The moment Imu's words rang out, the battlefield fell into stunned silence before erupting in uproar.
No one could understand her arrogance.
Did she truly believe that wielding Uranus would be enough to stand alone against the might gathered before her? Was it confidence, madness, or did she have something even more terrifying?
Confusion rippled through the Holy Land. Even the most hardened warriors felt a flicker of unease.
In the distance, Imu's gaze fell upon the young Puxin girl, unreadable and cold.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world watched with breathless excitement.
From every corner of the globe, voices rose in celebration.
"Hahaha, it's over! The Celestial Dragons have fallen!"
"Who cares about the Five Elders or the so-called Creator's descendants?"
"Long live Buggy! Long live the Crimson Empire!"
"They say people are already storming Mariejois! We should go too!"
"Let's see what becomes of those pompous Celestial Dragons. Buggy will win, I know it!"
"Buggy will win!!"
Celebrations erupted at every live broadcast site. The world was in a carnival.
Even the kings of the underworld watched in silence, their usual bravado buried beneath the weight of what they were witnessing.
"This is madness," muttered Drug Peclo, the loan shark magnate of the West Blue. "The World Government has collapsed. All that remains is that woman who's ruled from the shadows for over 800 years."
"If Buggy and the others defeat her," said Morgans, eyes wide beneath his feathered hat, "then history will be rewritten before the next headline goes to print."
"She feels wrong," growled Giberson, arms folded. "Her subordinates are dead, her world is crumbling, and she hasn't blinked once."
"Powerful or not, I believe in Buggy," Stussy said calmly, sipping wine at her own table, her eyes never leaving the screen.
Umit, King of Shipping, exhaled through his nose. "I've worked closely with the Scarlet Empire. But don't ask me if I've met him. I move cargo, not politics."
"What about Zephyr?" asked Feld, furrowing his brow. "The former Admiral is with them now?"
"You're behind," Stussy said. "Zephyr led the Neo Marines straight into the Empire's ranks months ago. He's their Marine Marshal now."
"Tch. The world's shifting fast," Drug Peclo muttered. "The Scarlet Empire is already on the throne in all but name."
"Even Stussy is with him now," Giberson added, half-smirking. "You've always had a good nose for power."
"Quiet," Morgans said, standing. "The final battle has begun."
And none of them looked away. Not even for a second.
Red Line. Holy Land. Outside Pangaea Castle.
Imu's calm declaration echoed still, leaving the battlefield gripped by silence.
Shanks narrowed his eyes and stepped forward.
"It sounds like you believe you can handle us all on your own," he said.
"Then let's finish this. I have no interest in following someone who scorns the world I was born in. I don't know what upper dimension you come from, or what kind of beings you serve. But we came here with Buggy, and we won't be leaving until it's over. Let's fight."
Shanks' resolve was like a signal. One by one, the others stepped forward.
Dragon was next. Blue-gold wind swirled around him. His golden eyes locked onto Imu.
"If Uranus is your trump card, I'm telling you now, it won't be enough to save you or the world government."
Boom.
Redfield tossed aside the mangled clone of the Golden Lion, licking blood from his lips. His crimson eyes sparkled with bloodlust.
"I didn't plan to do something so sneaky," he said, "but her words left me no choice. Buggy, everyone... my instincts are screaming. She's not what she seems."
His voice dropped.
"We can see her. We can feel her. But it's like she isn't even here. She's wrong."
Hawkeye frowned, eyes cold. "My blade couldn't cut her."
Redfield shook his head. "I don't know if slashing works. Maybe it doesn't. But I doubt a single attack is enough."
"Then let me test it."
Hawkeye unsheathed Yoru, the black blade gleaming with an aura of pure menace. Armament Haki surged across the sword's edge like a tidal wave, warping the air with its pressure. The sky dimmed.
He raised the sword high and swung.
"Black Blade: Void Sever!"
A streak of cyan light, thin and impossibly sharp, ripped through the heavens, screaming toward Imu with surgical finality.
"Divine Departure!"
Shanks followed immediately, his Conqueror's Haki flaring like a wildfire. The air split with the sound of clashing fate as he drew his saber and stepped forward.
"Fujin's Wrath: Heavenly Roar!"
Dragon launched his assault next, the skies darkening with his call.
Three devastating attacks closed in on Imu from different angles, converging high above the void. The sky trembled under the pressure of their combined force.
Imu, standing calmly atop Uranus, frowned slightly. It was the first flicker of displeasure she had shown. Yet her face remained unreadable. With fluid grace, she raised her hands and pointed to the assaults streaking toward her from either side.
"Kamunagi no Jikan."
A pause. Then she spoke again.
"The Void Devoruer."
Buzzing energy crackled in the air. A deep hiss echoed through the heavens.
In an instant, Hawkeye's Void Sever and Shanks' Divine Departure froze in midair, suspended like frozen lightning. On the third front, Fujin's Wrath roared straight toward the gaping maw of Uranus.
But before it could connect.
"Fang of Dracule: Heaven Rend!" Redfield's voice split the sky.
His silhouette flared as he unleashed a swarm of black sword lights, each one infused with Emperor-level might. The blades shimmered with black-red lightning, moving like a meteor shower across the battlefield.
Imu's eyes narrowed. Her calm expression finally cracked with a faint ripple of tension.
"Spatial shift."
She brought her hands together, directing her focus toward Buggy's group. The two suspended attacks immediately reversed their paths. Like weapons turned against their maker, they veered and collided with Redfield's meteor blades in a thunderous clash.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The sky erupted in a maelstrom of blinding light and sound. Shockwaves burst outward in every direction, shaking the foundations of the Red Line itself.
Though Shanks' and Hawkeye's strikes were devastating, they weren't enough to completely neutralize Redfield's entire barrage. Over a dozen of the black-red slashes broke through the chaos and shot straight toward Imu.
"They're breaking through!"
A murmur of hope rippled across the battlefield. For the first time, they began to understand the nature of Imu's abilities.
But it was far from over.
Imu lifted her right hand, which now glowed crimson, and slashed forward.
"Time-Space Severance."
The air in front of her split like shattered glass, revealing a swirling abyss of void energy. The incoming sword slashes vanished into the rupture one after another, devoured by the darkness.
Then she raised her hand once more and swept it across the broken sky.
"Temporal Rewind."
The fractured space pulled itself back together as if nothing had ever happened. The void closed. The battlefield stilled.
A stunned silence fell.
"How... how can that be?"
"That was a joint assault from Shanks, Dragon, Hawkeye, and Redfield! She erased it like it was nothing!"
"This is insane. She's too powerful!"
"She didn't even flinch!"
"That Devil Fruit! What even is it? Time and space? That's not something a single devil fruit should have control over!"
"If this keeps up, there's no way to win. Not even Captain Buggy could deal with four Emperor-class attacks that easily."
"Is she... is she really a god?"
Across the world, the festive chaos of earlier broadcasts faded to silence. Audiences stared wide-eyed at their screens, the triumph they'd tasted turning to ash in their mouths.
Imu's display was like a silencer cast over the entire world. The uproar that had shaken every corner of the globe moments earlier now collapsed into breathless silence.
"Buggy," Redfield said, breaking the hush. He turned his head toward the man standing atop the towering form of the True Several Thousand Hands. "What do you make of this?"
The moment he spoke, all eyes shifted to Buggy.
Buggy gave a quiet chuckle.
"We all understand something fundamental. Every Devil Fruit, no matter how mythical or fearsome, has a limit. But that limit isn't defined solely by the fruit. It depends on the person wielding it."
He gestured casually, as if lecturing an old friend.
"Take the Seraphim, for example. Their flames could endure a full-force blow from an Admiral without taking damage. But only once. That's the edge of their capability."
He turned his gaze to the sky, where Uranus loomed behind Imu like a god's throne.
"Uranus, the so-called celestial weapon, is the same. It's strong, but not infinite. And her powers are no different. At the end of the day, she's barely breached the threshold of planetary-level strength."
Buggy's voice remained calm, almost bemused.
"As long as she hasn't reached the stellar class, she's not beyond me."
Shanks, Hawkeye, and Redfield exchanged uneasy glances, unable to hide the disbelief in their eyes.
But in the skies above, Imu's expression shifted. Her eyes widened, and for the first time, her voice carried panic.
"So you really do know about planetary-scale classifications," she hissed. "For a being from a lower dimension, you speak boldly. It seems my instincts were correct. You've already crossed the planetary threshold. But you underestimate the chasm between entering that level and mastering its peak."
Buggy's smile widened.
"So it's true. You stand at the very summit of planetary strength."
He laughed, not with arrogance, but with quiet satisfaction.
"That's a relief."
He took a step forward atop his colossus, and his voice sharpened.
"I don't know what alien civilization you encountered that warped your mind so thoroughly, enough to make you a devout servant of something foreign. But to me, you're nothing more than a woman slightly stronger than I am."
He pointed at her, unfazed by her power.
"And a strong opponent without the will to stand alone is no different from a sailor pretending to be a captain."
His eyes flared with resolve.
"There's no reason for me to lose to someone like that."
Snort.
Imu's expression twisted with cold disdain, her mask of serenity cracking for the first time. Buggy's words had struck a nerve. There was fury now, not rage for a lost battle, but the anger of a higher being forced to acknowledge a challenge from below.
"Insignificant creature," she hissed. "Let us see if your arrogance has the strength to match it."
She raised her hand, calm and commanding. "Dimensional Palm."
A deep pulse of sound followed. Her hand pressed forward into the empty air, and reality itself seemed to respond. The space before her rippled, then expanded. The tiny gesture unfurled into a spectral palm, colossal in size, stretching hundreds of meters wide. It fell toward Buggy from the heavens, silent at first, then screaming as it sliced the sky.
The air howled.
Wind pressure shattered the ground. The force of the descending strike sent waves of fear through even the strongest present. Redfield's eyes narrowed. Shanks adjusted his stance. Dragon tensed. Mihawk's gaze sharpened.
"This is serious," Dragon said.
"Should we help?" asked Shanks.
Redfield watched the falling palm. "Not yet. Let's see what he has planned."
"I hope that idiot doesn't overdo it," Mihawk muttered.
Buggy did not blink. A mad clown smile appeared on his face.
Blue light surged from his body. It spread outward in luminous waves, washing over the battlefield and covering the land for miles. He pressed his palms together, voice calm but powerful.
"Armament. Crushing Evil, Spreading Truth: Empyrean ."
With a sound like grinding stone, three of the True Several Thousand Hands moved beside him. In perfect synchronicity, they pulled back their massive fists, each glowing with spiritual energy, crackling Haki, and raw power.
The fists shot upward.
Each was over a hundred meters wide, trailing arcs of blue and violet as they surged into the sky. They met the descending palm with thunderous force.
An explosion erupted in the clouds.
Light and shockwaves tore through the heavens. The pressure nearly knocked Redfield back. Shanks shielded his eyes. Even Dragon flinched at the intensity. Fire and wind curled in the sky, swallowed by a hurricane of clashing force.
Silence followed.
Then the smoke parted.
And the giant unscathed palm remained.
It pushed through the smoke like a divine verdict. The air trembled around it. Its momentum had not slowed. The surface of the spectral hand glowed white, and its sheer presence pressed down on Buggy like the wrath of a world.
...
Enjoyed the chapter? You can read 40k words ahead and gain exclusive access to even more content over at P*treon.c*m/Marioni!