"This is…"
Ryōshiki stared in shock at the overwhelming spectacle Kazuki had unleashed.
One forbidden technique after another, each pushing his potential to the limit, erupted within Kazuki's body at this very moment!
A towering pillar of chakra light illuminated everything, while the blood-colored radiation born of Baryon Mode's chakra decomposition dyed even the Moon in the void of space scarlet.
"Can this really be the level a mere mortal can reach? He's even drawing on this planet's natural energy…"
Even with his Byakugan, Ryōshiki could not clearly perceive Kazuki's current state through the surging eruptions of chakra that came with each reckless overdraft of his potential.
Because this chakra was simply too vast, too ferocious!
Kazuki stood as though at the center of a tsunami, the raging waves around him blotting out sight of the very core…
And though Ryōshiki could not directly see him, his keen experience and strength allowed him to sense the abnormality amidst the storm of energy—the natural energy of the planet itself was being rapidly siphoned by Kazuki.
The sky, the oceans, the land…
"This is a fight to the death…" Ryōshiki's eyes flickered.
"He's walking the path of awakening Gaia's consciousness? Uchiha Kazuki seems to have realized as much—he's trying to encompass the consciousness of this planet's living beings within himself…"
"But unfortunately, it cannot be done."
"His existence on this planet has been far too short. Twenty or thirty years is but the span of a single breath to a world. The power of planetary consciousness cannot be attained without both eternal longevity and monumental fortune."
"And even if he did obtain the planet's power… I wouldn't care."
Ryōshiki cast a glance at Myōshiki, whose face had grown grim, and thought calmly to himself: "I am not Myōshiki… the restrictive domains born of Gaia's consciousness have no effect on me."
"Come on then, Uchiha Kazuki. If you can cut down Myōshiki, you'll save me the trouble of battling him myself." So mused Ryōshiki, content to watch as a bystander.
But as Kazuki's immediate opponent—
Myōshiki stared fixedly at the surging chakra before him, a chill unbidden sliding into his heart.
After casting the curse of Shiva's Dance upon Kazuki, every time Kazuki erupted into a new frenzy, Myōshiki's own strength rose in tandem through the siphoning. On the surface, it seemed everything remained firmly in his grasp.
But the problem was this—
The curse had its own inherent rate of extraction.
If Kazuki's power rose too violently in too short a span, then even though Myōshiki could siphon it, their relative strength panels would still diverge for a time.
"That bastard… he's really surpassed me. Astonishing!" Myōshiki retreated in an instant, frantically tearing open space before him and fleeing at full speed.
This was the very scenario he feared most.
Unlike with other enemies, Kazuki—who had replicated his future-predicting dōjutsu—rendered Myōshiki's delay tactics meaningless, forcing him instead into a head-on decisive battle!
If during this window, with the gap widening, he clashed with Kazuki in direct combat—
There was a very real chance he would die!
For Myōshiki, the best countermeasure was to put as much distance between himself and Kazuki as possible, dragging out the curse's duration. After all, in Kazuki's self-destructive state, even one second longer could mean his flames would burn out and extinguish on their own.
"At least you're not that stubborn, old friend…" Ryōshiki crossed his arms and commented on Myōshiki's tactic.
"To recklessly detonate one's power all at once—it's not something so easily controlled…" Shaking his head, Ryōshiki watched Kazuki's chakra surge skyward.
Myōshiki fled. Ryōshiki critiqued.
As for Kazuki—he did not move, because he was walking the path of apotheosis!
"As expected… these remains hold the will of Ōtsutsuki Shibai. Kazuki's judgment is never wrong!"
Kaguya clutched Shibai's withered bones with all her strength, her long white hair streaming wildly, like a frenzied witch. Her Byakugan eyes ran red with blood.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—Baryon Mode!
Her chakra fractured into a special form, microscopic particles colliding and shattering, releasing a dreadful radiation that drained life-force with terrifying speed.
Her soul's seal flickered with a ghostly glow. At this moment, Kazuki's name and Kaguya's body became one, as thick, viscous, scarlet heavy-particle chakra ceaselessly gushed from within her!
This was the technique Kaguya had studied with the utmost seriousness in all her life—
The very proof she forged after consuming the Chakra Fruit, fearing day and night that the Ōtsutsuki clan would one day come to settle accounts with her!
She no longer cared for the so-called Main House. Even if it were the gods of the Ōtsutsuki themselves, she would drown those wretched beings in her boundless love for Kazuki!
"My kin… receive my power…"
The instant Shibai's bones touched her palm, an ancient, profound, and seductive voice rang within Kaguya's mind, like the toll of a massive bell.
Though the words were simple, they carried the weight of an irresistible command. Any ordinary Ōtsutsuki who heard that cadence might have instantly lost all reason and submitted.
The will and power contained within Shibai's bones sought to surge into Kaguya's body—
But they could not!
Kaguya in Baryon Mode was already nothing but an empty shell. She had become fire itself, determined to refine and annihilate Ōtsutsuki Shibai's consciousness on the spot within Kazuki, leaving only pure power behind for him.
"Die, Shibai! You relic of a bygone era—there is no place for you in this new age!" Black blood trickled from Kaguya's eyes. Her once-beautiful face twisted and crumbled, her very skeleton beginning to dissolve.
All that remained was the blazing, explosive heavy-particle chakra, madly burning against Shibai's withered bones!
"This is meaningless… there's no need to resist my power, my kin… Why refuse godhood?"
Shibai's bones, like the voice of a gentle elder, tried to persuade Kaguya's sudden rebellion.
But then—
The tone of Shibai's voice abruptly turned pained, stripped of its composure, filled with disbelief: "What are you doing?! Why would you seek your own death? What is this chakra…?!"
To Shibai's bones, Kaguya's rank and bloodline were far too low.
Under normal circumstances, if there were any other option, it would never even have attempted to tempt Kaguya. This lowly vessel was unworthy to bear its power, and insufficient to sustain its rebirth.
Shibai's withered bones had always set their sights on Kazuki—fresh, young, and brimming with potential for the future!
Yet Kazuki had resisted its temptation, even sealing it away with spacetime energy so thoroughly that not even a ripple could escape…
Under such circumstances, once Shibai's bones finally broke free, it no longer had the luxury of being choosy.
Why bother picking and choosing? Revival came first!
But what it had never expected—was that the Kaguya it once dismissed would prove to be a lunatic intent on blowing herself up against it!
The special chakra Kaguya produced by burning herself was not, in terms of raw might, among the strongest. It could even be called mediocre. Yet it possessed one singular trait: the radiation born of its decomposition could erase what little remained of Shibai's fragile life-force!
"Die, Shibai! As long as you remain bound by the principle of the Kāma's reincarnation, you will die here!"
With murderous resolve in her gaze, Kaguya was wreathed in crimson flames, like a Valkyrie descending to slay evil spirits: "I've dissolved my own Kāma as well! Today, you—the so-called god in the legends of the Ōtsutsuki—will fall!"
The searing sound of decomposition exploded again and again within the inner space of Kazuki's body.
Kaguya burned herself to ash, pouring her life's fire into incinerating Shibai's life-force within Kazuki to the utmost.
"How could this be?!"
The sliver of consciousness within Shibai's bones roared in fury.
In terms of depth of power, in terms of height of existence—Shibai's bones stood above every other Ōtsutsuki. As the husk left behind after transcendence, it was not Shibai himself, but it still retained the loftiness of what he once was.
On nearly every level, any being who made contact with it would find resistance impossible!
But Kaguya had taken a shortcut.
She chose to self-detonate first, striking directly at the only weakness left in Shibai's bones—its tenuous life-force—and blasted it full on with her heavy-particle technique!
"Kazuki, you must win…"
"I still… I still want to lie in your arms, listening quietly as you tell me stories…"
Kaguya became nothing more than a final blaze of fire. The beautiful woman turned to ash, scattering into motes of light within Kazuki, dissolving away.
Meanwhile, Shibai's bones shrank from the size of an arm to charred fragments no larger than knuckles, yet still stubbornly clung to a shred of existence inside Kazuki.
Most of its power had been burned away by Kaguya and flowed into Kazuki, along with its corrosive consciousness.
But still—it left behind one final portion…
"My descendant… formidable indeed…"
The scorched remains of Shibai's bones pulsed with a blazing awareness.
"But I have not lost yet… So long as I draw breath, once I corrode the spirit, I win!"
Like a maggot, Shibai's bones crawled within Kazuki's body, searching for fissures in his mind and soul.
For the god of the Ōtsutsuki—capable of replicating itself, corroding, and assimilating consciousness—the moment possession began was the moment the battle ended.
And just then—
Another vast and overwhelming consciousness descended within Kazuki!
Having gained the collective recognition of this planet's life, Kazuki forcefully invoked the divine selection of Gaia's consciousness, guiding the planetary will into his very body!
In that instant—
The vast, boundless, and ancient consciousness of the planet awakened under the power of the ritual and the covenant!
"Shinjutsu: Sumeru Vishnu!"
Already serving as Kazuki's external avatar, Senju Tobirama wielded Kazuki's authority. His pair of scarlet eyes gleamed with golden light as he unleashed the dōjutsu he had seized from Ryōshiki!
A golden solar sigil manifested at the depths of Kazuki's soul, unfolding a special domain that absorbed all consciousness and energy bearing malice toward him.
This was why Ryōshiki had been able to suppress Myōshiki, and why he had remained unbothered by Gaia's consciousness…
The curse of Shiva's Dance, which made Myōshiki nearly invincible in single combat, could not succeed against the protection of Sumeru Vishnu! And with the blessing of Gaia's consciousness, Ryōshiki too could ignore its restraints under the shelter of this dōjutsu.
But now, in Tobirama's hands—
This dōjutsu had become a filter to shield Kazuki from both Gaia's consciousness and the will of Ōtsutsuki Shibai!
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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
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