September 24, 1503, Age of the Sea Circle
Looking into the distance, Orion watched the destruction of the kingdom of Dressrosa as flames rapidly engulfed the great capital city. Focusing his Prism Eyes, he was able to see the royal soldiers of the Riku family attacking defenseless civilians, and amid all the chaos, he also saw something that made his fists clench tightly.
In the midst of that horrific "battlefield," his father-in-law, King Riku, was attacking his own subjects, cutting them down mercilessly with his sword. However, Orion's eyes were capable of seeing beyond the superficial when he used his Prism Eyes, and he immediately noticed the countless invisible threads controlling Riku and his subordinates.
Orion's expression twisted as the rage flooding his chest burned like a blazing flame, and extending his Observation Haki to its limit, he located the culprit behind this tragic spectacle.
In a tall tower near King Riku's position, Donquixote Doflamingo was observing the entire situation with a grotesque smile, intermittently moving his fingers and thus guiding the actions of his unfortunate puppets.
"Unforgivable," Orion murmured as his Conqueror's Haki began to spill from his body involuntarily, forcing Giolla to take a step back so as not to be affected.
Orion was a man who usually kept his composure in most situations, or at least he tried to, since his combat style required him to remain lucid. Unlike other fighters who fed on their emotions, Orion fought best when his mind was clear and free of intense feelings—at least in most cases.
For that reason, Orion had learned to control his temper to such an extent that it was not easy to make him lose his calm. Perhaps the moments when he was most agitated were those in which his loved ones were in danger.
However, although on this occasion his father-in-law King Riku was indeed in danger and at Doflamingo's mercy, that was not what had provoked his rage. The reason he was on the verge of losing himself to anger was that he could clearly see the expression on King Riku's face, and he knew that the actions Doflamingo was forcing him to carry out were the worst torture imaginable for him, far worse than death.
King Riku was a great pacifist; he had spent his entire life trying to eliminate armed conflicts in neighboring kingdoms, and he abhorred violence and slaughter to such an extent that Orion felt uneasy in his presence when thinking of all the people he himself had killed in the past.
Unlike Orion, whose hands were stained with the blood of countless enemies, Riku's hands were pristine, and it was his pride that he had never had to resort to violence to resolve conflicts—although it was true that his philosophy had made the lives of his subjects somewhat worse than they might have been otherwise.
Even though the philosophies of Orion and his father-in-law were like day and night, Orion respected his convictions and admired the resolve with which he followed the path he had chosen. For that very reason, seeing Doflamingo forcing Riku to massacre his beloved subjects filled Orion with an uncontrollable fury.
He himself was a king, and he could not imagine how painful it would be to be placed in such a situation. At this very moment, Riku was probably wishing with all his strength that someone would stop him, even if it meant dying in the process.
Feeling the emotions piling up in his chest, Orion raised his hand and drew his cutlass Ace from his inventory. Then he focused his mind on the energies within the system, grasping the familiar spatial-attribute energy and manipulating it clumsily.
Little by little, the blade of his cutlass began to be covered by an aggressively surging energy, as if it were on the verge of causing an explosion at any moment. Previously, Orion had not been able to use the attributes of his system very freely, as controlling them consumed a great deal of mental energy.
At best, he could barely concentrate spatial energy to collapse the space of a Space Door, thus creating his special attack "Door Collapse." Until now, that had been the limit of his manipulation, but a great change had occurred over the past few days.
After absorbing the energy of the Toki Toki no Mi and grasping part of this world's secrets, his hidden attribute "understanding" had increased, allowing him to better comprehend the use of his system's attributes.
Up until now, he had only been able to use that attribute in a very rudimentary way, but now he could wield it with greater freedom, even if he was still in the most elementary stages of controlling those attributes.
Even so, for what Orion intended to do now, it was enough.
Giolla watched with hearts in her eyes as Orion closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and raised his sword above his head. Then, with a swift motion, he brought the blade down while declaring in a deep voice,
"Thirty-Six Styles, Dimensional Slash!"
The blade of Orion's sword, which was coated in spatial energy, exploded violently, producing a massive dimensional cut that severed all the space in front of him, stretching far beyond the horizon. Along its path, everything that stood there was mercilessly cleaved apart, consumed by spatial energy that could not be stopped.
Buildings, clouds, even the space of the sky itself—everything was cut by Orion's powerful attack, though his target had been a single one: the accursed strings being used to manipulate Riku and his soldiers like puppets.
*Ding*
*Your Skill "Swordsmanship (Level 6)" has increased by one (1) level.*
A notification appeared on the system screen, but Orion paid it no attention at all, as he was completely focused on the situation before him.
After being struck by his massive attack, everyone under control was immediately liberated, to Doflamingo's utter astonishment. He himself had taken damage from Orion's dimensional strike, though he had managed to defend himself with his strange strings at the last instant, thus avoiding death.
Orion saw that Doflamingo was still standing, and his frown deepened further. He had faced the Warlord only a few months earlier and had a fairly concrete idea of his level of power. According to his calculations, a surprise attack unleashed with all his strength should have left Doflamingo at least severely wounded.
Considering that he had only suffered minor injuries, it was obvious that the Doflamingo before him was far more powerful than the one he knew, but… was the Warlord truly capable of increasing his strength so dramatically in just a few months?
Setting his doubts aside, Orion watched Doflamingo from a distance while breathing heavily from the tremendous effort he had expended. Although his new spatial attack was truly powerful, it was still exhausting—like all techniques that required the manipulation of the system's attributes.
Doflamingo, too, had noticed the presence of a powerful enemy he had not accounted for, coming from the direction of the royal castle, and his expression darkened. For a moment, he stopped focusing on his plan to frame Riku and his soldiers, turning his gaze toward the distant castle walls in search of this new enemy.
Orion sighed in relief upon seeing that Doflamingo had not continued manipulating Riku and his army to massacre civilians, unaware that if he had delayed only a few more minutes, Doflamingo's crew would have suddenly appeared to save the people from the "deranged" King Riku.
With Orion's sudden appearance, the events that were originally meant to occur had changed slightly, though not by much. Orion's actions were like stones thrown into a lake, creating ripples across the surface, and his limited involvement was not strong enough to alter Dressrosa's tragic fate.
"Giolla, we're on a battlefield. The enemies are the Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo and his crew," Orion said as he scanned the area with his Observation Haki, simultaneously expanding his detection sphere to its maximum, encompassing the entire massive castle.
Suddenly, Orion's expression turned to one of surprise, and a new piece of the puzzle emerged in the mystery surrounding this new ability called Time Dungeon. After sensing the presence of his sister-in-law, Viola, within the castle, he was able to gain some understanding of what was happening.
"It seems that the aberrant idea I initially hypothesized about how this ability works was correct… Did I truly travel through time? Or… to another dimension?" Orion thought as he decided how to proceed.
The system had provided him with no guidance whatsoever, leaving him complete freedom to act as he wished. That was a positive thing, but it also placed him in a somewhat passive position, given how little information he had about the current situation.
"The most important thing right now is to prevent the collapse of the kingdom, rescue the royal family, and then investigate the situation in detail," Orion thought, finally choosing his course of action.
The Dungeon's time limit was nearly three more days, so he had time to thoroughly investigate what was going on. However, first he needed to deal with the most urgent matters.
"Giolla, Viola is in the castle. She's being held by enemies. Can you rescue her?" Orion said seriously.
Although the situation was extremely complicated and confusing, at least Orion was not alone. The presence of his beloved Giolla not only calmed him somewhat by keeping him grounded in the reality he knew, but also served as invaluable support against their current enemies.
Giolla was not overwhelmingly powerful, but after her abilities had been enhanced with the help of the system and her body strengthened through their nights of passion, which served as a method to improve her natural capabilities, she was a fighter who could not be ignored on a battlefield.
While she could not stand against monsters on Doflamingo's level, she was perfectly capable of dealing with the secondary members of his crew. According to the information Orion had obtained through his Observation Haki, the Warlord's strongest subordinates were in the midst of the battlefield, while only the lesser members were inside the palace.
Even so, it was impossible for Giolla to defeat so many enemies at once, so Orion immediately added,
"Don't try to confront the enemies directly. Just focus on rescuing Viola and escaping. We'll meet later in Flower Hill."
Giolla nodded with a beautiful smile, and as she stepped closer to Orion, she kissed him tenderly on the lips.
"Don't worry, Orion. I promise I'll carry out my mission without fail!"
Even beneath the light cast by the fires consuming the kingdom, Giolla looked utterly beautiful and gentle, which helped steady Orion's emotions somewhat.
Orion caressed Giolla's cheek one last time before heading toward the battlefield. Just as with the orders he had given his wife, Orion's objective was not to defeat Doflamingo and his three strongest subordinates, but simply to rescue his father-in-law, King Riku, in order to prevent further incidents.
Using Soru, Orion advanced at full speed through the chaotic streets of Dressrosa's capital city, while employing his Pocket Dimension to avoid detection by his enemies. Finally, once he was close enough to Doflamingo, Orion took out his small serpent companion, Shesha, who had been sleeping coiled around his arm, and by infusing him with Armament Haki, he turned him into a bow, firing four Haki-coated arrows at his enemies.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three of the arrows were intercepted by Doflamingo's strings, which moved with far greater agility than Orion had expected, while the last arrow pierced through the Warlord's defenses and struck Trebol squarely, who was standing there with his usual idiotic expression and disgusting mucus dangling from his nose.
Trebol's body exploded upon receiving Orion's powerful attack, and his torso was sent flying through the air. However, using his Prism Eyes, Orion was able to perceive the pirate's deception. His real body was hidden within a large mass of viscous liquid, imitating a real body when it was nothing more than a disguise.
Although Orion's attack had struck Trebol head-on, he had managed to absorb most of the damage, suffering only minor scrapes. Even so, the pirate had collapsed onto the ground, motionless, likely waiting for Orion to approach carelessly so he could launch a surprise attack.
Orion paid no attention to the pirate's tactics and continued advancing at full speed toward where his father-in-law, King Riku, was located. After Orion had severed the strings controlling all of Dressrosa's soldiers, they had stopped their brutal assault, momentarily regaining their freedom.
This left the civilians confused, while King Riku desperately tried to explain what had happened. Unfortunately for the pacifist king, Doflamingo was not about to let his plan be ruined so easily, and thus decided to make his heroic appearance, even though the inhabitants had not suffered as much as he would have liked, which diminished the impact of his entrance.
"Do not worry, citizens of Dressrosa. We are here to protect you, and to punish the bloodthirsty King Riku in the process!" Doflamingo said as he approached Riku, grabbing him by the neck and preventing him from speaking.
Pica and Diamante moved at full speed after their captain and began massacring the royal soldiers, who were still in a state of confusion and unable to organize themselves. Orion hastened his pace, and upon reaching the site of the massacre that was being broadcast throughout the entire kingdom, he threw a furious punch while simultaneously using his ability, "Gigantification."
The gigantic fist, coated in Armament Haki, descended upon the two pirates at tremendous speed, like divine punishment, before the stunned eyes of the kingdom's inhabitants, who had never witnessed such a scene.
Even so, facing Doflamingo and his men was no simple matter. Pica, who had been crushing enemy soldiers like insects, saw Orion's attack and immediately activated the power of his Devil Fruit, causing the ground to rise into the air and form a massive golem.
Then, this enormous golem, bearing Pica's likeness and made entirely of rock, launched a punch that collided head-on with Orion's attack.
The two colossal fists collided in midair, producing a massive shockwave that damaged nearby buildings and left many surrounding citizens injured. Although Orion's attack managed to completely destroy the stone giant's arm, only an instant later the golem recovered its previous form, using the surrounding stone to reconstruct itself.
Doflamingo grinned from ear to ear, and lifting King Riku by the neck, he said with a macabre expression,
"The deranged King Riku has allied himself with foreign forces to destroy his own kingdom. Look with your own eyes at how his ally is trying to harm civilians!"
The broadcast being viewed throughout the kingdom showed the civilians who had been injured in the collision between Orion's attack and Pica's, and pointing at Orion with his finger, Doflamingo continued his speech,
"But don't worry, because now that I'm here, I won't let the enemies get away with it."
His macabre smile was illuminated by the fire, yet to the desperate inhabitants of Dressrosa, who feared for their lives, Doflamingo's expression seemed one of safety in the face of danger.
The Warlord took a step forward, prepared to deal with Orion in a heroic manner. Although his plan had changed slightly from its original version, things were still firmly under his control.
Orion felt the pressure of facing Doflamingo and his three strongest subordinates head-on, knowing that it was impossible for him to defeat them in such an uneven fight. To begin with, at his current level of power, he could not even defeat the Warlord alone, let alone face all four of them together.
Fortunately for him, Doflamingo had no intention of attacking as a group, since he did not consider Orion to be such a significant threat. With a glance, he signaled his three subordinates to continue attacking the royal army, while he himself would deal with Orion.
"I don't know who you are, but it was a bad choice to come and interfere with my plans. I'm in a very bad mood right now," Doflamingo said as he raised his only free hand—still holding Riku firmly by the neck with the other, to prevent him from speaking—and moved his fingers in a repulsive manner.
Orion showed a fleeting expression of surprise. The fact that this Doflamingo did not know him meant that, just as he had suspected, he was not in his original world, since there he had encountered Doflamingo on two separate occasions.
Even so, Orion simply stored that detail in his memory and focused on the monster standing before him. After all, a single misstep could end with his death in this place.
"Overheat!"
Doflamingo attacked Orion with a technique he had already seen before, but which, like the previous attacks, was far more powerful than he had expected.
"Canvas Realm."
Orion activated one of his most powerful spatial abilities, forming a massive shield with his Art Coating, which barely managed to withstand Doflamingo's violent attack. Then, using Un Fleur, he materialized a hand on his enemy's body, while his own body returned to its natural state.
"Room."
Orion deployed his large Room over the area, swapping Riku's position with that of a nearby piece of rubble. Then, using the same hand he had just materialized on Doflamingo's body, he activated another of his abilities.
"Age Change."
Doflamingo's body began to shrink until he transformed into a child of about ten years old. Immediately after, Orion used Geppo to rise into the air, while throwing Riku into his Pocket Dimension and drawing his cutlass from his inventory.
"Thirty-six styles, Dimensional Slash!"
Orion used his new attack once again, this time in a descending slash, intending not to injure the surrounding civilians. The last thing he wanted now was to continue feeding Doflamingo's narrative, which prevented him from using highly destructive attacks against him.
He had already made that mistake upon arriving at the battlefield, allowing Doflamingo to use it as part of his heroic façade. Now that Orion was somewhat calmer, he was trying to act rationally and avoid further complications.
In a way, Doflamingo was passively using the nearby civilians as hostages, which greatly limited Orion's freedom of movement.
The vertical slash descended toward the small Doflamingo at tremendous speed, but before it could strike his body, the surroundings began to transform into countless strings, which covered the Warlord's body like a shield, repelling Orion's attack even though it was charged with the power of the spatial attribute.
Orion's eyes narrowed, and he immediately realized what he was witnessing for the first time in his life: Devil Fruit Awakening.
Orion knew he could not remain in this place any longer, and taking advantage of the fact that Doflamingo was being pressured by his Dimensional Slash, he opened a Space Door and vanished without leaving a trace.
Doflamingo finally repelled Orion's powerful attack, which, although it failed to strike the pirate's body, continued on its path and embedded itself into the ground, leaving behind a massive fissure that extended downward with incredible depth.
Doflamingo's body did not immediately return to normal, and with his childlike appearance, he cast a dark gaze around him, searching for the presence of Orion and King Riku, though he could not find any trace of them.
Eventually, the effect of Age Change ended, and Doflamingo returned to normal. Clenching his fists as veins bulged across his forehead, he felt an overwhelming, uncontrollable fury at the thought that his plans had been unnecessarily "muddied."
While his three main subordinates took care of suppressing the "bloodthirsty" royal army of King Riku, Doflamingo regained his composure and, looking at the Den Den Mushi that was broadcasting the events across the entire kingdom, spoke with a smile.
"The enemy has fled like a rat before our power! Perhaps King Riku believes he can escape his punishment, but I promise you that I will find him and bring him to justice!"
Doflamingo raised his arms triumphantly with a smile, while the inhabitants of Dressrosa applauded their savior, filled with emotion.
At that very moment, the Den Den Mushi hidden in his clothes rang insistently, and Doflamingo answered the call from his subordinates.
"Young Master, an enemy attacked us at the royal castle—they've taken Viola!"
Once again, disgusting veins spread across Doflamingo's forehead, clearly showing his immense anger.