Chapter 68: Suzaku VS Enel!
The command "Kneel" echoed off the cold stone walls of the Divine Shrine, but it was met not with submission, but with a silence louder than thunder.
Enel sat on his golden throne, his posture relaxed, almost liquid in its laziness. But beneath that veneer of boredom, his massive Mantra (Observation Haki) was screaming. It was a radar that covered the entire island, picking up every sound, every movement, every heartbeat.
But right now, it was picking up something far more infuriating than sound.
It was picking up disdain.
When he looked down at Albedo, the black-winged woman standing below him, he didn't feel the fear or awe he was accustomed to. He didn't taste the sweet nectar of terror that usually radiated from mortals in his presence. Instead, he felt a cold, sharp, penetrating judgment.
She looked at him not as a God, but as a bug. A noisy, shiny insect that was annoying her master.
Me? A bug?
A surge of nameless, hot fury flared in Enel's chest. It started as a spark and ignited into an inferno that threatened to consume his rationality.
He had just perfectly displayed the great power of a God before her! He had phased through physical attacks like a phantom! He had commanded lightning that made the sky itself tremble!
Was that not enough? Was being invincible not enough to make these mortals kneel and weep in worship?
Why?
How dare she look at me with those eyes! How dare a lower lifeform judge the Divine!
Crackle—!
The blinding blue electrical light suddenly contracted in the center of the great hall. Enel's figure dissolved into pure energy and instantly reappeared on his Cloud Throne, sitting upright. The playful, cat-like smile was gone.
He propped his chin with one hand, his fingers digging into his cheek, but the violent twitching of his eyebrow betrayed his turbulent inner state.
"In the end..."
Enel forced himself to speak calmly, but his voice was laced with a venomous disappointment that vibrated through the floorboards.
"You are merely unevolved Blue Sea monkeys. Creatures of dirt and mud who fundamentally cannot comprehend the domain of a 'God'."
He waved his hand dismissively, the gesture sharp and jagged.
"Enough! Since you are so utterly ignorant and obstinate, I have no need to continue wasting my invincible divine majesty upon you. I offered you a place in heaven, and you chose the dust. So be it."
Enel slowly raised his right index finger.
ZZZZZT!
The sound was sickening—like bacon sizzling in a pan, but amplified a thousand times.
The air in the temple suddenly grew heavy. The rampant thunder that had been dancing around the room seemed to be drawn by an invisible magnet. It made a heart-stopping, high-pitched whining sound as it frantically gathered toward his fingertip.
It was no longer the scattered electrical snakes from his earlier playful display. It compressed, folding in on itself, becoming a violently agitated, blindingly bright blue sphere of pure plasma.
The hairs on Wyper and Gan Fall's bodies stood straight up. The smell of ozone became suffocating, burning the inside of their nostrils. The static electricity in the air was so potent that small sparks began to jump between the metal rivets of Gan Fall's armor.
They knew. Their survival instincts screamed it. The opponent was finally serious.
"Watch out!"
Gan Fall roared.
The old knight didn't hesitate. Despite his age, despite his failures, he lunged forward. The armor on his back clanked heavily as he placed himself resolutely between the lightning and Wyper.
"Old man!" Wyper gasped, his eyes widening in horror. "What are you doing?!"
Watching the sphere of lightning expand at Enel's fingertip, wrapping itself in the aura of death, Gan Fall's wrinkled face showed no fear. Instead, there was a flash of deep, complicated regret.
In that split second, time seemed to slow for the old knight. He saw the faint but real light of hope from many years ago, when the Sky Island people and the Shandia people first sat down together to negotiate. He saw the path of reconciliation he had painstakingly built... all of it turning to smoke the day Enel descended from Fairy Vearth and burned everything.
Centuries of conflict were about to see the dawn, only to ultimately... fail at the last hurdle. He had failed to protect his kingdom. He had failed to protect the peace.
But I will not fail these children. I will not let the last hope of Skypiea die here.
"One Million Volts... Discharge!"
Enel's indifferent voice sounded like the final judgment.
BOOOM—!
A blazing beam of lightning, thick as a giant python and hot as the surface of the sun, roared deafeningly as it erupted from his finger. It tore through the air, ionizing the oxygen, instantly bridging the gap toward Gan Fall's figure.
The light was blinding. It turned the world white, erasing all shadows.
Wyper, standing behind the knight, showed a look of sheer astonishment, and then was forced to shield his eyes from the rushing blue death!
"It's over!"
Just as that destructive bolt of lightning was about to engulf Gan Fall—to boil him inside his armor and turn him into a charred husk—a figure moved.
Moving later but arriving sooner, he appeared between the incoming lightning sphere and Gan Fall.
It was Suzaku.
He didn't adopt a defensive posture. He didn't summon a barrier. He didn't dodge.
He simply raised his right hand, coated in an invisible layer of will, and opened his pitch-black palm to meet the violent sphere of thunder!
Catch.
"Hiss—!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion. No shockwave that leveled the building.
The moment the thick lightning sphere touched Suzaku's palm, it stopped dead.
The violent energy writhed and hissed like a venomous snake caught by the neck. Suzaku's hand, now visibly coated in the metallic sheen of Armament Haki, crushed the plasma. The sheer density of his willpower acted as an insulator that defied the laws of physics.
Sizzle.
The lightning struggled against the dominant will that held it, before being snuffed out.
The lightning was crushed by his bare hand, flowing harmlessly like a docile stream! The escaping electrical arcs danced between his fingers a few times before completely vanishing, leaving only a wisp of grey smoke curling from his palm.
The entire great hall fell into a dead, absolute silence.
Wyper slowly lowered the arm shielding his eyes. His jaw dropped, staring dumbfounded at the straight back of the figure in front of him.
Gan Fall also stood frozen, blinking rapidly. The anticipated searing pain never came! He looked at his own hands, then at the young man who stood like a statue in front of him.
The young man... he actually blocked a force of nature like lightning with his bare hands!
Who... who is he?! Is he a monster?!
Albedo and Rem, meanwhile, watched the battle unfolding with calm expressions. Albedo was even checking her fingernails, as if bored. To them, this was not a miracle; it was simply the expected outcome of their Supreme Being acting.
On the throne, Enel's face froze. The playful, cat-and-mouse smile finally cracked.
He straightened up, leaning slightly forward, his gray pupils trembling with disbelief.
"How is that possible..." Enel whispered, his voice losing its metallic echo. "Blocking my lightning... with bare hands? Are you made of rubber? No... you are flesh and blood."
Suzaku shook his hand, dusting off the residual static electricity. He turned around, first glancing at the shaken Gan Fall and Wyper, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness.
"Wyper, I already told you to leave it to me," Suzaku said, sighing. "Stop trying to be a martyr. It ruins my pacing."
Then, he turned back to look up at Enel on the throne. His eyes were calm, dark, and utterly unimpressed.
"You arrogant, Chuunibyou guy," Suzaku said with a smile, using a term Enel wouldn't understand but would definitely feel the insult of.
"You think you're a God just because you glow in the dark? You're just a Logia Devil Fruit user. I've met several of those already in the Blue Sea. You're a big fish in a small pond, Enel. Let me play with you for a bit."
"Blue Sea monkey..."
Enel's face instantly turned dark as the depths of a storm cloud. The gold drums on his back began to vibrate with his rising anger. The insult to his divinity was intolerable.
"You have successfully angered me!"
RUMBLE!
The lightning around him surged again, more violent than any time before. The entire temple began to shake as the voltage spiked. The golden ornaments on the walls began to melt from the heat.
Suzaku merely chuckled softly.
Fwoosh.
A faint, golden-red glow began to rise around him. It wasn't electricity; it was heat. The air shimmered as the temperature in the room rose, combating the cold static of the lightning.
"Perfect," Suzaku stepped forward, the stone beneath his foot cracking. "I also don't have the patience to watch your bad acting any longer!"
"DIE!"
The moment the word left Enel's lips, his figure vanished.
He transformed into a blinding bolt of pure electricity, closing the distance to Suzaku in less than a blink of an eye. This was the speed of lightning—imperceptible to the normal eye, faster than sound.
To Enel, the world seemed to stand still. He could see the frozen expressions of fear on Wyper's face. He could see the dust motes suspended in the air. He was the fastest thing in existence.
Enel appeared right in front of Suzaku's face. His face, twisted by rage, held a savage, demonic smile. Heart-stopping blue electrical arcs danced between the index fingers of his hands, aimed directly at Suzaku's heart.
"You reckless Blue Sea man! Taste the wrath of God!"
"Twenty Million Volts: Discharge!"
Boom—!
The furious column of lightning, like a savage beast breaking free of its restraints, instantly engulfed the spot where Suzaku had stood with an ear-splitting roar.
The blinding blue light illuminated the entire temple as if it were daytime, casting long, harsh shadows against the walls. The sheer heat of twenty million volts vaporized the stone flooring instantly.
However, Enel's smile immediately froze on his face.
The sensation transmitted by the lightning was empty; there was no feedback indicating a solid hit! No burning flesh, no scream of agony. He had hit nothing but air.
Where?!
Almost simultaneously, the danger warning he perceived through Mantra rushed in like a tidal wave, making the hair on his entire body stand on end. It wasn't just a warning; it was a scream of imminent death coming from above.
"Vermillion Style: Phoenix Wings Soaring!"
A clear, cold shout came from directly above his head.
Enel abruptly looked up.
What he saw was terror. Two intersecting slashes of golden-red flame were descending from the sky, shaped like the wings of a mythical bird. They were accompanied by a scorching airflow that distorted the space around them.
Zip!
Enel hastily transformed into lightning to dodge, his body dissolving into particles just milliseconds before impact.
BOOM!
The flame slashes struck the ground where he had just stood. The stone floor melted instantly, carved with a deep, cross-shaped fissure. The golden-red flames in the pit were still burning fiercely, crackling loudly as they ate the rock.
Enel reformed his body near a pillar, breathing heavily. Fine cold sweat beaded on his forehead for the first time in his life.
"Fire..." Enel muttered, eyeing the flames. "So that's it... you, like this God, also possess the great power of nature? A Mythical Zoan?"
He forced a smirk onto his face, trying to regain his composure. "Impressive. But speed is weight. You cannot catch lightning. I am everywhere and nowhere!"
"Did you think..."
A calm voice suddenly sounded right next to his ear.
Enel's pupils constricted to pinpoints. My Mantra didn't even—
He spun his head violently to the side.
What met his eyes was not a face, but a fist. A fist wrapped in pitch-black, flowing light that crackled with red lightning.
It was Armament Haki. The power that allowed one to touch the intangible, to capture the fluid body of a Logia user.
"Did you think that only you could use Observation Haki?" Suzaku whispered.
In that fraction of a second, Enel saw his own defeat reflecting in Suzaku's calm eyes. He tried to disperse, to turn back into lightning, but the Haki locked him in place.
Bang—!
The sound of a solid, meaty impact echoed throughout the temple like a gunshot.
Enel felt as if his cheek had been smashed by a falling mountain. His brain rattled in his skull. His nose shattered with a sickening crunch, blood spraying into the air.
"GUH?!"
For the first time in six years—for the first time since he ate the fruit—Enel felt pain. Real, throbbing, physical pain.
He was sent flying uncontrollably, spinning through the air like a ragdoll. He crashed heavily into a distant stone wall, burying himself in the rubble.
Crash!
Dust billowed. The entire temple shook from the impact.
Everything happened so fast that Gan Fall and Wyper were only just starting to process the visual information.
They stared dumbfounded at the pile of rubble. The "God" who had been untouchable, the "God" who phased through spears and bazookas... had just been blasted away by a single punch.
"He... he actually hit him..." Gan Fall muttered to himself, his knees growing weak. "He touched the lightning."
Wyper clenched his fists tightly, a fervent, almost fanatical light bursting in his eyes. He looked at Suzaku's back as if looking at a true deity.
"Everything he said was true..." Wyper whispered, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and hope. "He really is that strong! He can actually defeat God!"
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