-Real World-
The revelation of Devil Fruit awakening flickered across the Sky Screen like a forbidden secret torn from the depths of the New World. In normal circumstances, such knowledge would remain buried within the circles of monsters who ruled the seas—those apex predators who had already carved their names into legend. Anyone capable of awakening their Devil Fruit abilities stood firmly in the second tier of this ocean's power hierarchy, with promotion to the ranks of first-tier powerhouses being merely a matter of time and opportunity.
Yet here were two cadres of the Donquixote family, demonstrating awakened abilities with terrifying synchronicity. What made this display even more chilling was that Gladius and Machvise weren't even among Doflamingo's top-tier executives—they were second-string operatives at best. If these lesser officers could achieve such mastery, the potential strength of Doflamingo's four main cadres in 5 years' time was simply beyond imagination.
Dressrosa harbored two distinct factions beneath its colorful façade: the forces loyal to the Heavenly Yakhsa, and the resistance movement lurking in the shadows like ghosts of a murdered kingdom. The latter consisted primarily of the forgotten Tontattas and a scattered collection of swordsmen who still remembered the taste of freedom.
These rebels knew Machvise and Gladius well enough—they had catalogued every member of Doflamingo's organization, studying their weaknesses, planning for the day of reckoning. But witnessing their monstrous transformations on the Sky Screen shattered those carefully laid plans. When their bodies expanded into giants capable of wielding Devil Fruit powers with fluid grace, it became clear that raw numbers would never bridge such a catastrophic gap in power. Getting close to either awakened user would mean instant death by explosion.
In the shadowy depths of an abandoned manor, King Riku sat motionless behind his silver mask, the weight of kingship and failure pressing down on his shoulders. Beside him, the one-legged toy soldier maintained his eternal vigil, both figures transfixed by the Sky Screen's cruel prophecy. The content made the deposed king feel as though he were drowning in an ocean of despair. Worse still, the glimpses of future events suggested his beloved daughter might bear children with the very monster who had destroyed their kingdom—a thought that struck the old father's heart like a blade of ice.
The toy soldier, first among his kind to appear in Dressrosa and unwitting leader of the resistance, watched his allies' resolve crumble like sand castles before the tide. Some fighters were already backing away from their posts, their faces pale with the realization of what they would be facing. How many lives would it cost to bring down Doflamingo? How many friends would die screaming before they could even approach the usurper's throne?
"5 years from now, this country remains under that Shichibukai's boot," the toy soldier said, his voice carrying the weight of inevitability. "This means our resistance fails completely—every sacrifice, every secret meeting, every drop of spilled blood... all for nothing." He paused, letting the bitter truth settle over the gathered rebels. "But now that we've seen this dark future, we cannot simply give up. We must remain in the shadows and wait for the situation to shift the tides in our favour."
His words carried the authority of unquestioned leadership. Whatever the toy soldier commanded, the resistance would follow, even if it meant swallowing their pride and postponing their dreams of liberation. To avoid meaningless sacrifice, the general offensive was indefinitely delayed.
-Broadcast-
Meanwhile, on the Sky Screen's battlefield, the CP0 operatives continued their deadly dance with the Donquixote family's executives. The global audience watched with bated breath, hoping both sides would be forced to reveal every trump card in their arsenal.
Kaku plummeted from the sky like a broken marionette, his giraffe-form body spinning helplessly through the air as gravity claimed its due. His two CP0 companions held their positions, neither daring to close the distance recklessly. Gladius's Pamu Pamu no Mi (Pop-Pop Fruit) had earned their cautious respect—approaching him meant courting an explosive death. Making such a mistake once could be forgiven; repeating it would be pure stupidity.
The leopard-man materialized beside his female colleague with predatory grace, his voice carrying the cold authority of command. "Ada, wake him up. Let your parasite seize control of Kaku's consciousness."
Ada's expression tightened with reluctance, her originally beautiful features marred by grim determination. "Forgive me when you wake up, Kaku. This will consume years of your lifespan, but CP0 cannot afford failure." Her eyes underwent a horrifying transformation, the soft human orbs reshaping into multifaceted compound eyes that gleamed with alien intelligence. Chitinous ridges emerged along her cheekbones, and her perfect skin took on the glossy sheen of an insect's carapace—the true power of her Devil Fruit finally revealed.
As Kaku's unconscious form continued its descent, something stirred within his broken body. His eyes snapped open, bloodshot and wild, no longer containing human awareness. Fleshy wings erupted from his shoulders with wet, tearing sounds. His limbs stretched and twisted, fingers becoming razor-sharp talons while his feet transformed into predatory claws. A grotesque biological mouthpart sprouted from the end of his tail, opening and closing with mindless hunger.
The giraffe's already elongated neck stretched beyond anatomical possibility, and his face split open like a blooming flower of nightmares—revealing concentric circles of needle-sharp fangs. A black exoskeleton spread across his entire form like living armor, transforming him into something that belonged in humanity's darkest fears.
This was the Executioner—a combat state achieved when Ada's Dominant Parasite seized complete control of a host's nervous system. In this form, Kaku would feel no pain, no fear, no mercy. He would fight with mechanical precision until his body literally fell apart, every action dictated by the Queen Parasite's will.
Black wings spread wide as the Executioner hovered in midair, defying gravity through pure biological impossibility. The Rokushiki (Marine Six Styles) techniques that had defined Kaku's fighting style became irrelevant.
"Kaku, eliminate the giant first," Ada commanded, her voice carrying harmonics that seemed to bypass human hearing entirely. If Machvise fell, Lucci would be free to unleash his full power without worrying about collateral damage to his teammates.
"Joki Bakuhatsu" (Steam Explosion)!
Gladius attempted to repeat his devastating area-of-effect attack, causing the air around the Executioner to super-heat and expand rapidly. But this time, his opponent moved with inhuman prescience. Before the explosion could fully manifest, the transformed Kaku burst forward at speeds that approached teleportation.
The distance between them—several hundred meters of open battlefield—vanished in a heartbeat. The Executioner's claws punched through the Beast Titan's eye sockets with surgical precision, tearing out the giant's eyeballs in sprays of viscous fluid.
"Ugly insect!" Machvise roared, his voice booming from the giant's throat like thunder.
Despite his bulk and power, the awakened Ton Ton no Mi (Ton-Ton Fruit) user found himself completely outmatched by the Executioner's supernatural agility. Kaku's transformed body moved like liquid shadow, leaving deep gashes across the titan's armored hide despite Machvise's protective coating of Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki). Without that invisible armor, the giant would have been flayed to ribbons within seconds.
While his partner dominated the aerial battle, Lucci employed "Geppo" (Moon Walk) to position himself before the Colossal Titan that housed Gladius. The CP0 operative's right fist began to accumulate Armament Haki like congealing blood, the normally pitch-black coating undergoing a disturbing transformation. The darkness lightened to pearl-white, representing a qualitative evolution that few warriors ever achieved.
"There are hierarchies even within Armament Haki," Lucci stated with clinical detachment, his white-gloved fist pulsing with barely contained power. "You're large enough to witness the true pinnacle of Busoshoku."
The atmosphere itself seemed to compress around the leopard-man's striking limb, invisible air pressure mixing with his transcendent Haki to create something beyond conventional physics.
"Mayonaka: Kuuki Gekiha!" (Midnight: Air Shock!)
The attack connected without leaving so much as a bruise on Gladius's armored hide, yet a massive crater opened in the giant's torso just below the neck—a wound that punched completely through the awakened body. Behind the titan, the stone wall bore a fist-shaped impression that spoke of unimaginable destructive force.
Gladius, safely nestled within the giant's cranium, nearly soiled himself at the display. If that punch had been aimed at the head instead of the chest, he would have died without even understanding what killed him—no time to dodge, no opportunity to defend, just instantaneous obliteration.
The colossal form began collapsing from within, its internal structure compromised beyond repair. Steam-based regeneration couldn't compensate for the complete absence of skeletal support, and gravity claimed its inevitable victory. Broken flesh cascaded downward in a grotesque avalanche of failure.
From the giant's disintegrating skull, Gladius emerged like a blue-haired specter, his hair disheveled and his eyes wide with existential terror. "What kind of monster are you??"
The Donquixote executive extracted himself fully from his living mecha, most of his physical reserves depleted by maintaining the awakened transformation. He possessed enough stamina for one final gambit, and began raising his hand toward his mouth for another self-destructive enhancement. The motion never completed—his arm separated from his body with surgical precision, severed so cleanly that blood took a full second to begin flowing.
Lucci stood before him in immaculate white, not a thread out of place despite the carnage surrounding them. "You won't get a second opportunity with me present."
The CP0 operative radiated absolute confidence in his ability to dismember Gladius before any transformation could begin. After witnessing that level of Armament Haki mastery, even the most optimistic observer would have to agree—there would be no miraculous comeback, no final desperate gambit. Only the cold efficiency of the World Government's most elite assassin.