Chapter 275
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When Raki was fighting Mihawk, Amon was sitting on a couch, doing nothing and only staring at the air.
He wasn't in Shandora. He was in Wano, which was why the room he was in had the Japanese vibe.
Amon had one of his arms over the couch as he waited… and waited, for something to happen.
Around five minutes later, he clicked his tongue. "You sure today is the day?"
He asked at the earpiece on his ear, which beeped.
["I am certain. Unless the information you have input is wrong."] Seraph's voice flowed out from within the earpiece. ["But I doubt that since you did collect the info from the people of this country. Wait a few more minutes, I believe the people Lady Toki had sent ahead in time, Momonosuke and the Nine Samurais, will be here in any moment."]
Momonosuke's arrival should decide the final moment of the World Core since he was supposed to be one of the main allies of Luffy, even without being part of the Strawhats.
Momo was a special existence, it was rare for a mere 8 year old to have the Voice of Everything, after all. Though there's no need for killing the boy—as he was just like an alarm clock, saying "It's time.", than a threat to Amon.
The castle Amon was in was built above Oden's Castle, meaning Toki had sent the 9 Scabbards and Momo from this spot, and because of that, they'll arrive at this same spot.
Amon waited and waited and only around 5 hours later did the space twist and start to change. Lightning crackled around the mansion, and seconds later, five people stood in front of him.
"Ooowh!?" the little boy amongst them, his face covered in snot and tears, fell on his butt. "W-what's happening?!"
Amon didn't wait for them to notice him and simply teleported away from there. They'll meet Hiyori, the current Shogun, soon enough.
Amon destroyed the earpiece and blitzed towards the island of Laughtale. He's been there before already, so there was no getting lost this time as he made his way to the opposite side of the reverse mountain.
This place, in simpler words, was the end of Grandline.
There were lots of islands around, but none were Laughtale. The real Laughtale was deeper from here…
Amon coated his body in a barrier of Psychic Shield before he dived into the deep ocean.
He went down deep into the ocean, the water unable to touch his body, and so he reached the deepest part of the world in a few seconds, where an Island lay.
Geographically, this island stood opposite Fishman Island, 180 degrees around the earth. The so-called 'island', in fact, didn't look like an island at all. It just looked like an empty bubble from the outside, and only when Amon dived into the bubble, did he see land.
Inside the bubble, the outside was all white. There stood an island on a seashore, trees, and contained everything a normal island does, such as trees, rocks, and more trees. Except there was no sign of life and the area had pure white sky in the background.
Amon knew this island had a barrier around it before, as he could sense the lingering energy with his Barrier-Barrier fruit. But Roger must have broken it when he entered this place. So the first time Amon came here, there was no need to break such barriers.
Now, at the front of the island, laid a Golden Poneglyph in the middle of two White ones. Amon could also see countless treasures deeper inside the island, enough to buy the world, but that didn't appease him.
What appeased him was what was written in the Golden Poneglyph. It was a huge recollection of the lost history, and it talked about how there were documents about the void century deeper into the island. It also talked about the "Will of Dawn" and some more stuff, but all that wasn't important at all.
Amon didn't care about the past anymore. He looked at the line written at last:
『 This is the entrance, shall you wish to delve deeper inside the world.』
The entrance to the world's deep, where, as any child could guess, laid the World's Core.
As for why there was an entrance to the world core, which is like the world's heart, aka the world's weakness, Amon had many theories but he didn't care to test them out.
The only point was, he needed to go in there.
However, to unlock the entrance, one needed to break the three Poneglyph, as stated in one of the two white Poneglyphs. Then, some kind of lock would present itself in front of Amon, and he needed to provide the keys in there, which were the three ancient weapons.
Amon had tried this already before, breaking the Poneglyphs and providing the keys, but it did not work. Which was why he delayed a year since that is when the "Dawn" of the world was supposed to come if Amon hadn't intervened.
Every time Amon left the island, the broken Poneglyph repaired themselves. Which was annoying. Breaking these certain Poneglyphs was harder than usual, and time-consuming too. But this time, Amon brought the right weapon with him.
Amon rested his hand on the surface of the Golden Poneglyph and then chanted:
"
Immediately, the golden poneglyph crumbled to the ground as if dust and that said dust stirred and circled around each other before forming a round egg-like metallic object that had a fist-sized hole in it, which floated a few centimetres above the ground.
Amon did the same with the other two Poneglyphs, and similar objects popped up from the dust.
The Atom-Atom fruit, as Imu stated, was dangerous. Amon was able to gain it after Imu's death because this fruit was included in the Devilfruit Encyclopedia, as some kind of legendary fruit lost in time. It even had the fruit that is used as a template for this DF, which was why Amon was able to gain and learn to use it.
This fruit could harm and kill the user if he isn't careful, which was why Imu didn't like devil fruits, as he believed they only gave power in exchange for terrible weaknesses. But, Amon had the Phoenix fruit. He could heal off any self-initiated injuries that the Atom fruit might bring, and with that, he had gained enough control to pull this technique off.
After confirming the 'Locks', Amon opened a portal to the door dimension and took out two 'keys'.
They were in actuality the Hearts, two actual beating hearts, belonging to Pluton and Uranus.
Inside their mechanical bodies, the Ancient Weapons had hearts made of half metal and half flesh-and-blood, which Amon had retrieved. Taking out these parts wouldn't diminish the Weapons, as these 'keys' were recreateable if one had the blueprints, which Amon did.
Amon slowly placed the two keys inside the locks, signifying which part fits where.
They made a clicking sound and the egg-like structure closed itself. Now, only the Lock at the middle was still open.
It was Poseidon's lock.
Luckily, from the instructions given on the white Poneglyphs, Poseidon didn't need to give their heart in there, since, after all, Poseidon was a living creature instead of a machine. Poseidon only needed to sacrifice a fitting body part.
Amon, who was now Poseidon because of stealing Shirahoshi's powers, had to do just that.
He grabbed his sword and slashed it on his wrist, causing his hand to separate from his arm and fall to the ground. He grunted softly, and while white flame engulfed his wound, he grabbed the severed hand and placed it on the lock.
It clicked and seconds later, all three locks started to spin midair.
They came close to each other and made a clunk sound before they slowly sunk into the ground as if the earth was water.
Amon waited, hearing mechanical sounds coming from deep below before the ground below his feet parted and revealed a huge gate enough for a truck to enter.
A smirk found itself on Amon's lips seeing this. Finally, it worked. He was right about the time, as none of the other times he did this had a gate like this opened. Previously, minutes passed and the egg-like locks simply came out from the ground again, giving Amon back the things he put inside.
Without wasting a second, Amon jumped down into the endless tunnel.
He was already at the bottom-most part of the ocean, and even then, he fell down for almost 3 minutes. He didn't increase his speed deliberately, in case he misses something, and let the drop be natural.
The tunnel he fell through was dark and it narrowed the deeper it went. But it wasn't deep enough to touch his body, and before it could grow that narrow, Amon's legs hit the ground and the dark surrounding lit up. Amon didn't feel any pain upon the impact, this was too light to worry about. So he started to look around him.
With the surroundings lit, he could see the huge marble hallway he was in. It was… enormous, in one word.
In height, dozens of Ancient Giants could climb on top of each other, and only then would they be able to touch the roof, and in length… there was nothing seen in miles upon miles except for white marble tiles, which nobody would believe to be made naturally.
Amon took a deep breath and the moment he released the breath, hundreds of his thunder clones were running around in all directions to look for something.
One of his clones happened to find what he was looking for, and so he went there immediately. The clones sank in his body as he stopped in front of the huge, human-sized round shining white ball with engravings on it that floated a few inches above the ground.
It was a ball with the engravings of all the islands and seas of this world, it even contained the redline (though white in colour). In simpler words, this was a globe of this planet.
This was… The World Core.
Now, it wasn't finished forming, as Amon could see some parts of it broken or missing, but Amon didn't need it to be finished forming. Imu had said, World Cores are more intelligent than Humans, once they are formed entirely. More so, if this thing's will becomes solid, it won't scream 'DieDieYouDie' inside Amon's head. It would simply kill him, with just a thought.
Amon needed to devour it before that happened.
But…. "What am I supposed to do?"
He tried using his Future Sight, but the future was blank white. The Will of the World, the bit of it that was formed, was blurring his future.
With a click of his tongue, Amon first threw a clone at the huge globe. The clone simply phases through it.
With another click of his tongue, Amon sighed and softly placed his hand on top of the globe, with the lack of any choice.
Apparently… That was a bad move? He wasn't sure. It felt as if the thing was sucking him in, sucking his Haki in, sucking his Will power inside to empower itself. It was doing what Amon planned to do with it.
Amon resisted.
No matter how enormous and strong a World Core might have become if it formed entirely, it was still like a sleeping giant right now. All it was doing was subconscious. Amon just had to make sure he didn't lose concentration, which was easy by keeping his neurons charged.
It was like a wrestling match, and finally, after what felt like an eternity, the core stopped sucking on him, but his Haki wasn't sucked dry because of his resistance.
Instead, the huge human-sized globe twisted and shrunk into a small tennis-ball-sized round-shaped… fruit?
"A fruit?"
It still looked like the World Core from before, but now it had a stem, a curved white stem.
"So… am I supposed to eat it?"
Amon scratched his chin. This was… suspicious. So this is 'One Piece'? Was he really supposed to eat it, or perhaps, was this a trap made by the world? He could indeed feel a great power inside the fruit, but maybe his body would explode if he were to eat that? Overflowed by too much power…
"...Not like I have anything else I can do with it."
It's not as if he could make someone else try out one bite. It might as well just work like Devil fruits, and so whatever powers it had would be transferred to the first person who bites it.
With a shrug, Amon picked up the 'fruit'.
...He however, couldn't eat it because the space around the hall twisted and a huge blue portal opened up high in the air.
Blzzt~
People started to walk out, floating in the air. They wore blue armour, looking like jellified water, and smooth like the surface of an egg-shell. There were two dozen of them, and each had a weapon on their waist. They were being led by a woman, as beautiful and flawless as the sun, while her blazing blonde hair flowed in the air.
She raised a long sword that had an orange blade as she eyed Amon with indifference.
"Amon, monarch of Plane-3548. You are ordered to put down the World Core, hand it over to us, and follow us to custody."
"Oh." Amon, who's been gawking at the 'guests', looked down on the fruit in his hand. "So this really is the World Core… I was getting suspicious if I got scammed or not." Amon said as he raised his head again. "By the way, you are...?"
The woman observed him for a moment, seeing him play with the fruit on his hand leisurely, as she spoke. "I am one of the Dikasti, the officer in charge of the galaxy-468, which is the one this planet is situated in. I am the apostle of Apolium, the God who holds the Symbol of Star."
"Oh, wow." Amon sounded nonchalant. "Didn't think you'd answer me, miss. So let me get this clear. You are the space police of this area?" The woman stayed silent. "Wait, am I a criminal now?"
The woman lowered her weapon at this. "No. The Dikasti's connection with this Star-system was severed around a millennia ago. So everything that happened here until now is overlookable. So even if you have indeed committed an action that goes against our policy, you won't face any charges—as long as you hand over the World Core."
Amon contemplated for a moment. Since they were here. This meant the shrinking of the big globe into this fruit signified the completion of the World Core, even if it was premature. Meaning, people from the outside could come and go as they wished. Which simply implied Amon's plan to take over the universe… has already started.
'Would have preferred a bit more time, honestly.'
But this wasn't completely out of possibility either. It was like the last desperate call for help from the World Core. He has expected similar situations before coming here.
Ignoring the woman and her subordinates, Amon brought the fruit close to his mouth and gulped it whole, while the blonde woman yelled with her hand reached out.
Amon couldn't hear her words as a hot feeling of ecstasy filled his entire being.
"Mhhmm…." Amon breathed out, clenching his fist, as colours of multiple lights ran through his body, his veins, and his bones. He felt his devil fruit power, which he never noticed felt so distant, so unattached, as if he was borrowing those powers from a container, simply clicking in with his existence, as if now they were a part of him, just like his Haki.
His body kept glowing while the people from the outer world covered their eyes and backed off.
The glowing finally ended and Amon stared at his palm as he closed it into a fist and released it.
"Damn…"
"You idiot!" The woman from before interrupted his feeling of ecstasy. "Do you know how precious a world core is?! And how the hell are you even alive eating that whole?? That's not supposed to happen!"
Amon blinked at her. Not supposed to happen? But he didn't even feel any pain.
'Heh.'
Slowly, Amon started to chuckle as he looked around him, discarding the woman.
"Hm, say miss, what is this… strange feeling in the air? Or is this just something new because I ate that fruit?"
"Don't ask me!" The woman raised her sword at him again. "I am not sure what's up with you, but guess I have to bring you back alive."
Amon watched her as a foreign power, the same thing he was just talking about that was filling the air like gas, entered the woman's body as he felt her existence grow stronger.
"Hm…" Amon scratched his chin. "Is that the Root or whatever?"
Even as he spoke, the woman rushed at him.
Her speed was astronomical, she was faster than Imu. But Amon…. was faster too.
He didn't dodge, however. He simply said two words.
"Time Pause."
The world trembled, and under his command, the time around the whole star system stopped. The woman froze in time as Amon's lips stretched into a grin that evolved into a burst of terrific laughter.
He had theorised this before, but he didn't think it'd actually be true.
So eating the World Core did give the eater control over the star system.
Amon didn't feel like attacking the planets would damage his body, or attacking his body would damage the planets or sun, but he did feel a certain type of connection between him and this star system.
But he will worry about that later. Because now…
"Sta…" the woman, who was supposed to be frozen, moved, as her orange sword started to shine. "[Status Release]!"
Her presence overflooded Amon's authority and unfroze the time around the hall.
If Amon had eaten the fully formed World Core, he felt like someone of her stature wouldn't be able to undo the frozen time. But eh, the situation was already more than in his favour.
Seeing her rush at him again, Amon spoke another time, "Time Pause.", as the time froze for the second time.
Oh, he will get so used to this.
But first…
Amon unsheathed his sword and infused the blade with heat, before slashing it towards the woman frozen in the air.
«Dimensional Slash»
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Author's Note: 🤕 One more...