Author's Notes: Beware of Enel's general monstrosity in the last part of the chapter (mentions of past rape, blood, cannibalism, gore, Daemons in general – look y'all, even I felt queasy writing it, so you know it's bad), along with some major spoilers for recent chapters of the manga, and some criticism of Zeff (and the opinions that he's passed along to Sanji).

I've said it before, and I'm saying it again: Sanji's getting the metaphorical boot to the ass, because the way he acts towards women in canon is not something I have the patience to deal with. And he is an infinitely more likable character when that aspect of him is toned down!

Look, guys, I'm just not a fan of canon Sanji and with a lot of ways Oda characterizes him. I don't like sexism, transphobia, and sexual harassment as comedy, and this story will reflect that.

Chapter Thirty-One:

On the Precipice of Greatness

It felt like the wind.

The lightning – though it was more like hellfire than lightning at this point, twisted into an unrecognizable weapon by an equally twisted Enel – simply dispersed as it slammed into her back, her own magic taking it and rendering it to harmless light.

She could feel Conis beneath her, shielded from the insane monster's fury. Su was there as well, dragged under the protection offered by Kelly's magic.

When the light and the roaring died away, Kelly stood and faced Enel.

She could see it now, the sheer corruption that threaded through his very being. He was well on his way to becoming a Daemon in fact as well as intent. If she concentrated, she could see a pit of electric yellow in his chest, almost completely covered with the foul corruption.

"Erin!" she barked, not taking her eyes off the man in front of her. "Take Jyana and help the Shandians in the forest. They'll need you, if the Daemons are hunting. Kill them and the Priests, if you can. I'll come help as quick as possible."

There was a shout of confirmation from the woman flying above her head, followed by another blinding crack of light, and Erin and her falcon were gone.

"So," Kelly said, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Interesting little scheme you've got going on here, I must admit. Too bad Erin's not going to be your little renewable foodsource anymore."

Enel snarled, and Kelly laughed. The pieces were slowly clicking together in her mind, pieces she didn't even know she had had. She had wondered why Enel had kept Erin alive at first, but then Kelly had seen the old bite wounds and bruises.

The Daemons had eaten the Magi of the other islands after using Enel and his twisted powers as a springboard to breach those islands' wards, no doubt. But Enel had been stupid – he'd let them gorge themselves, not knowing that a Daemon's hunger was endless and could never be satiated. If he'd restrained them – but he hadn't. He hadn't, and he had only the familial 'bond' of his blood to keep the Daemons from turning on him, not even a Contract.

He'd had to find something that would appease them. The things had killed Conis's mother before he could take her, no doubt crazed by hunger, and it was unlikely the woman could have survived what Erin had.

Enel must have thanked all the gods when Erin had come to the islands, because in her there was a food source that could keep Daemons loyal to him as he conquered the sky.

But, why? Why in the hell had he done all of this?

His power was immense, and his Logia fruit made him one of the strongest non-Magi humans Kelly had met so far. He could have gotten his plans moved along without the help of monsters. And yet he had willingly consigned himself to working with Daemons, those who raped his mother, and all for what?

More power? Surely not. There were much easier, and less 'deal-with-the-devil'-esque ways of getting power in this world than by consorting with Daemons.

Why had he done this?

Kelly didn't want to think of the islands this maniac had left in ruin behind him, the lives that had been lost, for whatever reason.

In canon, this man had been a delusional – but very smart – narcissistic monster with dreams of going to the moon.

How in the hell had that intelligent, remorseless villain – who Kelly had actually admired, in a twisted way – become this mockery of a human?

Enel pulled himself up, and stared at her.

And she got it, as she looked into his wild, strangely desperate eyes.

Oh, he hadn't gone to the Daemons willingly. Or maybe he had, with an idea that he could control these monsters, that he was smart enough and better enough to do so. She could see even canon-Enel falling into that trap, much less a corrupted child born of rape.

He had found himself saddled with those who could kill him, those who would kill him unless he proved himself worthy. He'd found himself trapped, if Kelly was reading him right.

So he'd ventured out, on his little conquering expedition, and he'd succeeded, only to get more than he ever wished for. More than he could control. He'd had that fear in his heart all along, something that canon Enel hadn't – what if the Daemons turned on him? The Daemons he consorted with would be stronger

But the Ark she remembered from canon – if it was real as well, it was a way for him to get out. A Plan B, so to speak.

It still might be. Most of the Daemons here had died, but what about the others? Kelly had killed high-ranking Daemons when she'd turned the pillars on, and no doubt many more as the skies were rid of their filth.

And with Enel still alive, the onus of so many deaths would fall squarely on his shoulders.

She didn't know how such things happened among Daemons, but the punishment Enel would receive for this could not possibly be pleasant.

"You will die, for I am God-" he began, but Kelly laughed, low and derisive and cutting.

"God? Don't make me laugh. You're just a pathetic little boy trying to run from the stupid mistakes he's made," she said, and lightning curled bright and vicious in Enel's hand.

It shot out, black-red and foul, and Kelly lifted a hand as it neared her face-

-and batted it aside.

It struck the ground yards away, the heat turning the ground to tortured glass.

Enel looked-he looked terrified now, though he was making a concerted effort to keep his composure. She wondered how many humans and Magi alike had fallen before him.

Many, she thought.

But she would not be one of them.

"I'd suggest running now," Kelly said, mild.

She could kill him. She could reach out her magic and strangle him into a corpse, drive out every ounce of corruption until all that was left was ash.

But that wouldn't be the point.

Luffy had to do it. She wanted to see Enel get his ass kicked by a human, by someone without the power Kelly had at her beck and call. She wanted to see Enel get his ass handed to him by someone he considered lesser, someone he didn't fear.

That wasn't her.

…Pity.

There was another crack of lightning, and Enel was gone.

Kelly closed her eyes and spread her magic out far and wide for Erin, finding her easily. She was in the middle of a group of rapidly dying blots of corruption – the few Highborn who had survived the assault from the pillars, and the Priests, who were just as foul as Conis had said.

Well, Kelly had used more general terms for the magic she'd woven into the pillars. Enel had survived, after all, and those who were capable of taking human-shape may have been able to slip under the spell's notice.

I have got to learn to be more specific, she thought with a sigh. A pained moan from behind her brought her out of her thoughts in a flash, and Kelly knelt by Conis's side.

Very carefully, she pulled the other Magus into her arms. Her magic flowed from her into the injured girl, easing the agony of her burns and broken ribs. Conis's fingers clutched at Kelly's shirt, but the girl's eyes were all for the Shandian warrior kneeling behind the metal net. And his would not leave her.

Kelly snuck a quick look at Zoro and Ohm going at each other – with Gin battling that oversized dog – and whispered a prayer of magic and strength to make Zoro's swords harder than steel, a prayer she remembered from the words written on Gan Fall's lance.

(Where the hell was Gan Fall, anyway? Was he with Luffy, in the thrashing form of the snake?)

She shook that thought away, and turned her attention back to Conis and Wiper. As gently as she could, she picked Conis up, and brought her closer to Wiper.

Conis's shaking, burned fingers tangled with Wiper's bloody, bruised ones with a surprising strength.

There's a history here, Kelly thought with no little surprise. She looked at Wiper's face and saw a sort of a well-hidden helpless fondness. Conis's puttering magic was reaching out, ignoring even her own wounds in its attempt to heal the man.

"Oi, Shandian, lean here," Kelly said, fighting not to be amused.

"Why?" Wiper asked, his eyes not leaving Conis.

"Because Conis's magic is going to you to heal you, and she needs it to heal herself. Lean here so I can heal you myself, yeah?"

Conis flushed, still struggling to do more beyond lean against Kelly's side.

Wiper did so, and Kelly sent the magic coursing through him, making him gasp and grit his teeth. But his wounds healed, and Conis's magic was able to get back to healing Conis.

"You always were such a fool," Wiper whispered, his voice aggrieved.

"I just wanted to…" Conis rubbed her eyes wearily. "I just…for once in my life, Wiper. I wanted to do something right. Something that would-that would make you feel proud of me. Something that showed that I wasn't-that I wasn't…that I was worthy of y-"

She cut herself off, and Wiper's gaze was scarily intense.

Kelly was starting to feel rather like she was intruding on something. My, this is quite awkward.

Then, she felt Enel's presence – pitch black, human but not – moving closer to Erin and the Shandians.

Shit.

"Time to move, Conis," Kelly ordered. "Can you stand?"

"Y-Yes, what's going on-"

"Enel's heading for Erin and what's left of the Shandian warriors. Also-oh fucking hell, are you shitting me?!"

She was seeing through Shere Khan's eyes, and saw the rest of the Straw Hats with the Shandians and Erin, fighting for their lives as lightning rained down on them along with the laughter of the twisted Highborn.

"How in the fuck did they get there?" Kelly groaned. They should have been with the ship for fuck's sake, or most of them in the Snake's gullet like Luffy probably was, not there-

Nami was there, fighting alongside Robin with lightning crackling down her hands and staff, with Chopper and Usopp and Sanji, who was white as paper with his fear. The remaining Priests cantered around them, twisted and broken caricatures of humanity.

Hopefully Luffy was still trapped with the gigantic snake. Hopefully.

If nothing else had gone so spectacularly off the rails like the rest of this whole situation had.

Canon obviously meant nothing right now, and Enel was out for blood.

Fuck.

"On my back, my girl," Kelly ordered, slinging the smaller Magus up.

Conis squeaked, and clung to her neck.

"Wait-!" Kelly ignored Wiper's shout as she pulled Magic up and through her body. She couldn't do what Erin had done (and didn't want to even attempt it until she knew full well she wouldn't do something like splinch herself) but she could go pretty damn fast. "Wait, damn you-"

"You want me to save your fellow warriors from an agonizing death and having their corpses eaten, you better shut the fuck up and let me work," Kelly snapped, more focused on the magic in her than anything else.

Wiper ground his teeth. "Conis."

Conis looked at him.

"Come back to me."

Kelly saved Conis the burden of answering by unleashing the magic like a spring, dropping into the fastest Soru she'd ever entered in her life.

The world blurred into a furious riot of colors as Kelly followed the trail of magic to her Familiar.

Of fucking course they had to be here, Sanji thought, staring up at the Daemons as they danced around them, monsters that might have once been beautiful women, distended and warped. The Priests were still barely – just barely – human, but all the more terrifying for their mutations.

His fingers shook with terror and sweat trickled down his spine.

Nami's back was pressed up against his, her shoulders threaded with tension like iron. Robin was at his right, and Chopper on his left with Usopp. Shere Khan snarled as she prowled in front of him.

The guerillas they had run into after being forced to escape the Merry had their own group, one that was steadily decreasing as the remaining Daemons picked them off. They didn't have a viciously protective tiger that was capable of rending the thick flesh of the Daemons with ease, after all, though they were putting up one hell of a fight.

One Daemon, white-skinned with double-jointed limbs and legs, cackled as it tried to draw close to him.

Shere Khan snarled at the golden-eyed monster, planting herself between him and it and growing twice as large as she had been before. Sanji focused more on her than on the thing that looked at him like-like that thing back in Arabasta had done. It helped with the terror.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, oh god no-

A Daemon chittered as it dragged a guerilla away, consuming the man's flesh while he was still alive. Sanji would hear the man's screams in his dreams.

If he lived that long.

Shit, shit, shit, shit-

"Little boy, you would taste so good-" The white-skinned, heavy-breasted Daemon's crooning was cut off as wind shook the trees, a hurricane force gale blasting through the clearing.

But the wind barely touched them, or the guerillas. It went for the Daemons, and they screamed-

"Jyana!" a female voice called, and a falcon burst into view, wingspan well over six feet. It shrieked in vicious glee, before swooping down and plucking free a female guerilla who had been fighting to escape its claws.

The falcon tossed the woman back into the other guerillas, before it went for the Daemon's eyes.

"Erin?!" one of the guerillas cried out.

"Jyana! Shere Khan! KILL THEM!" The same thundering female voice as before sang out, and Sanji turned his head as both falcon and tiger leapt to obey.

A woman was descending from the sky, glowing with ethereal power. Her wings were far larger than the falcon's, a bright and glorious white – like an angel, he thought dazedly – and her eyes blazed.

The Daemons let out a cacophony of noises – screams of anguish and rage and hunger – and leapt at her. But the woman was ready-

"By the blood, I call thee! Vaayu Saamraagyee, my mother of mothers, grant me strength, grant me power! Et cantant venti!"

Tornadoes burst free of the woman's brown hands, and she met the onrushing Daemons headfirst, glowing so fiercely it hurt to look directly at her.

Sanji barely even realized that the falcon – Jyana, had the angel called her? – had herded the guerillas towards them and remained there with Shere Khan, guarding them all as the angel slaughtered the monsters.

Power danced and flared. Sanji watched as the woman carved blood and gore into the air with her dance.

Zeff had told him women were weaker – his entire life had been based on the fact that women were to be protected, that women were not to get their hands dirty with fighting – and he had believed it. Women were not to be touched. Women must be protected, always.

And now this woman was protecting him. Nami was at his back and Robin-san was at his side, and there were female guerillas among them as well, using their spears with fierce rage in their eyes, while he cowered.

Was I wrong? Was Zeff wrong about this? Was he been wrong about everything?

The Daemon lunged towards a guerilla who had fallen trying to avoid the attacks. It made a chittering noise like the thing in Arabasta had, still grotesquely female, still laughing in a mockery of a female voice.

Men aren't meant to hurt women! That's how it's always been.

And yet-

We don't have women on this ship, because they can't handle it.

Sanji felt something tremble in his soul.

There was a flash of memory before his eyes. A woman, reclining in bed, her face and eyes so old, so tired-

…"We were guardians, you know? Guardians of those who could not protect themselves from the evil in the world. Men, women, children – we sheltered them all in Her name, and fought to protect them, against all manner of enemies. Evil comes in many forms, and it was our job – my job – to give them all shelter."

"Even men?"

"Of course. Just because a man is a man, does not mean that he is infallible. It does not mean that he does not deserve someone to protect him. Women and men can be strong and need of protection in equal measure…"

-and something sang through his bones.

Nami's back was like the mast of a ship against his back. It steadied him.

The words came with ease, as something like lightning exploded through him.

Or rather…something like fire.

"Diable-" he caught the edge of the wind and spun with it, "-Jambe!"

His foot crashed into the Daemon's face (something cracked painfully in his leg as it connected, but he didn't care), and it was permitted a single shriek of agony before the momentum carried it back, into the trees, eaten alive with fire.

He landed on the ball of his foot, fire still curling up his leg. It didn't hurt him.

Shere Khan had dragged the guerilla back into the safety of their circle. Hands pulled Sanji back as well – Nami, and Usopp. Robin snapped the neck of a Daemon who'd been going after Chopper, tearing it apart with brutal efficiency.

The Daemons screamed their rage, and the fire inside him flickered in terror.

-…"Being brave does not mean an absence of fear. One is brave in spite of the fear, my son."…-

His leg ached horribly, but Sanji curled his hands into fists, and braced his feet, readying them to move even through the pain.

Lightning crashed down, and it was only the falcon's scream that got them out of the way in time.

A guerilla had not been so quick to move, and screamed as the Daemons had, eaten up in a blink by the black lightning. And Enel was there, as he had been when he'd chased them from the ship with his Daemons.

But black lines twisted up the man's arms, and the man's expression was foul, inhuman. Cracks showed a moving, twisting foulness behind Enel's skin, a putrescent wound that Enel seemed to glory in.

Something in Sanji's chest contorted in disgust at the sight of the-the abomination, and then the fire in his legs began to shrink as the Daemons and Priests rallied at the sight of the man.

The angel howled her grief, an enraged shriek echoed by the other Shandians: "Braham! No!" - the name of the Shandian who had been burnt to ash? – and lunged at Enel like a burning white comet, the man spinning to meet her in a shockwave of power.

The Daemons crouched and cantered, tongues drooling, wounds seeping black ichor.

No, Sanji thought, desperate. Exhaustion ate at his lungs, his bones. Robin was whispering beside him, words in a language he thought he should understand but didn't, a prayer. Usopp was crying silently.

Then, the world roared.

…No, it was a voice that made the world shake under its fury, heralded by power that made even the angel's entrance and the wave of power before that look paltry. It smashed through the air without pause or faltering, and the Daemons screamed like animals before the butcher's block.

And then there was Ciel, dropping from the sky like the angry fist of god, his scales blazing with blinding light. He slammed into the nearest Daemon and tore it to shreds. Blood splattered the ground.

A blonde girl dressed like a guerilla hurried over to the others, but Sanji only had eyes for Ciel. The Snakeman was a hurricane given form as he danced death through the Daemons and Priests.

It was over in moments, and then Ciel stood in the wreckage and gore, covered in blood, his eyes a little bit mad, and a little bit inhuman. But it didn't scare Sanji. Instead, something prickled down his spine as Ciel panted, his scales chips of fierce light.

Then Ciel threw back his head, and howled a challenge. The beads around his neck blazed in the sunlight that bathed the clearing for one breathless moment.

"ENEL!"

The roar went on and on, and Enel faltered. The lightning died away. There was true horror, true terror on the man's face now, and it made him look slightly more human.

But then the angel was swooping low, murder on her feathered face, and music was filling the air. "Cantáte, O lucem mundans!"

Light that was dark, and held the essence of all colors burst forward, endlessly dark and yet endlessly comforting, and it arrowed towards Enel with deadly, all-encompassing intent.

But then lightning smashed out, halting the attack for a second. There was a vicious cracking noise, the stench of scorched flesh and air, and when Sanji's vision cleared, he could see that Enel had vanished.

"Damn," Ciel hissed. "Do you know where he went, Erin?"

The angel, panting a little and looking no less infuriated than Ciel did, shook her head.

"Fucking damn it all-"

"E-Erin?" That voice came from one of the female guerillas, a beautiful woman with long black hair, singed and scorched with lightning, her skin marked by various wounds.

The angel turned to the speaker, and her lovely brown eyes widened with shock and wonder.

"Laki…oh, Laki," she whispered reverently, and the female guerilla rushed to her, catching the angel up in her arms. They were joined by a male guerrilla – one that was smaller, lankier than the others, wearing glasses – who wrapped his arms around the angel as well, burying his face into her hair.

Most of the surviving guerillas had focused around the three, whispering and laughing with shocked relief, while the rest had gone to cluster around the blonde lady who'd come with Ciel.

Ciel sighed, and that raging fury seemed to die down as he approached them. He still gleamed with health and vitality, the scales on his muscles – Sanji had never seen Ciel without his jacket, and couldn't look away – still shining.

"To the best of my knowledge, Zoro and Luffy are fine. Zoro is fighting the last of Enel's Priests, and Gin's with him. Luffy, I believe, is currently stuck in the body of that oversized snake around the Giant Jack," he said, folding his arms over his chest.

Sanji, realizing that he was watching the muscles straining in Ciel's arms a little too closely, flushed and turned away. His leg ached horribly, and he gritted his teeth.

Shere Khan braced against his good leg, and made a faint little mrr noise, encouraging him to lean more of his weight on her.

"I think Aisa is in there as well," Nami said, her mouth a thin line.

"Aisa?"

"My little sister? Something happened to her?" This from the black-haired guerilla, with her arms still firmly wrapped around the angel's – Erin, was she called? – shoulders.

"Shere Khan and I tried to lead them away from Aisa and Luffy, but that snake was there and-" Nami cut herself off, shook her head. "At least the Daemons didn't even try going near it but…"

Ciel held up a hand as the female guerilla's – Laki, Erin-san had called her – face paled.

"Luffy may be a dumbass, but he'll keep the kid safe, no matter what," he said, interrupting whatever the woman had been about to say. "And you know it'd take more than getting swallowed by a snake to slow him down."

Nami breathed in. "You're right."

"The Daemons and Priests are dead – or most all should be, if Zoro hasn't taken care of Ohm yet. We need to get the Giant Jack, now. Erin, Conis, are you capable?"

Both women looked at each, and back at Ciel. They nodded as one.

"The Giant Jack? Ciel, why do we have to go there?" Usopp asked, sounding exhausted. He and Chopper were leaning heavily against Jyana, the immense falcon watching them all with careful eyes.

"Enel is a threat," Jyana said then, and Sanji's head snapped around in shock.

A clear, female voice had come from the falcon, as clear as her Mistress's.

What the shit?

The Straw Hats all startled as he did, Usopp and Chopper all but leaping away from the bird, while Robin's eyes widened and Nami took a step back. The guerillas, the blonde woman, and Erin didn't seem surprised, though, and neither did Ciel.

"Enel is a threat, and must be removed. He mentioned once to my Lady that he had safeguards that would allow him to go to the Moon, if all fell apart. A ship," the falcon said gravely, and unease prickled through the group.

"An Ark," Erin said, and her breath shuddered. "Yes, I remember, vaguely. He kept it underground, somewhere near the Jack, I do believe, though I could be wrong. He rambled about going to the Moon a fair bit."

Erin and Ciel looked at each other, a thousand words in a single glance.

"If he gets to that thing and gets in the sky, he'll burn Skypiea to the ground behind him to hide his tracks," Ciel said grimly. "Erin, let's get these people moving."

Erin nodded, and pulled the blonde woman to her, after stepping reluctantly out of the arms of the two guerillas.

"Nami, and the rest of you, obey Erin and Conis, you understand?" Ciel's voice was hard, like steel.

"We're going to Luffy?" Nami asked.

"Hopefully he's there. Zoro, at the very least, should be, and if Luffy's not, Zoro's the best one for finding him."

(Which was true. The idiot swordsman, as bad with directions as he was, seemed to have an inner compass that allowed him to find Luffy at all times.)

"Is there anything we should…know, before we do so?" Robin asked, and her eyes were sharp on Ciel's face.

A minute tremor went through Ciel's broad, muscled shoulders, but he shook his head and looked her in the eye. Sanji wondered if anyone else had even seen it, a gesture of fear so small in a man that rarely gave way to such things unless he couldn't help it.

"Erin and Conis are trained Magi. They'll make sure aught is safe for you all, even for you Devil Fruit users," he said.

Sanji froze in shock, barely daring to breathe.

Even the pain in his leg seemed far away in that moment.

"Magi?" Nami asked, sounding curious.

"Magic-workers," Ciel said calmly. "They'll see us to the Giant Jack in a hurry."

-…"What is that?" he asks, feeling curious and young, looking at the pile of feathers and scales in a bloody heap on the floor. Another opponent

His father smiles, very cruelly, and yet somehow gently for him. He's done well in his exercises these last days, and so his father tolerates him.

"Garbage. I think this one escaped. Guard! Have the trash removed."

The pile moans and writhes, and Sanji watches as a single blue eye appears in the midst of the feathers, to glare up at his father with utter hate.

"Bastard," it hisses. "You'll pay for wh-what you've done to her." Then it slumps, and goes still and is carried away by the guards.

Vinsmoke Judge laughs. "Magi," he says, the word a derisive mockery. "No better than animals, really. Remember that, my son. You are better than they are. You are above them."…-

Sanji trembled, his palms clammy.

It wasn't supposed to have ended like this.

He was God, he was a King, he was a Conqueror-

He remembered walking into the shadows, dripping blood. He remembered the screams and pleading of those he bound in chains. He remembered looking into the shadows and having them look back.

Enel drug his hands down his face, trying to still the fierce laughter that bubbled up as the ants around him worked frantically to get the Ark into the air.

We can make you a King, they had said, before dragging the first of the Magi he'd brought to them into the shadows.

Enel had heard the agonized screams. He'd gloried in them.

Bathe in their blood, child.

Pale hands had stroked his face and arms, smearing blood there.

Drink it. Feel the power you could but claim for your own.

Oh, and he had. He had.

He'd kicked one whore in the face as she clutched at his leg, pleading for mercy. He'd watched as the thing behind her had rutted into her, and then bit huge chunks of flesh from her still twitching body.

He preferred just the blood, himself. It was warm, and tasted finer than any wine.

He carved swathes into the sky for them, as they had carved their claws into his body, making his lightning infallible to the curses of the Magi. He brought his sisters and brothers meat and food, and they had praised him.

Enel shook, seated on his throne. He did not even notice one ant fleeing from the caverns, so deep in his own memories he was.

He had corrupted others – but they were pitiful imitations. They'd fallen like all the rest.

He would not fall with them.

The whore who'd spawned him had told him stories, when he had been too young and when she hadn't been seized with her shrieking hate and despair. She'd told him of the moon and her people.

(Her wings were shredded and broken stumps, from what Enel's father had done, she'd hissed.)

Abomination, she'd told him. My kin would have killed you, and saved me. I know they would have.

"But I killed you first," he whispered, his words so quiet they were lost as soon as they left him.

He'd remembered, though. He'd remembered and would go there.

There would be no place else to hide from the Rakta, now that one of the illegitimate daughters of Rudyai-raā was dead because of him.

Because of the whore, he thought, and because of that Magi.

Green-blue scales, and power that could shake the world. He wanted Enel to tremble.

(And he had.)

The Ark began to move.

He would have gold to last him – beautiful gold, beautiful like the eyes of his sister, who had laughed as he had brought the brown-skinned Magi to her and said savor the meal – and he would have the moon.

A throne on the moon, Enel thought, and called the ants to him. They clustered in lines before him, reeking and sweat-soaked, trembling. Then there was lightning, and screams, and ash.

The few remaining ants scattered, but Enel brought them down and dragged them to him.

Distasteful as it was, with ants and not Magi, he needed his strength, if he wanted to make sure that Skypiea would hold no hint of where he'd gone.

Because it would not end like this. He would not let it.

He was God, and his will unquestioned-

"You're just a pathetic little boy, trying to run from the stupid mistakes he's made."

He bent his head to the screaming ant's neck, and feasted.

FOOTNOTES AND TRANSLATIONS

Et cantant venti – Sermo; spell: Translated, means something like "they sung with the wind".

Cantáte, O lucem mundans – Sermo; spell: Translated, means something like 'Sing, oh cleansing light'. High-level spell, used to purify those corrupted irrevocably by Daemons.

-raā – Tējavī; title: Means "queen" when translated into the Common Tongue. Used primarily for upper mid-to-high ranking Daemons. Used when speaking of the Queen of the Daemons.