Edward walked into another room of the underground lab, followed by Tsunade behind. He smiled as he watched the shock in her eyes; he could tell she was trying to control her emotion.
In front of them were five spaceships that could only be described as humongous steel beasts.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I've read descriptions of them, but it's something else to see the real thing in person," commented Tsunade. The biggest object in the Ninja World is probably the Ten-Tails, but even it looked small compared to these five ships.
"These are the Desert Mark-III and can only consider middle-class battleships."
"You mean there are bigger ones?"
"Yes, and even those are nothing to my Floating City."
Tsunade read about the Floating City, but the information was brief with little detail. The article she read described the Floating City as the pinnacle of magical technology, the crown jewel of Artificer achievements, and the most potent weapon of the Empire. Furthermore, this marvel of technological and magical achievement was designed by the Emperor himself, pushing the technological tree of the Empire by at least 100,000 years.
"I would love to see the Floating City."
Edward sighed with sadness, "It's probably in shambles now."
"It's destroyed?" she asked with surprise before thinking about something. "Isn't it expensive to make? You really know how to waste money to destroy something like that." She could not fathom how much money it would take to make such a thing.
Edward's mouth twitched, "You don't have to remind me; I know how much money I've wasted, and it hurts." He would rather lose thousands of Imperial Fleet and hundreds of Star System than the Floating City. Luckily, it was the Tier 9 city, not the new Tier 10 he had just built.
"And why are you making it sounds like it was my fault it was destroyed? I've almost died encountering a weird creature; this is why I was in such a sorry state when we met."
"Oh, then I apologize for my remark," said Tsunade with sincerity; she thought he was doing some dangerous experiment that resulted in his near-death situation and the destruction of the Floating City.
"Don't worry about it: let's go."
The two board the ship as many golems supervise different aspects of this expedition.
"Are we the only living creatures?" asked Tsunade.
"Depends on your definition of living: these golems have souls–well, some do."
"You know what I mean."
"Yes, we are the only carbon-based life form," replied Edward while looking at a screen.
"Why?"
"I have a limited number of clones, so we must use golems."
"Don't you have a normal crew with you? Or are they dead?"
"I have too many secrets, so there is no 'normal' crew," he replied.
"That fits with your personality," commented Tsunade.
"Is that an insult?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
Edward shook his head, "I am a man burdened by knowledge–to quote a purple mad Titan. The Empire appeared to be thriving and prosperous–even amid a great war. However, only a few people know the grim future waiting for us.
"And my consciousness is one of the reasons we can have today's peace and tranquility."
He suddenly paused and frowned.
"What's wrong?" asked Tsunade, who felt his sudden change was abnormal.
"I suddenly felt it might not be the best idea to bring you into all this trouble."
"How sweet," she replied with a smile.
"I'm serious," replied Edward. "Once you get involved, your future can only be described as a constant struggle. Maybe, living a normal life and dying peacefully is not such a bad thing."
"Whether I join or not is my choice," replied Tsunade. "Plus, after meeting you and opening myself to a broader world, I also have new goals and ambitions."
"I hope you don't regret your choice."
"That's for the future to decide."
"Alright, we're ready," said Edward before ordering one of the golems to begin the broadcast. Across the Shinobi World, all the new citizens of the Empire started to watch these five battleships in action.
"What is the plan of action?" asked Tsunade.
"The first step is to go directly to their headquarters." The Otsutsuki's headquarters was located 400,000 light years from the Shinobi Planet.
Tsunade nodded. She found it odd that the first step is for a direct attack. But she knew nothing about interstellar battles, so she did not comment.
Under Edward's control, the ships activated the Void Engine and instantaneously traveled hundred of thousand of light years away. Soon, the ship arrived at a Star System with four planets: a massive one as big as any star and four regular size planets surrounding it at the center.
"We've arrived at the Otsutsuki's headquarters," said Edward, his voice traveling to everyone watching the broadcast. "They are a race that evolves through absorbing life energy and genetic information. Unfortunately, all the genetic information affects their mind, making them ruthless, arrogant, and inhumanly cruel.
"There is a perfect example before us," continued Edward with a calm and reassuring tone. "Their civilization has long developed spatial technology. Yet, they did place any means to prevent other people from attacking them.
"The reason? Their arrogance, of course. They are the Otsutsuki–they attack and use other civilizations as nourishment for their growth. Who dares attack them?"
Edward sighed, "To all my viewers: if there is a lesson you must learn today–it's this: prudence is a character trait necessary for the survival and growth of any individual or civilization.
"Arrogance is the bane of the mighty. No matter how powerful one of you becomes one day, remember to guard against arrogance. The path of magic is long, arduous, and has no end. Even someone like me is a mere student: I may never finish my pursuit of the truth and endless knowledge in my life."
Edward's objective is to instill the core idea of the Arcanist in these new citizens and also ensure they understand one of the main reasons the Empire has achieved so much in such a short time: always being cautious and not letting arrogance drive them.
Otherwise, with how much the Empire has accomplished in less hundred years, the people would be a hundred times more arrogant than the Otsutsuki.
Bang!
While Edward was calmly talking, the Otsutsuki Clan noticed him, and someone attacked this small fleet. An enormous hand that looked like the arm of a Susanoo attacked them; the scary part was that hand was larger than a planet. Unfortunately, this attack level was nothing to the ship's Energy Shield System.
"Now, asking all parents and guardians to activate the Child Protection Safety," he calmly added. Many children will be watching this battle, so he cannot show them all the blood and violence. So, a more censored version will be displayed to them.
Shinobi Children are more mature and used to blood and violence. However, they are still children and will be protected from now on. The only exception that is made to the Ninja World because of their culture is children are only considered 15 and below. From 16 years old and above, they are considered adults and can watch the uncensored.
The door to the command room opened, and a red golem entered. Compared to the others, he was slimmer–looking more like Ultron than a Hulk Buster of the other Golems.
"What's the result?" asked Edward.
"The planet at the center is for Royal Family, where their god–Shibai–and his descendants. The Noble Clan numbers reside in the green, red, and blue planets. There should be a few Tier 7.
"Finally, the yellow planet is where the Brach members lived. Their existence serves only as servants, cannon fodder, and sacrifices to the God Tree so the other families can become stronger.
"That's all the information I could gather."
Edward nodded: this golem was a rare Seer Model with Divination. Only a few people in the Empire can create one since an arcanist needs to have knowledge of Golem's Creation, Soul, and Divination. So, he technically cannot make one himself.
'The royal, noble, and branch. Kaguya was probably a member of the branch.' From what he remembered from Boruto, she came to become Isshiki's sacrifice to the God Tree planted in the Ninja World.
"One person?" suddenly asked Tsunade as she saw an Otsutsuki appearing before the fleet, seemingly wanting to challenge it alone.