Chapter 71: Rumble-Rumble Fruit Acquired!
The destruction of the Ark Maxim was absolute.
With the energy core shattered and the mechanism vaporized, the dark thunderclouds that had shrouded the sky like a funeral veil began to lose their structural integrity.
Rumble... Hiss...
The billions of lightning bolts brewing within the black vortex darted around aimlessly like headless serpents. Without the constant injection of electricity from the Maxim to guide them, they emitted unwilling, dying crackles before vanishing into the thin atmosphere of the White Sea.
The oppressive darkness lifted. Shafts of brilliant sunlight pierced through the gloom, illuminating the wreckage falling from the sky like a glittering rain of gold and fire.
The sky, which had just moments ago resembled the end of the world, began to clear at a visible speed.
"No...!!!"
A heart-wrenching howl echoed from the burning remains of the ship's deck, tearing through the sound of the wind.
Enel stood amidst the flames of his broken dream. He was battered, bloody, and broken. His golden staff was gone. The drums on his back were shattered fragments.
"My Ark! My Mantra! My dream of the Endless Vearth!!!"
He watched helplessly as the golden plating melted away, dripping down to the forest below like tears. His path to the moon, his escape from this imperfect world of dirt, was turning into nothingness before his eyes.
Extreme anger and a primal fear overwhelmed the last vestiges of his sanity.
"DAMN YOU, BLUE SEA MONKEY!"
Enel screamed, his voice raw, scraping against his throat. His eyes were bloodshot, glowing with a final, suicidal madness.
"If I cannot have the sky... then no one will!"
He frantically absorbed the residual lightning that had not yet completely dissipated from the air. He acted like a desperate black hole, sucking in every volt, every spark, every electron remaining in the atmosphere.
"THUNDER GOD... FINAL JUDGMENT!"
The immense power, unstable and chaotic, reluctantly condensed around him. It formed a massive, distorted lightning avatar—a Raijin larger than the temple itself. It let out a silent roar of ozone and heat that scorched the clouds.
"DIE WITH ME!"
Enel swung his distorted lightning arm—a limb the size of a building, crackling with millions of volts—making a final, desperate attack toward Suzaku, who was hovering just a few meters away.
It was a strike meant to vaporize matter itself.
However, facing this dying counterattack, Suzaku's eyes didn't even flicker. There was no pity in his gaze, no fear, only a calm, bored indifference.
"Stubborn to the end."
Suzaku didn't dodge. He didn't retreat. He simply drifted forward.
When the violent blue lightning arm approached within three feet of his body, it hit an invisible thermal wall.
FWOOSH!
The terrifying, golden high-temperature flames of the Vermillion Bird flared up automatically from Suzaku's aura. The heat was so intense that it ionized the air further, breaking down the plasma of the lightning before it could make contact.
The giant lightning arm was enveloped by the divine fire. It hissed, unraveled, and turned into wisps of harmless grey smoke. It couldn't touch his main body at all.
"A futile struggle," Suzaku said, his voice calm but echoing with finality.
He didn't stop moving. His momentum was unabated.
The [Fire-Tipped Spear] in his hand drew a dark, crimson arc in the air. On the spear's shaft, profound Armament Haki coiled and flowed like black ink, hardening the divine weapon into something that could kill a concept.
"Goodbye, God."
Pfft!
It wasn't a loud explosion. It was a soft, wet sound.
The spearhead pierced through the lightning avatar as if it were mist. It drove straight through the center of Enel's forehead.
The expression of madness and astonishment on Enel's face instantly froze.
Time seemed to stop for the self-proclaimed deity. In that fraction of a second, the lightning in his eyes dimmed. The roar of the thunder faded into silence. The feeling of the wind, the heat of the fire, the pain of the spear—it all converged into a singular realization.
I am... dying?
His life force, like a candle snuffed out by a storm, vanished.
Whoosh!
Enel's body was instantly ignited by the residual golden flames on the spear tip. The flesh, the bone, the arrogance—it all burned away. He turned into a blazing golden fireball impaled on Suzaku's weapon, a falling star that would never reach the moon.
Suzaku flicked his wrist, about to shake off the burning corpse to let it fall into the cloud sea below.
"Wait," Suzaku paused, his eyes narrowing as a thought struck him. "Almost forgot the main business. That would have been a waste."
He held the spear steady with his right hand. His left hand shot out like lightning into the void of his inventory.
Between his index and middle fingers, a card appeared.
It wasn't a normal playing card. It was crafted from a material that looked like starlight woven into paper. Strange, iridescent halos flowed around its edges, pulsating with the rhythm of the System.
[System Item: Contract of Retrospection]
[Description: Capable of extracting the 'Concept' or 'Power' from a recently deceased target, crystallizing it into its original form.]
"Go."
He flicked his finger. The card transformed into a stream of data-like light, shooting forward and accurately imprinting itself on the chest of Enel's burning body.
Buzz...!
The moment the card touched the body, it emitted a low hum of energy that vibrated through the air layers.
A phenomenon defying the laws of nature occurred.
From Enel's corpse, countless tiny, flickering blue electric arcs began to emerge. They weren't dissipating into the air; they were being pulled.
Like rivers flowing into the sea, the essence of the Devil Fruit—the demon within the lineage factor, the very soul of the lightning—was forcibly stripped from his cells.
Zzzzt... Crackle...
The blue lightning swirled into a vortex, absorbed completely into the small card. The card acted like a black hole for the ability.
The light on the card's surface grew brighter and brighter, blindingly white. Finally, all the lightning was swallowed.
Pop.
The card expanded, warping in shape. It solidified, gaining mass and texture. The light faded, revealing a physical object.
A fruit fell from the light.
It was a strange, blue fruit covered in lightning-bolt patterns, shaped like a spiky melon. It pulsed with a terrifying, dormant energy, as if a storm were trapped inside its skin.
Suzaku reached out and easily caught it.
He held it up against the sunlight, inspecting his prize.
"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Goro Goro no Mi)... is mine."
On the tip of his spear, the empty husk of Enel's body—now devoid of its power—finally disintegrated into ash, scattered by the high-altitude wind. The false god was gone, wiped from existence, leaving only his power behind in the hands of a new master.
Suzaku stored the spear and the fruit into his System Space.
He turned, looking down at the gradually clearing sky below. He looked like a monarch surveying his newly acquired territory. The smoke from the Ark was clearing, revealing the lush green of the Upper Yard.
He casually waved to the two women hovering in the distance.
"It's done."
Albedo and Rem, who had been watching the battle with intense focus, saw the signal. As if receiving the highest command from the Supreme Being, they immediately transformed into two streams of light, soaring into the sky.
"Lord Suzaku!"
Albedo was the first to arrive. She didn't care about the residual heat or the smoke; she rushed forward and naturally wrapped her arms around Suzaku's arm, burying it in her embrace.
Her full bosom gently pressed against him, and her beautiful face was flushed with pride and adoration. Her golden eyes were misty with emotion.
"You are truly amazing! That arrogant insect... to think he believed he could challenge you!" Albedo cooed, her voice dripping with honeyed worship. "Before your supreme power, he met the only end fitting for his insolence—a ridiculous, fiery death! Seeing you crush him... ah, it makes my heart race!"
Suzaku smiled, long accustomed to Albedo's intense intimacy. He didn't pull away.
He raised his other hand, retrieving the fruit again to show them.
"Take it."
He handed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to Albedo. "This Devil Fruit was one of our primary objectives for this trip. It's a Logia of the highest tier. Invincibility, speed, destructive power... it has it all."
"For me?" Albedo asked, blinking, holding the fruit delicately.
"Keep it safe for now," Suzaku instructed. "You already have your powers. When we return to the ship, we will give it to Nami or Ram. We'll see which one of them is compatible or willing to eat it. Lightning manipulation would be useful for a Navigator to control the weather, or for Ram to enhance her destructive magic."
"As you wish, Lord Suzaku!" Albedo solemnly took the Devil Fruit with both hands, bowing her head as if receiving a sacred relic. "I will guard it with my life. No one shall touch it but you or those you designate."
Then, Suzaku turned his gaze to Rem, who was quietly hovering on the other side, waiting for her orders. Her maid uniform was pristine, untouched by the battle.
"Rem."
He pointed downward, toward the burning wreckage of the fallen Ark Maxim scattered across the Upper Yard and the forest canopy. Molten gold was dripping from the trees, pooling on the cloud floor.
"Enel plundered a lot of gold from the ruins of Shandora to build his broken ship. Tons of it. The ship is destroyed, but..."
He smiled, a glint of greed appearing in his eyes. "True gold fears no fire. It just changes shape."
"I'll trouble you to collect it. All the scattered plates, the melted ingots, the gears. Use your [Float-Float Fruit] ability to lift it all. Gather every drop of molten gold before it solidifies and transport it to the God's Palace for centralized storage."
His eyes glinted with the look of a pirate captain who had just hit the jackpot.
"From today onwards, that palace is our base. And all that gold... naturally belongs to the Suzaku Pirates."
"Rem understands!"
Rem responded crisply, her flail clanking at her hip. A serious, determined glint appeared in her azure eyes.
"Please rest assured, Lord Suzaku! Rem will collect every gram of gold for you. Not a single piece will be missed! I will sweep the forest floor if I have to!"
She bowed deeply, her maid skirt fluttering. Then she turned and flew down toward the "Ark ruins," her hands glowing with the power of gravity manipulation. She looked incredibly motivated to perform this task perfectly for her hero.
Suzaku nodded with satisfaction.
The Sky Island trip's objectives were perfectly accomplished.
Defeat the false god? Check.
Acquire the Rumble-Rumble Fruit? Check.
Secure a base of operations? Check.
Obtain massive wealth? In progress.
Suzaku descended slowly. With Albedo still clinging to his arm, he lightly landed on the shattered stone plaza of the Upper Yard.
Standing there was Wyper.
The "War Demon" looked battered. His tattoos were covered in dust, and he was leaning heavily on a piece of rubble. His Bazooka lay on the ground, forgotten. His expression was complex—a mixture of awe, relief, and a deep, gnawing anxiety.
Suzaku could read Wyper's hesitation like an open book.
The man was ecstatic that his nemesis was dead. He had seen Enel turn to ash. But he was terrified. He had just watched Suzaku kill a God and summon a firestorm that ate lightning. Would this new power be a liberator... or just a new, stronger tyrant? Was he trading one monster for another?
Suzaku smiled, a genuine, disarming expression that softened the sharpness of his aura.
"I see your apprehension, Wyper," Suzaku said, breaking the silence.
His voice was calm, yet it carried an undeniable weight of authority.
"Don't worry. I am a man of my word. I promised to let the Shandia people return to this homeland they have guarded for generations. I will never break that vow."
He took a step forward, his tone becoming formal.
"From today onwards, the war is over. The Skypieans and the Shandians... you don't need to fight for Vearth anymore. Enel is gone. The priests are gone."
He waved his arm, encompassing the vast, lush forest of the Upper Yard—the land his ancestors had died for.
"This Skypiea... I entrust it to you, the Shandia people, to manage and guard."
Wyper's eyes widened. His breath hitched in his throat.
"You... you mean it?"
"It is your homeland," Suzaku nodded. "It is most fitting for you to look after it. In exchange, you are now officially warriors under the Suzaku Banner. You fly my flag. You protect my territory."
These words were like sweet rain on a drought-stricken land.
Four hundred years!
The images of his ancestors flashed through Wyper's mind. Calgara, who died waiting for his friend. The countless warriors who fell to the Priests. The children who grew up knowing only war. The long-cherished wish was now realized. Not by war, but by the grace of this outsider.
The immense shock and ecstasy made the Iron Blood warrior tremble. Tears streamed down his face, washing away the war paint.
He no longer hesitated.
THUD.
Wyper dropped to one knee. It wasn't a forced submission; it was a gesture of absolute gratitude and loyalty.
He looked up, his voice hoarse with emotion, yet filled with unprecedented reverence.
"Wyper... on behalf of all Shandia people... THANK YOU, LORD SUZAKU!"
He slammed his fist against his chest, over his heart.
"From now on, all Shandia warriors are at your command! We are your spear and your shield! Every inch of Skypiea... we will guard with our lives for you!"
At this moment, Wyper submitted completely. Not just to power, but to the honor of the man who fulfilled a 400-year-old dream.
Suzaku looked at the kneeling warrior, then at the golden bell tower hidden in the clouds above.
"Rise, Wyper," Suzaku said softly. "We still have one thing left to do. We need to let the Blue Sea know... that the city of gold is here."
[Akarin Note:
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