Chapter 149: The King's Plea and the Tyrant's Fury
"Don't touch it! You'll be cut!"
"What are these lines? They're getting closer!"
"It's Doflamingo's power! The String-String Fruit! Damn him, does he want to trap us all?"
"Worse! He wants to kill everyone on the island!"
"What do we do?! The Den Den Mushi aren't working!"
Panic, sharper than the strings themselves, began to cut through the populace. The Birdcage's signal-jamming properties became horrifyingly clear as all communication with the outside world was severed. The initial hope of freedom curdled into the chilling realization that they were all trapped in a slaughterhouse with walls that were steadily closing in.
For most people, survival trumped justice. Taking down Doflamingo was a noble goal, but staying alive was a primal need.
"Go on, granddaughter, leave me! You have to live!"
"Linda, my leg is broken! Take the children and run!"
"I'm pinned! Just go, damn it! Save yourselves!"
Despair began to spread like a plague, its weight threatening to crush the spirit of the entire nation. What was the point of striving when hope itself was being systematically shredded?
Then, a familiar, dignified voice cut through the cacophony of fear.
"Citizens of this nation! I am Riku Dold III! A former sinner who failed you all!"
On the large projection screens in squares across the island, the image of their former king appeared. Following the plan laid out by Ian, King Riku had stepped into the light to steady his people's crumbling resolve. They might have been wary of the Marines, but they had once loved and trusted the Riku family.
"It's King Riku! He's alive!"
"Who is broadcasting this? Now of all times?"
"But didn't he... didn't he hurt this country?"
"Open your eyes! It was all Doflamingo's conspiracy! King Riku was framed!"
"He's right! The king never betrayed us! He was under Doflamingo's control!"
The crowd, once divided, began to unite under the memory of the king they had lost.
"I am so deeply sorry that I lacked the courage to reveal the truth to you all these years!" King Riku's voice was thick with emotion. "The Kingdom of Dressrosa faces its greatest crisis! But I beg of you, do not abandon hope! At this very moment, Vice Admiral Jock Ian and his brave soldiers are fighting to defeat Doflamingo and his evil family! Our hope lies not in cold stone, but in the indomitable spirit of our people! Please, move towards the city center, away from the cutting strings! Stay alive! I believe, with all my heart, that Lieutenant General Jock Ian will save us all!"
By the end of his speech, King Riku was choked with tears, but his words had struck a chord. A flicker of defiance rekindled in the eyes of the people. The will to live, once nearly extinguished, now burned brighter than ever.
On the Royal Plateau, Ian's own heart beat a fierce, steady rhythm. The final act for Dressrosa's liberation had begun.
"Jock Ian... you've played a masterful game," Doflamingo snarled, hearing Riku's voice echo across his crumbling kingdom. The sheer depth of Ian's planning was both infuriating and terrifying. And what was that pink dragon wreaking havoc in his city? Its powers were a perfect mirror of Kaido's! How had a Marine officer assembled such a force in complete secrecy? Vergo should have known! This had to be Ian's own doing. Just how many secrets did this man possess?
"Doflamingo isn't finished yet!" he roared, his fingers twitching violently. "White Cage!"
He would not go down quietly. The Birdcage was still contracting. In the end, everyone would die. He had clawed his way up from nothing before; he could do it again. The very environment around him warped, the ground and air transforming into a tsunami of countless, razor-sharp white strings. The overwhelming wave, infused with Armament Haki harder than steel, surged towards Ian, blocking every avenue of escape and seeking to crush him into paste.
"Let me show you the difference between a Paramecia Awakening and a Zoan's!" Doflamingo bellowed, raising his hands to intensify the assault. "Everything here is my domain! I control life and death itself!"
The sea of white threads churned, its crushing power magnifying.
Then, Doflamingo's furious concentration faltered. His indestructible strings... were they... melting?
Awakening Form: Extreme Heat Mode.
Ian's body radiated an immense, controlled inferno, his surface temperature skyrocketing beyond any human limit, becoming a crucible that could liquefy steel.
BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM!
A powerful, rhythmic heartbeat thrummed through the very threads, a primal drumbeat of impending doom.
HISSSSS— BOOM!
From within the tangled mass of white lines, a cataclysmic explosion erupted. The threads, superheated from the inside, burst apart in a shower of molten slag and fire.
Through the dissipating steam, a gargantuan fist, wreathed in crackling, dark purple lightning of Conqueror's Haki, descended from the sky like a meteor, aimed directly at Doflamingo.
"The Human-Human Fruit Awakening... can it freely manipulate the body's very state?!" Doflamingo gasped, his eyes wide with a mixture of fury and disbelief. "This is a barbaric way to fight! And this pressure... this is Conqueror's Haki!"
He was finally witnessing the true, terrifying potential of the fruit he had so carelessly dismissed. The most ordinary of Zoans had become a engine of divine punishment.
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