The battle was ultimately interrupted. After venting the resentment and fury in his heart through his fierce assault, Rocks calmed down as well.
After all, when it came to being troublesome, Annus surpassed even Harald.
That was because, while being the natural element of lightning itself, Annus also possessed first-rate Haki.
Especially in terms of Observation Haki, there was no one on all of Hachinosu who could surpass Annus. Calling him the man standing at the pinnacle of Observation Haki would not be an exaggeration.
If Annus was willing to avoid confronting others head-on, they would not even be able to touch his true body.
With Observation Haki that could foresee the future and complete mastery over elementalization, reaching that level was not difficult for Annus.
This was also the fundamental reason why Annus had never shown an embarrassing side when fighting Whitebeard, Shiki, Linlin, and the others in the past.
Though Logias lacked the extraordinary durability of Mythical Zoans, elementalization made up for that weakness.
"So you stopped? What a pity!"
Shiki, Whitebeard, and the others watching the battle all sighed in regret.
To these people who loved a spectacle, the fiercer the fight between Annus and Rocks, the better. Ideally, both would be badly wounded, exposing ugly scenes worth mocking.
Besides, if the two stopped fighting, the bet could not continue.
"How boring! How boring!" Shiki sighed, shaking his head with deep regret.
At the center of the battered, crater-riddled deserted island, the dust gradually dispersed as the battle came to an end.
"That's enough for today, Annus! I'll come find you again tomorrow! I hope you'll change your mind by then!"
With a cold snort and that threat left behind, Rocks departed the deserted island without looking back, heading toward Hachinosu.
It was a technique similar to Geppo. For a top powerhouse like Rocks, even the Six Powers, renowned for being complex and difficult to learn, were something whose essence he could grasp at a glance.
Rocks's departure greatly disappointed the spectators. When Annus swept them with a cold gaze, they wisely slipped away as well.
"Mamamahaha! I'll come drink with you another day, Annus!"
Linlin leaped onto Thundercloud Zeus, the Homie created from her own soul, and headed toward Hachinosu.
"Jihahaha! Me too!"
Shiki also manipulated the ship by the shore into floating. Kaido, Whitebeard, and the others were aboard it.
After everyone had left, Annus glanced at the ravaged deserted island. After a moment of silence, he too transformed into a bolt of lightning and departed.
But he did not head toward Hachinosu. Instead, he shot toward Elbaf, the land of Giants.
A winding bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, crossing the vast seas and arriving several hours later at Elbaf, located in the latter half of the New World.
The deep sea constantly churned with enormous waves. Savage fish as large as Sea Kings occasionally leaped from the water. Ahead lay the shadow of the World Tree, reaching from earth to sky; between its double-layered canopy hung waterfalls and clouds.
Before such a colossal "world," even the lightning Annus had become appeared tiny.
The tiny bolt of lightning slipped directly into Elbaf's Underworld, that eternal frozen land which had not seen sunlight for tens of thousands of years, and finally vanished amid the endless snow mountains.
Within the towering, excessively massive snow mountains lived equally enormous savage beasts known as the Mountain Lords. Yet as lightning flickered, those beasts all revealed frightened expressions.
At the same time, on a snowy field within the mountains, a Giant boy with demonic golden vertical pupils and a black horned helmet also raised his head toward the lightning flickering through the blizzard.
Because he was a freak who had undergone atavism, this Giant boy was even larger than some adult Giants.
"Little Loki, long time no see."
The lightning descended into an open space before the Giant boy and transformed into Annus's true body.
Loki, Harald's second son, was known as the "Cursed Prince" and "Elbaf's Shame."
But in truth, Loki was merely a pitiful child hated by his birth mother from the moment he was born and thrown off a cliff into the Underworld.
His miserable childhood had shaped Loki's extreme personality. Having never experienced love, he treated everything with violence, indifference, and cruelty.
Yet in Annus's eyes, Loki was still very kind-hearted. He was the very image of someone with a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
The Rocks Pirates had visited Elbaf many times in the past, so Annus naturally had opportunities to interact with Loki and had repeatedly tried to guide him.
"Annus! It really was you!"
The young Giant prince, little Loki, revealed a delighted expression. Sitting on the ground, he looked down at Annus, his enormous body casting a shadow over him.
"Where's Rocks? Didn't he come with you?"
Yet no matter where he looked, little Loki could not find the figure he had longed to see.
"Yeah, I came alone... Loki, is Harald on the island?"
"I see..."
Hearing that Rocks had not come, little Loki looked somewhat disappointed, but he still answered Annus's question.
"My old man's in the Sun World. He should be over at Aurust Castle right now..."
"I understand. Thanks, Loki. I'll come find you later." Annus nodded at those words, transforming into lightning and flashing toward the space above the Underworld.
"Huh? You're leaving just like that? I still have questions to ask you!" Little Loki stretched out a hand in shock, trying to stop him, but the lightning had already vanished into the depths of the blizzard.
Watching this, regret appeared in little Loki's strange golden vertical pupils.
"What the hell?"
Little Loki complained as he kicked aside a boulder at his feet. The boulder, more than ten meters tall, rumbled and shook under the tremendous force.
Rocks was one thing—he had always treated him like he was invisible. But why was Annus, who had always paid attention to him, ignoring him this time too?
And besides, they had not seen each other for two years!
Annus, speeding away from the Underworld in the form of lightning, paid no attention to little Loki's thoughts.
Instead, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge, the spectacular giant branches, island clouds, and other sights, arriving at Elbaf's Aurust Castle—the castle where King Harald resided.
Aurust Castle was built upon one of the World Tree's branches. It stood higher than every village in the Sun World and was also the center of Elbaf's power.
Beneath the castle's outer gates, two Giant guards holding enormous axes and shields spotted the approaching lightning.
"Stop!"
The enormous axes and shields crossed, blocking his path.
"Ahead lies the castle where the great King Harald resides! Who goes there?"
During his previous visits to Elbaf's Sun World, Annus had never revealed his Devil Fruit ability and had arrived by the Rainbow Bridge instead. Thus, the two Giant guards could not identify him from the lightning.
Little Loki could recognize him because he had witnessed Annus's elementalization before, though that had happened in the Underworld.
"I'm Annus. Please inform Harald that I have something to discuss with him."
Annus hovered before the two Giant guards and revealed his true form.
Before you continue