On the large screen, the left half of the screen lit up.
There was no earth-shattering roar. The distance was too great; the sound waves were thrown hundreds of nautical miles away.
Only light.
Pure white light, devoid of all color.
The uninhabited island, covered with towering trees, began to blur in the first second after the flash of white light.
The thick log, which would take several people to encircle, instantly charred.
The hard rocky mountain collapsed and melted, like a softened candle.
It turned into dark red magma, and then instantly vaporized by a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees.
The island is gone.
It was silently wiped off the surface of the sea.
Not even a pit was left.
Immediately afterwards, blinding white light completely filled the entire screen.
The explosion-proof glass of the ocean-going probe's lens inside the water-cooled casing was directly burned through.
The transistors inside were burned to ashes.
"Sizzle--"
The screen flashed with several distorted colored stripes before going completely black.
A piercing static-like sound emanated from the speaker.
Konoha Hokage Building, Underground Control Room.
Yamanaka Fūshin slumped on a backless wooden stool.
His mouth was wide open, and saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth down to his chin, forming a long, shiny strand.
He didn't even have the strength to lift his hand to wipe it.
My mind was buzzing. It was completely blank.
Command post for the railgun on the back hill.
Orochimaru gripped the metal control panel tightly with both hands.
The fingernails scratched ten white marks on the hard metal sheet. The knuckles were deathly pale.
The muscles in his face twitched violently.
"Xiu... Lord Shu."
Orochimaru's throat felt like it was blocked with a dry sponge; the sound he made was thin and crackling.
"Backup... high-altitude weather balloons."
His hands were shaking so badly that he typed three times before finally pressing the button to switch frequencies.
The screen lit up again.
This is a wide-angle shot taken from 300 nautical miles away at an altitude of 10,000 meters.
A huge, deep pit has been carved out in the very center of the sea.
The surrounding seawater didn't have time to overflow.
Water within tens of kilometers of the explosion's epicenter was instantly evaporated by temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees.
Large amounts of white water vapor mixed with black dust rushed straight into the stratosphere.
A thick, massive mushroom cloud, red and black in color.
It rose into the air from the sea.
The cloud column's crown pierced the sky at an altitude of ten thousand meters, forcefully pushing the clouds outwards for hundreds of kilometers.
Inside the clouds, arcs of purple-blue Tailed Beast Chakra surged wildly.
Like thick, electric pythons writhing in the thick smoke.
Tearing. Biting.
It dyed the sky an eerie purplish-red.
On the sea.
A hundred-meter-high wall of water was pushed by the violent shockwave, crushing in all directions.
A 100-ton deep-sea blue whale was caught on the crest of a wave, looking like a withered leaf.
Where the water wall passes, the seabed reefs are directly exposed to the air.
It was still steaming hot from being scalded.
This absolute destructive power, a combination of pure physics and Chakra, completely transcends the common sense of Ninjutsu.
Iwagakure. Tsuchikage Building.
Ōnoki sat in a large chair.
The testing crystal on the table, used to test high-frequency Chakra, shattered into a pile of tiny glass shards.
The red base was still emitting black smoke.
He gripped the armrests of the chair tightly with both hands, trying to stand up.
My two old legs wobbled three times. I couldn't hold on.
His lumbar vertebrae made a dry, sore cracking sound. He slumped back into the chair.
"Bang."
The thick wooden door to the office was kicked open.
The Intelligence Division scrambled in, losing one of his straw sandals in the process.
He was clutching a freshly developed black-and-white photograph in his hand, still reeking of the pungent smell of developing chemicals.
" Lord Tsuchikage! It's from the East Blue... it's coming from the border of the East Blue!"
The Intelligence Division knelt on the cold floor tiles.
He held the photo high above his head with both hands, banging his head against the ground. His shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.
Ōnoki reached out his hand.
That hand, covered in age spots, trembled like someone with Parkinson's disease.
He grabbed the photo and held it up to his eyes.
The photo is blurry. It's a distant view taken by Anbu stationed in the Land of Hot Water.
A towering black pillar on the horizon, topped with an enormous, unparalleled canopy.
Ōnoki's apple bobbed. He couldn't swallow a mouthful of dry saliva.
His proudest technique Dust Release, is said to be able to disintegrate everything.
Compared to this sky-covering cloud, it's not even worth a loud fart.
If this thing were to crash into Iwagakure).
What mountains, what defense lines? They'll all be reduced to scorching hot shards of glass.
Not even a piece of charcoal that could be identified as a human figure was left behind.
Ōnoki relaxed his hands.
The photo fluttered to the ground.
He leaned back in his chair, his eyes glazed over.
Kumogakure. Raikage's Office.
Dodai stood by the window. The thick coat he was wearing had slipped halfway down and was piled up in the crook of his arm.
The sky outside the window should have been dark at night.
Now, however, it glows with a sickly dark red aura.
Three Jonin from the Sensory Acuity Squad lay on the wooden floor behind them.
They were bleeding from all seven orifices. Blood from their noses flowed all over the floor, forming a pool of dark red blood.
He fainted on the spot.
Dodai pressed his hand against the cold windowpane.
My palms were soaked. They were covered in slippery, cold sweat.
He was trembling.
The Land of Lightning is known for its strong martial spirit. Tens of thousands of muscular men have spent their entire lives practicing Lightning Release Taijutsu.
Could someone withstand an explosion of this magnitude with their own body?
Dodai pressed his face close to the glass.
This is no longer a ninja fight. It's divine punishment.
The Kumogakure is finished. All the tactics and defenses have become a huge joke.
The Land of Wind. Ruins of Sunagakure.
Chiyo sat on the pile of rubble.
She suddenly felt the stone beneath her bottom tremble.
It was very faint, but it was definitely seismic wave, coming from the far east.
She looked up and glanced at the poisonous smoke still hanging overhead.
The wooden cane in my hand slipped to the ground and rolled twice.
Just how many death warrants does that madman from Konoha still hold in his hands?
The highest-ranking members of the entire Shinobi World.
On this ordinary summer night, through a network of collapsed intelligence, I witnessed this explosion.
They were gripped by a deathly, desperate fear.
Behind Konoha Mountain. Railgun Command Post.
The mountain wind was strong, making the rusty iron railings whistle and rattle.
The images on the big screen are still playing. The tsunami has already advanced dozens of nautical miles.
Orochimaru leaned against the metal workbench.
He looked at Shu Shiraishi beside him.
The fervor in his eyes faded, replaced by a deep-seated reverence.
He created a god.
No. The person standing next to him is God.
Shu Shiraishi turned around.
The hem of the black trench coat fluttered loudly in the strong wind.
He walked to the control panel and extended his right hand, which was wearing a black glove.
I picked up that rough, manganese steel mobile phone.
He tossed the three-pound iron brick in his hand.
Orochimaru.
Shu Shiraishi spoke, his voice choked by the mountain wind.
Frequency band.
Orochimaru suddenly snapped back to reality.
He straightened up and tapped the keyboard twice heavily with his fingers.
"It's already cut."
Orochimaru stared at the green light flashing on the side of the screen.
"Set the base station in the main control room to maximum power and reverse output."
"All devices in the entire Shinobi World that can Chakra frequencies are now on the same channel."
Shu Shiraishi pushed down the brass switch on the side of the mobile phone with his thumb.
The red light is on. It remains on and does not flash.
The encrypted walkie-talkie on the Ōnoki table in Iwagakure.
A radio in a mud- Dodai house in Kumogakure.
A communication scroll found in the ruins of the Land of Wind.
The loudspeakers in all the ninja villages.
In the same second.
At the same time, a sharp electromagnetic whistling sound erupted.
"Sizzle--!"
It was so sharp it made my eardrums hurt.
The whistling stopped.
Shu Shiraishi's cold voice traveled along the radio waves.
It struck clearly above every ninja village, and into the ears of every Kage.
Low, cold, and without any variation.
Listen carefully.
Ōnoki sat in the chair, completely frozen.
"This was just a minor test launch."
Dodai leaned against the windowsill, his body slowly sliding down until he landed on the wooden floor.
"From this day forward, the era of village chieftain brawls in the Shinobi World ends."
Shu Shiraishi stood on the command platform.
Looking into the deep night.
"I hereby declare that the era of centralized power has officially begun!"