Chapter 790: Doflamingo's Eyes
Whitebeard and Shanks did not overly dissuade Ian, because they also knew that Ian's trip to the scene was necessary; they had to obtain first-hand information.
How large an area had Uranus's attack affected? How could that powerful explosive force be defended against? These things needed to be confirmed on-site.
However, just as Ian was about to take off and leave, Ace suddenly spoke up: "Wait, Ian! I'm going with you!"
"You're coming too!?" Ian asked in surprise.
"Yeah!" Ace nodded, placing his cowboy hat behind his neck, and while tightening the chin strap, said with a serious expression: "That bastard Teach is at the scene. He's been hiding and hasn't shown up before, and I couldn't do anything about him. But now that he's appeared, I have to go and see for myself whether he's dead or not! If he's not, then I'll send him to hell with my own hands!"
Marco heard this and said: "Ace, you don't have to be so fixated on Teach... He might have already been killed by Uranus."
But Ace disagreed with his statement, saying: "You've all seen it too; every time that guy shows up, he causes a major incident. Ian is right, he's the most ambitious person I've ever seen. This time, whether or not he was killed by Uranus, I have to go and confirm it myself. I can't let him run loose any longer..."
Marco and the others wanted to persuade him further, but Whitebeard Old Man suddenly spoke up: "Let Ace go!"
The Whitebeard Pirates crew turned to look at the Old Man, who said: "Just like Ace said, we can't let Teach run loose any longer. So let Ace finish him off. But you two need to be careful; that guy got his hands on the Soul Fruit too. From what Red Hair said, he seems to be quite strong..."
Ian nodded to show he understood, then turned to Ace and said: "I can carry you while flying, but supersonic flight is very painful. Be prepared!"
"It's fine! I have a way!" Ace grinned, then began to elementalize his entire body, turning into a rising humanoid flame. However, his hands remained solid. He approached Ian from behind, wrapped his arms around Ian's neck, and said: "Let's go. My flames won't hurt you. Just think of it as wearing a flame cloak!"
"A flame cloak? That's interesting!" Ian smiled, spread his black Flame Wings, activated his Super Saiyan state, and with a stomp of his foot, shot into the sky.
Boom! Just as Ace had said, he could indeed maintain this state and follow Ian at supersonic speed. As everyone looked up at the sky, Ian's figure turned into a streak of light, trailing a long tail of flames behind him, like a meteor tearing through the sky!
Reiju watched this scene with her arms crossed and teased: "Someone finally volunteered to be carried by our captain while flying. The captain must be pretty happy, right?"
This remark made the old members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates burst into laughter. Seeing them laugh, Little Ian, held by Baccarat, also giggled, making Baccarat hug him even tighter with joy.
Ian hadn't taken Little Ian with him, but whenever needed, he could always summon Little Ian again.
The Red Hair Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates didn't quite understand the joke, but Marco said enviously: "Ian and Ace really hit it off. They seem closer than real brothers..."
"Enough!" Whitebeard tapped the handle of his naginata on the ground twice, drawing everyone's attention, and said: "Leave Teach to those two brothers. Now we need to get moving too. Start evacuating the civilians and moving them to Skypiea..."
Ian led Ace, heading straight for the Red Line. You know, with Ace's elemental body trailing a long flame tail, it looked really cool. Ian couldn't help but strike a Superman flying pose while flying, only missing a pair of briefs and an 'S' on his chest...
However, in this state, Ace couldn't talk to Ian either.
This time, Ian was flying at full speed. In the past, he would calculate the rate of Psychic Power consumption and recovery to maintain balance and fly longer, but this time, he was flying without regard for consumption.
This pushed Ian's speed even higher, reaching Mach 3!
Like a missile streaking across the sky, Ian and Ace crossed many islands and countries on the New World's sea surface with unparalleled momentum. After about two hours, they could already see the Red Line in the distance.
At this point, Ian slowed down to a normal speed, and Ace also reverted to his original body. He even tried to mimic Ian by forming a pair of flame wings behind him and carefully hovering in mid-air.
Ian looked at him in surprise and asked: "Ace, you can fly!?"
"Hehe!" Ace grinned proudly and said: "I learned it from you. Since you can fly with flame wings, I figured I could too, so I've been experimenting for a while. But I'm not very skilled yet, so I can't fly very fast."
At this point, Ace's flame color had completely turned white. The higher temperature indeed provided buoyancy, so although Ian was surprised, he didn't think too much about it. It was good that Ace could fly; it saved Ian a lot of effort.
Since they weren't sure of the exact location of the incident, the two began searching from a high vantage point in the sky.
At the same time, they kept an eye on the surrounding sky, wary of Uranus. It had been a while since the Beast Pirates were attacked, and they didn't know where the Celestial Dragons had taken Uranus. If it was still nearby, that would be bad.
After searching for a while, Ace, with his sharp eyes, spotted something and suddenly pointed downward, saying to Ian: "Look over there!"
They descended to just above the sea surface and found that the nearby sea was covered with tens of thousands of fish carcasses of various sizes. Among these fish carcasses were also some massive sea beasts and many shipwreck fragments.
"Shipwrecks make sense, but what about all these fish and sea beast carcasses?" Ace asked curiously.
"It's from that explosion!" Ian replied: "At the moment of the explosion, the water at the blast point evaporated directly, and the seawater farther away was also boiled by the high temperature!"
Ace was stunned by this and said: "That's terrifying..."
The appearance of fish carcasses and shipwrecks meant they were close to the explosion site. As they continued along the sea surface for a while, the number of carcasses and wrecks increased, and human corpses began to appear.
Needless to say, most of these human corpses belonged to the Beast Pirates' crew, along with some that looked like news reporters... However, almost all of them were thoroughly cooked! Over a vast area of the sea, the sea breeze carried a mix of fishy smell and the aroma of cooked meat...
Even Ian and Ace nearly vomited from the smell. They had to tear off parts of their clothes to cover their noses and mouths while examining the corpses.
Ian guessed that these pirates and reporters might have been farther from the explosion center. After their ships were destroyed by the shockwave, they fell into the water. Although they avoided being burned to death by the explosion's flames, the boiling seawater cooked them alive.
It was somewhat ironic. Kaido had boiled Kozuki Oden to death in Wano Country, and now his subordinates were being boiled to death in return...
The sea surface nearby was filled with so much food, yet even the ferocious sea beasts and Sea Kings dared not approach, letting the corpses drift and roll with the currents.
"How tragic!" Ace said with lingering fear: "This kind of power really could destroy the world!"
"I wonder how many survived..." Ian shook his head and said: "But after this battle, the Beast Pirates are essentially finished in name."
Ace turned to Ian and asked: "Ian, do you think the World Government has been trying to appease the Celestial Dragons all along because they know they control such a powerful force?"
"It's hard to say!" Ian thought for a moment and replied: "Maybe they do have that intention, but... power is a tricky thing. Who can guarantee that the World Government isn't using the protection of the Celestial Dragons to maintain its own rule?"
It was possible that they were merely appeasing the Celestial Dragons, but in Ian's view, the World Government never seemed to want to get rid of them. Their dark side was too extensive, and even with Ace's suggested possibility, Ian couldn't easily trust them.
The two chatted intermittently while searching the nearby sea. Ian kept his Psychic Field active, trying to sense any living, moving objects.
After a short while, Ian suddenly paused and looked toward a reef area not far to his right front.
"Over there!" Ian called to Ace, saying: "There seems to be something alive over there!"
The two flew toward the reef area. It was a cluster of submerged reefs, with some large ones protruding above the water. Normally, this might be a navigational hazard, but now, if there were survivors, these protruding reefs would be life-saving land...
However, when they found the so-called survivor, Ian was surprised to see that it was none other than Doflamingo!
At this moment, he was in a miserable state, lying on top of a reef, barely breathing. Although he was still gasping, his injuries were severe. His original pink flamingo coat was now charred cotton wool, his skin was covered with serious burns, and his once golden curly hair was completely gone, all burned off.
He was lying face down on the reef top. Ian flew over and turned him over, only to see that his eyes were tightly shut. The sunglasses he had seemingly never taken off were now just some charred remnants, sticking to the skin on part of his face.
What Doflamingo's eyes really looked like had always been a mystery. This was Ian's first time seeing him without sunglasses, but since the guy had his eyes closed, Ian couldn't tell yet.
Seeing how badly he was injured, Ian thought for a moment and gave him a simple treatment with the Twin Heaven Return Shield, temporarily saving his life.
Then, Ian kicked him in the waist to wake him up.
"It's... you!" Doflamingo opened his eyes and was startled when he saw Ian, but then his eyes flashed with a malicious glare, staring intently at Ian, and he barely managed to say: "It's all... all your fault! You... you liar!!"
Doflamingo's eyes looked ordinary, nothing special, because... Celestial Dragons are also human!
But these ordinary eyes now looked incredibly evil. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and when a person's heart is full of malice, their gaze and expression can convey it...
Then, Ian raised his foot and stomped down hard! He stomped on Doflamingo's stomach!
This stomp made Doflamingo's eyes bulge, but he was powerless to resist. Ian stepped on his stomach and said coldly: "When dealing with someone like you, of course, I have to be cautious!"
Wishing all readers a prosperous Year of the Dog
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