Before the old knight could speak, a bloodied hand grabbed his ankle.
"Don't listen to him, Gan Fall!" Wiper rasped, raising his twisted, blood-smeared face. "That guy is lightning itself! Even if you split a lightning strike, you can't touch his real body!"
His fingers dug into the armor on Gan Fall's calf tight enough to make the greave creak. "His speed is a barrier we cannot cross. Don't gamble Shandia's dignity on an outsider who knows nothing about Skypiea!"
Zaraki scowled down at the man shouting from the dirt.
'If I were reading this in a manga, maybe I'd call it hot-blooded. But i'm starving, wounded, and with someone yelling in my ear, it's just so annoying!'
"Hey, red-skin," Zaraki interrupted, crouching down to meet Wiper's bloodshot eyes with a flat stare.
"Your dignity is guarding a pile of broken stones for hundreds of years while getting chased around and beaten? You can't even fill your stomachs or protect your families, and you're talking to me about barriers?"
He tapped Wiper's cheek with two fingers, the force light but the contempt heavy.
"Only the weak turn walls into excuses! The strong either climb them, break them, or die trying."
Ignoring the Battle Demon's rage-filled face, Zaraki stood and pointed toward the distant forest, locking eyes with Gan Fall.
"Old man, my stomach acid is reminding me of something. I want meat within ten minutes, or I'll hunt whatever lives around here myself. And if your so-called god throws another lightning bolt before I finish eating..." A savage grin tugged his lips.
"I'll go up there and settle the bill early!"
Gan Fall held his gaze for a long moment before exhaling. "Very well."
"Gan Fall!" Wiper's eyes widened.
"This is not surrender, Wiper. This is survival," Gan Fall replied, glancing from the scattered fallen Vearth to the sky where Enel's thunder lingered like a threat.
"If that man intends to confront Enel, we cannot afford to be his enemy."
Wiper gritted his teeth until blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but he stayed silent.
...
Ten minutes later, a simple bonfire crackled beside a flat broken wall at the edge of the battlefield.
The atmosphere remained tense as Shandia warriors kept their weapons close while Gan Fall sat near Pierre with his lance resting across his knees.
Wiper leaned against a tree trunk, bandaged and glaring like a wounded wolf.
The food amounted to a few skewers of grilled sky fish and some cloud-grown tubers.
Zaraki sat cross-legged on the ground, tearing into a skewer with large bites, frowning at the firm but bland, unseasoned meat.
The wounds across his shoulders had stopped bleeding, but pain pulled beneath the scabs with every sharp movement.
Across the fire, a little girl in tribal clothing peeked from behind Laki, her frightened eyes staring at this Blue Sea monster eating like a starved beast.
"What are you looking at?" Zaraki asked around a mouthful of fish, spitting out a bone. "Never seen a handsome guy eat before?"
Aisa trembled, though her innate Mantra told her this terrifying man harbored no killing intent toward her.
"What… is the Blue Sea like?" she asked, her voice tiny.
Zaraki bit into a dry tuber as the tavern in Foosha Village and Makino's smile flashed through his mind.
"The sea there is blue, not white like the clouds here. The fish can be bigger than this island, and the forests have snakes that can swallow elephants." He paused, his gaze drifting into the distance.
"But most importantly... the seasoning there is a hundred times better than this crap!"
Aisa stared in half-understanding before her curiosity froze.
Her large eyes lost focus and her pupils trembled as if she had seen a nightmare.
"He's here…" she whimpered, clutching her chest. "That voice… it's right above us!"
Zaraki stopped chewing.
He didn't need Observation Haki when the rising static electricity made the hairs on his arms stand up.
A stinging sensation enveloped him like he was pressed against a high-voltage wire.
Bzzzz—!
The clouds overhead tore open under an oppressive force, accompanied not by sails, but the unstable rumble of massive machinery.
A gigantic, incomplete golden ark pierced the cloud cover and hovered above them.
Missing outer plates exposed pipes, gears, and glowing power conduits beneath the gold, making the entire ship hum like a forced test flight.
Sunlight struck the hull, and lounging sideways on the ark's railing at the center of that dazzling glare was God, Enel.
Bare-chested with thunder drums strapped to his back, he took a bite of an apple and looked down at the mortals below, his gaze finally settling on Zaraki.
"Yahahaha… mortal," Enel's voice boomed with casual arrogance. "That slash just now was worth seeing. Compared to these Shandians monkeys jumping around, you at least have the qualifications to stand at my feet."
Zaraki tossed his fishbone aside, stood up, and patted the dust from his pants.
"Oh? So you came down to bring dessert?" He stared up at the golden ship, as greed flashing in his eyes and he calculated how much food he could buy by tearing the hull apart.
Enel's eyebrow twitched before he spoke as if musing to himself. "I have taken an interest in your ability. Become my priest, and in the Endless Vearth we are about to reach, I will grant you a seat second only to mine."
Below, Wiper and Laki went pale at the thought of this monster siding with Skypiea's tyrant.
"Priest?" Zaraki let out an exaggerated grin like he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"You want me to serve a battery-powered lightbulb? Dude, have you been sitting on that broken ship so long your brain rusted?"
The air went dead silent, and Enel froze mid-bite.
No one had ever dared speak to him in that tone since he took control of Skypiea.
"How ignorant…" The amusement vanished from Enel's eyes, replaced by cold killing intent.
"It appears you know nothing of God's power. In that case, let us play a game!"
He stood, his body flashing into lightning as he vanished from the ark and reappeared in midair ten meters in front of Zaraki.
"One minute," Enel said, raising a single finger with a returning look of high-and-mighty mockery.
"I will stand here without moving. If you can touch the hem of my clothing or make me move a single step, I will forgive your disrespect."
Wiper closed his eyes in despair.
This was Enel's favorite twisted game: dangling false hope before crushing his victims with the absolute, untouchable power of Lightning!
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