Chapter 228: Clash
Human effort was insignificant before the might of nature.
And when someone could wield that overwhelming force, they became something close to unstoppable in the eyes of others.
At least, for everyone on the ship except Donquixote Doflamingo, no one could look at the suspended sea without feeling utterly stunned.
"Truly astonishing."
Doflamingo raised his voice so Axel, who stood above the sea, could hear him clearly.
"It makes me wonder what else you can do, brat."
His grin widened.
"But do you really think something like this can affect me? I don't think so."
Axel quietly looked at Doflamingo on the ship.
He did not believe this move could affect Doflamingo either.
After all, Doflamingo's threads could even connect to the clouds in the sky. No matter how vast the seawater was, it would be difficult for it to actually touch his body.
But Axel's target had never been Doflamingo himself.
"Hah. Even if you can dodge it, what about the others on your ship?"
Axel's voice was calm.
"Do you think they can avoid it?"
As Axel's words fell, the people on the ship stared at him in disbelief.
They had not expected him to use them as leverage against Doflamingo.
Then panic spread among them.
Not because of Axel's threat.
But because of what they knew about Doflamingo.
And just as they expected, before they could flee, several threads swept past them.
Their bodies were sliced apart in an instant, collapsing into corpses across the deck.
"See?"
Doflamingo laughed.
"Now the threat is gone, and we're back on equal footing."
He spread his arms slightly.
"Those who lose their value are better dealt with by my own hand."
His smile remained bright and cruel.
"I never fear threats, because I eliminate them."
"...You really are insane."
Axel barely squeezed out those words.
He had not expected Doflamingo to be this extreme.
Normally, when someone's subordinates were threatened, they should at least hesitate, right?
But clearly, he had guessed wrong.
"Judging from the information I received, I thought you knew everything and understood everything, almost as if you could peer into people's hearts."
Doflamingo laughed happily.
His smile looked like that of a child who had discovered something new and amusing.
"But it seems that isn't the case after all."
"This isn't funny," Axel said flatly. "Killing your own followers just like that... Don't you feel any guilt?"
His gaze stayed on Doflamingo.
"Are you that indifferent to life?"
Hearing this question, Doflamingo first showed a look of surprise.
Then he laughed even harder.
"The strong decide the life and death of the weak."
His voice was sharp and full of scorn.
"The weak can't even choose how they die. Isn't that perfectly normal?"
"I simply granted them release."
Doflamingo looked down at Axel.
"Is there any difference between dying by my hand or yours?"
His grin turned mocking.
"Don't put on a righteous front."
"From your indifferent attitude just now, and from that same aura you share with me, you and I are both people stained with sin."
Axel thought for a moment.
He did not reply.
Something he had deliberately ignored all this time had just been brought up by Doflamingo.
He truly was someone stained with sin.
From the moment he arrived in this world, trembling as he fought to survive, until now, where he could wield the butcher's blade with ease, he had no right to condemn others from a clean position.
The blood on his hands was no less than anyone else's.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
His developed brain had recorded the miserable deaths of those people in his memory, reminding him every moment that he was a criminal.
An executioner.
His seemingly fair hands were already stained with thick, indelible blood.
"What's wrong?" Doflamingo pressed impatiently. "Did I speak too honestly, leaving you unable to answer?"
"You're right," Axel said in a low voice.
"My hands are indeed stained with blood."
His voice was quiet, but steady.
"That's a fact I can never deny."
Then he raised his head.
"But who said people stained with blood must stand on the side of evil?"
A faint laugh escaped him.
"What a joke."
"I have always acted according to my own whims. I am who I am, bound by no one."
Axel tightened his grip on the wooden blade.
"And I insist on using these bloodstained hands to save others amid slaughter."
Perhaps that thought was foolish.
Perhaps it should not even exist.
Yet this foolish, seemingly impossible idea was the sole guiding principle for his existence in this world.
"Your thinking is truly childish."
Doflamingo's expression darkened.
"It reminds me of my brother, Corazon, whom I killed."
His voice became colder.
"He betrayed me for such a foolish idea."
Then his gaze toward Axel grew even more disgusted.
"But compared to him, you disgust me even more."
"At least he had not been stained with blood."
"But you, already bloodstained like me, still think of turning back?"
Doflamingo's face twisted into something ferocious.
"That is simply laughable."
Standing on the bow of the ship, Doflamingo looked down at Axel from above.
The towering curtain of seawater before him, vast enough to swallow the entire ship, seemed insignificant in his eyes.
He crossed his arms.
Then he swung them forward in a clawing motion.
Several claw-like beams slashed out from his fingertips and tore toward Axel.
Axel did not wait passively.
Without visibly moving his feet, he shifted sideways and used the massive curtain of seawater to block the attack.
The claw-shaped threads tore into the sea, ripping an opening through the water.
But soon, the threads lost strength.
In the end, they were blocked by the surging wall of seawater.
Doflamingo frowned slightly.
As expected, seawater had too great an impact on Devil Fruit users.
His ability was severely hindered.
An attack that should have possessed tenfold power had been reduced to less than one-tenth.
But what surprised him even more was that Axel had directly touched the seawater just now.
Could his ability still remain unaffected under such conditions?
What kind of ability was this?
If the power was not enough, then he only needed to increase it.
Doflamingo abruptly pulled his arm back, straightening it like a pitcher winding up before a throw.
After gathering power, he swung forward.
In an instant, dozens of thin threads burst from his palm and tightly wound together, forming a thick line that shot toward Axel behind the water curtain.
Overheat.
It struck the massive wave like a spiraling drill, boring through the water curtain and continuing forward with undiminished force.
Axel was already prepared.
Once again, he concentrated power into his wooden blade.
The moment Overheat approached, he struck the point where its force was most concentrated.
The weakest point.
The wooden blade landed precisely, separating the thick line back into individual threads and dismantling Doflamingo's attack.
At the same time, Axel shifted from defense to offense.
The suspended seawater crashed down toward Doflamingo.
With a deafening roar, the colossal wave engulfed the ship, making the vessel look minuscule beneath it.
Axel did not focus on the submerged ship.
Instead, he looked up at the sky.
At a distance invisible to normal human eyes, he used light refraction to see Doflamingo.
At some unknown point, Doflamingo had already evaded the attack.
He was suspended from the clouds by his threads, slowly descending through the air.
He stopped only when he was several dozen meters above Axel.
"Is running away all you can do?" Axel taunted.
His strength was not greater than Doflamingo's.
His only advantage was seawater, the weakness of Devil Fruit users, which could greatly weaken Doflamingo's attacks.
Even so, if Doflamingo deliberately avoided the seawater, Axel would have no chance of winning.
A prolonged defense would inevitably fail.
He did not want to remain passive forever.
.....
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