Chapter 507 - 347

Chapter 348: The Finishing Blow Fails, the birdcage Opens!The air at the harbor became thick and heavy.Donquixote Doflamingo stood ten meters away, the hem of his pink feather coat swaying slightly in the damp wind, his signature smirk still plastered on his face.Trafalgar Law.The name flashed through Doflamingo's mind, bringing with it a mixed bag of loathing and a certain twisted appreciation."Fuffuffuffuffu~~~"Doflamingo's laughter exploded across the empty pier as he tried to reclaim the momentum with his familiar mocking posture."Law, it's been over ten years since we last met, and your greeting is to point a blade at me? How heartbreaking!!!"His words were flippant, but the index finger of his right hand, hanging at his side, twitched almost imperceptibly.A strand of transparent silk thread shot out silently from his fingertip, slithering along the ground like a venomous snake toward Law's ankle!!!This was a common trick of the String-String Fruit, Parasite String; once connected, it could control the opponent's body like a puppet.Law didn't say a word!!Not even his gaze flickered!!He simply lifted his left foot slightly and, the instant before the thread could touch his ankle, stepped down precisely on it with the sole of his boot."Clack!"Doflamingo's smile stiffened for half a second."Save it, Doflamingo."Law finally spoke, his voice as calm as if he were reading a medical report."I've long since figured out your little tricks!!!"As soon as he finished speaking, the space beneath Law's feet rippled like water, a transparent wave rapidly expanding to form a spherical zone with a three-hundred-meter radius.ROOM: Shambles Domain—Fully Deployed!!Doflamingo's pupils snapped into pinpricks.His Observation Haki was screaming in alarm, but the images he saw were becoming fragmented.Is this... an awakened domain ability?!?!Warning bells rang out in Doflamingo's mind.He suddenly burst backward, his hands crossing and waving in front of him."Spider's Web!"Countless white threads gushed from his palms, weaving into an airtight giant white web in the air, with every node on the web wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki.At the same time, Law's blade arrived.The sound of kikoku being unsheathed was very light, like a sigh.The blade traced a faint blue arc in the dim light of the harbor; wherever the arc passed, space split open like fabric being cut."Wha—?!?!"Doflamingo's shock lasted only half a second.Because Law's blade had already reached his throat.It was too fast.So fast that his proudest Observation Haki only captured the result, failing to see the process entirely.That was a displacement that transcended the concept of speed!Law had swapped his position with an inch of air in front of Doflamingo's throat; when the blade edge appeared, it was only 0.1 millimeters from the skin.Doflamingo desperately threw his head back, the muscles in his neck tensing to the limit.The blade edge swept past.Puchi!!Doflamingo's head flew off.On that face that always wore an arrogant smile, a look of shock that was almost comical was now frozen.The head spun twice in the air.Clack!It landed on the ground, bounced once on the damp pier surface, rolled half a meter, and stopped.Facing upward.Those eyes were still open, staring blankly at the gloomy sky.The harbor fell into a deathly silence.In the distance, the citizens who had been charging stopped in their tracks.They stared blankly at the scene, the weapons in their hands falling to the ground with a "clang."Some stood with their mouths agape, making "he-he" gasping sounds in their throats, unable to utter a single word.That man... the one who had ruled Dressrosa for ten years, the Heavenly Yaksha Doflamingo who hung over this country like a nightmare... just like that... died?Beheaded with a single strike?Died so simply, so... unceremoniously?"It's... it's over~~~"Suppressed sobs began to rise from the crowd, followed by loud wailing. o(╥﹏╥)oTen years of oppression, ten years of fear, burst through the floodgates at this moment with the death of their enemy.But Law's expression changed the moment the head hit the ground.He didn't sheathe his blade; instead, his grip on the sword tightened further.In those habitually indifferent golden pupils, a flash of extremely keen alertness passed.No!!!The sensation was wrong!!!The tactile feedback from the blade when it severed the neck was wrong!!!Law's gaze locked firmly onto the head on the ground.At the severed stump of the neck,there was no geyser of blood that should follow a ruptured carotid artery.In fact, not even a single drop of blood had flowed out.Exposed to the air were countless fine, white thread ends.Those thread ends were neatly arranged on the cross-section of the stump, each maintaining the fibrous state of having been cut, trembling slightly in the damp harbor wind."String Puppet."Law's voice carried a cold fury.As if to prove his judgment, the head on the ground suddenly moved."Fuffuffuffuffuffu..."That laughter issued from the mouth of the head.The crying of everyone at the harbor stopped instantly.They stared wide-eyed at the head talking on the ground, their expressions shifting from ecstasy to bewilderment, and then from bewilderment to even deeper fear. (⊙_⊙)"Law..."Doflamingo said in a mocking tone,"After more than ten years, you're still so... impatient."Tentacles made of string extended from the stump, crawling on the ground to adjust the head so it faced Law."Can't even wait to confirm if the patient is the real body? That's not the quality an excellent surgeon should possess~"Law's pupils narrowed into the most dangerous pinpricks. (눈_눈)He'd been played.From beginning to end, he had fallen into Doflamingo's calculation.This ultra-fine substitute puppet made of string had been a decoy from the start. A decoy used to attract him, to attract all the hatred, and to attract the attention of the entire Dressrosa.And the real Doflamingo~~~Law suddenly looked up toward the Kings Plateau.At almost the same instant,from the neck stump of the string clone, white threads shot toward the high sky at near-supersonic speeds, instantly vanishing into the low-hanging clouds.Immediately following,Buzz——!!!A vibration so low it was nearly infrasonic came from deep within the clouds.The clouds were torn apart.Hundreds of millions of fine white threads stabbed down vertically from the clouds. Each thread was as thin as a hair, but in the dim light, the rain of threads they formed was like an inverted white waterfall, spectacular enough to take one's breath away.The rain of strings covered the entire sky of Dressrosa."Damn it..."Law gritted his teeth, kikoku emitting a slight hum in his hand.He knew what that was.birdcage!!Doflamingo's ultimate trump card.And now, this card had been played!!!