Chapter 161: Chapter 160: Once Upon A Time (2)
'...Lili.'
Though Lili may not know him, Imu did.
The fact that he isn't fundamentally a human, was the truth which he instinctively concealed from everyone, the secret that was to be kept hidden.
Imu still remembered Lili's desire for peace. He felt that his ideal resonated with hers, that she would give her full loyalty to him.
However, recently, he was starting to doubt her. The reports from his informants indicated her recurrent departures overseas.
'...No, there is no way you would betray.'
Imu closed his eyes, in order to hide a sliver of emotion that surfaced from him.
Opening his eyes back up, he stared at the battlefield ahead of him.
On the other side, there were giants, ones who carried cannons instead of guns.
At their center was...
"ZAHAHAHA!!! World Government?!! Do you truly believe that you represent the world?!! Without counting me, Rocks D. Zachs, in?!!"
The king of the Fable Kingdom, Rocks D. Zachs himself.
And something seemed different about the man.
"""CHARGE!!!"""
The soldiers rushed in. The smoke, dust, and scent of blood mixed together, generating a chaos called death.
The weapons of mass destruction, Pluton and Uranus, surfaced. The rays were blasted down from the machine in sky, only to be countered by the laser that was fired from the battleship.
The bright light, followed by the explosion, illuminated the sky.
Below said sky, two figures stood.
'What even...'
Imu narrowed his eyes. From Zachs's hands, the wisps of darkness emanated, ominously.
"Surprised, aren't you?!"
Zachs grinned as he stared at his hands in amazement.
"The power of the ultimate Devil Fruit... this is the fruit made to take over the power of god!!
It is the most advanced form of science, the fruit of humanity's dream, the very manifestation of our will!! If there are gods of sun, rain, and forest... this must be the god of earth!!!"
Thousands of Imu's summons advanced toward Zachs.
In response, Zachs reached his hand out toward them. His hand morphed into that of darkness and said darkness spread out, rippling throughout the battlefield.
All the summons, ones who came in contact with the darkness, were dissipated without any resistance.
"No matter what Devil Fruit it may be, against me, they are useless."
Zachs grinned evilly, and Imu, for the first time, felt the shock from witnessing something that had never happened before.
"Even if Uranus has fallen in your hands... the result will nonetheless be the same!"
The Fable Kingdom was a force to be reckoned with. Even against the combined force of twenty kingdoms, the kingdom, full of giant warriors, was more than enough to deal with humans who were several times smaller than them.
And as such, the victors of the war, if the situation was to continue like this, would be Rocks D. Zachs and his kingdom...
"...This is where everything ends."
Before he showed up, Jaguar D. Binks.
"I know that you are there."
Watching the chaos unfold, Binks whispered.
"Ahahaha!! You found me!!"
Then he heard, the voice of his Devil Fruit.
"So, what is it that you want?"
"With me having taken out the heart, I am no longer able to utilize the 'awakened' power. However,"
Binks clenched his hand tightly,
"If I were to give you my soul..."
As if it the fate's calling, it was always the Devil Fruits that miraculously appeared in front of their owners. Yes, it has always been the Devil Fruits that choose their owners.
Interestingly, there have always been matching characteristics between the power granted by Devil Fruits and their owners.
Those with fiery passion attained the power to harness fire. Those with ice-cold rationality received the power of ice.
The one who yearned for order received the power to control.
The one who yearned for freedom received the freest power in the world.
And why was this the case?Binks realized a long time ago,
that devils wish to take over their owners' bodies.
"...Will you be able to give freedom to the others?"
By freedom, Binks meant the deaths of two warmongers, Rocks D. Zachs and Nerona Imu.
And the devil's grin deepened.
"If that's what you want."
__________
"..."
Imu, with bewilderment present on his visage, watched the unmoving body of Jaguar D. Binks right in front of him.
Imu was currently on his butt, with his back leaned against a boulder.
Binks's fist was outstretched toward him, centimeters away from his face.
Imu let out a breath that he didn't know was holding. His eyes shook in disbelief as he looked behind Binks, where Rocks D. Zachs was torn apart into two.
It was simply from a stroke of luck that Imu managed to survive. Before a strange entity in Binks could finish off Imu as well, his body gave in and stopped its function.
Imu was left alive while Zachs died. This meant, that no matter how many remained on the side of Fable Kingdom, the victory would go to...
"Nonetheless,"
Imu spoke as calmly as he could. Slowly, he stood up with his eyes locked on Binks.
Forming a sword and grasping it by its hilt, Imu swung it horizontally, detaching Binks's head from his body.
The head flew and fell to the ground.
Watching such a scene, the warriors of the World Government roared victoriously.
With their spirits uplifted, they rushed at the giants, those who were in denial, contrastingly.
Lili, watching all this from the back, closed her eyes.
'It was a partial success, Binks. Then, the only choice left for me is to...'
__________
The Fable Kingdom has fallen.
Once a great kingdom, but not anymore. Its name, be it its prosperity or its ruthlessness, was abolished from history.
All Buccaneers whom the World Government could find were executed.
All the adult giants were executed, to ensure that the memory of Fable Kingdom no longer passes on.
Through the use of Uranus, Imu poured down the rain over the world.
The world flooded and the sea level increased by a tremendous amount. By doing so, the records and doings of the Fable Kingdom have been sank into the depths of the sea.
The only remaining giants, children at the time of war, were isolated in their land, one that had become an island after the rise of sea level. Eventually, they came to believe that the name of their homeland is 'Elbaf'.
"...I managed to spread Poneglyphs, safe from the sea."
Lili, looking at the night's sky, muttered.
"Surely, the future generation, one day, will come to learn of the future. Though the chaos sought by Rocks D. Zachs is wrong, so is the absolute order that Nerona Imu aims for. The period where everything is perfect and unmoving... doesn't exist."
Her head then dropped.
"However, I overextended. Nerona Imu—that being whom I am not even sure if he is a human—seemed to have begun doubting me. I... the only way for me to guarantee the safety of my people, to get rid of his suspicion, would be to..."
She grimaced, but with a determination in her eyes.
__________
"The cruelty which Rocks D. Zachs enforced on the world... should never be repeated in the history."
Imu, standing in front of the throne high in the Pangaea Castle, stated.
Alongside him stood the kings and queens of nineteen other kingdoms—including Lili.
"As such, this throne will forever remain empty. This throne will serve as the symbol of peace, one that will remain eternal under our rule."
Turning around, Imu asked,
"Have you considered my proposition?"
"To leave our kingdoms and live on this land, was it..."
Though their statuses were the same outwardly, all of them knew that there was a stark difference between them and him.
Leaving their own kingdoms meant giving up on their power and entering Imu's control. It was something that they wouldn't accept no matter what.
Behind their backs, the sharp blades gleamed.
Then, eighteen blades were stabbed at Imu, simultaneously.
"Rest in peace, Nerona Imu."
One king growled as he twisted the blade that was stabbed into Imu,
"And leave the peace to us."
"..."Something was strange. There was no blood.
Even after eighteen blades stabbed Imu, Imu didn't show any sign of pain or injury.
Then, Imu abruptly disappeared from their vision.
"What?!"
The kings and queens shrieked in horror.
"..."
And among them, Lili, who was the only one that didn't attack Imu, remained silent with her eyes closed.
"...How foolish."
A voice was heard. The kings and queens raised their heads and saw Imu sitting on the throne above them.
Imu, looking down on them, said emotionlessly,
"You have proven just now... that flawed beings such as yourselves don't deserve the authority to rule the world."
One king then vomited blood.
"H-Huh?"
He lowered his head and found that the sword, one that was supposed to be in his grip, was stabbing him in the chest.
And so were the others, having received fatal blows from the weapons that they were holding just a moment ago.
"You have served your use to me. Now, die, bugs."
The eighteen of them fell with swords stabbed on their chests, spreading blood on the cold floor.From the start, they were under Imu's mind manipulation. What they were seeing since they entered the room wasn't real. The swords on their chests... were their own works.
And now, Lili, being the lone one standing now, slowly knelt toward Imu.
"And yes, Lili..."
Imu reflected on his time a long time ago.
Though he will never tell Lili his true identity, it will be the memory that he will cherish, for it was thanks to it that he became who he is today.
"Throughout these disgusting bugs, you stand as the lone one worthy of your title."
Imu asked as his eyes gleamed—in a subtle excitement, one that Lili didn't manage to read.
"Are you willing to accept Mu's offer?"
"I..."
Lili knew that if she were to live on this island, one day, be it through Imu's mind manipulation or other way around, the truth would be split.
She knew that the longest way to conceal the truth of her bond with Binks... was her death.
"I am aware of your suspicion of me. I thought of ways to prove my loyalty to the World Government, and decided that the best way to do so would be to..."
Lili raised her head and looked at Imu, and Imu, at this moment, didn't know what Lili was thinking.
"...offer you my life."
Immortality surgery.
Lili learned after conducting surgery on Binks that with the power of Op Op fruit, granting someone immortality—though imperfect—was possible.
Heart, it is an organ where its muscles are repaired very slowly. The speed of repair cannot catch up to the speed at which it becomes worn out at every beat of it.
However, what if there are two hearts in a person? when one stops beating, another will start beating and grant the previous one the time to repair—so that when the second one ceases beating eventually, the first will start beating again... and repeat this process all over again.
By offering her own heart, Lili could grant one human partial immortality.
And when Imu heard her explanation, he was...
...genuinely touched.
'Lili, though you may not remember...'
Imu erased the thoughts of Lili potentially being a betrayer.
He accepted Lili's offer, taking a liking to the idea of Lili being with him, forevermore.
The heart was extracted from Lili. It was then inserted in Imu, and Lili, before her death, found herself shocked,
'He... has no heart?'
Lili, with her eyes widened, fell with her body having lost its strength.
Ba-Bump.
Lili's heart started beating in Imu's wooden body. With there being one heart only and no blood to supplement it with oxygen, its existence was pointless.
Imu, whose origin was that of a tree, already had a lifespan of over thousands of years. Lili's life-giving surgery was unnecessary.However, such truth didn't matter to Imu.
Imu caught Lili midair before her cold body rolled on the stairs and reached the floor stained with the blood of eighteen corpses.
"From now on, we will be together. Nothing shall be there to separate us."
It was the start of his reign, aiming to reach the goal of 'absolute order' that Imu believed to be Lili's dream.
__________
'...Is this the end of you?'
Imu, at the moment of his death, now knew what it was that Binks did to overwhelm Zachs and him.
His vision was fading. With his head being the lone remaining part of him, he would be dead in a matter of seconds.
"Huff... huff..."
Smoker, standing back up slowly, gritted through the exhaustion that his body sent to him, to finish Imu off.
'The world is in chaos. The chaos is rising. And that chaos is named White Hunter Smoker.'
The devilish voice spoke into Imu.
'Are you going to let it end here?'
"...My power. My glory. My will."
Imu reflected on his time as the ruler up until today,
"None of them matter anymore."
Smoker held his finger out and immediately fired a burst of aether at Imu's head.
The bullet of aether was flying at Imu,
"I will give up all of them. In return, kill—"
The bullet struck Imu's head and blasted it into pieces.
And then,
those pieces began to glow dangerously.
"What even—"
Smoker gritted his teeth as the bright crimson light abruptly burst out of those pieces and took over the Mariejois.
Smoker quickly shielded his eyes with his hand.
And when the light was gone, a mighty and ferocious roar was heard.
Smoker's view turned dark, and he realized that it was due to a huge shadow looming over him.
He raised his head up.
And there stood a creature, a crimson dragon.
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