Chapter 1523 Enel Awakens

Shiki the Golden Lion, with his bespectacled, inhuman appearance, exudes a chilling and sinister aura. However, he seems unconcerned about the dramatic change in his form, instead displaying a wild and unrestrained energy as if he is breaking free from constraints.

For him, if being human means the limit of power and the end of defeat, then what's wrong with abandoning human identity and embracing this forbidden power?

The menacing, eye-filled blades on his body slowly retracted into his body, leaving only faint black lines on his skin.

However, his inhuman features—four golden eyes with red undersides (the whites of his eyes were covered with bloodshot veins like cracks)—remained, indicating that he had been completely alienated.

When faced with Shiki's transformation, the Lava Demon that Sakazuki had become only let out a muffled snort, like a roar from the depths of the earth.

The surging magma giant arm is reforming, and even more terrifying energy is gathering within it. "Even if you become this grotesque, it will only make me expend more effort to crush you one more time!"

Shiki's four eyes narrowed simultaneously, revealing a twisted, sinister smile. His voice was hoarse and overlapping: "Akainu, your opponent is not me. I'm going to kill that radiant woman now. As for you, someone will naturally deal with you."

His words left the remaining pirates below completely bewildered. The Flying Pirates' top combatants had suffered heavy casualties, and the Whitebeard Pirates' officers were also struggling to survive. Who else could stand against this Lava Demon God?

Did Shiki lose his mind after he stopped being human?

As if to confirm Shiki's eerie words, *sizzle*...

A faint but sharp crackling sound of electricity came from an inconspicuous battlefield and suddenly reached Erza's ears as she was keeping a close watch on Shiki.

She turned her head sharply, her gaze instantly locking onto the ground in the distance, where Enel's corpse, which she had just pierced through vital organs with her fire sword and should have been dead, lay.

Around the terrifying penetrating wound on Enel's chest, fine, visible blue arcs of electricity began to leap.

These electric arcs, like living serpents, slithered across his wounds and his entire body, crackling and popping.

Even more incredibly, under the intense stimulation of the high-voltage current, Enel's heart, which had stopped beating, began to beat faintly but clearly.

Thump...thump...thump...each thump stronger and louder than the last!

"That's impossible!"

Erza's pupils contracted sharply. She had absolute confidence in her attack; that sword strike had indeed destroyed her opponent's internal organs. The vital organs should have been burned away. How could a dead person come back to life?!

But the facts before her left her no choice but to believe them. A strong sense of crisis made her react instantly. She shouted at the still stunned marines and pirates around her, "Get away from that corpse and run!"

At the same time, a flash of light appeared on her body, and she instantly donned the Thunder Emperor's Armor, which has extremely strong resistance to lightning.

Wielding a long spear, he moved with lightning speed, charging towards Enel's corpse once more, intending to deliver the final blow.

Unfortunately, fate was against her; she was too late. Just as Erza's spear was about to pierce the enemy's head again, Enel, lying on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes.

Those eyes, which had previously lost their luster, now refocused, their pupils crackling with frenzied lightning.

He exhaled a breath crackling with electricity, and his pale face visibly regained its rosy hue.

He looked at Erza, who was charging towards him with her spear pointed directly at his head, and a mocking smile, extremely irritating, appeared on his naturally arrogant face:

"Stupid woman, you should have just cut off my head back then, instead of naively thinking that piercing my internal organs would kill a god!"

Just as Erza's spear tip was about an inch away from Enel's brow, it was gripped tightly by a hand wrapped in fine arcs of electricity.

"Damn it," Erza thought in surprise. She could feel the power emanating from the gun, which was completely different from before.

It no longer relies on the bizarre and unpredictable nature of elements, but rather on a more primal and violent physical force.

She thrust forward with all her might, but the immense power granted by the Thunder Emperor's Armor prevented her from advancing an inch, and the two were locked in a stalemate for a moment.

"Hmph, I can kill you once, and I can kill you a second time!"

Erza gritted her teeth, her eyes showing no fear. "You call yourself a god? I have never seen a god as wretched as you, with your body pierced through. A Logia-type with weak dominance is destined not to go far."

These words were like a sharp thorn, piercing Enel's most painful spot. The arrogant, cynical smile on his face vanished instantly, and his eyes turned cold and dangerous.

Indeed, he had the title of "god" in the past, and used the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to bully others on Skypiea. But once he stepped into this true sea of ​​strongmen...

Faced with monsters who wielded a power called "dominance," his prized lightning seemed utterly powerless, almost becoming a punching bag.

But... having died once, things are different!

In that brief moment when his heart stopped beating and his consciousness sank into boundless darkness, he touched upon the deeper essence of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

"You're still talking to me about being domineering?"

Enel scoffed, his eyes filled with disdain for past perceptions. "That was nothing but a pathetic means for the weak to fight against the power of nature. The power of the Devil Fruit will prove everything."

He gripped the gun barrel with sudden force, and blinding blue-white lightning, as if alive, rapidly spread along the gun barrel.

The high-voltage current instantly traveled to Erza's entire body. Even with the extreme resistance of the Thunder Emperor's Armor, this voltage, which was far greater than before, still made her tremble violently and her muscles stiffen briefly.

The tens of millions of volts of electricity were greatly weakened by the armor, failing to kill her, but it did reduce her strength for a short period of time.

Enel did not continue attacking Erza. His gaze passed over the woman in front of him and fell on the towering lava demon in the distance, exuding an aura of destruction.

That enormous body, that power that triggered the volcanic eruption, was the form a god should have in his mind.

"You ants, let me show you what true divine power is!"

Erza's alarm bells rang in her mind, and she knew something was wrong. She tried to back away, but it was too late.

Suddenly, Enel was enveloped in indescribable, terrifying lightning. It was no longer a single blue or white, but a dark purple and blazing white lightning intertwined with an aura of destruction.

The light was so intense that it instantly engulfed everything around it, as if a thunderstorm's core had been born there.

"Ah—!" Erza felt a sharp pain in her eyes and was forced to close them tightly. The intense electromagnetic waves even interfered with her sense of balance.

The eruption of lightning was not directed at her, but rather a release of indiscriminate energy. Centered on Enel, the space within a radius of several hundred meters transformed into an absolute death zone.

The ground charred and melted, and the broken weapons and corpses instantly vaporized. Dozens of naval soldiers and pirates who were close by and had no time to escape were reduced to ashes before they could even scream.

Only Erza, protected by the Thunder Emperor's Armor, was like a small boat in a storm, violently thrown away by the terrifying energy of the thunderstorm.

The armor was charred black and smoldering as it crashed heavily to the ground some distance away, sustaining only minor damage.