Bast's desperate assault had consumed nearly all of her remaining strength.
Now, she no longer had the power to resist Senju Haruto.
Even when Haruto raised Susanoo's colossal blade and brought it down, sword-light tearing through the sky, Bast's body failed to respond.
The instant she realized he had struck, his blade had already cut through her, splitting her soul clean in half.
Her chest twisted violently, collapsing inward like a vortex, like a black hole.
In the next breath, her soul-form was completely annihilated.
The elaborate magic barrier she had crafted vanished at the same moment.
Haruto's severed connection with the White Magic returned instantly.
Power surged within his body like a rising tide.
With the Eye of Agamotto in hand, Haruto was certain: Bast was dead. T'Challa was dead.
And in Wakanda, the heart-shaped herbs began withering at a speed visible to the naked eye.
These mystical plants had been created by Bast herself, designed solely to forge a spiritual bond with the Black Panther king.
Now that Wakanda's guardian goddess was gone, their existence had lost all meaning.
One after another, the herbs shriveled into dust.
Only the reward Haruto had obtained from his system—the perfected heart-shaped herb—remained untouched and whole.
To him, this was a rather welcome outcome.
But the sword strike he had unleashed with Susanoo had not merely slain Bast.
After rending her soul in two, the sword energy had flown further forward, crashing against Wakanda's massive energy shield.
It tore open a jagged breach in the barrier… then swept into the masses, erasing half of Wakanda's warriors in one devastating stroke.
With both Bast and T'Challa dead, there were no heroes left on the plains who could alter the outcome.
Though Wakanda's fighters wielded vibranium technology, far beyond anything in the outside world… Haruto's army was no less formidable.
Chakra bullets rained down. The enhancements from the heart-shaped herb bolstered his troops.
And alongside them fought Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Kimimaro—peerless shinobi of deadly skill.
Under such pressure, Wakanda's warriors fell in droves, their forces crumbling step by step.
At this pace, the fall of Wakanda was inevitable.
It was no longer a question of if, only when.
And Haruto had no intention of stopping it.
In fact, if he simply appeared above the city, announcing the deaths of Bast and T'Challa, the psychological blow alone would shatter what remained of their morale.
The last fragments of resistance would crumble, and their surrender would follow.
But to Haruto, surrender meant nothing.
He had no need for their submission, nor their labor.
What he wanted was Wakanda's vibranium, and the technologies built upon it.
As for manpower—he already had Orochimaru's captives and the army of one hundred thousand White Zetsu created by Kaguya.
They were more than enough to complete his plans.
Leaving Wakanda's warriors alive would only be planting seeds of rebellion.
Even if they bent the knee now, who could say they wouldn't one day rise against him in secret?
And Haruto had no time for that risk.
Many of the "check-in events" he needed to complete lay across the Marvel multiverse, in places far beyond Earth.
The gladiator world of Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, for example.
If, during his absence, Wakanda's survivors rebelled, the chaos could be troublesome.
Better, then, to sever the possibility from the beginning.
As Bast and T'Challa fell, so too did Haruto's last traces of amusement in this battle.
Even if he chose to do nothing, Orochimaru's forces could have conquered Wakanda eventually.
It would simply take more time.
But Haruto was in no mood to wait.
He stirred the ancient legacy within him—the power of Horus.
And from the Wakandan plains, uncountable sand soldiers erupted into being.
Their sudden arrival accelerated the slaughter, doubling the pace of Wakanda's collapse.
Okoye, W'Kabi, and the chiefs of the five tribes never imagined the situation could turn so dire, so quickly.
W'Kabi, desperate to protect his homeland, unleashed every vibranium-armored war rhino at his command.
But compared to Manda—the colossal serpent Orochimaru had summoned—their effect was negligible.
The rhinos were indeed formidable, their vibranium plating proof against even Manda's fangs.
But snakes did not need to bite through their prey.
They simply swallowed it whole.
And so, when the war rhinos charged toward him, Manda opened his cavernous jaws and devoured them one by one.
The battlefield became his personal banquet.
Every target his massive eyes fixed upon ended the same way—food for the serpent's belly.
Even W'Kabi, usually so composed, stood helpless before the beast.
"What should we do now?"
One of the Dora Milaje rushed to Okoye's side, her voice trembling.
She had been unable to reach T'Challa for some time now.
And the sand soldiers summoned by Haruto had become their new nightmare.
Watching her sisters fall one after another, despair filled her heart.
Clutching her vibranium spear with white knuckles, she no longer knew how much longer she could endure.
Okoye herself had no answer.
From the very beginning, all her hope had been pinned on T'Challa.
But the distant shockwaves, the changes rippling across the battlefield, seeded dread within her chest.
Her heart whispered the cruel truth: T'Challa had likely fallen.
If so, they needed another way to prevent Wakanda's utter annihilation.
The screams of their countrymen tore at her resolve, each cry deepening her pain.
"Okoye…"
Suddenly, a voice came through her earpiece. Princess Shuri.
"Princess Shuri," Okoye replied instantly, silently praying she would bring good news.
But what she heard was a death sentence.
"T'Challa… has fallen."
From her position in the rear, Shuri had seen the battlefield far more clearly.
And she knew: Wakanda had no hope left.
Either Haruto's armies would slaughter them to the last…
Or they would have to choose surrender.
To give up resistance.
To end the war.
It was a choice that tore at Shuri's heart, filling her with guilt and grief.
But there was no other path left.
"We… can only surrender," she whispered, steadying her breath as she spoke the words.
In truth, she had not contacted Okoye to seek her counsel.
She was informing her.
With her father T'Chaka and now T'Challa both gone, she was Wakanda's highest authority.
And so, Princess Shuri declared:
This war would end—
through surrender.