The Witch, her milky eyes blazing with fury, scuttled deeper into her cavernous lair. The air grew colder, the silence punctuated only by the drip of water and the skittering of her own clawed feet. She descended a spiral staircase carved into the rock, emerging into a vast, domed chamber that shimmered with an unnatural golden light.
The source of the glow was a mountain. A literal mountain of gold coins, jewels, and ancient artifacts, piled so high it nearly touched the cavern roof. And perched precariously atop this glittering hoard, almost lost in the sheer scale of it, was a simple, unadorned wooden chest.
"Ursa," the Witch rasped, her voice echoing in the vast space, though it was barely above a whisper.
A tremor ran through the mountain of gold. Coins cascaded down its slopes like a metallic waterfall. Then, with a groan that seemed to shake the island's foundations, a colossal shape began to stir within the hoard. Two glowing, malevolent purple eyes, each the size of a longboat, blinked open.
Slowly, deliberately, a massive purple bear, easily the size of three Marine battleships stacked atop each other, began to rise. Gold rained down around it as it shook off centuries of slumber. Its fur was matted and patchy, revealing glimpses of strangely scaled, almost reptilian skin beneath. Runes, glowing faintly with the same purple light as its eyes, were etched into its hide. As it stood, its head and shoulders smashed through the cavern roof, stone and earth exploding outwards, revealing the dark, roiling sky above Ikki.
The wooden chest, dislodged by the movement, tumbled down the golden slope and landed with a soft thud directly into the Witch's outstretched, gnarled hand.
"The King's gift," she cackled, holding the chest aloft. "They seek it, Ursa. They seek to steal what is rightfully ours."
Ursa let out a low, guttural rumble, its gaze fixed on the chest. The Witch, with surprising agility, scrambled up its colossal leg, perching on its massive, furry shoulder. She presented the chest to the bear.
"Devour it, for now," she commanded.
Ursa opened its cavernous maw, revealing rows of teeth like obsidian daggers. With a sound like a collapsing building, it swallowed the chest whole.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, Ursa threw back its head and unleashed a roar.
It was not the sound of any natural beast. It was a cataclysmic scream, a sound that tore through the island, vibrating in the bones of every living (and unliving) creature. It was a sound of immense power, pain, and a dawning, terrifying rage. Purple energy pulsed visibly around Ursa's form, its runes blazing with incandescent light.
The sound echoed across Ikki, impossible to ignore.
Aboard the Red Force, Shanks, who had just finished explaining the situation to a bewildered Gyro, looked up, his expression hardening. "So, the island's guardian has awakened. And it sounds… displeased."
Kuzan, overseeing the regrouping of his shaken Marines, felt the ground tremble. "Arara… that didn't sound friendly. Looks like the main event is starting."
Doflamingo, on the deck of the Thriller Coffin, cackled with glee. "Fufufufu! The crescendo! I knew this island wouldn't disappoint!" Crocodile gripped his hook, his face grim, while Moria nervously adjusted his cravat.
The Witch, clinging to Ursa's fur, cackled madly as the bear's roar subsided, replaced by heavy, earth-shaking breaths. "Yes! Feel it, Ursa! Feel the power course through you!" She raised her gnarled staff, its tip carved into a leering, skeletal face. "Now, my champion! To the intruders! Show them the folly of their trespass!"
Ursa took a thunderous step, then another, its immense weight shaking the island. The Witch, perched like a malevolent queen on her monstrous steed, pointed her staff towards the direction of the Conqueror's Haki she had felt.
"And you, my silent sentinels," she shrieked, waving her staff in a wide arc. "Awaken! Defend your home! Let no one pass!"
As she gestured, a tremor ran through the surrounding forest. The gnarled, diseased trees, which had stood as silent witnesses, began to creak and groan. Roots tore themselves from the earth with sickening, ripping sounds. Branches, thick as a man's torso, twisted and reformed into crude, claw-like appendages. Knotholes became glowing, malevolent eyes.
One by one, then in dozens, then in hundreds, the trees of Ikki Island came alive. They uprooted themselves, their tangled roots becoming makeshift legs, and began to march, a shambling, wooden army, their movements jerky.
The Witch cackled, her voice carried on the wind. "They came for a treasure! They will find only their graves, buried beneath the roots of an angry island!"
***
The earth-shattering roar of Ursa and the subsequent march of the awakened forest sent ripples of alarm and anticipation through the various factions converging on Ikki.
Kuzan, witnessing the arboreal assault on his recovering marines, clicked his tongue. "Arara, now they're throwing trees at us? How rude." He raised a hand, the air around him plummeting in temperature. "Ice Age: Forest Funeral!" A colossal wave of absolute zero surged outwards, not just freezing the path ahead but encasing scores of the lumbering tree-golems in brittle, crystalline prisons. The cacophony of splintering wood and snapping branches was deafening as the frozen forest giants shattered under their own weight or the slightest impact. "That should keep them busy for a bit."
Meanwhile, Doflamingo, cackling maniacally, launched himself skyward with his strings, a pink comet against the sickly sky. "Fufufu! Time to meet the island's main attraction!"
Below, Gecko Moria, with a gleeful "Kishishishi!", unleashed his own brand of chaos. "Doppelman!" His shadow stretched and solidified, forming a tangible, grinning replica of himself that dove into the fray, while Moria commanded his Brick Bats and other patchwork zombies to tear into the wooden assailants. "Rip them apart! More material for my collection!" He, too, began to make his way, albeit more erratically, towards the colossal purple bear.
Crocodile, ever pragmatic, wasted no time. "Sables!" A swirling vortex of sand erupted around him, lifting him from the ground. He became a miniature, contained sandstorm, a serpentine river of grit and fury that cut a swathe through the animated trees, grinding them to sawdust as he, too, arrowed towards Ursa.
Marco, in his full phoenix form, soared into the sky, the blue flames of regeneration trailing behind him like ethereal ribbons. "Shanks, you and the others handle the ground troops and keep an eye out for that fruit user! I'll check out the big guy, yoi!"
From his vantage point, Marco saw the truly immense scale of Ursa. It was less a bear and more a mobile, furry mountain of rage. He then spotted Doflamingo, a tiny pink speck against the bear's vastness, already closing in. "Fufufu, that upstart Doflamingo," Marco muttered to himself, his phoenix eyes sharp. "Always has to be the star of the show. Thinks he can just waltz in and make a name for himself on an Emperor's doorstep."
Doflamingo, spotting the blue phoenix, sneered. "Well, well, Marco the Phoenix! Come to get a front-row seat to my triumph? Fufufu! Best flap those little wings out of my way, birdy. This prize is mine!" His voice, amplified by some unknown means, carried clearly through the air.
"This isn't your playground, Doflamingo!" Marco retorted, circling warily. "And that thing looks a lot tougher than your usual Dressrosa puppets, yoi!"
Doflamingo ignored him, his attention solely on Ursa. The giant bear roared, swiping a paw the size of a small ship at the airborne Warlord. Doflamingo danced out of the way with contemptuous ease.
"Pathetic beast!" he taunted. "Let me show you the true meaning of control! Parasite!"
Invisible strings shot out, lashing around Ursa's colossal limbs. The giant bear strained, roared, but found its movements becoming sluggish, then halting altogether as Doflamingo tightened his grip.
"Now, for the grand finale!" Doflamingo cackled, forming a thick whip of razor-sharp strings in his hand. "Overheat!"
He lashed out. The strings, glowing with immense heat and tension, sliced through Ursa's thick hide, through muscle and bone, with horrifying ease. A sickening, wet tearing sound echoed across the island as the massive bear was bisected horizontally at its midsection.
The upper half of Ursa toppled with a ground-shattering crash, kicking up a colossal cloud of dust and debris. The lower half remained standing for a moment, then crumpled.
The Witch, still perched on Ursa's shoulder as it fell, was flung violently through the air, screaming, before landing with a sickening thud in a patch of thorny bushes, out of sight for the moment.
Doflamingo landed gracefully atop the still-twitching upper torso of the fallen Ursa, striking a triumphant pose, his pink feather coat billowing. "Fufufu! And they call that a champion? This island's defenses are as flimsy as its reputation! Another legend debunked by Donquixote Doflamingo!" He spread his arms wide. "Is there no one left who can offer me a real challenge?!"
"Doflamingo! Watch out, yoi!" Marco suddenly shrieked from above, his voice tight with alarm.
"Eh?" Doflamingo turned, an arrogant smirk on his face, expecting to see Marco perhaps attempting a foolish attack.
Instead, his eyes widened behind his shades.
The two halves of Ursa were... moving. Not just twitching, but regenerating with impossible speed. The flesh and fur bubbled and reformed. But it wasn't one bear reforming.
From the bisected lower half, a new torso, head, and limbs erupted, identical to the original. Simultaneously, the fallen upper half regrew its lower body.
Where one colossal purple bear had stood, there were now two, each roaring with renewed fury, their purple eyes burning with an even more intense, vengeful light. The ground where the chest had been consumed now pulsed with a faint, sickly green glow.
Before Doflamingo could fully process the impossible sight, the two Ursas attacked. One swiped with a colossal paw, the other headbutted with the force of a meteor. Doflamingo, caught completely off guard mid-monologue, was swatted like an insignificant fly. He rocketed into the sky, a pink streak tumbling end over end, letting out an undignified yelp of surprise and pain.
Marco hovered, momentarily stunned. "Well, that escalated quickly, yoi. Two of them now? This island just keeps getting crazier."