At the same time, high above the Rinkai City, deep within clouds at an unknown altitude.
Isshin's figure floated amidst endless lightning.
Countless blue-white electric serpents danced wildly around him, illuminating his face in alternating flashes of light and darkness. At the same time, innumerable shadow-clone projections of the Blade of the Thunder Spirit surrounded him.
Every sword was frantically devouring the lightning surging through the clouds, condensing layer after layer of dazzling golden thunder plasma on the surfaces of the blades.
From time to time, swords failed to withstand the bombardment of such violent lightning and dissolved into smoke.
Grinding his teeth, Isshin repeatedly recreated them, filling the gaps in the sword formation.
Compared to the main body, controlling this lightning was far more difficult for him.
After all, he lacked any boosts related to the Ninja occupation, and he also lacked analytical abilities like Seeing Through Things as Clearly as Observing a Flame.
Just reaching the center of this thundercloud had already cost him tremendous effort.
It was only because the main body, Shinichi, had repeatedly tested and calculated things over the past few days, accumulating experience and memories, that this clone could barely maintain the situation here.
Otherwise, he might have been struck down by the surrounding lightning before even reaching the cloud layer.
...
On the walls of Rinkai City, Yagura stood before the city wall.
The violent winds whipped his robes, and rain streamed down his face.
As he stared at the increasingly terrifying cloud mass over the distant sea, his brows gradually tightened.
Hyakume Sosuke stood silently behind him, likewise staring at the chaotic scene where sea and sky merged into one.
"Yagura, did you sense something?"
Yagura pondered for a moment and was about to speak when a messenger ninja rushed to his side, then speaking rapidly, he reported: "Yagura-sama! The reconnaissance team has discovered abnormal movements from Konoha! They appear to be gathering on a large scale and preparing to launch a full offensive against us!"
A full offensive? The enemy was outnumbered while they held the advantage. Where did Konoha get such confidence?
Yagura's heart tightened, and his unease suddenly intensified.
Just as he was about to ask for details, another messenger ninja sprinted over and interrupted him for the second time.
"Yagura-sama! Konoha has simultaneously launched attacks on several of our outer strongholds! Another large force is rapidly advancing toward Rinkai City! Approximately two thousand ninjas!"
Two thousand?
There were three thousand defenders stationed here.
Not to mention the surrounding strongholds could send reinforcements at any time.
Has Konoha gone insane?
Yagura opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted for the third time.
This time, the one interrupting him was Hyakume Sosuke.
"Yagura!"
Hyakume Sosuke's stern voice rang out.
Yagura immediately turned around.
Hyakume Sosuke's expression had become more serious than ever before while his eyes were fixed firmly on the sea.
Within the endless gloom, the weather suddenly changed.
Far across the sea, giant waves resembling mountain ranges could be vaguely seen piling up layer upon layer as they surged forward.
Even farther away, pillars of wind connected heaven and earth, churning seawater and clouds into a chaotic vortex.
And that vortex was visibly shifting toward Rinkai City.
Yagura's face changed drastically, and, unable to believe it, he blurted out: "According to our calculations, the typhoon wasn't supposed to pass through here!"
No one had time to answer him, because at that very moment, a streak of azure light appeared on the eastern horizon.
At first, it was only a faint glimmer.
The next instant, it transformed into a vast azure rainbow sweeping across heaven and earth as it charged forward at lightning speed.
The dark sky was suddenly illuminated by blinding azure light.
The rolling clouds were instantly dyed an eerie blue-green, as though the entire sky itself had been stained by the radiance.
Under the azure glow, a terrifying apocalyptic aura filled heaven and earth.
The ground trembled faintly, as though shuddering beneath some horrifying force descending from the heavens.
The azure light was still more than ten kilometers away in the sky, yet the roar it caused as it disturbed the atmosphere was already hundreds of times louder than the loudest thunder.
Anyone who saw that scene would never doubt it.
If that attack struck, leveling cities and destroying mountains would not be an exaggeration.
"It isn't a natural disaster!"
Hyakume Sosuke spoke with a grave expression.
"It's a man-made calamity!"
Before his words had even finished, his pupils had already transformed completely into beast-like vertical slits.
Countless streams of crimson chakra erupted around him like blazing flames shooting into the sky as three crimson chakra tails burst out from behind him.
Partial Tailed Beast State!
"Defend immediately!"
Opening his mouth, Hyakume Sosuke fired crimson chakra beams one after another like a barrage of artillery.
Dragging dark-red trails behind them, the crimson chakra beams shot directly toward the approaching azure hurricane.
Void Cannon!
As the temporary headquarters of the Village Hidden in the Mist, the Kirigakure ninja within the city naturally had no intention of waiting helplessly for death.
Under Yagura's rapid organization, countless Ninjutsu rose from every section of the city wall.
Following behind Hyakume Sosuke's Void Cannons, they exploded chaotically across the surface of the azure light like fireworks.
However, every attack only created insignificant ripples on the outer layer of the azure hurricane, and none of them could shake the azure rainbow in the slightest, nor could they delay its advance by even one or two seconds.
Not good!
Hyakume Sosuke's pupils contracted sharply.
With a furious roar, he finally stopped holding back. Then, in the next second, a vast chakra, deep as the sea, erupted from his body.
His form rapidly expanded and transformed amidst the surging chakra, and in the blink of an eye, he became a colossal monster as enormous as a mountain.
Three-Tails, Complete Tailed Beast State!
For Hyakume Sosuke, every use of the power of Complete Tailed Beast State consumed some of the little lifespan he had left, but he no longer cared.
If that force capable of destroying an entire city truly descended upon them, perhaps fewer than one-tenth of the three thousand Kirigakure ninjas here would survive.
The moment he entered the Complete Tailed Beast State, the azure rainbow descended above Rinkai City.
The gale ripped every roof tile from the city, and the rain turned an eerie blue-green beneath the azure light. Countless trees snapped in half under the pressure of the wind, emitting shrill cries.
Hyakume Sosuke released a heaven-shaking roar, then his massive body, like a moving mountain range, became a shield of flesh as he charged directly toward the azure light.
Bang!!!
The boundless azure rainbow crashed head-on into the Three-Tails' fully transformed body.
Hyakume Sosuke only had time to force out a single sentence: "Get out of the way!"
Then, the next moment, accompanied by the sound of cracking, his mountain-like body was violently blasted away.
A bottomless trench was carved through the city as everything in his path collapsed and shattered.
Rows of buildings crumbled, and bricks and wooden beams were thrown into the air like scraps of paper.
Only after smashing into a mountain range did he finally come to a stop, then a vast cloud of dust instantly swallowed his figure.