Rosinante’s request for assistance in his capacity as a Marine failed to bring him any Marine reinforcements, but when Doflamingo ran into trouble, Vergo, the undercover agent, decided to carry out orders on his own.
This was also a consequence of the Marines being such a massive organization. Although Headquarters could command any branch, if someone holding real authority at a branch had ideas of their own and acted privately, Headquarters would not be able to stop them in time.
Although the Marines could not command the Shichibukai, fundamentally, they were still on the same side.
Vergo set out with troops under the pretext of having received a distress call. Whether it was helping the kingdom or coordinating with a Shichibukai in battle, there was essentially nothing wrong with either.
However, by the time Vergo hurriedly led the Marines toward Dressrosa, Doflamingo’s situation had already become extremely dire.
Neither the strange arrows being fired from the ground nor the flame monster that had turned the sky into a sea of flames was the deadliest threat.
What Doflamingo found hardest to deal with was Alber himself.
No matter how Doflamingo attacked, whether with a frontal assault or a sneak attack from behind, he could not inflict any effective damage on Alber.
From beginning to end, Alber did not even bother dodging Doflamingo’s attacks. He simply stood there, allowing Doflamingo to attack him as he pleased.
As the flames blazing fiercely on his back, which had never gone out from beginning to end, were Alber’s greatest reliance.
“What’s wrong? Is this all a Celestial Dragon amounts to?”
“Fuffuffuffu, Celestial Dragons… You really can’t let go of that hatred, can you? Actually, there’s one thing you guessed wrong. Me? I want to drag every last one of those Celestial Dragons down with me!”
“Is that so? But as far as I know, you once went to tremendous lengths trying to restore your status as a Celestial Dragon. Even today, you only became a Shichibukai through certain channels.
And you, codenamed Joker, are nothing more than a dog working for those Celestial Dragons, using your own channels to satisfy their desires.
You say you want to drag them down with you, but isn’t that fundamentally because you were stripped of your status and couldn’t go back?”
“…”
Alber’s words could be said to have struck Doflamingo directly where it hurt most. Doflamingo wanted to retort, but suddenly realized there was no point.
For one thing, no matter what he said, Alber would never believe him.
For another… deep down, Doflamingo knew perfectly well that what Alber had said was the bloody truth.
If Mariejois had allowed him to return back then, he would have happily gone straight back to Mariejois to live as a young master. Why would he have needed to struggle outside like he did now?
Boom!
Lightning suddenly flashed, once again illuminating the strings Doflamingo had woven among the clouds. At some point, the sky had become completely covered in dark clouds, within which terrifying lightning was gathering.
“Your subordinates have already lost. Next… it’s your turn.”
Light reflected off Doflamingo’s sunglasses. He did not react much to those words. Although he constantly claimed that the members of his Family were his true family, what Doflamingo needed was for his family to devote themselves to him.
If the death of one of his “family members” could achieve his objective, Doflamingo would not hesitate in the slightest.
He wanted Rosinante to become the user of the Op-Op Fruit and then willingly perform the Immortality Operation on him. And in order to prevent certain situations from arising, he did not stop Monet from using her life to activate a self-destruct device either.
But if Doflamingo himself were asked to sacrifice his life for one of his family members, he would absolutely never agree.
If one of Doflamingo’s subordinates went missing on Fullalead Island, he would never charge in and confront a Yonko like Moria had.
Thus, Doflamingo was indeed furious, because his plans had been disrupted and all his chess pieces had been destroyed by someone else.
But he felt none of the grief that should have come from the possibility that his subordinates had already died in battle.
“It’s not over yet…”
There did not appear to be any obvious change, yet the surrounding environment seemed to begin swaying. The ground, the buildings, and even the trees around them all seemed to be stretching longer.
“Your ability really is annoying, but Devil Fruits aren’t as simple as they appear… There’s a deeper level to them…”
“Awakening, huh? I really did underestimate you. I didn’t expect someone like you to be able to completely master a Devil Fruit.”
Doflamingo felt that the biggest mistake he had made was talking to Alber in the first place. This guy’s ability to taunt people seemed to be first-rate as well.
“Break White!”
Doflamingo swung his arm, and countless strings converged into a surging tide that rose from the ground, twisting toward Alber like a waterspout.
The awakening of a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit often had the effect of assimilating the surrounding environment. At this moment, a vast amount of inorganic matter had become part of the strings under his control.
Every single string making up the wave was incomparably sharp, capable of easily grinding anything caught within it into fragments.
And through Doflamingo’s efforts, he finally…
Shattered Alber’s mask.
Whoosh!
Flames surged as the fire on Alber’s back burned even more fiercely. The flame monster below also seemed to receive an order, wrapping around Doflamingo’s wave of strings from the outside.
A sea of towering flames spread in a straight line, reducing the strings wrapped around Alber’s body to ash.
“So this is your awakening? It seems… rather unimpressive.”
“It’s not over yet! Sixteen Holy Assassin’s Bullets: God Thread! If you’ve got the guts… try taking this one too!”
Fine strings coiled around Doflamingo, their pointed tips already infused with Haki. As Doflamingo swung his arm again, spearheads formed from strings stabbed toward Alber from different angles.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Chest, arms, flank—Doflamingo’s attacks searched for weak points all over Alber’s body from different angles, but no matter where they struck, the result seemed to be the same.
The defense granted by this body was like an immovable wall of iron.
The lightning within the clouds grew ever brighter, while the surrounding flames continued devouring the darkness, and Doflamingo’s assault finally came to an end.
What Doflamingo saw was still the same Alber, completely unharmed.
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