"You're right about that," Rayleigh said coldly.
Rayleigh, drenched in blood, raised his longsword once again. His eyes were bloodshot, overflowing with rage.
But Shanks… Shanks was the one who had inherited Roger's will.
"This is the fate of pirates—and yours is no different."
"Heavenly Yaksha!!"
Despite his heavy injuries, they were nothing to a man in his prime. The time Rayleigh had just bought for himself had been enough to restore his strength to fight once more.
As Rayleigh's voice thundered with fury...
Black and red Conqueror's Haki lightning intertwined with Armament Haki, surging over his body.
In the next instant—
Rayleigh's overwhelming Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki began to fuse together.
That terrifying fusion made Doflamingo's pupils constrict. His sense of danger exploded.
In the unique vision of Observation Haki, the energy surrounding Rayleigh was escalating wildly.
It resembled Big Mom and Kaido's fusion technique—Hakai.
But… Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki could fuse too?!
There was no time to think. Doflamingo unleashed his Awakening with everything he had, the ground beneath him rushing upward and swirling around his body.
In an instant, the War God form stood tall, towering from the earth.
But Rayleigh's fully charged attack had reached its limit. Sword raised high, he swung down with all his might at the giant's head.
The Armament Haki, now entwined with Conqueror's Haki, blasted forth like a colossal beam of black-red energy, soaring into the sky.
"Dark King!!!"
The Conqueror-infused cannon shot tore through the air with a sonic boom. Waves rippled across the sky, visible to the naked eye.
Even the atmosphere seemed unable to withstand the impact.
As the pitch-black energy cannon howled through the sky, Doflamingo felt a shiver crawl across his scalp. Every cell in his body screamed in alarm.
This was a strike that could kill him.
Now he finally understood why his father-in-law was called the Dark King.
And the man never bothered hiding his identity—living in plain sight on the Sabaody Archipelago, right next to the Red Line.
Because he really did have power capable of wiping entire islands off the map!
If this strike landed, ninety-nine percent of people on the sea would be sent straight to hell.
The thought flickered for only a moment.
But now, as the Emperor of the Sky, did Doflamingo fear death?
Of course not!
His excitement only surged.
The War God form's face twisted into a smile so wide it split like a canyon, tens of meters across.
With a thunderous roar, the thousand-meter-tall War God form surged forward, peeling up the topsoil of half of Amazon Lily.
"My journey won't end here!"
"Because I've decided—I'm going to smash this damned world to dust!!"
"Rayleigh! Taste my Will of Domination!!!"
Doflamingo's Conqueror's Haki gathered into a mountain-sized fist.
Even more than that, the strength he'd cultivated for over a year—the one meant to sustain ten days and nights of battle—was being burned up in an instant.
A new power, developed in secret, surged into his strike.
Doflamingo hurled it down with limitless might.
"Magnetic Rotation: Divine Execution Bullet!!!"
The moment the massive fist met the energy cannon, the two masses of Conqueror's Haki clashed first.
Black-red lightning exploded in every direction.
"They're not even touching?!"
Giberson and Umit stared in shock, clinging to the railing and craning their necks to see more clearly.
They'd never seen anything like this.
Roger, Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Red the Aloof—those legends were always out of reach for them.
Even Big Mom, who once deigned to toy with them, could beat them senseless with pure strength alone.
"The sky's splitting!!"
The thick storm clouds above tore open, leaving a gaping hole above the center of the battlefield.
A shaft of light pierced through the crack in the clouds, illuminating the giant.
This wasn't a battle they could even comprehend.
"Sob sob sob… It's too beautiful! Too beautiful! This must be what God Valley looked like!"
Morgans wept openly with joy, one hand scribbling notes furiously in his journal while the other manically clicked the shutter on his camera.
Even though the energy surges made it impossible to capture any clear images.
When the God Valley Incident occurred, he had only been fifteen—he never got a chance to witness it himself.
His damned father, a journalist, had been too cowardly to even cover the incident.
But now… this was everything!
"This is what Dad meant by Conqueror Infusion… right, Mom?"
Tritoma broke free of her bindings, stunned as she stared at the battlefield.
Her father had explained the nature of infused Haki, but he also told her this:
Haki had to be honed through battle after battle. Techniques were only ever secondary.
"Can Father really win…?"
"Mhm." Shakky nodded, but an ominous feeling gnawed at her.
Just how much power was hidden in Doflamingo's monstrous body?
Sparks of lightning crackled around Enel's form. His golden staff had already launched high into the sky, primed for a sneak attack.
Shakky's eyes narrowed at the shifting shape of the giant.
She grabbed Tritoma and darted toward the battlefield.
...
"Rayleigh, the victor of this battle… is me!!"
Seeing the fragile balance before him, madness flared in Doflamingo's eyes.
He pushed his barely restored stamina to the limit. The already massive arms of the String-String War God form continued to swell.
With that overwhelming power, his fist slammed down on the apex of Rayleigh's charged Armament Haki.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
It was like a black-red sun had ignited above Amazon Lily, engulfing both combatants.
BZZZZZZZZZ!!!
The dark sun exploded, unleashing shockwaves and a deluge of energy in all directions.
Stone crumbled layer by layer, the ground and vegetation were uprooted.
The entire island shifted. It looked as though one of its corners had completely caved in.
At the foot of the mountain, Shakky's heart clenched. She pressed against the shockwave and rushed toward the center.
Tritoma cried out in alarm.
"Father!!"
CRACK!
A bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of them, forcing the two to halt.
The earth split open, the searing heat of the lightning fusing the ground into glass.
In the sky above, Enel's cold gaze bore down. Lightning danced across his body, connecting him to the storm clouds overhead.
"This area is off-limits."
Shakky's scalp tingled as she looked up.
From the clouds above Enel, a bolt of thunder formed—a compressed spear of lightning aimed directly at them.
It was a light that didn't belong to this world.
A strike that could absolutely kill her.
Tritoma's brows furrowed, her long legs bending into a combat stance.
"You bastard..."
Shakky's expression twisted. She quickly grabbed Tritoma's arm, stopping her from making a move.
But before either could act, a familiar voice rang out with a chuckle.
"Fufufufufu~ Enel, let them through."
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg