Awe, Distance and Making a Move

_________ POV Narration _________

The Straw Hats, Robin especially, all felt uneasy the moment that eye showed up.

It awoke in them a primal instinct of fear, especially for Robin, who had seen it in action in the past.

She feared for Enel's life at that moment, she feared for her captain's life, hell she even feared for Oven's life, as the two of them had gotten along as well.

Even if he had injured Zoro and Sanji, she didn't hate him, she understood that the situation was complicated.

But now?

The entire whole cake island was going to be erased.

Or so she thought.

If she hadn't had at least a basic mastery of Observation Haki, she wouldn't have even been able to follow it, but the explosion itself lasted for a long enough time for all of them to notice it.

All of them were able to feel its effect on the world.

The seas around the entire Whole Cake Islands were quaking in fear, the skies were unravelling and the eye itself became completely uncovered as it started cracking and pieces of it fell to the ground.

The spinning wheel that Enel had sent towards the eye seemed indestructible, it cut through anything and eventually broke down the eye at its very core.

Robin and the others could do nothing besides stare at the scene in silence with wide eyes.

Zoro couldn't help but gulp a bit as a rather discouraging thought rose in his mind.

'I-is that the strength that the top of the world has?

Will I ever be able to reach that stage in my lifetime?'

His insecurities were highlighted as he thought of not being able to protect his comrades if they were to be faced with such an attack.

There was quite literally nothing he could do besides dive in and die first.

Enel's power was overwhelming and suffocating for the green-haired Swordsman.

The situation wasn't much better for Sanji, who was still blaming himself for being the one to put his entire crew into the situation they were on.

The only reprieve he had was that they had all survived, but they had messed up with a lot of people, and they had a lot more enemies because of him now.

He just hoped Enel wasn't one of them...

Robin was also conflicted when seeing just how strong Enel had grown. For once in her life, she started feeling a bit insecure... Was she truly worthy of a man like him?

But that question in itself was a stupid one.

Enel was the type of man to make his own choices. She had no right to decide who is and isn't worthy of him. Only Enel himself did.

And he seemed more than welcoming to her advances, although he still had bigger concerns...

Still, she had already expected the rift between Enel and everyone else to grow even bigger.

But the power she witnessed was at a different level compared to anything she knew of. It toppled even the legendary scope of Ancient Weapons.

Alas, when one wielded the powers of a god, ancient weapons became parlour tricks. After all, IMU had still struggled to defeat the extremely tired gods even after fusing with Uranus.

Even then, he apparently wasn't able to even kill the gods, at least he wasn't able to kill Raijin, to the point where he survived in his tomb and waited for a successor for centuries.

To Robin, however, Enel had managed to overcome the strongest attack she had ever seen, and he did so effortlessly.

So, in the end, she couldn't help but smile when seeing him demolish the thing that had, at some point, taken his arm away from him.

But the Sky King himself was not quite as elated as her.

In his awakened form, his thoughts flowed clearer, after seeing his full power and potential, it only felt natural for him to pluck that eye out of the sky.

It didn't even feel like he had used that much power to do so. At least he hadn't used any special power, just pure destruction, which apparently his devil fruit excelled at.

While he was still pleased with the results, his mind was already ahead of that feeling, worrying about something else entirely.

He was extremely fast and had a lot more control over his speed. His comprehension was enhanced by a lot, so now he could also worry at the speed of light.

And now, his mind was running through a few scenarios and reasons why IMU would ever target Big Mom.

And only one possibility seemed to make sense currently...

'Is the World Government trying to get rid of the Emperors?'

It was a rather strange assumption to make, sure.

But the Government had no reason to get rid of Big Mom alone, she was already allied with Kaido and part of his effort to create a third group in the war.

Something that the World Government had previously allowed to happen, likely hoping it would work against Enel, at least going by Shanks's speculations.

But he didn't just need to make an assumption. His awakened form allowed him to just check and confirm.

The Sky King hovered in place as he expanded his senses as far as he could.

His mind processed the information his radar and senses received, and he noticed that Sphinx Island was thankfully intact.

Well, it was still terraformed after the huge war that occurred there, but the World Government had little to no involvement in that.

The World Government hadn't tried to get rid of Whitebeard at the very least.

But the same could not be said about Kaido...

It seemed the Dragon Emperor could simply not catch a break.

Well, the Land of Wano itself seemed cursed with unfathomable bad luck.

Onigashimaass Kaido's main base was in the process of violently burning to the ground from what Enel could feel.

Well, it would've been was it not for the giant skull that seemed to protect a chunk of it.

Most of the fire was apparently from Kaido himself, as he had gone into a rage after the World Government tried to drop something on his base.

His fiery breath had soared through the skies, completely disintegrating the ship that had been hiding above the clouds.

It caused an explosion so powerful that it completely covered the sky above Onigashim, flame rained down to the ground and burnt anything in sight.

The flame was strange, it certainly wasn't Kaido's, it was likely from some sort of weapon or fuel that had been held on that blimp.

Kaido himself seemed to have taken on his gigantic dragon form as he now grew in size to... circle around in the sky and coil part of his body around the entire island of Onigashima.

'... He feels absurdly more powerful than before. Is this really the strength of his Awakened Devil Fruit?'

It was indeed monstrous, his roar seemed to disperse the rain of fire, blowing it all away and spreading it out to the seas around the island.

Some strands of the flame did fall on some random villages, but Enel doubted Kaido cared all that much for the villagers that were starving to death on the island he ruled.

For a second, a ray of light shined through the skies on Onigashima, the light didn't give anyone much hope amidst a sea of raging fire.

But it still reminded people of a different time. The seeds of rebellion had long since been sown... Now they were starting to bud, growing slightly.

It was only a matter of time before someone stepped in and tried to make a change. But fear was still an emotion that Enel could feel throughout the land.

No one would dare to stand up to Kaido, especially not after hearing that thundering roar, and the rain of fire that followed.

To the villagers, it likely felt that the roar had caused the rain of fire, but to Enel's point of view, that couldn't have been more wrong.

'... It's safe to assume that the Government is responsible for those flames. They must've used some sort of weapon they didn't show in the past.

It doesn't seem to have been enough to even put a scratch on Kaido's gigantic body though...'

Enel blinked a few times before he looked back down towards the seas, around Whole Cake Island.

"I guess I just gave the others a nice show... By now, it's safe to assume that Luffy and Katakuri are done...

My job here should also be over, I'll have to come back after Big Mom recovers, but for now... I need to stop using this form.'

Enel slowly closed his eyes, and the lightning his body gave off seemed to die down in that instant.

The drums behind him spun slower and approached his back, etching themselves back into his skin in the form of a permanent tattoo.

The next time the Emperor's eyes opened, they were no longer shining with purple lighting... They were back to normal.

The first change he felt was that he no longer had that same feeling of omnipotence.

His eyes no longer saw as far, his mind was much slower, his power no longer made the air around him tremble in the same way.

And it was in that instance that he felt a jolt of pain so powerful in his mind that he almost fell out of the sky.

He thankfully managed to land on a cloud, but his pain prevented him from using even basic Observation Haki.

Concentrating became absolutely impossible as veins bulged all over his body and his eyes became bloodshot, he clutched at his scalp, biting into his lips as he restrained his pained cries.

The pain lasted for a few minutes at that intensity, the Emperor managed to get used to it after a while, but he still couldn't possibly concentrate after that.

Thankfully after it lessened, the Emperor was able to slowly start moving again, flying away from that cloud that had supported him and towards another, higher up.

There, he lay down for a few minutes, humming and trying to stave away the pain as his thoughts became clearer once more.

'Damn... I still have to get used to this.'

The Emperor stayed on that cloud for a while, trying to think of his next move.

After a while, he simply cracked his neck and sighed.

He slowly stood up and patted swayed from side to side before looking in a certain direction.

'If I remember correctly... That 'Elephant' was in this direction...

I should find out what happened to the Mink Tribe before going over to Wano and checking out the situation...

I wasn't able to sense the City of Atlantis yet, so that might have to wait...'

With a plan laid out the Emperor took one last look towards the Thousand Sunny, noticing that Luffy had indeed finally returned on it, certainly looking worse for wear, but still alive and kicking.

'I guess things are over here... Better get going.'

And with that, the Emperor disappeared, leaving behind only the sound of a thunderclap.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Took me a bit to write, still getting used to the new place and living on my own, have to find a new gym too, but I'll be out of the waters soonish

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