…
Enel's body lay sprawled across the cloud-ground.
His eyes were still wide open, frozen in that final, unfathomable moment. There was no fear in them. No pain. Only sheer, incomprehensible disbelief.
To the very end, he never understood why his cherished mantra the so-called "heart network" and his thunderbolts, the powers that made him feel untouchable, had crumbled like fragile paper before this man.
…
"God is dead."
The thought surged like silent lightning, crackling through every mind on Sky Island.
On Angel Island, the citizens stood rooted in place. In Shandora, hidden among the drifting clouds, the Shandians gasped. All eyes fixed on the fallen figure.
The ruler who had wielded lightning as a scepter, who had stretched his mantra over the entire sky as if it were his private domain, who had crushed their lives under tyranny for six endless years
Was gone. Just like that.
A child, too young to understand the weight of his own words, pointed a trembling finger at the corpse and asked in a small, milky voice:
"Mom… why isn't God moving anymore?"
Boom.
That single innocent question detonated the silence.
A wrinkled elder staggered forward, his cloudy eyes brimming with tears. His knees gave way, and he collapsed onto the clouds with hands clasped in prayer.
"It's over… truly… it's over."
He would never forget the day his wife had merely whispered a complaint just one line about how "God's demands were too much."
A thunderbolt had fallen from the heavens, turning her to charred ash before his eyes.
…
For six years, these horrors had never ceased.
The people of Sky Island lived as cattle penned beneath Enel's gaze, smothered under fear, terrified even of their own thoughts. Every day, they braced for slaughter.
But now the butcher was dead.
The clouded sky that had loomed above them had broken apart at last.
They wanted to scream in joy. To laugh, to cry, to collapse into each other's arms and rejoice in their freedom.
But none dared make a sound.
Because their eyes were on him.
The man in the Marine's cloak who had crushed "God" with contemptuous ease.
Renn Hawk.
If one god had fallen, would another rise in his place? Would this man, even more fearsome, now claim dominion over them?
The weight of their future rested on his next words.
…
Hawk could feel their emotions swirling around him.
Relief. Awe. Gratitude. And hidden among them, faint tendrils of fear.
They were terrified that he would become the new Enel.
But no. That was not his path.
He hadn't come to Sky Island to rule. His purpose was clear: the lost city of gold, Shandora. With its treasure, the Marines of G-3 could free themselves from the leash of World Government subsidies. With wealth came independence, and with independence came true justice.
Enel was only a byproduct an arrogant tyrant who had outlived his use.
As Hawk's gaze flicked across the still-open system prompt, he let his thoughts crystallize.
[Ding!]
[The host has slain Enel, destroyer of his homeland Birka. Justice Points +50,000.]
[Current Justice Points: 54,091.]
Not bad.
Enel had been worth more than five hundred million berries in bounty value. A top-tier logia fruit, wasted on nothing but cruelty and vanity.
How could Hawk ever allow such evil to persist?
He opened his mouth, ready to speak, to soothe the trembling Sky Islanders
When the sky split.
Whoosh!
A massive crimson bird swooped down, wings flashing like fire. On its back stood a man in sunglasses, a long spear balanced in his grip.
God's Priest Shura.
"Hou-hou-hou!"
From the opposite side drifted a rotund man, spherical in shape, bouncing lightly on strange cloud-shoes. His laughter rang grotesquely as dozens of winged soldiers Enel's divine warriors burst from the cloudbanks behind him, spears ready.
God's Priest Gedatsu.
Then came the bellow of a hound.
A towering man approached, flames dancing along the edge of the long sword in his hands. At his heels padded a monstrous canine, jaws snapping with hungry growls.
God's Priest Ohm.
Finally, with a hollow thump, a man dropped upside-down from the clouds, headfirst, limbs dangling like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His eyes were empty, expression slack.
God's Priest Satori.
The Four Priests had arrived.
…
They looked upon the gathering crowd, faces hard with violence, confusion written beneath their bravado.
And then their gazes fell on the corpse.
Their master. Their "God."
They froze, jaws dropping, snot and tears mixing in sudden disbelief.
"!!!"
"Lord Enel?!"
"Impossible! Lord Enel is invincible!"
Yet there he was. Dead.
Their eyes swiveled toward the Marine cloaked in justice.
"You!"
"Blue Sea scum! What did you do to Lord Enel?!"
…
Hawk didn't answer them. Instead, he turned his head toward two men at his side.
Roronoa Zoro. The branch's sharpest blade.
Vinsmoke Sanji. The branch's chef, and when he wished, its deadliest striker.
Both had distinguished themselves during the purge at Mock Town. Both had earned enough merit to be raised into Marine headquarters.
Promotions were inevitable.
But Hawk's lips curled in amusement as he watched them bicker under their breath. Rivalry, when harnessed, was the finest catalyst for growth.
"Zoro. Sanji."
He jerked his chin toward the priests. "Four of them. Two each. Whoever finishes first gets promoted to Headquarters Major. The slower one will settle for Captain."
The words hit like thunder.
Both men stiffened, stunned. Then their eyes widened with dawning realization.
Promotion? Straight from rank-and-file soldier to commissioned officer?!
…
The shock lasted only a heartbeat before their expressions transformed into pure, exultant fire.
Zoro's grip tightened on the hilt of his white katana, Wado Ichimonji.
Sanji leapt from Zoro's back, fire already kindling in his veins.
Headquarters Major. Headquarters Captain.
Neither would accept second place.
"Oi, moss-head!" Sanji snarled, landing in a crouch. "This time, I'll crush you!"
The thought alone made his blood sing. To see Zoro forced to salute him, to hear him spit out "Major Sanji" with clenched teeth oh, that would be heaven.
Zoro smirked faintly. His thumb traced the steel of his blade as he whispered, "Keep dreaming. The rank of Major is mine."
"Like hell it is! This time, I'll put you beneath me!" Sanji roared.
He twisted, muscles coiling tight like springs. His right leg flared as if the very air fed it fuel.
Boom!
He shot forward, a black blur cutting through the air with such force that friction itself ignited. A crimson blaze erupted along his pant leg, licking upward like a fiery spirit.
Diable Jambe.
His foot blazed with heat and fury.
"Four priests or four pigs, it makes no difference "
Sanji's eyes blazed as he hurtled toward them, voice rising in a battle cry.
"Tonight you fall… to the leg of the Devil!"
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