Escape

But just then, the Lord of the Sky Island's enormous tail suddenly began to twist strangely, and its head made an extremely comical motion, as if it were coughing. Smoke poured from its mouth, as though it were trying to fling something out of its throat.

"Hiss, hiss..."

The Lord of the Sky Island let out a pained groan, then kept coughing. Under Enel's somewhat delighted gaze, a fiery, burning figure flew out of the Lord of the Sky Island's mouth and fell toward the ground.

"Pah, pah, pah..."

Ye Mu, spat out by the Lord of the Sky Island, dropped from the sky and smashed into a stretch of ruins, crashing through countless walls. If Ye Mu had not used partial elementalization to offset some of the damage, he probably would not have been able to stand up now.

"That's great, Ye Mu, you're still alive."

Enel's voice came from the distance. Ye Mu looked toward the direction of the voice and saw Enel standing not far away, his whole body crackling with electric light.

"Looks like Enel has already eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit."

Seeing this, Ye Mu felt extremely relieved. Everything was developing in the direction he had anticipated. Though they had encountered quite a few setbacks along the way, the result looked perfect.

"Hiss, hiss..."

The Lord of the Sky Island looked angrily at the two little pests in front of it who had offended it again and again, as if it could not wait to swallow them both.

The Lord of the Sky Island withdrew the tail it had originally been whipping at Enel and swung it toward Ye Mu, who stood on the ground panting heavily.

Ye Mu's pupils instantly shrank.

Fortunately, with the help of his fruit ability, Ye Mu's body had slowly recovered by now, and he already had the strength to run. Ye Mu reacted quickly, dodged the blow, and then roared at Enel.

"Enel, run! Run back the way we came!"

There was absolutely no chance of winning if they fought the Lord of the Sky Island now.

Leaving aside the fact that neither of them had familiar mastery of their Devil Fruit abilities yet, even their bodies were extremely weak, and they could not bring out the fruits' power at all.

When Enel saw that Ye Mu had survived, the joy on his face was plain to see. After hearing Ye Mu's words, his feet did not hesitate in the slightest, and he ran back in the direction they had come from.

Although the Lord of the Sky Island was extremely fast, because of this cluster of ancient buildings, if it wanted to catch the two very skinny figures, it had to destroy countless buildings blocking its path. As a result, Ye Mu, Enel, and the Lord of the Sky Island fell into an extremely bizarre chase.

The Lord of the Sky Island seemed as if it could bite off their backsides at any moment, but just when it was about to do so, the two would dodge into a narrow alley or slip into a building, forcing the Lord of the Sky Island to veer away and allowing them to escape disaster.

This chase continued until the two arrived at the place where they had fallen down. Enel and Ye Mu raised their heads and looked at the small hole in the sky.

"There's no time to climb up."

Enel said nervously. The Lord of the Sky Island's huge mouth was already biting toward the two of them.

Ye Mu was also unbearably nervous. Feeling the little strength he had left, he gritted his teeth and made a ruthless decision.

"Get ready. I'll block the Lord of the Sky Island for you. You climb up first."

"What?"

Enel stared at Ye Mu with wide eyes.

But Ye Mu had no time to worry about Enel. He estimated it himself, recalled Ace's move from the anime, and then mobilized the little energy left in his body.

"Fire Fist!"

In an instant, Ye Mu's arm burned with scorching flames, transforming into a massive fire fist several times thicker than his own body and blazing with terrifying heat as it flew toward the Lord of the Sky Island's head.

"Awooo!!!"

With a howl that pierced the heavens, the Lord of the Sky Island's entire head burst into flames. It thrashed its head wildly, smashing into everything, trying to extinguish the fire on its head.

Seeing that his attack had actually worked, Ye Mu also let out a breath of relief in his heart. At the same time, he shouted at Enel.

"Quick, run!"

And just as the two escaped from the mouth of the hole, a feeling like suffocation instantly rushed into Ye Mu's mind. Then he knew nothing at all.

Time flew by in a rush...

At night, in the temple on God's Island Apayado.

Gan Fall was lying comfortably in his palace, with two beautiful winged maids attending to him nearby.

Gan Fall was already in his fifties. Although he was a god, he was still only an ordinary human. The passage of time had left many traces of age on his face, and his body could no longer withstand day-and-night labor as it had many years ago. Slowly, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

But just as Gan Fall seemed about to drift off, a sudden clap of thunder flashed through the sky, instantly making Gan Fall's relaxed nerves tense. He sat up from the bed, clutching his head.

A trace of anger flashed across Gan Fall's face. No one would be happy after having a good sleep disturbed.

Beside him, the plump captain of God's Guard walked over to Gan Fall, bent at the waist, and saluted.

"God, are you all right?"

"Do you think I could be all right?"

A trace of anger flashed across Gan Fall's face, and he questioned the captain.

"Have you investigated it clearly? What exactly is going on?"

"I'm very sorry, God!"

The captain's helpless words made Gan Fall even angrier. He roared.

"What exactly is going on? Why has Apayado produced so many strange incidents for no reason ever since five years ago? First it was thunder and lightning, then many forests burned down for no reason, and finally so many creatures also vanished in bizarre ways. What exactly is going on?"

Gan Fall angrily questioned the captain.

The guard captain looked rather aggrieved too.

"T-this... I'm truly sorry, God. I've already had the guards searching for a long time, but we haven't found any trace!"

"Eh..."

Gan Fall sighed helplessly.

"What a headache!"

Gan Fall felt that being God in his generation was truly exhausting. He had devoted himself to resolving the conflict between the Sky Islanders and the Shandians, but centuries of accumulated hatred were hardly so easy to settle. He had struggled for half his life, only to end up in this state. The Shandians still hated them, and he himself could not let go of Upper Yard, this island bestowed by God.

"Forget it. Resolve it as soon as possible. Oh, right—tomorrow's ceremony for the Knock Up Stream, I won't be attending. Make the arrangements properly, and don't let anything go wrong. Understood?"

Gan Fall was old, after all. If this had been a few years earlier, he definitely would have attended the annual celebration for the enormous Knock Up Stream. But now, never mind.

"As you command, God!"

After the guard captain left, Gan Fall lay back down on the bed. Fortunately, after that, there were no major disturbances, and he peacefully drifted into dreams.

Meanwhile, at the very bottom of the shrine, near the roots of the vines, among the ruins of the legendary City of Gold Shandora.

A huge bonfire blazed. Above the flames was a massive slab of dinosaur meat, already prepared and roasted golden-brown and crisp all over, like a small mountain.

And in the sky above the dinosaur meat, amid the pitch-black night, a streak of flame and a bolt of lightning clashed again and again, sending out thunderous booms. The air, visible to the naked eye, shook violently with every collision...