The ship's guns fell silent, and the soldiers' cries caught in their throats.
Time seemed to freeze for a second.
Then, in the next instant-
Crack... BOOM!!
A massive fissure, smooth as a mirror, opened at the Maya's bow and instantly ran along its centerline, splitting the entire ten-thousand-ton destroyer!
Seawater surged madly through the enormous breach!
The entire Aegis warship split down the middle like a block of tofu sliced with perfect precision!
Countless sailors were swept into the raging whirlpool alongside shattered steel, their screams piercing the air.
Xiao Lin Jiro stood in the already tilting command room, watching helplessly as the other half of the hull sank beneath the sea in roaring flames. In that moment, everything he believed about the world collapsed.
"A... demon..." he murmured, before the icy seawater swallowed him completely.
An Aegis warship representing the pinnacle of Little Japan's technology had gone from being attacked to sinking in less than ten seconds.
Not far away, everyone aboard the Haguro stood as if frozen by a spell, their minds utterly blank.
"C-Captain... the Maya... she's sunk..."
The Haguro's captain was white as a sheet. His lips trembled, but he could not utter a word.
He had seen it.
He had seen that demon in the black suit push lightly off the Maya's wreckage and begin running across the sea as though it were solid ground-and he was heading straight for him!
"Open fire! Stop him! Use missiles! Kill him!!"
At those frantic orders, every weapon system aboard the Haguro targeted the figure racing across the water.
But it was all futile.
Lao Qing wove through the dense barrage as casually as if he were strolling through a courtyard.
Every shell that came within three meters of him was deflected and flung aside by an