Ray's heart was filled with a chilling mix of emotions.
How had Enel managed to deceive him? Deceive his Haki, deceive his senses? The scent of the corpse was still exactly where he had slain him.
Where had things gone wrong?
Suddenly, Ray recalled a scene.
A memory from the original story, sharp and clear.
Enel, suppressed by Wyper using Seastone, then "killed" by the Reject Dial.
And then, he'd restarted his own heart.
He'd used his electricity for self-defibrillation.
'Could he have revived using the same ability this time?'
But how to explain the corpse? Ray didn't believe his sense of smell could be wrong.
A horrifying thought occurred to him.
'Did he... leave half his body behind?'
Ray realized he had been overconfident.
But now wasn't the time for regret.
He needed to defend.
Enel's lightning strikes were fatal to everyone in the Straw Hat Pirates except himself and Luffy.
The sky was clear moments ago but now... it was a roiling, dark mass of thunderclouds.
In an instant, countless bolts of lightning struck toward their location.
"Azure Dragon Break!" Ray roared, immediately leaping into the air.
A massive azure dragon clashed with the deluge of lightning.
The terrifying explosion riddled the giant vine with holes; it wouldn't withstand another hit.
Taking advantage of the brief gap, Ray yelled, "Luffy, use Gear 3! Block above the others!"
"Right!" Luffy immediately complied. "Gear 3! Bone Balloon!"
The giant bone balloon inflated, covering Zoro, Sanji, and the others, forming a bizarre but perfect natural barrier against the electricity.
Seeing them safe for the moment, Ray expanded his Observation Haki.
If his current range couldn't find Enel, he would perform a linear scan—shifting his wide-range perception into a single, focused beam, trading breadth for immense distance.
...
At this moment, high in the sky and over ten kilometers away, a strange figure stood on a massive golden ship.
The upper body was clearly Enel's.
The lower body, however, was gone, replaced by an unstable, unknown form composed of swirling lightning.
His eyes were filled with pure, unadulterated resentment.
"A mere Blue Sea ant... actually defeated the great god," he seethed. "Unforgivable!"
Despite his words, Enel cautiously maintained his distance.
After being "defeated," he had used a secret technique to feign death.
He'd used defibrillation to restore vitality to his upper body, but the moment his breath returned, he'd transformed into lightning and merged into the vast thunderclouds to escape.
He left his severed lower body behind at the scene.
That was the fundamental reason Ray had failed to detect him.
The scent of the corpse remained.
And by transforming into lightning, he became indistinguishable from the natural energy of the sky, fooling Observation Haki entirely.
Now, assuming his lightning form, he had activated his airship, the Ark Maxim, and begun generating large-scale thunderclouds from a safe distance.
"To make a god like me so disgraced, white-haired man, you should be proud enough."
"10,000,000 Volts: Amaru!" Enel swung a single hand, and countless bolts of lightning once again rained down.
He held the advantage.
His "Mantra" perception was vast, while Ray couldn't pinpoint him.
They were just live targets.
...
Ray's linear Observation Haki scanned the heavens.
Finally, he found him.
High in the sky, to the south.
After clashing his Azure Dragon Break against "Amaru" one more time, he urged Luffy.
"Protect them. I'm going to kill Enel."
With that, Ray's Demonic Power transformed him into a sphere of blue light, shooting toward Enel's position at extreme speed.
After he left, massive bolts of lightning once again struck. But the outcome defied Enel's expectations.
All the lightning was completely blocked by Luffy's 3rd gear.
Not a single spark passed through.
Robin, Nami, and Chopper cheered, seeing Luffy so impressive.
Luffy, however, didn't dare to respond, only tightly sealing his mouth to prevent the air from leaking.
He had to maintain this form.
Zoro and Sanji understood, watching with clenched fists, wanting to help but powerless to do so.
"Enel's lightning is too fast; Luffy can't rest," Sanji growled.
"Yeah. We can only hope Ray deals with him quickly."
"We're still too weak."
"Right."
Sanji didn't refute Zoro this time.
Both of them realized their own lack of strength.
In this fight, they had truly become deadweight.
...
At his full speed, Ray appeared before Enel in moments.
Enel was both nervous and wildly excited.
Tension, because he knew his life had reached its end—this time, Ray would give him no chance.
Excitement, because he would have his revenge.
As a god, he absolutely could not be killed by a human without making them pay a price.
This was his pride as a god.
"200 Million Volts, Thunder God!"
Seeing Ray arrive, Enel activated his strongest form.
Having lost half his body, he could no longer surpass Ray in speed.
He chose to confront him directly
. The massive, thundering colossus faced the great demon head-on.
Ray also stopped holding back.
Partial demonization.
Ryuo. Conqueror's Haki infusion. All power converged on Tokijin.
A 400-meter-tall Azure Dragon, crackling with black and red Haki lightning, suddenly appeared.
Behind it, several more sword-energy slashes, hundreds of meters in diameter, waited.
At this moment, Enel had nowhere to dodge.
The Thunder God's attack collided with Ray's full-power outburst.
After a brief, blinding clash, Enel's lightning was simply... dispersed.
No matter how powerful his lightning was, in this world, Haki reigned supreme—let alone Haki infused with Ray's terrifying Demonic Power.
As the giant dragon arrived, the Ark Maxim was completely destroyed.
Enel's remaining upper body also gradually disintegrated under the terrifying attack.
But before his death, he smiled.
"Blue Sea Person... Did you really think a god would be so easy to kill?"
"Raigo!"
With Enel's final word, the sky full of lightning dissipated, and the sky gradually cleared.
Luffy finally ended his Bone Balloon form.
Protected by Haki, he no longer turned into a child after using Gear Third.
Gan Fall's eyes widened in shock.
The disappearance of the dark clouds meant Enel was truly gone. He looked uneasily at the people before him.
"So quick? And the captain can actually withstand lightning?"
As the former god, Gan Fall had seen many powerful people from the Blue Sea, but never anyone this fierce.
He was now thinking—if there were many such powerful individuals, and if they desired to conquer Sky Island, how could he possibly resist?
'Perhaps I could establish a cooperative relationship with this crew. At least they don't seem like bad people.'
Just as he was about to voice his thoughts—
All the thunderclouds in the sky had completely dissipated.
But the expressions of the Straw Hat Pirates, Gan Fall, and Ray grew even more solemn.
After the thunderclouds cleared, they all saw it.
A massive, perfectly spherical thundercloud, over five kilometers in diameter, was appearing directly above Apis.
Ray carefully checked Enel's direction, confirming he had been reduced to ashes.
"Bastard... did he complete this super weapon before he died?"
Ray transformed into a Demonic Power sphere again, rushing back toward the Straw Hat Pirates.
"I hope I'm in time!"
Raigo descended slowly.