Chapter 69: Clash of Flames and Lightning!
The silence that followed the impact was short-lived.
RUMBLE...
A low, menacing vibration began to emanate from the pile of debris where the self-proclaimed God had been buried.
BOOM!
The shattered stones of the temple wall exploded outward with a deafening roar, turning into shrapnel that scattered across the hall. Wild, uncontrolled blue lightning snakes erupted from the ruins, staining the rising dust with an eerie, blinding glow.
From within the electric haze, Enel's figure re-coalesced.
He hovered in mid-air, his feet dangling inches above the ground. He looked nothing like the composed, bored deity from moments ago. His nose was crooked, blood flowing freely down his chin. His white pants were stained with soot.
Slowly, shakily, Enel raised a hand. He touched his face, his fingers coming away wet and red.
He stared at the crimson liquid on his fingertips. His pupils trembled, dilating and contracting in a rhythm of pure shock.
"Blood...?"
Enel whispered, his voice cracking.
"I... am bleeding?"
For six years, since he devoured the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Enel had transcended humanity. He was energy. He was nature. Objects passed through him; weapons melted before they touched his skin. He had forgotten what pain felt like. He had forgotten the color of his own blood.
And now, a Blue Sea monkey—a creature of dirt—had reminded him.
"I... AM A GOD!"
His voice was no longer calm. It was sharp, screeching with the tone of a deity who had been desecrated. The air pressure in the room dropped violently as his emotions destabilized his electromagnetic field.
"The world should revere me! Worship me! And submit to me!"
He stared intently at the calm, black-haired youth standing below him. His chest heaved violently, his breathing ragged.
Why?
Why had God's lightning power failed?
Why could this mortal... touch him?
Ever since gaining the authority of thunder, he had grown accustomed to all beings prostrating themselves, needing courage even to look up at his feet. The throbbing pain in his cheekbone was not just an injury; it was an unprecedented humiliation. It was a rejection of his entire existence.
"Unforgivable..."
Enel grit his teeth, sparks flying from his mouth.
"Unwilling to let this sorry state be witnessed further by these ants..."
ZZZT!
Lightning surged around him, wrapping him in a cocoon of high voltage. He slowly ascended, floating higher and higher toward the shattered dome of the temple, looking down from above.
He needed distance. He needed to re-establish the insurmountable gap between God and mortals.
"Blasphemer..." Enel looked down, his eyes glowing white. "You, along with this defiled land, and these useless servants who failed to protect me... TURN TO ASH!"
He suddenly raised both arms high toward the open sky.
KRACK-DOOM!
The clouds above the Upper Yard turned black instantly. Blinding lightning frantically gathered above Enel's head, compressing into a terrifying ball of thunder. It grew larger and larger—ten meters, twenty meters—until it was a miniature sun of pure destruction.
It was impossible to look at directly. Its scale far exceeded the 'Judgment' that had struck Gan Fall.
"GOD'S PUNISHMENT: THUNDER FESTIVAL!"
As he roared hysterically, the enormous thunderball exploded.
It wasn't a single bolt. It was a deluge.
Like a bursting dam, the sphere transformed into countless violent lightning spears and twisting electric pythons. They poured down from the sky, a waterfall of plasma meant to scrub the surface of the island clean.
This was not aimed at a specific person. This was indiscriminate genocide.
It targeted Suzaku. It targeted Wyper. It targeted the temple. It targeted the fifty Divine Warriors who were still lying on the ground, injured and confused.
"G-God Enel?!"
One of the Divine Warriors, a man with a goat-head hat, looked up in horror. "We are still here! God! Please spare us!"
But Enel didn't even glance at them. To him, they were just part of the scenery that needed to be erased.
"It's over..."
Before the lightning truly struck, the destructive pressure already made Wyper and Gan Fall feel it difficult to breathe. The static in the air was so intense that sparks jumped between their teeth.
Gan Fall dropped his lance, his knees hitting the floor. "He intends to sink the entire shrine..."
The surrounding Divine Warriors turned pale, staring in despair at the thunderous hell that filled their entire vision. Under such indiscriminate punishment, loyalists and enemies were the same—just ash in the wind.
However, in the center of this apocalypse, there was an island of calm.
Albedo stood with her hands clasped behind her back. She tilted her head slightly, gracefully tucking a stray strand of jet-black hair behind her ear.
She looked up at the falling sky not with fear, but with mild annoyance. As if what was pouring down from above was not destructive lightning capable of melting steel, but a slightly noisy rain that might ruin her dress.
"Noisy," she muttered.
Rem stood quietly beside Suzaku, her morningstar resting on the ground. She didn't flinch. Her blue eyes were fixed on her master with absolute, unwavering trust. If Suzaku was there, the sky falling meant nothing.
Suzaku finally looked up at the seemingly insane Enel in the sky.
He adjusted his collar, watching the cascade of death descending upon them.
"Tsk."
He clicked his tongue softly.
"I was just playing along to see what you could do," Suzaku said, his voice cutting through the thunderous roar. "Why are you getting so worked up over a little nosebleed?"
He casually extended his right arm forward, fingers splayed wide.
"I can't let you do whatever you want like this," Suzaku's eyes flashed with a crimson light. "This island... is about to become my territory. And I hate it when tenants break the furniture."
[System Activation: Vermillion Bird Bloodline]
[Skill: Calamity Fire Wings]
"Vermillion Style: Calamity Fire Wings!"
"CAW—!"
A piercing cry, distinct from the thunder, echoed through the temple. It was the cry of a mythical beast, ancient and sovereign.
FWOOSH!
A vast, golden-red flame shot up from behind Suzaku. It didn't just burn; it took shape. The flames coalesced into the magnificent, ethereal form of the Vermillion Bird—the Guardian of the South. Its wings spanned the entire width of the hall, radiating a majesty that made the lightning look chaotic and immature.
"Spin."
The moment the fiery Vermillion Bird appeared, Suzaku twisted his wrist.
The fire beast began to spin wildly at an incredible speed.
RUMBLE—!
The centrifugal force transformed the bird into a phenomenon. A colossal tornado of flame, connecting the temple's floor to the shattered dome, suddenly formed.
The core of the tornado was an intense golden-white, hotter than magma. Its edges were a flowing crimson, radiating terrifying heat that distorted the space around it.
"Go."
This destructive fire tornado, possessing its own will, surged upward with overwhelming force. It rose to meet the myriad lightning bolts pouring down from Enel's hands.
SIZZLE... HISS... BOOM!
The collision of elements was cataclysmic.
The blue-white electric snakes tried to tear open the fiery barrier, biting and slashing at the wind. But the Vermillion Fire was not normal fire. It was a conceptual flame that burned energy itself.
The lightning was mercilessly devoured.
The fire tornado acted like a massive vacuum cleaner. Wherever it passed, the violent lightning currents descending from the sky were swept in, twisted, and incinerated. The blue light flickered and died, swallowed by the golden-red abyss.
"Impossible..."
Wyper's mouth hung open, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.
He watched the fire tornado, connecting heaven and earth, open its massive maw like a living creature. It sucked in Enel's proud "God's Punishment" like noodles, chewing and swallowing the lightning without suffering a scratch.
An unprecedented sense of powerlessness washed over Wyper.
He was a warrior. He was the "War Demon." But in the face of this... he was nothing. A Shandian warrior seemed so tiny, so insignificant, against these two monsters who wielded the weather as weapons.
Gan Fall next to him was not much better. Though the former God tried his best to maintain composure, his trembling white beard and the involuntary half-step back betrayed the tumultuous waves in his heart.
This young man... he is not just strong. He is a calamity.
In stark contrast to their shock were the Divine Warriors slumped on the ground.
Just seconds ago, they thought they were doomed. They had closed their eyes, waiting to be vaporized by their own God.
But the pain never came.
They opened their eyes to see a wall of golden fire shielding them, eating the lightning that was meant to kill them.
Some of them cried tears of joy, snot and tears smearing their faces.
"We... we're alive?"
But when they looked at the back of the man controlling the fire, that relief turned to a deeper, primal fear. Enel's lightning was terrifying, yes. But this Blue Sea man... the flames he summoned could eat God's wrath as if it were a snack.
They lay sprawled on the scorching ground, unable to even conceive of fleeing, only able to tremble amidst this clash of titans.
High in the sky, Enel floated, panting.
He watched his proud lightning cascade be devoured inch by inch by the fire tornado.
"Fire..." Enel gritted his teeth. "He stopped the Thunder Festival?"
Yet, there was no panic in his pupils. Only a cold calculation.
"Impressive. But fire has mass. Fire has limits."
Enel sneered.
"How can the speed of lightning be matched by mere mortal fire? You can block my attacks, but you cannot catch me!"
Just as the tip of the fire tornado rose to engulf him, Enel's figure flickered.
ZAP!
He turned back into a swift, blue-white electric light. He moved at speeds the human eye couldn't track, narrowly avoiding the destructive suction range of the tornado at the last microsecond.
The blue electric light zipped across the sky, re-coalescing on the other side of the temple dome, completely unharmed.
"Hah!"
A habitual, arrogant smile curved at the corner of his mouth.
"Too slow! Too slow!" Enel laughed, looking down at the firestorm that missed him. "Indeed, even if these flames are incredibly powerful, they are useless if they cannot hit the target! I am the fastest being in exist—"
However, just as this thought flashed through his mind, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
A shadow fell over him.
Enel suddenly turned his head to the left.
His eyes widened until they threatened to split.
There, floating in the air right next to him—at the exact spot where he had reformed—was Suzaku.
Suzaku wasn't moving fast. He was simply... waiting.
That familiar fist, entwined with dark, flowing Armament Haki, was already pulled back, primed and ready.
It was as if Suzaku had read the script. As if he had watched Enel turn into lightning, watched him fly across the room, and simply stepped to the finish line to wait for him.
"You..." Suzaku whispered, his eyes glowing with the red light of Future Sight. "You're predictable."
"Wh-what?!"
Horror and disbelief instantly overwhelmed all of Enel's thoughts.
He knew where I would go? Before I even moved?!
"Observation Haki: Future Sight."
Suzaku didn't give him time to process it.
"Vermillion Impact!"
"BANG—!"
Another solid thud, heavier than the last!
This punch didn't just hit skin; it hit the soul. Suzaku's fist slammed hard into the side of Enel's face, right on the bruise from the previous hit.
CRACK!
The immense impact shattered Enel's cheekbone. His head whipped to the side so fast his neck nearly snapped.
"GURGH!"
Enel spat out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth.
He flew backward like a kite with a cut string, trailing a stream of scattered sparks and blood across the sky.
He rocketed through the air, past the stunned Wyper, past the terrified Divine Warriors, and crashed miserably into the distance.
BOOM!
Enel slammed into the colossal Giant Jack—the massive beanstalk that ran through the center of Skypiea. He embedded himself deep into the ancient plant matter, creating a crater of wood and sap.
He hung there for a second, stuck in the wood, before gravity took hold.
The "God" slid down the beanstalk, leaving a trail of blood, and collapsed onto a large vine leaf, twitching uncontrollably.
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