"Good. So strong."
Enel watched the clash unfold, his eyes fixed on the battlefield as the Nightfall Pirates cut down the Divine Guards one after another.
The two once-arrogant High Priests were being completely suppressed by two powerful Blue Sea fighters, forced into constant retreat without any real chance to fight back.
Those two were Pito and Kaguya.
Pito moved like a phantom, her figure flickering in and out of sight. Her sharp, lethal claws tore through defenses with terrifying precision, narrowly missing vital points several times and leaving one High Priest barely clinging to life.
Kaguya, on the other hand, was relentless. A bone knife in each hand, his attacks flowed without pause, giving his opponent no space to breathe, let alone counterattack.
It was obvious that the two High Priests could not hold out much longer. More importantly, neither Pito nor Kaguya was fighting seriously.
They were young. Possibly even younger than Enel.
Yet their strength was overwhelming.
The realization struck him hard.
One Divine Guard after another fell, their bodies collapsing into the cloud ground as screams echoed across the village.
What shocked Enel even more was that most of the Nightfall Pirates' core members had not even joined the battle. They stood calmly at the rear, watching. Only Van Augur fired the occasional shot to cover his companions, and Nelson casually used his ability when it suited him.
Enel could feel it instinctively. The people still standing, those who barely moved, were the truly terrifying ones.
He had not awakened Observation Haki, but he was naturally sensitive. His intuition screamed at him.
If those people made a move, even God might not be able to stop them.
The slaughter continued.
Enel's body trembled, not with fear, but with excitement.
These Blue Sea people had come with hostile intent, and their arrival had already shaken the Temple to its core. Nearly all of the Temple's forces were gathered here, and they were being wiped out before his eyes.
This was something Enel had never dared to imagine.
God was God because of invincible power.
So what happened when something stronger appeared?
Would the Temple be destroyed?
The thought filled Enel with a dangerous anticipation.
Over the years, everything he had experienced in Birka had left him with no affection for this place. Ostracism, hostility, silent contempt. A deep resentment had taken root in his heart long ago, quietly accumulating.
In the past, destroying the Temple was an impossible fantasy. Its power was far beyond what he could ever challenge alone.
But now, that certainty was cracking.
Enel carried half the blood of a Blue Sea person. Because of that, his lineage was considered impure. He had no wings, a meaningless feature in practice, yet a powerful symbol among Sky Islanders. Combined with Birka's deep-rooted xenophobia, it made him an outsider wherever he went.
He did not feel like a Sky Islander.
Instead, standing here, watching these Blue Sea people, he felt an unexpected sense of familiarity.
They were strong. Every single one of them was stronger than him, able to crush Divine Guards with ease.
That power made his heart burn.
Only now did Enel truly understand something simple and brutal.
Strength was everything.
With power, you could do whatever you wanted. A weak person became strong. The bullied became the one who decided others' fates.
His fists clenched unconsciously.
To anyone watching from afar, it was impossible to tell whether Enel was afraid or exhilarated.
By now, the village was empty.
The residents of Birka had long since fled once the slaughter began in earnest. Ohm and the others were gone as well. Enel understood why.
Only he remained.
The battlefield was soaked in blood. The ease with which lives were taken. The absolute domination.
Enel witnessed it all.
One High Priest had his throat ripped open by Pito, his body riddled with wounds. The other was pierced straight through the heart by Kaguya's bone knife.
Their deaths shattered the remaining resistance.
The Divine Guards tried to flee, but there was nowhere to go. The Nightfall Pirates closed in from all sides, like a tightening net.
This was not a battle.
It was a massacre.
Even with Sky Shells, the Divine Guards were hopelessly outmatched. Their attacks were predictable, their experience shallow. Against veterans tempered by endless battles and brutal training on Beast Island, they barely qualified as fighters.
The outcome was inevitable.
Soon, silence returned.
Corpses littered the ground, blood staining the white clouds beneath their feet.
More than two thousand Divine Guards lay dead. Not a single survivor.
Standing amid the carnage, the Nightfall Pirates looked like demons pulled straight from hell. To them, this was nothing new. War, slaughter, death. It was routine.
Enel was not like them.
The moment the fighting stopped, the strange exhilaration drained from his body.
Reality crashed down.
His heart lurched as the sights he had ignored flooded back. Blood. Torn flesh. Dying screams. The weight of it slammed into his mind.
His breathing grew shallow.
Images replayed again and again behind his eyes.
Finally, he could not endure it anymore.
Enel staggered to a wall, bracing himself.
"Ugh—"
He bent over and vomited.
Dizziness washed over him, followed by a biting chill that left his limbs stiff.
What was he doing?
Staying here was suicide. These Blue Sea people were monsters. He did not want to die.
The fear hit him all at once, cold and sharp, wiping away his earlier excitement.
For a moment, he was frozen.
Then strength slowly returned to his body.
Supporting himself against the wall, Enel forced his legs to move and walked away, step by step. After vomiting, his head cleared, and his body began to steady.
He had taken barely a dozen steps when he stopped.
Memories surfaced.
Being bullied. Being powerless. Being targeted without reason just days ago.
Anger rose in his chest, directed at the Temple, at Birka, at everyone who had looked down on him.
It was not hatred deep enough to destroy everything.
Not yet.
That would come later, after exile, after nearly dying in the Cloud Stream.
But the seed was there.
Enel knew he could not continue living like this.
He did not want to.
He wanted to change his fate.
And right now, an opportunity stood before him.
These Blue Sea people were pirates. Even on Sky Island, Enel knew what pirates represented.
Power.
Freedom.
He wanted to join them.
If he did, he would become stronger. Strong enough to never be trampled again.
This was a gamble.
But it was his chance.
Courage surged through him.
Suppressing his fear, Enel turned around and stepped out from the corner where he had been hiding.
Strangely, his nerves settled. His body felt light, filled with strength.
Many Nightfall Pirates sensed his presence but paid little attention. They did not kill indiscriminately. Their brutality was reserved for enemies.
Still, Enel's return caught their interest.
Few people could steady themselves so quickly after witnessing a massacre.
Some among them, skilled in Observation Haki, felt it clearly.
The emotional shift.
Fear. Desire. Resolve.
And above all, an intense hunger for power.
Enel walked forward, breathing deeply, his steps firm.
As he emerged, more eyes turned toward him. Without wings, he stood out immediately among the Sky Islanders. His bandages and awkward movements revealed recent injuries.
Teach noticed everything.
The long earlobes brushing Enel's chest. The youthful face. The white bandana.
Marshall D. Teach understood at once.
Enel.
Sixteen years old. The future God of Thunder.
The wounds on his body told their own story. Surrounded. Beaten. Broken down by numbers.
Teach's Observation Haki expanded quietly, stretching far beyond Birka. At the edge of his perception, he sensed something large resting on a cloud island.
A ship.
And within it, the Goro Goro no Mi.
Enel had not eaten it yet.
That moment still lay ahead.
So did Birka's destruction.
For now, this was only the beginning.