In the air.
Shinji looked coldly at the black liquid pouring down from the vortex in the distance.
Like everyone else present, the moment Shinji gazed at those black liquids, he was also eroded by pollution. However, this time he didn't even use the power of the Lamp; relying solely on his own chakra, he cleared the pollution from his body.
This also allowed him to clearly feel the improvement in his own strength.
Not long ago, simply locking eyes with the Propagation Hegemon across space had made his consciousness and body feel as if they were frozen, falling into a total daze. If not for the protection of the Lamp, even if he hadn't died or gone mad, he would have missed the final window for evacuation.
Now, looking directly at the Propagation Hegemon, let alone falling into a daze, he didn't even feel dizzy.
Undoubtedly, this proved that after advancing to Kekkei Mora, he possessed at least the qualification to look the Propagation Hegemon in the eye.
Shinji glanced at the Knowledge Tower in the distance.
Within the magic ring above the Knowledge Tower, ripples appeared that shouldn't be there, indicating that the Storm Sorcerer Supreme maintaining the ring was enduring immense interference and invasion.
If a Sorcerer Supreme is a being close to the Six Paths Level, similar to Shion in her complete shrine maiden form, then a Sorcerer Supreme inside a Mage Tower, receiving its empowerment, can be roughly viewed as Six Paths Level.
Right now, six Sorcerer Supremes were putting everything into maintaining the magic ring to resist the Hegemon's invasion.
This meant the Propagation Hegemon's forced intrusion had to face not only the obstruction of the spatial barrier but also the joint resistance of six Six Paths Level powerhouses!
Thus, Shinji understood that this situation could not be conflated with the one on T33. The restrictions the Propagation Hegemon faced in the Sixth Ring World were far greater than on T33!
Before long, the black liquid pouring from the vortex condensed into a giant flesh cocoon on the ground.
Something seemed to be nurturing inside that giant flesh cocoon, pulsating with a thump-thump rhythm like a heart.
"Is the Propagation Hegemon inside there?"
Though he couldn't be certain, Shinji did not have the habit of sitting around waiting for death.
Almost the instant the flesh cocoon formed, he activated Susanoo. In a flash, accompanied by golden light and shadow projected from Shinji's body, it transformed into bone, muscle, and then armor. Within a breath, a giant golden deity stood tall upon this battlefield!
Shinji, having opened the Perfect Susanoo, did not rashly approach the flesh cocoon. Instead, he manifested a spear from chakra and hurled it fiercely at the distant cocoon.
Whoosh...
Carrying the whistling of broken wind, the spear arrived in an instant like a long rainbow, piercing toward the distant flesh cocoon!
"So strong!"
The Lampbearers inside the temporary war fortress all cried out in shock at this sight.
They didn't know what kind of move Susanoo was, but by intuition alone, they knew this spear thrown by Shinji via Susanoo was terrifying!
However, just as they thought the spear would transfix the cocoon, it only managed to sink in a small fraction before it could go no further.
Not only that, as the flesh cocoon cracked, a large amount of black liquid surged from the rupture. In the blink of an eye, it corroded the weapon Shinji had manifested from chakra.
"This!?"
The Lampbearers were bewildered.
Shinji's expression remained unchanged in the sky, as if he had expected this. He then urged Susanoo again, and two black shuriken immediately appeared in the hands of the golden giant.
Undoubtedly, these two black shuriken were different from the previous spear. Not only were they weapons manifested from Shinji's chakra, but they were also infused with the pupil power of Kamui. They were the Kamui Shuriken once used by Kakashi in the original timeline to deal with Otsutsuki Kaguya!
"Since pure physical attacks don't work, let's see if you can withstand the power of space!"
After a secret thought, Shinji urged Susanoo and fiercely hurled the two Kamui Shuriken in his hands.
Whoosh, whoosh...
The two Kamui Shuriken whistled through the air, transforming into twisting vortexes that instantly peeled away the outer shell of the flesh cocoon, revealing the monster being nurtured inside.
The monster was elongated, resembling a dragon or a flood dragon, but it lacked horns or scales. Instead, it had a gelatinous structure all over its body, and it was impossible to tell which end was the head and which was the tail.
Perhaps because the flesh cocoon was damaged, the monster soared up from the ruins of the cocoon, wandering through the air like a roaming dragon.
"Hmph!"
Shinji snorted lightly and then urged Susanoo to meet it.
At this point, he didn't care whether the monster nurtured in the cocoon was actually the Propagation Hegemon or not; he would eliminate it first regardless.
Boom...
Soon, Shinji, driving Susanoo, was locked in a fierce battle with the monster in the sky.
Shinji's Susanoo surpassed the limits of the Perfect Susanoo, reaching a staggering height of 1,000 meters. The monster nurtured in the flesh cocoon was also nearly 1,000 meters in length, so the two sides were roughly equal in size, with Shinji's Susanoo even holding a slight upper hand.
This scene left everyone present dumbfounded.
The strength Shinji displayed refreshed their expectations again and again, leaving them incomparably shocked!
Of course.
There were very few people left on the battlefield capable of witnessing this fight.
The large number of mages scattered across the battlefield had now all mutated into monsters that knew only how to hiss and howl. Thus, apart from the Lampbearers inside the temporary war fortress, only a few mages remained inside the Knowledge Tower, protected by both the Mage Tower and the magic ring.
Hengo asked, "Who do you think will win?"
The old warrior shook his head: "Hard to say..."
Neither Alice nor Arcane spoke, they just stared fixedly at the battle in the sky.
Right now, even these Lampbearers could not judge who—Shinji or the monster—would have the last laugh in the great battle above.
Rumble...
The fierce struggle continued. As the battle raged, one ghastly wound after another appeared on the monster's body. Meanwhile, Shinji's majestic golden Susanoo, which looked like a deity, became mottled, as if corroded by time, turning rusty.
Clearly, the confrontation between the two had surpassed the ordinary physical level.
Fortunately, that monster which had escaped from the flesh cocoon had its development interrupted by Shinji's Kamui Shuriken. As the battle wore on, it gradually fell into a disadvantage.
Boom!
With another roar, the monster fell from the sky to the ground, causing the earth to shake and stirring up a sky full of dust.
And at that moment, Shinji, driving Susanoo, also descended from the sky. With a single sword stroke aimed at the monster's belly, he sliced the twisting, struggling beast in two...