As he spoke, the Golden Lion extended both hands, each gripping a pale pink Float-Float Fruit as a flash of wild, reckless determination flickering in his eyes.
With a defiant grin, he parted his lips and took a massive bite from the fruit in his left hand.
The moment his teeth sank in, the horrifyingly familiar taste instantly flooded his mouth—a disgustingly foul flavor, like a nauseating mix of rotten seafood and spoiled garbage that had been left to fester in the sun.
It almost made him vomit the hearty breakfast he'd just eaten.
Yet, with the willpower of a legend, he forced down the overwhelming nausea and swallowed the chunk of fruit whole.
Almost simultaneously, something shifted.
A phantom sensation flickered to life within him.
His previously calm eyes widened abruptly, bulging like two great brass bells as he stared straight ahead with an expression of pure, unadulterated shock and disbelief.
Immediately after, his movements became swift and urgent.
He hastily thrust the second uneaten Float-Float Fruit back toward Ron, as though it were a hot coal, fearing even the slightest delay might cause the miracle to vanish.
"I can feel it!" His voice, a choked whisper at first, erupted into a triumphant roar.
"It's back! The connection is back!"
The excitement and euphoria were unmistakable, a tidal wave of pure joy washing away two decades of frustration.
"Damn it! I really am heaven's favored one!" Shiki roared, his voice brimming with an unbreakable arrogance and a profound triumph over fate itself.
"JIAHAHAHAHA!"
While everyone was still reeling from his sudden outburst, something even more astonishing unfolded.
Under the dumbfounded gazes of the crowd, Shiki's boots lifted an inch off the ground.
Then another.
His body began to levitate slowly, effortlessly.
His dazzling golden hair, untouched by any wind, began to flutter and writhe wildly as if manipulated by an invisible force, a sign that the power was now his to command once more.
Like a blazing, untamable flame, his hair danced, exuding an aura of unmatched, regal dominance.
His ascent continued until he finally hovered a full three meters above the ground, where he came to a stop, a king returning to his throne in the sky.
Ron took the second fruit, a faint, analytical smile on his lips.
'A fifty percent chance, and he hits it on the first try,' he thought, marveling at the old man's absurdly good luck.
'Or perhaps… a king's will simply refuses to accept failure.'
The others stood frozen in place, their faces blank as they stared unblinkingly at the unbelievable scene.
They didn't fully grasp the complex probabilities Ron had mentioned earlier.
They only understood what they were witnessing.
A Dual-Fruit user—an exceedingly rare, almost mythical existence—was being born right before their very eyes.
"JIHAHAHAHAHA!"
With a final, exultant roar, Shiki shot up from the ground like a golden bolt of lightning, soaring straight into the skies!
His figure traced a dazzling, chaotic arc through the air, as if he intended to tear the very sky apart with his joy.
His body felt incredibly light, as weightless as a feather, devoid of any sense of burden or gravity.
That familiar, glorious surge of power had returned to him, like a long-lost limb, filling his heart with a boundless, exhilarating confidence.
"How familiar this power feels!" he muttered to himself, his voice brimming with raw emotion and excitement.
He soared and looped through the air, a master pilot finally back in his cockpit after a lifetime in exile.
"I've finally, finally regained it!"
Then, with a flourish, he drew his legendary swords, Oto and Kogarashi, from their sheaths.
He gazed at his old companions, a fierce, battle-hungry spirit igniting in his eyes.
The two blades seemed to come alive in his hands, radiating a chilling gleam.
The fluctuations of Haki around his body grew increasingly violent, like surging, unstoppable tidal waves.
With a long, guttural roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the sky island, the Conqueror's Haki unique to Shiki erupted in an instant!
It was a raw, untamed, and joyous explosion of his fully restored spirit.
The overwhelming aura made the surrounding air feel as though it had frozen solid.
The once-clear dawn sky was instantly shrouded in dark, swirling storm clouds, a tempest born not of weather, but of a single man's will.
Streaks of crimson and black lightning, the signature of a true conqueror, tore through the gloom, unleashing a scene akin to the apocalypse.
The Haki surged downwards like a physical tide, washing over everyone in relentless, crushing waves.
Each impact felt like being buried beneath a mountain, making it impossible to breathe, impossible to think.
Under the immense pressure of this aura, the crowd revealed expressions of pure terror, some involuntarily stumbling back.
"Terrifying…" Diamante gasped, his eyes wide with horror.
Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
The overwhelming Haki crashed against his body and his own weaker Haki like a raging tsunami, and his head felt as though it had been struck by a heavy blow.
He swayed unsteadily, on the verge of collapsing.
Pica, too, endured tremendous pressure, his teeth clenched so tightly that his jaw emitted a faint creaking sound, as if this was the only way he could barely maintain consciousness.
"So this… this is the strength of a legend from the old era," Bellamy stammered, his back already drenched in cold sweat.
He raised his head, his gaze filled with terror as he stared at the figure flaunting his might in the stormy sky.
"Will he seek revenge on us? For his blood?"
The thought sent a fresh wave of chills down his spine.
Doflamingo stood at the center of his beleaguered crew, his face dark, his fists clenched at his sides.
He watched the spectacle, an unyielding, defiant glint flickering within his eyes.
"So what if it's Conqueror's Haki?" he snarled through gritted teeth. "Hmph! I have it too!"
He snorted coldly as an overwhelming, violet-tinged aura suddenly erupted from his own body.
This surge of power was like a volcanic eruption—intense, violent, and utterly defiant.
He fearlessly confronted the suffocating pressure emanating from Shiki, meeting it head-on!
A visible distortion appeared in the air between the two kings, a small pocket of relative calm where Doflamingo's Haki pushed back against Shiki's storm.
As their leader made his move, the executives of the Donquixote Family finally exhaled, gasping for air as if they had just surfaced from a deep dive.
The splitting headaches and the crushing pressure lessened, allowing them to breathe again.
"Oh?"
A deep, rumbling voice cut through the chaos.
"Where did this little brat with a king's ambition come from?"
Whitebeard, who had been watching with a lazy amused grin, finally turned his gaze toward Doflamingo.
It was just a look.
There was no killing intent, no visible surge of Haki.
But the moment those legendary eyes fell upon him, Doflamingo felt as if he were facing an enemy more formidable than any he had ever known.
Every nerve in his body screamed in alarm.
The pressure surged anew, not like a tsunami this time, but like the entire, infinite weight of the ocean pressing down on him from all sides.
His own Conqueror's Haki, which he had so proudly wielded just a moment ago, was instantly crushed, snuffed out like a candle flame in a hurricane.
The sheer, casual intimidation from this old monster was overwhelming.
Just a single, unimpressed glance seemed to carry a boundless power and majesty that pressed down on his shoulders like a physical weight, making him feel an immense, suffocating pressure.
'Is this…' Doflamingo thought, his mind reeling, his usual smug composure completely shattered.
'Is this the peak of the Four Emperors?'