After piecing together the truth behind all of Imu's abilities, Ash looked once more at the colossal creature before him.
He wanted nothing more than to burn it to ashes immediately, but doing so on the Blue Sea would release an unimaginable amount of heat. If too much seawater evaporated, the sea level itself could collapse.
Left with no better option, Ash pointed toward Imu and instantly soared into the sky while dragging the monster's enormous body behind him.
In a flash, the two of them pierced through the White Sea ten thousand meters above the world.
Moments later, between the world and the moon, Ash finally stopped.
"Hm?"
Ash blinked in surprise and took a deep breath.
"I can actually breathe out here."
He looked around the empty void of space with interest.
"I wonder if this is because of the Pirate World's strange ecosystem… or because I'm no longer human."
Then he shrugged.
"Doesn't matter."
Ash turned toward Imu and smiled faintly.
"A sky burial suits someone like you. Consider it special treatment for the hidden final boss of this world."
As he spoke, crimson-gold True Fire of the Sun gathered in his palm.
Perhaps stimulated by the flames, Imu briefly regained a trace of awareness.
When it noticed the endless void around them and the terrifying fire nearby, fear instantly appeared in its double-ringed pupils.
Its voice trembled.
"What… is this place?"
Ash smiled.
"The place where you'll die without a grave."
…
Half a year passed after Imu was cremated in space.
The sea calendar advanced to the year 1520.
A brand-new World Government had officially been established. Through the combined efforts of Sengoku and Dragon, nearly five hundred nations across the world, regardless of wealth or status, joined together to form the United Nations Council of the New World Government.
As for Ash, he flatly rejected Sengoku and Dragon's invitation for him to become the first prime minister of the new regime.
He would have to be insane to accept a position that required endless work every day.
Were the delicacies of the world no longer delicious?
Had the mountains and rivers lost their beauty?
During the past six months, Sali and the other Dawn Faction ability users had repeatedly swept through the Four Seas and the Grand Line, eradicating countless pirate crews hiding in the shadows.
Blackbeard Teach's newly formed pirate crew was completely annihilated before it could truly rise to power.
Their only contribution was a handful of Devil Fruits.
Meanwhile, Sali's forces also accidentally captured Miss Bakkin and Edward Weevil.
Ash immediately handed both of them over to Zephyr.
Whether Zephyr chose to kill them or torture them was entirely his decision. Either way, Ash considered it repayment for the Rokushiki and Haki training notes Zephyr had given him long ago.
Besides Sali's operations, two major developments also arrived from Wyper's side.
The good news was that, after an exhaustive search, they finally discovered the final Road Poneglyph.
The bad news was that Red-Haired Shanks had secretly moved it to Elbaph, a nation that once held deep hostility toward the Dawn Faction.
Everyone initially believed obtaining the final Road Poneglyph would inevitably require a war against the Giant Kingdom.
Unexpectedly, the giants displayed no hostility whatsoever.
Not only did they willingly provide a rubbing of the Road Poneglyph, but they also guided everyone to view the ancient Divine Murals that resembled prehistoric graffiti.
After examining the contents of the Divine Canon, Ash developed several theories regarding the giants' sudden change in attitude and the truths hidden within those murals.
All of those answers were finally revealed on the day the Dawn sailed around the world and reached Lodestar Island.
On Lodestar Island, Nami fulfilled her lifelong dream by completing a world map.
At the same time, Robin deciphered the locations indicated by the four Road Poneglyphs.
Everyone stared at the intersecting point in disbelief.
The legendary final island, Laugh Tale, was actually located there.
Still, regardless of the truth, they had to see it for themselves.
…
Loguetown, East Blue.
Ash and the others sat inside a tavern, drinking strong East Blue liquor while slowly processing the secrets of the Void Century they had just uncovered.
Ironically, the truth recorded on Laugh Tale was astonishingly simple.
It even explained the bizarre geography and celestial phenomena of the Pirate World itself.
Nearly one thousand years ago, the Lunarians were forced to migrate to the Blue Sea because the moon's energy had nearly been exhausted.
When they first arrived, they used advanced technology to enslave the people of the Blue Sea and harvest energy from the planet.
However, because the environment of the Blue Sea differed greatly from the moon, the Lunarians began conducting endless experiments on humans in an attempt to create perfect lifeforms capable of adapting to the new world.
Thus, many races were born.
The Lunarians, the Buccaneers, the Mink Tribe, the Longarm Tribe, the Longleg Tribe, Fish-Men, Merfolk, and Giants.
But after nearly a century of oppression, the people of the Blue Sea could endure no more.
They prayed for a god who could oppose the Lunarians and deliver them from slavery.
And from those wishes and desires, the Sun God Nika Fruit was born.
Joy Boy of the Giant Race obtained the Nika Fruit and united every race willing to resist, leading them into war against the Lunarians.
That war ended in victory for Joy Boy's alliance.
Driven mad by defeat and impending extinction, the Lunarians chose to destroy the entire world alongside themselves.
Using ancient black technology, they exhausted nearly all remaining energy to force Uranus into pulling the moon itself toward the Blue Sea.
They both succeeded and failed.
Although Joy Boy's alliance ultimately stopped the complete collision, the moon had already been drawn dangerously close to the planet.
That proximity caused catastrophic changes to the world's magnetic poles.
North and south reversed.
The equator and polar regions nearly swapped places entirely.
The original equator rose from the ocean due to violent crustal upheaval, eventually becoming the Red Line, the so-called Serpent of Karma Fire described in the Giants' Divine Canon.
The Red Line split the world apart, isolating entire seas from one another.
During this period, Joy Boy's prestige reached its peak after leading the races to freedom.
However, despite their liberation, the majority of humans no longer wished to remain under the rule of the Giant Race.
At the same time, more and more Devil Fruits began appearing throughout the world, born from the desires and thoughts of mankind itself, just like the Nika Fruit.
People believed these Devil Fruits were seeds sent by the Forest God to observe the world.
Through them, humanity gained miraculous powers.
And finally, the power to slay gods.
Meanwhile, because the magnetic poles had shifted, the ice caps of the original north and south poles melted entirely.
The global sea level rose by nearly two hundred meters.
The former poles became the new Calm Belts, while countless nations were swallowed beneath the rising seas.
This became the ultimate manifestation of the Sea God's power.
Facing the endless floods, Joy Boy eventually decided to use the three Ancient Weapons left behind by the Lunarians to bombard the Red Line itself, creating Reverse Mountain, the only passage connecting the Four Seas.
By then, however, the energy of the Ancient Weapons had nearly been depleted.
Although the Four Seas were indirectly reconnected, the inversion of the planet's magnetic structure created violent magnetic abnormalities throughout the newly formed equator, now known as the Grand Line.
Countries such as Wano Country and the Giant Kingdom suffered catastrophic environmental changes.
The people of Wano migrated to the highest elevations to survive.
The Mink Tribe relocated onto Zunesha's back.
Then came the Great War.
Twenty human kingdoms united and launched another god-slaying campaign against the Giant Race.
Despite Joy Boy's leadership, the overwhelming number of enemies and Devil Fruit users eventually doomed his alliance to defeat.
Before his fall, Joy Boy hid Pluton beneath Wano Country and instructed the craftsmen of Wano to carve the Poneglyphs.
He also left behind an apology letter for the Mermaid Princess Poseidon, who had died fighting beside him.
After Joy Boy's defeat, the Giant Kingdom collapsed.
The surviving giants scattered across the world.
The largest group settled near the branches of the Treasure Tree Adam, eventually forming Elbaph.
Meanwhile, the giant kingdom itself sank beneath the sea.
Only two elevated regions remained above water.
Those remnants later became Lodestar Island and Loguetown.
Joy Boy truly had hidden all his secrets on the Final Island.
Because that island was his homeland.
Loguetown.
The true island of beginning and end.
Because it represented both.
The legendary treasure that connected everything was hidden beneath the sea itself, an enormous continent stretching across the Four Seas.
No wonder Roger laughed after reaching Laugh Tale.
The entire journey was one massive joke.
To sail from Loguetown searching for the Final Island, only to return to where everything began.
How could that not be hilarious?
The records of the Void Century ended there.
What happened after Joy Boy's defeat was not recorded on Laugh Tale, including the rise of the Celestial Dragons and the formation of the original World Government.
However, the truth was easy enough to infer.
After defeating Joy Boy's kingdom, the twenty kings relocated to the Red Line, fearing their original kingdoms would eventually sink beneath the rising seas.
There, they discovered Uranus and established the World Government.
Only Queen Nefertari D. Lily of Alabasta opposed the others.
She believed continuing to enslave the world made them no different from the Lunarians.
In her eyes, they would become even worse than Joy Boy's Giant Kingdom.
After all, Joy Boy had fought for freedom.
How could those who claimed victory turn around and strip freedom away from others?
The disagreement split the alliance.
On her journey back to Alabasta, Lily was captured by Nerona Imu.
Imu had long coveted both Lily and the vast lands of Alabasta.
After hearing Lily praise Joy Boy and claim the twenty kingdoms were inferior to him, Imu completely lost control.
Using Devil Fruit abilities, Imu seized control of Lily and forced the awakened Tome-Tome Fruit to perform the immortality surgery.
But the awakening briefly restored Lily's consciousness, just as it had with Junko.
Before losing herself completely, Lily tampered with Imu's body.
Imu gained immortality.
But both body and soul slowly transformed into female form forever.
And because Imu desired eternal life and godhood, Lily ensured that Imu would never leave behind descendants.
Pretending to remain under Imu's control, Lily eventually escaped the Red Line.
Before dying, she spread a prophecy across the world.
One day, the flag of dawn would rise.
Imu pursued her in fury, only for both Devil Fruits to awaken simultaneously in the sea between Sabaody Archipelago and Water Seven.
The awakening permanently transformed that region into a sea of endless mist.
The River Styx itself.
The entrance to the underworld.
Afterward, Imu realized that while the power of Styx reduced the weakness to seawater, the power of the Goddess of Night caused an intense hatred and fear of sunlight.
Imu understood that this was Lily's revenge.
But there was nothing they could do.
For the next eight hundred years, Imu hid within the darkness of Mary Geoise.
And the true meaning of the Will of D was finally revealed.
Dawn.
The Will of Dawn.
May 5th.
…
Through the combined efforts of the New World Government, Fish-Man Island, the Dawn Faction, and countless allied forces, Ash finally gathered the five hundred Devil Fruits required for the system's unique mission.
The instant the mission panel displayed [500/500], the long-silent electronic voice finally rang out once more.
[Beep, unique mission completed…]
[Unbinding and detaching…]
Ash's face immediately darkened.
"What the hell?!"
"I worked this hard just for you to abandon me?!"
[Beep, detaching target is the Creation Component carried within the host's soul, not the editor system…]
[Beep, Creation Component successfully detached…]
[Beep, hidden system message triggered…]
[Brother, the war was lost, but everything is not over yet. Thank you for your sacrifices in life, and for gathering world-origin energy after reincarnation to recharge the Creation Component.]
[Now you can finally rest. Becoming a truly free god of another world may not be a bad choice.]
[Also, there's a gift waiting for you on the moon.]
[If we win someday… perhaps we'll meet again. Goodbye.]
Ash froze.
So the system itself still remained.
But then…
What exactly was the Creation Component?
And who was this "brother" who left behind the message?
Instead of answers, completing the mission had only created even more questions.
Ash frowned briefly before shaking his head.
No point overthinking it.
If answers existed, he would eventually discover them.
Besides…
There was supposedly a gift waiting for him on the moon.
Might as well check.
…
The moon itself was rather unremarkable.
The ancient Lunarian city looked almost identical to the ruins Enel discovered in the original story's cover pages.
But not far away stood something completely different.
A massive streamlined spaceship unlike anything in the Pirate World.
Ash's eyes widened instantly.
"Holy hell…"
"That thing is huge!"
"No wonder they said I could become a free god in another world. They really understood exactly what I wanted."
"The Pirate World is still too small."
"If space pirates exist in the cover stories, then there must be countless civilizations beyond this world."
"It would be a waste not to see them."
Ash laughed loudly.
"May 5th really is a perfect day to set sail."
"I should head back and ask Sali, Robin, Nami, and the others how many want to explore the universe with me."
…
Sky Island.
"A spaceship?! We're absolutely coming with you!"
Sali, Pini, Youki, and the others shouted excitedly after hearing the news.
They had long believed there were no more mountains left to climb within this world.
Now an entirely new frontier had appeared before them.
The universe itself.
Nami clasped her hands behind her back and laughed.
"Hehe, you can barely navigate properly on the sea. Without me, you'd all get lost in space immediately."
Robin nodded with a smile.
"Exactly. Compared to the Blue Sea, there are probably countless civilizations and forgotten histories waiting to be discovered out there."
In the end, every one of the Ten Great Demon God and Twelve Ancestral Witch Devil Fruit users unanimously decided to follow Ash into the endless stars.
And so, their journey began once more.
The story of the Pirate World finally came to an end.