At Dock No. 1, the entire CP9 team was now tied up. While Iceburg didn't know their true identities, Kalifa did. Iceburg, his face like frost, demanded, "Captain Rodin, what are you doing?!"
"Master Iceburg, what are you doing?" Rodin replied, his foot resting on a dejected Spandam. "After all the lies Kalifa has told you, and you still choose to believe her."
"Mr. Rodin, you must have misunderstood something," Kalifa said, trying to look hurt and innocent. "I truly don't know what blueprints you're talking about."
Iceburg couldn't hold back. He stepped forward, shielding Kalifa. "Captain Rodin, are you not afraid of the World Government and the Marines, acting so recklessly?"
"Afraid?" Rodin ignored Iceburg and smiled faintly. "Kalifa, I'm just waiting for you to confess. Then I'll stop."
As the other two stood in confusion, Rodin pointed his finger at Spandam.
"Shhh... bang!"
An electromagnetic pulse struck Spandam, burning a hole through his skull. Kalifa shuddered. Was her chief dead?
Rodin's finger then moved to the others.
"Bang, bang!"
Fukurou and Jabra fell, lifeless. Iceburg watched, dumbfounded.
When Rodin's finger moved to Blueno and Lucci, Kalifa couldn't take it anymore. "Stop! You're killing them for no reason!" she yelled, her voice trembling.
Rodin's eyes turned menacing. Kalifa immediately fell silent, but he didn't stop. After the last few were killed, he turned to a now-silent Lucci.
Kalifa finally gave in. "Stop! I am CP9!"
"A little late for that," Rodin said, his expression unchanged.
"Zhi..."
The electric glow faded, and Lucci suffered the same fate.
"You devil! Go to hell!" Kalifa screamed, lashing out with a vicious kick.
"Tempest Kick!"
A blue, sharp blade of air shot out, easily slicing through Rodin's waist and a pile of logs behind him without losing momentum.
"That's... Marine Six Styles?!" Iceburg's eyes widened. With Kalifa's confession and her strange behavior, it would be foolish for him not to realize she was a secret agent.
The wound on Rodin's waist glowed with a blue light and immediately healed. "What's a devil? Isn't it common for you in CP9 to assassinate innocent people?"
He noticed Kalifa had fled.
"Go get her," Rodin ordered.
Crocodile transformed into a sandstorm and gave chase.
Iceburg's mind was in turmoil. "Why... why would you help me?"
"Just a convenient favor. By the way, how much is the wood this time?"
"The wood... around 600 million Berries." Iceburg, still confused, answered mechanically.
"Consider this to be payment," Rodin said, his legs bending before he launched himself into the air like a cannonball. The internal threats had been dealt with; now for the real big head outside the Birdcage.
Rodin used his Heart Network to scan the area around Water 7 and quickly learned the scale of the Marine's force: five Vice Admirals, three Warlords (Doflamingo, Hancock, and Jinbe), and two Admirals, Akainu and Aokiji! This was a force far exceeding a Buster Call, one of the largest in recent history.
"This is enough to make me shudder," Rodin said, but his heart was filled with excitement, not fear. He checked the system's timer; he had ten hours left before his next random character summon.
Marine loudspeakers began to blare, their amplified voices echoing across the island. "Your pirate group is surrounded. Don't do anything foolish..."
"The Marines are here!"
"Are they here to save us?!"
The residents of Water 7 reacted with a mix of hope and fear, some of the clever ones running to shelters immediately.
"If you surrender, you might still have a chance to live!" the voice from the microphone continued.
Rodin's voice, calm and flat, interrupted him, reaching everyone on the island without a microphone. "I'll give the Warlords a chance, too. Leave… or die."
A month ago, people would have laughed. Now, no one dared to take his words lightly.
On a warship, the three Warlords frowned.
"The Empress truly hates that man," Hancock said, brushing her hair and standing away from the others.
"Oh? Is it just the three of us? Is Hawkeye not here?" Doflamingo laughed. "Could he have been defeated by a female swordsman and is too afraid to show up?"
"Mr. Doflamingo," a Rear Admiral said, "Mr. Hawkeye said that his participation in this battle would be meaningless."
"Does he think this battle is too one-sided?" Jinbe whispered, arms crossed.
"Who knows?"
Suddenly, a red figure jumped from a nearby warship. Akainu raised his right hand, swirling with magma.
"Boom!"
A torrent of lava slammed into the Birdcage, causing a massive explosion. The power was terrifying.
"It's Admiral Akainu! He'll definitely break it!"
"Right, it's just a thread!" the other Generals cheered, watching the spectacle.
"Wait, the threads don't seem to be damaged!" someone yelled. Everyone stared in disbelief.
"How is this possible?"
Akainu, now standing in mid-air, raised an eyebrow. Was his destructive power useless?
Just then, Aokiji jumped into the sea. "Ice Age!" In an instant, ice spread out in all directions, freezing the entire sea around Water 7. He released his freezing aura, coating the Birdcage in a layer of ice crystals.
Akainu landed on the newly formed ice, and both Admirals looked at Doflamingo.
"It's your turn, Doflamingo," Akainu said.
"Fufufufu! You're leaving it to me?" Doflamingo grinned confidently. "But it's fitting that a copycat should be handled by me!" He clapped his hands and his pink coat billowed in the wind as he flew into the sky.
He placed his hands three meters from the Birdcage. "Unravel the thread!"
Hundreds of dense, Haki-coated threads shot from his hands, twisting and writhing as they latched onto the Birdcage, trying to unravel it.
Moments later, his confident smile faded, his expression turning pale.
"What's going on, isn't he good enough?"
"Is Doflamingo useless?"
"Who knows? He was so confident a second ago."
A few Vice Admirals jumped down from the frozen warships and began to question Doflamingo's ability. Though their words were whispered, they still reached his ears, a grave insult to a Warlord of the Sea.
"Who do you think I'm doing this for?!" veins popped out on his forehead.
"Should we think about something else?" someone asked.
"Shut up!" he snarled, a grin returning to his face. He had immense pride in his power and his Devil Fruit. To be questioned was one thing, but to back down now would be a true humiliation.
Just as Doflamingo was about to intensify his efforts, a female face appeared inside the Birdcage, directly across from him. She wore the same confident smirk and a familiar pink feather coat. For a moment, he felt like he was looking at himself.
"Who are you?!" he demanded, narrowing his eyes. Even the sunglasses and pointed shoes were identical to his own.
"Don't worry," the woman in the cage said with a seductive smile. "I... am you."
She pressed her hands together, and the calm Birdcage suddenly writhed like a wave.
"Whoosh!"
A pink and purple steel wire, a tentacle over ten meters long, shot out from the cage.
"Damn it!" Doflamingo's face fell. He quickly put his palms together and stretched them forward. "Spider's Web!"
A massive spiderweb of threads shot from his hands, trying to ensnare the tentacle. But the moment they touched, Doflamingo felt an unstoppable force.
"Boom!"
His legendary defensive move instantly disintegrated. The tentacle kept coming, its power unwavering.
"To this extent…" Doflamingo's heart tightened. He quickly crossed his forearms and hardened them with Armament Haki.
The two collided again!
"Boom!"
Doflamingo's forearms were forced back into his chest, and his body was sent flying backward like a cannonball. He slammed into the ice, creating a crater over ten meters long.
The tentacle retracted back into the Birdcage as if nothing had happened.
Lying in the crater, Doflamingo clenched his fists. "Are you kidding me?" he muttered. He had been defeated by his own ability.
He jumped out of the crater, his Conqueror Haki spreading outward. He shot toward the Birdcage again, a thin line of his power propelling him forward.
"Enough," Aokiji said, raising an arm to stop him.
"What do you mean?"
"A-la-la, are you trying to hurt her outside this cage?" Aokiji asked lazily. "You should be more aware of your own Fruit's abilities."
Doflamingo quickly regained his composure.
"Doflamingo," Akainu said, walking up to him. "Is there another way to crack this Birdcage? Tell me."
They had tried several methods, all of which failed. They had assumed the large gaps in the Birdcage would allow them to enter, but the gaps were filled with fine, nearly invisible threads. Entering recklessly would be a bloody mistake.
"Why not have Bartholomew Kuma try it?" someone suggested.
Aokiji shook his head. "He's currently in a coma, and we don't know when he'll wake up."
"Fufufufufu! Then we'll just have to wait for her to run out of Haki," Doflamingo laughed. "Then you can use your Logia abilities to get in through the elemental gaps."
He was surprisingly calm. A Birdcage could be created without Haki, but this one was covered in it, likely to prevent Logia users from simply slipping through.
"How long will that take?" Akainu asked.
Doflamingo's grin returned. "With that kind of coverage, she won't be able to hold on for long! If we keep harassing her, she'll probably last less than an hour!"
He was more eager than anyone to get inside and kill her. It was one thing to be copied, but to be copied by a woman he considered beautiful? Doflamingo felt a twisted excitement. To conquer a copy of himself would be… a unique pleasure.
"Then we'll wait," Aokiji said. "She can't afford to waste time like we can." He sat on the ice near the Birdcage and fell asleep.
"Admiral Aokiji, that's dangerous!" the Vice Admirals cried, running to his side. "What if she suddenly attacks you?"
Aokiji ignored them, snoring soundly. But from his body, a faint icy aura crept up the cage wall, freezing it.
Akainu snorted and walked a hundred meters away. He pressed his palms against the Birdcage, a torrent of magma overflowing from his hands, trying to melt his way in.
"Zi-la-la..."
The area instantly became a fiery hell. Aokiji, on the other hand, just slept, waiting for the moment Haki would weaken, so he could enter in a flash.
"Hahahahaha, as expected of an Admiral," Doflamingo laughed, a gleam of bloodlust in his eyes. The desire for that woman inside was intensifying.
An hour and a half passed.
"Doflamingo!" Akainu roared, his eyes filled with fury. The lava from his hands had melted the ice around him to a depth of 100 meters, but the Haki on the Birdcage hadn't weakened at all.
"Come on, she can't last much longer!" Doflamingo said, his confident smile now a frown. He felt a growing sense of dread. There was no way this woman could sustain such a high level of Haki for so long.
Another half hour passed. The five Vice Admirals were busy eating lunch.
"Doflamingo…"
"Impossible! She can't possibly hold on this long!" Doflamingo's composure finally broke. The amount of Haki she was using was insane.
Just then, Aokiji and Akainu felt a shift. In a flash of blue and red, they both vanished.
"Did they get in?" a Vice Admiral whispered.
Inside the Birdcage, Rodin had been preparing. He knew Dove would only be able to maintain the Haki-covered Birdcage for a few hours. Once Akainu and Aokiji got in, he would send Crocodile to guard the ship, Mihawk to deal with Aokiji, and the rest of the crew to confront Akainu.
For the past few hours, Rodin had been using electricity to temper his body, a difficult process that required precise control to avoid self-inflicted harm. But he persisted, and his physique grew at a visible rate. His Devil Fruit was nearing its limit, and he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Rodin checked his system. Two items were registered: a [Physical Repair Fluid] and [Beautiful High Heels].