On the 26th day of the eighth month of the 27th year of the Konoha calendar, even the wind in the Godfall Mountains carried the smell of rust. Millions of troops from the Three Nations Allied Forces surged Land of Fire like a black tide, banners stretching from the horizon to the sky, their black and silver armor gleaming blindingly in the sun. General Mikado Lightning Armor of the Land of Lightning reined in his black horse, the lightning patterns on his dark purple heavy armor dancing in the sunlight. He drew his longsword, pointing it south, his voice shaking the entire land. "Only a hundred miles away, Azure Dragon City! My army can flatten you in a single day!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the clear sky suddenly cracked open with a "crack." Three hundred " Thunder Falcon Type III " rune fighters swooped down from the clouds like a swarm of bees. Their Jūni- zhang-long wingspans spread out, like a flock of giant steel birds that blotted out the sun. The lightning patterns on their fuselages shone with a blinding blue light as they dove. The first formation flew past the heads of the allied forces, dropping three hundred " Blazing Flame Explosive Tag Aerial Bomb " from their bellies. Before the bombs even hit the ground, the runes on their tails spontaneously combusted, turning into a shower of red and white light in the air.
"Boom--Boom--"
Explosions rang out one after another, like thunderbolts striking the ground. The temperature at the center of the explosions instantly soared to three thousand degrees. The fireballs expanded and then contracted violently, creating a vacuum vortex that, like a giant hand, dragged the entire heavy armored squadron of the Land of Lightning, along with their horses, into the inferno within a radius of a hundred feet. Charred bones were everywhere, and scalding blood vapor rose upwards, making even the air smell both foul and hot.
"The enemy plane is too high! My Lightning Release can't reach it!" The ninja from the Land of Lightning jumped up and swung his sword, but he couldn't even touch the Kageko of the fighter jet, and he yelled in frustration.
"Bows and arrows? Don't be ridiculous! They fly faster than falcons, you can't even aim at their Kageko!" The archers drew their bows taut and then lowered them, their hands trembling.
Inside the frontline command tent of the Land of Lightning, a messenger knelt on the ground with a thud, his armor plates striking the ground with a loud thud. His voice was choked with sobs. "Sir! We've lost contact with the third and seventh formations on the left flank. Preliminary counts... the casualties exceed 30,000!"
Mikado Lightning Armor's face instantly turned ashen, like a block of iron. He slammed his fist on the table, the Kusunoki cracking in two, teacups shattering on the floor. "What's the panic! Keep marching! Even if we have to use a sea of people to fill this land, we'll fill it up!"
But the knuckles of his hand gripping the sword hilt were frighteningly white.
The allied forces' subsequent advance was as slow as a snail's pace, covering at most five miles per hour. But for every mile they moved forward, the flock of steel-clad monsters would precisely turn back to "greet" them.
At dawn, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, the second wave of air attacks arrived. This time, the fighter jets descended to a low altitude of 500 zhang, and the fuselage doors opened with a "whoosh," scattering a glittering substance—" Runic Magnetic Storm Mine." The silver-blue arcs of electricity exploded as soon as they landed, crackling and darting through the crowd. The Chakra Armor, which the Land of Lightning was so proud of, turned into smoking slag with a "plop" when it touched the arcs.
"Ah--!" Screams rose and fell as arcs of electricity pierced flesh, the smell of burning flesh mingling with the stench of blood filling the air, enough to make anyone nauseous. One Jonin of the odds, Hand Seals " Lightning Release Swift Lightning," attempting to counter the electric shock with his own. However, the arc of electricity snapped back, instantly turning his entire arm into a bloody mess, splattering white bone fragments onto the faces of those nearby.
Mikado Raikaku, a nobleman from the Land of Lightning and the uncle of Mikado Lightning Armor, was standing on his chariot issuing orders. Looking at the chaos below, his mustache bristled with rage as he roared, "Lightning Artillery! Heed my command! Elevation seventy degrees, all--"
"Call out--"
A sharp Space Break as a " Wind Blade Guided Missile " precisely struck the tank. With a deafening roar, the tank was blasted into pieces, and Mikado Raikaku was sliced in two along with the vehicle. Half of his body flew three zhang away, his eyes still wide open, clutching the thunder-patterned command flag tightly in his hand, blood dripping down the flag.
The air raids lasted for three days. The Allied forces struggled to advance twenty miles along the blood-soaked path, at the cost of 350,000 lives. Corpses littered the ground, crushing the grass in the Godfall Mountains and staining the river red, making even the water taste rusty. New recruits vomited as they walked, while veterans numbly stepped over the corpses, none knowing who would be next to be blown to pieces.
The battle reports that Mikado Lightning Armor received every day felt like branding irons, burning his hands. But each time, he would crumple the reports into a ball, grit his teeth, and order, "Keep moving!"
The other two armies were also pretty much stunned by the fighter jets.
At dawn on August 30th, the remnants of the allied forces finally staggered to within fifty li. The canyon ahead suddenly opened up, but before they could even catch their breath, muffled thuds came from the ground, like countless giant hammers pounding the earth.
"Boom--Boom--"
Five hundred " Heavenly Chief Type II " rune mechs marched out from the other side of the canyon, each ten zhang tall, forged entirely of black iron, dark and heavy like a moving mountain. The lightning and fire runes at the joints "whooshed" out blue flames, each step covering ten zhang. The mechs carried "quadruple-mounted lightning and fire cannons" on their shoulders, and "ship-slaying giant blades" longer than a person hung at their waists. Just standing there made one's legs go weak.
"What... what kind of monster is that?" The vanguard samurai of the Land of Lightning stared wide-eyed, his long sword clattering to the ground, his pupils almost bursting.
Before they could react, the five hundred mechs suddenly raised their arms at the same time, and the lightning on their cannons converged with a buzzing sound, growing brighter and brighter.
"Fire with thunder and fire—launch!" someone shouted from afar.
"Boom!!"
The deafening roar of cannons rang out, and the mountain walls on both sides of the canyon were sheared off by three zhang (approximately 10 meters). The debris mixed with human flesh and blood surged down like a mudslide, raising the valley floor by half a foot.
Immediately afterward, the swarm of mechs charged forward with a series of thuds, their giant blades slashing across the battlefield. One Elite Jonin reacted quickly, completing the Hand Seals for " Lightning Release: Lightning Explosion," attempting to repel the mechs with an electric shockwave. However, the arc of electricity struck the energy shield on the mech's left arm and bounced back with a "smack." The next instant, the giant blade had already cleaved him in two at the waist, spitting blood five feet high and staining the mech's black iron outer shell a deep red.
Ninjas below the Kage Level are easily destroyed by mechs, like they're made of paper. Even Kage Level ninjas can only rely on their Body Flicker Technique to escape in a sorry state. The Third Raikage's younger brother, Yotsuki Raihayabusa, refused to believe it and activated his " Lightning Release Chakra Mode," his body crackling with lightning as he took a punch head-on into the mech. With a "crack," his ribcage shattered, and he was sent flying backward, spitting out blood. He crashed into a mountainside and slid down, never to move again.
The mechs charged through the encirclement, and when they turned back, not a single one was damaged. The Land of Lightning left 70,000 corpses in the canyon, the blood soaking the soil at the bottom into a sticky red mud that made a squelching sound when stepped on, and even the wind carried the smell of blood.
On September 1st, the remnants of the Allied forces, like stray dogs, staggered and crawled, relying on human lives to approach within ten miles of Azure Dragon City. The setting sun dyed the sky blood red, and before even seeing the Kageko of the city wall, they heard the "whooshing" sound of cannons, like the low roar of countless giant beasts.
The Azure Dragon Corps's " Violet Thunder " rune-inscribed heavy artillery was already in place, with 1,200 cannons arranged in a straight line, their muzzles pointing towards the allied forces. The runes on the cannon barrels lit up one after another with a "swish, swish, swish," from the breech to the muzzle, like a thousand stars falling to the ground, making one's heart tighten.
"Location—Dense concentration of allied forces." From behind the artillery position, Uzumaki Honoka's voice came through a communication talisman, calm and undisturbed.
"Load—high-explosive thunderbolt shells!" the loaders shouted as they shoved the lightning-bombed shells into the breech.
"Volley!"
"Thump--"
Twelve hundred cannons roared simultaneously, shaking the earth. The first salvo tore the sky in two shades of purple and red, and the shells crashed down with long trails of fire. The impact points were arranged in a plum blossom pattern, each "plum blossom" covering an area of three miles, densely packed with no gaps.
The shockwave swept across, tearing human bodies to shreds like rags. Lightning and fire crackled and popped on the ground. Even the strongest Chakra Armor from the Land of Lightning melted into molten iron upon contact with the flames, melting into the scorched earth.
Mikado Lightning Armor's hair was disheveled, and he was covered in blood, indistinguishable as to whether it was his own or someone else's. He used " Lightning Release: Lariat " to cleave a flying boulder, shattering it into dust. He roared hoarsely, "Retreat! Scatter!"
Now you want to disperse? It's too late. The dense crowd is packed together, and those in front want to retreat, while those behind keep pushing forward. They've become sitting ducks, unable to move.
The nobleman of the Land of the Moon, Tsukisuke Chitose, was so anxious that he snapped the handle of his fan. He formed Genjutsu seal to try and block the view of the artillery fire, chanting complex incantations. But just as he finished casting the Genjutsu, an "anti- Genjutsu rune warhead" rushed over with a "whoosh" and exploded with a "boom." His mental link was instantly torn apart, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, which flowed from all seven orifices. His folding fan fell to the ground, covered in blood.
The daimyo of the Land of Hot Water Yu Mujiu, changed his route from a warship to a land route. Just as he arrived at the front lines, a cannonball blasted through the army with a deafening roar. Flames burned rapidly from the front to the back of the column, crackling and popping. The 30,000 personal guards didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly vaporized by the intense heat, leaving not even a trace of bone. The old man, protected by the Super Kage Onmyoji, was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, trembling as he looked at the burning world.
This isn't a war; it's a one-sided massacre. And it's the kind where one person kills a large number of people.
On September 9th, the allied forces finally couldn't hold out any longer and retreated like a tide to the old site of Fallen Star Plain on the border of the Land of Hot Water. In those fifteen days, the Three Nations Allied Forces launched seventeen group charges like madmen and tried thirty-three separate breakouts, but each time they were beaten black and blue by those rune fighters, mech groups and heavy artillery groups, and they didn't even get close to the edge of Azure Dragon City.
The post-war review of battle reports felt like a boulder, weighing heavily on everyone, making it hard to breathe.
Land of Lightning: 1.17 million dead, 400,000 seriously injured, and 150,000 still missing, presumably blown to smithereens;
The Land of the Moon: 680,000 dead, 90,000 seriously wounded, the silver-armored, white-horse-riding army was almost wiped out;
The Land of Hot Water: 550,000 dead, 70,000 seriously wounded, and the army lost more than half its strength.
And the Azure Dragon Corps? From beginning to end, not a single soldier showed Kageko, yet they deployed three hundred fighter jets, five hundred mechs, and twelve hundred cannons. The battle report clearly stated: zero casualties.
Zero to over 2.4 million.
This number pierced the hearts of every Allied soldier like a needle. The 15 million-strong army they brought, which claimed to be able to crush the Land of Fire, had lost nearly a quarter of its soldiers before they even saw the enemy. The rest were all wounded, and their morale had plummeted to rock bottom.
Mikado Lightning Armor's hands trembled as he held the battle report; the lightning patterns on his heavy black iron armor had lost their luster. He had fought in half his life and had never seen such an outrageous battle.
In the ruined camp of the Godfall Mountains, the cries of wounded soldiers and the burning campfires filled the air. Mikado Lightning Armor sat alone on the scorched earth, his hair disheveled and stuck to his face, his body covered in scabs as hard as armor. He stared blankly at the southern sky.
There, a formation of several rune fighters was slowly skimming through the clouds, their wings reflecting the light of the setting sun, like a flock of fiery crows draped in crimson gold, circling and patrolling in the sky.
"We... we haven't even touched the walls of Azure Dragon City," he muttered to himself, his voice hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
"Fifteen million people... and it couldn't even save one of their lives." He raised his hand, looking at the calluses and new wounds on his palm, and suddenly felt that his hands were ridiculous.
Tsukisuke Chitose walked over, leaning on a broken folding fan, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. His face was as pale as paper. He murmured, "This isn't war, this is... execution. They didn't even consider us as opponents; they were just slaughtering pigs and sheep."
Supported by his personal guards, Yu Mujiu wept uncontrollably, his cloudy eyes gazing at the night sky, stained crimson by the gunfire. His voice trembled uncontrollably. " The Land of Fire... what kind of monsters have they created? These iron behemoths... how can any human withstand them..."
In the far south, Azure Dragon City still lies quietly on the mountain ridge, as silent as a giant dragon gathering its strength. Only the "hum" of fighter jet engines, the "thump" of mechs hitting the ground, and the metallic clang of heavy cannons being loaded can be heard from afar on the wind.
The sound was like the drumbeat of Death God, striking the hearts of the nobles of the Three Kingdoms, shattering their ambitions and awakening the twilight of this old era. The Godfall Mountains slowly sank, casting long, long Kageko, yet it could not illuminate the despair ahead.