"Enel! Bring your people out here right now!"
Renn Hawk's voice rolled across the entire Sky Island like thunder.
The effect was instant.
On Angel Island, the Skypieans froze where they stood. In Shandora, the hidden Shandians stopped mid-step. Farmers dropped their tools, merchants stopped their trading, children paused in their games. All turned their heads toward the direction of the voice.
Someone had just spoken the forbidden.
Calling the name of "God" aloud.
In Sky Island's culture, it wasn't merely disrespect. It was blasphemy. An unthinkable crime.
…
By the time the crowds arrived, the streets had already cleared, leaving a wide space open in the center of the marketplace.
At the heart of it stood a tall man in a Marine's coat of justice, black gloves flexing as he strolled with a calm air of command. Renn Hawk.
His Marines formed a disciplined perimeter, weapons ready but eyes curious, scanning the unfamiliar city of clouds.
Hawk stopped before a small shop. He reached for a shell displayed on the counter and rolled it in his hand, his eyes sharpening.
Good.
This was one of Sky Island's treasures: Dials. Seashell-like devices that absorbed and released different energies. Unlike fleeting weapons, these could be used again and again so long as the shell remained intact. Semi-permanent, endlessly versatile.
His gaze flicked across the shelves.
Flame Dials, capable of storing fire. Perfect for combat or something as simple as cooking.
Flash Dials, which absorbed light and released it in a blinding flare.
Impact Dials, simple but brutal, storing kinetic force and returning it with devastating precision.
Yes. These could change everything for the ordinary Marines under his command. When the Navy secured Sky Island, its wars ended, and order restored, Hawk would make sure these resources went straight to G-3. His soldiers would be armed not just with discipline, but with weapons worthy of it.
He leaned forward slightly, speaking with uncharacteristic politeness to the shopkeeper.
"How much for these shells, old man?"
The shopkeeper blinked, wide-eyed. He saw the strange uniforms, the swords and rifles. He didn't recognize their insignia were they part of some powerful sea organization? And why was that green-haired man carrying another blond man on his back?
But none of that mattered now.
Because God was coming.
The old man waved his hands frantically. "Take it! Just take it, Blue Sea people! Leave quickly! The God is about to arrive!"
Before Hawk could reply, the sky answered for him.
BOOM!
A column of lightning tore down from the heavens, blinding and deafening.
When the light faded, a figure stood tall in the center of the square.
Enel.
Bare-chested, golden drumlike tomoe engraved behind him, with elongated earlobes swinging past his chest. Electricity crackled along his pale skin, and his sneer curved in disdain.
His eyes swept the Marines, but quickly settled on Hawk.
"So it's you. A worm from the Blue Sea." His voice was smooth, arrogant, dripping with malice. "You dare to call upon the name of God?"
He didn't get to finish.
Because in the very moment he spoke, his mantra the great network of minds that spanned the entire island flared with alarm.
Something was moving faster than his senses could track.
Too late.
CRACK!
A blackened fist, hardened with Armament Haki so dense it split the air itself, smashed across his jaw.
The world spun. Teeth shattered. Pain erupted.
Enel flew like a ragdoll, twisting helplessly as his body drilled into a wall of cloudstone, leaving a man-shaped crater in the white surface.
The crowd gasped in unison.
Silence.
The Skypieans stared in horror. The Shandians peered from the shadows, scarcely daring to breathe.
Their god… their invincible god…
Struck. Sent flying with a single blow.
Enel slid down from the crater, sparks crawling erratically across his body. His left cheek ballooned grotesquely. The shock of pain real pain pierced through his brain, sharp and humiliating.
"You… you!" he snarled, clutching his swollen face.
Hawk's voice was like ice. "You what?"
Enel looked up just in time to see nothing only a blur.
Impossible. Where was he?
His mantra shrank inward, condensed, sharpened. There! On his left!
He bolted right, transforming into a streak of lightning. He would slip away, reform, and counter
But the dark figure was already there, waiting.
How?
A chilling realization sank into his bones.
This man's "heart sense"… was sharper than his own.
CRACK!
Another iron fist. This time it exploded across the right side of Enel's jaw.
Blood, teeth, and spit sprayed across the air as his head snapped sideways. He was driven back into the dirt, his feet dragging two deep trenches into the clouds.
Now both sides of his face puffed into grotesque symmetry.
Hawk lowered his fist, tilting his head in satisfaction. "That's better. One side looked ugly. But swollen on both? That's art."
Enel trembled. Electricity rippled across his battered body, his form flickering in and out. The humiliation burned worse than the blows. His rage swallowed his reason whole.
"Enough!" His scream ripped the heavens. "Feel the punishment of God!"
He raised both arms to the sky.
The clouds convulsed. Lightning converged from every horizon, weaving together into a sphere of searing brilliance. Larger and larger it grew, until the entire Angel Island lay beneath its shadow, wrapped in golden death.
Enel laughed, manic and wild. "Pathetic Blue Sea vermin! You dare defy me? Then vanish into ash! You and your pitiful soldiers! Let the world remember this day, the day God's wrath descended!"
The island trembled beneath the charged silence.
Then
Tap.
Hawk stepped forward once.
His body coiled, every muscle compressed like a drawn bow.
In the blink of an eye, he was upon Enel, his fist erupting outward in a strike so pure it split the sky.
A straight punch, nothing more. Yet its force eclipsed the god's storm.
The fist gleamed black, wrapped in Armament Haki so dense it devoured the light around it.
Silence.
Time froze.
Enel's eyes widened. His gaze fell to his chest, where a hole as wide as a cannon pierced straight through him. The thunderball above wavered, flickered, then unraveled into harmless sparks, raining like dying fireflies.
The island exhaled.
Hawk drew his fist back, his voice calm, final.
"Enel… you talk too much."
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