On the island of Birka, facing these unknown Blue Sea strangers, Hakufukushan—the supreme High Priest of Birka—stood poised with his spear leveled. Yet, an overwhelming chill suddenly surged straight to his heart.
Due to the extreme elevation of Sky Island, the ambient environment significantly amplified Shiraishi's Articuno powers.
Clad in his silver suit, Shiraishi stepped out into the open sky. The instant his boots touched the atmosphere, the surrounding wind currents underwent a violent transformation.
A fierce blizzard erupted out of nowhere. Behind Shiraishi's back, three pairs of radiant frost wings materialized—resembling a divine deity descending directly upon Birka.
As ice and snow rained down, the freezing gale flash-froze vast swathes of Birka's architecture. Countless members of the Angel race gaped upward in absolute terror.
Why does this Blue Sea outsider have six wings? And why can he manipulate the weather itself?!
Shiraishi's deliberate, grandstanding aesthetic achieved its intended effect: total awe among the Sky Island natives. While they possessed wings of their own, a six-winged entity capable of commanding ice and snow was something they had never witnessed in their entire lives.
Unlike the bewildered crowd, Hakufukushan tightened his grip on his spear and called out grimly toward the sky: "Who are you?!"
"I am the true God."
Deliberately lowering his pitch, Shiraishi spoke using a metallic synthesizer tone similar to Necrozma. The dramatic effect boosted his aura immensely; the Sky Island inhabitants were completely paralyzed with awe.
Even the crew back on the Shukaku wore expressions of theatrical reverence—save for Uchiha Madara and his peers, who looked on with utter disgust, cringing inwardly at Shiraishi's shamelessly dramatic act.
Even Shiraishi felt a little embarrassed himself...
Playing god is such an outdated trick... but these unrefined sky hicks seem to fall for it completely.
"Nonsense!"
Faced with Hakufukushan's glaring defiance, Shiraishi maintained a cold, detached countenance—as if a true deity gazing down impassively upon mortal soil. Descending slowly to the ground, he unleashed a massive glacial tempest upon impact.
"I shall grant you a single exchange... followed by the opportunity to yield."
A devastating wave of frost swept forward. Sensing the sheer disparity in strength, Hakufukushan spun his spear to parry, but Shiraishi merely raised a single finger.
A concentrated Cryo-Beam erupted, carrying absolute sub-zero power that instantly encased Hakufukushan in a massive block of ice.
The High Priest was one-shot in a single move...!
A moment later, Uchiha Madara—feeling deeply helpless—exhaled a subtle wisp of demonic fire to quickly thaw Hakufukushan's icy prison. Throughout it all, Shiraishi maintained a solemn, majestic posture facing the citizens of Birka.
"Darkness... has reached its end.
Tears... shall temper hope.
Confusion... shall yield to conviction.
Life itself... shall be consecrated to God."
The resonant synthesized voice coupled with Shiraishi's solemn sermon chilled Hakufukushan to the bone. Unfreezing, the old priest tried to spring back up, only to be forcefully pressed down by an invisible weight.
This guy... won't let me stand back up!
Unable to resist the crushing weight, Hakufukushan had no choice but to sink to one knee before Shiraishi. The onlookers of Birka gasped in unified shock—the High Priest had actually bowed in submission!
Extremely satisfied with the result, Shiraishi stepped forward with an aura of divine pity. Holding a glowing ice crystal in his palm, the flickering blue light cast an otherworldly, ethereal glow over his form.
"All praise is the glory that God deserves. Every tear, every heartache, is a sacred trial walked in God's presence. God comforts, God pities, and God cannot bear to see his people suffer."
Shattering the crystal, the surrounding blizzard dissolved instantly into thin air, leaving Shiraishi bathed in an radiant pillar of light.
"Hail the Almighty God!"
Right on cue, the planted plants aboard the Shukaku—namely Moyard and a few others—dropped to one knee with solemn, pious devotion. Seeing their own High Priest forced onto his knees alongside the divine display, the clueless Sky Island citizens began dropping to their knees one after another.
"Hail the Almighty God!"
A few junior priests had originally intended to rush forward and fight, but seeing Hakufukushan kneeling in submission—coupled with Shiraishi's terrifying display of power—they abandoned all thoughts of resistance and fell to their knees.
Taking control of Birka proved ridiculously simple, primarily because the Sky Island natives were far more straightforward and naive compared to the schemers of the Blue Sea. By tweaking his strategy just a bit, Shiraishi successfully secured Birka on his first try.
As Birka's High Priest, Hakufukushan felt thoroughly humiliated playing host to this self-proclaimed "New God." But while he brooded in silence, the trial priests and the Angel military corps seemed thrilled.
With a powerful God leading them, they finally had a realistic chance of snatching supreme control of Sky Island away from the Upper Yard faction!
"This is Birka's Sacred Temple..."
With an expression of utter reluctance, Hakufukushan led Shiraishi and his group into the grand temple. Positioned directly in the center of the main hall was a grand statue of the Thunder God, which immediately caught Shiraishi's eye.
The statue was the exact likeness of the Thunder God form Enel would later use in his ultimate technique: 200 Million Volts: Amaru.
Hakufukushan watched Shiraishi nervously. The Birka Temple was the spiritual heart of the islanders' faith, and though forced to bring these Blue Sea intruders inside, he prayed they wouldn't desecrate the shrine.
CRACK!
With a sudden, shattering rumble, the giant statue of the Thunder God burst apart into fragments. Resting nestled inside the rubble was a strangely patterned Devil Fruit...
The Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Goro Goro no Mi)!
Overcome with fury, Hakufukushan raised his spear to strike, only for several priests to step in and block his path.
"You lot...!"
"Insolence before God shall not be tolerated!"
Blocking Hakufukushan were his most trusted former subordinates: Ohm, alongside Satori, Shura, and Gedatsu—the future four ordeal priests representing joy, rage, sorrow, and delight under Enel.
These priests harbored drastically different ambitions than Hakufukushan. Since Hakufukushan had publicly knelt before the intruder, this Blue Sea powerhouse was now their acknowledged God.
As for the Thunder God statue? It was nothing more than a dead piece of stone.
"You betrayers..." Hakufukushan coughed up a spray of blood from sheer indignation. He never imagined his own inner circle would defect to these Blue Sea strangers so instantly.
"You..."
Iron Thrust!
Ohm took the initiative without hesitation. Drawing a blade fitted with an Iron Cloud Dial, he produced a weapon as light as a cloud yet as dense as steel—capable of extending and reshaping at will.
Facing his former master, Ohm lunged forward, piercing Hakufukushan directly through the chest with the iron cloud thread.
"Hakufukushan's head is offered to the Almighty God."
As the old priest collapsed to the floor, Birka's fate was officially sealed. Shiraishi glanced at the four High Priests before him, his strategy completely validated.
"Next... we conquer the heart of Sky Island: Upper Yard."
Hearing Shiraishi's decree, a fanatical light flared in the eyes of all four priests!
For countless years, the ultimate ambition of Birka's priesthood had been to wrest control of Upper Yard and reign supreme over the entire sky.
Regrettably, Hakufukushan had grown old and useless, incapable of fulfilling that grand destiny...
Now, a new God had descended—one who possessed absolute, unquestionable power. Without a second thought, the priests surrendered their total allegiance.