The air inside the council hall froze in an instant.
Not metaphorically.
From beneath the crack of the tightly shut castle doors, shadow seeped in silently, like ink bleeding into clear water. Thick, sticky darkness spread across the polished marble floor, climbed along the corners of the walls, and wherever it passed, even the air itself grew heavy and oppressive.
"This is…" Trebol's gooey body shrank back, the grin draining from his face.
"Enemy attack!" Diamante drew his longsword at once and took a defensive stance.
Pica was even more direct. His dull, booming voice echoed through the hall. "What is this! How dare you act so boldly before Young Master!"
Doflamingo sat at the head of the room, his expression dark enough to drip. Of course he knew what this was.
The "Shadow Mage," Gecko Moria.
In mere moments, the shadow carpeted the entire hall and began creeping up the walls and toward the ceiling, trying to turn everything into a domain of pure darkness.
Then, at that instant.
A stream of emerald-green light tore through their vision without warning.
Boom!!
The massive castle gates, frame and all, were cleaved straight down the middle by that streak of light.
The cut was smooth as a mirror, not even a burr at the edge.
The split doors exploded inward, countless fragments and a flood of blinding sunlight surging in, scattering part of the darkness in an instant.
That emerald slash did not stop. Wrapped in unmatched sharpness, it shot straight for Doflamingo on the throne.
"Not a chance!"
Diamante roared. His sword trembled, and his cape hardened like steel in a heartbeat, expanding into a massive shield in front of him.
Pica moved faster still. He slammed both hands onto the ground, and a thick wall of rock erupted upward behind the cape-shield.
Screeech!
The emerald slash met the steel cape with a teeth-gritting cutting sound.
The hardened cape split like paper, ripped open with a massive gash.
The slash pierced through, hit the rock wall behind it, and carved into that too without slowing. Only after it left a bottomless crack across the floor did it finally disperse.
Diamante and Pica both grunted, staggered back by the overwhelming impact.
Dust settled.
Beyond the shattered doors, three figures stood in the cold sunlight of the North Blue, their outlines sharp and unmistakable.
One was huge, grinning, letting out that signature "Kyashishishishi."
One carried a black blade, hawk-like eyes calmly sweeping over everything inside the hall.
And leading them was a man with black hair and golden eyes, hands in his pockets, a gentle smile on his face that made your blood run cold.
Kael Grylls stepped forward and entered the Heavenly Yaksha's palace at an unhurried pace.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Each crisp footstep echoed through the wrecked hall, every sound landing like a boot on the hearts of the Donquixote officers.
"Stop him!" Trebol screamed, his slime-coated cane pointing at the invader.
Diamante and Pica exchanged a glance, forcing down the tremor in their bones. One from the left, one from the right, they moved to clamp Kael between them.
They were Doflamingo's most trusted elite officers, the Family's shield and spear. They would not allow anyone to approach their king so easily.
Kael did not even look at them. He simply kept walking.
A presence, invisible yet as heavy as a mountain, flowed out from him.
It was not a stormy shockwave, but something more fundamental, an absolute pressure born from the level of life itself.
The air seemed to thicken into syrup. Even time felt like it slowed.
Diamante and Pica's charging bodies locked up mid-stride, as if someone had hit a pause button.
Cold sweat burst across their foreheads. Their eyes filled with disbelief.
Every muscle, every cell screamed a primal warning. A pure instinct called fear chained their limbs from the inside.
Trebol fared worse. He collapsed outright, trembling like a puddle of rotten mud.
In the entire council hall, the only sound left was Kael's footsteps.
Hands still in his pockets, Kael walked straight through the frozen officers, relaxed and casual, as if he were merely passing by a pair of irrelevant statues.
He crossed the shadow-covered floor. Crossed the wreckage split by sword light. Step by step, he advanced toward the throne.
Doflamingo remained seated in that massive chair. Beneath his signature sunglasses, his gaze was locked on Kael, the veins at his temple bulging visibly.
He gripped the armrests so hard his knuckles went white, deep dents forming in the hardened wood under his fingers.
Finally, Kael stopped at the foot of the throne.
He stood there, looking down on the Heavenly Yaksha from above.
Kael's shadow fell over Doflamingo, swallowing him whole.
It was not the thick, ominous shade Moria created, yet it brought Doflamingo a pressure he had never felt before.
"Donquixote Doflamingo?" Kael spoke at last, voice calm, breaking the suffocating silence. "Heavenly Yaksha. I've heard a lot about you."
A twitch ran across Doflamingo's face. He forced down the anger and shock in his chest and pulled up a stiff smile.
"Fuffuffuff… the 'Wave King' visits in person. What an honor. I wonder which of my men offended you. I can hand him over to you for punishment."
He tried to seize control of the conversation, to label this as a misunderstanding caused by incompetent subordinates.
Kael smiled.
The laugh was soft, but it dragged the temperature of the room down another notch.
Doflamingo's smile stiffened.
"And what does that mean?" His voice sank. He rose to his full height, close to three meters. With the pink feather coat, the visual pressure was overwhelming.
He tried to reclaim dominance through sheer presence.
"This is Spider Miles. My territory." Doflamingo took two steps forward, staring through his lenses at Kael. "Even if you're one of the strongest on the sea, if you run wild here, you'd better weigh the consequences."
He paused deliberately, then spoke each word with force. "Let me remind you. My surname is Donquixote."
The weight of that name was enough to make even Marine Headquarters' admirals take notice.
Donquixote. One of the original Twenty Kings. A Celestial Dragon bloodline.
It was his biggest trump card, and his deepest wound.
"Oh?" Kael raised a brow, his smile widening. "Donquixote?"
As if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, he gave a snort of laughter.
"So what?"
His voice was not loud, but every person in the hall heard it clearly.
"You really think the World Government's pile of trash would pay any price to come after me… just for a stray dog like you?"
Stray.
Dog.
Two words, spoken like blades.
They seared into Doflamingo's soul like red-hot brands.
The most painful memories of his childhood were yanked into the light. Being hung up. Being humiliated by commoners. Being dragged from the Holy Land by his own father. Every past he had fought to bury, every shame he wanted erased, was torn open and thrown on the table.
Doflamingo's expression froze.
Then a savage distortion spread across his face.
The veins at his temple surged one by one, thick cords pulsing beneath the skin as if something inside him was about to burst.
"Fuffuffuff… f…"
That signature laugh turned dry and warped, then died completely.
"You… what do you know!!"
A roar, compressed to the brink of rupture, exploded from Doflamingo's throat.
Boom!
An invisible shockwave burst outward from him, sweeping the room.
Black-red lightning erupted around his body, spiderwebbing across the walls and ceiling in an instant.
The marble floor groaned, cracks racing out from beneath his feet like madness.
Haoshoku Haki.
Under that kingly pressure, Diamante, Trebol, and the others went pale, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
This was the king they served.
But they had never seen Doflamingo like this. Never this shaken. Never this enraged.
"Young Master!" Pica shrieked, but the Haki forced him back step after step.
Doflamingo ignored them all. Behind those sunglasses, his eyes had to be red with blood and madness.
He spread his arms, fingers curled like claws.
Whip! Whip! Whip!
Hundreds of thin white strings snapped into existence from his fingertips, too fine to track with the naked eye. They shot outward at terrifying speed and pinned into walls, ceiling, and floor.
Strings crossed and wove in the blink of an eye, forming a massive net that covered the entire hall.
"Birdcage!"
With Doflamingo's low growl, the enormous web began to contract.
Each string carried the sharpness to slice steel. They cut the air with a shrill hiss.
A crystal chandelier brushed the net and was instantly shredded into countless tiny pieces that rained down without a sound.
And that was not all.
"Overheat!"
Doflamingo whipped his arm. Several strings twisted into a thick white lash, the tip packed with dense Armament Haki, turning into a black afterimage that tore the air apart and snapped straight for Kael's head.
At the same time, his other hand moved.
"Five-Color Strings!"
Five differently colored threads shot from his fingertips like invisible blades, slicing from five vicious angles toward Kael's neck, heart, and limbs.
This was Doflamingo's killing formation.
Haoshoku to crush the mind. Birdcage to seal every escape. Overheat to smash head-on. Five-Color Strings to finish the job.
A smooth, ruthless chain of attacks that would force any powerhouse into panic, one mistake away from being carved apart alive.
At the entrance, Moria bared his teeth in a thrilled grin, his shadow squirming, ready to strike.
Mihawk's hand settled on Yoru's hilt, hawk eyes narrowing.
Kael did not move.
Hands still in his pockets.
Even his posture did not change.
He simply stood there, that playful smile never leaving his face.
The black lash screamed through the air with a sonic boom. The colored strings sealed every angle.
Above, the Birdcage tightened, every strand flashing with steel-cutting cold light.
This was the Heavenly Yaksha's killing domain.
Doflamingo's twisted face hardened into cruel certainty.
No one escapes this net.
Relics of the old era should rot quietly in their graves.
And in the final instant, when the deadly strings were about to touch Kael…
Everything changed.
A presence rose from Kael's body.
Not Doflamingo's violent, raging kingly aura like crashing waves.
This was different.
Like a bottomless, silent sea. No ripples. Yet it carried a weight that could swallow everything whole.
Hummm.
A low resonance rang through the space itself.
The black-red lightning around Doflamingo flickered like a candle in the wind, then went out.
His surging Haoshoku slammed into an invisible wall and was crushed flat in an instant.
The hall's violent pressure vanished.
In its place came a terror that crawled up from the soul, an absolute oppression.
"What…" Doflamingo's expression locked.
He could feel it clearly.
His connection to the strings was being forcibly severed by a higher power.
Next second.
Thud.
The Overheat lash fell apart in midair, collapsing into soft white threads that dropped to the floor.
Then the Five-Color Strings lost all edge and strength, drooping like ordinary ribbons.
Most horrifying of all, the Birdcage above.
The killing gleam on countless strands rapidly faded. The cage let out a strained hum, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.
Kael finally spoke, voice lazy, almost bored.
"In front of absolute Haki, these are just cheap tricks."
"Haki stands above everything."
He took one step forward.
Doflamingo's pupils shrank. He tried to retreat, but his body felt like it had been filled with lead.
Kael walked up unhurriedly, reached out, and casually placed his right hand on Doflamingo's shoulder.
"Ugh…!"
A stifled groan tore from Doflamingo. The body he prided himself on was fragile as rotten wood under that force.
Bones creaked. His organs felt like an invisible hand had seized them and squeezed tight.
Thump!
The Heavenly Yaksha, the underworld king of the North Blue, finally lost his strength.
One knee crashed into the marble floor.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, trickling down his chin and staining the pale threads on the ground.
A clear crack ran across his sunglasses.
The entire council hall fell into deathly silence.
At the door, Diamante, Trebol, and the others had barely recovered from the first wave of Kael's pressure.
And what they saw shattered their courage.
Their king.
Their invincible Young Master.
Pinned to his knees by one hand, coughing blood.
"Young Master!"
Pica's shriek ripped through the silence as his rock-like bulk tried to surge forward.
"Kyashishishishi!"
Moria stepped once, and his enormous shadow writhed like a living thing. One crimson eye after another opened within it, locking onto Pica.
On the other side, Mihawk did not even draw his blade. He simply kept his hand on the hilt and glanced at Diamante and Trebol.
Just one look.
The last sparks of rage and courage in their chests were snuffed out.
Before the throne, Kael did not even glance behind him.
He looked down at Doflamingo as if examining a specimen.
"Take the trash… out."
Moria's ugly laughter echoed as his massive figure advanced toward Pica under a tide of darkness.
Mihawk moved as well, strolling toward Diamante and Trebol with calm inevitability.
With their king hostage, the Donquixote elites could not even form the thought of resistance.
In the face of absolute difference in power, they were simply "escorted" out of the council hall.
Boom.
The heavy castle doors were shut, casually, by Mihawk.
Silence returned.
Only Kael Grylls remained.
And Donquixote Doflamingo, kneeling at his feet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 146 raw is missing. Will update once available.
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