In the dark, damp tree hollow, the air seemed to have frozen solid.
The Devil Fruit radiating an eerie blue glow lay quietly in Lei En's hand, as though some mysterious pulse throbbed within it.
"Hey, hairless monkey from the Blue Sea, put down that god-given fruit in your hand!"
The sudden voice was outrageously arrogant, carrying a sickening madness as it echoed through the hollow tree and sounded especially grating.
Lei En's hand, which held the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, paused in midair.
He slowly turned his head toward the entrance of the tree hollow.
Amid the interwoven light and shadows stood a youth of sixteen or seventeen.
He wore a white headscarf, his upper body bare and exposing firm yet not overly exaggerated muscles, while he wore loose balloon pants below.
Four small drums carved with three-tomoe patterns were tied to his back with a rough rope, making him look ridiculous and strange.
Most eye-catching was his face, full of defiance and arrogance, as well as... his ears, which should have had long earlobes but now bore only two exceptionally ugly, flat scars.
It was Enel, the future god of Sky Island, currently still a delinquent youth from Birka!
At this time, Enel had naturally awakened the exceptionally rare Sky Island ability known as "Mantra" (Observation Haki), allowing him to hear the voices of the entire island.
This abnormal talent caused the people of his hometown, Birka, to view him as an ominous monster.
He suffered prolonged exclusion and abuse. Even his distinctive earlobes had been cruelly cut off by thugs during a violent conflict.
Years of bullying and isolation had twisted his personality into something utterly extreme.
He began to loathe those weak yet ignorant humans and started calling himself a lofty "god."
Today, it was also through his keen Mantra that he sensed an incredibly violent and unusual energy fluctuation coming from deep within this giant ancient tree, prompting him to track it all the way here.
He had a powerful intuition that if he obtained the thing radiating that energy, he would gain the power truly belonging to a "god" and destroy the hometown that disgusted him!
Yet despite rushing here as fast as he could, he had actually been beaten to it by a Blue Sea child who looked only eight years old and did not even have the small wings distinctive to Sky Island people!
"Something this god has set his sights on—is it something a lowly Blue Sea monkey like you can touch?"
Enel leaned against the tree trunk, extended his pinky, and contemptuously picked at his ear.
His narrow eyes were full of disdain and contempt for Lei En. He did not take this little brat seriously at all.
"Now, kneel immediately and offer that fruit with both hands."
Enel raised his chin and spoke in a tone of condescending charity.
"This god is in a good mood today, so perhaps I'll show mercy and leave you a whole corpse, letting a monkey like you die with some dignity."
Faced with this outrageously arrogant provocation, Lei En was stunned for a moment. Then he lowered his head, and his shoulders began to tremble faintly.
"Pfft... Hahahaha!"
Lei En truly could not hold it in anymore. Clutching his stomach, he burst into unrestrained laughter.
What was this called?
This was called finding something without even having to search for it!
He had been worrying that after obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the massive Thunder God warship of the Heavenly Court would be missing a night watchman who understood electricity and could handle odd jobs.
And now, wasn't this high-quality, durable, Observation Haki-gifted laborer delivering himself straight into his bowl?
"Blue Sea monkey?"
Lei En stopped laughing and slowly straightened up.
Not only did he not put down the Rumble-Rumble Fruit in his hand, he casually tossed it back and forth between his hands like a ball right in front of Enel.
He looked Enel up and down, his gaze like that of an experienced slave trader inspecting merchandise about to enter storage.
"With your scrawny little monkey body that hasn't even grown all its hair yet, carrying a few broken drums on your back, you dare call yourself a god in front of me?"
A viciously calculating and arrogant smirk curled across Lei En's lips.
"Didn't your family teach you to speak politely when you're out in the world and facing someone stronger than you? Oh, sorry, I forgot. You seem to be a stray dog nobody wants."
That viciously precise insult was like a poisoned blade plunging viciously into the most sensitive and vulnerable wound in Enel's heart!
On Birka, everyone had excluded him, but after he used his Mantra and powerful physique to teach several bullies a lesson, who did not tremble in fear upon seeing him and take a detour?
And today, a lowly little brat from the Blue Sea had actually looked down on him to his face?!
And called him a stray dog?!
"You... are... dead!!!"
Enel's originally pale cheeks instantly flushed a liver-like purple-red. Veins bulged one after another across his forehead like twisted earthworms.
He felt that his supreme dignity as a "god" had suffered an unforgivable affront!
"Since you refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit, this god will personally send you to hell to repent for your ignorance!"
Enel let out a beast-like roar.
He suddenly reached behind the four small drums on his back and drew out a heavy golden staff over two meters long, forged entirely from gold.
Although he had not yet eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and could not transform into lightning,
his physique had been tempered far beyond that of ordinary people through years of fighting. Combined with the cheat-like foresight of his Mantra, he truly counted as a top expert in the eyes of ordinary Sky Island people.
"Die! You lowly monkey!"
Enel violently pushed off the ground with both legs, crushing a protruding tree root beneath his feet.
His entire body shot toward Lei En like a cannonball, carrying a wild gale!
In midair, he gripped the golden staff tightly with both hands, twisted his waist, and smashed it down at Lei En's head with an incomparably sharp howl through the air, like Mount Tai bearing down!
This strike was heavy and powerful, filled with all of Enel's rage and killing intent.
If it landed, let alone the head of an eight-year-old child, even a hard Sky Island rock would be smashed to pieces, brains splattering everywhere!
However.
Faced with this frenzied strike that was more than enough to kill him, not the slightest trace of panic could be seen on Lei En's face.
He did not even make a move to dodge.
Nor did he draw Yubashiri, the famed blade at his waist that could cut through iron like mud.
Lei En simply stood quietly where he was and raised his head slightly. His deep obsidian-like eyes calmly watched the golden staff rapidly enlarging in his vision.
His gaze held only profound disappointment and disdain.
Too weak...
Lei En shook his head inwardly.
To someone possessing Roger's Peak Swordsmanship and Advanced Observation Haki, Enel's current attack looked as though it were moving in slow motion.
Too slow.
His method of exerting force was too crude.
His entire body exposed at least a dozen openings that could prove fatal in a single strike.
There was practically no difference between this and a three-year-old child waving a plastic toy at a grown, muscular man.
Just as the golden staff, accompanied by a piercing wind howl, came within less than ten centimeters of Lei En's head and was about to smash it apart at the critical moment!
"With skills like this, you dare come out pretending to be a god?"
Lei En sneered, his tone full of mockery.
Then, with extreme casualness—one could even say absentmindedness—he raised his left hand.
He did not use Armament Haki hardening, nor did he use any sword technique.
He simply used that small hand, which looked fair and tender and still carried a bit of baby fat, to meet the descending golden staff.
"Bang—!"
An extraordinarily dull boom, like two solid blocks of pig iron colliding, violently reverberated through the narrow tree hollow!
The air surged, lifting Lei En's short black hair slightly.
Enel's eyes, which had already been wide with rage, nearly bulged straight out of their sockets!
His face was filled with ghostly disbelief and horror.
The golden staff he had swung with every ounce of his strength, enough to shatter rock...
had actually been casually caught by this eight-year-old Blue Sea brat with one hand!
Moreover, the other's palm was like an indestructible iron clamp, tightly gripping the base of the staff.
Lei En's body did not even sway. His feet remained firmly planted on the ground, like an insurmountable mountain!
"H-How is that possible?!"
Enel shrieked in utter terror.
He felt that his common sense had been completely shattered in that instant.
He gritted his teeth desperately and used every ounce of strength in both hands, trying to yank the golden staff back from Lei En's grasp.
But no matter how hard he pulled or how red his face became, the staff seemed to have taken root, as if it had been cast directly into Lei En's palm. It would not move at all!
"This... is the power of the 'god' you keep talking about? With that little strength, you can't even scratch an itch for me."
Lei En gripped the golden staff with one hand and slowly raised his head.
Those abyss-dark eyes stared fixedly at Enel, who hung in midair with his face flushed red.
A terrifying pressure far beyond Enel's comprehension, almost tangible in its intensity, erupted from Lei En's small body and instantly engulfed the entire tree hollow!
Under the pressure of that aura, Enel felt as though he were facing an ancient ferocious beast with its bloody maw wide open. Even breathing became difficult.
"You really disappoint me, Enel."
The calculating smile on Lei En's lips deepened, while his eyes gleamed with the teasing light of a hunter looking at prey.
"Since you like this fruit so much that you were willing to come here and throw your life away for it..."
Lei En raised the faintly glowing Rumble-Rumble Fruit in his other hand.
"Then today, I'll open your eyes and show you exactly how this thing is supposed to be eaten!"
Having said that.
Under Enel's terrified, bloodshot gaze.
Lei En unhesitatingly brought the fruit covered in lightning patterns to his mouth and opened it.
"Crunch!"
He bit down!
Before you continue