Inside the cell, only Rehn remained, still reeling from that crushing "divine decree", along with Enel, the "former god," lying unconscious in the corner.
A full minute passed.
Then Rehn's plump face suddenly flushed bright red with extreme excitement!
He clenched his fists hard, his entire body trembling.
"I get it… I get it completely!!"
Not only was he not frightened by this "impossible task," he felt as if enlightenment had struck him. His eyes blazed with fanatic light!
"Lord Renzo! You truly meant this with all your heart!"
"You're telling me that the essence of power is not 'strength', it's 'control'!"
"To possess world-destroying power yet be unable to wield it freely, that's the greatest 'inefficiency'! The greatest 'waste'!"
"Peeling a grape with ten million volts… this is the ultimate expression of the aesthetics of efficiency!!"
Tears streamed down Rehn's face as he slammed his head heavily toward the direction Renzo had left.
"Please rest assured, Lord Renzo! I, Rehn, will carry your 'Path of Efficiency' through to the very end!!"
With that, he eagerly transformed into a streak of golden lightning and shot out of the cell with a whoosh, heading straight for Training Ground No. 7.
G-5 Branch, Training Ground No. 7.
This was a facility specially prepared for high-destructive-power ability users. The entire ground was covered with thickened alloy steel plates, capable of withstanding most artillery fire.
BOOOOM!!!!
A thunderous explosion rang out.
Rehn, transformed into lightning, precisely slammed into the thickest alloy wall of the training ground.
Bang!
A round, human-shaped hole, still smelling of burnt flesh, appeared in the wall.
"Ow ow ow…"
Rehn tumbled out from the other side, landing flat on his back, his fat jiggling all over.
"No… can't control it…"
He staggered to his feet, dizzy, shaking his head.
"The speed after elementalization is too fast. My neural reaction, no, my 'inertial thinking', can't keep up!"
He quickly identified the problem.
He was still used to thinking about "movement" in terms of running or jumping.
But lightning doesn't need a "process."
"Where my mind goes, lightning arrives!"
Rehn took a deep breath, his small eyes snapping wide open.
"Again!"
Whoosh!
A flash of gold-
BOOOOM!
This time, he smashed straight through the ceiling, half his body getting stuck in the medical bay floor above.
Whoosh! BOOOOM!!
Whoosh! BOOOOM!!
Over the next several hours, the entire G-5 base was filled with continuous thunderclaps and crashing sounds.
Training Ground No. 7 had completely turned into… a beehive.
In every direction were round, smoking human holes.
"Huff… huff…"
Rehn lay sprawled in a massive crater at the center of the field, smoke rising from his body like a roasted suckling pig.
"No… this won't do… this is too 'inefficient'…"
Lying on the ground, he finally began using that sharp brain of his.
"Lord Renzo said 'control.' I can't even manage start-and-stop yet, how can I talk about control?"
"So where's the problem?"
"I am lightning… but I'm also… a fat man."
A strange thought flashed through his mind.
"Lightning has no 'mass,' but I do. When I elementalize, I gain speed, but my 'physical mass' doesn't disappear."
"So the moment I revert from lightning back to human form, that terrifying kinetic energy all gets applied to my fat body…"
"I'm slamming my own mass into myself!"
Having found the root of the problem, Rehn's spirits lifted.
"Which means I must learn, within a ten-thousandth of a second before reappearing, to reduce my speed to zero! Or… use Armament Haki to tank it?"
He immediately began testing.
First, he coated his entire body in Armament Haki.
"Armament Hardening: Lightning Form!"
"Whoosh!"
He moved again.
"THUD, !!!"
This time, the sound was much duller.
The wall wasn't pierced through, but a deeper "Rehn crater" with Armament-hardening marks was left behind.
"Ugh…" Rehn slid down, feeling as if his internal organs had shifted.
"No, this is even dumber! Too 'inefficient'! Pure energy consumption!"
"I need control, not resistance!"
He abandoned brute force entirely and sat cross-legged, though, because of his size, it was more of an awkward approximation, then slowly floated upward.
He closed his eyes.
This time, he didn't think about speed; he felt the lightning.
He combined the Goro Goro no Mi's power with the Observation Haki he already excelled at.
"Mantra."
Humm!
An invisible ripple expanded outward from him instantly!
This wasn't ordinary Observation Haki; it was a higher perception mixed with electromagnetic waves!
In an instant, the entire G-5 base flooded into his mind in the form of "electrical signals"!
He heard it.
One kilometer away, Ain was in her office, grinding her high heel down on Sanji's foot while scolding him for "drawing hearts on official documents."
He heard the base major he'd knocked out earlier, slowly waking up in the underground prison.
He heard the faint static generated by seagull wings brushing the air outside the base.
He even heard… five kilometers away, from Lord Renzo's room, the extremely steady, rhythmic… snoring.
"Th-this is…"
Rehn's body trembled with excitement.
"Is this… the perspective of a 'god'?"
"No." He immediately denied it.
"This isn't godhood. This is the 'highest-efficiency battlefield perception' bestowed upon me by Lord Renzo!"
In the state of Mantra, the world became completely different.
He could sense every flow of electric charge in the air.
He could see the "bioelectricity" inside every living being.
"So that's it… I am electricity."
"I am everywhere."
He opened his eyes again.
This time, there was no impatience, only calm, golden serenity.
He slowly extended a single finger.
"Zzz…"
A tiny electric arc, almost invisible to the naked eye, danced at his fingertip.
He looked toward a corner nearby, where a stubborn little wildflower had survived the earlier shockwaves.
"Grape be prepared…"
With a thought, the arc shot forward!
Puff!
The wildflower instantly turned to ash.
"…"
Rehn's fat face twitched.
"Voltage too high… again."
"Zzz…"
Puff!
Another flower vanished.
"Again!"
Puff!
"Again!"
Puff!
…
Just as Rehn was ruthlessly "destroying flowers," the already-deformed door of Training Ground No. 7 was kicked open.
"Hey! What's with this damage report?! Who dares cause this kind of destruction at G-"
A Marine Headquarters officer wearing a Rear Admiral insignia strode in arrogantly.
He was clearly here on inspection, followed by several trembling G-5 soldiers.
When he saw the training ground, looking as if it had been plowed by a meteor, and the huge, smoking fat man staring blankly at a pile of ashes in the center, he exploded in rage.
"You bastard!"
"G-5 really is the Marine's disgrace! Full of trash like you who only know how to destroy!"
He pointed straight at Rehn's nose and cursed loudly:
"And you! Look at that ridiculous body! How did someone like you even get into the Marines?! This is an insult-"
Whoosh
The Rear Admiral's rant stopped abruptly.
A streak of golden lightning, faster than sound, faster than thought, sliced through the air.
Next second-
Zzzz
Rehn's massive body was suddenly standing right in front of the Rear Admiral.
Their faces were less than ten centimeters apart.
The Rear Admiral's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He hadn't even seen the movement.
Rehn was still smiling gently, but in his slit-like eyes flickered terrifying, emotionless golden lightning.
His thick right index finger rested just in front of the Rear Admiral's Adam's apple.
Wrapped around the fingertip was a strand of… black lightning.
Armament Haki perfectly fused with the Goro Goro no Mi.
The Rear Admiral stiffly lowered his gaze. He could feel every hair on his neck had already been scorched.
His cloak, symbol of his rank, had a perfectly round, smoking hole burned through the collar.
Just… just one more millimeter, and his throat would have been pierced clean through.
"My lord-"
Rehn spoke softly, kindly, even with his usual comedic tone.
"What was it… you were saying just now?"
"I… I…"
Cold sweat instantly drenched the Rear Admiral's back.
He was a Haki user himself, but in that instant, he had truly felt… death.
"G-5 Branch," Rehn continued with a smile, "belongs to Lord Renzo, Admiral Haiiroyo."
"Here, we follow only one principle: Lord Renzo's 'efficiency.'"
"And those words you spoke just now…"
Rehn's smile slowly turned cold.
"…were full of 'prejudice' and 'ignorance.' They were the lowest-efficiency form of 'noise.'"
"And as Lord Renzo's subordinate, it is my duty to help him eliminate all 'trouble' and 'noise.'"
"You, " the Rear Admiral sputtered, shocked and furious.
"Ah!"
Rehn suddenly recoiled as if shocked himself, hopping backward exaggeratedly, his face full of "panic" and "apology."
"Oh my! My deepest apologies, Rear Admiral!"
His chubby face instantly filled with a sycophantic grin as he waved his hands frantically.
"Look at me, new power, can't control it! Really can't control it! My hand slipped just now, almost hurt you! Truly unforgivable! Hahahaha!"
That face-changing speed was even faster than his lightning.
The Rear Admiral opened his mouth, staring at this fat man who had been a killing god one second and a laughing Buddha the next, utterly speechless.
He could feel it.
This fat man… did it on purpose.
He was preserving Renzo's aura.
"Hmph!"
The Rear Admiral's face turned ashen. Knowing staying would only humiliate him further, he violently flicked his cloak, revealing the hole, and barked with false bravado:
"Watch yourself next time!"
Then he stormed off without looking back.
Watching the Rear Admiral flee in disgrace, Rehn's smile slowly faded.
He looked down at the finger still wrapped in black lightning, deep in thought.
"No… not enough."
"The fusion of Armament and lightning is still too crude. Even that intimidation just now was too 'inefficient.'"
"If Lord Renzo had been here, he wouldn't want me to solve things with 'threats.' He'd want me to… make them 'physically shut up' before they even open their mouths to create 'noise.'"
Rehn turned back toward the corner.
There, one final wildflower still survived.
"I must be faster, stronger, more 'precise'!"
"I, Rehn, will become the sharpest, swiftest, and most 'efficient' lightning in Lord Renzo's hands!"
"For Lord Renzo's aura-no! For 'efficiency'!"
"Grape skin, here I come!!"