Eneru's long earlobes twitched. For the first time, the look of pure contempt he always wore began to crack.
Gold? An endless ocean of gold?
"Yehahahaha! Does mere metal dare to challenge a God!"
Eneru let out a wild laugh, raising his right hand high. He pointed his index and middle fingers toward the sky-blotting golden wave.
"One Hundred Million Volts: Discharge!"
A blinding bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips, forming a thick spear that struck the very center of the giant golden wave. However, the result he expected—molten metal and a collapsing wave—never happened. The moment the furious lightning touched the gold, it was instantly swallowed, absorbed, and conducted away by the massive tide, vanishing without a trace.
The golden wave only paused for a second before it roared forward with even greater force.
Eneru's pupils shrank. Conductivity! He had forgotten the most basic physical property of a metal like gold.
Just as Eneru was about to order his men forward to block the attack, a strange laugh echoed from behind him.
"Kishishishishi… Little brat, you have more than one opponent."
As Gecko Moria laughed, his body began to twist and stretch, melting into the rapidly expanding shadow at his feet. In the next second, a terrifying demon god made of pure darkness, nearly a hundred meters tall, rose from the ground.
The demon had two horns on its head and a powerful body, but its face was identical to Moria's. Its colossal shadow fell over the holy land, bringing with it a suffocating sense of dread. The hope that had just begun to bloom among the Skypieans was instantly crushed by this evil presence.
"Sir Gan Fall… what… who is that man…?" a member of the God Squad stammered, his face pale. "He doesn't look like a good person at all!"
Cold sweat dripped down Gan Fall's forehead. Had he just invited someone even more evil than Eneru to his home?
But Moria paid no attention to the terrified ants below. The Shadow Demon God he had become acted on a single thought.
"Shadow's Asgard!"
Whoosh—
Countless dark shadows spread across the surface of the island clouds like living things. They shot out and wrapped around all of Eneru's priests and soldiers on the Ark and the surrounding clouds. The warriors, who had been so full of confidence just a moment ago, were dragged into the shadows without even a chance to scream. They vanished instantly, as if they had never been there at all.
With just one move, the army that Eneru had spent years building was completely destroyed.
The once-arrogant invader was now just a lone commander, standing all by himself at the front of his ship.
A dead silence fell over the holy land, followed by an earth-shattering cheer from the residents. The battle had been turned on its head in an instant.
Eneru's face was pale with shock. He didn't even have time to be angry about his men, because the golden wave of death was already upon him.
"You bastard!"
He roared as his body transformed into a bolt of lightning, narrowly dodging the massive golden wave.
Rumble—!!!
The Ark was hit head-on. The giant ship was easily swallowed and absorbed by the even larger mass of gold, disappearing into the tide completely.
Tesoro stood on the clouds, making a shaping motion with one hand. The golden tide behind him surged and twisted, finally forming a golden giant the same size as Moria's Shadow Demon God.
"Do you see, Eneru?" Tesoro's voice, amplified by the golden giant, boomed across the sky. He sounded more confident and thrilled than ever before. "When faced with absolute wealth, even a so-called 'God' is nothing but a joke!"
"You're asking to die!"
Eneru was completely enraged. His body flickered through the air, leaving afterimages as he moved. Countless bolts of lightning shot from every direction toward the golden giant.
"Lightning Forging Gold!" Tesoro shouted.
Intricate patterns appeared all over the golden giant's body. It absorbed every bolt of lightning that struck it, channeling the electricity through the clouds beneath its feet and into the endless white sea below. For a moment, the cloud sea flashed and thundered like boiling water, creating a spectacular sight.
"It's useless," Tesoro said coldly. "Your lightning only makes my gold easier to shape."
Seeing his attacks had no effect, Eneru's eyes narrowed. He instantly appeared above the golden giant's head.
"Two Hundred Million Volts: Raigo!"
He unleashed all his electrical power without holding back, transforming himself into a massive being of pure lightning. Gripping a lightning trident, he stabbed down fiercely at the golden giant's head. This was one of his most powerful forms.
However, just as the lightning trident was about to strike, the surface of the golden giant suddenly turned to liquid, forming a huge golden vortex that swallowed Eneru's lightning form whole.
"Gold Splash!" Tesoro yelled, clapping his hands together.
Trapped inside the gold, Eneru felt the pressure around him increase dramatically. The liquid gold felt alive as it tried to force its way into his body.
"Never!"
Eneru roared, and his lightning form exploded. The violent blast tore the golden giant's upper body to pieces, sending fragments and drops of liquid gold flying everywhere. Eneru reformed in mid-air, panting heavily, his face a little pale. He looked down at the man on the cloud, realizing for the first time that this fight was going to be difficult.
Tesoro also panted as he watched the golden fragments scatter across the sky, but a small smile formed on his lips. Gold could only weaken the lightning's power, not stop it completely. If he hadn't had all the gold of Shandora to use, he probably would have struggled to defend himself. But those fragments weren't just falling; they were turning into a fine golden dust, almost invisible, that was silently spreading throughout the battlefield on the wind.
The real battle had just begun.
The fight that followed became a pure test of power and skill. Eneru used the incredible speed of his Rumble-Rumble Fruit to flash across the sky, unleashing destructive lightning with every appearance.
"Thirty Million Volts: Thunder Bird!"
"Thirty Million Volts: Thunder Beast!"
"Sixty Million Volts: Thunder Dragon!"
Giant beasts made of lightning roared as they charged toward Tesoro.
In response, Tesoro stood his ground. The gold beneath his feet was like an endless spring, constantly rising to form various defensive walls and weapons. Countless sharp golden chains shot out from the clouds, trying to catch Eneru, but he dodged them at the speed of light every time.
Their battle moved from above the holy land to the depths of the cloud sea and back again. With every clash, lightning shattered more gold, turning it into even finer dust that filled the air. Though Eneru's Mantra allowed him to sense everything on the battlefield, it wasn't precise enough to detect these tiny metal particles that blended in with the air. With every breath he took, he was slowly inhaling his own doom.
The fight raged on for several hours. Eneru's stamina was draining, but Tesoro, with the entire Golden City backing him, seemed to have limitless power.
"Damn it…" Eneru panted. He knew he couldn't let this drag on. With a look of determination, he decided to use his ultimate attack.
He flew high above the clouds and spread his arms, pulling all the thunderclouds in the sky toward him. The sky instantly went dark. A terrifyingly huge black sphere of thunderclouds formed above the holy land. The energy it contained was so immense that it made everyone below tremble in fear.
"That is… the 'Raigo'!" Gan Fall shouted, his voice cracking. "He's going to destroy the entire island!"
"It's over, Blue Sea dwellers!" Eneru's voice boomed like a god's judgment from the sky. "Turn to dust under my divine punishment!"
Tesoro looked up at the island-destroying black sphere, his expression more serious than ever. He knew this was his last chance.
"Gran Tesoro!"
He summoned all the remaining gold, building a magnificent and incredibly detailed model of a giant city above his head. It was the strongest defense he could create. But just as Eneru was about to unleash the Raigo, Tesoro suddenly let go of his control over the golden city, allowing the massive structure to fall.
At the same time, he shot toward Eneru in the sky as fast as he could.
Eneru was stunned for a second, then a cruel smile appeared on his face. He's coming to me? Fool!
He immediately sent a powerful bolt of lightning straight at the approaching Tesoro. Tesoro didn't dodge. He let the lightning pierce his left shoulder, and blood instantly soaked half of his body. He let out a pained grunt, but his eyes were shining brighter than ever.
Now!
At the exact moment the lightning hit him, he reached Eneru and grabbed his arm with one hand.
"Got you…" Tesoro grinned, his blood-stained face beaming. He let out a low roar and activated the trap he had been setting all along.
Eneru was about to mock him, but his body suddenly went stiff. An unbearable, excruciating pain erupted from his lungs, his heart, and all his limbs. He looked down in horror and saw specks of golden light seeping out from under his skin.
The gold dust he had inhaled had instantly solidified under Tesoro's command, locking his body from the inside out.
"You… you bastard…"
"I told you," Tesoro said, gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder. "You don't deserve to be a god."
He held onto Eneru's arm tightly, clenched his other hand into a fist, and focused all his remaining strength into a single point.
"Now, become a real 'God Statue' for me!"
His fist slammed into Eneru's chest. With that punch, an endless amount of gold poured from his hand, completely covering Eneru. The gold continued to harden and take shape.
Finally, a pure gold statue, dozens of meters high, formed in mid-air. The statue was posed in Eneru's signature shocked expression.
Tesoro let go. His body, completely exhausted, could no longer support him, and he began to fall from the sky.
Behind him, the giant black thunderball, the Raigo, had lost its master's control. It slowly faded away, and the sky once again became bright and clear.
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