That sentence was softer than any of the ones before it, yet heavier than all of them.
It was like an invisible sledgehammer, crashing down on the hearts of every survivor in the canyon.
The victor, who had just clawed his way out of a bloody slaughter, froze mid-grin, his face still twisted with triumph and ingratiation. In their place came a look of utter, absurd bewilderment.
Kill him?
From today on, you are the God of Amegakure.
The two sentences echoed endlessly in his mind, colliding until they burst into a muddled mess he couldn't understand.
Why?
Why?
I won! I followed your rules, killed everyone, stepped over my comrades' corpses, and brought you that old bastard's head!
So why am I the one who has to die?!
"No..."
His lips trembled. A hoarse, breathless cry rasped from his throat as the overwhelming shock sent his whole body shaking.
"Ma... Madara... Lord Madara... You... you can't do this... You said..."
Lin Feng couldn't even be bothered to look at him again. The enormous Gunbai still rested lightly against the man's neck, as if Lin Feng had casually propped a piece of furniture there.
His gaze remained fixed on Nagato, as though he were waiting for a student to hand in a long-awaited answer.
"Nagato! Don't!"
Yahiko finally came to his senses after the successive shocks. He shoved Konan aside and charged forward, eyes bloodshot, placing himself between Nagato and the victor.
"Have you gone mad?! He's a shinobi of Amegakure too! He was just... He was just tricked by that bastard!"
Yahiko pointed at Lin Feng, his voice hoarse with fury.
"Wasn't that why we founded Akatsuki? To stop tragedies like this from happening?! And now you're going to create another one with your own hands?!"
"Look at him! Look at the bodies around us! How is this any different from Hanzo or Danzo?!"
His question rang through the empty canyon, shouted until his voice was raw.
Nagato didn't answer.
He simply gazed at the friend standing in front of him, orange hair ablaze with the fire of his ideals.
Once, that fire had shown him the way forward.
Now, he found it a little hard to look at.
"What's the difference?"
The one who spoke was Lin Feng.
He rested the Gunbai on his shoulder, walked away from the victor collapsed on the ground, and came to a stop before Yahiko, looking down at him.
"The difference is, they did it to satisfy their own filthy ambitions."
Lin Feng lightly tapped Nagato with the handle of his fan.
"But he's doing it to create a world of absolute peace, where there can be no more betrayal or deception."
"Do you understand, naive little boy?"
"You!" Yahiko trembled with rage. "Peace won through slaughter isn't peace! It's tyranny!"
"Oh?" Lin Feng gave a soft chuckle, as if he'd heard something amusing. "Then tell me, what is peace?"
"Is it what you did before? Naively trusting a butcher's promises, believing he'd graciously accept a threat to his rule, then leading your comrades straight into a trap where you were nearly wiped out?"
"Or is your so-called peace kneeling on the ground and begging your enemies to show mercy?"
"Begging other people to follow your logic and play along, so you can achieve a world of mutual understanding and acceptance!"
"It looks like Jiraiya really did a number on you!"
Every one of Lin Feng's words was like a poisoned blade, striking precisely where Yahiko hurt most.
Yahiko's face flushed bright red. His mouth opened, but he couldn't find a single word to argue back.
It was true. If this man hadn't appeared, they would already be cold corpses.
In the face of overwhelming violence and scheming, his ideals had been so fragile they'd crumbled at once.
Was Teacher Jiraiya's teaching really right?
Was a world of mutual understanding and acceptance impossible?
Yahiko's heart was in turmoil.
"Yahiko."
Nagato finally spoke. His voice was so calm that it felt unfamiliar.
"Move."
"Nagato..." Yahiko stared back at him in disbelief.
"I'll say it again. Move." Nagato repeated himself. His Rinnegan showed no trace of emotion.
He walked around Yahiko, who stood frozen in place, and went step by step toward the victor, who had fallen into utter despair.
The victor slumped on the ground, staring at Nagato's strange purple eyes, his body shaking like a leaf. A foul-smelling liquid trickled from his pants.
"No... Don't kill me... Please... I was forced into it too..."
He begged incoherently, bracing himself with both hands as he desperately tried to scoot backward.
Nagato ignored his pleas.
He stopped and slowly raised his right hand.
"Wait!"
Yahiko lunged forward again, screaming as he tried to stop him.
But this time, a hand reached out from the side and grabbed his arm in a death grip.
It was Konan.
"Konan! Let go of me!" Yahiko struggled wildly.
Konan said nothing. She simply used all her strength to hold him back, shaking her head firmly at him.
Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes were filled with pain and conflict, but her grip was unyielding.
She knew there was no going back.
From the moment Hanzo held a kunai to Yahiko's throat, from the moment Nagato pushed himself to the limit to save them by using the Rinnegan, some things had already changed forever.
Stopping him would only put all three of them in direct opposition to the man who called himself "Madara."
No one could bear the consequences.
As Yahiko screamed in despair, his eyes full of anguish, Nagato gently placed his hand on the victor's head.
There was no earth-shaking boom.
Nor was there any world-shattering repulsion.
The victor's body simply stiffened, then began to convulse violently. His eyes bulged, and his mouth gaped wide, but not a sound came out.
A faint, almost transparent specter was forcibly pulled from the crown of his head by Nagato!
Human Path: Soul Extraction!
The specter twisted and struggled in Nagato's grasp before finally dissolving into specks of light and vanishing into the air.
The victor's body went limp, utterly lifeless. Like a sack with all its bones removed, he slumped to the ground.
Dead.
He died silently, and in a way that was utterly bizarre.
The canyon once again fell into absolute silence.
Yahiko stopped struggling. He stared blankly at the corpse, then at Nagato's expressionless face. Finally, he fell helplessly to his knees, clutching his head as a pained whimper escaped him.
His ideals were dead.
His most trusted friend had killed them with his own hands.
Lin Feng watched, pleased.
Good.
That was more like it.
That was how Pain was supposed to be.
Cold and merciless, treating human life like grass. Let the world feel pain!
"Very good."
Lin Feng walked over to Nagato and patted him on the shoulder.
"This is the first step you've taken as a 'god.'"
"From today on, there will be only one voice and one will in Amegakure: yours."
He turned to face the dozen or so surviving Amegakure shinobi on the other side of the canyon, all of them so terrified they looked ready to lose their souls.
"Did you see that?"
Lin Feng's voice rang throughout the canyon.
The Amegakure shinobi jolted. One after another, they fell to their knees and buried their faces in the dirt, not daring to breathe too loudly.
"From today on, he"—Lin Feng pointed at Nagato—"is your one and only god."
"His words are divine edicts. Anyone who disobeys will end up just like that trash on the ground."
"Now, kneel and welcome your new god!"
"W-We pay our respects... to the divine... Lord God!"
Scattered voices of worship, steeped in utter terror, rang out through the canyon.
Nagato looked down at the hand that had just taken a life, then up at the shinobi prostrating themselves at his feet, trembling in fear.
An unprecedented feeling of having everything under his control welled up inside him.
So this was what it felt like to be a "god"?
He slowly clenched his fist. In his Rinnegan, the last trace of confusion was replaced by an ambition to control everything.
Lin Feng took it all in, inwardly delighted.
The A-rank roleplaying mission was done!
Next came the cleanup.
He turned and looked toward the enormous sphere hovering in the air nearby, made up of rock and corpses.
And at Shimura Danzō beneath it, clutching the hole in his chest and clinging to life.
"All right, Nagato."
Lin Feng's voice rang out again, cutting short the bizarre coronation of Amegakure's new god.
"The welcoming ceremony is over."
"Now it's time to deal with the trash."
With the Gunbai on his shoulder, he walked toward the enormous "Devastating Planetary Destruction."
Nagato, Konan, Yahiko, and everyone else followed him with their eyes.
They all wanted to know what this man would do with Danzō and the Root shinobi sealed inside.
Lin Feng stopped beneath the Devastating Planetary Destruction.
He looked up at the enormous rocky sphere, more than twenty meters across, and a playful smile crossed his face.
Then, in front of everyone, he slowly raised his right hand.
"Now then..."
"Let's make this fireworks show even more spectacular."
He aimed his hand at the rocky sphere and abruptly clenched all five fingers!
"Explode!"
Before you continue