doesn't trust you, Doflamingo. And who could blame her? After all... you're the kind of psychotic scum who personally murdered his own father and brother in cold blood."
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Doflamingo's aura violently shifted, radiating an apocalyptic, suffocating wave of pure murderous intent.
Even Vice Admiral Tsuru's eyes widened in genuine shock. The patricide and fratricide committed by the Heavenly Yaksha was highly classified World Government intelligence. How on earth did this rookie pirate from the South Blue know about it? Tsuru's mind raced: If he knows that... does he also know the ultimate secret? Does he know Doflamingo is a fallen Celestial Dragon?
"Fuffuffuffuffu...!" Doflamingo's laugh was completely devoid of humor, dripping with pure venom. "Are you trying to deliberately enrage me, brat? Trying to draw my aggro so I focus entirely on you and ignore your fragile little crew? I won't let you dictate the pace. I'll start by slaughtering your precious subordinates right in front of your eyes!"
With a vicious flick of his fingers, Doflamingo unleashed a silent, invisible attack from the sky.
"Parasite!"
Countless invisible, microscopic strings rained down directly toward the White Dragon vanguard, aiming to forcefully hijack the nervous systems of Robin, Kid, and the others, turning them into his personal meat puppets. Doflamingo deliberately ignored Enel and Daz Bonez, knowing their specific Devil Fruits and Haki mastery made them highly resistant to the Parasite strings, completely focusing his ambush on the weaker members.
However, to his absolute shock, the ambush completely failed.
Before the strings could even make contact, the entire pirate vanguard rapidly and flawlessly sidestepped, moving in perfect synchronization to dodge the invisible threat. Not a single person was caught.
Looking closely, Doflamingo narrowed his eyes. Nico Robin had utilized her Hana Hana no Mi to instantly bloom eyes and ears across the battlefield, combined with a highly advanced mastery of Observation Haki, allowing her to perfectly read the trajectory of the invisible strings and rapidly command the crew to evade.
'So the Demon Child has awakened Observation Haki? Impressive,' Doflamingo thought, a cruel smile returning to his face. 'But so what?'
Abandoning his aerial advantage, Doflamingo dropped directly from the sky, landing heavily on the ruined earth with a massive crash. If his strings couldn't ambush them, he would simply slaughter them with his own two hands.
Seeing the Heavenly Yaksha rapidly approaching, Robin and the rest of the crew tightened their grips on their weapons, their expressions turning deadly serious as they braced for the impact of a Warlord of the Sea.
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