Ultimate Black, Divine Armament

At the center of the enormous crater, there was only deathly silence.

Only the sizzling of rainwater falling onto the scorching glass-like ground remained, like a trivial dirge playing for this stillborn victory.

The several dozen surviving Iwagakure and Hidden Rain Village ninja struggled out of the ruins. Every one of them was filthy and bedraggled. Many had been too close to the blast; their eardrums had ruptured, and blood flowed from all seven orifices. Yet without exception, twisted smiles of survival hung on their faces.

"Did we succeed, Captain?!"

"That monster... is dead, right?"

"With an explosion of this magnitude... even the Third Tsuchikage couldn't have survived!"

Supporting one another, they looked toward the center of the crater, eager to confirm their results and witness with their own eyes the nightmare that had kept them awake at night reduced to ashes.

Rock did not answer.

His body was frozen in place as though pierced by invisible ice spikes. His eyes were fixed on the lone black speck at the bottom of the crater, veins in his eyes bulging one by one.

Impossible.

This was impossible.

That was just rock left behind after the explosion, an illusion caused by the light and shadows.

He screamed madly at himself in his heart, trying to use reason to deny the utterly absurd sight before him.

Yet the black speck moved.

Slowly, he raised his head.

A gaze crossed a distance of a thousand meters, pierced the billowing steam, and landed precisely on Rock.

There was no anger in that gaze, no killing intent, not even a trace of emotion.

There was only the pure, unquestioning indifference of a god looking down upon ants.

"..."

Rock opened his mouth, wanting to say something, only to find his throat clamped shut by an invisible hand. No sound came out. At that moment, all the blood in his body seemed to freeze.

At last, the wind dispersed the last wisp of steam.

The scene at the bottom of the crater was laid bare before everyone's eyes.

Uchiha En stood there quietly, bare-chested.

His black Shadow Guard uniform had long since turned to ash in the explosion. What it revealed was the well-proportioned body of a youth, its smooth lines brimming with strength.

But the color of that body was wrong.

It was not the skin tone a human should possess.

It was an ultimate black, purer than the darkest night.

Like the void at the birth of the universe, swallowing all light.

A black substance with the metallic sheen of obsidian tightly covered every inch of his skin. From his neck to his ankles, there was not a single gap. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, yet reflected no light at all, greedily and mercilessly devouring every ray of it.

An invisible, distorted force field around his body kept every falling raindrop away.

Thirteen thousand, seven hundred and sixty-four specially made explosive tags.

A saturated three-dimensional explosion capable of wiping a small town off the map.

A spatial compression shockwave, amplified to its utmost through the conducting medium of water and earth.

All of it... had not even left a white mark on him.

"..."

The whole world fell into an eerie silence.

Every Iwagakure and Hidden Rain Village ninja stood dumbly staring at that black "demon god," like statues struck by petrification, their minds utterly blank.

Their understanding, their knowledge of ninjutsu, chakra, and the entire power system of this world, was shattered by the completely unreasonable scene before them.

Ninja were fragile.

Ever since the founding of the hidden villages, this had been common sense engraved into every ninja's bones. No matter how powerful a ninja was, they could not use their flesh to withstand ninjutsu of the same level head-on. Defense required substitution techniques, Earth Style walls, Susanoo.

High attack, low defense.

That was the fundamental logic of this world's combat system.

But now, that man...

That fifteen-year-old boy had used his body, and a bizarre power they had never heard of or seen before, to trample that iron rule beneath his feet—then crush it to pieces in a manner that was almost humiliating.

"How... how is this... possible..." A young Iwagakure ninja's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground, his eyes unfocused as he muttered unconsciously. "He... is he even human...?"

"Monster..."

"That's... a demon..."

Their faith had crumbled.

When the strongest method they took pride in was less than a scratch to their enemy, the despair surging up from the depths of their hearts was enough to destroy the will of any battle-hardened warrior.

"No... I don't believe it!!"

Rock suddenly let out a hysterical roar.

He could not accept it! He could not accept that the carefully planned killing move he had wagered everything on had yielded such an absurd result!

"Genjutsu! This has to be genjutsu!"

His hands formed seals at incredible speed, bloodshot eyes wide open.

"Wake up! Release!"

Yet nothing happened.

The black demon god at the bottom of the crater still stood there quietly, watching him with the gaze one gave the dead.

"Looks like... your 'grand gift' ends here."

En's voice came from the bottom of the crater.

Because of the Armament Haki covering his body, his voice was somewhat muffled and distorted, as though it came from the depths of a well, carrying a metallic quality and echo.

Slowly, he raised his right hand, spread his fingers, then slowly clenched them.

Crack.

A crisp pop of joints rang out.

That pitch-black fist, merely by clenching, made the air around it let out a groan of unbearable strain.

"To be honest, I should thank you." En rolled his neck, and the black armor rose and fell smoothly with his movements like a living thing.

"If you hadn't worked so hard to compress the shockwave to this extent..."

"I really wouldn't have known this thing felt like this to use."

He could feel it.

At the instant those countless explosive tags detonated, when that terrifying pressure capable of annihilating space crushed in from all directions, something inside him had awakened.

It was a pure, unyielding will born from the very origin of life.

It was the seed of Armament Haki, forcibly catalyzed by that extreme external pressure, breaking through the soil and then growing wildly in an almost savage manner, instantly covering his entire body.

[Ding—]

[Detected that the host has exceeded the requirement of "using the physical body to withstand an attack beyond one's own level"!]

[Unlocked and forcibly awakened: Armament Haki (Beginner)!]

[Because the pressure endured by the host during awakening far exceeded the critical threshold, Armament Haki proficiency has surged! Current progress: 90/100!]

[System Notice: The host has mastered "Armament Haki: Hardening" and can cover any part of the body with indestructible black armor. Partial access to the advanced application, "Armament Haki: Infusion," has been unlocked.]

En ignored the words on the system panel.

His entire mind was immersed in this unprecedented, incomparable feeling of power.

Hardness.

Absolute hardness.

It was as though he himself was the "rule" of this world. Any force that tried to challenge that "rule" would only be ruthlessly repelled and crushed.

"Then, as a return gift..."

En raised his head. His eyes, glowing with three-tomoe Lava patterns beneath the pure-black mask, swept across the ninja above the canyon, whose faces had already gone ashen.

"Let me show you firsthand..."

The ground beneath his feet split apart without a sound.

Not from an explosion. Not from a stomp.

Rather, the invisible, domineering force field around his body made the hard rock unable to bear its mere "weight" simply by existing.

"What despair is."

The instant the words fell, his figure vanished from where he stood.