At the port of Dressrosa.
Doflamingo was desperate to act and reclaim Sugar. After all, her ability was far too important for him to lose.
However, Sugar was currently being held by Sophia, and Akainu was standing right there. Doflamingo found himself completely immobilized. Setting aside the risk that any sudden move might lead the enemy to kill Sugar instantly, the mere presence of Akainu was enough to keep him from acting rashly.
But while Doflamingo remained still, it didn't mean Akainu felt the same.
Akainu's primary objective in coming here was to eliminate Doflamingo. Furthermore, Doflamingo had dared to order his subordinates to attack a Marine Admiral. Had Akainu not been prepared, he might have actually fallen for a trick. With such a perfect justification, killing Doflamingo now was entirely reasonable.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Akainu's hands transformed into magma. Molten rock dripped onto the ground, searing holes straight through the wooden dock.
"Akainu, what are you planning?"
"What do you think?" Akainu replied with a smirk.
It was a rare sight; Akainu was not a man prone to smiling.
"Meigou!"
'Damn, he actually did it!'
Doflamingo's eyes widened as he scrambled to dodge. However, the distance between them was too short; there was simply no room to escape.
"Shield White Line!"
Knowing he couldn't afford any carelessness against Akainu, Doflamingo immediately triggered his Fruit Awakening, manifesting strings to block the blow.
Boom!
The Meigou strike slammed into the barrier. Akainu frowned slightly. Though it was only a basic move, he was somewhat surprised that Doflamingo could actually block it. Moreover, judging by the technique, it seemed Doflamingo had awakened his Fruit.
In that case...
"Hound Red Lotus!"
In an instant, Akainu's entire right arm surged into magma, shaping itself into the head of a hound that lunged forward with a wide, gaping maw.
Not far away, Doflamingo—who had barely managed to withstand the previous hit—immediately realized the danger. Even with his awakened abilities... he likely couldn't survive this.
The gap in raw power was simply too vast!
"Trebol, Pica! I can only hold him for a few seconds! Leave now! Arrange the family's evacuation as we discussed. Hurry!"
As Doflamingo roared, he unleashed several more massive strings, layering them over the remnants of his destroyed defenses to bolster his protection.
The moment the words left his lips...
BOOM!!!
Akainu's Hound Red Lotus crashed into him. Although those massive strings were thick and possessed immense defensive power, they were negligible before Akainu. The terrifying magma relentlessly devoured the strings, incinerating them until not even ash remained.
Upon hearing Doflamingo's shout, Trebol and Pica didn't hesitate; they turned and bolted.
Doflamingo understood the importance of having multiple escape routes. Holding the secrets of the Celestial Dragons and that critical item meant the World Government could move against him at any moment. Consequently, he had meticulously prepared evacuation plans for the family in the event of a catastrophe.
Trebol and Pica knew this well. Besides, staying here would be useless; they would likely only hinder Doflamingo.
But did they really think escaping would be that easy?
Obviously not.
Before they could run a few steps, two figures appeared in their paths. They were the man and woman standing behind Akainu—two Captains.
Neither Trebol nor Pica took them seriously. They were just Captains...
However, they were unaware that in terms of actual strength, these two Captains had already reached the level of Tokikake. As for why they weren't compared to Gion—that was because the current Gion was far, far stronger than Tokikake.
Ace looked at Pica, a smirk playing on his lips, and launched a Fire Fist directly at her.
Though it was called a Fire Fist, it was not the same as the move Ace used in the original timeline. Having been forced by Sean to take daily lessons from Retes on the fundamentals of nature, Ace's understanding of fire had deepened significantly.
Previously, during sparring sessions with the Commodores under Akainu at the 16th Branch, Ace had already been able to produce third-stage flames reaching over 3,000 degrees. Now, he had mastered fourth-stage sky-blue flames, which started at 6,000 degrees and could peak at 10,000.
He had yet to master the fifth stage, which had no upper temperature limit, but 6,000 degrees was already horrifying.
To put it in perspective, Akainu's magma was only around 1,200 degrees.
Wrapped in sky-blue flames, the power of this Fire Fist was exponentially greater than the original. Although Pica was a user of the Stone-Stone Fruit, 6,000 degrees far exceeded the melting point of rock. With a single punch, a hole was melted straight through Pica's body.
On the other side, Sophia went all out against Trebol.
The power of the Snow-Snow Fruit activated instantly, bringing down a terrifying blizzard. The temperature in the battle area plummeted, especially within a ten-meter radius of Sophia, where it instantly dropped below zero.
Even more oppressive was the scale of the blizzard and the density of the falling snow, which almost entirely robbed Trebol of his vision.
Crucially, Trebol did not know Observation Haki, which proved fatal.
But he hadn't yet realized what the real killer was. Because his vision was blocked, he could only rely on his Fruit ability, secreting disgusting, slippery mucus from his entire body to defend against potential attacks.
The problem was that due to Sophia's ability, the temperature in the area had crashed. Within ten meters of her, the temperature hit minus 30 degrees and continued to drop rapidly.
And what was Trebol's mucus? Essentially, it was a liquid.
Suddenly, Trebol felt his body becoming sluggish. He found he could no longer secrete mucus. The layer of mucus on the surface of his body had begun to freeze, and that frozen shell blocked the exit for any further secretions from within.
He was completely toast.
'''
Noticing the situation with the other two, Doflamingo felt the massive strings he had deployed being burned through by Akainu's attack...
Gritting his teeth, he made his decision.
He released two more massive lines, layering a new shield of white threads to reinforce his defenses, before immediately retreating out of the fray.
Then...
"Birdcage!"
This was something Doflamingo had prepared long before Akainu had even set foot on shore.
Now, the puppets he had positioned throughout the area—his Shadow Cavalry—dissolved back into silk threads. Using the heads of the puppets as vents, countless threads erupted into the sky like a volcanic explosion.
Once the myriad of threads converged in the heavens above Dressrosa, they began to rain down like a meteor shower, forming a massive, dome-shaped Birdcage that spanned from the sky to the earth.
Though these lines appeared incredibly thin, as if they would snap with a single tug, their hardness actually surpassed that of Seastone. In the original story, even Fujitora had been unable to break through this barrier.
Normally, the Birdcage was a technique designed for wide-scale slaughter. As time passed, the cage would gradually contract toward the center, and those countless razor-thin threads would eventually shred everything and everyone inside to pieces.
However, this time, Doflamingo didn't cast the Birdcage to trap Akainu and his men; instead, he used it to shut them out entirely.
He needed time to organize his family's evacuation, and since this was his own ability, the Birdcage posed no threat to him. His sole purpose was to keep Akainu at bay and buy himself enough time to make the necessary arrangements—nothing more.
Unfortunately, Trebol and Sugar were the ones who suffered the worst luck.
Because... they, too, had been shut inside the Birdcage.