Chat Group Escanor 17 (Patreon)

Iron Fortress, post-apocalypse.

Turbid air, gray skies, dilapidated buildings, numb crowds.

Escanor's figure reappeared in his monotonous commander's room.

Konoha's fresh night air seemed like mere fragments in a distant dream, replaced by the depression of reality.

But his mood at this moment was completely different from this environment. Far from the usual boredom and irritability, it was instead filled with a long-lost, nearly ecstatic anticipation.

He walked over to the window, overlooking the filthy and dilapidated Iron Fortress urban area below.

Those low, crooked shanties, mountains of discarded waste, streets flowing with sewage, and the residents walking numbly through them with hollow eyes...

But now, it was about to be different. He was going to carry out a thorough, sensational transformation.

"Octo!" Escanor's voice transmitted through the communication device.

Octo, who had long been waiting outside the door, practically crashed through the door. He really was a workaholic.

"Pass down my order. Notify all residents, immediately, right now, to bring their most important, indispensable personal items and gather at the Central Plaza. Remember, it's 'the most important'. Except for the patch of ground where they sleep, everything else that is unnecessary and cannot be taken must be left in place. No carrying them along."

Octo froze.

All residents? Central Plaza? Only bring the most important things?

What is this going to do?

Migration? Emergency evacuation?

But the exotic beast defense perimeter was completely intact!

But he didn't dare to ask too much and immediately bowed.

"Yes! My lord! I'll go do it right away! I guarantee everyone will be notified!"

The order was transmitted layer by layer at the fastest speed.

Although the residents didn't understand why, and their hearts were filled with panic and speculation, no one dared to challenge Escanor's majesty.

People began to pack in a panic. In fact, their so-called "important items" were pitifully few, there was basically nothing much.

Urged and guided by Octo and the Sanitation Brigade he temporarily assembled, more than twenty thousand residents poured out from every corner of Iron Fortress—families dragging their relatives, the old helping the young, carrying sparse bundles, with expressions intertwined with anxiety and numbness—slowly converging onto the relatively open, yet equally uneven and debris-filled clearing in the center of the city.

People squeezed against people, leaving almost nowhere to even place a foot. The air was filled with perplexed whispers and children's crying.

They felt somewhat fearful, thinking inwardly, 'They are finally going to make a move on us, stable days never last long. But what else can we possibly bring to that lord?'

Escanor stood by the commander's room window, overlooking the densely packed, swarming heads of people below.

It's about time.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His consciousness sank into his body, communicating with that brand-new power he had just acquired and hadn't tried yet—Wood Release, and the accompanying Chakra.

With a shift of his mind, the vast ocean of solar power within his body, following the path of the Solar Energy Conversion Technique, began to steadily transform into Chakra.

The conversion speed was extremely fast. Almost the instant he thought of it, a massive amount of Chakra had already filled his body.

Not enough, even more!

He deliberately guided it, turning the solar power into Wood Release Chakra. Its sheer total volume and purity were so great that if Hashirama were to come back to life and witness it, he would probably be dumbfounded.

Escanor raised both hands.

Below, the crowd in the Central Plaza began to stir. They saw from the commander's room window on high that the blond lord's body began to emit an indescribable aura. A faint light rippled outward with him as the center.

Escanor slammed both palms downward toward the earth below.

Immense Chakra soared into the sky, shaping behind Escanor.

As the light receded, a wooden statue standing hundreds of meters tall, almost level with the distant city wall, appeared.

The wooden structure's facial features were blurred, yet it possessed a solemn and dignified appearance. Behind it were thousands of wooden arms unfurled like a peacock opening its tail.

"Go."

With a thought from Escanor, numerous wooden arms shot out and grabbed the tattered shanties, waste piles, and broken walls.

Grabbed, lifted, and then—throw!

Much like a giant clearing away toys, shanties one by one and piles upon piles of garbage were effortlessly grabbed by the huge wooden hands, then tossed far beyond the plant defense circle outside the city wall.

The cleaning speed was shockingly fast. In just a few minutes, the originally crowded, messy Iron Fortress, became completely empty except for the newly erected, unfinished giant wooden building skeleton and the crowd in the central square.

The residents watched their "homes" being thrown away like garbage. The shock in their hearts could no longer be described in words.

It was not just the bewilderment of losing a humble abode, but the deep impact brought by witnessing the two god-like mighty forces of "creation" and "cleanup" with their own eyes.

Looking at the ground that was still uneven, covered with rubble and hard soil after the cleanup, Escanor felt it was still not flat enough.

Even children playing house know to flatten the ground first when building a house.

The giant wooden statue raised even more wooden arms, and then—

Boom boom boom boom boom boom...

Countless wooden palms took turns slapping down toward the empty ground. Every strike caused the earth to shake, the shockwaves spreading throughout the entire city.

Dust, gravel, and stubborn lumps of earth were thoroughly compacted and flattened under absolute power.

A few minutes later, the giant wooden statue stopped its actions.

The smoke and dust slowly dispersed. Presented before all the residents was a flat solid land. All the unevenness and all the obstacles completely disappeared.

Escanor nodded with satisfaction.

With a thought, the massive wooden statue with a thousand hands transformed into countless green spots of light all over the sky, dissipating into the air.

He landed, standing in the center of the flat land.

Octo scrambled over to Escanor, his voice trembling beyond recognition. "M-My Lord... Your divine might is peerless! You are truly... truly a deity descended to earth! My adoration for you is like the endless rolling waters of a great river..."

Escanor impatiently interrupted him, "Alright. Let us talk about business."

Octo quickly restrained himself, but a look of worry surfaced on his face.

"My Lord's divine might is boundless. Cleaning the old houses and flattening the earth are truly miracles. But with all the houses gone, where will everyone live tonight? The environment outside is so harsh. Once the wind and sand rise, without any shelter, everyone won't be able to survive."

Escanor asked, "What kind of house do you want to live in?"

Octo was stunned, thinking, 'The houses are gone and you are still asking me what kind I like? Could you possibly conjure one out of thin air... Wait, that giant creation just now...'

An absurd thought flashed through his mind, but he immediately denied it, thinking that perhaps the Lord's power was over-consumed and his brain... cough cough.

He did not dare to neglect and answered seriously, "Ordinary is fine, My Lord. As long as it doesn't leak wind and sand."

"Tch, what a lack of ambition." Escanor curled his lip, seemingly very disdainful of such a low requirement.

But his hands did not hesitate at all. Raising both hands again with palms facing down, he pressed them against the flat ground.

A light-green stream of Chakra spread in all directions, the flat ground vibrating slightly.

Wood Release: Three-Bedroom Apartment Technique—Universal Version!

Strange changes occurred once again in the area covered by the Chakra. Wooden houses with simple shapes and stable structures "grew" out of the flat ground.

They were uniform and arranged in an orderly manner. Each house had a standard three-bedroom, one-living-room layout, with small front and back open spaces, bright windows, and sturdy doors. Between the houses were spacious dirt roads.

What was even more magical was that inside each house, simple wooden furniture "grew" out: beds, tables, chairs, cabinets, everything was complete.

This newly born residential area quickly covered most of the flattened open space, complementing the giant building skeleton in the center that was not yet fully filled.

In front of the spot where Octo stood, what grew out was a wooden villa that was obviously much more spacious, had a two-story structure, and even featured a small courtyard. The furniture in the villa was also more complete.

Octo was completely dumbfounded. He looked at the neat houses rising from the ground before his eyes, his brain crashing.

This... this is really... conjured up?

"Wake up." Escanor's voice pulled him back to reality.

"The villa is yours. The other houses are all the same, you handle the allocation. First come, first served, or draw lots, whatever you want. Once distributed, let them clean up themselves."

Octo came back to his senses. He dropped to his knees, his voice choking. "Yes! My Lord! I... I will go do it immediately!"

He rushed into the still-dazed crowd and began to organize the distribution.

Only then did the crowd wake up, bursting into cheers and incredulous discussions.

They swarmed towards those brand-new houses, almost unable to believe this was real.