FLASH.
Lightning split the white sea sky.
Clouds, once peaceful, now churned like boiling foam. The skies above Angel Island were no longer quiet — they thundered with judgment.
"I AM GOD ENEL."
His voice carried not through air, but through lightning itself, vibrating in the bones of every person on the Going Merry.
Rex stood still at the bow, wind tugging at his coat.
He didn't blink.
Didn't speak.
But something beneath his skin activated.
A seal in his palm glowed faintly — the same that had responded to the sky glyph beneath Pagaya's vault.
[…Atmospheric pressure spike. Electro-aura field detected. Lightning-frequency Haki variant observed. Combat alert status: Skyborne Hostile — Type: Divine-class.]
Usopp screamed from the railing. "W-WHAT KIND OF GOD BLOWS UP THE OCEAN?!"
"Welcome to Upper Yard," Nami muttered.
Zoro drew one blade slowly. "So this 'god' fights?"
Sanji cracked his knuckles. "Then he bleeds."
Luffy grinned. "Let's knock him off his cloud."
But Rex didn't move.
Because he already felt it.
This wasn't just lightning.
It was directional. Intentional. Ancient.
This was Michael-compatible energy — something only known to warriors of the sky from the forgotten war.
He clenched his fist.
"This isn't just another tyrant," Rex muttered.
Nami glanced at him. "Then what is he?"
"…He's what they feared we'd become."
Upper Yard – Arrival at the Forbidden Zone
Pagaya helped the Straw Hats prepare a Sky Waver, loaded with bubble engines and cloud boards. The team split into two groups: one staying behind on Angel Island with Chopper to tend to the ship, the other heading directly to Upper Yard, the forested cloud island where Enel's shrine floated like a predator's castle.
The crew soared through the cloud river into the forbidden zone.
Below them, the clouds thickened into a new terrain — dense jungle, twisted roots made of clouds hardened like stone, and vines glowing with static energy.
"Creepy," Usopp muttered, tiptoeing off the waver.
"I like it," Zoro said, stepping forward.
Suddenly — the sky pulsed.
A massive bolt of golden lightning struck a cloud-tree near them, splitting it in half.
And standing in its place…
A tall figure with drums fused to his back.
Bare-chested.
Earrings dangling.
Eyes half-lidded in divine boredom.
Enel.
"Well well," he said, his voice like distant thunder. "So the rumors were true."
Luffy blinked. "You're the lightning guy?"
Enel tilted his head. "I'm the god of this land."
Rex stepped forward.
"No," he said. "You're a man who found a battery."
Enel's gaze sharpened.
"What did you say?"
"You're not a god," Rex said coldly. "You're an echo of one."
The First Clash – Enel vs. Straw Hats
Enel raised one finger lazily.
A thin bolt of lightning shot through the air.
CRACK!
Zoro blocked it mid-air with his blade — sparks exploded in all directions.
Sanji leapt forward, trying to land a kick.
ZAP!
He was blasted backward into a cloud wall, smoking.
Usopp panicked and ran.
Luffy tried to punch — his fist passed through Enel's body like smoke.
"He's a Logia too?!" Nami shouted.
Enel hovered in the air, bored. "Too slow. Too soft. Too ordinary."
He raised both hands.
"Now fall."
But before the lightning fell—
Something blocked it.
A dome of spinning energy — wind and chakra fused in motion.
Rex stood beneath it, palm raised, the shield rippling like water.
Enel stared.
"…What is that?"
Rex's voice was calm.
"Storm Binding Formation."
The dome exploded outward — shattering the bolts of lightning and knocking Enel off-balance.
Rex vanished in a blur — reappearing behind him, palm glowing with compacted force.
Rasengan.
He slammed it into Enel's ribs.
BOOM.
Enel flew backward into a pillar of cloudstone, coughing for the first time in years.
He stood slowly.
Blood at his lip.
"…That's impossible."
Below the Shrine – The Chamber of Memory
As the Straw Hats recovered and Enel vanished into the clouds, Rex led them deeper into the jungle ruins.
There, beneath the shrine Enel had claimed as his throne, was a hidden door of hardened sky-glass. Carved into it was a symbol:
The spiral cut through with thunder.
Rex touched the glyph.
The door opened.
Inside was a chamber of crystal — small, glowing, empty except for a single sky-blue Poneglyph.
Nico Robin's voice (echoed from a Den Den Mushi she'd left with Nami) whispered through.
"…That's not a road poneglyph. Or a weapon. That's… something else."
Rex stepped forward.
And read aloud:
"We were cast down."
"From wing to lightning."
"We forged the Michael Techniques to match the gods, not to defy them."
"But they feared our rise. So they stripped us of sky, and sealed our names."
"Let he who reads this remember:
Your wings were not stolen.
You were always meant to fly."
Rex placed a hand on the glyph.
It glowed beneath his touch.
Not for Robin.
Not for anyone else.
But for him.
Sky Technique Unlocked:
🌀 Name:Sky Pulse Mantle
🛡️ Type: High-Altitude Aura Enhancement
⚡ Effect:
Amplifies mobility in air combat
Grants static resistance
Enables Cloud Phase Dash — instant-speed teleportation through cloud matter
Thunder-infused strikes from Michael lineage energy memory
Skill Evolving…
Final Scene – Enel Awakens the Judgment
Back on his floating shrine, Enel stood silent, golden blood on his lip.
He stared at a carving of the Old World.
"This was mine," he whispered.
A priest kneeled nearby.
"Shall we purge the intruders?"
Enel shook his head.
"No. I will."
He raised his staff.
And lightning shaped itself into a spear of judgment.
"If he remembers the sky…
Then let me show him what the gods forgot."