After downing the last of the red wine in one gulp, Doflamingo's signature grin widened.
With a sharp snap, he crushed the entire crystal glass in his fist.
Shards flew everywhere, glinting in the sun like tiny, scattered diamonds, each one reflecting the cold, unwavering resolve in his eyes.
"The news is true," Doflamingo's voice was a low, firm purr that cut through his crew's grumbling, injecting a dose of absolute confidence into them.
"Our informant knows the price of deception. He wouldn't dare lie to me."
He then rose from his chair in a fluid motion, lifting his gaze to the vast, empty sky above.
It was a perfect, clear blue, not a single cloud in sight, not even the shadow of a passing bird.
The silence was eerie, unnatural.
Diamante looked up as well, his frustration palpable.
"Doffy, you see it too! There's no Sky Island here! There isn't even a damn bird's shadow!"
Senor Pink also frowned.
"The situation is indeed a bit dire. If the intel wasn't wrong, did we perhaps come to the wrong coordinates?"
The others began to speculate amongst themselves, but their eyes remained fixed on Doflamingo, waiting for him to provide the answer they couldn't see.
"Keh!" Doflamingo scoffed, staring at the empty expanse before bursting into his signature, grating laughter.
"Fufufufufu! Fufufufufufu! Absolutely no mistake. This is the place!"
"????"
The others grew even more confused, exchanging bewildered glances.
If it weren't Doflamingo speaking, they would have already started slapping him silly.
There was clearly nothing here, yet he insisted they were in the right place.
Wasn't that just plain delusional? Even so, they waited patiently.
They knew their Young Master had more to say.
He scanned their confused faces, his grin widening as he relished the dramatic tension.
"If there really was something obvious in the sky here," he explained, his voice taking on the tone of a teacher addressing simple-minded children.
"Now that would be the truly unusual part."
He paused, letting them stew in their confusion for a moment longer.
"Animals have an instinct, a primal need to avoid danger. The fact that not a single bird dares to fly over this specific patch of ocean… that means there's something up there that terrifies them on a fundamental level." He pointed a long, elegant finger toward the empty blue.
"So, aside from the Golden Lion, the man who can make islands soar through the skies… who else could possibly possess such a dominating, terrifying power?"
Upon hearing Doflamingo's brilliant analysis, everyone's eyes instantly lit up.
They hurriedly looked up at the sky again, no longer seeing emptiness, but a hidden, terrifying possibility.
Diamante's face broke into a grin.
"Doffy makes a good point! Maybe it really is here!"
Pica chimed in with his surprisingly high-pitched voice, "That Golden Lion is hiding far too well. We've been searching for so long."
"Now that we've narrowed down the area, it's only a matter of time before we find him," Diamante laughed heartily.
"Hahaha, let's hurry up and find that old man so we can draw some blood! I can't wait to become the user of the Float-Float Fruit!"
Trebol swung his long trail of snot around and laughed loudly.
"Nee, nee, yeah! Once we get the Golden Lion's blood, our Donquixote Family will become the Flying Donquixote Pirate Fleet!"
"Hahahaha, that would be insanely powerful!" Bellamy burst into laughter, finally seizing his chance to make his presence felt.
He had been standing silently, trying to be invisible, but now, caught up in the moment, he joined in, desperate to show his loyalty.
In this brief moment of shared excitement, the other executives actually laughed along with him.
Just then, a News Coo flew across the sky, its sharp eyes scanning the pirate ship below.
Spotting them, it shook the newspaper in its grip, signaling for them to pay attention.
Immediately, a coin shot up from the ship, which the pigeon deftly caught and stuffed into its pouch before dropping the newspaper and swiftly flying away.
Doflamingo, still lounging on his chair, merely twitched his fingers slightly.
Invisible transparent threads instantly shot out, ensnaring the falling newspaper.
The paper, as if manipulated by an unseen hand, floated automatically before him and unfolded itself.
As a key figure controlling the underworld's trade, reading the daily news had become an essential habit for him.
"Doffy, what's the big news today?" Diamante asked casually. "A few days ago, the paper said that old glacier treasure was dug up."
"Hahaha, those fools! Hoarding a mountain of treasure they couldn't use. What else could they expect?"
The group had been chatting and laughing, the atmosphere light and cheerful.
However, at that moment, Diamante noticed Doflamingo's expression suddenly shifting.
His wide grin faltered, his face darkened for a split second, then twisted into something unusually excited, a manic gleam appearing in his sunglasses.
The sudden change unsettled Diamante.
Cautiously, he asked, "Doffy? What's wrong? Your expression keeps shifting between gloom and excitement…"
Hearing this, the others also turned their attention to Doflamingo.
An inexplicable tension filled the air.
Just as everyone was baffled, Doflamingo suddenly burst into a wild, unrestrained laughter, his voice brimming with a terrifying excitement.
"FUFFUFFUFFUFFU! Whitebeard's bounty… is seven billion Berries!"
This bombshell news exploded among them like a shockwave.
Everyone was stunned into silence, as if time itself had frozen.
They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with utter disbelief.
"What? Did I hear that right?" Pica's high-pitched voice squeaked, trembling with disbelief.
"Whitebeard's bounty has reached seven billion?!"
"What kind of joke is this?! What are those idiots in the Navy thinking?! This bounty is even higher than Roger's!"
"Does this mean the title of Pirate King has changed hands?" Diamante proposed, his mind reeling.
"Has Whitebeard become the new Pirate King?"
"Tch! Nee, nee, stop talking nonsense," Trebol interjected. "No one who hasn't reached Laugh Tale can become the true Pirate King."
An indescribably oppressive atmosphere filled the entire ship.
After all, the figure of seven billion Berries was simply too staggering.
It not only represented Whitebeard's immense personal strength but also signified that the world's power structure might be about to shift because of it.
However, Doflamingo stood out from the rest.
His gaze wasn't fixed on that jaw-dropping number.
Instead, his eyes, hidden behind his sunglasses, were locked onto a different passage in the newspaper, gleaming with a near-madness.
"A Three-Fruit ability user," he muttered to himself, his voice a low, hungry whisper filled with an all-consuming desire.
"This is the power of a Three-Fruit ability user!"
For ordinary people, the power of a single Devil Fruit was already formidable enough.
But for those standing at the pinnacle of the world, Doflamingo knew it clearly wasn't sufficient.
He craved more power.
He yearned to become an invincible, untouchable existence.
'If I could become a Three-Fruit user', he thought, a wide, predatory grin spreading across his face.
'no… even just a Dual-Fruit user… then I would no longer need to bow to the whims of Kaido'.
'I would no longer need to play games with the other Emperors. I would be the one pulling the strings of the new era!'
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