"Rosen! Rosen!"
"How is this possible?"
"The difference... it can't be this vast!"
Saint Warcury's body was pinned within the grip of the towering Haki construct, Susanoo. His mangled, twisted face contorted into an expression of genuine terror. He had known Rosen was powerful—perhaps even surpassing the ancient legend of Joy Boy—but surely there were limits.
Eight hundred years ago, Joy Boy commanded three Ancient Weapons and a vast kingdom, yet he still fell to Imu. In contrast, Rosen, aside from his loyal Marine forces, stood alone. Imu had even sealed the Arms-Arms Fruit's full potential using the National Treasure.
Given that disparity, Warcury had believed the Five Elders, united, could at least put up a formidable fight. Instead, the result was a single exchange.
Four of the Five Elders were crushed within Susanoo's other palm, their limbs pulverized, bodies reduced to a slurry of flesh and bone. If not for the immortality and regeneration granted by Imu, they would have been annihilated instantly. Even now, while their bodies slowly reformed, their heads remained shattered, leaving them unable to speak or even maintain their forms.
"Impossible?"
"Who do you think you are?"
"Specks of dust. Characters blown away by a mere breath."
Rosen stood between Susanoo's glowing blue brows, looking down at the writhing masses in his grip. He exhaled.
The Haki construct mimicked the motion, its massive maw opening like that of a Sea King. A howling gale erupted, a storm of pure force sweeping across Mary Geoise. It caught the Five Elders and carried them away like grains of sand.
In the blink of an eye, the nearly dead Elders were blasted tens of kilometers away, crashing into the ruined architecture of the Holy Land.
While they could regenerate, Rosen's Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki suppressed their Devil Fruit abilities. A Susanoo reaching five hundred meters required an impossible amount of Haki to maintain, and the oppressive aura coating it slowed their regeneration to a crawl—unlike their near-instant recovery when fighting Nikka Luffy. They were not dead, but they were effectively removed from the battlefield.
"Good."
"The dust has settled."
"Now, it is your turn, Im."
Rosen flicked his wrist, dispersing the remains of the Elders from his palm, his gaze locking onto the robed figure standing amidst the ruins.
"I must admit," Imu's voice was a hoarse, distorted rasp, lacking clear gender. "You are indeed stronger than Joy Boy."
"But it is useless."
Witnessing the Elders' defeat, the arrogance in Imu's demeanor shifted. The divine indifference of a god looking down upon humanity gave way to a colder, more calculating menace.
"The Five Elders are merely tools I fashioned to govern this world. If you believe defeating them puts you above me..."
"Then you are gravely mistaken."
As Imu's voice faded, the cloaked figure began to change. The human form expanded rapidly, scales sprouting—deep black and impenetrable. Vertical pupils slit the eyes, radiating ferocity. Wings tore through the cloak, and a tail lashed out, sharp and triangular. The transformation was swift, turning the figure into a creature resembling a mythical dragon.
"A Mythical Zoan."
Rosen's eyes narrowed as he assessed the black dragon form.
Imu did not speak further. The massive dragon claw raised, five sharp nails extending. Intense firelight erupted from the palm, swirling like captured fireflies.
Then—
BOOM!
A deafening roar, like molten lava bursting from a volcano. The fireflies expanded instantly into a raging torrent of flame, a ring of destruction that swept outward.
Hiss—
Where the ring passed, buildings that had stood in Mary Geoise for centuries melted instantly. Stone and steel turned to slag, consumed by the heat.
The Susanoo facing the ring was blasted backward hundreds of meters. Its armor, forged from Armament Haki as hard as a Black Blade, began to melt at a visible rate. First the armor, then the limbs and torso.
With a casual flick, Imu's attack had reduced Rosen's construct to a shadow of itself.
"Even Haki can burn?"
Rosen felt a flicker of surprise. It was no wonder Sabo, who had mastered the Mero Mero no Mi to rival the Admirals, had been devoured so easily within Pangaea Castle. This heat, in both temperature and raw power, far surpassed the Magma-Magma Fruit.
"How is it?"
In his dragon form, Imu was smaller than the towering Susanoo, yet he projected an aura of absolute dominance. His voice grew colder, more violent.
"Not bad."
Rosen's response was calm. His Haki surged, a river of power flowing into the construct. The melted armor and damaged limbs of Susanoo regenerated instantly, the blue light burning brighter than before.
CLANG!
Rosen's will guided the construct. Susanoo drew a long black sword, crackling with lightning. The blade carried enough force to cleave Mary Geoise in two, slashing down toward the dragon.
"Useless."
Imu stood his ground, neither dodging nor flinching. He raised his other claw.
Hiss—
A chilling aura erupted, swirling like wisps of mist around the talons. The air temperature plummeted instantly.
BOOM!
The mist transformed into a massive, all-encompassing freezing storm. Everything in its path—skyscrapers, main streets, the symbol of world power in Pangaea City—was instantly flash-frozen. Even the air seemed to crystallize.
CRACK.
The sound of freezing was audible as Susanoo's black sword was encased in ice, the frost crawling up the construct's arm, freezing it in mid-swing.
WHOOSH.
Imu glanced at the mountain-sized opponent, then unfurled his wings. A shockwave erupted, and a magic circle crackling with black lightning appeared beneath him. He vanished.
Simultaneously, a colossal mass materialized out of thin air, appearing hundreds of meters directly above Susanoo's head via spatial displacement.
"Severing all things, the symbol of destruction?"
"Such power is nothing."
Before Imu finished speaking, his black tail shot out, coiled in Conqueror's Haki that cracked the very sky. Like a bolt of lightning, it pierced the seemingly indestructible head of Susanoo.
The strike shattered the rhomboid crystal between the construct's brows.
"Then..."
"Farewell."
"Fleet Admiral."
Imu's voice rang out like a judge pronouncing a death sentence.
SIZZLE.
Without warning, the moment the crystal shattered, black, fiery smoke erupted around Rosen.
Just like the execution of Saint Saturn, his skin began to rot, his flesh withered, and his bones crumbled, turning to ash.
"How could this be?"
"That Imu, how could he be so strong?"
"Even without the Weapon-Weapon Fruit, this level of suppression..."
"That's Rosen..."
Across Mary Geoise, Marines fighting the new Admirals, the God's Knights, and CP0 faltered as they sensed Rosen's life force fading.
"As expected of Lord Im."
Saint Saturn, mostly recovered from his earlier crushing, watched Rosen's deterioration with little surprise.
"Blame his arrogance. He thought himself truly invincible."
"If he had brought an Ancient Weapon like Joy Boy, perhaps he could have fought Lord Im. But alone? With his fruit sealed? He never stood a chance."
Saint Mars, recovered to roughly seventy percent, wasn't surprised either. He admitted Rosen was stronger than Joy Boy had been, but that didn't matter. One person could never shake the King of the World.
"Even invincibility is meaningless before him. After all, he stands before the King of the World—the Creator."
Saint Peter and Saint Nusjuro exchanged a glance, seeing undisguised awe and fear in each other's eyes. As the oldest Celestial Dragons, they knew Imu was powerful, but this was beyond their expectations.
"It is over."
Saint Warcury stood atop a ruined building, surveying the battlefield. Although the Marines and their allies were locked in a stalemate, in his eyes, they were grasshoppers in autumn. With Rosen gone, no one could restrain the Five Elders. They would crush each battlefield, one by one, until the rebellion was completely routed.
The fate of the Great Kingdom, 800 years ago, was repeating itself today.
"Rosen is dead. Deal with the rebellious ants. I do not want to hear of anyone leaving Mary Geoise alive."
Imu's voice traveled tens of kilometers, appearing directly in the ears of the Five Elders.
"Yes, Lord Im!"
The Five Elders knelt in unison, respectfully watching the King of the World depart.
"Hmm."
Imu nodded, his dragon form receding, returning to the original appearance shrouded in a cloak. He turned to leave, not even glancing at the dissipating ash that was once Rosen.
However, as he took his first step away, a voice—indifferent yet laced with disdain—reached his ears.
"Dead?"
"I don't understand what you're saying."
Imu halted abruptly, whirling around.
Rosen stood perfectly intact in mid-air. Though his face was shadowed by his cloak, his eyes, visible in the air, held no trace of injury.
"No... Impossible!"
...
"Is that all?"
"You call yourself the King of the World?"
"Your attacks didn't even scratch me."
Rosen stood in the void, his coat billowing in the wind. He looked at Imu, who was frozen in shock, and casually brushed a speck of dust from his shoulder.
"How... My 'Purgatory End' should have disintegrated your cellular structure..." Imu's voice lost its composure, cracking with disbelief.
Rosen didn't answer immediately. Instead, he pointed to the space around him.
"You rely too much on the power you stole from others. You forgot the fundamental nature of power."
Around Rosen, the air shimmered. It wasn't Haki, nor was it a Devil Fruit ability. It was a dense, overwhelming spiritual pressure—a reiryoku that distorted space itself.
"I have studied your regeneration," Rosen said, his voice cutting through the silence of Mary Geoise. "You split your essence, anchoring parts of yourself to the Five Elders and the land itself. A clever immortality trick."
"But in doing so, you divided your defense."
Rosen raised his hand. A pale blue light gathered in his palm, forming a single, slender katana. The blade had no guard, and its hilt was wrapped in white cloth.
"Bankai," Rosen whispered.
The word echoed with finality.
Behind him, the massive Susanoo began to change. The blue energy condensed, shrinking rapidly. The armor dissolved, replaced by a skeletal, white structure that wrapped around Rosen himself. A hollow mask formed over his face, and white energy wings spread from his back.
"Tensa Zangetsu."
The overwhelming spiritual pressure spiked, crushing the gravity of Mary Geoise. The ground cracked, and even the debris floating in the air froze.
Imu, sensing the lethal threat, roared. His dragon form surged with Haki, black lightning crackling over his scales. He unleashed a torrent of fire and ice, a dual-elemental storm meant to obliterate everything.
"Fūten Hōō!" (Heavenly Phoenix)
A colossal bird of flame and ice surged toward Rosen.
Rosen didn't move. He simply lifted his blade.
"Getsuga Tenshō."
A crescent wave of pure black energy erupted from the blade. It was silent. It was absolute.
The black wave met the elemental storm. For a split second, the two forces clashed, but the black crescent instantly swallowed the fire and ice. It continued forward, carving a path through space itself.
Imu tried to dodge, but the attack locked onto his spiritual pressure.
SHHHH-
The black wave struck. Imu's roar was cut short. The Mythical Zoan form was bisected cleanly from the shoulder down, the regenerative cells unable to reform fast enough as the black energy eroded them.
Imu crashed to the ground, his body flickering between dragon and human forms, blood pooling beneath him.
"I..." Imu gasped, staring at his severed arm, which was turning to dust. "I am... the King..."
"You are nothing but a thief sitting on a stolen throne."
Rosen descended, landing softly on the cracked earth. He stood over the fallen god-king.
"The Five Elders are dust. You are broken. The era of the World Government ends here."
Rosen raised his blade once more, the black energy swirling with lethal intent.
"Shūra (Carnage)."
A thousand slashes descended in an instant, a storm of black crescents that engulfed Imu completely. When the dust settled, nothing remained of the King of the World but a crater filled with shattered stone.
Rosen sheathed his blade, the white mask dissolving from his face. He looked toward the horizon where the sun was beginning to rise.
"Marines," his voice carried across the battlefield, amplified by Haki. "The operation is complete. Secure the island."
The silence of Mary Geoise was broken by the roar of the Marines, their cheers rising like a tide as they realized the war was won.
—-
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