The room fell into dead silence, leaving only Doflamingo's heavy breathing.
He gripped the silent receiver, veins bulging across the back of his hand while the blood vessel at his temple throbbed.
Absurd.
This was the funniest joke of the century.
A Marine Headquarters special envoy had come to the territory of a Warlord of the Sea, the current king of Dressrosa, not to carry out a mission, but to cut him down?
Where did that leave the World Government's dignity?
That was simply spitting in the face of the Fleet Admiral's orders.
Even if that man was the troublesome brat Garp kept protecting, there was no way he would be allowed to do something that shook the order of the world.
The order created by the Celestial Dragons did not allow any individual to act so recklessly, not even a so-called Marine hero under special protection.
"Fufufu... Fufufufufu!"
A suppressed laugh rolled out of Doflamingo's throat. It grew louder and louder until it became a wild laugh echoing through the empty room.
He slammed the receiver back onto the Den Den Mushi and leaned back, sinking into the soft sofa.
"Have you gone senile, Saturn...? To be frightened by such ridiculous calculations."
He muttered to himself, then picked up his glass of red wine again, trying to regain his earlier ease.
But the wine kept rippling in the glass and would not settle.
Purupurupuru! Purupurupuru!
The secure private Den Den Mushi screamed again the moment his words fell.
Doflamingo's hand shook, and a few drops of red wine spilled onto his pink feather coat.
His expression darkened completely.
This time, he did not answer immediately. Instead, he stared coldly at the Den Den Mushi, which was imitating an angry expression, and let it ring three times.
Only when the fourth ring sounded did he slowly pick up the receiver.
"What else?" His tone now carried undisguised irritation.
"Donquixote Doflamingo!"
The voice from the other end was no longer calm. It was a roar filled with authority, as if a sleeping lion had been thoroughly enraged.
The Den Den Mushi could not transmit Haki, but the authority in that voice still made Doflamingo's pupils shrink.
"Do you think we are joking with you? Do you think we spent resources running calculations just to tell you a joke?"
Saturn's voice was ice-cold.
"Put away that self-important clown act of yours. The reason you can sit safely on that throne, the reason you can wear the title of Warlord and command the underworld, is because you are still useful to us! You are a piece we have allowed to exist, a chess piece used to handle the garbage in the shadows. But if a piece loses its function, or may be shattered by an unpredictable force, then its value becomes zero."
Every word struck Doflamingo's pride like a heavy hammer.
The muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably, and a terrifying glare shone from behind his sunglasses.
What he hated most was being lectured from above like a tool.
"Zaraki, that variable, has already exceeded our control. If he truly cuts you down on your own territory, that will not merely be your personal failure. Dressrosa, the SMILE trade, your underworld routes, and every secret tied to your name will be dragged into the sun."
Doflamingo's fingers tightened around the receiver.
"Fufufu... You really think he can do that?"
"We think you cannot afford to gamble that he cannot."
Saturn's answer was flat and merciless.
"Check your officers. Then decide whether you want to keep laughing."
Click.
The call ended again.
Doflamingo stood in place for a long moment.
Check his officers?
His first reaction was rage, his second was disbelief, his third was a chill that crawled quietly into his chest and refused to leave.
"Trebol."
His voice was low.
"Y-Yes, Doffy?"
Trebol leaned in from the doorway, his sticky body swaying nervously.
"Contact Buffalo. Baby 5. Diamante."
"Huh? Right now?"
"Now."
Trebol swallowed and hurriedly dragged out several Den Den Mushi from the communications table.
One call.
No response.
A second call.
Still no response.
A third call.
The line rang for a while before going dead.
The air in the room instantly froze.
Those three were in different places and had no reason to lose contact at the same time.
A thought made Doflamingo's spine turn cold.
The smile hanging at the corner of his mouth stiffened for an instant.
"Vivre Cards."
He slowly spat out those words, his voice terrifyingly calm.
"Huh?" Trebol froze.
"Go get their Vivre Cards," Doflamingo repeated, each word forced through his teeth.
"Y-Yes!"
Trebol did not dare delay.
He turned at once, his sticky body vanishing into the shadows with surprising speed.
Before long, he came running back with an exquisite wooden box, a flattering smile on his face as he tried to ease the atmosphere.
"Hey, hey, Doffy, you must be overthinking it. They're some of our best family members—"
Doflamingo ignored him and snatched the wooden box away, opening it with a sharp snap.
Inside, most of the paper fragments were trembling steadily with faint, lively movement.
But Buffalo and Baby 5's Vivre Cards had curled badly, their edges blackened and smoking.
They were still there, barely, but their weak trembling made it obvious they had been beaten half to death or fallen into enemy hands.
Diamante's card was different.
Only a small pile of gray-black ash remained in the place where it should have been.
Trebol's smile froze on his face, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"T-This... How could..."
Doflamingo's body began trembling slightly.
The muscles in his face twitched wildly, and his signature smile was pulled into a savage curve, making him look like a demon ready to devour someone whole.
Diamante was dead.
Buffalo and Baby 5 were alive, but barely.
Someone had touched his family!
"Who..."
He growled, his voice hoarse like two pieces of metal grinding together.
"Who did this...? Who dared touch my family...?"
Boom!
Before his words had fully fallen, an invisible wave of terrifying pressure erupted from him.
The expensive wine glasses, decorations, and even the thick windows in the room shattered under the pressure.
Trebol was forced back again and again before falling onto his rear, cold sweat covering his body.
Even his signature mucus seemed to shrink back from the air.
"No matter who you are!"
Doflamingo threw his head back and roared. Veins crawled from his neck all the way to his temples, and his whole body looked almost insane.
"I'll find you! I'll break every bone in your body! I'll chop your flesh into paste and feed it to the Sea Kings!"
His roar echoed over the King's Plateau.
Yet after that rage, he forced himself to calm down.
Impossible.
It absolutely could not be Zaraki.
Those old bastards must have used some method to coincidentally learn about Diamante's death and the others' defeat, then pinned it on Zaraki to trick him into testing that madman.
That had to be it.
They wanted to use him as a weapon.
"Fufufu... If you think you can use me, you're still too naive..."
Doflamingo's smile twisted back into something confident. He firmly believed in his own judgment.
Just then, another Den Den Mushi on the table rang, its expression stretched into panic.
An attendant stumbled into the room and handed the receiver to Trebol.
"Doffy! It's Dellinger and Gladius!"
Trebol's voice carried a faint tremor.
Dellinger's sharp, urgent shout came from the receiver.
"Young Master! He's near the colosseum! War Demon Zaraki is already inside the city!"
Gladius's irritable voice followed immediately.
"Damn it, there's no mistake! It's that Marine monster! He killed Diamante and he's moving toward the Toy House!"
Buzz.
It was as if a string inside Doflamingo's mind had been snapped.
His luck, his deductions, all his self-righteous confidence, were crushed without mercy in that instant.
A wave of Conqueror's Haki far beyond the previous one swept across the entire King's Plateau.
The air trembled, the palace walls groaned, windows cracked, and weaker guards and family members foamed at the mouth before collapsing unconscious on the spot.
Purupurupuru! Click.
As if it had calculated the timing perfectly, the secure private Den Den Mushi rang once more.
Doflamingo grabbed the receiver with blood-red eyes.
"Donquixote Doflamingo," Saturn's calm voice came through, carrying a coldness that seemed to see through everything.
"Do you believe us now?"
The World Government had eyes inside Dressrosa's communications network.
Doflamingo had known that for years, but hearing Saturn call at that exact moment still made his skin crawl.
Without waiting for Doflamingo to answer, Saturn continued in an unquestionable tone.
"Now, pick up your other Den Den Mushi and contact Kaido."
"Tell him War Demon Zaraki is currently in Dressrosa."
"His purpose in coming is to eliminate both of you at once."
"We will turn this island into his grave."
The call ended again.
Doflamingo stood silently in the ruined room, holding two receivers in his hands.
His Haki was still surging unconsciously, but inside, his heart was wrapped in a chill.
The Five Elders, those who stood at the peak of the World Nobles in the Holy Land, wanted Zaraki dead badly enough that they were willing to mobilize both him and Kaido, the strongest creature in the world, at any cost to ensure nothing went wrong.
This War Demon raised by Garp...
What kind of existence was he, to make those old men who called themselves gods fear him to this extent?
From the other receiver, Dellinger and Gladius were still shouting over each other, their voices growing more frantic by the second.
The fear finally sank in.
It was not fear of death alone.
It was fear of something uncontrollable, unpredictable, and impossible to calculate.