Dazzling lightning poured down to batter the cloud base of Skypiea as two hundred million volts of electricity ionized the air, releasing a sharp ozone stench.
Zaraki raised a hand to shade his brow against the blinding glare that burned blue-white spots into his retinas.
Free electric charges in the air tugged at the surface of his skin to create a constant, stinging pressure.
The sheer weight of the aura was oppressive enough that it might have been troublesome when he first arrived in this world, but facing the towering thunder god now only brought a faint smirk to Zaraki's lips.
Deep inside his body, the system reward from his clash with Golden Lion Shiki finally settled.
[Delayed Battle Settlement Complete.]
[Opponent: Golden Lion Shiki.]
[Result: Defeated the legend of the old era. Forced the fall of the Flying Pirate's floating island.]
[Warning: Opponent's death unconfirmed.]
[Kenpachi Zaraki Template Synchronization Rate increased.]
[Current Synchronization Rate: 21.6%.]
[Ability Stabilized: Reiatsu Materialization — Initial Stage.]
[Note: Host may temporarily condense spiritual pressure into a crude external frame. Excessive use will place severe strain on the body.]
Zaraki let out a low laugh, dismissing the text. "So the reward finally came."
A dark-gold pressure crawled over his shoulders like smoke—not Haki or sword energy, but the raw weight of his soul forced into physical shape.
Compared to the dense hardness of Armament Haki, this power felt heavier and far more unstable, like a beast trying to tear its way out through his skin.
His old wounds throbbed in warning while every breath of the thin air scraped against his lungs, yet his anticipation only spiked.
"Spacing out before God?" Enel's voice rolled down from above as the massive golden trident in his hand burned red under the heat of his lightning.
Wrapped in two hundred million volts, it stabbed down toward Zaraki like divine punishment.
"Turn to ash, mortal!"
A huge shadow swallowed the area while Wiper gritted his teeth, Laki shielded Aisa's eyes, and Gan Fall tightened his grip on his broken lance.
However, the sickening crunch of a crushed body never came, and even the deafening thunder seemed to falter.
"Not a bad strength," a calm voice echoed from the center of the dust cloud. "But gold is still too soft."
The red-hot trident had stopped dead three inches above Zaraki's head.
He held Oto with one hand, the blade wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki and coated in an outer layer of dark-gold Reiatsu that pressed outward like a half-formed shield.
The blade never actually touched the weapon since that dense layer of spiritual pressure stood between them to resist the impact.
The cloud ground beneath Zaraki's feet caved in, splitting his scabs enough to send a thin line of blood crawling down his shoulder, but his posture remained rigid.
The sheer force of the block made the enormous thunder god stagger backward half a step.
"What?!" Enel's huge lightning eyes shrank, not only was the mortal alive, he hadn't yielded an inch.
"Is this all?" Zaraki flicked his wrist, making the dark-gold pressure around Oto erupt to knock the massive trident tip aside.
"Then it's my turn."
"Arrogant! Thirty Million Volts: Hino!" Enel struck the thunder drum on his right side without giving him a chance to breathe.
A giant blue-white bird compressed from high-voltage electricity screeched downward, crashing into the dust below.
The resulting explosion sent cloud soil flying and blinded the onlookers with a dazzling flash.
"I'm not finished!" Enel sensed the life signature still beating inside the smoke through his Mantra, so he drove the golden trident straight into the center of the dust cloud again.
A deafening, metallic twisting sound rang out as the smoke dispersed, leaving everyone stunned.
Zaraki hadn't moved, but a rough, dark-gold skeletal frame had manifested around him.
It was an incomplete upper body forged from condensed Reiatsu—ribs, a single arm, and the vague outline of a skull with hollow sockets.
The flickering construct looked ready to collapse, yet its enormous bone hand held the golden trident in a death grip.
Zaraki stood inside the unstable ribcage, his Haki-coated right hand gripping the thick golden shaft alongside the spectral construct.
The pressure radiating from him was heavier, though his breathing had grown ragged.
"Gold conducts electricity well," Zaraki said, staring up at Enel. "Its ductility isn't bad either."
His fingers tightened, making the metal groan. "But as a weapon... as a god... you're too soft."
With a sickening crunch, the enormous weapon forged from solid gold and strengthened by high-voltage electricity bent and snapped under Zaraki's crushing grip.
The broken section twisted apart like a crushed pipe, scattering sparks and molten droplets down onto the ark.
"My gold…" Enel's eye twitched at the destruction of his prized treasure.
"Since you enjoy direct clashes so much, face this!" He threw away the ruined shaft and brought both hands together.
"Sixty Million Volts: Jamboule!"
A thunder dragon several times larger than the previous bird roared to life, threatening to swallow the entire sky island in one bite.
There was no clean path to evade such a massive attack.
Zaraki's chest heaved as the skeletal frame around him trembled and shattered into fading fragments of light.
Maintaining the initial Reiatsu Materialization for even a few seconds had pushed his limit, sending a sharp stab of pain through his ribs while his muscles screamed under the burden.
"Who said I was going to dodge?"
Fueled by the wildness of his template, Zaraki charged directly into the dragon's jaws.
A tangible burst of spiritual pressure slammed into the construct's head just before impact; it wasn't enough to erase the lightning, but it disrupted the shape of the attack, making the dragon burst apart into countless wild arcs.
Stray lightning struck his body to reopen old wounds and burn his skin, sending up the smell of scorched cloth, but his momentum never slowed.
A black shadow flashed through the shattered electricity as Zaraki kicked off the ark's damaged structure to appear on a broken piece of railing right beside Enel's face.
The movement was too fast for Mantra to catch more than a fleeting afterimage. Enel swung his left arm to block while trying to scatter and elementalize, but Oto was already in motion.
There was no flashy sword technique, only the deep black of Armament Haki and rough dark-gold pressure tracing a brutal arc.
A faint tearing sound echoed.
The instant Enel's enormous lightning arm touched the blade, his elementalization faltered.
The Reiatsu didn't truly seal the Devil Fruit, but at the point of contact, the spiritual pressure and Haki forced Enel's lightning body to behave like solid mass for a split second.
The massive lightning arm collapsed and scattered as Enel's true body flickered into view.
He clutched his left shoulder as blood sprayed from a deep gash that ran down his upper arm, leaving the limb hanging uselessly.
Enel stared in a daze, unable to comprehend why it hurt or why his body had failed to reform.
"Surprised?" Zaraki shook sparks from his blade and landed heavy on the cracked deck of the Ark Maxim.
A wave of dizziness forced his knees to bend slightly, but he covered the weakness with a scoff.
"This isn't your sky anymore."
The dark-gold Reiatsu surged behind him again, failing to form a complete skeleton and instead projecting a rough skull-like shadow over his shoulders before dissipating.
"Within reach of my blade, whether you're made of lightning or smoke, you bleed."
Enel's face twisted as true fear flickered in his eyes for the first time since claiming his divine title.
It wasn't that the Blue Sea man was stronger, but that he could actually reach him—a reality that shattered the foundation of his arrogance.
"You dare…" Electricity surged erratically around Enel's body while his wounded shoulder trembled, his blood hissing as it dripped onto the golden deck.
"You dare to humiliate this God?!"
"Stop whining," Zaraki rasped, rolling his neck with a bored expression. "If you have power left, use it. If not, I'm chopping this ship apart to pay for my next meal."
The unfinished Ark Maxim groaned beneath them while Enel's expression collapsed into utter madness.
"Shut up... shut up, shut up!" The thunder drums on his back rattled as lightning surged from his body.
It lacked his former lofty calm, burning wild and completely disordered.
The storm clouds above twisted in response to the exposed power conduits flickering across the ark.
Far below, Gan Fall looked up with a pale face.
"That machine isn't stable."
"If he keeps forcing thunder into it, the whole thing will explode," Wiper said through clenched teeth while Aisa covered her ears to block the shaking cloud sea.
Zaraki exhaled a hot breath, feeling the heavy toll of his forced materialization and earlier battles burning through his muscles, but his grip on Oto remained ironclad.
He took a heavy step forward on the cracked golden deck.
"Come on, 'God'." He let out a dark chuckle. "Let's see how long your thunder can keep screaming."
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator