With that, Luffy charged out at the forefront. Shanks raised his sword, coated it in Haki, and swung it at the charging Luffy.
"Divine Departure!"
"So fast!"
Luffy had never fought Shanks before, nor had he ever seen him truly fight. When Shanks used Divine Departure, the speed was so immense Luffy couldn't react. The slash sent him flying before he could even process it.
Luffy's body was just too bizarre, too free. Even as he was sent flying, his eyes popping out, he was completely fine. On the contrary, he stretched out a hand, grabbed Shanks's arm, and pulled him along too.
"Shoulder Throw!"
Shanks was thrown by Luffy. His body spun uncontrollably through the air like a top.
....
Warfare swept across the entire world. No matter which part of the globe, conflicts raged, and even Lodestar, the penultimate island, was engulfed in relentless battle.
At that very moment, the Holy Land of Mary Geoise was in constant uproar. Because of food shortages, the Celestial Dragons were facing a crisis unlike anything they had ever known—famine.
It made them realize that abandoning the world below was impossible. Once they lost the world below, they would lose all their food supplies.
Without those slaves, what could they do? They couldn't even survive.
"What are the Marines doing? Why haven't they wiped out those pests yet?"
"I'm starving to death! All we have is this hard, tasteless bread. I want meat! I want fresh vegetables!!!"
"What about the Five Elders? Haven't they returned? And the God's Knights? Where are they all?"
"Don't tell me we, the proud descendants of the creator, will die here? I refuse! Food, where is the food?!"
Their wails echoed endlessly. At that moment, a black-haired woman wearing a towering crown stepped out of Pangaea Castle.
The Celestial Dragons had gathered to discuss what to do. With most of Mary Geoise's defenses already dispatched elsewhere, only a fraction of its guard remained. Left idle and weakened by the famine, all they could do was gather and lament.
The sound of footsteps approached. The towering crown was so glaring. After a moment of stunned silence, many of the older Celestial Dragons knelt down.
The younger Celestial Dragons were still bewildered; seeing their elders kneel left them even more at a loss.
They were Celestial Dragons! When had they ever knelt?
This had never happened before. How could Celestial Dragons possibly kneel?
It shattered their understanding.
"Father?!" one young Celestial Dragon asked in disbelief.
"Kneel." His father seized his arm and yanked him down. Father and son knelt side by side.
A path was cleared. On both sides, Celestial Dragons knelt in rows. It looked just like when commoners prostrated themselves before the Dragons in the streets, but this time, it was the Celestial Dragons kneeling to someone else.
The younger Celestial Dragons didn't know who this person was. They knelt unwillingly and resentfully.
"Why? Why should I kneel? I refuse! Who is this person? I am a Celestial Dragon! How could I kneel to a mere woman? Just who are you?" A tall, slender blonde man adamantly refused to kneel, even drawing a golden revolver from his waist and aiming it at Imu.
Seeing this, the other Celestial Dragons turned pale with fright.
Imu's eyes shifted, glancing at him.
"I am... very angry..."
In the next instant, a black arrow, like a shadow, crawled sinuously along the ground. The next moment, it emerged from the shadow, similar to Gecko Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit ability.
Thwip!
The barbed arrowhead pierced the Celestial Dragon's throat. The arrowhead was flat, like a blade, and it severed the Celestial Dragon's head.
The head fell to the ground, blood spraying from the neck.
Witnessing a Celestial Dragon being killed, every other Celestial Dragon present was shocked.
It wasn't that Celestial Dragons had never been killed before, but the consequences for killing one were unimaginable. Yet now, a Celestial Dragon was killed right in front of so many others.
Tens of thousands lived in Mary Geoise, most pampered like penned swine. Each one worth hundreds of billions, parasites of the world.
They were also the gods of this world. Yet at this moment, one was killed. For the other Celestial Dragons, this was unacceptable.
"Gu-Guards! Murder! She killed a Celestial Dragon! Seize her at once!" a Celestial Dragon screamed.
However, the guards walked towards him. Under his terrified gaze, the two guards raised their executioner's blades.
Thwip! Thwip!
One blade pierced his skull; the other pierced his heart.
The Celestial Dragon was executed just like that...
Such a bloody scene unfolding before their eyes was something most Celestial Dragons could not accept.
"Too many... The food shortage is because we have raised too many. Mu... do not need so many servants..."
Imu spoke. Her voice was very soft, yet penetrating. For some reason, hearing these words, all the Celestial Dragons prostrated on the ground, trembling.
This was a fear originating from their very bloodline. The woman before them was absolutely no ordinary person.
"Father, who is she?!"
A young Celestial Dragon whispered anxiously to an elder beside him.
"She... she is Nerona Imu-sama!" the elder Celestial Dragon stammered.
"Nerona Imu-sama... such a familiar name. Wait, impossible!!!"
The young Celestial Dragon suddenly realized something, looked up, unable to believe, unable to accept.
They had known this name since childhood. The twenty former royal families.
The Celestial Dragons were composed of twenty families. Later, the Nefertari family chose not to ascend, remaining in Alabasta.
The remaining families all took up residence in Mary Geoise, becoming the World Nobles.
The Nerona family was also one of the World Nobles, and he was a member of the Nerona family.
But the name 'Imu' was something they had been required to remember since childhood.
It was their family's glory, the founder of their family, one of the twenty Kings who created the world.
Nerona Imu.
Such a sacred name, engraved in their hearts since youth.
As Imu's identity spread, how could any Celestial Dragon dare show disrespect? This was their ancestor, the great founder of the Nerona family.
Who could have imagined that someone from nine hundred years ago was still alive, and so young at that?
"Too many. Cleanse those not on the list," Imu looked at the prostrating Celestial Dragons. Tens of thousands knelt before her. Imu's eyes were like an ancient well, utterly calm, without a ripple. She simply gave the order softly.
The guards beside her bowed their heads, tightened their grip on their executioner's blades, and walked towards the Celestial Dragons.
"Mu... is the Creator. Your lives are all in Mu's hands... Mu created you all..."
"What are you doing?!" a Celestial Dragon cried out in terror.
"I am a Celestial Dragon! What are you, a lowly commoner, trying to do?!"
"I remember you! You're the boy from the Topman family! I'm your clan uncle! What are you doing?!"
The guards holding the executioner's blades removed their helmets, revealing young faces. They came from the nineteen families, were the elites of each family, and those who had received focused training.
Their duty differed from the God's Knights. Since childhood, they had only done one thing: undergo training to grow up and become Imu's personal guard.
Imu once had such a personal guard, composed of twenty individuals. Later, those twenty individuals each founded twenty countries.
"What are we doing? Naturally, sending you to hell!"
...
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