"As long as we can get in touch with the Foundation!"
"Even if it's just a tiny bit of scrap leaking from between their fingers..."
"It would be enough for our Donquixote Family to become the new kings of the sea."
Doflamingo suddenly clenched his fist, veins bulging on his forehead.
Behind his sunglasses, his eyes burned with the raging fire of ambition.
"What a pity..."
"In this vast sea, even Vergo has no way of tracking their movements."
"That monster called Abel seemed to have popped out of thin air."
"Not being able to find a way in... that is our greatest regret!"
Doflamingo picked up his wine glass and drained it in one gulp.
The crimson liquid flowed down the corner of his mouth, making him look exceptionally hideous.
The surrounding officers also had looks of regret on their faces.
Trebol slurped his snot, his scepter tapping restlessly against the floor.
Diamante shrugged helplessly.
Everyone knew that they couldn't take the initiative to contact such a cross-dimensional, mysterious organization.
Unless the other party wanted to be seen.
Otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to touch their shadow.
Just then.
A bone-chilling cold descended without any warning.
Crack!
A crisp cracking sound rang out.
The goblet in Doflamingo's hand was instantly covered in white frost.
Following that, the residual red wine in the glass actually condensed into blood-red ice crystals in the blink of an eye!
It wasn't just the wine glass.
The huge, luxurious swimming pool, whose water surface was originally shimmering, was now freezing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The cold air spread frantically in all directions as if it were alive.
"What's going on?!"
"It's so cold!"
The bikini-clad women screamed, huddling together and shivering.
Even the officers, who were powerful ability users, couldn't help but shudder.
That kind of cold wasn't just a simple low temperature.
It was a gloomy chill that pierced straight through the soul!
It felt as if even their blood was about to be frozen solid.
"Who's there?!"
Doflamingo suddenly sprang up from his lounge chair.
His Observation Haki was instantly fully activated, frantically scanning the surroundings.
His face turned extremely ugly.
Someone had invaded the King's Plateau!
And they had already gotten this close without him noticing anything?
This was simply a great humiliation!
"Fuffuffu... who dares to act wild in Dressrosa!"
Doflamingo's fingers formed a claw, and invisible thin strings were already wrapped around his fingertips.
Killing intent boiled.
However, the next second, an ethereal, playful, yet infinitely majestic voice echoed.
It seemed to fall from the high heavens, yet also sounded like a whisper in everyone's ears.
"Regret?"
"You said... regret?"
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange resonance.
Like the sound of fingernails scraping across ice, it made one's scalp tingle.
Whoosh—
A gust of cold wind swept past.
In the space above the pool that was originally empty, there was a sudden distortion.
Following that, countless crystal-clear ice crystals appeared out of thin air, reflecting rainbow-colored light under the sun.
These ice crystals rapidly gathered and reorganized.
Finally, under everyone's horrified gazes, they condensed into a slender figure.
It was a strange man wearing a crystal-clear, ice-carved mask.
A wide robe fluttered and snapped in the windless air.
He stood there with his hands behind his back, stepping on a staircase of frost condensed in the void.
Like an ancient deity stepped out of myth, he looked down at the common mortals below with a playful gaze.
That voice rang out again, carrying a hint of amusement and a bit of nonchalance.
"Junior."
"This seat has heard the desire in your heart."
Cold sweat from Doflamingo's forehead slid down his cheek, but it froze into an ice bead mid-air.
With a ding sound, the crisp noise hit the ground.
This sound became the only movement in the dead silence.
"Playing tricks!"
Doflamingo suddenly let out a violent shout.
The unpleasantness of being looked down upon made his hair stand on end instantly.
I don't care what advanced civilization you are, or what kind of ghosts and gods you are!
This is my territory!
"Five Color Strings!"
Doflamingo's fingers hooked like claws and he swung down violently.
Five sharp strings capable of cutting through steel arrived in an instant with a shrill whistling sound!
They aimed straight for the throat of the ice-masked man.
However, facing this slash that was enough to level a mountain top, the man who called himself "This Seat" didn't even lift a hand.
He only let out a contemptuous sneer from under that ice-carved mask.
"Mortal tricks."
Buzz!
Those five strings suddenly stopped three inches in front of him.
There were no obstacles; they just seemed to have crashed into a pocket of absolutely static space-time.
Following that, crack-crack-crack—along those extremely fine strings, a terrifying cold air instantly surged back up!
Doflamingo's pupils shrank sharply.
His Observation Haki screamed a frantic warning!
That was the scent of death!
"Damn it!"
He didn't hesitate to cut off the strings in his hand.
His figure retreated dozens of meters violently.
The moment he cut the strings, those five incredibly tough lines shattered into a sky full of ice powder.
Even the surrounding air was frozen into white cracks.
"Fuffuffu... fuffuffuffu..."
Doflamingo landed on a statue across the pool, panting heavily.
Although the smile on his face was hideous, the look behind his sunglasses was full of wariness.
"Logia? The Chilly-Chilly Fruit?"
This kind of control over freezing air... this overbearingly absolute extreme cold attribute...
Other than that man who represented the Marines' highest combat power, Doflamingo couldn't think of a second candidate.
"Kuzan..."
Doflamingo's eyes under his sunglasses were bloodshot, and his teeth were gritted.
"Since you're here, why hide your head and show your tail?"
"Has the current style of Marineford become so sneaky?"
In his view, other than the Logia Chilly-Chilly Fruit, it was impossible for a second kind of such terrifying ice and snow power to exist on this sea!
However, facing Doflamingo's killing-intent-filled questioning, the masked stranger standing in the void didn't answer immediately.
He just tilted his head slightly.
Under that crystal-clear ice-carved mask, those eyes as deep as an abyss showed a heart-palpitating playfulness.
As if looking at an ant baring its fangs and claws at an elephant.
The next second, an extremely strange and shrill laughter came out from under the mask.
"Hehe..."
"Kuzan?"
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried a high-and-mighty indifference.
As if he had heard an extremely absurd joke.
"You mean..."
"That brat who only knows how to play with elementalization and turn his body into ice?"
Boom!
As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked.
Trebol's jaw almost hit the ground, his snot trailing long.
Diamante almost failed to hold his longsword steady.
A... a brat?
Calling the highest combat power of the Marines, Admiral Aokiji, a brat?
Just what is this guy's background?!
Before everyone could react, Indra slowly raised a hand.
The movement was elegant and slow, yet it carried a suffocating pressure.
"Don't lump this seat..."
"Together with that child who is still playing with mud."
Buzz!
An invisible wave suddenly erupted from his body.
That was not Conqueror's Haki. It was a more eerie, colder pressure that seemed to come from the depths of the soul!
Crack-crack-crack—
The moisture in the air instantly condensed.
But this time, it wasn't ordinary freezing.
Doflamingo discovered with horror that it wasn't just physical objects.
Even the flowing wind around him, and even the Observation Haki he released, became sluggish and stiff the moment they touched that aura!
"This is..."
Doflamingo's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
This wasn't a Devil Fruit ability at all!
A Devil Fruit can only freeze physical entities, but this person's cold air seemed to be able to freeze even 'intent'!
"How is this possible..."
Doflamingo's heart was filled with stormy waves.
[Ding! Detected Doflamingo generating extreme shock, astonishment value +250!]
[Ding! Detected Trebol generating fear, astonishment value +180!]
The system prompts in the background were frantically scrolling.
A satisfied curve appeared at the corner of Mordred's mouth.
This act of showing off was a perfect score.
Indra slowly stepped down from the void.
With every step he took, a crystal-clear ice lotus would automatically form under his feet.
Lotuses blooming with every step, just like a miracle.