Chapter 41
Adrian narrowed his eyes. The tails of his suit whipped in the force of the Conqueror's Haki, but he stood as immovable as a rock.
"Born with the makings of a king, are you? Saint Donquixote Doflamingo, that really is an extraordinary gift! You're nothing like those worthless parasites who do nothing but eat and wait to die!"
Hearing a title he had not heard in decades, Doflamingo's pupils contracted.
Male Celestial Dragons appended "Saint" to their names, while female Celestial Dragons appended "Lady," marking their exalted status.
In the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, everyone knew that open secret. Outside the Holy Land, only those who had dealt with Celestial Dragons up close knew the forms of address.
Apart from the Donquixote Family's top officers, quite a few people in the world knew he was a Celestial Dragon. But some stranger who had appeared out of nowhere should never have known!
"What else do you know? Are you scum sent by the World Government?!"
If Doflamingo's voice had held a trace of human warmth a minute ago, it was now as cold as the depths of the Underworld.
"If you want to know, come ask me yourself!"
"Just what I had in mind!" Veins bulged on Doflamingo's forehead as he bared his teeth. "I'll find the answers myself in the pieces of your body!"
Five Color Strings!
Doflamingo thrust out his right hand, fingers curled like a beast's claws. Five razor-sharp, resilient threads shot from his fingertips toward Adrian, poised to tear through anything in their path.
"That's no way to talk!"
Adrian neither dodged nor blocked. He let the blade-sharp white threads slice through his body.
To Doflamingo, the Five Color Strings seemed to pass through empty air. They left his opponent completely unharmed.
Behind Adrian, however, the decades-old Donquixote Auction House was sliced into six sections by the attack's remaining force. It collapsed with a crash, throwing up a vast cloud of dust.
"An attack at that level won't work on me!" Adrian brushed nonexistent dust from his clothes, his expression serious. "If that's all you can do, the Donquixote Family's history may end today!"
"Heh heh heh heh..."
Unfazed by his missed attack, Doflamingo let out a low laugh. He raised his right hand high behind him and fired dozens of nearly transparent threads from his palm. Under the power of his Devil Fruit, they twisted tightly together into a whip as thick as a braid, which he lashed viciously at Adrian!
Overheat!
"Heh..."
Adrian chuckled. With his max-level Ghost Body impervious to physical attacks, he took the Overheat head-on without a scratch, though it had enough force to gouge a deep fissure in the earth.
At last, Doflamingo's expression darkened. His usual arrogance fell away.
"What power is that? Are you a Logia Devil Fruit User?"
"Don't bother fishing for information," Adrian said calmly. "Since you've mastered Conqueror's Haki, Mr. Doflamingo, I'm sure the other two forms of Haki aren't strangers to you. I've been looking forward to seeing the power called Armament Haki for a long time!"
That was right!
Adrian had boldly picked a fight with the Donquixote Family now for a reason beyond showing his strength. There was another crucial purpose.
He wanted to test just how effective Armament Haki was against the Hollow-Hollow Fruit!
Across the four outer seas, there were probably plenty of people with Armament Haki. But Adrian could identify and reach only two of them at present—perhaps only one.
The first was Chinjao the Drill, the twelfth leader of the Flower Country's Happo Navy!
But Chinjao the Drill's level was simply too high. Just a few years earlier, he had still been a legendary Great Pirate capable of briefly holding his own against Garp.
Although Adrian now wielded a top-tier Devil Fruit, his base level and his strength, agility, and endurance were still relatively low. He had little chance of being taken seriously by Chinjao.
If he rashly challenged Chinjao and Armament Haki truly posed a major threat to the Hollow-Hollow Fruit, Adrian would face only two possible outcomes.
Either he would use the Hollow-Hollow Fruit to keep his distance and wear Chinjao to death, or Chinjao would seize an opening and defeat him instantly with Armament Haki!
There was too little room for error. That plan could only be a last resort.
The other figure in the four outer seas highly likely to possess Armament Haki was Donquixote Doflamingo, standing right before him!
In terms of Haki, Doflamingo had awakened Conqueror's Haki as a child and grown under the careful guidance of Trebol and the others. The odds that he had mastered the other two forms of Haki were extremely high.
In terms of Devil Fruits, Adrian was confident that his Hollow-Hollow Fruit, backed by two max-level skills, would utterly overwhelm the String-String Fruit.
As for raw strength, Doflamingo was only in his twenties. He was not yet the Heavenly Yaksha, Shichibukai, and JOKER who would one day dominate the seas. Even if his strength exceeded expectations, it would not exceed them by much. Adrian could handle it.
Doflamingo was the ideal opponent for Adrian's Haki test!
"Heh heh heh heh... It seems you've underestimated me!"
Fury exploded in Doflamingo's chest. He raised both arms and swung them down hard. A thread so fine it was almost invisible sprang from each of his ten fingertips, crossing as they hurtled toward Adrian.
Fallbright!
Unlike the Five Color Strings from moments earlier, every thread in this attack was coated in black Armament Haki!
Adrian did not dare take this one lightly. He extended a finger and released Mini Hollows of his own.
Mini Hollow: Nova Fire!
Hundreds of white, spherical ghosts rose like a swarm to meet the Fallbright descending from the sky.
Adrian watched with wide eyes, determined not to miss a single detail.
The moment the Mini Hollows touched the threads coated in Armament Haki, they exploded.
But it was not the usual explosion triggered by reaching their target. It was more like...
They had been detonated early!
What did that mean?
Adrian frowned and instantly entered Ghostification, becoming a Free Ghost. He used his ability to fly to evade the ten impossibly sharp Fallbright threads stabbing toward him.
Coated in black Armament Haki, the threads pierced ten bottomless black holes into the open ground. Their destructive power was frightening.
Hovering in midair, Adrian searched his memory for everything he knew about Armament Haki.
Armament Haki could significantly boost both defense and attack. It also allowed its user to touch the tangible bodies of Logia Devil Fruit Users, though unlike Seastone, it could not prevent them from using their powers.
To a degree, Armament Haki could even defend against certain Devil Fruit abilities, provided the user's Haki was stronger than the opponent's.
A clear example was Trafalgar Law, a future member of the Supernovas and one of the new Shichibukai, known as the "Surgeon of Death."
With the Op-Op Fruit, Law could create a "surgical table" where he controlled everything: Shambles ROOM.
Everything within that operating space was subject to Law's control.
Against weaker enemies, Law could cut their bodies apart with ease, or even swap their souls.
But against enemies with overwhelmingly strong Haki, Law's "scalpel" could not even break their skin!
In the future battle of Dressrosa, Law would fight Doflamingo. Though his "scalpel" could not cut Doflamingo's body, he could still use his "operating table" to switch places with him!
It was not that Law had chosen not to cut Doflamingo. His Armament Haki was plainly weaker than Doflamingo's, so he simply could not do it!
By contrast, Vergo, who appeared to have trained his Armament Haki to an exceptional level, had been cleanly sliced into several pieces. That was the difference...
Doflamingo held one hand half-closed, ready to attack again, and continued probing with his words.
"Heh heh heh heh... Flying? What was that power just now? Are you a Paramecia Devil Fruit User?"
Adrian ignored him and released more Mini Hollows to test the power of Armament Haki.
"Five Color Strings!"
The Mini Hollow bombs once again struck threads coated in Armament Haki.
This time, Adrian saw it clearly. He finally understood what was happening!
The will he imposed on the Mini Hollows to direct their movements was being canceled out by the Armament Haki, which carried an equally powerful personal will!
That was the real reason the Mini Hollows detonated early!
If Armament Haki truly suppressed the Hollow-Hollow Fruit's powers, the threads should have simply popped the Mini Hollows like balloons. There should have been no explosion at all!
Yet the Mini Hollows still exploded!
In other words...
This was not suppression!
And even if it was, the effect was nowhere near as strong as he had imagined!
Adrian relaxed a little, his thoughts racing.
If Armament Haki could detonate the Mini Hollows early—one of the few ghosts capable of direct physical attacks—what would it do to the Emotion Ghosts, which could reach into the depths of the soul?
Would Conqueror's Haki, another form of spiritual power, counter them?
There was only one way to find out!
Considering the Negative Hollow's debuff, which did little damage but inflicted crushing humiliation, Adrian thought for a moment and chose another Emotion Ghost. Its outward effect was less obvious, but it was no less effective.
Melancholy Hollow: Sage Time.
"Sage Time" belonged to a series of Emotion Ghosts that worked only on men.
An enemy struck by this ghost would start thinking with his head instead of his lower body, entering a relaxed state of mind free of desires and ego. During that time, he would instinctively avoid anything sexual or indecent. In severe cases, he might even begin pondering the true meaning of life.
Glowing faintly blue, the Melancholy Hollow shot toward Doflamingo.
"Changed tactics?" Doflamingo's eyes shifted. He threw up his hand in what seemed a sensible defensive move. "String Shield!"
Countless threads wove together. In an instant, they formed a huge white shield over three meters tall in front of Doflamingo.
Doflamingo's response was sensible, but that did not make it right.
Unlike Mini Hollows, Emotion Ghosts had no physical substance. In a flash, the ghost slipped through the String Shield.
At such close range, Doflamingo could not react quickly enough to the Melancholy Hollow. Unable to dodge, he was pierced straight through.
"What—"
Doflamingo's face changed in shock, but he found that the blue ghost had caused no physical harm. He was just about to mock Adrian when...
His body gave a faint shudder, and all desire vanished.
Enemies, battles, Celestial Dragons—Doflamingo forgot them all. The only thought in his head was that he wanted a cigarette afterward.
A few seconds later...
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!"
Veins sprang out on Doflamingo's forehead, his pupils tightened, and a savage force gathered around him before surging in every direction.
A terrifying wave burst forth, leaving the onlookers drenched in cold sweat under its pressure.
"Doffy... He's never unleashed such a frightening presence before..." Trebol stared in shock, then broke into wild delight. "That bastard doesn't stand a chance under Conqueror's Haki this strong!"
"Doffy... He's the chosen one! He's our king!" Diamante, who had already shaken off the Negative Hollow's effects, watched with fervent eyes.
The other Donquixote Family officers who were still conscious were equally confident in their young master.
Of all the spectators, only Tommy, who had hidden himself off to one side early on, looked troubled. He watched the ongoing battle in the sky with mounting anxiety.
By now, Adrian had also gathered the results of his test of Conqueror's Haki against Emotion Ghosts.
They were much as he had expected.
As an innate quality of the soul, Conqueror's Haki could indeed resist the effects of Emotion Ghosts.
Even if someone was caught off guard and struck first, suffering the negative effect, a burst of Conqueror's Haki could greatly shorten its duration.
And an enemy already unleashing Conqueror's Haki, with mind and spirit sharply focused, would probably be largely unaffected by Emotion Ghosts...
"That leaves just one test." Adrian exhaled. "How well does Haki work against Ghost Body?"
Mini Hollow: Nova Fire!
Once again, he released a mass of Mini Hollows toward Doflamingo, whose power was still surging.
Doflamingo, no longer daring the slightest carelessness, answered with a dense volley of thread bullets. Fine threads formed at his fingertips and curled into tight bundles, then shot out at the speed of musket balls, bringing down great numbers of Mini Hollows before they could reach him.
A few scattered Mini Hollows slipped through the barrage and closed in on Doflamingo.
He swiftly coated his foot in Armament Haki, ready to kick away the troublesome ghost bombs.
But at that moment...
Demon Swordsman!
Adrian used his ability to instantly swap places with one of the Mini Hollows, activating two more abilities at the same time.
Six Powers: Life Return, Tekkai, Iron Fist!!