It felt as if a long time had passed, yet also as if it had happened in an instant. Doflamingo's pale eyes beneath his sunglasses snapped back into focus.
His will returned, and the power of the String-String Fruit began to stir. The shattered bones and organs inside his body started stitching themselves back together under the threads' influence.
That wasn't all. Rings of white thread began to appear around Doflamingo. Like an infection, patches of soil began turning into threads, which then joined together into waves.
Clang! Clang!
The sounds of battle in the sky drew Doflamingo's attention.
Gray was flying through the air, doing his best to move around while attacking Kaido. Even so, the gap in their strength was simply too great. Gray couldn't do a thing to Kaido.
"Fufufufu... Kaido!" Feeling this strange yet familiar power around him, Doflamingo had never felt so clearheaded and refreshed.
Whoosh!
Invisible threads instantly latched onto the clouds. Doflamingo gave them a tug, and his body shot forward.
"Gray! I'm coming!" His voice arrived before he did. The two fighters, Gray and Kaido, stopped and looked over.
"What the hell? What happened?" Watching the white threads beneath Doflamingo surge forward in wave after wave, Gray was completely baffled. "I'm right here watching it happen—how did I miss an entire episode?"
"You secretly got stronger!" Before this, Gray had been certain Doflamingo didn't have this kind of power. "Damn it! You updated the version without telling me!"
"Or was Teacher Kaido, the one we joked about in my past life, really that godlike?"
"One-hit Awakening!" The more he thought about it, the more bothered Gray felt. He had been fighting so hard because he was afraid of getting hit with a club, losing consciousness, and having someone else decide his fate.