Chapter 463: Enel's Response 2/50
Just as Luffy and the others followed Robin and Reiju to begin exploring the ancient relics of this sky island, Ian arrived at the location of the giant vine.
It was only when he got a close-up view that Ian realized this vine was unimaginably huge.
No one knew when this vine had first grown or how long it had existed, but the mottled marks on its surface told Ian that this was definitely an ancient plant with a long history.
At the very least, aside from this sky island, Ian had never heard of anything like it anywhere else...
After circling the vine and observing it for a while, Ian summoned another Black Dragon to devour it, then spread his Flame Wings and flew upward along the vine.
Nowadays, as Ian's Psychic Power continued to grow, the flight time of his Black Dragon Wave was also getting longer. He could now maintain this flying state for up to half an hour, which should be enough to reach the top of the vine.
However, when he ascended to about the middle part of the vine, he suddenly noticed many "things" drifting down from above!
Ian stopped and looked, only to find that they were actually leaves!
These leaves were, of course, not ordinary ones. Each leaf was as large as a basketball court, and what surprised Ian even more was that there were actually people under these giant green leaves!
Ian could see that these people had rolled up the vine leaves from both ends, holding the ends tightly, using the leaves as parachutes as they floated gently down from the clouds above.
Most of these people holding the leaves as parachutes were sky islanders, while some were humans. They were all dressed in tattered clothes, covered in wounds and bruises, but they gritted their teeth and held on, not daring to let go of the leaves as they drifted downward.
Ian immediately understood—these people were likely the escaped slaves who had been forced to build Enel's ark.
It seemed that Enel was indeed about to launch the ark...
As Ian saw these people, they naturally spotted him flying in the air. They stared dumbly at him, watching the blazing black Flame Wings behind his back.
Suddenly, someone had a flash of inspiration and recalled the saying that had once spread across the island, exclaiming in shock, "Black wings! Enemy of the gods! He... he is the natural enemy of the gods!"
It was somewhat ironic. Normally, a "god" should be the object of people's reverence. Ian's black wings gave the impression of a demon instead. But the problem was that in this world, the so-called "gods" never seemed to do good deeds—Enel was like that, and so were the Celestial Dragons. As a result, people, upon seeing Ian's wings, actually regarded him as a savior.
When someone shouted those words, others who knew the legend suddenly remembered as well. They burst into tears and called out to Ian, "Please! Enemy of the gods, please save us! Enel is about to launch the ark! He's going to destroy this island!"
To be honest, the sky islanders actually knew about Enel's origins. After all, Enel was an outsider. Although he was also a sky islander, the wings of his four chief priests were clearly different from those of the Angel Island residents. Since he had overthrown Gan Fall and become the ruler here, people had naturally tried to find out where he came from.
And Enel had come to Angel Island only after destroying his birthplace, the sky island of Birka. When people discovered this, they felt nothing but a chill.
A man who could destroy even his own homeland—no one doubted that he would mercilessly destroy Angel Island as well...
Especially these escaped slaves, who had interacted with Enel more often and understood this all too well.
No one wanted to die, and no one wanted their homeland destroyed. So, even though the so-called "enemy of the gods" claim had never been proven, they couldn't help but beg Ian for help when they saw him.
Ian floated in midair, watching one haggard slave after another pass before him, each one shouting and pleading with him.
Faced with this scene, Ian didn't know what to say. The temperature of his Flame Wings suddenly surged, the flames burning even more fiercely. Then, with a flap of his wings, he accelerated again and flew upward toward the top of the vine.
The pleading people watched his figure disappear into the distance. Although Ian hadn't spoken a word, seeing the direction he was heading, they immediately understood what he intended to do, and hope suddenly welled up in their hearts.
They now only wanted to land quickly and rush back to Angel Island as fast as they could, to tell their families and their fellow countrymen everything that had happened here...
Just as Ian was nearing the top of the vine, a massive tremor suddenly came. The clouds above began to shake, and the vine itself trembled slightly.
Ian knew that this was the signal that the Ark Maxim had started. So, he plunged headfirst into the clouds.
After passing through the clouds, Ian saw Enel's palace, and behind it, a huge golden ship had already started moving!
This ship was the Ark Maxim that Enel had built. At that moment, the propellers on both sides and at the rear of the ark were spinning continuously. However, since the ship had only just been completed and hadn't undergone any testing, it was still embedded in the ground, so even though the propellers were turning, the ship hadn't lifted off yet.
But at the top of the ark, a chimney was beginning to spew black clouds into the sky as the ship started up.
Ian could sense that within those black clouds, something familiar was being generated—the power of lightning. These black clouds were the thunderclouds produced by the ark.
Watching more and more of these black clouds surge into the sky, turning the sky above the island dark and gloomy, Ian frowned and was about to rush over to see if he could destroy the ark.
However, when he reached the front of the ark, a flash of lightning appeared, and half of Enel's body emerged from the face on the front of the ship.
Since the ark's cabin was made of gold, which was an excellent conductor, Enel had turned into lightning and hidden within the gold, allowing him to speak to Ian in this form.
"You're here! But the ark has already started. You can't stop me!" he said. "I know you can fly, but how long can you keep flying?"
"What do you mean?" Ian raised an eyebrow and asked.
"I'm very curious—if you lose your foothold, can you fly back down to the Blue Sea from this height?" Enel said arrogantly. "And even if you can do that, what about your companions? I know you didn't come to this sky island alone!"
Ian naturally knew that when they entered the Gate of Heaven on the sky island, the old sky islander woman had already informed Enel of everyone's information. It wasn't surprising that Enel knew Ian had companions.
So Ian immediately replied, "No problem! As long as I kill you and destroy this ark, everything will be fine, won't it?"
"You can't do it. I'll do my best to stop you!" Enel said. "And if I delay you long enough, you'll know what it means to defy a god!"
"Enough talk!" Ian suddenly raised his right arm and clenched his fist. A black dragon pattern immediately coiled up his arm. Then, Ian extended his right hand and fired a Black Dragon Wave directly at Enel's Ark Maxim.
Ian thought clearly: The Ark Maxim seemed to be able to channel Enel's energy, meaning the ship could convert electricity into power. Naturally, he couldn't use lightning against this ship.
Since most of the ship's hull was made of gold, fire was its weakness. The high temperature of the Black Dragon Wave would be enough to melt it into a pool of gold liquid.
However, what Ian didn't expect was that as his Black Dragon Wave soared toward the ark, Enel also struck his thunder drums behind his back.
"Sixty Million Volts! Thunder Dragon!"
Facing Ian's Black Dragon Wave, Enel responded with the same technique. A white dragon and a black dragon, both writhing wildly, collided in midair!
With a crackling sound, the Thunder Dragon turned into flickering lightning, and likewise, Ian's Black Dragon Wave turned into fragments of black flame, disappearing into the air.
"Oh?" Seeing this, Ian was slightly surprised.
"Hmph! Although it's fire, your Black Dragon is still just a mass of energy!" Enel laughed loudly. "And I can simply cancel it out with an equal amount of energy!"