Chapter 20: The Final Truth
The sky above the Pangea Castle was dark, heavy with the weight of Imu's lingering Haki. The Thousand Sunny crash-landed onto the shattered plateau of Mariejois, its crew leaping out, ready for the ultimate defense.
"The crew holds the line!" Luffy commanded, his eyes fixed on the central spire of the castle. "I'm taking the head! No one follows!"
Luffy charged through the ruins, using his Conqueror's Haki to tear through the last vestiges of Cipher Pol and the Castle Guards.
The Apex and the Void
He found Imu waiting in the Throne Room, standing not on the Empty Throne itself, but in the center of the vast, marble floor. The room was cracked, and the ancient ruler was pale, weakened by the loss of their Void Weapon, but radiating a terrifying, desperate authority.
"Monkey D. Luffy," Imu said, their voice calm, final, and absolute. "Your ancestor cleared the path for you, but he only proved that physical force cannot defeat the law of the world. You cannot defeat Nothingness."
Imu raised their hand, and the Void Fruit's power, while weakened, erupted. The marble floor around them dissolved, and Imu manifested a terrifying Black Spear of Void, aimed straight at Luffy's chest.
Luffy didn't hesitate. He immediately activated Gear Fifth, transforming into the Warrior of Liberation. His form was a riot of ridiculous, unconstrained movement. He was the antithesis of Imu's absolute stillness.
"I don't care about your laws!" Luffy shouted, stretching his arm back. "I don't care about your Nothingness! I just want you to stop getting in the way!"
Imu lunged forward, thrusting the Black Spear. Luffy met the blow, not with Haki, but with a massive, ridiculous rubber fist. The Void Spear struck the rubber, and for a terrifying moment, the power struggled to dissolve the concept of elasticity.
Imu pressed the attack, forcing the Void to erase the rubber.
"The D. is a disease, a flaw in the design of the world!" Imu hissed. "The Founder knew this, which is why he was sealed! We will erase your bloodline, your dreams, and the concept of Joy itself!"
The Founder's Final Lesson
As Imu spoke the name Joy, Luffy's mind flashed, not with his own memories, but with a single, overwhelming pulse of ancestral consciousness—the final lesson Kelean had sent him before falling.
Luffy understood it instantly. Kelean had taught them that the world was built on a Great Restraint, a physical suppression that absorbed their power. The D. lineage was defeated in the past because they sought to fight a physical law with physical power.
But Kelean's ultimate sacrifice had shattered the weapons of the Great Restraint. Now, Luffy had to shatter the law itself.
Luffy's grin widened, reaching the absolute peak of his liberation. He stopped fighting Imu's spear directly. He grabbed the Void Spear, which instantly began to dissolve his skin, and pulled Imu into his personal domain of freedom.
"You hate joy, right?" Luffy laughed, ignoring the conceptual agony. "You hate freedom? Well, you're coming with me!"
Luffy used his final, most powerful attack—not a destructive blow, but a blow of pure Reality Manipulation.
He slammed Imu and the Black Spear of Void into the floor, transforming the ancient marble into a giant, comically bouncy trampoline.
Imu, the eternal ruler, was instantly thrown off balance, bouncing uncontrollably, stripped of the dignity and stillness that sustained their power.
Luffy leaped high, his colossal, Haki-infused foot coming down for the final time.
"Gomu Gomu no Gigantic Freedom!"
The blow was a perfect, unconstrained statement of Boundless Will. It did not merely break the body; it shattered the absolute authority that Imu wielded. The attack drove Imu through the floor, through the castle's core, and deep into the unsealed, fragile earth beneath Mariejois.
The moment Imu hit the earth, the entire Pangea Castle—the foundation of the World Government—collapsed into dust. The supreme ruler of the world was defeated.
The True Dawn
The battle was over. The final lie had been shattered by a single punch of ridiculous freedom.
Across the world, the effect was immediate and profound. All World Government control systems failed. Every surviving Marine fleet, suddenly cut off from central command, lost morale and scattered. The Great Purge ended not with a bang, but with a universal, final silence.
Monkey D. Luffy, exhausted but alive, stood on the ruins of Mariejois. He had finished the war started eight centuries before.
Far away, atop the newly scarred Red Line, the statue-like figure of Monkey D. Kelean—the Ancestor, the Founder—felt the ultimate victory of his descendant.
A single, metallic-red tear ran down Kelean's cheek. The burden was lifted. His sacrifice had succeeded. The new world was free.
This epic story concludes with Kelean's sacrifice clearing the way for Luffy to fulfill the ultimate dream of the D. family.