A deathly silence filled the ruined hall.
Doflamingo knelt on the floor, head bowed, his pink feather coat splayed in a messy heap behind him. Drops of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, staining the useless white threads scattered beneath him. The hand on his shoulder wasn't heavy, yet it felt like the weight of an entire island, pinning him down, making it impossible to move even an inch. In the face of this man's impossibly powerful Haki, his proud String-String Fruit felt like a child's pathetic game.
Humiliation, rage, and a sliver of fear he refused to acknowledge churned violently in his chest.
Suddenly, a choked laugh broke the silence.
"…Fufufufu!"
With heavy, ragged breaths, Doflamingo slowly raised his head. A maniacal grin stretched across his face, made all the more sinister by the blood trickling from his lips.
"You can't kill me!" he rasped, his voice hoarse but filled with an unshakable conviction. "I am a Celestial Dragon! Even if I'm not in the Holy Land, it doesn't change the fact that I am a World Noble!"
It was his final trump card, a privilege etched into his very blood.
Kyle's expression didn't change at all. He bent down slightly, leaning close to Doflamingo's ear. His warm breath stirred the golden hairs on Doflamingo's head.
"Do you remember God Valley, Doffy?"
The crazed smile on Doflamingo's face froze. Sealed memories were violently torn open. He was just a child then, following his naive father, a family of four attending the event as 'observing' World Nobles. Then came the chaos. The attack by the Rocks Pirates. The world-shattering battle. Overwhelming cannon fire, the wild laughter of pirates, the roars of freed slaves, and… those figures of absolute, despair-inducing power.
After the battle, the surviving Celestial Dragons had fled in a panic. An official report, heavily suppressed by the higher-ups, vaguely mentioned that three strangely shaped 'sea beasts' had attacked the scattered nobles on the island, causing devastating casualties.
A possibility, so absurd it was unthinkable yet so terrifyingly real, exploded in his mind. Behind his cracked sunglasses, Doflamingo's pupils shrank to pinpricks. It can't be…
Kyle's soft whisper, like the devil's own murmur, confirmed his terrifying suspicion.
"It's exactly what you're thinking," Kyle said. "Celestial Dragons? I kill Celestial Dragons."
Boom.
In that instant, Doflamingo's entire worldview collapsed. The supreme law of the world that he relied on, the protection of the bloodline he was so proud of, had just become a meaningless joke. Fear, cold and sharp, shot up his spine and flooded his mind. For the first time in his life, he truly felt death's presence.
"W-why?" His voice trembled uncontrollably. "How could you dare?!"
Kyle slowly straightened up, resuming his posture of looking down upon him. His golden eyes held an indifference that was almost god-like as he gazed at the terrified man at his feet.
"I don't need a reason to destroy you."
Doflamingo stared up in horror through his cracked lens. The man's actions didn't require justification. Killing Celestial Dragons required no reason. Destroying the Donquixote Family required no reason. It was like a human crushing an ant; there was no thought given to whether the ant had done anything wrong. He did it simply because he wanted to, because he could.
Doflamingo had no doubt this man would kill him, right here and now. The arrogance he displayed wasn't a bluff; it was born from absolute power, the kind of power that could ignore the rules of the entire world.
His mind descended into chaos as the nightmares of his childhood intertwined with the horrifying reality of the present. The flames as commoners tortured his family, his father's weak tears, the cold steps of Mariejois, the covered-up massacre at God Valley… all of it converged into the smiling face before him.
Kyle watched the man at his feet, whose mental defenses had utterly crumbled, and slowly raised his left hand, forming it into a blade. Doflamingo's pupils constricted. He wanted to dodge, to fight, to do anything to survive, but his body refused to obey. As that hand slowly descended, he could feel the very air being split apart. Death was so close.
But the hand-blade only grazed the tips of his upright golden hair.
The next instant.
BOOM—!!!
The space behind Doflamingo—along with the stone and steel castle and the mountain it was built on—was cleaved by a massive, perfectly smooth gash. Half of the entire structure slid away and collapsed, as if a god had simply erased it from existence.
Sunlight poured in through the enormous gap, stretching Doflamingo's slumped shadow long across the floor. He knelt there, stunned, cold sweat soaking his feather coat, his body trembling like a leaf. If that attack had been a single centimeter lower, his head would no longer be attached to his body.
Kyle casually withdrew his hand as if he'd done nothing more than swat a fly. He slowly squatted down, meeting Doflamingo's gaze at eye level, a gentle smile returning to his face.
"Doffy, you are very good."
The sudden compliment made Doflamingo's shattered mind short-circuit.
"You are pure evil, and I appreciate that," Kyle continued. "But evil without power is just a child's game, isn't it?" He leaned closer, his golden eyes reflecting Doflamingo's cracked sunglasses. "Do you know why those commoners were able to shamefully nail you to a wall all those years ago?"
Doflamingo's body trembled violently.
"Was it because of your father's naivety? Was it because the Celestial Dragons' wickedness finally provoked the people's rage? No. Neither of those."
Kyle extended a single finger and gently tapped Doflamingo's chest.
"It was because you were weak."
"Weakness is the original sin on this sea! Your father was weak, so he couldn't protect his family. You were weak, so you could only watch your mother die and suffer that humiliation! All of your pain, all of your rage, stems from one simple fact: you are not strong enough!"
Kyle's voice wasn't loud, but every word was a blade, brutally tearing open the truth Doflamingo had always tried to ignore and laying it bare before him.
Doflamingo's breathing became ragged, his chest heaving. Kyle looked at the broken man and his smile grew wider, more genuine.
"Be my right hand, Doffy."
He extended an invitation to the man whose spirit he had just annihilated.
"You, the abandoned Celestial Dragon who has seen hell. Follow me, and let's get revenge on those pigs who don't deserve to live."
Kyle stood up, once again looking down on him from an impossible height. He spread his arms as if to embrace the world.
"On this entire sea, only I can help you achieve your ambition!"
"Only I can lead you back to Mariejois and let you personally nail every last Celestial Dragon to the wall!"
A heavy silence fell over the ruins. Sunlight poured through the gaping hole in the castle, illuminating the dust dancing in the air. Doflamingo remained slumped on the ground, his head bowed. His body had stopped trembling.
"Fufufufu…"
A low chuckle began, growing louder and louder until it became a long, suppressed, and utterly maniacal laugh that echoed through the wreckage.
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