One Piece: Reborn as Enel

Chapter 287: Marine Situation, Awakening and New Threat

_________ POV Narration _________ 

The instant that the Elders vanished from their respective battlefields, the entire situation changed.

Big Mom, Francisco and Dragon immediately took to the skies, Mihawk and Zoro followed them swiftly, and they all noticed the Elders in the distance.

The 5 of them quickly started making their way there. Meanwhile, Kong was left alone with the marines. 

Garp and Sengoku immediately pounced on their old comrade like bloodthirsty war hounds. 

A powerful Galaxy Impact and a bone-cracking Palm Shockwave crumpled the Yeti Fruit User in seconds, forcing him to kneel on one knee, with both of his arms broken.

Both of his legs were also immediately swallowed up by magma, and his back was riddled with burns from the constant bombardment of Kizaru's light beams. 

He tried to get up regardless of all of that, but the very air around him became heavier, as Fujitora suppressed him, forcing his already weakened body further into the ground. 

Kong was sure he would die that very moment when Zephyr appeared in front of him with his fist cocked back. 

He closed his eyes, only for that last punch to never come.

When opening his eyes, his entire vision was covered by... Greenery and wood, branches, grasping at every single enemy on the battlefield all at once.

"I... I don't understand what is happening... But I won't allow you all to hurt Mr. Kong any further." 

A voice sounded out, as a gigantic tree sprouted from the ground and the figure of a man stepped out.

His entire body seemed to be made out of wood, with his hair made out of leaves.

Akainu and Sengkou immediately recognized him.

"Aramaki..." The Magma Fleet Admiral muttered. his fist filling with magma as his face twisted into a scowl.

In an instant, Fujitora and Kizaru both slashed at the Wooden current Fleet Admiral, both strikes were blocked instantly by wooden tendrils coming out of the ground, pushing the two back as Aramaki looked at all of them with a complex gaze.

"Tsk! What the hell is with this toughness, it's just wood for god's sake!" Zephyr struggled needlessly, but he couldn't even shake the restraints constricting around his every joint. 

Garp's heavy blows seemed to be able to crack them, but Akainu was still the first one to break out, his magma didn't seem to burn the wood for some reason, but his logia allowed him to walk out of them.

It was the same for Kizaru, who had been caught further up in the skies. He managed to reform beside Akainu, looking at Aramaki with a scowl as well. 

The Wood Fruit user's entire body seemed to be different for some reason. A strong dark bark seemed to cover it entirely, with only one spot open in the chest.

A red core was visible there, it seemed to emit a heat that made everyone around them uncomfortable. It was manageable for all of them, but they hadn't known that Aramaki had any such abilities.

"Mr Kong! It seems you were right! I could only awaken my devil fruit in great peril... Being hit by that earlier attack, that large explosion seems to have done the trick." Aramaki smiled, his wooden face shifting and cracking slightly to accommodate his change of expression.

Earlier on, Kong had grabbed and flung his unconscious form away, to avoid him getting killed in the fight near the walls.

It just so happened that he had been thrown right in the range of the world's biggest Hydrogen Bomb.

The raging flames that consumed his unconscious body acted like a kind of... Baptism? The fire kindled a spark that had been dormant within him all along, and now?

"I feel... Strong. Stronger than ever!" Aramaki, at that point, was well and truly drunk with power. He hadn't even noticed that Kong was already unconscious due to his numerous wounds. 

His delusional gaze eventually landed on the man he respected the most, the red costume-wearing former Fleet Admiral... Akainu. 

"Sir Akainu... I do not know what happened to you, or under what brainwashing you have been put under, but rest assured...

I will follow your doctrine of absolute justice and slay you, and all of the other traitors of the marines for colluding with this band of unlawful scum!" 

Aramaki's branches seemed to become sharp at that point, all heading towards the Marines.

Garp and Sengoku immediately acted, breaking Zephyr and Fujitora out of their binds and creating shockwaves big enough to push all of the branches back. 

Sengoku especially frowned, both at the viciousness of Aramaki's attacks and at the bite of his words.

'It really does remind me of Akainu back in the day... I guess Aramaki had idolized 'that' side of him, huh?' 

Akainu himself felt ashamed for a moment, now fully knowing how his absolute justice affected the marines under him both in ideology and blind faith. 

'Even when faced with all of the facts, his version of my 'Absolute Justice' allows him to blindly follow all orders of the World Government, believing them to be the only justice out there...' 

But the more concerning fact was Aramaki's sudden increase in strength. Akaniu and Aokiji were both awakened logia devil fruit users, but they were not that strong despite wielding very powerful elements. 

There was really only one explanation for that... And it was one that they had anticipated slightly, but hoped wouldn't materialize. 

"Great... So he was the so-called 'God of Hearth'." Sengoku scowled, recognizing Aramaki's ability to resemble the stories and reports found within Poneglyphs.

They lacked any actual description of the elusive third god's strength. But they knew the nature of his power.

Aramaki had already been a feature on their list of suspects, people they believed could end up being the God of Hearth, or the God of the Forests and Earth, but they had no way of confirming it. 

"He has only just awakened... If we combine our forces then we can take him down." Akainu's fist turned into magma and grew exponentially, his intentions clear... Ending the threat before it became bigger.

"Shit... We'll deal with this quickly and go after the elders then! We can't afford to waste time, let's go!" Garp immediately jumped in towards the newly awakened god, his fist tearing the very space between the two of them as he unleashed yet another 'Galaxy Impact!' 

Aramaki's body was immediately covered by a shield of intertwined vines, which worked to absorb most of the impact, before unfolding and whipping towards the Marine Hero. 

Garp's eyes widened before he grit his teeth and punched again.

The whip vines didn't get to reach him, intercepted by beams of light and a few dozen Rankyaku. sent by Sengoku and Zephyr respectively. 

From one side a gigantic fist of Magma also ate away at the barricades that Aramaki had built up, or at least covered them and obstructed Aramaki's vision momentarily as Magma also engulfed him. 

Above, dropping from a piece of floating rock was Sengoku, who pressed down a gigantic palm shock onto Aramaki's head.

In an instant, all of the Magma covering him was blown away, and Aramaki seemed to fold like a broken accordion, failing to put up other defences before Garp's other punch finally reached him as well.

In an instant, he was sent flying, blood coming out of his mouth and spurting out of his nose as he tumbled about. Following him were countless lasers which cut into his body and exploded, sending burnt wood flying everywhere. 

"Gravito!" 

Whilst the 5 of them suppressed Aramaki, Fujitora also acted, sheathing his blade and taking on a draw stance as purple rings of energy seemed to surround him and float towards the skies, nay the stars.

In an instant, he pulled down the smallest meteor he could find and directed its trajectory to Aramaki's still recovering form.

The Wooden God immediately sprouted a gigantic tree out of his broken body, the tree's branches stretched upwards like a crown of thorns, catching that flaming meteor whilst earthquakes shook the ground due to the expansion of its roots.

The meteor itself seemed to send tremors through the great tree but was otherwise unable to burn or bring it down.

The most annoying fact was that an uninjured Aramaki stepped out of that gigantic tree, looking very much the same as at the beginning of the fight.

"Shit!" Garp muttered, immediately rushing forward again, this time not going for a shockwave, but to cave Aramaki's wooden skull in with his bare knuckles. 

His speed made him nothing more than a blur in the eyes of the common man, he reached the God in under a second, but Aramaki seemed to be able to react to him...

And react he did.

Out of the ground, a sharp root rose and pointed itself directly at Garp's chest.

The Marine hero managed to shift his position, but the root moved to follow him, aiming for his heart.

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, Garp immediately hardened his chest with the most powerful armament Haki he could muster.

But that seemed to do nothing to stop the blackened root from piercing his skin, then his muscle, then his lung, and finally his heart.

Garp grasped the wooden tendril with both hands, a look of seething anger covering his face as he struggled to stop the tendril from moving and shredding his heart apart.

Thankfully he didn't have to struggle for long, as a gigantic wave of Magma rushed past him, eating away at both Aramaki and the entire base of that gigantic tree that he had spawned.

"Get back Garp!" The Magma Fleet Admiral shouted defiantly as he pressed forward, the very heat emanating from him seemed to rival that of the God of Hearth. 

The Marine Hero just scowled, not even bothering to grasp at his chest before sending a devastating punch to Aramaki's head, which was currently still covered in magma.

The Hero's fists were more powerful than any lethal weapons, and they managed to punch a whole right through Aramaki's head, bursting it like a wooden watermelon.

Unfortunately, the tremble in the ground caused by the roots of the tree meant that the fight wasn't yet over.

Sengoku's gigantic hand immediately stretched out, grabbing Garp's injured form just before countless spikes rose out of the ground to puncture him. 

Garp was severely injured, a relatively thick wooden tendril had pierced his heart. Thankfully, he had managed to stop it from wriggling in there and messing his heart up more by flexing all of his chest muscles, but he had still sustained a lot of damage.

Any lesser man would have already been taken down by such an attack regardless. Even for Garp, it wasn't something he could recover from without receiving immediate attention form a doctor.

Thankfully... They had an emergency doctor just for that.

"Room!" 

A voice broke through the battlefield, enveloping Garp and immediately stopping his bleeding. 

"Law! Good timing! We'll need your undivided attention on this one..." Sengoku muttered at the Doctor, who just nodded back, having already noticed the gravity of the situation. 

Meanwhile, Akainu was less bothered by the wooden stakes, his body turning to magma fully as he used his Observation Haki to neatly avoid the attacks.

His magma continued to try and eat away at the gigantic tree, but he could tell...

'I am not able to burn his wood efficiently...'

He was able to char it, that much was true, but the tree itself seemed to be regenerating much faster than Akainu could burn it down. 

So, without much choice, he had to take a step back, jumping backwards towards his allies whilst Kizaru's lasers covered his retreat neatly.

The tree seemed to shake off the magma, and again, out of the bark of the tree formed Aramaki. Just as unscathed as before, but looking more... Enlightened? 

"Something tells me this is going to be much harder than fighting the elders..." Garp muttered, currently holding onto his bloody shirt, whilst Law stitched closed his wound with the help of his devil fruit. 

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Took me a bit to write the latest chapter, as it was also the final one! 

Yep, the story's ended in the advanced chapters on patre-on. I still plan to write an epilogue, but all's well for now. 

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