Stepping out of the Air Door, Chrollo immediately scanned the Troupe.
Machi, Bonolenov, Shizuku, Robin—they were all there. Aside from Machi looking a little pale, everyone was in one piece. Chrollo let out a subconscious sigh of relief.
He then turned his gaze toward the horizon, where Teach and his crew had vanished. His eyes narrowed.
"Just as I thought. The Blackbeard Pirates..."
But they didn't go for the kill this time? Otherwise, how did Machi and the others manage to hold them off?
And more importantly...
Chrollo stared in shock at the devastated landscape. It looked like the end of the world.
Seriously? The whole map got redrawn?! What the hell happened here?
He also noticed a mangled, dismembered corpse lying in a deep crater ahead...
A black cane, a top hat, and pale white skin.
He walked over slowly, staring down in silence.
"If I'm not mistaken... this is Lafitte."
"Wow, Boss, you're so smart. You guessed right~" Shizuku offered her praise with her usual airheaded innocence.
"..."
"???"
Chrollo whipped his head back around, staring at his crew in absolute bewilderment. So, not only did Machi and the others survive an encounter with the Blackbeard Pirates, but they actually managed to kill one of them?!
"How did you do that?"
Chrollo felt like his brain was short-circuiting.
He knew exactly what these people were capable of. Bonolenov was the strongest among them; if someone told him Bonolenov stalled a Blackbeard member, he'd believe it.
Machi had just acquired the Sand-Sand Fruit; if she fought one of them to a standstill, he'd buy that too.
But the rest of them?
There was no way just the few of them held off Teach's entire crew, right?
Chrollo's gaze swept across their faces one by one.
Taking in Machi's pale complexion and her recent string of erratic behavior, his sharp intuition told him this was her doing.
Robin opened her mouth to recount the battle, but Machi stopped her.
She didn't want Chrollo to know about the ugly, monstrous form she had taken.
Chrollo caught the subtle exchange between the two women. He slowly walked over to Machi and looked down at her.
Machi pursed her lips, staring back with stubborn defiance, refusing to yield an inch.
Chrollo's expression softened, his tone laced with helplessness.
"There's a limit to how hard you should push yourself."
"I don't know how you pulled this off, and if you don't want to tell me, I won't pry."
Machi's face visibly relaxed.
"However..." Chrollo's tone shifted, his eyes locking onto hers with absolute seriousness. "I know that ever since we arrived in this world, we've been surrounded by monsters. It's given all of you an unprecedented sense of urgency."
"Especially after seeing how fast Uvogin and the others powered up. Everyone is pushing themselves to the brink, terrified of being left behind."
"But..."
"I don't want you hurting yourselves to do it."
"Whatever method you used, please remember this: your survival comes first."
"As for everything else..."
Chrollo paused, his voice turning solemn.
"Remember, as long as I'm around, the sky isn't going to fall."
Machi stared blankly at him until he finished. Then, a petulant look crossed her face.
"I get it. You talk too much."
Supported by Shizuku, she slowly walked past Chrollo and sat down on a small mound of dirt to rest.
But if anyone looked closely, they would have seen that once her back was turned, her usual icy stoicism melted away. The corners of her mouth curved upward, and a warm light flickered in her eyes.
Bonolenov walked over to Chrollo, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Boss, what's the situation with the others?"
Chrollo looked down, sensing the compass tattoo on his wrist.
"Pakunoda and Shalnark seem to have run into some trouble, but their emotions are relatively stable. It doesn't look like their lives are in danger."
"As for where I just came from..." Chrollo looked genuinely regretful.
By now, Ace had probably made a run for it.
After all, Bonney hadn't mastered Haki yet; she wouldn't be able to hold him down.
The Flame-Flame Fruit had slipped right through his fingers.
As expected of someone carrying the will of D. The guy still had some serious plot armor. His fate was already sealed, and changing it was going to be difficult.
But right now, Chrollo was more concerned with another location.
Chrollo looked up, scanning the thunderous, lightning-streaked sky to the southwest. His eyes grew heavy.
Over in that sector, four massive pillars of lightning were howling between heaven and earth. The entire area was practically swallowed by an endless sea of blinding blue electricity.
The reason he had chosen to rescue Machi's team first was because Uvogin and the other three needed a battle to hone themselves. They needed a genuine, top-tier threat, and Enel was the perfect candidate.
An opponent with weak physical combat skills but absolutely maxed-out Devil Fruit powers was the ultimate grinding stone for the four of them.
For one, with their insane combat prowess and thick hides, they weren't going to die easily.
Secondly, Chrollo wanted to see exactly how well the four had mastered their new abilities, how much they had grown, and just how far they could push a guy like Enel.
"Rest up here for a bit, then continue the search for the City of Gold. Teach and his crew have fled, so there shouldn't be anyone left to get in your way."
After giving his orders, Chrollo conjured an Air Door in front of him, stepped through, and hurried toward Enel's battlefield.
Upper Yard, Inner Rainforest.
Enel watched the four men struggling to breathe under the suffocating pressure of his lightning. A playful, mocking smirk crept across his face. He spread his arms wide and slowly walked toward them.
"So, have you thought it over?"
"I watched your little skirmish with my four Priests. I acknowledge your strength."
Enel stopped right in front of them, looking down with cold indifference at the four men whose heads were practically buried in the dirt from the electric shocks, now level with his toes. The smugness in his eyes grew impossible to hide.
"How about I give you a brand-new title?"
He proudly laid out his grand design.
"Soon, I will depart for the moon. There lies the Endless Earth—the true sanctuary of God."
"You lot... have the qualifications to walk alongside divinity."
"I will become the sole apocalypse of the Endless Earth."
"And you... will become my... Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Enel rambled on about his utopia, pure joy flashing in his eyes.
In his mind, these four mortals below him would inevitably be awe-struck by his magnificent plan. After experiencing his boundless, almighty power, they would obediently grovel at his feet and pledge themselves as his knights.
It would be their greatest honor.
But when he looked down again, the smile slowly slid off his face, replaced by a freezing glare.
The four men, supposedly writhing in agony and struggling to survive his lightning... were all wearing expressions of sheer, unadulterated mockery and contempt.
"What are you laughing at?"
Uvogin was the first to push himself up, inch by inch, fighting against the pillar of lightning.
Under the glaring blue light, his body began to rapidly expand, swelling to nearly thirty feet tall. He threw his head back with wild, untamed defiance, staring Enel dead in the eye with a savage, bloodthirsty grin.
"Are there really gods in this world? If there are, then the only one is me."
Feitan was the next to move.
A miniature planet-buster bomb materialized at his feet. The explosion blasted him out of the lightning pillar's radius.
Covered in burns and lacerations, he slowly rose to his feet. His eyes were ice-cold as they locked onto Enel.
"Filthy mongrel. Too bad my power today isn't an elemental type, but..."
"Spouting nonsense about being a god... how pathetic."
Then came Nobunaga.
"Shinsou: Earth Scroll."
A massive earthen dragon erupted from the ground, colliding head-on with the lightning strike. Beneath the earth dragon, Nobunaga's robes fluttered wildly in the wind. He slowly stood up, his expression dead serious.
"If gods really do exist, then there's only one in my heart..."
Finally, Phinks.
Amidst the torrential electricity, he slowly crossed his arms, dropping into a firing stance. Suddenly, a green barrier materialized above his head, completely blocking the lightning.
He glared viciously at Enel, summing it up perfectly:
"God, my ass."