A Father in Heaven Was Beckoning to Him

"Is this the Marine Tough Guy? He was basically fighting to take his opponent down with him."

"I'd heard that Marine Tough Guy Wilton was a fearless Marine, but he was even fiercer and more outrageous than the rumors said."

"Doflamingo had clearly held the upper hand, yet the Marine Tough Guy had forcibly narrowed the gap through that reckless, mutually destructive fighting style."

"From now on, I'd rather run into a Shichibukai than fight the Marine Tough Guy. Who could possibly withstand that take-you-down-with-me style?"

Many pirates shuddered.

Anyone who made a living at sea had fought their way through barrages of gunfire, and they had seen all kinds of battles. But against someone like the Marine Tough Guy, who started by sacrificing a thousand to hurt the enemy eight hundred, anyone would feel intimidated.

Because this guy truly did not value his own life. Inside and out, he wanted to drag his enemy to the grave with him.

One look at Doflamingo's miserable state was enough to tell.

Anyone with eyes could see that Doflamingo was stronger than Wilton in this battle. Yet Wilton had relied on his vicious resolve—if he could not win, then they would perish together; even if they could not perish together, he would cripple his opponent—to close that gap.

Under those circumstances, unless Wilton was killed instantly from the start, it was impossible to escape without losing a layer of skin. With worse luck, they might truly go to the grave together.

For anyone, their own life was priceless. Casually trading it away for the other person's life was definitely not an equal exchange.

They had already lost a step in terms of momentum.

The more concerns one had, the more openings one naturally revealed.

"Wait."

"Is the Marine Tough Guy going to lose?"

Startled, doubtful voices rose from the crowd of spectators.

At the very center.

Doflamingo, his face covered in blood and buried deep in the dirt, had countless white threads rise from his back. They rapidly wrapped around his arms and began repairing them amid continuous cracking sounds.

Before long.

Doflamingo climbed to his feet with a pale face, gasping and coughing heavily. His head swam, and it looked like he had suffered a concussion.

Luckily, he had his Devil Fruit ability and Armament Haki at the critical moment. Otherwise, that dumbbell strike would have made his head explode like a watermelon.

"Fuffuffu—"

After only two laughs, Doflamingo nearly failed to catch his breath. He finally relaxed after coughing up a mouthful of bloody saliva.

Looking at Wilton in the distance, whose body had been pierced through by all kinds of threads and nailed in midair, Doflamingo's pale face was full of lingering fear and chilling malice.

He was merely a vice admiral, yet he gave Doflamingo the illusion of facing an admiral.

No matter how much he was beaten, he would not die. More importantly, the worse his injuries became, the stronger his attacks grew. Even Life Return could not be this absurd.

That mutually destructive fighting style had also placed immense pressure on him.

The more he thought about it, the more humiliating it felt.

He had actually been forced into such a state by a vice admiral and had even suffered serious injuries.

"Let's see if you can survive this."

As he looked at Wilton, pierced through as though by ten thousand arrows, Doflamingo's aura rapidly recovered. It had to be said that Doflamingo was gifted.

He had developed an ordinary String-String Fruit into something capable of both offense and defense.

It had even awakened.

If he had possessed a truly powerful Devil Fruit, Doflamingo would never have stopped at becoming a Shichibukai.

Once again.

Doflamingo stood before Wilton like a victor. Through his Observation Haki, he could sense that Wilton had not completely breathed his last, but he was close enough.

Next, he only needed to deal with the trouble from Marine Headquarters.

Wilton was a vice admiral after all, but Doflamingo was entirely in the right this time. Even if Marine Headquarters was dissatisfied, they would not act rashly.

"Die!"

Doflamingo prepared to deliver the final blow to Wilton. A pillar of thread rose beside his foot, its sharp tip wrapped in Armament Haki.

But the next second.

The hairs on Doflamingo's body stood on end despite his certain victory. Wilton, who had been hanging his head and bleeding nonstop, raised it again and stared at him viciously.

"So what the hell are you barking about?"

Healing activated.

Wilton forcibly broke free. His body was riddled with holes and nearly severed, but under the effects of Healing, his state on the brink of death immediately improved considerably.

He had not expected Doflamingo to dare approach him again.

Explosive Double Axes.

With both hands clenched into fists and veins bulging, Wilton swung down at Doflamingo's head with hysterical force. This time, two fist-shaped Haki shockwave phantoms, each seven hundred meters large, appeared overhead.

Even without a weapon.

He could still use Explosive Double Axes and Feverish Spin.

Moreover, as long as he wished it, the shockwaves could take any shape.

"Impossible."

Doflamingo was terrified out of his wits. Every hair on his body stood up as a chill shot straight to the top of his head. Wilton had clearly been left with only his final breath, so why would he not die?

Pfft—

As always.

Wilton gave up dodging, allowing the thread pillar to pierce through his chest and shoot into the sky. Scalding, pungent blood sprayed everywhere.

At the same time, both fists crashed heavily onto Doflamingo's head, striking that same familiar spot.

With thunderous force.

The unimaginable power made the sound of Doflamingo's skull shattering clearly audible. Thick blood streamed from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

The ground within a thousand meters exploded and buckled upward, forming one raised hill after another.

Doflamingo was buried deep in dirt and shattered stone, his face twisted as blood poured from all seven orifices, making him look like a vicious ghost. Even with Armament Haki blocking the blow, his brain had suffered a violent shock.

For that instant, Doflamingo seemed to see his father in heaven beckoning to him.

The outside world had fallen so silent that a pin could be heard dropping.

Every spectator was once again overturned by Wilton's ruthlessness. He truly intended to drag Doflamingo down to hell with him.

He was obviously already at death's door, so how could he still unleash such an attack?

"He should be dead now, right?"

A pirate swallowed, his eyes full of shock. Then, in the next second, everyone became terrified. Wilton, suspended in midair by the thread pillar piercing him, suddenly grabbed the hard pillar with both hands and pulled with a savage expression.

A massive amount of flesh and blood splattered. More than half the flesh at his waist tore away, and Wilton slipped past the thread pillar before crashing to the ground.

From afar, his body was already mangled beyond recognition.

He was ruthless not only toward his enemies, but toward himself as well.

Doflamingo, buried deep in the dirt with stars swimming before his eyes, relied on the last sliver of his will to remain conscious.

But everything before him appeared doubled.

He had seen Wilton's complete disregard for his own body, and for the first time, apprehension rose in his heart.

For someone to be so ruthless toward himself, that feeling Wilton had given him before—that he wanted to perish together—had absolutely not been an illusion. Wilton truly wanted to go to the grave with him.

A madman.

This madman.

They had not had some irreconcilable grudge before this, had they? Was there any need to go this far?

Hiss, hiss, hiss—

Forcibly driving away the heavy exhaustion clouding his mind, Doflamingo kept himself as conscious as possible. Threads emerged from his hands and stabbed into his head, beginning to heal it without pause.

Several times in a row, Wilton had used himself as bait. Otherwise, he could never have injured Doflamingo this badly.

He had been too careless.

But why could Wilton rise again and again? What was that green glow flashing over his body? Or was this guy also a Devil Fruit User?

Doflamingo finally snapped awake.

Looking back now, Wilton's strength had never actually posed that great a threat to him. Several times, Doflamingo had fallen for Wilton's tricks because he had let down his guard, allowing Wilton to seize the opportunity.

But Wilton's fearlessness of death was real.

Surely he could not stand up again this time, right?

Doflamingo stared fixedly ahead. On the ground, Wilton swayed as he struggled to his feet. The flesh on the right side of his waist had split apart, and even his internal organs could be seen.

One hand pressed against the wound. He had only risen halfway before collapsing heavily into the pool of blood, his aura plummeting and gradually weakening.

Under normal circumstances, he would undoubtedly die.