OP: AMP Ch. 227

The fist rocketed toward Shiki.

High above in the sky, Shiki's body quietly became coated in his own defensive Haki. He was still resisting, even though he knew he'd made tactical errors. But giving up wasn't in his vocabulary.

More importantly, he could finally break through his opponent's defense. The brat wasn't invincible anymore.

Black-and-red lightning crackled around Oto and Kogarashi as he prepared for the incoming strike.

Despite everything that had happened in this fight, he hadn't suffered any particularly serious injuries. Most of his frustration came from the psychological warfare of dealing with Luffy's stupidly indestructible body.

As for stamina depletion? They'd barely been fighting for ten minutes. Even if he'd been tanking a full-force hurricane while multiple powerful opponents attacked simultaneously, there was no way his reserves would be depleted in just ten minutes. He was the Golden Lion, not some rookie pirate.

The massive fist continued to expand in his vision, growing larger with every passing second. But Shiki showed no panic. Instead, he twisted his body sideways and swung Oto in a horizontal arc, releasing a flying slash.

The technique connected. A streak of crimson blood burst from Luffy's knuckles.

Even covered in Armament Haki, the rubber flesh was still vulnerable to a blade wielded by someone of Shiki's caliber.

"In the end, you're just a brat who barely learned the basics."

His sword tip collided directly with the massive fist.

There were no sparks, nor did Luffy tank the hit without taking damage like before. But the kinetic force behind that punch far exceeded Shiki's expectations. The shockwave traveled up through Oto's blade and into his arms, rattling his bones.

He tried to control his body and withstand the overwhelming impact, digging deep into his decades of combat experience to find the right defensive stance. But before he could fully brace himself, the colossal fist shoved him straight backward into the upper atmosphere.

Thunder roared across the sky.

Two bolts of lightning shot straight upward from below simultaneously.

One came from Nami. The other, naturally, was from Mighty.

The instant those two lightning bolts struck the dark clouds, the entire sky lit up like someone had flipped a switch from night to day.

BOOM!

A thunderclap so loud it could've deafened a Sea King echoed across the sky.

Everyone on Skypiea looked up, shielding their eyes from the brilliant flash. The scene unfolding above looked like the apocalypse itself.

"The gods are angry..." someone whispered.

"Those kinds of gods don't exist anymore!" another voice shot back.

The Skypieans, who'd once been ruled by Enel's tyranny, panicked instinctively. Some tried to flee, old survival instincts kicking in. But they quickly realized there was no need to run. This lightning wasn't aimed at them.

WHAM!

The King Kong Gun slammed Shiki up into the cloud layer with such force that the air itself seemed to scream. Luffy followed immediately, launching himself upward with rapid Geppo kicks.

Under the coordination of two Rumble-Rumble Fruit users working in perfect sync, the lightning that had been scattered across the entire cloud layer quietly condensed and focused on a single target, Shiki.

As for Luffy? His Devil Fruit made him completely immune to electrical attacks. He could stand in the middle of a lightning storm and use it as mood lighting.

No matter how strong a human might be, when faced with the raw power of nature itself, they look small. And this wasn't just natural lightning, this was two absolute bastards with Devil Fruit powers unleashing everything they had without holding anything back.

Within the storm clouds, something massive began to take shape. A dragon made entirely of electricity formed in the darkness, swimming through the thunderclouds.

And then it found its target.

The thunder dragon opened its massive jaws and swallowed both figures whole, engulfing them in a brilliant explosion of white-hot lightning.

"Haah..."

Nami was the first to collapse from exhaustion, her body going limp as Marcus' control retreated. Without her guidance, the thunder dragon quietly dispersed, and the massive storm clouds above erupted once again with countless random lightning strikes.

"That was seriously exhausting," she said, sitting down flat on the rooftop and gasping for breath. Her entire body felt like she'd just run a marathon while being chased by Sea Kings.

The rest of the Straw Hat crew were already in position around her, weapons drawn and ready for whatever came next.

"So... do we still need to blow it up?" Usopp asked, sweat beading on his forehead as he clutched the detonator.

Just moments ago, in a short amount of time, they'd planted explosives across every square meter of the landmass that Shiki controlled with his Float-Float powers.

It had been purely a precautionary measure, if Shiki stubbornly chose to tank Luffy's attacks and used his Devil Fruit to forcibly create one of those massive earth lion constructs, the crew really wouldn't have had many good options to counter it.

Marcus looked up at the sky.

"Looks like... we still need to detonate."

The moment his words fell, the ground began to tremble beneath their feet.

Countless mounds of earth started bulging upward across the landscape, dirt and stone rising.

"Even after all that, he's still kicking?!" Usopp stared at the sky in shock.

"For people at that level, the hardness of their Haki coating is way beyond ours," Marcus explained, though he looked just as frustrated by this revelation. "Plus, Haki can suppress Devil Fruit abilities. If you layer enough Armament Haki over your entire body, it should be theoretically possible to neutralize even lightning-based attacks."

The Straw Hat crew members who could use Haki had never seen it employed in such a defensive manner before. This was a whole different level of mastery.

He waved his hand, and layer after layer of obsidian blocks erupted from the ground, wrapping around everyone and sealing them inside a small black box. The walls were three blocks thick. This was his standard "please don't die" protection setup.

"Blow it," he said simply.

Usopp nodded. But before activating the detonator, he pulled out a golden apple and ate it in three quick bites, restoring his stamina to full. No point in being exhausted when you're about to set off what was essentially a carpet bombing.

"Explosions are art!" he declared, and pressed the button.

BOOOOM!

Even inside the obsidian box, everyone felt a vibration run through the walls.

"The power's that big? How many B4s did you use?" Sanji asked, lighting a cigarette to calm his nerves.

"About twelve," Usopp replied with a slightly manic grin.

Marcus froze for a moment, then shook his head. "Clucky's really been working overtime these past few days."

The chicken poked its head out of Usopp's backpack.

"Clucky!" It flapped its wings and made something resembling a thumbs-up gesture with its wing tips.

Though it made no actual words, everyone understood the message: "I did my best!"

The detonation of twelve B4 explosives roared across Upper Yard, the shockwave so powerful it made the entire floating island tremble like it was caught in an earthquake.

But the shaking didn't stop with just one explosion. A second detonation erupted, even more violent than the first.

"Dammit, there was a chain reaction!"

B4 explosives were already terrifyingly powerful. But when they triggered secondary explosions and created an A4-level blast... that was a whole different category of destructive force.

Marcus reached out and touched the obsidian wall, checking its structural integrity.

His expression shifted slightly.

Obsidian had extremely high blast resistance, within Minecraft's normal gameplay, there was basically nothing short of the Wither or the Ender Dragon that could break through it.

Of course, nuclear mods were an exception to that rule.

And right now, under the force of an A4-level explosion, the outermost of the three obsidian layers had completely shattered, reduced to dark fragments. The good news was that after absorbing the initial violent blast wave, the second layer had managed to withstand the residual shockwave without breaking.

"Looks like obsidian can only tank one A4-level explosion at most," he muttered, making mental notes for future reference.

He pulled up his mini-map to assess the damage.

The landmass that had once been shaped like a lion's head was now showing a massive blank area where terrain data simply didn't exist anymore. Below the destroyed ground layer, the White Sea itself was exposed to open air.

At least this particular piece of territory had been fused in using Shiki's Float-Float abilities rather than being part of Skypiea's original structure. The Upper Yard had once been shaped like a skull without a lower jaw. Because of Shiki's interference, a large bulge had formed on top of the skull. Now that entire bulge was gone, completely vaporized. Even part of the skull's crown had been blasted inward, leaving a crater.

This level of destructive power... it was comparable to a small tactical nuke.

He couldn't help but let out a low whistle.

Robin suddenly spoke up. "By the way, Luffy's diamond armor broke during the fight. Can he really withstand Shiki's attacks without it?"

The obsidian box went silent as everyone processed that uncomfortable question.

Marcus had no good answer.

---

Outside the obsidian barrier, the explosion wasn't felt only by the Skypieans.

Countless pirates on ships floating in the White Sea below stared upward in shock.

"Is the sun falling?!" one of them screamed.

Below the clouds, a blazing red light illuminated everything like it was high noon instead of the middle of the day.

These pirates had followed their Log Pose to this area, stubbornly refusing to give up hope. They'd been waiting, praying that Shiki would send someone to retrieve them and bring them up to his floating fleet.

But now they could only stare in dazed horror at what was happening above. Fierce winds howled down from the explosion, hurricane-force gusts that came out of nowhere.

The ships' main sails bent instantly under the pressure, the canvas straining against the ropes. On some of the poorly constructed vessels, the main masts just snapped outright, crashing down onto the decks and crushing anyone unlucky enough to be standing nearby.

"What kind of explosion could cause that?!" someone shouted over the roaring wind.

"It can't be the Marines, right? They don't have weapons that strong... do they?"

The pirates squinted, raising their hands to shield their eyes from the searing brightness.

The light was too intense to look at directly, like staring into a welding torch. But they couldn't suppress their curiosity about what was happening up there in the clouds.

Whatever it was, it looked like the end of the world itself had come to Skypiea.