Shanks held the legendary sword Gryphon down by his side, his striking red hair cutting through the smoke and ash of the battlefield.
Set firmly into the sword's crossguard, the Soul Stone emitted no chaotic energy. It rested peacefully against the steel, radiating a soft, warm glow that instinctively put the mind at ease.
As Shanks took a single step into the center of the ruins, a catastrophic wave of black and red Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body. Crimson lightning ravaged the surrounding area, and gravity seemingly ceased to exist as chunks of rubble floated aimlessly into the air. The heavy scent of ozone and the crackle of electricity filled the void as the ambient temperature plummeted.
In the distance, Tony stared at the energy readings on his suit's HUD, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. He was completely bewildered.
"JARVIS, where did this red-haired guy come from? He doesn't even have a stone on him!" Tony shouted, utterly baffled.
JARVIS's crisp voice echoed in the helmet. "Sir, the target's internal energy source is completely unknown. I cannot analyze it using any established scientific parameters."
Steve Rogers tightened his grip on his fractured shield, feeling the very air grow thick and viscous, making every breath a chore.
Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri, blasting away several Chitauri soldiers, and looked toward Shanks with a booming laugh. "Gurararara! Even the red-haired brat showed up. This play is getting very lively!"
Sengoku, still in his giant Buddha form, flattened another aircraft and zeroed in on the Soul Stone in Shanks's hilt.
"Is that an Infinity Stone? And the recoil isn't tearing him apart? These pirates are getting more bizarre by the minute, acting so incredibly arrogant," Sengoku complained loudly, his face full of disdain.
Doflamingo, who had just dragged himself out of the rubble, was hit full-force by the terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki. His body involuntarily stumbled backward three steps, crushing the bricks beneath his boots into dust.
"Red Hair!" Doflamingo spat, the manic smile completely vanishing from his face as if he'd swallowed a fly.
Pure, unadulterated rage and bitterness replaced his arrogance. He had calculated so meticulously to secure three Infinity Stones. He genuinely believed that with them, he would stand at the absolute pinnacle of this war. Why did this man have to show up and steal the spotlight? He flatly refused to accept it.
Raising his left hand, Doflamingo channeled the Mind Stone, its yellow light flaring at his fingertips. He aimed to forcefully inject this psychic energy directly into Shanks's brain, determined to turn an Emperor of the Sea into his personal marionette.
The beam of light bridged the gap instantly, shooting straight for the space between Shanks's eyebrows.
Shanks didn't even attempt to dodge; he simply stood perfectly still.
The moment the yellow light made contact, the Soul Stone on Gryphon flared to life. A warm ripple of orange light washed outward, clashing directly with the Mind Stone's assault.
There was no explosion. Instead, the orange light aggressively and effortlessly enveloped the yellow beam. Using that exact psychic connection, Shanks's Conqueror's Haki surged in reverse, crashing back into Doflamingo's mind.
It felt as though someone had jammed a brick of high explosives directly into Doflamingo's skull and pulled the detonator. His mind went entirely blank with agony.
"Aaaaargh!" He let out a bloodcurdling scream, clutching his head with both hands. Blood simultaneously poured from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. He looked absolutely horrifying, his body convulsing on the ground.
His White Zetsu cells were desperately trying to repair the catastrophic nerve damage, but the sheer pain made it impossible for him to even stand.
From his vantage point, Kizaru adjusted his tinted glasses. "My, my. Doflamingo really is stubborn, trying to clash head-on with Red Hair's Conqueror's Haki."
Akainu scoffed coldly. "Pirate scum. It's better if he dies here and stops wasting our oxygen."
Garp paused his relentless assault on Thanos, stretching his wrists. "Hey, Shanks! Hit him a little softer! Don't level the entire place!"
Elsewhere, the brutal melee between Hela and Imu had ground to a halt.
Snapping out of the Mind Stone's illusion, Imu turned her icy gaze toward Shanks, her eyes locking onto the Soul Stone. The aloof King of the World finally looked grave, a severe fluctuation of emotion breaking her stoic mask. She understood exactly what that stone signified.
The situation had completely spiraled out of her control.
"Don't move," a lazy voice called out from above.
Benn Beckman had silently appeared atop a broken stone pillar. He casually aimed his old flintlock rifle squarely at Imu's head. The barrel was coated in incredibly dense Armament Haki, radiating a lethal sense of danger.
Imu stared back at him coldly. She didn't speak, nor did she make a single move.
Saint Saturn moved to attack, but Beckman simply shifted the barrel toward the Elder's feet. "I suggest you all stay exactly where you are," Beckman said, exhaling a thick plume of smoke. "My bullets have eyes."
Hela stood amidst the wreckage, panting heavily, her eyes fixed on the Soul Stone in Shanks's grasp. Even the Goddess of Death felt an overwhelming sense of dread. With her right arm gone and still dripping blood, she gripped her black blade tightly with her left hand, bracing for the worst.
Shanks walked over to Doflamingo, looking down at the blood-soaked warlord. "Put down the toys that don't belong to you," he said evenly.
Doflamingo spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his grip tightening agonizingly around the Power and Reality stones.
"Toys?" Doflamingo let out a broken, grotesque cackle. "Fuffuffuffuffu... You call this a toy?"
He staggered to his feet, swaying dangerously. The blood vessels in his right arm were constantly exploding and healing in a horrific cycle. Pushing the White Zetsu cells to their absolute limit, he had descended into total madness. The overwhelming gap in power drove him insane; he was far too bitter to just surrender.
"I clawed my way to get these! No one is taking them from me! You want a free ride? Dream on!" Doflamingo roared, his face twisted in pure spite.
In an act of sheer desperation, he slammed the Reality Stone into the Power Stone.
The red force of reality distortion collided with the absolute purple destruction. He forcibly crushed the two supreme cosmic energies together, forming an apocalyptic, unstable energy sphere right in front of him. The ambient pressure was so immense that the space around the sphere began to visually crack.
Star-Lord watched from afar, his skin crawling. "Is that guy out of his mind?! Smashing those stones together is gonna blow all of New York to kingdom come! He's gonna screw us all over!"
Rocket Raccoon hoisted his massive gun and started backing away rapidly. "Run! Run! These alien freaks don't respect any laws of physics!"
"Go to hell, Red Hair!" Doflamingo screamed, hurling the apocalyptic sphere directly at Shanks.
Shanks didn't retreat a single step. He gripped Gryphon's hilt tightly.
The mechanics of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist—a technique he had mastered at the interdimensional martial arts tournament—began to flow seamlessly through his arm and into the blade. Armament Haki and the black-red lightning of Conqueror's Haki coiled together around the steel.
Shanks drew his sword.
There was no deafening roar, only a single, silent arc of black and red light. With a subtle flick of his wrist, the blade traced a perfect half-circle through the air. The pitch-black Armament Haki and the Conqueror's Haki merged flawlessly with the defensive deflection principles of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.
The precise, flowing force slid effortlessly into the very core of the energy sphere. The chaotic, berserk particles were pacified and forcibly redirected.
The sphere of catastrophic destruction was smoothly, cleanly bifurcated right down the middle by the singular slash. The violent energy didn't even get the chance to detonate before its kinetic force was completely bled away.
Doflamingo stood frozen, staring at the split energy sphere with utterly hollow eyes. "That's impossible..." he muttered weakly, his arms dropping to his sides.
The two halves of the sphere brushed harmlessly past Shanks. Their trajectories permanently altered, they rocketed straight up into the atmosphere.
High in the sky, Sanctuary II was still carpet-bombing the city. The two halves of the cosmic sphere slammed with pinpoint accuracy into the warship's colossal energy shields.
BOOM!
A cataclysmic explosion deafened the heavens over New York. A terrifying storm of purple and red fire swallowed half the fleet in an instant. The resulting energy tempest shredded hundreds of Chitauri fighters, vaporizing them before the pilots could even scream.
Sanctuary II's shields flickered before shattering completely, massive slabs of armor plating raining from the sky. The colossal warship listed heavily to one side, internal alarms blaring chaotically.
On the bridge, the peak-condition Thanos sat perfectly still on his throne. Ebony Maw was thrown to the floor by the impact. "My Lord, the shields have been breached!"
Ignoring his subordinate, Thanos slowly rose to his feet. Through the viewing port, his cold, calculating gaze pierced the smoke and directly locked onto Shanks and Doflamingo in the ruins below.
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