"What just happened?"
"Hey, look! The lightning's gone!"
"It really is! Has God's Judgment stopped?!"
The Skypieans stared at Kong in shock, talking over one another. They had survived, but none of them understood how. God's Judgment had come down on them. So why hadn't they felt a thing?
Had the all-knowing, all-powerful god Enel withdrawn his lightning?
No. Impossible.
Enel had never done that before. Besides, that man from the Blue Sea had dared to declare he would kill a god. No matter how they looked at it, Enel would never let that pass.
Countless pirates saw Sky Island as a land of dreams, but in truth, it was home to ordinary people who knew little of the world. Their traditions had long since been lost. Apart from living in the sky, they were no different from the people of the Blue Sea.
They called powers they could not understand miracles and worshipped those who wielded them as gods. Out of fear of Enel, they even sent people from the Blue Sea to the trials as sacrifices.
Wasn't that the very sort of ignorance people had condemned since ancient times?
Ordinary people might not know better, but McKinley, captain of the White Berets, knew far more than most. Thinking back to the orders he had received from the Four Priests that morning, he suddenly understood something.
"E-excuse me... are you a god too?"
McKinley asked with great care, afraid his question might disturb the tall man before him. Loa wielded a power that might be even more terrifying than Enel's. Destroying McKinley—or all of Sky Island—would be easier than he could imagine.
Chewing a large piece of shrimp, Loa gave a brief "Mm" and paid him no further attention.
Loa knew a little about McKinley. He had once belonged