Lightning flashed before his words even faded as Enel vanished.
The four remaining priests exchanged pale, uneasy glances, the shared terror in their eyes unmistakable.
They feared the Blue Sea man, but they feared for themselves even more because whenever God took an interest in something, everyone caught in the crossfire suffered.
...
Near the shattered cloud beach, the ozone stench of burned air began to dissipate.
Zaraki gave Oto and Kogarashi a flourish before lashing the damaged blades to his belt with strips torn from his ruined coat, lacking proper sheaths since they had once served as Shiki's legs.
The scrape of steel against thick cloth broke the lingering silence of the battlefield.
He inspected his hands to find the skin unburned, though his fingers felt stiff.
His palms still ached from the clash with the Golden Lion, and the thin sky island air made each breath feel shallow.
Zaraki clicked his tongue.
'So that so-called God can throw lightning from the sky, which isn't bad, but if that's all he has, it won't even wake me up!'
His gaze shifted to Wiper, who was still half-embedded in a tree trunk and struggling through a heavy coating of dust.
"So this is Skypiea's strongest warrior?" Zaraki drawled. "And that coward hiding above the clouds, throwing lightning from a distance? Too weak, so weak I don't even feel like drawing a sword!"
He stepped over a broken branch with a tone dripping with disdain.
The words were dismissive, but to Wiper, they cut deeper than any blade as his eyes went bloodshot.
Defeat on the battlefield was common enough, and losing to superior strength was no source of shame.
But this sheer, careless arrogance—the refusal to even view him as a threat—shredded the Shandia warrior's pride.
"Don't... mock me." Wiper's fingers dug into the scorched cloud-ground as a low growl ripped from his throat.
"Kill me if you want... but you will not insult the glory of Shandia!"
Driven by sheer willpower, Wiper forced his upper body upward.
His right leg was twisted at a bad angle with his face tightening at every agonizing movement, but the fire in his eyes only burned hotter.
Zaraki tilted his head.
'That look in his eyes is interesting, he might be weak, but that rabid stubbornness isn't bad.'
Zaraki's fingers settled back onto his hilt, and he debated whether to end the fight right then when a sharp shriek of wind descended from the sky.
"Stop! Wiper!"
A massive pink bird folded its wings and slammed into the ground between them to kick up a harsh cloud of dust.
An old man in knight's armor vaulted from the bird's back, his white beard flowing over dented plating while the lance in his grip was snapped in half.
He had fought his way through the chaos to reach them.
Zaraki narrowed his eyes, noting that the old man's aura was erratic but far steadier than the natives scattered around them.
The bearing of a former ruler from him was impossible to fake.
Zaraki tapped his sword belt. "Old man, you came down to die too?"
Gan Fall, the Sky Knight, ignored the question and reached out to pin down the struggling Wiper while fixing his aged eyes on Zaraki.
He was studying Zaraki's body.
As the former God, Gan Fall understood what that descending lightning pillar meant, it was Enel's El Thor, a judgment powerful enough to melt solid stone.
Yet the young man standing before him bore no new scorch marks.
His clothes were shredded and bloodstained, but the wounds beneath were older since Enel's thunder hadn't caused them.
"Blue Sea man..." Gan Fall took a breath, his tone cautious. "You appeared near Upper Yard at a critical moment, bringing fallen Vearth from the sky and wielding unbelievable power. Who are you?"
Catching the old man's wariness, Zaraki's mouth twitched into a smirk as he released his sword hilt and crossed his arms.
"My identity?" He flashed a toothy grin and jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "I'm Zaraki."
Gan Fall waited while Wiper narrowed his eyes.
Zaraki scratched the back of his head, looking annoyed by his own explanation.
"To be specific, I'm a provisional Marine trainee under Vice Admiral Garp, though not officially enlisted yet. Right now, I'm on vacation, separated from my crew, and lost."
"A... Marine?" Wiper froze, since to the people of Skypiea, the word was little more than a vague rumor from the Blue Sea.
"A trainee?" Gan Fall repeated, his mouth twitching as he wondered what the regular forces of the Blue Sea were capable of if this monster was just a trainee.
"More importantly," Zaraki said, patting his stomach, since the clash with the Golden Lion, the plunge from the sky, and the sheer output of spiritual pressure had burned through his stamina faster than he cared to admit.
"I'm starving."
Gan Fall blinked.
Zaraki pointed a finger toward the gloomy sky. "Judging by the look of you all, you've got a grudge against that guy up there tossing lightning around," he said, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather.
"How about this? You feed me a proper meal—meat and booze, if possible, and in exchange..."
His gaze drifted past Gan Fall to lock onto the distant peak of the shrine.
"I'll go up there and cut your god down for you."
The surrounding air turned to ice.
Gan Fall's hand trembled around his lance while Wiper stopped struggling, both of them staring at the boy amid the ruins as if he had lost his mind.
A single meal in exchange for a god's life sounded like pure fantasy to any normal person, yet after witnessing that inhuman battle power, Gan Fall's withered heart began pounding.