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He stared at the fighting drawing closer outside the window and forced the words through his teeth:
"Even they couldn't stop her..."
The sharp crash of shattering glass had yet to fade when two heavy halves of a body shot backward from deep within the castle in a shower of blood, crashing onto the battlefield **.
Everyone looked up. The winding body of the Azure Dragon had actually been severed in two, its innards and blood spilling across the ground. Its furious roar rapidly dwindled into a cry of agony above the Red Line.
Inside the Chamber of Authority, a few glittering shards still clung to the broken window frame.
The tall woman withdrew her finger as though she had merely brushed invisible dust from her sleeve.
Without so much as another glance outside, she turned toward the Five Elders kneeling on one knee. Her heels struck the marble floor with clear, monotonous clicks.
"Trash."
When the word left her lips again, it carried no emotion, as though she were stating the simplest of facts.
The five kneeling old men lowered their heads further, their foreheads nearly touching the cold floor.
On the battlefield outside the castle, Doflamingo's strings threaded through severed blood vessels and bones.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from his temples. The transparent threads beneath his fingertips moved so fast they left afterimages as he tried to piece the two enormous halves back together.
Rossi's sword hung at his side, its tip still trembling faintly-not from fear, but from an almost instinctive warning of extreme danger.
He stared at the shattered window as though his gaze could pierce the thick stone walls and reveal the being inside who had merely lifted a finger.
"Hey, Doffy."
He kept his voice so low that only his brother beside