"Rumble!"
An invisible hand of god played a melody of destruction. The sky shattered as pure white radiance surged outward, expanding into a dazzling hemisphere over ten kilometers in diameter, like the sun falling onto Empire City.
Violent wind pressure and shock waves shattered everything in their path. The densely packed skyscrapers, Broadway, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other buildings steeped in a century of history collapsed like toy blocks.
Vast swaths of rubble were even flung across the boundary river, the Hudson River, crashing down in New Jersey on the opposite shore.
As the white light and smoke gradually dispersed, every trace of human construction in sight had been flattened by Shinra Tensei. A horrifying, clean wound had been gouged into the earth.
"No! This isn't real!"
"The tremors were so violent even thirty-five hundred li away. To think it had this much power!"
"Pain's power is far greater than the Nine-Tails Demon Fox's!"
When Pain descended upon the metropolis and threatened war, countries around the world began operating as efficiently as tightly meshed gears, with all kinds of observation agencies watching the site without pause.
This miserable, apocalyptic scene was so terrifying that countless people stared with eyes nearly bursting, were frightened out of their wits, or wept bitterly.
"Unforgivable, unforgivable! Pain, I'll kill you!"
"Secretary-General Uchiha, hurry! Please!"
In all their myriad reactions and clamor, every one of them endured unimaginable pain!
"Hmph. With this, the world should grow a little."
Standing in the sky like a god, Pain looked down at the ruins annihilated by Shinra Tensei, his expression as cold and merciless as ever.
Just as he prepared to fly away, his eyes lowered.
"Hmm?"
A sudden gust swept across the ground, tearing through the lingering dust. Whirlpool-like ripples appeared in empty space and