"Let's see how long your thunder can keep screaming."
Those words cut Enel deeper than any physical strike as his enormous thunder god form flickered over the unfinished Ark Maxim.
Chaotic waves of blue-white lightning poured from his body, but the suffocating divine pressure from a moment ago had already begun to crack.
For the first time, Enel wasn't looking down at an insect; he was looking at a mortal who could reach him, wound him, and make his lightning bleed.
"You…" Enel rasped.
His wounded shoulder trembled while the huge thunder construct around him distorted with pure rage.
"You actually dare speak to God like that?"
The clouds above Upper Yard began to spin.
Enel gave up on ordinary attacks, ending the games, the tests, and the pretense of standing above it all.
He raised his intact hand high, causing the gathered storm clouds over Skypiea to collapse toward a single point.
A massive black thunder sphere formed in the sky with blue-white arcs dancing across its surface. It expanded in an instant from a mere meter to a staggering thousand meters across, casting a shadow that swallowed Angel Beach.
This wasn't merely lightning, but a natural disaster capable of erasing an island from the map.
The crushing air pressure forced Wiper and the others flat against the dirt, paralyzing them while the dense static made their hair stand on end and their skin throb with needle-like pain.
Enel supported the massive construct with a face twisted in madness.
"If this sky island cannot contain God, then let it all disappear! Face judgment! Raigo!"
With a deafening rumble, the thousand-meter thunder sphere descended.
Zaraki stood at the center of the storm as the gale whipped his ruined clothes.
He stared up at the black oblivion filling his vision, the red glow in his eyes burning hotter. "Now this is more like it."
He tightened his right hand around Oto and gripped Kogarashi with his left.
Both blades remained battered from his clash with the Golden Lion—their edges chipped and surfaces marked by heat and cracks—while the residual pressure of Shiki still lingered inside the steel.
Zaraki pulled a silver wine flask from his pocket, popped the cap, and downed a heavy gulp.
The fiery liquor slid into his stomach to ignite something deep in his blood.
"Hah..." He exhaled a hot mist laced with alcohol, his eyes losing focus just as his aura spiked into something far more dangerous.
[Detected: Host has consumed alcohol.]
[Battle synchronization with Kenpachi Zaraki Template temporarily increased.]
[Warning: Current physical condition is unstable. Further overload may cause severe backlash.]
Ignoring the text, Zaraki sneered. "Hey, lightning brat."
Dark-gold Reiatsu spread down both arms to wrap around Oto and Kogarashi before pitch-black Armament Haki layered over the steel like molten iron.
"Next time you call yourself God, at least learn how to take a hit first."
The Raigo descended with no room to dodge or escape, crushing the very sky beneath its weight.
Zaraki bent his knees, cracking the cloud ground beneath him, and moved.
The beach exploded as he shot upward—not away from the Raigo, but directly toward its roaring center.
"Is he insane?!" Gan Fall shouted.
Wiper stared with bloodshot eyes while Aisa clutched Laki's clothes in terror.
Above them, Enel's crazed laughter shook the sky. "Yahahaha! Fool! You dare charge into Raigo itself? Then disappear!"
The thunder sphere swallowed Zaraki, turning everything white for a blinding instant.
Electricity tore through his muscles, threatening to lock his joints and boil his blood as a thick, metallic stench filled his lungs.
Yet his grip never slipped.
He crossed Oto and Kogarashi in front of him, the twin blades screaming under the immense burden as dark-gold Reiatsu surged outward.
Rather than trying to overpower the entire storm, the energy drilled toward a single unstable point at the sphere's core.
Because the Ark Maxim was incomplete, Enel's rage had forced too much electricity through a broken system.
The Raigo looked flawless from the outside, but its internal currents were twisted and chaotic—a fatal flaw Zaraki's wild instincts immediately locked onto.
"There. Found you."
The spectral golden skeletal frame manifested around him once more, though far more erratic than before.
Only two arms and a fractured skull emerged to roar soundlessly into the storm as the phantom hands mirrored Zaraki's grip.
He forced every last drop of his remaining strength, Haki, and Reiatsu into one brutal slash.
"Break."
The crossed blades descended to carve a black-gold line through the center of the Raigo.
The strike didn't cut space or erase the lightning; it simply severed the unstable core holding the mass together.
A crisp crack echoed through the heavens as the enormous thunder sphere trembled.
A thin fissure appeared from top to bottom, cutting Enel's laughter short.
"How…"
The fissure widened until the Raigo split completely.
The compressed thunder lost its shape, exploding outward into countless raging currents that scattered across the sky like a dying storm rather than falling as an island-destroying mass.
A blinding shockwave swallowed everything, flattening the ruins of God's Island below.
Cloud trees bent in half while fragments of Vearth tore into the air, and the unfinished Ark Maxim groaned in agony as its exposed conduits burst one after another.
Enel stood frozen on the deck, looking small for the first time in his life after watching his divine judgment get split open.
A black-gold line flashed through the remnants of the lightning before Zaraki appeared right in front of him.
Both swords remained in his hands, though heavy cracks now crawled across Oto's edge and Kogarashi glowed cherry-red from the sheer heat.
Zaraki's condition was equally battered.
Blood ran down his arms and his chest heaved for breath as the skeletal Reiatsu frame collapsed into golden dust behind him, yet his gaze remained razor-sharp.
"Your thunder was louder this time," Zaraki said, raising Oto. "But still not enough."
Enel tried to elementalize, his body flickering into static, but his mind had already shattered.
Fear disrupted his Mantra and pain slowed his reactions, leaving him wide open as Zaraki's Haki-coated blade arrived.
The flat back of Oto smashed into Enel's chest like a battering ram, folding his body in half before launching him backward through the half-built control structure of the Ark Maxim.
The golden ship screamed as its already volatile power system finally collapsed, sending sparks bursting from every exposed conduit.
The ark tilted and began losing altitude, draining the color from Gan Fall's face.
"The ship is falling!" the old knight yelled.
Wiper forced himself upright to stare at the descending mass of gold. "If that thing crashes here, everyone nearby dies."
"Tch." Zaraki stood on the slanting deck to look at the half-conscious Enel buried in broken machinery.
The so-called god's eyes were glassy, his wounded arm hanging limp while static leaked weakly from his body.
The fight was over, but the ark was still falling.
Zaraki glared at the massive golden hull beneath his feet with a deep scowl. "Damn it. I haven't even sold this thing yet."
The system panel flickered to life.
[Battle Settlement Pending.]
[Opponent: God Enel.]
[Current priority: Survival.]
[Warning: Ark Maxim structural collapse detected.]
Zaraki clicked his tongue. "Yeah, yeah. I can see that."
He drove both swords straight down into the deck.
Dark-gold Reiatsu erupted again, abandoning any attempt to cut in favor of pure, brute pressure that shook the cloud sea below.
Gan Fall, Wiper, Laki, Aisa, and the remaining Shandia warriors looked up in shock.
The enormous ark was still falling, but its trajectory had shifted.
Instead of crashing directly onto the battlefield, the hull groaned and slid sideways, pushed by a massive burst of force from above.
Zaraki roared as the muscles in his arms bulged, deepening the cracks in Oto and Kogarashi.
With one final shove, he forced the collapsing Ark Maxim away from Angel Beach to plunge into the distant cloud sea with a deafening crash.
A vast wave of white clouds rose like a tsunami, obscuring everything for several tense seconds before the roar faded into dead silence.
On the broken deck of the half-sunken ship, Zaraki stood with his swords lowered.
His chest heaved and his body swayed once before the system panel finally stabilized.
[Battle Settlement Complete.]
[Defeated Opponent: Enel.]
[Rating: Overwhelming Suppression of a False God.]
[Kenpachi Zaraki Template Synchronization Rate increased.]
[Current Synchronization Rate: 22.7%.]
[Reward obtained: Minor Lightning Resistance.]
[Note: Due to Host's physical state, further forced combat may cause collapse.]
Zaraki stared at the final line and let out a breathless laugh as he wiped blood from his chin.
"Collapse? Tell me that after I eat."
Above the distant sky, a streak of golden light pierced the clouds, moving far faster than any ship or lightning bolt Enel had ever conjured.
Zaraki squinted against the glare as the beam stopped in midair, taking the shape of a tall man in a yellow-striped suit.
Kizaru adjusted his sunglasses and peered down at the half-sunken ark, the unconscious god, and the blood-soaked boy standing on the deck.
"Yo~" The Admiral's tone was drawling and lazy, though his eyes lacked any real warmth. "What a terrifying mess."
Zaraki tilted his head back. "You here to fight too?"
"Not really," Kizaru said, scratching his cheek. "Fleet Admiral Sengoku told me to find one troublesome rookie."
His gaze drifted from Enel to the battered swords in Zaraki's hands. "Looks like I found a whole disaster instead."
Zaraki snorted. "Good timing. Take me back, I'm sick of clouds."
Kizaru's mouth twitched. "You say that like I'm a taxi."
"You're fast, aren't you?"
"How scary~ Kids these days really don't respect Admirals." Even as he complained, Kizaru dissolved into light.
A golden beam swallowed Zaraki.
The last thing he saw before the world dissolved into streaks of yellow was Gan Fall and Wiper staring up in stunned silence, and then the sky vanished.