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The throne room of Dressrosa's palace trembled under the weight of two colliding forces. Conqueror's Haki clashed in the air between them—crimson lightning crackling where the invisible waves met, creating an oppressive atmosphere that seemed to seep through the Sky Screen itself, affecting everyone watching across the world.
"Straw Hat Luffy," Doflamingo's voice carried its familiar mix of amusement and menace as he observed the young pirate before him. "You've become much stronger since we last met at Marineford. I'm truly surprised you've grown to this extent in just five years."
The Heavenly Yaksha was in an exceptionally good mood today. Waiting until Luffy's dramatic entrance before delivering the killing blow to Law—that was already a mercy for this particular devil. Otherwise, the Straw Hat boy would have arrived to find nothing but a corpse, and Doflamingo did so enjoy these theatrical moments.
As the king of Dressrosa, he was the first to retract his aura. He turned with deliberate casualness and settled back onto his throne, pink feathered coat spreading behind him like wings. Time was on his side tonight—plenty of hours to reminisce with old acquaintances like Law and Luffy before the real entertainment began.
Luffy immediately dropped to his knees beside Law's broken form, his hands hovering uncertainly over the injuries. "Don't die on me, Law! Lami is still waiting for you to come back to the Sunny."
At the mention of his sister's name, Trafalgar Law's eyes snapped open. He had been teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, nearly losing himself to the merciful darkness that beckoned. The thought of little Lami—transformed into that monstrous titan form aboard their ship, restrained by Marlin's sea powers—gave him the strength to cling to consciousness.
"You're right," he whispered, voice hoarse from screaming. "I can't die yet. Lami... she needs me to save her."
Law could no longer manifest his Room—the spherical operating space that had defined his combat style for years. But he could still access fragments of the Ope Ope no Mi's power. With practiced medical precision, he forced his adrenal glands to flood his system with adrenaline. It was a technique only someone with his intimate knowledge of human anatomy could perform, using his Devil Fruit to override his body's natural limitations.
The surge of adrenaline dulled the worst of his pain. Blood still seeped from his wounds, staining his spotted jeans darker, but with Luffy's help, he managed to sit upright instead of lying sprawled like a discarded marionette.
"I can't help you in the next battle, Straw Hat-ya," Law admitted, each word carefully measured to conserve his strength. "Doflamingo is stronger now than he was five years ago. You don't have to risk your life here for me."
"Don't say things like that." Luffy's voice carried an edge that his crew would recognize—the rare coldness that emerged when someone he cared about was threatened. "I came here to save you, and that means defeating Doflamingo. Besides..." His eyes darkened with old pain. "He played a part in what happened to Ace at Marineford. Today, we settle that debt."
The Battle of Marineford. Even now, years later, the memory burned like an open wound in Luffy's chest. He'd learned so much since then—about Haki, about his own limitations, about the true weight of being a captain.
Standing beside Doflamingo's throne was a figure that made the situation infinitely more complex. Black-haired and radiating an aura of barely contained violence, Eren Yeager had remained motionless since Luffy's arrival. The same man who had triggered the titan massacre at the music festival, who had devoured Willy Tybur before the horrified crowd.
"Are you going to stand with Doflamingo today, Eren?" Luffy's question carried genuine hurt beneath the accusation. After their encounters during the crew's journey, he'd never imagined they might end up as enemies.
"Luffy," Eren's voice was as cold and measured as winter stone. "I warned you to leave Dressrosa. I told Law the same thing when I found him searching for his sister. But you were both too stubborn to listen."
Law's eyes widened slightly—despite his pain, he was surprised to learn of the connection between the Straw Hat captain and this enigmatic figure. The threads of fate had a strange way of weaving themselves together, especially where the Straw Hats were concerned.
In quick, efficient words, Law briefed Luffy on the events following his encounter with Nami and Sanji at the music festival. He explained how the navigator had deduced Eren's true identity, connecting him to the ancient weapon Terra through her meteorological expertise and sharp intuition.
"Terra?" Doflamingo's laughter rang through the throne room, rich with genuine delight. "What an appropriate title! Though calling your strength a mere Devil Fruit ability seems rather inadequate, doesn't it, Eren? Ancient Weapon is far more fitting for what you've demonstrated."
"Robin interpreted the Poneglyph correctly," Eren said, his tone matter-of-fact. "I saw that part of my future memories when I first gained my powers, though I didn't understand who the woman was at the time."
The casual revelation sent ripples of shock through both Luffy and Law. Future memories—was this another aspect of Terra's terrifying power?
Luffy confirmed Eren's statement with a grim nod. The rubbing of the historical text had been retrieved by Zoro, and when they'd approached Dressrosa, Robin had shared its disturbing contents with the entire crew aboard the Thousand Sunny.
"Luffy," Eren's voice carried an unexpected weight, as if he were asking something monumentally important. "What is your understanding of freedom? I want to hear your answer... before this ends."
"The freest person on this ocean is the Pirate King," Luffy replied without hesitation, his dream as clear and bright as ever. "I'm going to be the Pirate King!"
The simple, unwavering declaration hit Eren like a physical blow. For a moment, something flickered across his face—perhaps remembering his own younger self, burning with similar conviction before the world had taught him harder truths.
The Sky Screen seemed to focus on Eren now, recognizing him as a central figure in this unfolding tragedy. Across the world, people would witness the revelation of the man behind the Dressrosa massacre.
"After I consumed the my Devil Fruit and gain my power," Eren began, his eyes distant with painful memory, "my mind was flooded with fragments of the future. At first, they were just confusing images—people I'd never met, places I'd never been. It wasn't until those visions began manifesting in reality that I understood their terrible significance."
His voice took on the cadence of someone recounting a nightmare. "I was one of the few survivors of Flevance—the White Town. The nuns there protected me when the World Government's 'cleansing' began. I watched my homeland burn, saw the fairy-tale kingdom of my childhood reduced to ash and corpses."
Law's breath caught. He knew that tragedy intimately—it was supposedly the shared trauma that had bonded him with both Ada Wong and Eren in those memories.
"After escaping Flevance, I wandered for years," Eren continued, his hands clenching into fists. "I've been everything this world offers the powerless: a shipwright's apprentice, a restaurant server, a low-ranking pirate, a Marine orderly, even a slave to the Celestial Dragons. I've experienced every level of this society's hierarchy."
His voice grew stronger, more passionate. "Through it all, I learned one fundamental truth—this world is irredeemably corrupt. We are all slaves to a system designed to benefit the chosen few. True freedom is a lie told to keep the masses docile while the World Government and Celestial Dragons feast on our suffering."
Eren's transformation was subtle but unmistakable. The temperature in the room seemed to rise, and Law could swear he saw steam beginning to rise from the young man's skin—a precursor to his titan abilities.
"Meeting you at Whiskey Peak, Luffy—that was part of my future memories. I saw Ace's death at Marineford before we'd ever crossed paths. I witnessed the Amber Lead tragedy, the rise of the Four Emperors, even glimpses of what this world would become if left unchanged. All of it... destiny written in blood and tears."
"But I learned something crucial about those future memories," Eren's voice cracked slightly. "They cannot be changed through small interventions. When I was younger, I tried to save a family that had shown me kindness, warning them of their fated death. Do you know what happened?"
His laugh was bitter as winter wind. "Their deaths were simply transferred to others. The entire family was burned alive in their home as punishment for defying fate. Only I escaped, and only because I'd seen that escape in my memories too."
"If I had told you Ace would die at Marineford, Luffy, the future would have simply found another way to break you. The cycle of hatred and suffering is too deeply ingrained in this world's foundations. Small changes only redirect the pain—they don't eliminate it."
Eren's eyes blazed with a fervor that was both terrifying and heartbreaking. "That's why I must use Terra's power—the full might of the titan abilities granted by my Devil Fruit—to complete what I call the Rumbling. In the future memories, I saw myself attempting this before, but I only achieved eighty percent completion. The remaining twenty percent of this corrupt world eventually rebuilt itself and destroyed everything I'd tried to protect."
Steam now visibly rose from his skin as his core temperature spiked. "This time will be different. I will push the Rumbling to its ultimate conclusion, using every one of the nine titan powers at my disposal. No one can stop the son of the devil now."
His voice rose to a crescendo that seemed to shake the very foundations of the palace. "I will keep moving forward until I've crushed every last trace of this diseased civilization, because that is the only way any of us will ever truly be free!"
The throne room fell silent except for the distant sounds of chaos from the festival below, where titans still roamed among the wreckage. Three men stood at the crossroads of destiny—one clinging to hope and friendship, one reveling in chaos and control, and one carrying the terrible weight of genocide disguised as liberation.
The Son of the Devil had spoken his truth. Now, the world would witness whether freedom was worth the price he demanded.