Dust billowed across the island, the ground trembling beneath the weight of battle. The sky darkened, heavy with storm clouds and the copper tang of blood.
"You little Marine brat! I'll carve you to pieces!" Golden Lion bellowed, rage twisting his scarred features.
"You talk too much, Golden Lion!" Darren shot back, voice as hard as steel.
BOOM!
The two figures slammed together like colliding meteors, their clash shaking the heavens. Armament Haki burst outward in a cataclysmic shockwave, flattening trees and stone alike, tearing the land as though the island itself recoiled from their power.
The ground buckled, rolling in violent waves. Shards of rock and earth exploded into the air.
"You think this cage will be enough to kill me?!" Golden Lion roared, his eyes wild and bloodshot as his blade swept down in a golden arc.
Darren's crimson gaze locked onto him. His Observation Haki mapped every motion, every angle. He saw it all—yet did not move.
Shriik!
The blade carved flesh, blood spraying into the storm.
Darren staggered back, planting his boot hard into the ground, mud splattering beneath him. Using the recoil, he hurled himself forward, his Three-Fingered Dragon Claw driving straight for Golden Lion's heart.
CLANG!
Steel screamed as claw met blade. Sparks flared, and the clash ripped another howling shockwave across the battlefield. Darren's claws skidded down the sword's edge, tearing into Shiki's flesh and gouging a strip of blood from his abdomen.
Shiki grunted, but his grin only widened through the pain.
They broke apart, only to hurl themselves forward again in the next breath.
BOOM!
Far in the distance, Doflamingo and Momonga stood frozen, watching the duel unfold like a nightmare made real.
The two titans fought like rabid beasts, each strike aimed to kill, each wound traded without hesitation. Flesh split, blood sprayed, bones cracked—and neither slowed.
It was carnage, pure and unrestrained.
The Birdcage had become their jungle, their arena, a steel-ringed hell in which two monsters sought to tear each other apart.
Doflamingo's throat bobbed as he swallowed hard.
His childhood had been steeped in cruelty—mockery, scorn, violence, and death. But never had he seen this. This raw, primal savagery where instinct ruled and life was gambled with every strike.
For all his bravado, he was still only fourteen. And this was war beyond comprehension.
"Don't get distracted."
Momonga's voice was low, grim. His expression was carved in stone, yet his eyes betrayed it—dark as a storm's depths.
Even wounded, even with a ship's wheel rammed through his skull, his mind fractured, his stamina dwindling, Shiki was fighting Darren to a deadlock. Perhaps… even pressing the advantage.
And that was the horror.
If Darren did not have the unnatural resilience of his Indestructible Body, if he had only flesh and bone, the Golden Lion would have ripped him apart long ago.
"Stay out of the way," Momonga said flatly.
Before Doflamingo could respond, his body dissolved into lightning, a bolt of blue fire streaking skyward through the slits in the Birdcage.
Stay out of the way?
Doflamingo blinked, tilting his head upward. Then he saw it—shadows forming in the clouds, and his breath caught.
"Jihahaha!" Shiki's manic laughter split the storm. His blades whirled, a tempest of slashes engulfing Darren. Blood blossomed in crimson sprays, dissolving into the howling wind. "Did you see that, brat? You've grown fast, climbed to the top ranks of fighters—but you're still far from killing me, Golden Lion Shiki!"
Clang! Shink!
Steel pierced flesh. Both of Shiki's blades drove into Darren's chest, sinking deep.
But they stopped.
Because Darren's hands clamped down over the steel, locking them in place with an iron grip.
Shiki's eyes narrowed. "What—?"
Darren raised his head. His face was a mask of blood, his breath ragged, his lips twisting into a grin full of teeth.
"I knew it would come to this," he rasped, his eyes burning. "That's why… I prepared a little surprise."
Shiki froze. "Surprise?"
Rumble…
The sound began low, distant. A rolling thunder that grew and grew until it filled the heavens.
Shiki's gaze was drawn skyward.
And what he saw made even the Golden Lion falter.
The clouds split apart with a roar, shadows swelling within them. A metallic prow pierced through, gleaming with a cold light.
It was a warship—sleek, steel-forged, its surface gleaming with an otherworldly chill. At its center rose a massive smokestack, alive with crackling arcs of blue lightning. Cannons bristled along its deck and hull, its silhouette that of a fortress ripped from the sea and hurled into the sky.
Then another ship followed.
And another.
Fifteen in total emerged, vast shapes darkening the heavens, their iron hulls blotting out the sun.
And from each mast, the white flag of the Marines snapped in the storm, the seagull emblem fierce against the dark.
The Flying Fleet.
Shiki's breath hitched. Doflamingo's jaw went slack beneath his glasses.
From the decks, Marines in dark uniforms spilled forth, row upon row, their faces grim. At their head stood Supreme Commander Momonga, his gaze as cold as the storm.
Swish!!
In perfect unison, nearly twenty thousand Marines snapped into a crisp salute.
Their voices thundered as one:
"All members of the North Blue Fleet… salute Vice Admiral Darren!!"
Shiki's pupils shrank.
This… a Flying Fleet?!
That brat… he built a Flying Fleet in secret?!
"How… how is this possible?!"
Darren's bloody smile widened. "Recognize it, Shiki? You were the one who inspired it."
"You're dead!" Shiki roared, thrashing against him. His blades trembled in Darren's grip, but they would not move. Not an inch.
Because Darren's arms bulged with the strength of the Giants, muscles like iron cords locking the swords in place.
A cold sweat prickled the back of Shiki's neck.
"North Blue Fleet… all units, hear my command…"
A vivid trail of blood trickled from the corner of Darren's mouth.
He locked his gaze on the Golden Lion before him, unblinking.
Then, as Shiki's eyes widened in fury, Darren bared his teeth in a bloodstained grin.
"Fire—on me."
To be continued...