Doflamingo's maniacal laughter echoed across the skies of ruined New York. He spread his arms wide, the brilliant glow of the three Infinity Stones casting an incredibly eerie light over his white feathered coat.
"Fuffuffuffuffu! Is this the absolute pinnacle of the universe's power?"
He thrust both hands downward. The ground caved in with a deafening rumble as countless transparent strings shot up from the depths of the earth. These were no longer ordinary white threads. The red glow of reality, the yellow glow of mind, and the absolute purple destruction of power—all three cosmic energies were forcefully pumped into his Awakened String-String Fruit abilities.
A colossal, tri-colored Birdcage materialized in an instant. Imu and Hela were trapped in the dead center.
In the distance, Kizaru had just casually kicked away several Chitauri soldiers at the speed of light. He turned his head, eyeing the absurdly flashy cage.
"My, my," Kizaru shook his head. "That Doflamingo kid is getting really creative with his toys. It's a real shame he didn't use those lighting effects to open a concert."
Akainu incinerated an alien beast into ash with a single molten punch, casting a frigid glare at Kizaru. "Stop making sarcastic remarks. That bastard is holding three Infinity Stones. Aren't you worried he'll wipe this entire place off the map?"
Kizaru shrugged, looking completely innocent. "I'm just a man working for a fixed salary. If he destroys it, he destroys it. It's not like this is Marineford."
Garp, who was currently grinding a heavily injured Thanos into the dirt, roared with laughter. "Borsalino's right! If this dump gets destroyed, then let it! That feathered brat has a lot more guts than he used to!"
He slammed his fist into Thanos's face, causing the Titan to spit up a mouthful of purple blood, unable to speak. "What are you looking at, purple freak?! I'm not done beating you yet!"
Thanos rolled his eyes to the back of his head and promptly passed out at the bottom of the crater.
Inside the cage, Hela stared at the interwoven energy strings, her anger reaching a boiling point. The Goddess of Death of Asgard, trapped like an animal by a mere mortal?
"You think a few pathetic strings can hold me?!" Hela shrieked.
She swung her remaining left hand, her death magic surging to a terrifying peak. Dozens of pitch-black daggers manifested out of thin air, flying straight for Doflamingo's face.
Standing atop the cage, Doflamingo didn't even bother to dodge. He simply snapped his fingers.
The red light of the Reality Stone swept out along the transparent strings, washing over the air. The moment the terrifying, death-infused black blades touched the red light, their physical structure was rewritten. The deadly weapons dissolved into a shower of soft, harmless white feathers, drifting lazily down to cover Hela.
Hela froze. Her face flushed purple with sheer humiliation. She tore the feathers from her face, trembling with absolute fury. "Are you mocking me?!"
Doflamingo laughed so hard he bent completely backward, tears nearly forming in his eyes. "Fuffuffuffuffu! Goddess of Death? Right now, you look exactly like a plucked chicken!"
Hela was so enraged she looked ready to charge forward and tear him apart with her teeth, but Imu remained perfectly still, not even blinking. She simply watched Doflamingo's right hand—the one clutching the Power Stone. The purple light had already begun creeping ominously up his wrist.
"You're celebrating too early," Imu stated coldly.
Doflamingo opened his mouth to mock her, but his face abruptly warped in agony.
The blood vessels in his right arm spontaneously detonated. Blood sprayed into the air as the Power Stone's energy went completely berserk. The apocalyptic force effortlessly shredded the Armament Haki coating his arm.
"Damn it!" Doflamingo screamed in pain.
The White Zetsu cells inside him worked frantically to repair the ruptured vessels, but his regenerative speed couldn't even come close to matching the destructive velocity of a cosmic force. His right arm was reduced to a mangled mess of blood and gore, the stark white bone clearly visible underneath.
"Damn it! Why is this rock fighting back so hard?!" Doflamingo grit his teeth, sweat pouring down his face.
Hovering in the distance, Tony Stark watched the monitors in his suit and loudly complained, "I told you that thing wasn't meant to be touched bare-handed! That guy definitely didn't read the manual!"
Doctor Strange, busy maintaining a magical shield, shot back irritably, "There is no manual for that thing! The fact that he hasn't blown up into a firework show yet is already a miracle!"
Young Tony flew closer, scoffing. "If I were him, I'd throw those stupid rocks away right now. Losing your arm just to look cool? That is a terrible trade deal."
Imu seized the opening. With zero wasted movement, she pointed her index and middle fingers directly at Doflamingo, rapidly concentrating a high-density, dark red ki blast at her fingertips.
"Die."
The dark red beam shot forward, faster than the eye could track, effortlessly punching a hole straight through the defensive mesh of the tri-color cage. Doflamingo only had time to slightly twist his body.
BOOM!
The ki blast grazed the left side of his torso. The left half of his feathered coat was vaporized, and the immense kinetic force sent him rocketing backward. He slammed brutally against the inner edge of his own cage.
Before Doflamingo could even try to stand, Hela was already on him. She didn't care about alliances or tactics; her mind was completely consumed by the urge to take back the Power Stone.
Gripping a dark blade in her left hand, she plunged it straight toward Doflamingo's heart. "Give it back to me!"
Squelch!
The black blade pierced cleanly into Doflamingo's left pectoral. Blood poured rapidly from the wound. Doflamingo hacked up a massive mouthful of blood, staining his chin crimson.
Hela's face twisted into a look of absolute ecstasy. She reached out with her left hand to pry the Power Stone from his mangled right hand. "This belongs to me!"
"Fuffuffuffuffu..." Doflamingo actually started laughing again, his mouth overflowing with blood. The sound was incredibly eerie, sending a chill down Hela's spine. She hesitated for a fraction of a second.
"Are you insane?"
Doflamingo's left hand shot out like a viper, locking onto Hela's wrist in a death grip. Beneath his skin, countless transparent threads were drilling directly into his chest. He was using his strings to forcibly suture his own pierced heart together!
"Insane? I am the Heavenly Yaksha!"
The Mind Stone in his right hand erupted with a blinding yellow flash. The psychic force surged directly along the strings and blasted straight into Hela's mind.
Hela's body froze completely, her pupils blowing wide. Her entire reality warped. In her vision, Doflamingo vanished. Standing in front of her, holding the Power Stone, was Imu.
"Does trash like you really think you deserve this?" the illusory Imu sneered.
Hela's sanity finally snapped. Her eyes radiated pure, unadulterated murder. "DIE!"
Roaring like a feral beast, Hela lunged with her black blade—straight at the real Imu.
Imu, who had just been preparing to fire a second ki blast, suddenly found Hela charging her like a rabid animal. "What is wrong with you?!"
She sidestepped the attack and chopped her hand down onto the back of Hela's neck, but Hela ignored the blow. Pushing her death aura to the limit, she aggressively locked Imu into close-quarters combat. "Give me back my stone!"
Imu was forced back step after step, her expression dropping to absolute zero. "Get off me, you fool! You are being controlled!"
But Hela couldn't hear a word. The two queens became locked in a brutal, point-blank brawl inside the cage.
Doflamingo clutched his chest, panting heavily. He watched the two women tear each other apart and a cold smirk crept onto his lips. "Fuffuffu... Take your time, you two idiots."
His condition was critical. The backlash from the Power Stone was tearing him apart from the inside, and though his heart was stitched together, even the slightest movement sent waves of agonizing pain through his body. He couldn't fight anymore. He needed to retreat immediately and find a safe place to properly assimilate the power of the three stones.
Doflamingo glanced up at the sky. Sanctuary II was still raining down a relentless barrage of artillery. Far away, Whitebeard was swinging his bisento, shattering a dozen alien fighters with a single shockwave.
Whitebeard glanced toward Doflamingo's cage and erupted into booming laughter. "Gurararara! That brat is at his limit! That's what happens when you bite off more than you can chew!"
Sengoku, in his giant golden Buddha form, flattened a massive leviathan beast with a single palm strike. "Ignore him! Let him kill himself! We take down that flying piece of junk first!"
Kizaru hovered lazily nearby, still pinching the broken gauntlet. "My, my. If Doflamingo dies here, how are we going to explain it to Boss White Night back at the tavern?"
Akainu snorted coldly. "Pirate scum. It's better if he dies here and stops wasting our oxygen."
Doflamingo didn't have the luxury of listening to their insults. He raised his right hand, preparing to use his spatial strings to pull himself entirely out of the ruins.
"I am the final victor of today's game," Doflamingo cackled, his body slowly beginning to rise into the air.
But just as he was about to exit the cage, the sky changed colors.
The heavy clouds, previously choked by Sanctuary II's massive silhouette, were abruptly and forcefully torn apart by a cascade of black and red lightning. This was no ordinary storm—this was the physical manifestation of Conqueror's Haki!
BOOM!
A monstrously thick bolt of black-red lightning crashed down from the heavens, striking the tri-color Birdcage dead center. Doflamingo's proud, ultimate defense was pitifully fragile against the blast. With an ear-piercing screech of shattering glass, the strings snapped, and the entire cage completely collapsed.
The resulting shockwave slammed Doflamingo out of the sky, burying him deep into the rubble. He felt as though every bone in his body had shattered. The three Infinity Stones tumbled from his grasp, their brilliant light dimming in the dust.
"Who was that?!" Doflamingo roared, lifting his bloodied head.
At the end of the ruined street, a lone figure slowly walked forward. The man held a longsword in one hand and a flask of sake at his waist. His crimson hair was incredibly striking amidst the gray smoke of the battlefield.
Shanks stopped, his gaze sweeping over Doflamingo. Embedded perfectly into the crossguard of his famous sword, Gryphon, was a stone radiating a warm, comforting orange light—the Soul Stone.
Shanks looked down at the battered, ruined warlord, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "You took something that doesn't belong to you. This isn't a game you're meant to play."
─
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