Before Enel could make sense of what he was seeing, another change came over Conis.
A huge amount of lightning wrapped itself around her whole body, as if she had put on a suit made entirely of lightning.
Enel swallowed.
For some reason, he felt like something terrifying was happening to Conis right now.
Almost instinctively, he hurled lightning at her, but every attack that landed on the lightning garment around Conis had absolutely no effect.
Even when Enel called down pillar after pillar of lightning, the result was the same.
"Damn it! I refuse to believe this!"
Enel roared, and his body suddenly expanded.
He transformed into a giant made entirely of lightning.
Half the forest trembled from the change in his form.
Smoothie: "Oh? Not bad. Did this guy develop the Rumble-Rumble Fruit all the way to awakening or something?"
Gion: "No wonder he dared to say he'd destroy Skypiea. In this form, he really does have the power to destroy it."
Koala: "That really is terrifying. No wonder the people of Skypiea had no way to resist him."
Belo Betty: "Judging only from the power he's showing right now, if he knew about Haki and had a steadier, more cautious personality, he probably could've made a name for himself in the New World."
Whitey Bay: "His Observation Haki does look pretty impressive. What a shame—he's about to die today. No, wait, why am I saying that? This bastard should just die already."
…
"W-What? Enel can still do something like this?!"
Wyper felt his scalp go numb.
Could this really be an opponent they had any hope of defeating?
With the state Enel was displaying right now, Wyper felt like he'd be electrocuted to death the instant he got close.
If they couldn't even get close to him, then how were they supposed to fight him?
There was no way they could win, not even by smashing their heads against him.
Even if more Shandian warriors rushed in, they'd just be throwing their lives away.
"He really is that strong."
Raki was just as shaken.
Arton had described some of Enel's abilities in his diary before, but only briefly.
Most of his writing had gone into recording the works he'd created.
So Raki had never had a very clear idea of just how far Enel's power could actually go, but now, after seeing Enel for herself, she finally understood how enormous the gap between them really was.
At that moment, Raki felt even more grateful that Arton existed.
If not for Arton, they probably would've never been able to stand against Enel in their entire lives.
When the day finally came for Enel to destroy Skypiea and head for the Endless Vearth he longed for, all they would've been able to do was watch helplessly as he made his move.
"Compared to Arton bringing hope to Skypiea, what I've given him doesn't amount to anything."
"After today, I need to find a chance to give Captain Arton an even better experience."
"I just wonder if I can really do it as seriously as the works describe."
Raki lowered her head and muttered softly to herself.
The version of her in Arton's fanworks fought like she had endless stamina, but reality was another matter.
Raki, who had no experience, admitted she was feeling a little lacking in confidence right now.
Chapter 601: If You Touched Them, They'd Definitely Feel Amazing
Raki didn't know whether she could satisfy Arton the way her fanworks version did.
Conis felt the same.
As she stared at Enel, she was struck once again by just how powerful he was—but at the same time, just like Raki, she also wanted to properly repay Arton, and how was she supposed to repay him?
The answer was obvious.
The only thing Conis could think of was recreating what happened in the fanworks as faithfully as possible, but even now, even after receiving her template, she still wasn't sure she could perfectly reproduce everything from those stories.
Right as Conis was getting tangled up in those thoughts, Enel's furious roar snapped her back to reality.
What am I doing? We're still in the middle of a fight.
She silently scolded herself, then hurriedly sank back into that strange, heightened state of perception inside her body, and in that instant, she suddenly felt like she understood Serval's template even more deeply.
When the lightning swirling around her finally dispersed, Raki, Wyper, Gan Fall, and all the diary-copy holders watching through their copies widened their eyes in shock.
Blue-and-white clothes and a matching skirt.
Sexy black stockings.
Golden hair spilling loose, accented by streaks of blue.
It was a look every diary-copy holder recognized on sight.
Yamato: "This… this counts as awakening, right?"
Gion: "She reached this level with the template that fast? Don't tell me Conis is actually really talented?"
Ulti: "No way. Don't tell me pushing a template into this full-possession state is actually easier than awakening a Devil Fruit. Why the hell did she hit 100% activation on Serval's template so fast?!"
Because they'd seen Arton and his crew use templates at 100% before, the diary-copy holders immediately realized what had happened.
Conis had entered that state too, and that shocked all of them.
After all, in their eyes, Conis was supposed to be the type who wasn't good at fighting.
Normally, someone like that should've needed a fair amount of time to push a template to full activation.
Sure, there had been cases where someone brought a template to its limit very quickly—Robin, for example, had pushed the La Signora template to 100% pretty fast, but that was because Nico Robin matched a lot of La Signora's traits.
Conis, on the other hand, only met the bare minimum three requirements needed to match Serval's template.
So for her to push the template this far, this quickly—how could Yamato, Gion, and the other diary-copy holders not be shocked?
Nami, Ain, and the others on the crew were just as surprised, but unlike Gion, Kujaku, and the other Marines, who felt uneasy about Conis's change, Nami, Nojiko, and the others felt nothing but happiness and excitement for her.
Arton was happy too.
"Just like I thought—once Conis pushes the template to 100%, she'll end up wearing Belobog's signature black stockings too."
"Damn… I really want to touch them and see just how soft they are."
Arton licked his lips and muttered to himself.
He hadn't actually reached out and touched them yet, but just from the way they gleamed in the light, he could already tell—the hand feel would be insanely good.