Both Shanks and Masashiki slowly toned down the overwhelming auras being released from their bodies.
As their powers receded, the violent pressure covering the surroundings gradually disappeared. The restless sea began to calm, the trembling land became still, and the torn clouds high above slowly stopped churning. For a brief moment, a tense tranquility washed over the area once again.
Masashiki looked directly at Shanks, his voice cold. "If it is war that you want, then you will get one."
The moment the words left his mouth, Masashiki vanished from in front of Shanks. In the next instant, he reappeared high in the sky, floating effortlessly alongside the other members of the Otsutsuki Clan.
As soon as Masashiki took his place, a sharp mechanical groan echoed from the gigantic spaceship.
Clank!
One after another, multiple massive latches across the hull of the giant spaceship began to disengage. The sound of shifting metal reverberated across the sea as enormous bay doors slid open throughout the vessel. Shanks, Antares, and Guy immediately narrowed their eyes, focusing their attention on the openings.
Then, the shadows within began to move.
The first wave of creatures emerged from the opened latches, followed almost immediately by a second. Then another. And another. Their numbers multiplied exponentially with every passing second.
All of them walked upright on two legs, but beyond that basic anatomical trait, their appearances varied wildly. Some possessed skin colors never before seen in this world. Others had strange, unsettling eyes—varying in shape, color, and number. Some bore four arms, while others possessed an entirely bizarre number of limbs.
Their physiques were equally unnatural. Some were towering and heavily armored, while others were skeletal and strangely distorted. There were even those whose bodies seemed to be composed purely of raw chakra, their forms shifting fluidly as energy rippled beneath their skin.
It was glaringly obvious. These creatures did not belong to a single race. They came from completely different places. Different worlds.
Masashiki looked down at Shanks and the others, his voice dropping to a low, resonant rumble. "Let me show you the strength of the slaves of the Otsutsuki Clan..."
Though his voice was quiet, it carried perfectly across the vast battlefield, piercing the ears of everyone present.
"...and the honor that you so foolishly cast aside."
The creatures continued to pour out of the giant spaceship like an unstoppable tide. Watching them, Shanks, Antares, and Guy instantly understood the grim reality. These people hadn't just been captured—they had chosen submission. At some point, their home worlds had likely faced the exact same ultimatum Masashiki had just offered Shanks: surrender or face total annihilation.
And they had bowed.
More and more slaves marched out of the vessel. Thousands. Tens of thousands. The influx showed absolutely no signs of stopping.
While the expressions of Shanks, Antares, and Guy remained outwardly stoic as they watched the growing vanguard, inwardly, all three were striking the same grim realization:
Such strength... The weakest among these so-called slaves of the Otsutsuki Clan possesses chakra and strength comparable to a Jonin of our world. And not merely a mid-level ninja or the Special Jonin rank created over the years. A full-fledged, battle-hardened Jonin. That is their bare minimum.
Shanks's gaze slowly swept across the countless alien figures massing outside the spaceship.
The Otsutsuki Clan has advanced far more than we anticipated. To possess so many thralls from so many different races, they must have conquered and butchered an unimaginable number of planets. And these slaves are likely just a fraction of what they truly command.
While Shanks, Antares, and Guy analyzed the massive slave army, the Otsutsuki Clan members floating in the sky looked down at the trio with cold curiosity.
Momoshiki, standing just a half-step behind Masashiki, carefully scrutinized the three defenders. After a few moments, he spoke up. "Elder, it seems your premonitions and readings were entirely accurate."
Masashiki remained silent, gesturing slightly for Momoshiki to continue.
"This planet has truly grown into a significant threat," Momoshiki admitted, his expression tightening into something resembling seriousness. "If only Kinshiki and I had deployed here alone, it would have been exceedingly difficult for us to leave this world unscathed."
Kinshiki, looming nearby like a monolith, remained silent, though a grim glint flashed in his eyes.
Hearing Momoshiki's assessment, Masashiki gave a calm, measured nod. "That is indeed the case." His eyes never left Shanks and the others below. "But there is nothing to be truly worried about."
Masashiki's voice carried the absolute, unshakable confidence of a god. "After all, they are merely our descendants." He paused, a sneer playing on his lips. "And descendants who are barely even half... No. Not even half. They possess a mere fraction of our DNA."
His expression turned indifferent once more. "They cannot change the tides of history." Masashiki tightened his grip slightly around his black staff. "They will be suppressed. And they can never hope to surpass the true lineage of the Otsutsuki Clan."
As Masashiki spoke, the slave army below finally finished its deployment. After what felt like an eternity, the last platoons marched out of the giant spaceship.
The entire vanguard of the Otsutsuki Clan stood fully assembled. Their numbers were staggering. There were easily over one million warriors gathered just outside the borders of the Land of Lightning.
One million. And every single one of them possessed the baseline power of a full-fledged Jonin.
When one million such powerhouse entities stood shoulder to shoulder, the sheer weight of their collective presence was enough to choke the air from a man's lungs. Different races, different biologies, different supernatural abilities—all unified under the brand of the Otsutsuki. The display of raw, overwhelming power was undeniable.
For many of the Kumo ninjas who observed or sensed this army from afar, a heavy dread naturally settled in their chests. An army of this scale and caliber was beyond anything their world had ever encountered throughout its bloody history.
However, they hadn't been idle. They had spent more than a decade preparing precisely for this day. They knew the gods would eventually come to collect. Of course, none of them had anticipated an army over a million strong, but they had always known one fundamental truth: the force sent by the Otsutsuki Clan would possess enough power to tear their world apart hundreds of times over.
And looking at the nightmare unfolding before them, that estimation was dead accurate.
Shanks turned his head slightly toward Antares, a reckless glint in his eye. "Although our forces look a bit shabby by comparison, we still have our honor to uphold." His gaze locked back onto the sea of monsters. "Bring out our army."
Antares nodded sharply.
In the next instant, the space behind the trio fractured. Numerous massive gate-portals manifested across the terrain, stretching far into the horizon. The space within each gate rippled violently before a flood of figures began marching out.
Shinobi.
The ninja alliance poured out of the spatial gates in massive, synchronized numbers. Thousands emerged every second, rapidly spreading out and locking into their predetermined tactical formations. The synchronized thud of countless boots shook the earth as the shinobi forces claimed their ground.
It took several minutes for the deployment to finish, but when the gates finally closed, the scale was breathtaking.
Their numbers reached an astonishing 400,000.
Four hundred thousand elite ninjas stood unified. The quality of the world's shinobi had improved exponentially over the past decade, a fact made obvious by their sheer pressure. The collective chakra radiating from hundreds of thousands of hyper-trained warriors gathered in a single geographic location was dense enough to make the air visibly warp.
Yet, when stacked against the million-strong slave army opposite them, the alliance still looked vastly outnumbered. Four hundred thousand against more than one million.
And the disparity wasn't just numerical. The qualitative gap between the two forces was stark.
The ninjas had arrived to fight for the very survival of their world, their villages, and their bloodlines. But looking at the endless rows of alien conquerors, chills naturally raced down many of their spines. Worse still, within that million-strong army, they could sense tens of thousands of signatures whose individual power levels easily rivaled a Kage—and not just the Kages of minor, backwater factions, but the historical peaks of the Five Great Shinobi Nations.
Tens of thousands of Kage-level threats.
Naturally, a seed of primal fear began to take root in the hearts of the frontline shinobi. Fingers gripped kunai and swords a little too tightly. Throats swallowed nervously. Breathing turned ragged as the absolute, horrifying reality of the impending slaughter fully settled into their minds.
Yet, not a single soul retreated. Not a single ninja took a step back.
Because retreat had never been an option. If they ran now, they died anyway. Their homes would burn, their loved ones would be butchered or shackled, and their entire civilization would be erased from existence.
What was the point of running? What was the value of a life lived in the ashes of everything you sought to protect? At the very least, by standing their ground against this horde, they held onto one thing: hope. Hope that their world might see tomorrow, even if they themselves had to feed the soil of this battlefield to buy it.
At the absolute vanguard of the 400,000-strong shinobi alliance, Shanks, Guy, and Antares stood side by side. Shanks looked at the towering wall of monsters, and a slow, fierce smile spread across his face.
"Let's give them a proper welcome."
Guy and Antares nodded in perfect unison.
Antares moved first. His human form transformed as his body underwent an instantaneous, violent transformation. In a flash of blinding light, his human form vanished, replaced by his colossal, red dragon form. His titanic silhouette towered over the entire landscape, casting a catastrophic shadow across the earth.
Antares reared his massive dragon head back, his eyes burning like twin suns.
"Dragon's Fear!"
ROAR!
An earth-shattering, apocalyptic roar ripped from his jaws, tearing across the battlefield like a physical shockwave.
The million-strong slave army took the full brunt of the sonic wave. Instantly, their collective morale fractured. The primal will to fight within countless alien warriors withered like ash. Some froze entirely in their tracks, while others instinctively stumbled backward as an overwhelming, unnatural terror gripped their minds, paralyzing their nervous systems.
Before they could even attempt to shake off the mental shackles, Guy made his move.
"Demon Lord's Haki!"
An oppressive, pitch-black aura erupted outward from Guy's body, expanding like a localized nebula. The suffocating weight swept violently across the slave army already reeling from the dragon's roar.
The combination was utterly devastating.
Thousands of frontline warriors instantly lost all cognitive resistance. Weapons slipped from trembling, numb fingers.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A chorus of falling metal echoed across the fields as the vanguard lost any semblance of combat readiness. Some stood frozen like statues, while others collapsed directly onto their knees, gasping for breath.
But this wasn't finished. Shanks stepped forward, unleashing his own absolute domain.
His Conqueror's Haki exploded from his body, perfectly synthesizing with a secondary, devastating technique.
"Divine Punishment!"
BOOM!
Shanks's localized Conqueror's Haki saturated the entire battlefield. Layered beneath the crushing weight of Dragon's Fear and Demon Lord's Haki, the psychological fortitude of the slave army shattered completely.
Nearly the entire million-strong force was violently brought to its knees. One million apex warriors, yet the vast majority could barely summon the strength to lift their heads off the dirt.
Simultaneously, the clouds started rumbling.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Pitch-black storm clouds coalesced aggressively above the warzone, churning with violent lightning. Suddenly, a colossal pillar of crimson lightning erupted directly from Shanks's body, piercing straight into the stratosphere.
BOOM!
The red lightning beam fused with the storm overhead, and the thunderous rumbling intensified tenfold.
Floating high above, Masashiki's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "An AOE strike is incoming." His voice cut through the minds of his kin. "Defend against it."
But before the Otsutsuki could weave their counters, the heavens tore open.
BOOOOOOM!
Countless pillars of apocalyptic red lightning rained down systematically upon the kneeling Otsutsuki slave army. The ground ruptured into geysers of dirt and stone; the sea violently boiled.
In just the initial volley of the storm, nearly 100,000 casualties tore through the slave army's ranks. The sheer, unadulterated destruction vaporized entire battalions, creating massive, smoldering craters where legions had stood just seconds prior.
Then came the second wave.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The crimson lightning cascaded down with renewed fury. Another 50,000 lives were instantly wiped from existence. In just two consecutive waves of Divine Punishment, the supposedly invincible million-strong army had suffered catastrophic casualties without ever swinging a single weapon.
However, an army gathered from across the cosmos naturally contained elite anomalies.
Suddenly, several key figures surged into motion. They were bizarre, avian humanoids possessing grayish skin and four powerful wings extending from their spines. Flying effortlessly into the storm-ridden sky, each elite warrior wielded a glowing, ornate trident.
The four-winged commanders rapidly fanned out across the airspace, simultaneously striking the shafts of their tridents against the empty air.
Hum!
A strange, high-frequency vibration rippled through the atmosphere.
Instantly, a colossal, translucent barrier materialized. The massive, sky-blue curtain stretched across the entire horizon, forming an impenetrable dome over the remaining slave forces.
The third wave of lightning descended immediately after.
BOOM!
The apocalyptic bolts slammed violently into the sky-blue barrier. The entire curtain shuddered, ripples of kinetic energy dispersing across its surface, but it held.
Another lightning bolt crashed down. Then another.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The lightning continued to hammer the enormous barrier with relentless velocity. Yet, despite the apocalyptic force of the strikes, the sky-blue curtain remained remarkably intact, absorbing the impact entirely.