Faced with Imu's sudden attack, Joy Boy and Queen Lily could only be described as utterly shocked.
They had never imagined that Imu would actually possess the qualifications to use the Solar Crystal, much less directly apply the Solar Crystal's power to himself!
The power of wishes contained within the Solar Crystal possessed an almost omnipotent force. As long as one had enough imagination, it could accomplish anything.
But… the imagination a person could summon in a single instant was ultimately limited.
And that limit, combined with the amount of energy inside the Solar Crystal, would become an uncontrollable variable. Because of that, using the Solar Crystal's power on a human body was an extremely dangerous act.
Even the Lunarian race, who had possessed the Solar Crystal for countless years before this, had very few precedents of using the Solar Crystal in such a way.
To people like them, who stood at the very peak of the world, this was hardly a secret. Imu naturally could not have been unaware of it either.
Yet the instant he came into contact with the Solar Crystal, without making any preparations whatsoever, he directly applied its power to himself.
Joy Boy and Queen Lily could not understand Imu's madness.
But at that very moment, perhaps because his long-plotted ambition had finally been achieved, Imu could not even wait a single second longer. Right in front of Joy Boy and Queen Lily, he directly used the Solar Crystal, causing himself to begin evolving.
This was Imu: a vile schemer who appeared lofty and untouchable, as though everything was within his calculations, yet in truth was arrogant beyond measure, impatient for quick success, and rotten to the core!
Perhaps even Imu himself did not realize that because he feared Joy Boy's power far too much, the moment he touched the Solar Crystal, he made such an unwise move.
And this became the fatal mistake that ruined everything for him when he was only one step away from crossing into perfection!
Dark energy formed a massive cocoon, completely enveloping Imu's body and transforming it.
At that instant, Imu's arms spread out unnaturally, and the Solar Crystal slipped from his hands and fell to the ground.
The evolution did not last very long—only about a minute or so.
But what Imu never expected was…
When he emerged from the evolutionary cocoon once more, reborn in the body of a demon, there was no longer any trace of Joy Boy or Queen Lily's aura within the entire Ancient Kingdom!
That was right!
The moment the Solar Crystal fell to the ground, Queen Lily, realizing that something was terribly wrong, took the initiative to seize the Solar Crystal. Then, using its power, she teleported herself and Joy Boy directly out of the Ancient Kingdom, which had already fallen under the control of the Twenty Kings' armies.
Everything had happened far too suddenly. Even Queen Lily herself had not fully figured out what was going on.
But she understood one thing: everyone had been deceived!
They had been deceived by Imu… by this pure-blooded human king recorded in the clan archives, the current head of the Nerona family!
At that moment, Queen Lily only felt that she had been as naive as a child. Before her stood Joy Boy, peerless in both strength and spirit. Behind her stood Imu, whose schemes blotted out the sky…
Only she and the other eighteen rulers had been caught between the two of them, played with like toys.
After taking a deep breath, Queen Lily looked at Joy Boy, who was equally dumbfounded. In the end, she made a decision that went against her own position.
She was going to defect and join Joy Boy's side.
However, this did not represent her Nefertari family. It represented only herself.
The savage aura Imu had released during his evolution just now was absolutely not something a benevolent king who cared for the world should possess.
She realized that the situation had already begun moving in an unpredictable direction.
Because of the greed of the Twenty Kings and Joy Boy's repeated concessions, the world might very well become something held entirely in Imu's palm.
Joy Boy and Queen Lily immediately reached an agreement.
Although they did not know exactly what Imu was plotting, they knew one thing for certain: Imu absolutely could not be allowed to become the ruler of this world.
Otherwise, the world would surely be plunged into misery and devastation.
And so, this era that seemed cursed by fate once again ushered in war!
Under Joy Boy's call, the samurai of Wano Country, the fish-man army of Ryugu Kingdom, the Mink Tribe's Sulong troops, and even the moon people who had not yet been cut off from the world all gathered together, once again launching war against the Ancient Kingdom that had been seized by outsiders.
On the other side, Imu, who had obtained demonic power from the Solar Crystal, also began revealing his true face to the remaining eighteen rulers.
He did not know why Joy Boy and Queen Lily had suddenly disappeared after his evolution. In Imu's eyes, this was most likely a backup plan Joy Boy had left behind.
But none of that mattered anymore!
The energy contained within the Solar Crystal had been almost completely exhausted by him. The tiny bit of residual energy left could no longer stir up any waves.
In Imu's eyes, now that he possessed demonic power, he was already the strongest existence under heaven.
He felt terrifyingly powerful. Even Joy Boy, whom he had once looked up to, would absolutely no longer be his match.
With this power and arrogance, Imu made a deal with the remaining eighteen kings…
He allowed the remaining eighteen royal families to exist in this world under the name of "gods" and establish an organization that would rule the world—what would later become the World Government.
And in order to prove his promise to the eighteen kings, Imu personally slaughtered every member of the Nerona family other than himself!
In this world, one person capable of controlling the Solar Crystal was enough!
From the beginning, Imu had never intended to allow anyone else with Nerona blood to continue living in this world. It just so happened that he could use them as bargaining chips in his deal with the other rulers.
Those who could become members of the Twenty Kings were none of them simple figures.
If he could obtain their support, it would only allow Imu to rule the world even faster.
Seeing that Imu not only possessed powerful and terrifying abilities, but had also personally buried the Nerona family, the remaining eighteen rulers had no choice but to submit to him.
And so, an enormous organization that would rule the world for over eight hundred years—the World Government—was born!!!
Meanwhile, the forces gathered by Joy Boy once again attacked the Ancient Kingdom.
The flames of war between freedom and domination once more swept across the entire Ancient Kingdom.
What Imu never expected was…
Even though he had already obtained supreme demonic power through the transformation of wish energy, when facing Joy Boy's power of freedom, he still fell into a disadvantage!
Perhaps it was because, in that dark era, the desire for the Sun God to descend had been far too immense, causing the Devil Fruit ability condensed from the wish power of the "Sun God" to far surpass all other Devil Fruits.
Together with Joy Boy's strength, which seemed almost like that of a child of destiny, even Imu, who had stolen the Solar Crystal, was still no match for Joy Boy.
However, compared to Imu's side, the armies of the Twenty Kings defeated Joy Boy's forces with overwhelming strength.
After obtaining the "power of immortality" from Imu, several rulers who had already been powerful became even more unstoppable on the battlefield.
From that moment onward, the scales of battle began to tilt.
Although Joy Boy was stronger than Imu, he was still far from being able to hold Imu back while also dealing with the eighteen kings.
In the end, Joy Boy and his friends were still defeated by Imu, who possessed mysterious power.
But they did not leave immediately!
Joy Boy took a group of companions and hid within the Ancient Kingdom.
The Poneglyphs Joy Boy had previously asked Wano Country to help engrave were still inside the royal palace of the Ancient Kingdom.
In Joy Boy's view, they were the only possible chance to reveal the truth to the world, so he had to take all those Poneglyphs away!
For this, Joy Boy specifically borrowed a special helper from one of his friends—the only daughter of Wano Country's Amatsuki family, Kozuki Toki!!!
At the same time, she was also a special ability user who had eaten the Time-Time Fruit!
The stone monuments of history were incomparably enormous and extremely difficult to move. Therefore, from the very beginning, Joy Boy had never planned to directly carry those Poneglyphs away.
Instead, he intended to have Kozuki Toki, the Time-Time Fruit user, help send all those Poneglyphs into the future!
The power of the Time-Time Fruit could not only send people or objects through time, but also cause a certain degree of spatial movement.
Although no one knew whether that spatial movement was caused by the randomness of the Devil Fruit's ability, or whether, because the planet itself rotated, traveling through time created what people perceived as "displacement"…
In short, this was precisely the result Joy Boy wanted to see.
Their plan went very smoothly. Soon, inside the castle of the Ancient Kingdom, Joy Boy found the guardian of the historical stone tablets—Queen Lily!
That was right!
After reaching a shared goal with Joy Boy, Queen Lily had not directly joined Joy Boy's forces.
After all, her Nefertari family was still with the armies of the Twenty Royal Families. If she openly defected, the fate awaiting her family could easily be imagined.
So after the war began, Queen Lily found an excuse and returned.
Because she already held a certain leadership position among the Twenty Kings, no one suspected that she might betray them.
Even Imu had never imagined that Queen Lily would betray him. He easily believed the "fact" that Joy Boy had used the Solar Crystal to abduct her at the time.
It could be said that if Joy Boy had not already given away all the slots for granting demonic power—and if reclaiming one required the death of one of the Twenty Kings—Imu would even have wanted to bestow his power upon Queen Lily.
In Imu's eyes, the so-called Twenty Royal Families would all become tools in his hands in the future.
In this world, only a woman like Queen Lily was worthy of sharing the world with him!
That was right. From beginning to end, Imu had secretly loved Queen Lily.
It was only that in the past, he had not possessed enough status, so he did not dare express it. Now that he possessed overwhelming power, he hoped Queen Lily would voluntarily submit to him.
Unfortunately, this wish of Imu's never came true.
Even after the great war ended, Queen Lily never showed Imu the slightest hint of that kind of intention.
And once the war ended, naturally, it was time for the ever-popular stage of dividing the spoils.
Although Imu now occupied an absolutely dominant position, he also knew that he could not accomplish anything relying on himself alone.
He needed tools. Excellent tools.
Therefore, when it came to the postwar cake, he showed no stinginess at all and allowed the other rulers to divide it among themselves.
After all, no matter how much they obtained in the end, it would still remain something inside the World Government.
And the World Government belonged to Imu!!!
Lily, who did not participate in dividing the spoils, took the initiative to find herself an idle assignment…
Handling the historical stone tablets created by Joy Boy.
Whether in the eyes of Imu or the other eighteen kings, these things absolutely could not be allowed to remain in this world.
It was just that this job held no profit whatsoever and allowed no room for carelessness, so it very smoothly fell into the hands of the Nefertari family, who neither fought nor competed.
And this allowed Joy Boy's plan to proceed smoothly.
Under Queen Lily's operation, she used the Solar Crystal's power to strengthen Kozuki Toki's fruit ability, allowing Kozuki Toki—who at the time was still only an innocent young girl ignorant of worldly affairs—to easily send even massive objects like the Poneglyphs through time.
As each Poneglyph was transported away, Queen Lily used the Solar Crystal to perform one final enhancement on Kozuki Toki's fruit ability.
Only this time, what she strengthened was not the fruit ability itself, but the intensity of Kozuki Toki's ability in a single use.
Under normal circumstances, after being amplified by the Solar Crystal, Kozuki Toki's fruit ability could at most send an object twenty years into the future.
But this time, after her power was enhanced, the length of time Kozuki Toki could send an object in a single use was over eight hundred years!!!
That was right. This time, Joy Boy and the others planned to send the Solar Crystal into the future!
And even its destination could be freely chosen by Kozuki Toki.
Something as dangerous as the Solar Crystal absolutely could not be allowed to fall into Imu's hands again, giving him another chance to use its power.
Otherwise, this world would never again see the light of day.
After some discussion, Joy Boy and the others ultimately decided that the place where the Solar Crystal would appear in the future would be the island he had once invented so more people would adapt to the sea—the Final Island!!!
Finally, in order to prevent this world from being ruled by a demon, everyone present, as well as Joy Boy's companions, were assigned special tasks.
For example, after Queen Lily left a letter for her younger brother in the Nefertari family, telling him to inherit her throne…
She had Kozuki Toki activate her fruit ability once more and send her to a certain point in the future.
She planned to use time travel to escape Imu's gaze, then establish an organization dedicated to researching and searching for the historical stone tablets, so as to warn later generations.
Barring any accidents, she would name that organization—Ohara!
On the other side, Joy Boy's companion, a giant robot created with lunar technology and the Solar Crystal while Joy Boy served as the Void King—Emeth—would likewise be sent to the future. He would be responsible for waiting for Joy Boy, who also intended to travel through time.
They planned to find their allies in the future, allies who would have spent hundreds of years resting and recovering, then build an even stronger army and launch another attack against the Ancient Kingdom.
The war between them and Imu absolutely would not end so simply!
This would be a war that would continue for at least eight hundred years, perhaps even longer…
An epoch-shaking war!!!
(End of Chapter)