Chapter 270

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The man clad in white, the self-proclaimed Imu-sama, flung the dead Monkey D. Dragon’s head behind him as it fell towards the sea, thousands of metres below.

Amon’s eyes followed the head momentarily before he looked back up.

Imu spoke nonchalantly from his spot. “As you can tell, I am not here to fight you.”

Amon didn’t give any answer, letting Imu continue. “I want to talk, if you are fine with that. So, where shall we go for a walk?”

Amon observed the man for a moment, before nodding. “I can sense a Sky Island nearby, it seems to be vacant of any inhabitants. Follow me.”

Amon made a clone of himself as his real body instantly teleported towards the island, while the clone guided Imu. He didn’t want that suspicious-looking dude to be behind his real body's back.

The clone Amon sped up, in the hope to see if Imu could keep up or not, and shockingly, even as Amon went beyond a few thousand miles per second, Imu followed suit quite easily.

Amon couldn’t test more than that because by then his clone and Imu had reached the sky island.

It was a children's park, huge in size but everything was broken or destroyed somewhere, it was lacking any lifeforms except some wandering birds.

The clone dissipated into air and Imu dropped in front of Amon who swiftly controlled the clouds with his lightning to form a table and two chairs facing each other.

Amon pointed his hand at a chair and Imu took it gracefully, with him taking one himself.

As Amon sat slowly, he tried to use his «Future Sight» to see what Imu would do if he were to attack right now. However, his future sight… didn’t work. To be more precise, it was a blank future filled with darkness.

Imu slowly took off his mask and then his tall crown as a perfectly sculpted face came out from within, his shoulder-length blonde hair swaying in the wind.

“I suppose you know about me already?” He said but continued without Amon confirming. “People used to call me Imu-sama. I am the Owner of the ownerless throne, The King of this kingless world. In other words, I am the ruler of this world, the sole sovereign of this entire planet since 800-years ago.”

“I have heard about you.” Amon finally spoke. “You are the same person who blew up Skypiea.”

Imu chuckled. “Oh, yeah. I apologise about that, but that’s the reason why I am sitting here instead of fighting you to begin with, you see?” A second later, he spoke again. “I was really impressed with you surviving that, and even throwing that challenge at me. So, even after I watched you kill all my people, even my five servants, I decided to talk to you about a proposal instead of killing you.”

He talked about killing Amon as if it was the easiest thing in the world. 

Amon held himself back from a snicker. He was interested in this proposal of his. Would it be the casual villain line, “Become my underling, and you get to live.”, or would it be something different? Something special, perhaps?

Amon interlocked his fingers on the table. “Proposal? I can listen to that, but first tell me, how did you come out? I believe you were locked, sealed in your little chamber.”

“Oh, you know some deep secrets about me. Was it purely speculation?” He scratched his chin and chuckled before shaking his head. “Anyway, I just had a momentary chance to get out. You see, the Palace I lived in was wrapped from all directions using invisible barriers made from the Barrier-Barrier fruit, which was enhanced with the Haki of legendary ‘Joyboy’. Anyone could enter that place, but I couldn't leave it. However," he let the words hang in the air. "Each time an incarnation of Joyboy dies, the barrier weakens a lot, until the ‘Will’ is passed upon another incarnation.” 

After a moment, he continued. “This has happened dozens of times by now, but even though the barrier grows weaker than ever, I cannot break out. Because the Will of the World pushes against my own will, thus weakening me enough to still be affected by the barrier. Surprisingly, it didn’t do that this time around.” He gave a shallow chuckle. “Guess it wants us two outlanders and eliminate each other.”

Amon’s brows knitted together. “Outlanders?”

Imu chuckled at his weary tone. “No need to act so suspicious, Amon. I guessed it a long time ago. You aren’t from this world, are you? I am the same.”

Amon simply stared at the man as he stared back.

“I am from a galaxy far far from this one, that's why the odd name 'Imu', you see.” Imu spoke again. “I had to escape somewhere safe from my enemies to heal off my wounds, and so I came to… ‘rest’ in this star system nearly a thousand years ago.”

Amon heaved an internal breath. This guy seemed to refer to aliens or life-forms from another planet as ‘outlanders’. Not a reincarnator, like Amon had expected.

‘Also, by rest, he basically means he took hiding in here.’ Amon thought.

“However, I haven't landed on this exact planet back then. I landed on one of the randomly chosen 46 planets of this star system.” Imu spoke. “I lived in peace for a while and waited for my wounds to heal. A decade later, I was mostly healed and decided to leave, but something strange happened.” Imu’s eyes gleamed. “Unlike when I entered this place, there was an invisible aura barrier around this star system, which wasn’t allowing me to leave.”

Amon listened attentively. He hasn’t tried to go outside this star system in his time on the moon, so he didn’t know about this.

“It took me a while to realise what was happening, exactly. One of the planets of this solar system was forming a will of its own, it was at the pinnacle of its existence and so it was forming a [World Core] which is why it didn’t want any invaders invading this area, so it locked the entire star system.”

Imu exchanged glances with Amon, who seemed casual about all this. Imu simply chuckled at that.

All this was new to Amon, but there was no need to express shock on his face.

“That’s why I was shocked to realise someone from the outside, aka you, had come here even though the World Core isn’t complete, meaning the aura-barrier is still active up there."

He continued. "As you can expect, this planet we are sitting on is the one who's forming it's will, it's core. In other words, the World Core is the One Piece sought by many.” Imu spoke. “All planets have a will of their own, but 99% of them are just subconscious and shouldn’t even be allowed to be referred to as ‘Will’. When a World Core is formed, a single planet merges with the will from all the other planets in the star system and combines to form a perfect will. Therefore gaining intelligence beyond most intelligent beings.”

'...So kind of like a Dungeon Core.' Amon thought in his mins.

Imu continued, observing Amon. “When I realised that a World Core was so close to me, I immediately jumped on this planet to wait until the Core was finished forming before the ‘Dikasti’ could reach this place.”

That meant the World Core could be used by a third party. Amon could only imagine what power that would grant someone … but he had one confusion.

“Dikas… What?”

Imu nodded. “The Dikasti. They are an organisation formed by 12 so-called ‘Gods’." 

Amon frowned, seeing which Imu chuckled. "They are just people with too much power, not any actual Gods. Ironically, they're kind of like you." 

He chuckled some more. "There are thousands of millions of star systems in this galaxy, and there are billions more galaxies in this universe. The Dikasti are the ones who maintain order around almost all and each part of the universe.”

That had an ominous feeling to it.

“Anyway,” Imu continued. “Something changed when the barrier formed around this star system. It cut this whole area away from the [Root], the power source of this universe.” Amon narrowed his eyes as Imu continued. “People of this planet can use Haki, no? That’s their own will, letting them do the impossible. However, the people outside this star system are stronger than any of you guys combined. Those people can destroy stars with a thought. Because they draw power from the ‘Root’, which is basically the Will of the Universe.”

Or in other words, the World Core but with the power of a Universe.

'So we are just stuck in a Safe-Room of a bigger dungeon… heh.' Amon thought again, as Imu continued.

“However, when I landed on this planet nearly a thousand years ago, I no longer had access to the Root because of the aura-barrier. Which in turn made me a weakling on this planet, as my power that came from the Root started to fade away at a rapid speed. So I had to stand up on my own feet and train this ‘Haki’ thing for a few years before I got decently strong.”

In other words, ‘Even though he seems to be a big shot in this universe—assuming all this isn’t made up bullshit—currently, he is at his weakest.’ Amon thought in his mind.

Imu continued. “There were quite a few problems along with that. Such as I could die of old age, now that I wasn’t drawing power from the Root. So I had to hunt down the user of Op-Op Fruit, then I forced the guy to give me immortality, which in turn gave me this ring thingy in my eyes.” He pointed at the black rings in his red eyes. “The world, however, saw me as an invader and kept trying to eradicate me from time to time. I wasn’t defeated, of course, but I was sealed in the end. Then, I spent a few centuries locked, and finally came out a few minutes ago."

He stopped speaking right then, giving Amon a while to digest all this.

People who could destroy stars just with their thoughts…

Dikasti, an organisation broad enough to cover the entire universe…

The Root, the ultimate power source of this universe…

Finally, the World Core…

“...What’s your proposal?” Amon spoke after a long minute. “You have caught my interest if that was your intention.”

Imu chuckled. “Indeed, indeed. I am first of all interested in your existence. How did you manage to enter this locked-down place when even I couldn’t leave? Are you one of the Dikasti? Did they sense the world core and send you here?” He shook his head. “I have contemplated that thought for ages, and I know you aren’t one of them, in fact I believe even you don’t know how you entered this place.”

Amon nodded after considering his answer.

“So, my proposal is...” Imu stood up and reached out his hand. “Join me, Amon. With the world core on our hands, we can make an organisation of our own. With that power that can rival the Apostles of the Twelve Gods, we will be unstoppable. Together, with you and your people who you have been training for decades, we would form an organisation toppling the Dikasti. It might take a few millennia, but we will come out as the ruler of this Universe!”

The world went eerily silent at that and Imu waited for Amon to accept his hand.

Amon ran his hand through his hair, in between his horns, and started to laugh.

“...Hahaha.”

Imu watched, his expression going grim as Amon laughed for a minute.

He finally stopped and tilted his head at Imu. “How long have you been watching me, Imu-sama?”

Imu retracted his hand back. “Hn, it has been 8 years now. I started observing you since the day you got your hands on the Rumble-Rumble fruit.”

Amon stood up with a smirk. “You know me for a long time then, even if I consider you haven’t watched me 24/7.” Amon’s voice went crispy. “Then, based on your long observation of me, do you think I would work under you? Or rather, do you think I believe you at all about working together? Also, what do you mean by `when ‘we’ get our hands on the World Core′? You sound as if you’d give me a bite outta it.”

Amon chuckled to himself while Imu smiled.

“Think this through. Of course, I would be the one taking the Core, I would be the owner of our organisation, but even then, isn’t that a sweet offer? You’d be the second in command.” He spread his arms and spoke soothingly. “In this entire universe, you’d be the 2nd strongest.”

[Image Here]

Amon unsheathed his sword. “There is a limit to delusions, you old voyeur.”

Even as Imu's face went grin, Amon raised his hand in the air and slashed his blade forward. 

«Dimensional Slash»

A green curved sword energy, vertically as tall as a two story building, and horizontally as wide as a palm where the dark world of the Door Dimension could be seen, went towards Imu. 

If the blade were to hit anyone in the middle of their body, it would teleport the part hit by it in the door dimension, therefore severing their body in two without caring for any defence.

Any defence except Haki.

Amon could feel Imu coat his palm with armament even with the lack of ink black colour on his skin.

With the back of his palm, Imu softly slapped the curved sword energy away which crashed into the ruined park, cutting a part of the sky island in half, as he sighed softly.

“Then I believe I have no use for you, fellow outlander.”

Saying so, he rushed at Amon at a terrible speed.

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Author’s Note: Enough DBZ for today. 

E/N: And so it has become a huge cradle reference.