"Are you sure, Enel?" Buggy turned from watching the distant battle, glancing back at the lightning god with a half-smile. The air still shimmered from the aftermath of their previous clash, but Enel, despite the tension, met Buggy's gaze with a confident grin.
"Captain," Enel replied, his voice steady and proud, "besides you, who else can say they're sure against Kizaru?"
He straightened, lightning crackling faintly around his shoulders. "But I believe in myself. I believe in everything I've worked for over the past few years. Leave Kizaru to me. I swear, I'll win."
Buggy chuckled, nodding. "Alright then. Go."
He didn't care about guarantees or numbers. What mattered was that Enel's nature was indomitable, wild, impossible to suppress. Whatever the outcome, Buggy knew Enel would never be crushed. And more importantly, without Conqueror's Haki, Kizaru couldn't kill him. Not truly.
With a thunderous crack, Enel vanished, his body becoming a streak of electric blue that tore through the sky toward Kizaru's position.
Kizaru, still floating above Mary Geoise, narrowed his eyes as he felt the pressure bearing down on him. The wind shifted. His coat flapped wildly.
"Hmph," he muttered. "Every time I see you, you've grown stronger. You really are frightening, Enel."
"Cut the act, old man!" Enel snapped, appearing across from him in midair. His gaze was sharp, fierce. "We all saw what you did just now. Don't pretend to be weak. Among the Admirals, if that Red Dog doesn't have conquerors Haki, you are the strongest!"
He leveled his golden trident, crackling with electricity, and shouted, "This time, we're finishing what we started! I'll defeat you here and now, Kizaru… and carve a path for my captain to the throne of the world!"
Kizaru stared him down. His usual mockery was gone. "A king of the world, huh? That's… pretty scary."
Enel raised his golden staff and aimed it forward, lightning coiling across his body like a storm waiting to erupt. "Let's go, Kizaru!"
"100 Million Volt Discharge! Thunder Dragon's Roar!"
The sky exploded with light as a massive torrent of lightning surged forward. A serpentine dragon of crackling blue roared into existence, a hundred meters long, its scales forged from raw electricity. It shot toward Kizaru with furious momentum, tearing through the sky.
Kizaru's expression sharpened. For the briefest second, his pupils contracted.
That presence...
"Conqueror's Haki?"
The pressure struck him like a hammer. His body tensed instinctively, and a chill ran down his spine.
"You too?" he muttered. "Tch… the Buggy Pirates just keep producing monsters."
But Kizaru didn't hesitate. With one hand raised and light bursting from his fingertips, he prepared to retaliate.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Countless golden lasers erupted from his body, flooding the air with blinding light as they shot toward the incoming thunder dragon.
Below, the Buggy Pirates watched in awe as Enel's Conqueror's Haki rippled through the heavens.
Crocodile let out a low whistle, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "So… the bastard really awakened it. Not bad."
"Unexpected," Bullet added with a nod. "But it makes sense. He's been grinding himself to the bone these last two years."
"Hahaha! That damn lightning freak's going to level up again," Doringo laughed. "Terrifying talent… and even more terrifying work ethic."
The others murmured in agreement. Two years ago, Enel had barely scratched the surface of Haki. He had the strongest Logia, sure, but lacked the polish to take on legends.
Not anymore.
His Conqueror's Haki had taken form. Refined through brutal sparring, honed in countless duels, every clash forged his will into something undeniable.
A Logia user with overwhelming talent was dangerous.
A Logia user who also trained harder than anyone else?
That was someone you ran from.
And Enel… was that kind of monster.
High above, the lightning dragon let out a deafening roar as it clashed with the golden barrage. Thunder and light collided violently in the heavens, shockwaves rippling through the clouds.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The storm lit up the world, a blinding war between gods. The thunder dragon surged forward, meeting Kizaru's endless laser strikes head-on in a dance of fury and light.
The sky screamed.
Although the Thunder Dragon had been pierced clean through by Kizaru's lasers, it didn't vanish. Its colossal body, forged of raw lightning, roared defiantly as it pushed forward, still clawing its way through the sky toward its target.
Just as Kizaru narrowed his eyes and prepared to increase his output to completely vaporize the beast, Enel's lips curled into a smirk.
From the distant sky, he spun his golden staff in a flash of blue electricity, thrust it forward, and called out:
"Detonate!"
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion erupted in the heavens. Before the watching world could even react, the Thunder Dragon—now just meters from Kizaru—ignited in a burst of pure destructive force, engulfing both the Admiral and his light-based attacks in a blinding dome of electricity. The explosion swept across the sky, its shockwave carving a massive ring of devastation hundreds of meters wide.
Zzzzzt—
But Enel wasn't finished.
As the smoke and sparks dispersed, he surged forward into the wake of his own attack. His form flickered with blue lightning, and his senses reached out—Observation Haki immediately locking onto Kizaru's position through the chaos.
In an instant, arcs of energy burst across his skin. With a hum of overwhelming power, a vast thunderstorm sphere expanded around him, forming a massive field of crackling voltage that raced behind him like a comet tail through the air.
"Five Hundred Million Volt Discharge! Heaven's Judgment: Thunder Prison!"
Kizaru barely had time to react. Rising from the heart of the explosion, his coat tattered and light flickering around him, he looked up just in time to see the wall of lightning rushing toward him. His eyes narrowed behind his glasses.
This guy… Enel… he's getting stronger too fast!
What had he been doing for the past two years?
The truth was, Kizaru couldn't have known. While the world focused on power struggles and political tides, Enel had spent every day training atop the Crimson Empire—refining his Observation Haki, evolving his Devil Fruit, and testing the limits of his body in the thin, high-altitude air. He wasn't just maintaining his strength; he was sculpting it, day by day, volt by volt.
His Goro Goro no Mi, one of the strongest Logia, had awakened. His Observation Haki had sharpened to an unnatural level, pushing into the realm where he could glimpse the immediate future. Even worse for his opponents, he'd developed a terrifying new technique—Thunder Prison. Once someone was within his radius and locked by his Haki, unless they could counter it with equivalent or superior mastery, dodging became near-impossible.
Combined with the raw destructive power of the Thunder Fruit, Enel was becoming a living targeting system, one with the destructive force of nature itself.
Kizaru could feel it. A pressure unlike anything he'd faced in years.
He gritted his teeth.
It's like fighting a human storm.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thunder and light collided again, this time with even greater fury. Explosions tore through the sky, shaking the very air and blowing the cloud cover apart. The shockwaves rolled for miles, scattering mist and sky like debris.
From every screen and den den mushi across the globe, audiences watched, breath held.
Even the strongest warriors of the world could only gape.
This was no longer a battle.
This was a war between the strongest and fastest Devil Fruit users.
Redfield stood beside Buggy, arms crossed, as the clash illuminated his eyes. "Enel's grown fast these past few years," he muttered.
Buggy chuckled, gaze still locked on the sky. "The bastard trains like lightning never stops. But that's the nature of the Thunder Fruit. No one else could pull this off."
Redfield nodded slowly. "His Haki's still lagging a bit. But give him time. He's got no major weaknesses left. Of course…" He smirked. "He's still got a long way to go before surpassing me. Every genius thinks they're the last."
The moment the words left his mouth, the rest of the crew broke into laughter.
Even in the face of godlike power, Red the Aloof never lost his edge.
As expected.
And truthfully, Redfield had every right to speak with such confidence.
Though he now looked young again, his strength had never faded with age—it had merely slumbered. In his prime, he had already stood at the summit of the world in physique, swordsmanship, and Haki. But now, with the power of a Mythical Zoan fruit restoring his youth and further enhancing his abilities, no one could say for certain just how strong he had become.
Not even Redfield himself.
Perhaps only in battle would the world come to understand the true scope of his power.
As the group skirted around the massive crater left by Pluton's earlier blast, they finally reached the central plaza of Mary Geoise. There, a formidable sight awaited them.
Arrayed before them stood at least one hundred thousand soldiers in stark white—the God's Punishment Army. Their armor gleamed under the fractured sunlight, and each man wore a visor that concealed their face. Their formation was disciplined, silent, suffocating in its scale. And behind every ten thousand soldiers, perched on raised platforms, stood armored figures in silver-white plate.
The moment Buggy laid eyes on them, he narrowed his gaze.
"The Knights of God," he muttered.
Each of the silver-armored knights wore the same mirrored mask, hiding their identities entirely. But Buggy recognized the uniformity, the unnatural stillness.
Clones.
Just like the ones they had encountered before.
Who had created them remained a mystery. But the fact that they were stationed here, in the heart of Mary Geoise, confirmed what Buggy had long suspected—these weren't just elite warriors. They were something else entirely. A weapon, a contingency. The World Government's trump card.
Behind the Knights stood three elevated thrones.
On the left sat Fujitora, calm but focused. On the right was Aokiji, arms crossed, unreadable. In the center, as always, Sakazuki burned with restrained fury.
And looming behind them, occupying a fourth, larger throne set above them all, was a man long absent from the public eye.
Commander-in-Chief Kong.
The former Marine hero who had once stood at the peak of command now stared down at the battlefield below, heavy with history and responsibility.
The moment Redfield spotted him, his eyes gleamed with amusement. He let out a booming laugh that echoed through the ruined plaza.
"Hahahaha! Kong! So they dug you up and put you back on the battlefield? What's the matter? Did they run out of younger dogs to throw at us?"
He took a step forward, his voice sharper now, laced with mockery.
"Shame, really. You look like a relic… and you feel even weaker than you did decades ago. I, on the other hand, have only gotten stronger. So tell me, Kong, how do you plan to stop us today? You and your three Admirals? That's not nearly enough to put on a good show."
Kong's expression darkened, his grip tightening on the armrest of his chair. The memories came rushing back. Younger him was overwhelmed by Redfield's ferocity all those years ago. If not for Garp and Sengoku's intervention, he might've been utterly destroyed.
And now, Redfield was younger, faster, stronger, and enhanced by the powers of a Mythical Zoan.
Kong felt it—the edge of panic, cold and creeping.
But even so, he refused to show weakness in front of the Five Elders. He shifted his gaze to the Knights of God stationed below, wondering just what the World Government had been hiding. What power had they been nurturing in secret to justify such confidence?
Surely… they couldn't all be Admiral-level.
Could they? That would be absurd.
Admirals weren't mass-produced like cabbages.
Still, Kong stood and barked back, voice booming, "Hmph! I'd like to see you try to make it past the God's Punishment Army! A hundred thousand soldiers bred for war. They don't feel pain. They don't feel fear. They will not stop. This is the weight of the World Government! You pirates really think you can topple the world? Keep dreaming!"
Buggy floated up into the air, silent until now. His expression was calm, almost pitying, as he gazed down at Kong from above.
"Didn't your Marine strategists tell you? Throwing an army at me is pointless."
Kong sneered. "These aren't your average pirate rabble. Don't compare your scum to the soldiers of the World Government."
Buggy gave a slow clap, almost sarcastic, then lowered his hands and sighed.
"You really have gone senile, old man. The older you get, the smaller your world becomes. That's what happens when you stay at the top too long—you forget how big the world actually is."
He raised his hands toward the ruined land beneath them.
"So let me show you."
He closed his eyes. The ground trembled.
"Nativity of a World of Trees!"
Thick roots exploded from the soil, snaking through cracks in the marble, piercing the sacred stone of Mary Geoise.
"Bloom—Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!"
In the next moment, a massive forest of impossible scale erupted from beneath the plaza, roots curling like serpents, flowers blooming with explosive force. The sky above darkened as towering trees rose through the clouds, blotting out the sun.
Kong's eyes widened.
So did everyone else's.
Buggy's voice echoed across the battlefield, carried by the wind:
"Let me remind you… that no army is enough."
Kong's face darkened the instant Buggy clapped his hands. He hadn't expected him to move so quickly, so decisively. A spike of dread shot down his spine as he roared out to his forces.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves! The strongest man in the world is making his move!!"
Down below, several familiar figures—Hawkeye, Crocodile, Marco, and Ace—all looked up at the platform with raised eyebrows. They'd heard that line before. Marineford. Whitebeard. The echo of that moment wasn't lost on any of them.
"…Didn't someone already say that once?" Ace muttered.
But they didn't have time to dwell on it.
With a deep, resonating rumble, the marble beneath the feet of the God's Punishment Army fractured, and a second later, it exploded. Countless massive vines burst from the ground like giant spears, shattering formation lines and launching soldiers into the air. Screams tore through the ranks as the soldiers were caught completely off guard.
The vines twisted, coiled, and fused mid-air, forming towering trees over a hundred meters tall. From their crowns bloomed massive crimson flowers, each one unfurling like the petals of death. A wave of pale pink pollen burst forth from their centers, descending upon the army like a silent blight.
Within seconds, chaos took full root.
The vines moved like living serpents, wrapping themselves around soldiers and dragging them into the forest's depths. Once entangled, there was no escape. Their bodies shriveled, their strength vanished, and their life force drained by the power of the Mori Mori no Mi. One by one, they were turned into mummified husks—silent and unrecognizable.
Even though only portions of this destruction were captured by the Den Den Mushi broadcast, what was seen was more than enough. Around the world, viewers stared at their screens in horror and disbelief. These weren't random soldiers being picked off. This was the God's Punishment Army, the elite force of the World Government—wiped out en masse in less than a minute.
Buggy hadn't even moved from his spot.
He wasn't sweating.
He wasn't strained.
He wasn't even serious.
And yet, two forests now loomed over Mary Geoise like divine monuments of wrath. Trees that hunted. Roots that killed. Flowers that devoured. This was more than Devil Fruit mastery—it was elemental dominance. With a single technique, Buggy had created a forest that destroyed armies.
The viewers at home began to feel it in their bones. If Buggy could do this with just one of his powers… what was he truly capable of?
And worse—he hadn't used his main fruit yet.
Kong stood frozen, his breath shallow, cold sweat trailing down his brow. Everything he knew about battle, about strength, was unraveling before his eyes. Buggy's primary fruit had always been the Bara Bara no Mi, the Split-Split Fruit. The one he hadn't even activated yet. And now… he wielded this forest, this apocalyptic plant-based ability.
Two Devil Fruits. Unthinkable. Impossible. And yet—there it was.
Grinding his teeth, Kong made his decision. "Deploy the Knights of God! All units engage!"
He didn't stop there. "Seraphim Legion—move out as well!"
He no longer cared about preserving the Admirals. One was already drawn into combat. The rest would be wasted trying to stop what was coming. The Five Elders had promised that the Knights of God were their ultimate line of defense—fine. Let them prove it. Let them earn their reputation.
At first, Kong had looked at the gathering of top-tier forces on their side and thought the battle was stacked in their favor. He'd even thought it might be overkill. But now? Now he wasn't sure they had enough.
Still, he understood one thing. This square, this battlefield, was only the beginning. The true conflict awaited at Pangaea Castle. The final confrontation. The world couldn't afford to let Buggy reach it with his full strength intact. They had to stop him now, no matter the cost.
In response to his command, over a dozen figures erupted skyward, shooting through the air like comets. The Knights of God, clad in silver, and the Seraphim, biological weapons of divine origin, closed in on Buggy and his commanders.
The next wave had begun.
...
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