Summary:
As their battle continues, Doflamingo relentlessly attacks Luffy with the string and takes control of him. However, Luffy breaks free by activating Gear 4 and flies into the air, where he enlarges his fist even more. He then breaks through Doflamingo’s defenses and sends the Shichibukai flying across the ground.
The people on Dressros cheer Luffy as he returns to battle Doflamingo and Gatz tells him to take down the Shichibukai with one blow. Doflamingo praises Luffy’s entrance, but knows that he just got his Haki back and is probably at his limit. Luffy replies that Doflamingo is close to being defeated as well, and Doflamingo hits Luffy with his string pillars, knocking him to the ground. Rebecca turns to face him, only for Doflamingo to attack her next. However, Law switches Rebecca with the stone and takes her to his place while Doflamingo destroys the stone. Doflamingo notices Law and tells him to watch his hopes get crushed. Doflamingo turns the ground Luffy is lying on into a string, bouncing him before tying his body with the string. Doflamingo then summons many rope blades and sends them all at Luffy, who tries to block them with Busoshoku Haki. However, one of the blades succeeds in impaling Luffy and Doflamingo questions him if he really got his Haki back as he sent Luffy into a rock wall before hitting him with all of his string blades.
Gatz and the citizens are stunned by the battle and wonder what happened. However, the Birdcage remains aloft and the gladiators, pirates, and marines continue to push it, hoping that Luffy will hurry up and defeat Doflamingo. Meanwhile, Luffy lies down in a cave created by the impact and is unable to get up. Suddenly, Doflamingo ties him up and forces him to stand up and walk towards him. As Doflamingo controls Luffy as a puppet, Luffy remembers sitting around a campfire with Silvers Rayleigh during his training. Losing to his opponent and narrowly escaping death, Rayleigh asked him what happened to his Kong Gun. Luffy replied that this opponent was too big for the Kong Gun to work on, and Rayleigh told him that he had to come up with something else. As he walks towards Doflamingo, Luffy realizes that Shichibukai was also too strong for Kong Gun.
Doflamingo tells Luffy that they should have all stayed in his cage and submitted to his manipulation, stating that humans should only live when manipulated by a divine being like him. He says he wouldn’t have had to carry out this massacre if they hadn’t cut the puppets, but Luffy has had enough of his talk. Cutting further into the King’s Platform, Birdcage continues to cut through buildings and Luffy’s allies tell him to hurry. Leo worries about what will happen if the Birdcage continues, but Robin tells him to trust Luffy. Meanwhile, Luffy raises his arm and blows on it, reactivating Gear 4 and breaking Doflamingo’s control over him.
While Doflamingo is shocked that Luffy broke the strings, he wonders how long Luffy can keep Gear 4 in this state. Luffy then levitates into the air, much to Doflamingo’s amusement as he and his strings rise up and follow him. Doflamingo catches up to Luffy, expressing his anger at being a pirate over him, and promises to take him down and control him as a puppet again. Luffy replies that he felt like he was suffocating because Doflamingo was manipulating everyone, and the Shichibukai says that people are born here as trash and are meant to be manipulated. Luffy tells him to be quiet as he retracts his forearm and Doflamingo creates a net to protect himself. Luffy then blows air into his other arm, making the retracted arm even bigger as he remembers sharing his idea for an upgraded Kong Gun with Rayleigh. Doflamingo is surprised by this as he sends 16 balls of string at Luffy, who launches his new attack, the King Kong Punch, down. The collision between Luffy and the strings is strong enough to cause ripples in the water to be felt by the residents below, and everyone on Dressros cheers for Luffy as he breaks through Doflamingo’s attack and defense before hitting Doflamingo himself. The force of the blow knocks Doflamingo into the ground, with the impact tearing apart the city and Doflamingo falling into an underground port. Law remembers Corazon telling him about how the D Family is a sworn enemy of the gods as Doflamingo’s broken glasses fall off and Luffy floats in the air in triumph.