When the deep-blue magnetic storm pillar piercing heaven and earth finally dissipated, when Golden Lion turned to golden dust and drifted away on the wind, when Boer's figure vanished high in the sky as well.
The waters that had just witnessed a "God War" fell deathly silent. But beneath that silence, currents surged among the various powers as they rapidly weighed their options.
Doflamingo stood at the edge of the shattered ice floe, his pink feather coat fluttering limply in the gunpowder-scented sea breeze.
The wicked grin on his face had long since vanished, replaced by a pale look of shock and lingering fear.
It's over... it's all over...
The thought bit into his heart like a venomous snake. Golden Lion-
This legendary ally, whom he had painstakingly courted in hopes of using his prestige and strength to snatch gains amid the fires of a new era, had actually fallen just like that! So utterly, so... pointlessly!
Worse still, he had sided with Golden Lion earlier and all but openly mocked the World Government for having "no attention to spare for anything else." At this sensitive moment, when Mary Geoise had only just restored communications and was desperate to reassert its authority, that was tantamount to delivering a resounding slap to the Five Elders' faces!
At the same time, he had shown Kaido and Linlin an inclination toward "fence-sitting," or even "betrayal"-after all, he was still nominally "JOKER," dependent on Kaido's Artificial Devil Fruit business.
His Shichibukai title? After this incident, would the World Government still need a former Celestial Dragon who repeatedly crossed the line and knew quite a few of the Holy Land's secrets to serve as a "legal pirate"?
Most likely, their first choice would be to discard him now that he had outlived his usefulness and