Thump! Thump! Thump!
A lightning giant with hair standing on end and a protruding belly strode through the heart of the castle. His heavy footfalls rhythmically shook the streets, making the very foundations of the city groan.
Behind him, several Giants lay crumpled before the castle gates, their faint, ragged breathing the only sign they still clung to life. Along the streets he had traversed, hundreds of charred corpses remained—mercenaries, city guards, and unlucky civilians alike.
BOOM!
A massive pillar of lightning tore through a six-story building with the force of a falling star. Half the roof collapsed into the street, sending a thick shroud of dust billowing into the air.
"Dammit, Enel! We had no intention of fighting you! Your Captain already agreed to let us leave!" a mercenary leader roared, his voice cracking with fear and fury.
"We work for Buggy, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! We're on the same side! Enel-sama, please, have mercy!" pleaded a pirate who had recently escaped from the depths of Impel Down.
Enel remained utterly deaf to their cries for mercy, continuing his wanton path of destruction.
"The moment you set foot here, you were guilty! Let 'God' pass judgment upon you!"
"Only those who survive my hand are worthy of leaving this hell! Cower! Tremble! Struggle to stay alive! Yah-ha-ha-ha! Yah-ha-ha-ha—!"
In his colossal Amaru form, Enel laughed manically. He thrust a fist forward, unleashing a thick pillar of lightning that vaporized every structure in its path.
"Madman! He's a complete madman!"
The survivors watched Enel's laughter with horror, their eyes wide with abject terror. Some had already lost their minds to fear.
Griffinfort was now a vision of purgatory. Outside, the routed army was stampeding into the city; inside, Enel was methodically dismantling the streets. To make matters worse, the nobles and generals in the Inner Keep were silent—the defense was effectively headless. The minor nobles and middle-ranking officers left in the city could only watch as the chaos spiraled out of control.
"Stop this lunatic! Or we're all dead!"
"Charge him together! We have to bring him down, no matter what!"
"Run! This monster isn't something human strength can overcome!"
"It's no use... there's no winning this!"
Mercenaries of all stripes were in an uproar. Some banded together to attack Enel, driven by a mix of survival instinct and the delusional hope of becoming famous by slaying a god. Others, their spirits broken, cared for nothing but putting distance between themselves and the lightning giant.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of pirates and mercenaries opened fire with flintlocks and rocket launchers. A rain of lead and steel pelted Enel's massive electrical form.
"Useless! All of it is useless!"
Enel stood motionless, basking in the concentrated fire. The bullets and shells melted into slag the moment they touched the high-temperature plasma of his body, failing to leave even a scratch.
BOOM!
Enel punched the air, sending a massive bolt of lightning straight through a dozen houses. It carved a semi-circular trench over a hundred meters long into the earth. Charred corpses lay within the deep furrow, tendrils of acrid smoke rising from the blackened remains.
Facing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, hailed as one of the "most powerful" of the Logia class, simple numbers and concentrated firepower were meaningless. While Seastone could neutralize such powers, the mineral was exceedingly rare, its supply tightly controlled by the world's great powers. Even raw Seastone ore on the black market was snapped up at exorbitant prices by major factions.
As for processed Seastone bullets or shackles, they were even rarer. The technology to process Seastone was held by only a few entities: the World Government, the Navy, the World Neutral Zones, and Germa 66.
Without Seastone weapons, Enel was untouchable. Few of these mercenaries knew how to use Haki, and those who did lacked the proficiency to pose a threat to a Logia of his caliber.
"Tsk, tsk... a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user. What a lucky fellow."
A handsome silver-haired man crouched on the edge of a half-collapsed tower, watching Enel with a mix of mockery and annoyance. He surveyed the ruin around him and frowned in disgust. "Too filthy. Dust everywhere. If you're going to kill, just kill. Why make such a mess?"
"'Moonlight's Smile' Calotte, S-class mercenary... aren't you going to step in?" a voice called from below.
Calotte looked down. Standing there was a handsome man with dark red hair, dressed in noble finery and long boots. He carried a massive poleaxe-halberd crafted from gold and "flash materials."
"Ah... the 'Aesthetic Bounty Hunter,' Galdoy. Your weapon is quite... shiny," Calotte remarked, looking with feigned interest at the golden poleaxe.
"Of course. This is my medal. I crafted this spear by pooling the bounties of every pirate I've slain and constantly adding flash materials," Galdoy replied with a confident smirk. "I'm glad I came. Once I take Enel's head, there are plenty in the Underworld who would pay a billion Berries for it. With that, I can finally afford a diamond-studded shaft!"
"Take Enel's head? You? Heh..." Calotte glanced at Galdoy and couldn't help but let out a derisive snort.
"Hmph! Don't look down on me, Calotte. I want to see if you can still smile when the sun goes down!" Galdoy spat. Ignoring the silver-haired man, he brandished his weapon and charged into the fray.
A cold glint flashed in Calotte's eyes. "Heh... I can smile at any time."
Slowly, Calotte drew the longsword at his hip. The polished blade reflected the sunlight with a haunting, ethereal glow.
CRACK—
Suddenly, a faint sound of fracturing air reached his ears. Calotte looked back, his eyes widening in shock. Nearly a kilometer away, over a dozen cracks had appeared in the very atmosphere, spider-webbing toward the sky.
RUMBLE!
The next instant, the earth heaved violently. It felt as if a magnitude-8 earthquake had struck. Buildings collapsed in the tremors, and massive fissures tore through the ground, forcing tectonic plates to grind and shift.
WHOOSH—
A terrifying shockwave swept outward like a hurricane. It blew away everything not bolted to the ground; even people were lifted into the air and tossed aside. Over half the castle was affected by the blast.
"What is this—?!" Enel gasped, dropping into a wide stance to resist the gust.
When the air finally stilled, the streets were a landscape of wreckage and wailing survivors. The sudden blast had caught everyone off guard; many pirates attacking Enel had been blown back, and in the chaos, several had accidentally fired their weapons, killing their own comrades.
"That direction... it's 'Golden Ring' Aeridar!"
Calotte stepped out from behind a crumbling wall, staring toward the Inner Keep in disbelief. Most of the grand buildings in the inner sanctum had been reduced to rubble. The twenty-meter-high inner wall had collapsed halfway, burying an unknown number of people. Only a thick shroud of rising dust remained to veil the carnage within the keep.