Forty thousand marines, tens of thousands of civilians, thousands of CP0 agents, hundreds of God's Knights, the Five Elders, admirals, vice admirals, rear admirals, field officers, junior officers, soldiers, merchants, craftsmen, fishermen, travelers, slave traders, slaves, the elderly, children, men, women—everyone.
From the coast to the interior, from the harbor to the streets, from the islands to the sea, from the sea to the edge of the Red Line.
Everyone was swallowed by the same shadow, steeped in the same fear, consumed by the same thought.
Clang—
Another metallic clatter rang out. But this time, no one bothered counting how many there had been.
The entire Sabaody Archipelago was sinking from uproar into deathly silence.
The sobbing, the screaming, the shoving, the running—all of it faded, little by little, irreversibly.
In its place came a boundless, suffocating silence.
It was the silence of despair.
The silence of surrendering to fate.
The silence that engulfed the entire archipelago in the face of annihilation.
High above, the meteor, thousands of meters across, had already filled the entire sky.
Dark purple light streamed from deep within its fissures, casting an eerie violet hue over the sea.
The sea breeze stopped.
The waves stilled.
The birds had long since vanished.
Between heaven and earth, only that inescapable shadow remained, and beneath it, a deathly silent Sabaody.
Madara Uchiha floated within Susanoo's brow, his Rinnegan surveying it all with indifference.
He watched the soldiers who had laid down their weapons, the civilians slumped on the ground, the lives huddled together as they awaited the end.
There was no pity on his face, no pleasure, not even arrogance.
Only an indifference as unchanging as eternity.
Then he spoke.
His voice was quiet, yet utterly clear amid the overwhelming silence. Like a final judgment issuing from the