Divine Departure

"Rumble!"

The massive Thunder God body moved with a thunderous roar, sending deep reverberations through the air.

One moment, he had been ten meters away. The next, the Thunder God, wreathed in flickering blue arcs, was right before Jiang Liu, driving his three-pronged lightning halberd down viciously.

"Whoosh!"

The air shrieked as the golden trident, crackling with lightning, pierced through it and reached Jiang Liu in an instant.

"Quite an impressive display!"

Jiang Liu offered a quiet word of praise. Red light flashed in his eyes, and his figure began to blur.

Observation Haki, precognition!

The lightning trident passed through his body, pierced the afterimage Jiang Liu had left behind, and slammed into the ground. A vast surge of electricity erupted.

A charred crater instantly opened in the ground.

"Roar!"

Enel turned and swung his other enormous hand at Jiang Liu in midair.

"Bzzzz!"

Electricity gathered, forming a pillar of lightning in his palm.

"Whoosh!"

Yet Jiang Liu vanished again.

The Thunder God's enormous palm, carrying the lightning pillar, passed through another afterimage and destroyed a vast swath of forest, setting the surroundings ablaze.

"Damn it!"

Enel roared.

Two attacks in a row had failed to so much as touch his opponent, dealing a blow to his confidence.

Then he saw Jiang Liu reappear a short distance in front of him, a smile on his lips. To Enel, that smile was unmistakably mocking.

"Aaaaaah!"

Enel, in his Thunder God form, was nearly mad with rage. He threw back his head and roared at the sky.

"Rumble!"

In an instant, countless bolts of lightning burst from his body. Twisting bolts stretching a hundred meters, even several hundred, shot in every direction.

The sight was breathtaking, like thousands of cannons firing at once.

There were no blind spots, not a single direction left uncovered. Lightning filled every space, making such an attack all but impossible to dodge.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Countless lightning serpents hissed as they tore through the forest and scorched the ground, descending from the sky as though the day of destruction had arrived.

Watching the scene before him, Jiang Liu narrowed his eyes slightly, and a dazzling red light flashed within them.

The Thunder God's two hundred million volts of power could not be ignored. This world-shattering barrage of lightning could destroy virtually any foe.

In range, destructive power, and speed, Enel's Rumble-Rumble Fruit was undoubtedly among the very best!

Lightning had always been an energy-based attack with immense destructive power.

"Hoo!"

Drawing a slight breath, Jiang Liu began to sway gently.

The next second, a bolt shot toward him. His figure shifted, and the current shattered an afterimage before striking a distant tree. With a boom, the tree splintered and burst into flames.

But countless more bolts followed in an unending barrage.

Jiang Liu's figure began flickering at blinding speed. His body swayed and twisted as he stepped forward, advancing with movements that seemed slow but were incredibly fast, evading the dense lightning surging toward him.

"The boss dodged the lightning!"

"Unbelievable! It's like he foresaw every incoming attack and moved out of the way in advance!"

"Enel's lightning could destroy anything!"

Standing in the distance, Foxy and his crew watched with wide eyes, their jaws hanging open in shock.

To them, Enel in his Thunder God form seemed like the true god of thunder descending upon the world. But Jiang Liu, who evaded the lightning with effortless ease, seemed even more like a true god!

Dodging countless bolts with movements so slight they were barely perceptible was simply beyond human ability.

Amid the seemingly endless barrage of lightning, Jiang Liu swayed, leaving countless afterimages behind him, beside him, and all around him.

The lightning struck and shattered those afterimages one after another.

Yet his real body advanced steadily. In just a few breaths, he had reached Enel.

"Impossible!"

"This is impossible!"

Having witnessed it all, Enel was shaken to his core. He could not believe his eyes.

His strongest weapon, the attacks unleashed by his two-hundred-million-volt Thunder God body, had failed to inflict any damage at all. His opponent had evaded them in such a manner.

It shook him to his soul. He had never seen anything like it, nor had he ever imagined it possible.

"This man!"

"Who the hell are you?!"

Enel shouted.

He raised both hands. With a thunderous crash, lightning fell from the storm clouds overhead and struck them directly.

The next second, he held two enormous lightning halberds, each dozens of meters long.

Jiang Liu stood ten meters in front of him now. One was enormous and the other small, their sizes utterly disproportionate. Yet at that moment, Enel was strangely overwhelmed by his opponent's presence.

He looked panicked, furious, terrified, and crazed.

In contrast, Jiang Liu remained calm, his right hand resting on the hilt of the long sword at his waist.

"My name is Jiang Liu. Remember it!"

"From this moment on, you'll never forget me for as long as you live!"

His deep, commanding, domineering voice cut through the hiss of coursing electricity and reached Enel's ears.

Enel's pupils contracted. His face twisted as he roared.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

He brought the lightning halberds crashing down. At that very moment, the storm clouds overhead thundered again, and bolts thousands of meters long descended, connecting with his halberds.

Even greater power and might shone upon Enel's Thunder God body, making him look supremely majestic, like a deity.

All around them, great swaths of forest burned fiercely. Their brief battle had turned the trees for thousands, even ten thousand meters around, into a sea of fire.

"Rumble!"

Deafening thunder rang out, and lightning tore through the night sky.

Towering over Jiang Liu, Enel gripped his lightning halberds in both hands and slashed down at him, roaring without pause.

Time and space seemed to freeze at that moment.

Watching from afar, Crocodile's pupils abruptly contracted.

"That's...?!"

He saw a glimmer of light, faint, chilling, and razor-sharp.

It was the gleam of Jiang Liu's blade, carrying an unparalleled, utterly domineering force.

"Bzzzz!"

Purplish-red electricity flickered around the barely three inches of exposed blade, yet its presence eclipsed the enormous Thunder God body.

Then, amid the dazzling lightning, he saw that figure holding his long sword, slowly swinging it upward in a diagonal slash.

At the same time, two cold, commanding words tore through everything and reached his ears.

"Divine Departure!"

Then everything froze, and all sound vanished.

The long sword met the two lightning halberds and swept through them effortlessly, severing the enormous weapons along with the ferocious aura surrounding Enel.

The crackle of electricity faded. The blue arcs gradually dimmed, and the enormous Thunder God body weakened and vanished at a visible pace, revealing the face within, filled with shock, fear, and awe.

"Bang!"

Purplish-red electricity shot outward. Enel's body pitched forward and doubled over, then hurtled high into the sky with a whoosh, sent flying backward.

At that moment, utter silence reigned!