Just as the light in Enel's eyes began to undergo a qualitative change...
BANG!
From behind a towering crater in the distance, a strange, muffled thud echoed, as if a heavy object had slammed into the rock wall.
"Hmm?" Sabo, who had just gathered some dry moon-wood, narrowed his eyes. Beside him, the Mad Monk Urouge stopped rubbing his prayer beads, his rough, smiling face turning toward the sound.
On Carina's shoulder, Berries the macaw's feathers stood on end. "Quack! People! Strange tin cans! Quack!"
There was no need for the bird to say more. From the shadows of the crater, a group of bizarre, short figures emerged. They wore bloated, high-tech spacesuits—some with animal-shaped helmets—and clutched oddly shaped firearms. They poked their heads out like a pack of bloodthirsty moles.
The leader, a space pirate resembling a mangy groundhog, let out an unpleasant cackle upon seeing the Eclipse.
"Ji-hee-hee! After digging through these ruins for weeks, a ship this luxurious actually flies up here to its death!"
"Brothers! These Blue Sea People are loaded! Kill them and seize that ship as our new mothership!"
The Space Pirates surged forward, shouting and brandishing their laser rifles.
Enel looked at the strange bandits. He had been looking for a way to vent his soul-crushing disappointment, and these "rats" had just provided the perfect outlet.
Crackling blue lightning surged from his skin, but this time, the electricity was wrapped in a layer of pitch-black Armament Haki.
"So, you're the native scum of this place," Enel gritted his teeth, the fury in his eyes exploding. "How dare you cross me! Today, I'll show you the true lightning of the sea!"
"Fire! Turn these ignorant Blue Sea People into mincemeat!" the pirate leader roared, pulling the trigger of his Laser Rifle.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
A dozen scorching energy beams wove a net of death in the low-gravity environment, pouring toward the camp. Facing these moles who hadn't even mastered Observation Haki, the crew of the Eclipse stood their ground. They knew someone needed this win more than they did.
"A pack of hole-digging rats dares to set foot on my Infinite Land?"
A wild wind kicked up grey dust. Accompanied by a roll of suppressed thunder, Enel vanished. A blinding blue streak tore through space, bypassing the slow energy beams and appearing directly in the center of the pirate formation.
"Who's there?!" The leader shrieked, frantically swinging his rifle.
"Die."
Enel didn't use a flashy "God's Judgment." He gripped his Golden Staff with both hands. After three months of being pinned down and beaten by Ace and Sabo, his combat instincts had been ruthlessly corrected.
Deep Haki spread from his palms, dyeing the gold staff as black as night. High-voltage arcs coiled around the black shell like serpents.
BOOM!
The black-gold staff swept across the leader's armor. The "high-tech" suit collapsed like wet cardboard under the combined force of the Haki impact and the searing heat. The leader spat blood and was sent flying, embedding himself deep into a crater wall.
"What kind of monster is this?! RUN!"
The remaining pirates scrambled, dropping their guns in terror.
"This barren wasteland of dead stone is a nest for rats like you? What a rotten dreamland!" Enel's pain and frustration erupted. He turned into a blur of lightning, weaving through the field. Every time he flickered into existence, a heavy, Haki-cloaked blow followed.
He didn't use wide-range attacks. He relied purely on Observation Haki and physical destruction. In thirty seconds, the massacre was over. Dozens of space pirates lay scattered, the lights on their suits fading into darkness.
Enel stood amidst the scrap metal, panting, sparks dancing on his staff. As his anger subsided, the sense of nihilism returned.
"Looks like Long-Ears took that hard," Sabo noted, adjusting his sleeves. "He didn't even electrocute them; he just smashed them one by one."
Buggy had already sprinted to the center of the wreckage with a sack. "Are these alien hicks broke?! They came out to rob us and didn't even bring a gold coin? Their pockets are full of nothing but crappy wires and scrap gears!"
"No money! Broke! Quack!" Berries pecked disdainfully at a helmet.
Unlike the "Finance Department," Jeno walked over with a different glint in his eyes. The burly Mechanic knelt beside a smashed suit, ignoring the unconscious alien inside. His thick fingers pulled out a section of complex integrated circuitry glowing blue.
"A miniature energy storage pump," Jeno murmured. "This isn't the low-grade stuff you see in the Blue Sea."
He looked at the discarded Laser Rifles. "If this planet was just this desolate surface, they couldn't have built tech this logical."
Jeno stood up and walked to the edge of the crater where the pirates had emerged. His Mechanical Exoskeleton hissed as he swung his Power Warhammer, slamming it into the grey rock at the bottom of the pit.
BOOM!
The weathered surface layer shattered, revealing the truth buried beneath.
"Come look at this!" Jeno shouted.
Ace, who had been watching the stars by the campfire, walked over. When the crew reached the edge and looked down, their breath hitched.
Beneath the cracked, grey-white soil lay a magnificent, breathtakingly huge metal gate made of an unknown, ancient alloy. Deep, glowing lines of energy pulsed within the metal—a doorway to a world hidden under the dust.
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