Yet despite the terrible conditions around him, Ron's voice rang out clearly to every corner like a great bell.
"You're all wrong. This is not power that belongs to the Marines."
As he spoke, he slowly raised his arm, his long fingers pointing straight toward the distant Red Line.
Looking in the direction he indicated, it seemed as though a mysterious and powerful aura was quietly spreading from there.
Ron's eyes were deep and firm as he continued,
"This is the work of that undying old monster on the Empty Throne. That thing calls itself Imu. It's a monster that has lived for eight hundred years, and it is the true ruler standing behind the World Government!"
The moment Marco heard that name, his face turned deathly pale, and he cried out despite himself,
"Imu?! H-how is that possible?"
His eyes were filled with disbelief, and his body trembled slightly.
Beside him, Kaido's dragon pupils suddenly contracted at the name "Imu," like two bright lanterns that had suddenly been snuffed out.
A seriousness and wariness unlike anything before appeared in his eyes.
"Wasn't the Empty Throne supposed to be empty?! How could some mysterious being like that exist?"
At that moment, the dessert scepter in Big Mom's hand suddenly snapped with a sharp, chilling crack, as if signaling the sudden turning of fate's gears.
Her once-dignified face twisted instantly, filled with disbelief and fury as she roared,
"You've got to be kidding me! What exactly do you mean by all this?
"Are you saying that for the past eight hundred years, we legends who ruled the seas and stirred up storms wherever we went have been under the watch of some mysterious old monster this whole time?
"Every move, every decision we made, might have already been within his control?"
Whitebeard, the man whose presence could shake heaven and earth, suddenly burst into a thunderous laugh after hearing this.
"Gurararara! Interesting! This is truly interesting!"
His booming voice rolled across the sea like thunder and lingered for a long time.
Then Murakumogiri, the blade that symbolized supreme power and glory in his hand, slammed heavily onto the solid deck with crushing force, kicking up a cloud of dust.
His eyes burned brightly with fierce battle spirit as he questioned loudly,
"So what we've been exhausting ourselves fighting against all this time was nothing more than a ridiculous game played with some old monster's puppets?
"All our efforts, all our sacrifices, were nothing but jokes in this farce?"
Ron stood among them, his eyes deep and sharp like cold stars shining in the night sky.
He slowly spoke, and every word seemed to pierce straight into the heart.
"That's right. Did you think the Marine Fleet Admiral, who stands above others and rules the order of this sea, was truly the embodiment of justice?
"And those World Government officials who seem to stand at the peak of power—aren't they also being controlled by an invisible hand?
"Even the Celestial Dragons, who call themselves noble and look down on all others, are nothing more than puppets in the hands of that old monster hiding in the darkness.
"What they do does not come from their own will. They merely act according to someone else's command."
At that moment, the already dark and oppressive sky became even stranger.
The enormous blood-red eye suspended high above slowly gathered vast and terrifying energy once more, like the gaze of a demon descending upon the world.
Dazzling lights flickered and leaped around it, announcing that another world-ending attack was about to arrive.
At this critical moment, Ron stepped forward.
His voice was steady and powerful, carrying unquestionable authority.
"Everyone! Now you finally understand, don't you? Who our real enemy truly is!
"It is not some simple individual, nor is it merely the force standing on the surface. It is a mysterious existence hidden behind the curtain, manipulating the entire direction of the world."
Hearing those words, the eyes of every Emperor of the Sea became razor-sharp at the same time.
A fierce fighting spirit radiated from them—their hunger for truth, their desire for freedom, and their rebellion against an unfair fate.
An unprecedented battle intent gathered wildly above the New World like a surging tide.
On this day, it was as though they had finally pushed aside layer after layer of fog and seen the true face of this world, one that had always seemed familiar yet was far stranger than they had imagined.
It was a world covered in lies and conspiracies.
And they would take on the mission of breaking those chains and reshaping its order.
In the sky, the once-clear heavens were now covered in a strange, intense blood-red color.
That enormous eye, like an evil eye from the depths of hell, gave off a chilling light as it slowly and steadily gathered enough power to destroy everything once again.
The energy spread outward like a raging tide with mountain-crushing force.
Everywhere it passed, the air seemed to ignite, releasing sharp sizzling sounds, while space itself began to tremble faintly under the crushing pressure.
At this critical moment, Kaido's dragon pupils suddenly narrowed.
His gaze, already sharp as a blade, became even more focused and fierce, as if it wanted to see through everything before him.
Then a crazed laugh erupted from deep in his throat.
The sound rolled through heaven and earth like thunder, shaking people's eardrums until they hurt.
"Wororororo! This scent of death…"
His voice was low and hoarse, carrying an indescribable excitement and madness.
His thick fingers trembled uncontrollably from sheer excitement, every knuckle seeming to hold endless power.
"How nostalgic! The last time I felt this kind of threat of death was twenty years ago at God Valley!"
A light of memory flashed in his eyes, his thoughts seeming to return to that place filled with smoke and war.
There, he had gone through countless battles between life and death, and every fight had made his blood boil.
And now, facing an equally powerful threat, what rose in his heart was not fear, but endless battle intent.
In an instant, his body underwent a dramatic change.
A dazzling light flashed, and he transformed into his dragon-man form, covered in blue scales.
His dragon horns were fierce and savage, like steel forged to pierce the sky.
The blue scales were tightly arranged across his body, flashing with a cold metallic sheen, like an indestructible suit of armor.