"Fufufufu…"
Doflamingo's eerie laughter echoed across King's Heights, filled with chilling intent. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes widened slightly as an invisible wave spread outward from his body like a rippling halo, violently stirring the air itself.
In an instant, the atmosphere changed.
A violent storm seemed to descend from nowhere. An overwhelming, tyrannical will swept across the entire area, carrying an aura that demanded absolute submission, as if the world itself had bowed before its ruler.
Thump. Thump.
The guards rushing in to reinforce the castle rolled their eyes back one after another. Foam spilled from their mouths as they collapsed unconscious to the ground, their bodies scattered across the stone courtyard.
Above, dark clouds pressed low against the sky. Black and red lightning tore through the heavens, flashing violently as if heralding the arrival of an apocalypse.
Lucien tilted his head slightly. His spiky hair whipped wildly in the storm as an oppressive will surged directly into his soul, attempting to crush his consciousness and force him to kneel.
Only a handful of people across all of King's Heights remained standing. Each of them stared in horror toward the center of the lightning and thunder, their hearts pounding.
At this moment, Donquixote Doflamingo stood at the very center of the world.
Everything else existed beneath him.
This was Conqueror's Haki.
And it was terrifyingly powerful.
"Truly impressive," Lucien muttered, golden lightning flickering faintly around his body as the cigarette between his fingers burned out under the raging wind. "Conqueror's Haki."
Lucien had long known that Conqueror's Haki could not be learned or trained like Armament or Observation. It was an innate force, something etched into one's destiny. It could not be inherited, nor awakened through effort alone. Only those born with the disposition of a king possessed it.
And even then, it could only manifest when one's spirit reached a certain height.
In essence, Conqueror's Haki was the embodiment of one's will.
Only one in a million could wield it.
Lucien did not know whether he possessed such a gift.
What he did know was that Doflamingo's Conqueror's Haki ranked among the most oppressive in the entire world. Even in the seas of legends, it stood near the very top.
Dark clouds, roaring thunder, crackling lightning.
The spectacle felt unreal, like standing inside a colossal war film, except every sensation was vivid and tangible.
Lucien could feel it clearly now.
His strength was being suppressed.
Not drastically, but unmistakably.
"Fufufufu…"
Veins bulged across Doflamingo's forehead. Behind his sunglasses, cruelty burned brightly.
Swish.
Lucien vanished.
In the next heartbeat, he reappeared mid-air, launching the first attack.
Two whip-like kicks collided violently, the shockwave tearing cracks through the ground beneath them. A deafening explosion followed as compressed air erupted outward, shaking all of King's Heights to its core.
Amid flying debris and shattered stone, both figures shot upward, suspended in the air as their gazes locked.
Lucien disappeared again.
The air trembled violently as his black and red crystalline right foot, wrapped in searing heat, swept down toward Doflamingo's head.
Doflamingo's expression hardened. The speed was terrifying, fast enough to resemble true lightning.
He barely managed to coat both arms in Armament Haki and block.
The impact detonated.
A roaring blast echoed as Doflamingo was launched like a cannonball, tearing through buildings before smashing into the ground below. Dust and rubble exploded outward as cracks spread like spiderwebs across the terrain.
Crack.
Lucien hovered in mid-air, Haki surging through his body. White flames danced around him, threaded with streaks of golden lightning.
For a moment, his appearance felt almost surreal.
If his hair were golden instead of black, he would have looked like something torn straight from a different world.
"Cough… cough…"
From within the shattered crater, Doflamingo rose, wiping blood from his mouth. The ground beneath him exploded as he vanished.
"Sky Slicer."
A raging storm surged forward.
Doflamingo's right leg, wrapped tightly in razor-sharp threads, sliced through the air as it shot straight toward Lucien's face.
This was no imitation.
Compared to false techniques Lucien had seen before, Doflamingo's Sky Slicer carried genuine killing power.
Lucien reacted instantly. His entire right leg crystallized black and red as he drove his knee upward, meeting Doflamingo's kick head-on.
Boom.
A circular shockwave burst outward from their collision. Doflamingo's expression twisted savagely as he twisted his body and unleashed another surge of force.
Lucien was sent crashing downward, transforming into a streak of white light.
The ground split apart as layers of stone peeled upward, dust filling the air.
Elsewhere on King's Heights, another battle raged.
Trebol was being overwhelmed.
"Pink, Machvise, Dellinger, Lao G," Trebol shrieked, blood pouring from his mouth as disbelief filled his eyes. "What do you think you're doing?"
He had arrived with reinforcements only to be ambushed instantly. Before he could react, he was struck by a barrage of attacks, leaving him severely injured.
Suspicion or preparation would have changed everything.
But who could have imagined this?
"Give up resisting," Lao G roared.
The bald old man's veins bulged as his tight suit stretched against his muscles. After becoming a ghost, his aging body had been revitalized. His strength surged back toward its peak, and a faint, unfamiliar power stirred within him.
Machvise, Senor Pink, and the others felt the same transformation.
"You actually betrayed Doffy," Trebol spat, still unable to accept it.
"Join us," Senor Pink said calmly, pacifier still in his mouth. "Become a ghost. The master will grant you power, and you'll never die."
"You know the consequences of betraying the family," Trebol snarled.
"Enough talking," Dellinger snapped, his Fighting Fish blood boiling. His pointed shoes flashed as he launched another attack.
The battle descended into chaos.
Already wounded and now surrounded, Trebol's defeat was inevitable.
Above them all, the fiercest clash continued.
Doflamingo spread his arms, white threads gleaming with lethal sharpness as they surged toward Lucien.
Lucien's right leg returned to its normal form as he charged straight through, neither dodging nor retreating.
Doflamingo sneered.
Lucien was not even using Armament Haki.
He had already imagined the opponent's leg being sliced apart.
Silence.
Lucien's foot passed cleanly through the threads.
In the next instant, his leg hardened completely, infused with Armament Haki and overwhelming heat, slamming directly into Doflamingo's chest.
The impact was devastating.
Doflamingo's eyes widened in disbelief.
Under normal circumstances, Lucien's leg should have been shredded.
Pfft.
Scalding blood erupted from Doflamingo's mouth as his body was hurled diagonally downward like a meteor. The ground buckled violently across hundreds of meters as he carved a massive trench before crashing into a raised plateau.
The resulting crater was enormous.
Lucien extended a single finger in mid-air. Hardening spread instantly as a massive spear of black and red energy formed above him, stretching over ten meters long, radiating searing heat.
With a deafening sonic boom, the spear descended.
Rocks shattered. A hurricane of dust and debris engulfed the area.
When the storm cleared, Doflamingo stood within the pit.
The massive spear was embedded deep into the ground beside him, leaving behind a smoking void.
Threads wrapped tightly around his right hand, repeatedly stitching and compressing his shattered chest.
Doflamingo was healing.
____
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