After creating distance, Imu attempted to take flight again. However, his severed wings prevented him from maintaining balance. Before he could ascend, he toppled over to one side.
To balance his body, Imu began shifting into his 'hybrid form' mid-air.
Clearly, a humanoid silhouette would allow him to land more steadily.
Imu braced himself on the cratered lunar surface using both hands and feet.
It was only at this mont that Naruto truly got a clear look at Loki's appearance… at least this face still belonged to Loki.
Although it still bore dragon scales, it was still easy to see that it was a 'young' face.
In fact, Loki, who was only sixty-two this year, was indeed considered a young man among giants.
The bandages originally used to cover his 'ominous eyes' had been torn away the mont Imu took over this body.
The ringed eyes had replaced Loki's original 'demonic vertical pupils'.
Whether Loki would have been happy about this, had he been conscious, was anyone's guess.
Loki's horns, plus the two large horns that had 'proliferated' after demonification, pointed skyward like tree branches. The crown that Naruto had pierced earlier was now nowhere to be seen.
Imu, looking quite miserable, pushed himself up with his hands and glared at Naruto, who was slowly approaching him.
"Impossible. You cannot be Joy Boy!"
Even after obtaining Loki's body and still being beaten so badly, Imu could not help but question his existence.
Even though he still insisted verbally, the fact that he brought up Joy Boy himself made it clear that Imu's resolve was beginning to waver.
"I was never Joy Boy."
Naruto said as he strode forward with heavy steps, gathering Haki and Chakra into his hands.
"Bastard!! Die!! Why do you have to appear!!"
As if abandoning all pretense, Imu, who always seed to be calculating everything and believed everyone was under his control, finally began to scream hysterically.
Black pentagram magic circles materialized one after another, from which various massive weapons tainted with black aura were summoned, launching attacks at Naruto automatically.
Imu himself also drew a giant sword from one, preparing to strike Naruto.
Such massive weapons were perfectly suited to his current size.
From his sword-wielding posture and movents, it was not hard to tell that perhaps before Imu ascended the Empty Throne, when he was still one of the great twenty kings, he had been a skilled swordsman.
But his long imrsion in the desire for absolute power had caused him to lose the warrior's spirit within, so much so that this sword strike appeared full of openings to Naruto.
The roaring massive flintlock shots all missed Naruto, who continued to approach Imu with casual ease.
He did not even bother to use his Truth-Seeking Ball to form a sword, as if he deed Imu no longer worthy of drawing his blade.
"Die, you lowly insect!"
Imu's powerful slash cleaved through the void, carving a terrifying chasm across the lunar surface.
But such an attack, lacking true substance, could not actually hit Naruto. With a simple sidestep, he evaded, then quickly advanced in front of Imu, his arm drawing back and gathering power.
"The remnants of the old era should just step aside! There is no ship to carry you in this new era!"
"As your curtain call, let's start with ten thousand punches!"
With that, Naruto ignored the fear on Imu's face. His arm instantly beca a blur.
Boom!
When the first punch struck Imu's dragon-scaled cheek, he still clung to a glimr of hope.
But soon, the sound of shattering scales and bones doused him like a bucket of ice water.
Pain, like raindrops, fell densely upon his entire body.
Naruto's fists moved so fast they ignited with flas, which were then extinguished by the wind pressure, leaving only his crimson fists raining down upon Imu in perfect arcs.
When he said ten thousand punches, he ant ten thousand punches.
Naruto held nothing back.
In less than ten seconds, delivering ten thousand punches at this colossal size, the re shockwaves from his fists were enough to completely obliterate every ruin on the moon.
A true 'thousand strikes in an instant'.
In truth, by the tenth punch, Imu had stopped resisting and struggling. He wanted to say sothing, but because the first punch had landed on his mouth, he could not utter a word.
When Naruto withdrew his hands and gently blew out the flas on them, Imu's body had beco like a heap of mud.
Not only were the bones of his limbs and torso shattered, but even the wings on his back, his tail, and the horns atop his head had not fared well.
"You're not dead yet, are you?"
"The cris you've committed can't be wiped away so easily. I still need you to cooperate for an interview."
Naruto slapped his forehead, rembering that he had left the cara with Belo Betty.
Just then, a mass of shadow suddenly erged from Loki's body and lunged toward Naruto with incredible speed.
'Fool! This was Mu's plan all along!'
If Imu could have spoken at that mont, he would have roared this aloud.
It was a pitch-black humanoid figure with indistinct features, its size slightly smaller than the gigantified Loki's body, roughly that of an ordinary giant.
This was Imu's true form… a parasitic entity that had lost its original body and could only continuously attach itself to others.
In this form, Imu moved with blinding speed, reaching Naruto in an instant.
Faster than his lunge was the slender tail behind him, as sharp as an arrow.
Though this tail could not sweep across a wide area like Nidhoggr's, it could transform into an unstoppable spear at a critical mont, piercing the enemy's body and buying him the chance to seize control.
Imu had conceded. He admitted that Naruto was the greatest crisis of his existence, one that even the rebirth of Joy Boy could not compare to.
So, he would take over Naruto's body.
If he could possess this man's body, he could make a coback!
Do not think Imu was a mindless fool.
He had not forgotten how Kaguya had devoured his spirit earlier.
And rember, Naruto had not fully resisted that Domi Reversi back then either… otherwise, Kaguya would never have had the chance to devour that portion of spiritual power.
Furthermore, that was remote control. Now, it was his main body going all out. How could the effect be the sa?
Besides—
Did he even have a second choice?
With this desperate, do-or-die resolve, Imu charged at Naruto without looking back.
But the imagination was beautiful, while reality was cruel.
Naruto caught the sharp tail with one hand, and Imu, who had tried to burrow into his body, was blocked by a ridiculously thick 'wall of spiritual power' on the outside.
"You really... never give up, do you."
Naruto used a gravity sphere to trap him in mid-air, looking at this mastermind who had controlled the One Piece World for over eight hundred years with a speechless expression.
"This is an ugly way to bow out."
In Naruto's view, Imu did not even possess the 'grace' of a great villain.
In this respect, even the late Shiki, whose fruit had long since been re-eaten, was far superior.
At least Shiki had died honorably in a direct battle.
"...A guy like you deserves to die in a gutter, like a rat hiding in a dark corner."
With that, Naruto spread his hands, and an eye opened in the center of each palm.
Two invisible forces quickly enveloped Imu, who was immobilized and unable to move, making this arrogant, haughty being finally feel the threat of true death.
"No... no, no, no..."
"Stop! Uzumaki Naruto! Stop!"
"Mu can give you anything you want!"
"Do you want to know the aning of [D]?"
"Or the One Piece? The truth of the past? Mu can give it all to you!"
"Uzumaki Naruto!! Stop!"
But whether he begged or tempted, Naruto remained unmoved.
"Sorry, but I'm not really interested in any of that."
"Treasure hunting is better left to pirates."
His movents did not pause for a mont, as the technique combining Momoshiki's [Inukaitakerunomikoto] with the 'digestion' aspect of the Baku Baku no Mi continued to operate.
This technique was lethally effective against pure energy beings.
As Imu felt his true form and his 'self' being reduced to fundantal particles bit by bit, fear completely overwheld his reason, throwing his consciousness into chaos.
But soon, this chaos also began to subside.
As this centuries-old soul finally approached annihilation, only a faint, indistinct echo remained in the void.
"Lily..."
The ultimate mastermind of the One Piece World, the god of the Celestial Dragons, the ruler of the Void, Nerona Imu, confird dead.
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