The divine knight in the sheep-skull mask said no more useless words.That faint trace of seriousness in his eyes had already transformed into the purest killing intent.
His figure flickered slightly—and he attacked again.
This time, it was no longer a probing, single strike.
The massive scythe in his hands exploded into a storm of pitch-black afterimages, swinging wildly at a speed the naked eye could not possibly track!Each slash tore through the air, letting out shrill, ghostlike wails, carrying edge and Haki sharp enough to sever anything.
Together, they wove a net of death that descended toward Enel!
The speed was so extreme it was as if dozens of scythes were striking from every direction at once!
And yet—Faced with this onslaught, Enel looked utterly relaxed.
He didn't even move much.
His body bent and twisted as though boneless, making only tiny, precise adjustments—subtle tilts, slight sidesteps, shallow backward leans.
The lethal blades skimmed past his nose, his throat, his chest—missing him by mere millimeters—yet not a single one could even graze the edge of his clothing!
Against the divine knight's ferocious assault, Enel was blatantly striking the exact same infuriatingly cool, overconfident pose that Luffy displayed two years later on Sabaody while dodging Pacifista attacks!
"Too slow!" Enel even had time to mock him, a teasing grin plastered across his face."Left… right… above… below… huh? That one was almost interesting—nearly clipped my hair."
His Mantra—Observation Haki—was fully unleashed.
Every microscopic twitch of the opponent's muscles, the faintest ripple of killing intent, even the vibrations of power transmitted through the air itself—all of it transformed into perfectly precise intelligence, flooding into his mind like a tidal wave.
Even if the sheep-skull-masked divine knight was using future prediction—
Humans cannot stop thinking.Especially not a taciturn type like him.
And so, Enel saw the future of the future he predicted.
This overwhelming information advantage ensured that Enel was always one step ahead, preemptively grasping the trajectory of every attack!
This combat style perfectly aligned with Admiral Kizaru's teachings—"speed is power" and "absolute initiative through reliance on Observation Haki"—and Enel had elevated it to an even more terrifying level by pairing it with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
So when the divine knight suddenly accelerated, or expanded his attack range beyond what tiny movements alone could evade—
"Zzzzt!"
Enel's body instantly transformed into a true bolt of lightning!
Not a metaphor—literal elementalization and movement.
With virtually zero delay, at a speed equivalent to light itself, he blinked across the battlefield in erratic Z-shaped flashes!
One moment he appeared midair to the knight's left, the next atop shattered ruins behind him, and then—just as abruptly—he seemed to return to where he had never moved at all.
Each swing of the deadly scythe cut nothing but air—or shredded nothing more than a fading lightning afterimage.
"Yahahaha! It's useless!"Enel's form flickered within the lightning, his voice echoing from every direction, brimming with absolute confidence."How could a mortal's speed ever catch a 'god'?!"
The Enel of today was no longer the arrogant, inexperienced "god in a well" from Skypiea who relied solely on his Devil Fruit.
Over these years at G-10 Base, he had endured far too much.
Admiral Kizaru Borsalino's "personal instruction" (which mostly consisted of being beaten senseless and running for his life) had pushed his understanding of speed and the application of Observation Haki to an entirely new level.
Repeated, bone-crushing, borderline abusive live-combat training with the "Devil's Descendant" Douglas Bullet had tempered his fighting will, his Haki, and his instinctive response to danger.
And Gern's overwhelming, disaster-like absolute power—utterly despair-inducing—constantly reminded him that there were always greater heights beyond the sky.
It reined in much of his arrogance and taught him to stay calm and think during battle.(Though his filthy mouth never improved.)
Add to that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's limitless growth and development potential…
All of it combined had caused Enel to grow at a staggering pace, steadily approaching the realm of the world's true top-tier monsters!
He might still lag behind the strongest in raw physical power and pure martial prowess—
But with his unbeatable speed, top-tier Observation Haki, and the devastating destructive force of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit,
He already possessed the capital to contend with any powerhouse—and even make them feel unbearably pressured!
The divine knight's assault remained brutally sharp, each slash capable of cleaving mountains—yet he still couldn't truly touch Enel's real body.
For a moment, the battle fell into an eerie stalemate.
Behind the sheep-skull mask, the knight's gaze grew increasingly heavy.
"Why does this guy always move before I do…?Observation Haki can't possibly be this strong.How can his mental stamina stay at such an insane intensity throughout the fight…?"
...
"Yahahaha! Mortal—are you only good at waving that broken scythe around and dodging?"
With a flash of lightning, Enel abruptly appeared high in the sky, far from the divine knight.
He spread his arms wide, lightning surging around his body, like a god wielding thunder as he gazed down upon his opponent.
The tactic changed instantly.
He no longer relied on extreme micro-dodging—
Instead, he began exploiting the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's true advantage:
Absolute long-range suppression and annihilating area destruction!
"Lightning Shift!"
His movements were no longer confined to the ground.He began flashing unpredictably through the sky at light speed, each appearance occurring at impossibly tricky angles—completely outside the scythe's attack range.
At the same time, blazing lightning serpents lashed out from his hands—not to strike directly—
But to coil and seal off every possible evasive route around the divine knight, drastically compressing his mobility.
"Mantra—Omniscience!"
Enel closed his eyes, immersing his entire consciousness into the fusion of Mantra and Observation Haki.
Every contraction of muscle fiber, every microscopic shift in center of gravity—even every possible movement trajectory generated by the knight's instinctive danger prediction—
All of it surged into Enel's mind like a vast torrent of data, being calculated and simulated at insane speed!
The next instant, Enel snapped his eyes open.
He pointed his golden staff downward at the divine knight, who was still darting at high speed within the lightning serpents, desperately searching for a breakthrough.
His voice rang out like divine law.
"Judgment of God!"
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOM!!!"
Not one—but several colossal lightning pillars, each far thicker than before, tore through the clouds without warning, descending with world-ending force!
They didn't strike where the divine knight currently stood—
They struck based on Enel's complete foresight of every possible movement trajectory over the next few seconds—
An attack of absolute certainty.
This wasn't prediction.
It was a verdict.
The divine knight's figure flickered like a phantom within the limited space, desperately evading.
His speed was terrifyingly fast—each time he narrowly avoided a direct hit.
But it didn't matter.
The first lightning pillar struck the ground he would have stepped on half a second later, forcing him to violently change direction!
The second pillar sealed off the most optimal evasive route after that change!
The third, the fourth—followed without pause—each slamming down precisely onto his future footholds!
It was as though an invisible pair of eyes had already seen through every pattern in his movement!
No matter how he altered his rhythm, no matter how he feinted—
Those annihilating lightning pillars always arrived first, waiting on the paths he had to take!
In an instant, the divine knight was completely trapped within a "prison" formed by multiple sky-to-earth lightning columns!
Violent electrical energy overflowed in every direction, driving him into utter disarray—forced into nonstop, extreme evasion, unable to even get close to Enel!
"Well? How's that, you ant!"Enel floated high above, laughing wildly and arrogantly."Didn't you love showing off at the start?Saying you didn't want to kill me?Keep pretending, you poser!Pretending in front of me—are you out of your damn mind?!"
"This," he roared, "is the power of a 'god'!"
At this moment, Enel perfectly demonstrated the advantage of a top-tier Logia user.
Never recklessly engage in close combat.Maintain absolute distance with unbeatable speed and top-level Observation Haki.Crush the enemy with overwhelming long-range firepower.
As long as the opponent couldn't break through the thunder—As long as they didn't possess freakish physical ability and speed like Garp's, capable of chasing light itself—
Then the initiative of the battle would always remain firmly in his hands!!
Within the relentless bombardment of lightning pillars, the sheep-skull-masked divine knight continued to dash and weave.
The once-calm, unruffled gaze behind the mask could no longer remain steady.
Panic set in. Cold sweat poured down.
How were you supposed to fight a Logia whose speed threat was ranked SS+?!
The only answer should've been closing in using Observation Haki predictions—
But now, prediction was completely impossible!!
Even now, this mighty divine knight still couldn't understand—
Why did this lightning-wielding bastard in front of himseem to understand himbetter than he understood himself?