Enel was still smiling.
Still floating lazily above the ground.
Still acting as though the outcome had been decided from the moment he arrived.
“Mortal.”
His voice echoed across Upper Yard.
“The one standing before you is a god.”
Lightning crackled around his body as he spread his arms.
“How could a mere human ever hope to harm divinity?”
His expression grew almost theatrical.
“Surrender.”
“I recognize your talent.”
He pointed toward Rowan.
“Serve me, and I may spare your life.”
Behind him, the Four Priests relaxed.
Any lingering curiosity had disappeared.
The battle was over.
The intruder couldn’t touch Enel.
That much was obvious.
It was the same story they had witnessed countless times before—a fool challenging God without understanding the difference between them.
After all, in all the years they had served Enel, they had never seen anyone injure him.
Not once.
Unfortunately for them—
They had no idea what was coming.
Rowan nearly laughed.
Everything was unfolding exactly as he’d hoped.
Enel had completely lowered his guard.
His confidence wasn’t merely arrogance anymore.
It was blindness.
Now Rowan only needed a single opening.
One strike.
One mistake.
That was all it would take.
He widened his eyes and deliberately let disbelief appear on his face.
“Impossible…”
The reaction looked genuine.
Even the priests bought it.
Then Rowan’s expression hardened.
“If that’s the case…”
A surge of power erupted from his body.
The air grew heavier.
The ground beneath his feet cracked.
“Mythical Zoan—”
His voice rumbled like distant thunder.
“Behemoth Hybrid Form.”
BOOM!
A violent shockwave exploded outward.
Dust and loose stone blasted across the battlefield.
Rowan’s body began to change.
His frame expanded rapidly.
Two meters.
Two and a half.
Nearly three.
His black hair lengthened and turned silver-white.
Muscles swelled beneath his skin.
Silver fur spread across his forearms.
Dark markings crept across his chest like ancient runes etched into stone.
His canines sharpened into predatory fangs.
Raw power rolled off him in waves.
He looked less like a man and more like some ancient beast that had learned to wear human skin.
This was the form Rowan trusted most in battle.
The Behemoth Hybrid.
Not as cumbersome as the full beast form.
Far stronger than his human state.
The perfect balance of power, speed, and control.
The form he had spent years mastering.
For the first time, surprise flashed across Enel’s face.
A brief flicker.
Nothing more.
Then his confidence returned.
Zoan users weren’t unheard of.
Occasionally, people from the Blue Sea arrived in Skypiea with strange abilities.
None of them had mattered.
This one wouldn’t either.
He still couldn’t touch lightning.
Or so Enel believed.
His grin widened.
“Interesting.”
He rested his golden staff casually on his shoulder.
“You’re stronger than the usual trash.”
“But it changes nothing.”
Lightning danced around him.
“You still can’t hurt me.”
His voice dripped with certainty.
“This is your final chance.”
“Kneel.”
“Serve.”
“Live.”
Rowan slowly raised his rusted sword.
The battered blade looked almost ridiculous in his massive hand.
A cold smile spread across his face.
“How about…”
He lowered his stance.
“We test that theory?”
Then he vanished.
WHOOSH!
The distance between them disappeared instantly.
The priests’ eyes widened.
This speed was completely different from before.
The Behemoth’s power surged through every muscle in Rowan’s body.
The sword descended.
Fast.
Clean.
Lethal.
Enel barely reacted.
Why would he?
It was the same attack as before.
The same meaningless slash.
The same futile attempt to strike the unstrikable.
Then, at the very last moment—
Something changed.
A dark sheen spread across the blade.
Armament Haki.
The instant Enel sensed it, every instinct in his body erupted.
Danger.
His pupils contracted.
A chill shot down his spine.
The world seemed to slow.
For the first time in years—
Enel felt fear.
Real fear.
The kind that reached deep into the soul.
His body immediately tried to transform into lightning.
To disperse.
To escape.
To become untouchable once more.
But he was too late.
Far too late.
The moment he met Rowan’s eyes, he understood.
Mockery.
Confidence.
Certainty.
Rowan had known this would happen.
This wasn’t a desperate gamble.
It was an execution.
And Enel had walked willingly to the chopping block.
SHRRRRAAAAK!
A silver arc split the world.
The slash tore through Enel’s body.
Through the earth beneath him.
Through the forest beyond.
A distant mountain trembled before a massive line appeared across its face.
A heartbeat later, the entire peak split apart.
The shockwave continued for hundreds of meters before finally fading into the horizon.
Silence fell.
For a single frozen moment, nobody moved.
Then blood erupted into the air.
His eyes widened.
Disbelief filled his face.
A devastating wound stretched diagonally across his torso—from shoulder to waist.
Flesh severed.
Bone shattered.
Organs torn apart.
He had nearly been cut in two.
An ordinary person would have died instantly.
Only the vitality granted by the Goro Goro no Mi kept him alive.
Barely.
His body swayed.
Blood splattered across the ground.
The self-proclaimed God of Skypiea looked less like a deity and more like a dying man desperately refusing to fall.
The Four Priests stared in horror.
One dropped to his knees.
Then another.
And another.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody could.
Their minds simply refused to process what they had witnessed.
God…
Had lost.
No.
God had been destroyed.
Rowan didn’t waste a second celebrating.
The battle wasn’t over.
Not yet.
The most important part was only beginning.
The Black Coffin had strict requirements.
The Devil Fruit user needed to be alive.
Barely alive was acceptable.
Dead was not.
If Enel died before the extraction began, the Goro Goro no Mi could reincarnate somewhere else in the world.
Rowan wasn’t about to let that happen.
Without hesitation, he raised a hand.
The air distorted.
Then something massive appeared.
A colossal black coffin materialized from thin air.
Ancient.
Sinister.
Its surface was covered in strange runes that seemed to writhe when viewed directly.
The temperature around it dropped immediately.
A suffocating pressure settled across the battlefield.
Even the priests shuddered instinctively.
The thing radiated pure dread.
The Black Coffin of Nullification.
Rowan grabbed Enel before the man could collapse completely.
The former god didn’t even have the strength to resist.
Then Rowan threw him inside.
A prepared fruit followed a heartbeat later.
The lid slammed shut.
BOOM.
The sound echoed across Upper Yard.
Ancient symbols ignited across the coffin’s surface.
Pale blue light leaked through the seams.
Energy flowed through the runes like glowing chains wrapping around something trapped within.
The entire coffin hummed with power.
The extraction had begun.
Silence returned.
Rowan stood before the coffin without moving.
His heartbeat quickened.
Five years.
Five years of training.
Five years of planning.
Five years spent preparing for this moment.
Everything had led here.
The Behemoth.
The system.
The journey to Skypiea.
The battle with Enel.
All of it.
His eyes remained fixed on the coffin.
The Lightning Fruit—
One of the strongest Devil Fruits in the world—
Was finally within reach.