Bang!
A human fist utterly disproportionate to that enormous body slammed heavily into the serpent's fear-stricken face, producing a dull impact.
In an instant, the battlefield before Konoha Gate fell deathly silent.
The battle cries, the screams, the furious roars of combat, the sounds of ninjutsu and taijutsu colliding—everything, every sound—fell quiet beneath that not particularly loud punch.
Yet that sound, insignificant amid the vast battlefield, seemed to reach every single person's ears.
At that moment, as if by unspoken agreement, whether they were Konoha ninja, enemies attacking Konoha, or ordinary people from Konoha and other villages and regions hiding like livestock awaiting slaughter in every corner of the battlefield, all eyes fell upon the face of the black-armored serpent.
Even the other black-armored serpent forced its eyes open, ignoring the Konoha ninja before its eyelids whose blade had been deflected and whose body had tilted backward, and looked toward its companion.
That Konoha ninja, whose blade had been knocked aside and whose body had tilted back, also ignored the black-armored serpent's opened eyes and the fact that this was the best opportunity to strike at the giant serpent's vital point. His gaze, too, fell upon the other black-armored serpent.
At the same time, the black-armored serpent at the center of everyone's gaze, its face filled with terror, desperately rolled both eyes toward its left cheek—the place where the sound of the punch had come from.
Within those absurdly huge serpent eyes, the figure of Silver Moon Black Robe, who had thrown a punch in midair, slowly came into view.
As his white hair fluttered, the scarlet eye exposed beneath his missing left sleeve grew ever more eerie.
At that moment, time seemed to stop. Everyone's gazes, the black-armored serpent, even Silver Moon Black Robe himself, the instigator of it