"Doflamingo, you bastard—!"
Cross roared, his face contorted with fury. A terrifying aura erupted from him like a volcanic explosion, transforming the sky and earth into a bizarre realm of gray and white.
Vmm—
The air trembled violently. Winds howled across the battlefield. The remaining soldiers of the Lvneel Kingdom convulsed as if struck by lightning. Their eyes rolled back, and they collapsed en masse like dominos, unconscious before they even hit the ground.
In that instant, Cross could endure no more.
Back when he was just an anime fan, he had admired someone like Donquixote Doflamingo, a pirate with the makings of a formidable kingpin. He had admired his charisma, his strength, even his philosophy.
But now, standing face-to-face with the real Doflamingo, watching him commit unrestrained slaughter, toying with human lives like insects, something deep inside Cross cracked.
The helpless cries, the agony, the pleading… it all rang in his ears.
And it struck him:
He wasn't some cold-blooded monster. He was still human.
Doflamingo had the power to knock out these survivors instantly with Conqueror's Haki. But no, he chose the cruelest method possible. He butchered them without mercy, mocking their broken bodies, playing with the defeated like a devil incarnate.
How could any sane person witness such carnage and remain unmoved?
Cross's eyes burned as he stared at the nightmare before him. His mind blanked out, he had only one thought:
Stop him.
No matter what it took, no matter the cost, he had to stop this cold-blooded demon.
"Fufufufufu~"
Doflamingo turned, his eerie laugh echoing across the battlefield. He smiled mockingly. "You're really killing the mood, brat."
Boom—
A tremendous wave of Conqueror's Haki exploded from Doflamingo in response. It clashed with Cross's own aura in a thunderous collision, shaking the earth with deafening intensity.
Tangible, hurricane-force pressure whipped through the skies. Red-and-black lightning crackled across the battlefield, dancing wildly through the air.
BOOM—
But Cross didn't flinch. He roared forward, the ground shattering beneath his feet. A web of cracks splintered out in every direction. Like a cannonball, he launched himself ahead, each step a ten-meter leap as he charged toward Doflamingo.
"You filthy scum of the sea, DIE!"
"Oi, brat! Don't think you can interrupt Doffy's fun that easily!" Diamante bellowed, brandishing his sword and slashing downward with a fierce shout.
"Half-Moon Burial!"
RUMBLE—
A massive crescent-shaped wave of sword energy tore through the battlefield, cleaving the ground as if it were made of tofu. The attack surged violently toward Cross.
"Get out of my way!"
"One-Sword Style: Heavenly Fang!"
Cross didn't slow down for even a heartbeat. His muscles bulged, veins bursting with power as he raised his blade, Kagehide, and swung it ferociously at the oncoming shockwave.
The blade's arc compressed the very air around it, creating visible white vapor, the atmosphere itself forced into solid form under the sheer pressure.
BOOOOOM—
In a single, devastating strike, Cross shattered Diamante's sword wave like a twig. The force of his slash didn't stop there, what remained of the attack tore a jagged trench into the earth and slammed into Diamante like a freight train.
"No... No way!!"
Diamante's eyes widened in disbelief before the impact sent him hurtling hundreds of meters, crashing into a reef cluster near the shoreline. A towering column of seawater erupted into the sky.
A chasm hundreds of meters long now scarred the battlefield, stretching from inland all the way to the sea. Everyone who witnessed it was struck dumb with terror.
"Di-Diamante...?"
Doflamingo's face twisted, struggling to believe what he was seeing.
He was... he was taken out in one blow?!
This kid... was he really just a teenager?!
"You're next, Doflamingo!"
Cross's voice thundered across the field like divine retribution. The very air shook, swept outward in rippling shockwaves from the sheer force of his killing intent.
Never in his past life or this one had he ever wanted to kill someone so badly. The images, those desperate, dying screams, that hellish slaughter, seared themselves into his soul, igniting a firestorm of wrath.
My heart is cold.
My blade is cold.
But my blood... burns hot.
"You damned brat…"
Doflamingo's face darkened. Rage and bloodlust flooded his mind, eclipsing all reason. He charged, blind with fury, ignoring even Diamante's broken form lying amid the rocks.
Thankfully, the reef was in shallow water, or the Donquixote Family would've lost one of its top executives right then and there.
Cross didn't hesitate for even a second. As Doflamingo flew toward him, he launched his counterstrike:
A downward slash.
It was a simple slash, but the power behind it tore through the air like a cannon blast.
"One-Sword Style: Heavy Cleave!"
"Goshikito!!"
Doflamingo snarled, swinging his arm with brutal force. A sheen of pitch-black Armament Haki coated his limb like metal, as five razor-thin threads shot forward, slicing toward Cross.
BOOOM—
Blade met thread with an earth-shattering impact. Red-and-black lightning exploded outward in all directions as the two Conquerors' Haki clashed violently, engulfing the battlefield in a storm of raw power.
A tornado of shockwaves erupted, ripping through the ground, sending cracks radiating in every direction.
These two young kings, barely seasoned, still green by the standards of the New World, were nonetheless unleashing power far beyond that of ordinary men. No regular person could even survive standing near them.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Their figures blurred together, colliding, separating, then crashing back again. Sparks burst through the air as the named blade clashed against the razor threads again and again.
Visible shockwaves blasted outward with each clash. The battlefield shook with every step they took, the ground cracking and splintering beneath them.
Yet despite Cross's immense swordsmanship and strength, the gap in experience was evident.
Doflamingo, who had fought countless battles at sea and mastered all three types of Haki, held the clear upper hand. Cross's raw talent couldn't instantly make up for years of combat experience or grant him control over Armament Haki overnight.
Even his innate Observation Haki, though awakened, lacked the precision and combat intuition Doflamingo had honed through blood and war.
So, while Cross could occasionally strike hard enough to knock Doflamingo back, he couldn't truly injure him. The older pirate's hardened Armament Haki absorbed the brunt of his attacks.
Worse, Cross lacked the body of a "steel balloon" like that one infamous rubber man, he couldn't endure endless punishment.
Bit by bit, Doflamingo's threads sliced into his flesh, opening wound after wound, each one bleeding freely.
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