Enel's voice was no longer human, it had become pure, deafening thunder itself!
High above the sky, all the lightning ceased its descent at that very moment.
Endless golden lightning, like pilgrims who had found their king, went mad, converging, compressing, and recombining around Enel's position!
A colossal existence, blotting out the sky, slowly took shape above the sea of clouds.
It was a giant over a hundred meters tall, composed entirely of pure, ultra-dense lightning!
Three heads. Six arms. A ferocious visage, wrapped in arcs of annihilating electricity.
Enel's true body floated at the core of the Thunder God's chest, arms spread wide as he reveled in this world-destroying power!
This was his strongest form, born of his return from the moon, the fusion of ancient technology and the Awakened power of the Goro Goro no Mi Fruit!
"Do you see it, mortals?! This is the true form of a 'god'!"
The massive head of Amaru lowered, eyes of lightning coldly locking onto the Visalia below, tiny as dust.
"Everything… ends now."
The crushing pressure made everyone aboard the Visalia stop breathing.
"T-This… this has to be a joke…" Haredas collapsed onto the deck, trembling like a leaf.
This had completely surpassed science; no, it had surpassed human understanding itself!
"That curly-brow… that fatty…" Nami gripped the railing so hard her knuckles turned white.
Her mind was blank, filled with nothing but primal fear.
"Run! Both of you, run!!"
She screamed with all her strength.
Against a calamity like this… there was simply no chance of victory.
"Run?"
Midair, Sanji wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and glanced at Rehn beside him, whose expression was just as grim.
"Hey, fatty," Sanji said hoarsely.
"What?" Rehn's eyes were locked on Enel's core.
"That bastard's like a hedgehog wrapped in high-voltage electricity right now. Armament Haki can hit him, sure, but before we even touch him, we'll be roasted alive by two hundred million volts."
Sanji analyzed the situation calmly.
"Correct." Rehn pushed up his glasses, now riddled with cracks. "And his Mantra is still active. Any hostile intent will be sensed in advance."
"In other words…"
"In other words," Rehn took over, "Conventional attacks are useless. Before he launches his strike, we have to ignore that lightning shell, somehow deceive his Observation Haki, and with a single blow… knock out his true body."
They exchanged a glance and instantly understood each other.
It was nearly an… impossible mission.
"Still discussing your last words, insects?!"
In the sky, the Thunder God Amaru raised all six arms.
Six pillars of divine punishment, each thicker than the Weatheria itself, began forming in his palms!
"Fatty!"
Sanji drew in a sharp breath. The flames around his right leg surged once more!
"I need you… to bet everything."
"So do you."
Rehn nodded slowly, crouching slightly. His bones crackled softly.
"My strongest attack needs charge time, and it has to be at point-blank range."
Sanji's expression had never been more serious.
"I'll create an opening… one that even a 'god' can't ignore."
"Diable Jambe…"
At that instant, the crimson flames turned faintly pale,
A sign of heat pushed to the absolute extreme!
"Ifrit Jambe, Hell... Memories!!!"
Sanji yanked his right leg back, then unleashed all his strength. Accelerating with Geppo, he became a pale meteor tearing through the heavens, not kicking Enel, but striking the right side of Amaru's sky!
BOOOOM!!!!
A terrifying volcanic blast of flame erupted in a fan shape, covering thousands of meters!
This wasn't an attack on Enel; it was clearing the field!
In that airspace, everything was wiped away, leaving behind a brief vacuum zone!
"Meaningless struggle!"
Enel was momentarily taken aback by the bizarre move, but he didn't care.
"Then I'll start with you!"
All six of Amaru's arms turned at once, targeting the exhausted Sanji, who was gasping for breath midair!
"NOW!!" Sanji roared with the last of his strength.
"God! Your greatest flaw is that you rely too much on your so-called Mantra!"
"What?!" Enel was startled.
At the very instant he focused all his attention, his Mantra, and all six arms on Sanji, preparing to erase him completely-
The lightning shell just below his chest suddenly… caved inward, without any warning!
A figure slipped through the two-hundred-million-volt high-pressure grid like a ghost, breaking into his absolute domain!
It was Rehn!
While Sanji used Hell Memories to draw all of Enel's attention, Rehn did something utterly counterintuitive.
Instead of releasing killing intent, he forcibly extinguished his presence, his aura, his will, even his heartbeat, using a special Haki technique of his own creation!
Rehn was nothing short of a genius in the use of Haki.
He disguised himself as… a stone.
A lifeless object, something Mantra would never actively detect!
At the same time, he condensed every ounce of Armament Haki over his body, forming an airtight Haki armor, forcibly pushing through the terrifying two-hundred-million-volt voltage!
ZZZZZRT!!!
Even with Armament protection, Rehn's suit was instantly reduced to ash, his skin screaming with the pain of being seared!
But he succeeded!
Right before Enel's eyes, Rehn broke into Amaru's core, right in front of Enel's true body!
"Y-You… how is this possible?!" Enel's Mantra only went into a frantic alarm when Rehn was already within arm's reach. Enel stared in terror, trying to summon lightning to defend, but it was too late!
Rehn's right fist was already raised high.
Clinging to it was Armament Haki even denser, deeper, and darker than his previous Breaking the Limit!
"Your greatest mistake, 'god,'" Rehn said coldly, without a trace of emotion, "is that you… don't understand what Haki truly is."
"Ultimate Technique"
"EXTREME LIMIT BREAK SPIKE!!!"
There was no earth-shattering spectacle, just power compressed into a single point.
THUD!!
The punch struck Enel squarely in the chest.
His manic laughter, terror, and rage, all expressions, froze on his face.
The light in his eyes went out like a lamp losing power.
Thump.
He passed out.
As his consciousness was cut off, the sky-blotting Thunder God Amaru began to flicker and distort like an illusion deprived of energy.
BOOOOM!!
It collapsed completely, scattering into golden arcs that dissipated over the White-White Sea.
The sky… returned to calm.
Only Rehn remained, gripping Enel by his long earlobes, and the distant, rapidly falling Sanji.
"Hey! Fatty! Catch me!!" Sanji shouted, completely spent as he dropped.
Rehn Geppoed over, grabbed Sanji by the collar, and the two descended slowly onto the Visalia's deck.
Thud.
Rehn casually tossed the unconscious Enel onto the deck.
"W-We… we won?" Haredas asked, trembling.
Nami stared blankly, her legs giving out as she collapsed to the ground.
"Huff… huff…"
Sanji gulped for air, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag before recovering.
"Nami-san! Are you alright?!" He sprang up immediately.
"I'm… I'm fine…" Nami was still dazed.
"Don't relax."
Rehn's cold voice cut through the relief.
He strode to Enel, pulled out a pair of cuffs from his coat, glinting with an eerie sheen.
"Seastone?!" Nami recognized the material instantly.
Click!
Expressionless, Rehn cuffed Enel's hands behind his back.
But instead of relaxing, Rehn headed for the cabin and rummaged through his luggage.
"Hey, fatty, what are you doing? He's already out cold," Sanji asked, confused.
Rehn didn't answer. Soon, he dragged out a heavy box.
Clatter!
The box opened to reveal… chains, cuffs, shackles, all made of Seastone, and even a Seastone gag!
"…!"
Even Sanji was stunned. "Y-You… how afraid of dying are you? You sail with THIS much stuff?!"
"This is Lord Renzo's teaching," Rehn said solemnly.
"Efficiency's first prerequisite is absolute certainty. Against an enemy who can elementalize, teleport, and possess such Observation Haki, any carelessness is an insult to life."
Click! Click! Clatter!
Under everyone's dumbfounded stares, Rehn began his "professional" work.
He shackled Enel's ankles first, then linked the cuffs and shackles with chains in an M-shaped bind.
Next, he took another chain and wrapped Enel's upper body, along with the four drums, like a zongzi, binding him tightly to the main mast!
"Fatty… he's just unconscious, not dead. This is a bit, "
"Not enough."
Rehn pulled out another pair of Seastone cuffs and clamped them onto Enel's earlobes, locking the long ears together.
Finally, he picked up the Seastone gag…
"Wait!"
Sanji couldn't take it anymore.
"That's too much! That's straight-up humiliation!"
Rehn paused, seemingly weighing the balance between "humiliating a god" and "efficiency."
In the end, he put the gag down, then took out a roll of special Seastone tape and wrapped Enel's mouth seven or eight times!
Only then did Rehn let out a long breath and clap his hands.
"Alright. Now he's safe."
The deck fell into silence.
Everyone stared at Rehn as if he were a maniac.
"Cough…" Sanji took a drag of his cigarette to break the awkwardness. "Honestly… that guy…"
He glanced at Enel, now bound like an art installation, and said with lingering fear, "He was strong. Like a monster."
"Agreed."
Rehn nodded. "His physical skills were trash, his battle IQ nearly zero, he fought entirely on Devil Fruit power and Observation Haki."
"Yeah…"
Sanji exhaled a smoke ring. "He didn't even know the most basic Armament Haki."
They looked at each other, both seeing the same lingering dread.
"Just relying on a single Devil Fruit… and he pushed the two of us this far."
Rehn adjusted his cracked glasses and concluded, "If that guy had learned even the most basic Armament Haki… the ones dying here today would've been us."
"A 'god' without Armament Haki," Sanji chuckled softly. "That's… Sky Island's greatest stroke of luck."
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu