From the dust, Smoker emerged.
'...'
Imu's eyes narrowed. The sword that he held burst forth in the infusion of Conqueror's Haki once more. Crackling vibrantly, it seemed to reflect the might of the king.
Then, he dashed at Smoker, once more, at the astronomic speed that seemed to have broken the sound barrier.
Incredible speed, followed by incredible speed, experience, Haki, and Devil Fruit power.
Imu believed himself to be the invincible—no, that was the fact.
And therefore, he didn't expect any change to occur. His slight advantage over Smoker would continue, and the latter's body—clearly not in a normal state—would eventually give in.
However, little did he know,
Smoker was never an ace up one's sleeve, like how Imu himself was.
No. From the very start, he was an anomaly, one whom no one could predict but only prophesize.
He was a joker, a wild card that had a tendency to pull an uno reverse to arrogant foes, ones who didn't doubt their victories... as Imu did.
And as such, Imu surely didn't expect what happened next,
the impact of Smoker's fist, one that was crackling dangerously due to the Conqueror's Haki: Infusion, straight onto his face, that is.
Then arrived, the world of destruction. Everything around Imu exploded. The black lightning splattered everywhere. All this happened in a split second,
'What—'
And by the time Imu registered,
Smoker was right above him who was currently being flown back, with evident cracks on his face.
Then, another blow landed, straight on Imu's torso.
The black lightning crackled ever-so-intensely, and the entire atmosphere seemed to have dimmed for a brief moment.
Imu, crashing right into the center of Mariejois, found that his vision was rendered blurry from such an impact.
Following the crash, he was knocked back up due to the recoil of smashing onto the ground. Smoker, appearing right below and grabbing him by his leg, threw him back down onto the ground.
BOOOOOM!
Imu crashed back on where he previously smashed into. Then, centering him, the spiderweb-like cracks grew and reached all the way to the edges of Mariejois.
The pieces begin to fall apart. One chunk of Mariejois tilted and fell down—all the way from the peak of the Red Line onto the sea that was far below the mist.
SPLASH!
As the water erupted magnificently from such a high fall of a land mass, and those water droplets spread throughout the sky high above, a rainbow was generated.
Imu's crimson eyes flashed dangerously within the cloud of dust.
Being a non-human being, one of his perks, perhaps, was the fact that he was incapable of registering pain; there was no problem moving even with notable cracks on his body, which were indications that his body was beginning to fall apart.
Imu then swung his blade horizontally, all around him by three hundred sixty degrees.
Such slashes, containing the might of a Conqueror, divided the very space itself.
Unfortunately, regardless of its magnificence, Imu's attack was evaded by Smoker, who was right behind Imu with his tightened fist crackling violently in black lightning.
Although Smoker's face was shadowed, his eyes, as vibrant as the white gold, seemed to be holding a determination greater than any other.
Yes, greater than any other indeed... because he wasn't fighting alone.
"Are you ready... to bear the weight of the world?"
He was bearing the weight of the world.
"...!"
Imu hurriedly turned his head, seemingly in disbelief that he, once again, lost Smoker from his sight.
Then, Smoker's fist landed right on his chest.
The hair which Imu generated fluttered in the air, detached from Imu. Then, they faded into nothing.
Imu, on the other hand, was blasted to oblivion, unable to withstand the impact delivered by Smoker. He was bounced a couple of times across the Mariejois and was on the brink of complete destruction. Each one of his bounces generated huge cracks of their own, accelerating the process of destruction to an extent where it was no longer inevitable.
About to fall down from the edge of Mariejois, Imu grasped said edge with his free hand.
'Smoke? No... what even is this?!'
Thought Imu as he brought himself back on the land,
'Even those two from the past... weren't this much...!'
Imu's visage was broken. Half of his face was still that of a human disguise, but the other half was his plain wooden face where nothing but his eye existed.
And said wooden face had cracks on it.
'However...'
Imu's eyes rapidly moved left and right, trying to locate Smoker,
'Such a boost is bound to have limits and drawbacks of its own—'
Smoker was right in front of Imu, about to throw his fist. Imu's crimson eyes blazed as he immediately swung his sword to counter Smoker's attack,
only for the sword to go through Smoker and his body to shine brightly in white.
Imu's eyes widened in realization.
Having been lost in the thoughts of Smoker's supposed weakness, he didn't operate his Observation Haki for one millisecond. And therefore, he failed to know,
that what he attacked wasn't Smoker, but his clone... an explosive clone.
The clone exploded into a gigantic dome of energy.
Imu, who received the full-blown impact from it, was flown up with his entire body smoking.
The smoke emitted from his body wriggled bizarrely, before morphing into a form of... Smoker himself.
Traveling at a speed unrecognizable by Imu? No, that wasn't what Smoker was doing.
Rather than a speed, it was the application of his Devil Fruit power, one that was granted through the use of Seimei Kikan: Zenith.
His entire body was aether. Aether, a substance that does not exist in this world.
For a long time, Smoker used it in the form of smoke, by granting it smoke-like characteristics. What did this mean?
This meant that aether had one more way of usage. Because it wasn't anything, it had the capability to be anything, be it the air, water, ground—anything that Smoker could perceive and understand.
And now, Smoker, revealing himself from the smoke generated by Imu, had his index finger aimed at the man right below, at point-blank range.
Imu, in a fit of panic, released his sword. Said sword, instantly bursting into thousands of enormous demons in an instant, created an immense gap between Imu and Smoker.
Those demons, damaged and weakened due to their previous clashes against Smoker as the sword, roared nonetheless, at their maximum strength, to protect their master.
Smoker, now surrounded by the demons in midair, gazed at his surroundings in silence.
He grinned.
"WHITE HUNTER!!!"
The Five Elders roared. The animalistic demons came in charging at Smoker—be it by flying, galloping, or running whatsoever—with a ferociousness that would've placed any other human being to his or her knees.
The psychokinesis, burst of fire, rain of ice, strikes of lightning, sharp gust, explosive wave of sound, and much more—the calamity, the storm of chaos was approaching Smoker at once.
"You..."
Imu growled as he touched his damaged face with one hand. His other hand, which was outstretched at Smoker surrounded by his servants, was then clenched tightly.
The entire space was engulfed by crimson. The sky, air, everything—everything in Smoker's view appeared crimson.
It was Imu's power at his strongest—the manifestation of his psychokinesis at its fullest.
Then, the air morphed into the torrent of fire. The sky began to rain down the metal spikes. The demons morphed into numerous crimson swords, ones that were flown at Smoker simultaneously.
Smoker stood in the middle of such a catastrophe. However, he was still grinning.
His breathing was rapid, very much so. It meant that the use and maintenance of Seimei Kikan: Zenith had an extremely high stamina cost.
From what Smoker estimated, ten minutes. That was the maximum amount of time that he could maintain this form of body.
Yet, he didn't seem nervous.
...Of course he wouldn't be nervous. After all, he read the future.
"No... no! This can't be..."
Imu roared. He shrieked.
"Mu won't... can't..."
Smoker stood still as the disastrous impacts struck him over and over. The bombardment of disasters continued consecutively and frighteningly. Each one of those strikes contained the power to end civilization on its own, and here Smoker was, facing them head-on with nothing but his bare body.
...And once more, Smoker resumed his walk toward Imu—just as he did back in the throne room.
As he walked, the air which he stood on rippled. Then, the faint white glow appeared. Each and every step of his generated such a glow, and the white slowly spread around the space, dominating the crimson surrounding.
"What are you, White Hunter?!!"
Imu, holding his hands out at Smoker, poured down everything that he had.
The lightning rays struck. The swords attempted to pierce Smoker's body. The creatures, meteors, fire, vacuum, explosions, storms, spikes—Imu threw everything that he knew and was capable of.
Smoker's form didn't fade, however. No damage was inflicted. All those attacks became null as they touched his skin.
And now, the white, relentlessly spreading and resisting the crimson, engulfed the entire area that Smoker and Imu stood within.
Then, every attack that Imu poured at Smoker evaporated into the white, glowing aether.
"White World."
Smoker, standing in front of Imu, declared.
"In this world, any physical manifestation of a matter shall be rendered null."
The moment Imu's will faltered against Smoker, the moment his will was crushed against Smoker's Haki, Imu stood no chance.
Imu's arms, still outstretched at Smoker, trembled. Imu, as if not having heard Smoker, continued to manifest attacks at Smoker.
However, the moment they were formed, they evaporated into aether, escaping Imu's control.
Imu's arms dropped to his sides. He finally realized...
...that his dream of 'absolute order', the dream to have everything under his control, was impossible,
because there existed White Hunter Smoker, the man whom he could not and cannot control.
"Whenever I meet delusional folks like you, this is what I tend to say."
Smoker spoke in conviction as he held his fist tight.
The black lightning sparkled and crackled.
His Conqueror's Haki, so mighty and fierce, reached a point where the black lightning reached the edge of the domain that Smoker set. Crackling throughout the entire space centering Smoker's fist, it seemed to be celebrating Smoker's growth as the Supreme King.
"Nothing is absolute."
The fist struck Imu straight into his chest.
Then, everything turned black.
...
"..."
When Imu regained consciousness, he found that he was lying in the middle of the nigh-destroyed Mariejois.
Looking down, he found nothing. His body, be it the arms or legs, everything was gone.
It was only his damaged head that remained intact, and even then, Imu knew, that his time was over.
"Mu... lost...?"
Imu stared at his side and found Smoker, lying on another part of Mariejois, huffing rapidly in complete exhaustion, but albeit with a grin on his face.
"How... how can this be..."
'Lili...'
The first thing that entered Imu's mind as he faced the truth, was the face of one human.
"...Are you going to give up? Face your end like this, in a pitiful manner?"
A voice then spoke into him.
"Give me your soul... and I will promise you... the end of White Hunter Smoker."
__________
A long, long time ago, when the world was ruled by the Great Kingdom of 'Fable', the neighbouring, small kingdoms were oppressed to yield and become a part of them.
The wars were never-ending, and when coupled with the recurring drought, people continued dying in suffering.
"GODS!!!"
People screamed in sorrow.
"Please... anything but my family..."
"Have you thrown us away?!!"
The kingdom of Alabasta was of no difference.
The prosperous and beautiful land was no more. They, with nothing but sand and cracked, barren land, couldn't do anything but await their deaths.
Within this barren land, there was one mystical tree. This tree somehow grew in the middle of the land of death through the sunlight alone—as if it was the Sunlight Tree Eve, the tree that was said to be owned by Lunarians who lived above the great Red Line.
However, in exchange for this mystical survivability, the tree gained a horrendous appearance. The form of its trunk was bumpy, bent, and jagged. The branches, which were thin, sharp, and without any leaves, grew abnormally long to an extent where they appeared dangerous.
With nothing but despair, people needed something to hate, something that they could harm.
People blamed the tree for all their sufferings and miseries. They said that the tree was a demon tree and that it had to be taken down.
People brought axes and hacked the tree. They spat on it, cursed it, and did everything that they could to the tree.
But little did they know, the tree, as a live being, had a consciousness of its own.
'Why...'
The tree wondered,
'What have I done to you...'
"STOP!!!"
Then, there stood a malnourished woman with dry blue hair, wearing tattered clothes just like any other. However, such a state wasn't enough to mask the woman's beauty.
"Everyone... you must stop!! What difference do we have from them, if we succumb to this unreasonable hate?!! What has this tree done to us?!! This isn't right!! We must face the truth, instead of running away from it!!"
She was the first one to defend the tree. The tree was mesmerized by the sight of this woman.
Nefertari Lili, that was her name.