"Fire Fist—!!!"
Sabo roared the name of the technique—the move that belonged to his brother, a name burned into his soul.
Pouring every ounce of emotion and the newly inherited power into his right fist, he unleashed an unprecedented attack—
A colossal, blazing fist of flame erupted forward.
The roaring torrent of white-hot fire swallowed the corridor's light and air in an instant, surging forward with the power to scorch mountains and boil seas as it hurtled straight toward Gern Reginald Sigmar.
Watching this attack—one completely driven by emotion, abandoning Sabo's own advantages in favor of blindly imitating Portgas D. Ace—
Gern's brow creased ever so slightly.
For a fleeting moment, disappointment flickered in his eyes.
He let out a soft sigh.
"…I see."
The moment the words fell—
Gern moved.
He didn't dodge.
He didn't use his Devil Fruit to erect a defensive barrier.
He didn't even draw Eight Desolations.
Instead, he simply raised his right fist, coated in tightly condensed Armament Haki.
"Heaven-Shaker: Piercing Star."
There was no grand wind-up.
He merely drew his fist slightly back—
Then punched straight forward into the inferno rushing toward him.
"BZZZZ—!!!"
Where his fist passed, the very space itself seemed unable to withstand the purity of that power.
The air screamed in protest.
For a moment, the surrounding space warped inward, as if collapsing under immense pressure.
Then—
A cylindrical blast of pale-white vibration energy erupted from the front of his fist.
It was not a spreading shockwave.
It was something far more terrifying—
A highly condensed, piercing beam of raw destructive force.
"BOOOOM!!!"
The blazing white torrent of flame collided head-on with the pale vibration column.
Yet the earth-shattering explosion one might expect never came.
Instead—
The flame was punctured.
The condensed vibration beam tore straight through the center of the inferno, ripping it apart like a spear through silk.
The beam blasted through the collapsing flames—
And struck Sabo squarely in the chest.
"—Ghk!"
Sabo didn't even have time to react.
A destructive force beyond description surged through his body.
Blood erupted from his mouth.
His body staggered violently as he stumbled forward several steps, trying desperately to regain balance.
But his knees gave out.
With a heavy gasp, he slammed the metal pipe against the ground for support, barely managing to hold himself upright.
Half-kneeling.
Breathing violently.
Every breath came with stabbing pain.
Gern, meanwhile, stepped calmly through the dissipating flames.
In a single stride, he arrived before the kneeling Sabo and looked down at the stubborn young revolutionary.
"You're trying too hard to prove yourself, Sabo."
His tone remained calm.
"You only just ate the fruit. You probably can't even bring out one-tenth of its power yet."
"And yet you abandoned the martial arts you know best… just to imitate Ace's techniques."
Gern shook his head slowly.
"If you'd continued using your martial arts to maneuver—even knowing you couldn't win—I might have respected you enough to look at you twice."
"But in your current state…"
His gaze swept over Sabo.
"A barely commander-level fighter rushing recklessly forward."
"And you think you can face the me of today?"
Gern suddenly reached out.
With a casual flick, he knocked the top hat with the attached goggles off Sabo's head.
Then his fingers spread.
Without the slightest courtesy, he grabbed a fistful of Sabo's wavy blond hair and lifted slightly, forcing the young man to look up at him.
"…you're nothing more than—"
Their eyes met at extremely close range.
There was no killing intent in Gern's gaze.
Only a detached indifference—as though he were observing someone foolish enough to challenge a mountain.
Slowly, word by word, he delivered the cruel verdict.
"A mayfly trying to shake the heavens."
After saying that, Gern didn't stop simply because Sabo had lost the ability to resist.
Nor did he show any mercy.
Still gripping that blond hair—now stained with dust and blood—he effortlessly dragged Sabo's body off the ground.
Sabo's consciousness was already fading from his wounds and exhaustion.
All he could manage were faint groans of pain as his body scraped along the rough stone floor, leaving behind a chilling trail.
And so—
With one hand, Gern dragged the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army along the ground.
His steps steady and unhurried as he continued walking deeper into the colosseum.
…
At the same time—
High above the city of Dressrosa.
The battle—or rather, the one-sided mockery—continued.
Azure lightning and razor-sharp threads tangled wildly across the sky, clashing and bursting in continuous thunderous explosions and blinding flashes.
The situation was completely one-sided.
The expression of Donquixote Doflamingo had grown frighteningly dark. Veins bulged along his temples.
He attacked without holding back.
Overheat.
Bullet strings poured down like torrential rain.
Five-colored strings sliced through the air.
He even attempted to seal off the battlefield with massive nets of thread.
And yet—
Every single attack missed.
The figure of Enel had become a streak of lightning in the sky, moving at speeds so fast it was nearly teleportation.
He avoided every attack effortlessly.
Not by brute force.
But by seeing them beforehand.
Each time Doflamingo moved, Enel already knew.
Just before the attacks could land, he would shift slightly—
The smallest movement.
The most precise dodge.
Doflamingo felt as though he were fighting a ghost that could read his mind.
Every thought.
Every motion.
The enemy understood them completely.
This was the overwhelming advantage created by Enel's Goro Goro no Mi combined with his terrifying Mantra.
"Damn it!" Doflamingo roared in frustration, utterly helpless.
Meanwhile—
Floating in midair, lightning crackling around his body, Enel looked as though he was enjoying himself immensely.
His drooping eyelids gave him a lazy expression.
A playful smile hung at the corner of his mouth.
Then—
As if deliberately imitating the signature gesture of a certain notoriously lazy Marine admiral—
He lifted a finger.
Dangerous arcs of lightning danced at the fingertip.
"Pew."
"Zzzzt!"
"Crack!"
Golden beams of lightning shot casually from his finger.
They resembled laser blasts—an imitation of Borsalino's attacks, though in truth they were concentrated bolts of high-voltage electricity.
Each shot narrowly grazed Doflamingo's clothes.
His hair.
Or snapped the threads beneath his feet that he used to stay airborne.
They forced the Warlord into increasingly humiliating evasions—
Yet Enel never delivered the killing blow.
"Your struggle amuses God, mortal," Enel said lazily, lightning gathering once more at his fingertip.
"But God…"
"…is beginning to grow bored."
Just as Enel prepared to end the fight—
"BOOOOM!!!"
A violent explosion suddenly erupted.
Not in the sky—
But on the ground.
The blast came from right beside the seastone cage imprisoning Monkey D. Luffy.
Dust and shattered stone exploded outward instantly.
The shockwave shook the entire colosseum.
Luffy jerked his head up in shock at the sudden close-range explosion.
Through the gradually clearing smoke—
A tall figure emerged from the hole blasted open in the wall.
He wore a Marine coat emblazoned with the word Justice.
He walked forward steadily, completely unharmed.
In one hand—
He dragged someone by the head along the ground.
Like dragging a dead dog.
The person had blond hair.
Their body was covered in wounds.
And they were completely unconscious.
Luffy would never mistake that face.
It was Sabo.
The brother he had only recently reunited with.
"S—Sabo?!!"
Luffy's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
His voice faltered.
Meanwhile—
Gern continued walking calmly, dragging the unconscious Sabo along the ground.
He passed directly beside Luffy's cage.
They were so close that Luffy could clearly see the side of Gern's face.
And what nearly made Luffy's lungs explode with rage—
Was that as Gern walked past him, he casually turned his head slightly.
As if greeting an acquaintance on the street.
Looking at the stunned Luffy, he spoke in a calm, almost conversational tone.
"Oh."
"So it's the Straw Hat boy."
He paused.
Then added casually—
"Busy?"