The wind brushed over Zaraki's slightly heated cheeks, carrying the taste of rust and dust.
He breathed out slowly.
The blood and energy churning in his chest from that instant burst of power settled with each breath.
To him, that explosion of strength had only been a slightly intense warm-up. The power inside his body sank back down, becoming denser and more refined.
The cheers around him sounded distant and indistinct.
Zaraki's hearing naturally focused on what was close by.
He could hear his own steady, powerful heartbeat.
He could hear Smoker's rapid breathing a few meters away. The man was breathing hard, yet still seemed unable to pull in enough air.
He could also hear Yamakaji's throat bobbing farther off, the gulp exceptionally clear amid the surrounding silence.
Zaraki's gaze moved away from Doflamingo's gradually cooling corpse and calmly swept over the Marine officers present.
Their expressions were rather impressive.
Shock, confusion, fear, and the dazed look of people whose understanding of the world had just been cracked open.
They did not understand what had happened.
In the final frame their eyes had captured, sixteen deadly black bullets had been tearing toward Zaraki with overwhelming force.
In the next frame, the world had been swallowed by a dark-gold flash and thunder-like pressure.
The process had vanished.
That light had appeared without warning and ended just as cleanly.
By the time they recovered from that brief blindness and ringing in their ears, all they saw was blood spraying from Doflamingo's throat and the man whose blade had barely left its sheath.
From the moment Doflamingo launched his attack to the moment he collapsed dead, the entire process had taken less than a second.
Zaraki's gaze met Gion's.
The female Vice Admiral was staring at him, her hand trembling slightly around the famous blade Konpira.
Those sharp eyes of hers, which usually carried such confidence, now held a deep sense of defeat.
Was Gion afraid?
Zaraki understood that look.
She was a swordswoman, and she had just seen a peak so distant that even measuring the gap felt difficult.
Yamakaji's expression was much steadier by comparison.
He simply looked at Zaraki in silence, his gaze complicated. He did not say anything, but his expression already said enough.
This man was not an ordinary Marine asset anymore. He was a strategic weapon Headquarters could neither ignore nor control.
Gion seemed to understand something from Yamakaji's expression. She slowly lowered her eyes, her long lashes hiding the turmoil within them.
No wonder.
No wonder the five old men in the Holy Land paid such unusual attention to a Marine this young.
This kind of power defied common sense.
The current system could neither understand it nor fully control it.
Its very existence was a massive threat.
In the silence, Smoker's voice suddenly exploded.
"What are you standing around for?!"
Smoker roared at the officers still frozen in shock, his voice hoarse and urgent.
"Report the situation here to Fleet Admiral Sengoku immediately! And hurry! Confirm Kaido of the Beasts' position! His trading partner is dead now. Who knows what the hell he'll do!"
That roar snapped everyone out of their daze.
"Right! The Den Den Mushi!"
Yamakaji jolted awake and hurriedly pulled out his personal Den Den Mushi from inside his coat.
Gion also reacted, her face pale as she searched for her own communication device. Her fingers had gone slightly blue from gripping Konpira too hard.
The scene instantly fell into a frantic rhythm.
But at the center of that chaos, Zaraki's attention was drawn by the system notification that sounded in his mind.
**[Ding!]**
**[Killed Warlord of the Sea Donquixote Doflamingo. Template synchronization increased by 0.8%. Reward: 2,500 points.]**
**[Current points: 2,880.]**
Zaraki's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.
He had killed Doflamingo, and the synchronization increase was still that small?
Only 0.2 percent left.
Was the system calculating that he would need another decent opponent before he could break through completely?
How ruthless.
Just as Zaraki was silently complaining, a powerful chill suddenly shot from the base of his spine all the way to the top of his head.
This was not an illusion.
It was instinct screaming.
A presence had locked onto the island from across the sky, filled with brutality and the desire for destruction. The aura was tyrannical and savage. Even sensing only the distant outline of it made the air turn thick.
Not good.
For the first time, Zaraki's expression changed sharply.
He did not have time to greet anyone, let alone explain.
Boom!
A dark-gold thunderclap exploded out of nowhere, and violent Reiatsu tore through the air in arcs that looked like lightning.
Under the stunned gazes of Gion, Yamakaji, and the others, Zaraki's figure instantly turned into a streak of pressure and shot away from the crowded battlefield, disappearing toward the broken heights of the King's Plateau.
"...He ran?"
A Marine officer stared blankly and muttered to himself.
Ran?
Why?
Gion's eyes narrowed. Something about the direction felt wrong. That was not the route back to the ship.
Just as everyone was filled with confusion, the Den Den Mushi in Yamakaji's hand finally connected with a click.
"Purupurupuru..."
"Yamakaji!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku's voice came from the other end, filled with urgency and weight.
"Abandon the mission immediately! Full retreat! Listen carefully, this is not a drill! According to the latest intelligence, Kaido of the Beasts has deviated from his projected course and is heading for Dressrosa at full speed! Estimated arrival time... within five minutes!"
What?!
Yamakaji, Gion, Smoker, and every Marine officer present turned deathly pale the moment they heard the news.
Kaido... was here early?
They finally understood why Zaraki had moved so suddenly.
That man had sensed the arrival of the world's strongest creature even earlier than Marine Headquarters' intelligence network.
"F-Fleet Admiral!"
Yamakaji's hand trembled around the receiver. He forced himself to calm down and reported as quickly as possible.
"Report! Warlord of the Sea Donquixote Doflamingo has been killed on the spot by War Demon Zaraki! Zaraki sensed Kaido's approach in advance and has moved away from the civilian evacuation area! Our unit will continue evacuation and maintain the video line!"
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Sengoku's voice stopped abruptly.
Silence.
Several full seconds of dead silence.
Yamakaji could even hear heavy breathing from the other side of the call, belonging to several different people.
It was as if the entire meeting hall at Marine Headquarters had been drained of air the instant his words fell.