BOOOM!
The execution scaffold of Marineford was a monument designed not just for death, but for the psychological subjugation of the entire world.
Now, that sacred altar was nothing more than splintered driftwood.
The world saw the platform fell, being cut into pieces by the green-haired swordsman. And through the thick, acrid smoke, four figures slowly came into focus.
"Yosha!"
Monkey D. Luffy, his red vest torn to ribbons, his skin bruised and heavily bleeding, stood panting heavily.
"Slow down oye!"
Beside him, leaning his full weight against his little brother's shoulder, was Portgas D. Ace.
"Don't move much!"
Zoro had cleanly carved the wooden floorboards from the scaffold, leaving the heavy iron anchors intact but freeing Ace from the platform itself.
"Easy for you to say tch..."
The heavy Seastone shackles still bound the Fire Fist's wrists, the thick chains rattling softly in the freezing wind, but the execution blades were left behind.
He, Portgas D. Ace, was off the altar.
The realization struck the battlefield like a shockwave.
...
"HE'S FREEEEEEE!"
The roar erupted from the throat of a massive, blue-skinned Fishman. Jinbei, the Knight of the Sea, stood knee-deep in the fainted bodies of Marine infantrymen. Tears, thick and heavy, streamed freely down his scarred, round face, mingling with the blood and soot that coated his cheeks.
"Straw Hat really did it!!"
"Unbelievable!"
Jinbei had willingly surrendered his Warlord title. He had embraced the freezing, agonizing torture of Impel Down's Level 6. He had thrown his life into this apocalyptic meat grinder, fully expecting to die on this ice, all for the faintest, impossible hope of saving his friend.
To see Ace standing there, breathing, snatched from the very jaws of the World Government... Jinbei's chest heaved with a sob of pure relief.
"Don't just stand there crying, you beautiful fools!"
Emporio Ivankov, the Miracle Person of the Revolutionary Army, leaped high into the air, his massive purple afro bouncing wildly.
"HEE-HAWW! The Straw Hat boy actually pulled it off!"
"The impossible has been made possible! But the the war isn't over yet!"
"VANGUARD!"
"FORM UP!"
"PROTECT THE BROTHERS!"
The remnants of the Impel Down escapees and the Whitebeard pirate vanguard snapped out of their shock.
""HOOOOO!""
""ACE IS SAVED!""
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
""WELL DONE STRAW HAT!""
A deafening, thunderous cheer tore through the pirate ranks. Men who had been on the verge of collapsing from blood loss suddenly found a miraculous, burning reserve of adrenaline. They clashed their swords against their shields, roaring their defiance to the heavens.
But across the frozen bay, the Warlords of the Sea—the World Government's sanctioned monsters—watched the shifting tides with entirely different perspectives.
Standing atop the decapitated head of a fallen giant Marine, Donquixote Doflamingo threw his head back and laughed.
"Fuffuffuffu... FUAHAHAHAHA!"
"FUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Heavenly Demon's manic laughter cut through the cheering of the pirates. He clutched his stomach, his feathered pink coat violently trembling as he reveled in the absolute destruction of the board.
"Look at it!"
"Just look at it!"
Doflamingo shouted to no one in particular, spreading his arms wide as if to embrace the chaos. Behind his pink, teardrop-shaped sunglasses, his eyes danced with psychotic glee.
"The impenetrable standing of Justice! The Marine's show of judgement! Cut by a rookie into pieces like a piece of trash!"
"The son of the Pirate King, saved by the son of the Revolutionary!"
"The False Deity trying to assassinate the Fleet Admiral in the sky!"
Doflamingo flexed his long, spider-like fingers, the invisible, razor-sharp strings twitching in the cold air.
"Ahahahahaha!"
"The center of the world has completely collapsed!" Doflamingo cackled, his smile stretching so wide it looked painful.
"The old era is bleeding out on this ice, and the new era is a pack of rabid dogs!"
"Who will claim the empty throne?! Wonderful! Truly, absolutely wonderful!"
"FUAHAHAHAHA! FUAHAHAHAHA!!"
A few hundred yards away, the mood was decidedly less euphoric.
Gecko Moria, the Master of Shadows, stood shivering behind the crumbling remains of a frozen tsunami. His massive, onion-shaped body was slick with cold, nervous sweat. He furiously bit down on his fingernails, his eyes darting frantically across the battlefield.
"This is insane... this is completely insane!" Moria muttered hysterically, his shadow writhing nervously on the ice beneath him.
"My zombie army is in ruins! Oars Jr.'s head cut down by that damn Doflamingo!"
"And that monster in the black coat is fighting Sengoku?!"
"And now... now the Straw Hat has the Supreme King's Haki?! AND he saved the Pirate King's son?!"
Moria remembered the humiliation of Thriller Bark. He remembered how close Luffy had come to ending his life.
But what terrified him more was the sheer, incomprehensible scale of the monsters currently clashing around him.
Whitebeard was shattering the earth. The battlefield of Rayleigh and Kizaru was a clash of high-speed and lethal hits no one could interfere in.
The other two Admirals were turning the bay into an elemental hellscape.
It was madness.
"I-"
"I shouldn't be here," Moria whimpered, taking a slow, cowardly step backward into the deeper shadows.
"There are no shadows worth taking if the entire island sinks to the bottom of the sea!"
"I need to get out of here!"
...
But not all Warlords were paralyzed by fear or madness.
Standing gracefully atop a mound of petrified Marine officers, Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress, maintained her facade of absolute, imperious Warlord arrogance. Her beautiful face was an unreadable mask of cold disdain. She looked down her delicate nose at the chaos, her hands resting elegantly on her hips.
But beneath her flowing robes, her heart was beating an entirely different rhythm.
'He did it.'
Hancock thought, her pulse fluttering wildly like a trapped bird.
'That Luffy... he actually did it.'
'Ah-'
She watched the bloodied, exhausted rubber boy supporting his older brother. The sheer, unbreakable tenacity of Monkey D. Luffy sent a shiver of admiration down her spine.
He had faced the combined might of the world, he had suffered injuries that would have killed a hundred normal men, and he had simply refused to yield.
"Empress!" a panicked Marine Commodore shouted, running up to the base of her petrified mound.
"I order you!"
"The targets are vulnerable! Use your powers! Turn the brothers to stone before they can reach the bay!"
Hancock looked down at the screaming Commodore. Her mesmerizing blue eyes narrowed into slits of venomous disgust.
"You dare command me, you filthy, insolent worm?" Hancock asked, her voice dropping to a terrifying, icy register.
She gracefully raised her leg, her high heel flashing in the dim light.
"Perfume Femur!"
BAM!
She delivered a devastating, sweeping kick to the side of the Commodore's head. The man didn't even have time to scream before his skull and torso were instantly transformed into solid, brittle stone. He tipped over, shattering into dozens of grey pieces against the ice.
Fling!
Hancock brushed a strand of raven hair behind her ear, and suddenly her beautiful face adopted a look of cute innocence and looked at the surrounding Marines.
"My apologies. The stress of the battlefield seems to be affecting my aim. I simply cannot distinguish friend from foe in this dreadful smoke."
"You'll forgive me, right?"
"Right?"
"YESSSSSSSS!"
"YES! YES! IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!!"
"WE SAW IT!"
'Tch... filthy men.'
She turned her gaze back to the brothers. She would not openly betray the World Government—her people on Amazon Lily needed the protection of her title—but for a man as brave as that, she didn't mind giving him some indirect help.
'Run, Monkey D. Luffy.'
Hancock prayed silently.
'Run back to the sea!'
.
.
.
A/N: Man I really love Doffy and Croco! They are way better than Kaido and Big Mom as villains!
Hot take, Doffy's setting only lacked power! Otherwise, his character was born to rule the world!
{Read 30+ chaps at patreon(dot)com/Glivaria}