"Everyone, link your chakra together! Help Kazuki resist Ōtsutsuki Myōshiki's curse!"
Synchronized with Kazuki's senses, Tobirama was already counting down the moments until Gaia's consciousness fully descended.
Whether it meant filtering the planetary consciousness for Kazuki, or blocking Myōshiki's curse—
It was all the same!
"Understood!" the Shinobi Alliance shouted in unison.
The moment Kazuki, without hesitation, set himself ablaze—risking everything to defeat an enemy who could destroy the shinobi world—those past gaps, wars, clan feuds, and village rivalries dissolved in an instant before the survival of the planet and the invasion that threatened it.
What replaced them was the collective will of an entire world striving to live on!
In that instant—
More than 100,000 living beings of the shinobi world, every one of them, clasped hands. Snakes without arms, toads, slugs—all pressed their tails, webbed feet, or feelers against the bodies of their nearest companions.
On every shoulder, the character for "Shinobi" glowed with golden light—that was Kazuki's soul's seal!
From one point, it spread across the whole.
From Senju Tobirama onward, the more than one hundred thousand living beings wove together a seamless, impenetrable net that firmly contained the violent, boundless power and consciousness of Gaia itself!
And then, the filtering began.
The pure planetary power—the authority bound to this ancient world—flowed through that great net and into Kazuki's body.
As for the planetary will that, in the future, would have restricted Kazuki's range of action and assimilated his cognition—it was intercepted within the bodies of every living being in the shinobi world.
They forcefully filtered it for him!
"This level of power…"
Bathed in a haze of blood-red steam, Kazuki closed his eyes, feeling two supreme forces surging through his body.
First, the power of this ancient planet.
Second, the remnant power of the Ōtsutsuki god.
Predator and guardian, invader and native—opposed as they were, their greatest strengths now coexisted within Kazuki's body, contradictory yet strangely harmonious.
"Planetary consciousness? This…!" Shibai's withered bones had not even had time to act before the suppression of Gaia's will already made them struggle to move.
And under Kazuki's guidance—
Within the vast net woven by the bodies and wills of the shinobi world, whatever planetary will that had not been completely filtered surged straight toward Shibai's withered bones, whose aura radiated aggression!
Two entities, both dangerous invaders to Kazuki, now clashed violently within him!
Moments later, both were annihilated together inside his body, leaving behind only power-laden remnants—remnants which Kazuki absorbed…
Meanwhile, the people of the shinobi world, after enduring the wash of planetary consciousness, were left mentally exhausted, each one pushed to the brink of death.
"He's moving!" Ryōshiki watched Kazuki give chase after Myōshiki, who was fleeing the shinobi world, and felt a surge of relief.
If he could leave this planet and pursue into another space-time, that meant he had not become the spokesperson of planetary consciousness…
But when Ryōshiki followed after him, and just a few breaths later caught sight of the battlefield between Myōshiki and Kazuki, his eyes widened sharply!
From his vantage point—
Kazuki's arm had pierced straight through Myōshiki's chest!
How had this turned into a one-sided slaughter…
"You… how could you…"
Myōshiki stood with his back to Kazuki, his heart torn apart in an instant by a crushing force. Agonizing pain, like a tidal wave, violently consumed his consciousness.
As a half-step god among the Ōtsutsuki, physical pain to his body meant little.
But the problem was…
The arm Kazuki had driven into his chest was madly siphoning away his life force, corroding his very essence!
This sensation of being dragged to the brink of death was a terror that eclipsed everything else for Myōshiki, who had pursued eternal life and the path to godhood!
[From the target Ōtsutsuki Myōshiki: You have acquired the dōjutsu—Shiva Karma Dance!]
[Shiva Karma Dance]: Consumes ocular power to form a curse. The cursed target suffers percentage-based siphoning according to their strength. Once drained to a certain degree, the curse seal will be engraved upon them. The cursed target then enters a vulnerable state, drastically weakening under your attacks.
Under the shock of this overwhelming emotion—
Myōshiki revealed the last of his worth.
"Still struggling? Then scatter with the wind, invader of the Ōtsutsuki clan…" A flash of black gleamed in Kazuki's eyes, and from his palm erupted the same curse power that Myōshiki himself once wielded, flooding through his body.
The curse rapidly drained Myōshiki's strength. His body, which only moments ago—even gravely wounded—had remained full of vitality, withered visibly before the naked eye.
"I… I haven't become a god yet! I haven't ascended to the position of clan leader of the Ōtsutsuki! I haven't risen to the very peak as a deity!"
In that instant, the entirety of Myōshiki's life flashed before his eyes like a lantern reel.
From his youth, when he first awakened his dōjutsu, he had gained the ability to meditate and foresee the resources and opportunities he required. With such a gift, his path had been smooth, almost without setbacks.
Even when faced with troublesome foes, he could rely on this ability to flee unscathed.
After devouring enough chakra fruits, he once again awakened the one-on-one invincible Shiva Karma Dance. Cutting down all obstacles in his path, he rose to the position of an assistant within the Ōtsutsuki clan. Yet on his climb to seize the seat of clan leader, he encountered that man—
Ryōshiki!
Damn that Ryōshiki. That bastard, blessed with peerless talent, sat idly upon the clan leader's throne, squandering his position, making no effort to break through his bottleneck, content to drift along!
Countless times, Myōshiki had dreamed of casting Ryōshiki down and defeating him one on one. Yet not once did he succeed.
Every time, after winning, Ryōshiki would smile and say: "Becoming a god is nothing but an empty illusion. Don't let it weigh on you so much…"
Myōshiki always longed to shout back at him, but the defeated had no right to speak.
Ryōshiki's dōjutsu, Sumeru Vishnu, severed both his curse and his ability to foresee the future—cutting him off from the very source of his strength. At the level where sheer power was no longer decisive, the contest between Myōshiki and Ryōshiki could only be settled by the limits of their talent.
And the hateful truth was—
Even at their limits, the difference was stark.
Ryōshiki's strength was overwhelmingly superior!
"My whole life… it seems I never had the chance to defeat you, you damned bastard…"
Myōshiki's eyes, which had begun to fade into lifelessness, suddenly cleared again, flashing with one last burst of clarity as his dying memories played their final notes.
Myōshiki clenched his teeth, both hands gripping tightly around the arm Kazuki had driven through his chest. At that instant, his entire body lit up with the black wedge-marks of the Ōtsutsuki clan, while the dark, sinister eyes upon his arms flickered wildly with a dangerous light…
"For the future of the Ōtsutsuki, for the path to godhood within the universe—you, this dangerous creature, cannot be allowed to live!"
Madness consumed Myōshiki's eyes as he threw his head back and roared at the heavens: "Let's disappear from this universe together!"
In that moment—
The black markings across Myōshiki's body, along with countless sinister eyes, surged with terrifying power. All the chakra fruits he had ever devoured became the source of strength for his self-destruction!
He would drag Kazuki to death with him!
A monster like Kazuki could never be allowed to continue growing… Given more time, who knew what heights he might reach? Myōshiki didn't even dare imagine it!
How could Ryōshiki, with his stagnant strength, protect the Ōtsutsuki clan from this demon?
"Get out of there, Kazuki!!" Senju Tobirama roared with all his might.
The shinobi of the world, exhausted, had only just begun to taste the joy of turning the tide of battle, when their hearts sank all at once.
Was this to end in mutual destruction?
Kazuki tried to wrench free from Myōshiki's grip, a flash of light crossing his eyes, as though he could not dodge in time…
In the next instant—Myōshiki exploded!
A horrifying maelstrom of black energy, brimming with annihilation, swallowed the space where Kazuki and Myōshiki stood. In a heartbeat, the entire domain was blasted apart, even the normally stable order of time itself shattered into chaos!
Not far away, Ryōshiki's expression grew strange as he watched, his heart heavy.
Though he had observed Myōshiki's battle with Kazuki all along, treating Myōshiki as a test to measure Kazuki's strength and a potential enemy…
When this companion of tens of thousands of years chose to end himself in such a way—
Loneliness still welled up in Ryōshiki's chest.
"Perhaps… this is the loneliness that one must endure upon the path to godhood. The familiar faces of the past, one after another, either dying, becoming tools, stepping stones, or simply fading away…"
Gazing at the destructive might of Myōshiki's self-detonation, Ryōshiki shook his head.
This technique, most likely—it had been meant for him.
When the smoke and dust cleared—
Myōshiki was gone, erased completely, his existence declared dead.
Kazuki still stood where he had been, but the aura that had moments ago soared so high now plummeted to its depths. His figure, battered and flickering like a candle in the wind, looked as if it could extinguish at any moment.
Ryōshiki's eyes sharpened!
A perfect chance—an absolutely perfect chance!
The fleeting grief he had felt at Myōshiki's death was instantly cast aside, as if such emotions were meaningless!
Sumeru Vishnu—
The solar sigil shielded Ryōshiki's chest firmly.
Meanwhile, his own aura surged upward like a storm, akin to Myōshiki's second transformation…
But Ryōshiki was not merely second stage—he was third!
In an instant, Ryōshiki transformed into a form like that of a demon. From his forehead rose massive, blood-red twin horns. His back unfurled colossal black wings that blotted out the sky. Dense, arcane black patterns sprawled across his body—
And yet, from his chest, radiated a golden brilliance, blazing like the sun.
One dark, one bright—melded in harmony upon Ryōshiki's current form… and by aura alone, he now towered far beyond Myōshiki's second stage, and even surpassed by a wide margin the level Kazuki reached when opening the Eight Gates!
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