Chapter 12: The Sundering of the Red Line
The Crimson Monolith was unstoppable. It rose from the depths of the Grand Line, piercing the clouds that perpetually shroud the upper reaches of the Red Line. It was a journey of moments, not days, fueled by the cold, boundless will of Monkey D. Kelean.
The Red Line—the colossal continental wall that separated the world and provided the foundation for the Celestial Dragons' fortress—stood like a monument to eight centuries of oppression. Marineford, the Holy Land of Mariejois, and the Pangea Castle all lay atop this insurmountable geographic barrier.
Mariejois: The Apex of Fear
Inside the Pangea Castle, panic was a suffocating mist. The Five Elders, stripped of their composure, were scrambling.
"The satellite reports are confirmed! He disregarded the currents, disregarded the wind. He is treating the New World as a straight line!" one Elder shrieked, clutching his sword.
"The fleet! Where are the Admirals?" another demanded.
"Paralyzed! No one can approach the Calm Belt after his demonstration! And the presence… it's crushing the will of every Marine below Vice Admiral rank near the Red Line," the final Elder reported, his voice shaking. "We are defended only by this wall, and the True Weapon."
Imu, seated in the eternal shadow of the Empty Throne, watched the holographic image of the massive black ship approaching. Unlike the Elders, Imu was terrifyingly still.
"He does not approach with cannon fire or an army," Imu whispered, the sound chillingly soft. "He approaches with the arrogance of the first age. He seeks to remake the world's geography."
The Founder's Hammer
The Crimson Monolith stopped dead less than a kilometer from the base of the Red Line. The gargantuan wall of earth and rock towered into the sky, seemingly unassailable.
Kelean stood alone at the prow. He did not need to climb. He needed to command.
He extended both arms toward the massive, billion-ton cliff face. His eyes glowed, and the energy was not focused on the rock, but on the trace minerals—the iron ore, the deep veins of salt, and the countless tons of fossilized lifeblood—that made up the continental crust.
"This is the monument to your betrayal," Kelean's voice resonated, amplified not by sound, but by pure will, vibrating through the rock itself. "The Wall of Lies. Be undone."
The Blood-Blood Fruit (Chi Chi no Mi) achieved its ultimate awakening. Kelean commanded the fundamental structure of the earth. The vast, sheer cliff face of the Red Line began to glow a deep, malignant crimson.
The rock did not explode. It liquefied.
A mile-wide section of the Red Line, stretching from the water line up to the height of the Pangea Castle, suddenly lost its structural integrity. It became a churning, metallic-red slurry, a colossal waterfall of molten earth and iron controlled entirely by Kelean's Haki.
The material—the very foundation of the Celestial Dragon's sanctuary—was being drawn toward him, not in pieces, but as a controlled, magnetic force. He was unmaking the Red Line.
The Elders screamed. The sound of stone being pulled apart at a geological scale was deafening. Mariejois was shaking violently.
"He is tearing the earth itself apart!"
Kelean maintained the concentration, holding the liquefied Red Line at bay, revealing the impossible, empty space where the wall had once been. The sea rushed forward, the Grand Line and the New World momentarily touching through the shattered continent.
Then, with a final, crushing exertion of his will, Kelean slammed the massive, liquid mass of the Red Line upward.
The billion tons of molten earth became a titanic, kilometer-wide pillar of crimson magma, thrusting straight into the heavens. It bypassed Mariejois entirely, punching through the clouds and the atmosphere. The pressure created an air vortex so immense it momentarily cleared the sky over the entire surrounding ocean.
This was not an attack; it was a display of force. A warning that no physical barrier would protect them.
Imu, seeing the holographic display of the Red Line severed, finally moved. Imu stood from the Empty Throne and stepped out onto the balcony of the Pangea Castle, facing the towering column of controlled magma.
"The Age of the First King is over," Imu declared, their voice carrying across the ravaged capital. "You can shatter the earth, Kelean, but you cannot shatter the Heavenly Authority."
From beneath the crumbling castle, a vast, complex mechanism began to open. A light, pure and terrible, began to emanate from the central spire—the ultimate destructive power of the World Government, the power that had wiped out kingdoms in an instant.
Kelean stepped off his ship and walked onto the exposed, smoking ledge of the shattered Red Line. He looked up at Imu, standing atop the world, preparing their final judgment weapon.
"You call it Authority," Kelean stated, his voice ringing with the finality of history. "I call it the Last Lie. And I have come to end it."