One Piece: A Warlord's Path

Chapter 816 816: The Destruction of the Institute

"AAAAAAUGH!"

Sloan's massive frame was engulfed in a blinding pillar of lightning, his agonizing screams tearing through the roar of the electricity.

Usopp was screaming just as loud, hopping frantically from one foot to the other on the giant's shoulder.

Zzzt...

"Huh?! I'm... I'm okay?"

After a good deal of hopping and wailing, Usopp realized something was off. Why did he only feel a faint, prickly numbing sensation?

He looked down. Though Sloan was cloaked in white-hot lightning, Usopp himself seemed largely unaffected, as if an invisible barrier was shielding him from the brunt of the strike.

THUD!

The radiance vanished. Sloan, charred black and gasping for air, stumbled and fell to one knee, wisps of acrid smoke rising from his skin.

"Hey! Sloan! Are you alright?!" Usopp grabbed the giant's ear to steady himself, shouting in concern.

"Nani?" Enel blinked, genuinely stunned.

This didn't make sense. The human body was a conductor, why was that long-nosed brat standing on the giant's shoulder without a scratch?

"Enel, it's the leather!" Jason shouted, noticing Enel's confusion and quickly offering an explanation. "Leather is a semiconductor! It only conducts under specific pressure, temperatures, and atmospheric humidity! His armor is bone-dry, so it's acting as an insulator!"

The realization dawned on everyone.

Tap. Tap.

Usopp tentatively stomped on Sloan's shoulder. He happened to be standing directly on the hide of the armor. Because the voltage was so high and he was so close to the source, the excess electrons leaking into the air had given him a mild, static-like tingle, but the leather had blocked the lethal surge.

"Tch... how annoying." Enel's face darkened. First rubber, and now this?

He didn't care about the difference between semiconductors and insulators. To him, the very existence of things that resisted his power was an insult to his divinity.

"You... bastard..." Sloan managed to lift his head, his eyes burning with a primal, savage hatred.

Seeing that defiant glare, Enel's temper flared. "Don't you dare look at me like that! You're dead today, you piece of trash!"

Crackle—!

Blue-white lightning erupted from Enel, bolts of electricity coiling around him like serpents.

"Wait! Enel! Just knock him out!" Jason and Caesar cried out in alarm, trying to intervene. "Giants aren't that easy to replace!"

"Shut up! If he dies, I'll just take another trip to Elbaf myself!" Enel snapped, his form becoming almost entirely submerged in the blinding glare of his own power.

SWISH—!

Suddenly, a red blur trailing steam flashed past.

"Hmm?" Enel's brow twitched. A pink-hued arm had suddenly phased through his chest.

"Couldn't catch the physical body, huh..." Luffy muttered, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth as he stared at Enel with unwavering resolve.

"It's useless. Every move you make is within the palm of my hand!" Enel sneered, swinging his staff behind him in a wide arc.

WHOOSH—

The staff whistled through empty air. Luffy had already vanished.

"You can't run, Straw Hat!" Enel barked. The lightning-filled hole in his chest was already rapidly sealing.

A moment later, Enel pivoted, thrusting his golden staff violently to the right.

BOOM—!

The tip of the electrified staff collided with a jet-black fist. The resulting shockwave exploded outward, a gale-force wind whipping through the corridor for dozens of meters.

Seeing the visible sparks dancing harmlessly across Luffy's skin, Enel's fury reached a boiling point. His expression turned deathly cold.

"You rubber brat... you're starting to get on my nerves."

His voice was a low growl, and a terrifying killing intent rolled off him like a tide, making the very air feel like a winter gale.

"Pierce him! 50 Million Volts... Lightning Arrow!!!"

Enel snapped his left hand up, gathering a massive concentration of electricity at his fingertip. The light was blinding.

ZZZZZT—!

A bolt of lightning, compressed into the shape of a lethal arrow, shrieked through the air.

"Watch out!"

Luffy sensed the danger and instinctively threw himself to the side.

KABOOM—!

The bolt crossed dozens of meters in a heartbeat. Like a needle piercing paper, the arrow of light punched straight through the reinforced walls, and then another, and another, boring a hole through the entire research facility until it shot out into the snowy wasteland outside.

Gasp…!

"The piercing power is insane!" The crowd stood in awe.

By condensing that much electricity into a physical point, Enel wasn't trying to electrocute his target, he was aiming to puncture them. Even non-conductive rubber would be left with a charred, gaping hole.

Enel grinned maniacally. "Yahahaha! I am a God! Mere rubber or leather can never hope to—"

Before he could finish, a transparent "dome" expanded at high speed, instantly engulfing him.

The sphere continued to grow until the entire Third Research Institute was contained within its boundary. In a flicker, Law appeared directly in front of Enel, his cursed blade Kikoku slashing down like a bolt of dark lightning.

"Nani?" Enel frowned, a sharp sense of crisis radiating from the blade.

Zzzt—!

Enel vanished, leaving only a few fading sparks in the air as he dodged.

Law's blade completed its arc.

SHIIING—!

It was as if a divine blade had fallen from the heavens. Through the newly formed gap, everyone could see the frozen wasteland outside, because the entire Third Research Institute had been cleaved in half!

Even the two massive icebergs flanking the facility, each nearly a hundred meters tall, had been sliced clean through the middle, their upper halves sliding slowly into the air.

RUMBLE... RUMBLE...

A deafening roar filled the facility as the ground groaned and shuddered. Massive chunks of debris began to rain down. The institute was collapsing!

"I... am I dreaming?"

"This... this is the power of a Warlord of the Sea!"

"It's insane! He even cut the mountains outside!"

The onlookers stared with dropped jaws, unable to believe the scale of the destruction.

"You WRETCH!" Enel roared, his eyes nearly bursting with rage. He hadn't expected Law to have the sheer output to bifurcate the entire facility.

"Damn it! What have you done?!" Caesar, Jason, and Cavendish were losing their minds. If the lab was destroyed, years of research data would be lost forever!

"Run! The building is coming down!" someone screamed, triggering a frantic stampede.

Countless people scrambled toward the R-66 gate, fleeing for their lives without looking back.

"Go! Leave this to me and Tra-guy!" Luffy shouted, waving Nami and the others away.

"Don't even think about running! None of you are getting away!"

Enel bellowed, his body erupting in a violent storm of lightning. Dozens of bolts, each as thick as a man's arm, lashed out indiscriminately, obliterating everything in his vicinity.

His body began to swell like a balloon. Within seconds, he transformed into a towering, blue-white giant of electricity with hair standing on end and a massive, protruding belly. He stood over ten meters tall, rivaling Sloan in stature.

200 Million Volts... AMARU!!!