Meanwhile, Snow Wind and her group were rummaging through Enel's home, searching for the blueprints of the Ark Maxim.
"Where on earth could he have hidden them? Enel doesn't seem like someone who's good at hiding things!"
Snow Wind frowned slightly. They had turned the place upside down, finding only some irrelevant documents—no sign of the blueprints.
"Big Sis Snow Wind, I found a really suspicious big box!"
Ulti ran in excitedly from outside.
"Where?"
Snow Wind's eyes lit up.
Ulti led Snow Wind outside, explaining: she and Page One had been playing when they accidentally bumped into a patch of soft island cloud. Lifting the island cloud, she discovered a hidden cellar underneath, and inside it, a heavy seastone chest.
Seeing the chest, Snow Wind was momentarily stunned. "No way, it can't be this much of a coincidence?"
Snow Cake and Snow Lily both nodded. "It really is."
Snow Cake even gave Snow Wind a strange look, as if to say, "See, I warned you, but you wouldn't listen."
Indeed, the seastone chest needed a key to open. Seastone is famously tough in the world of One Piece—forcing it open was nearly impossible.
Snow Wind once had a way to open treasure chests, but now she didn't.
She glanced toward the battlefield, thinking, "You'd better not die out there, or this is going to be a huge loss."
….
Inside the Ark Maxim, angry roars echoed, but strangely, the sound didn't reach the outside.
Enel, with a crazed expression, was clawing at his own face, desperate to rid himself of the unbearable itching.
His body was covered in black spots, looking like rotting flesh—gruesome and terrifying.
Opposite him, a small black figure darted around, dodging Enel's weak lightning strikes.
"So troublesome. I thought you'd die quickly," Black Lily said, her voice emotionless. "Why aren't you dead yet?"
Her curse technique usually meant victory once it hit; her stats were only just at Tier 3, but this move could defeat most foes.
Enel's physical stats weren't high by her standards. If it were anyone else, they'd surely have been weakened to death by now.
But Enel had taken two curses—Chaos and Decay—and was still alive.
She realized she'd underestimated this early-game boss. Though Enel was a glass-cannon mage among the strong, he wasn't without survival skills.
In terms of devil fruit mastery, Enel was just shy of awakening his fruit, and used its power skillfully.
In the original, he was hit by Wyper and his heart stopped, but Enel revived himself using an electric shock.
Without medical knowledge and deep understanding of his fruit, he couldn't have achieved that.
That's what he was doing now: using lightning to stimulate his cells and resist the curse. Otherwise, the curse would have killed him already.
Still, even if he could resist, the decaying spots itched terribly.
In his rage, Enel stopped focusing on precision and unleashed lightning wildly at Black Lily. But although her melee ability was poor, her evasion was top-notch.
Plus, his energy was chaotic and he had to use some of his focus to suppress the curse; the lightning lost power, and even if it hit, it couldn't kill her.
"So annoying," Black Lily said calmly. "Wasn't Gusion supposed to hold him for five minutes? It's already been eight."
She had claimed she could hold Enel for ten minutes, but with the curse in play, she hoped to wear him down in that time.
But Enel was tougher than expected, using electricity to nullify the curse. At this rate, once the chaos curse wore off, he'd be able to unleash his lightning again—and the Ark Maxim would be back under his control. One Raigo, and everyone would die.
Black Lily complained inwardly: Gusion, don't mess this up!
…
On the battlefield below, Body Killer froze for a moment at Gusion's words.
He suddenly realized: how could someone like Gusion not have a Devil Fruit?
He'd risen to All-Star in the Beasts Pirates—surely Kaido would've given his trusted aide a top-tier Ancient Zoan fruit.
From his research, a top Ancient Zoan fruit could raise a user's core stats by five points!
This thought brought a sense of crisis. He fired a light cannon at Gusion and, without hesitation, tore a page from his book: "Divine Word. God's Descent!"
He drew his holy sword and charged at Gusion—the first time he'd initiated close combat.
Gusion dodged the light cannon, grinned, and exhaled a cloud of white steam. The ground shattered under his step, and with immense strength, he launched himself forward.
A sonic boom sounded, arcs of dust trailing behind him.
He pushed his demon god state to the limit. When Gusion and the Holy Sword clashed, a thunderous boom echoed across the sky island.
The ground shattered under the shockwave, stones raining in every direction.
The white sea in the air was blown away by the wind from Gusion's blade. Sparks flew as the Holy Sword and Gusion clashed.
Their rapid attacks whipped up storms, and from a distance, it looked like a blazing white light ignited in the eye of a storm.
The fight was at its peak. Neither would retreat; this clash would decide life and death.
Body Killer went on the offensive, closing in because he couldn't risk giving Gusion a chance to pull out a Devil Fruit from storage and eat it.
Only close-quarters, high-frequency combat would completely limit Gusion's actions.
He gave up his foggy ranged tactics and his advantage, but saw no choice.
Gusion was troublesome enough as is—if he boosted his stats by five, it'd be impossible.
So Body Killer used the Divine Word book's ultimate move: God's Descent, allowing him to be possessed by a god, temporarily upgrading all combat proficiencies by a tier.
But even with his skills at master level, he couldn't suppress Gusion in close combat.
Gusion's skills were terrifying; every move was instinctive, as if battle was in his very bones.
Body Killer wasn't a pure close-combat fighter; he was versatile, but not a specialist. His bloodline allowed him to end fights from a distance, so this kind of intense melee was unfamiliar.
His swordsmanship couldn't overpower Gusion, even with higher stats. The combination of Ryuo and Advanced Armament Haki was simply too overwhelming.
Helpless, Body Killer tried to incorporate spells into the fight.
His third eye opened, and as they locked blades, he fired a light cannon at Gusion's head at close range.
Gusion was caught off guard—not expecting Body Killer to have hidden this move until now. All previous light cannons had been fired by hand, leading Gusion to believe that was his only method.
He had never seen Body Killer use his eye for this.
In a pinch, Gusion used Shunpo to dodge, reappearing behind Body Killer.
Body Killer split his body into elements just as Gusion's blade came, dodging it.
In an instant, Gusion dashed past Body Killer, returning to his original spot.
Now with his back to Body Killer, Gusion sensed danger and used Danku to defend.
Boom—
The light cannon shattered the energy barrier, buying Gusion time to recover, then he slashed at Body Killer's throat with Haki-infused blade.
Logia users are flexible in battle; as long as they predict correctly, they can dodge any slash. But Gusion didn't believe Body Killer could predict every time.
As long as his attacks were fast enough and relentless, Body Killer would eventually slip up.
In fact, although Body Killer was calculating, Gusion felt he was rattled.
Just Gusion's suggestion that he hadn't eaten a fruit yet made Body Killer nervous. The battle seemed stalemated, but Gusion held the initiative.
If things really got desperate, Gusion would eat the T-Rex fruit without hesitation.
He wasn't stupid. By now he'd figured out the opponent's power: Body Killer's chaos-type bloodline allowed him to have multiple bloodlines—hence why he could eat several Devil Fruits without dying.
So as long as he killed Body Killer, it didn't matter if he gained an extra, less useful bloodline—he could have multiple anyway.
This psychological pressure forced Body Killer to fight Gusion head-on, giving Gusion the chance to defeat him outright.
Gusion activated the Soul Devourer's active skill and swallowed a recovery pill—one he'd bought before entering this world, which restored 5% of soul energy per second for 20 seconds.
Body Killer's close combat had improved, and he had stat advantages, so Gusion's blade now did little damage. Only the true damage from Soul Devourer could hurt Body Killer without actually landing a hit.
This meant Soul Devourer's drain outpaced his natural recovery, so he needed the recovery item to avoid running out.
With everything ready, Gusion's fighting spirit surged. He pushed his demon god state to the brink of bodily collapse.
Body Killer wanted a quick end; so did Gusion.
He hadn't forgotten Enel was still a threat. He'd lost track of how long he'd been fighting, but it was certainly more than five minutes.
To avoid dying to Raigo, he had to go all out now!