Chapter 766: Child of the World, Sousuke
The pitch-black Sea of Life almost entirely covered the sky, yet it was pierced through the center by a golden pillar of light.
Not only that, even the twisted "Beast" of Human Order, born from the Mother Goddess of Creation, was violently smashed down from the sky by an incredibly ferocious force.
Amidst the tremors and wails of the earth, the golden Ki at Kaito Shirogane's fingertips condensed with incomparable ferocity, its screeching sound piercing the ears.
The brilliant Ki gathered to the size of a fist at his fingertips. Due to over-condensation, the golden Ki appeared almost blazing white.
Then, accompanied by Kaito Shirogane's cruel smile, an unprecedentedly concentrated and terrifying Dodon Ray shot forth while he was in his Eight-Fold Kaio-Ken state.
The intense recoil pushed Kaito Shirogane higher into the air.
The fist-thick pillar of Ki blasted through the air, directly striking the massive demonic dragon, Tiamat, who was embedded in the earth.
BOOM!
The incomparably pure and terrifying Ki exploded on the demonic dragon's body.
A massive mushroom cloud rose into the air. The intense heat from the explosion made Satoru Gojo and the others, who were tens of thousands of meters away, feel their hair slightly curl.
Satoru Gojo used his Limitless technique to block the hurricane-like shockwave in front of him, but everything on the surrounding surface was leveled.
What more directly illustrated the terrifying nature of the current battle was the magical beasts constantly spawning in the pitch-black ocean. Like hot oil poured on snow, a massive swath of magical beasts charging at the front were instantly melted by the high-temperature shockwave.
Roar!
"Ah!"
A roar of pain tore from the demonic dragon's maw, suggesting this strike had actually affected Her.
Kaito Shirogane's mouth completely split open in a grin. He completely failed to notice Izayoi Sakamaki observing him from behind.
He had fallen completely into a frenzy due to that extremely violent power, and crimson Blood Magic began to appear on his body.
A certain will in the Warp once again sensed that its most "devout" Divine Child seemed to be calling out to it, and thus cast its gaze downwards.
At this moment, Kaito Shirogane's physical strength was so immense it defied logic. With a light step in the air, he felt the air behind him completely collapse.
At this moment, he finally felt a trace of why those top-tier monsters ultimately collapsed their power into various conceptual symbols.
At this moment, if he were to describe his own power, it would probably slowly condense into just two simple words: [Absolute Power].
Pfft!
The air tore open, as if a massive rift had appeared in the sky.
And a terrifying sound of impact had already rung out below. Before the demonic dragon could react, Kaito Shirogane, moving at extreme speed and with extreme power, had punched Her in the chest.
The earth's crust completely fractured amidst the exaggerated commotion, and the demonic dragon began sinking deeper underground.
Kaito Shirogane stood on the demonic dragon's chest, his fists blurring into a frenzy of strikes, seemingly vanishing.
The sound of the flowing Underworld was unceasing. The Aura of Death of Shinra almost completely flowed out of Kaito Shirogane's bloodlines and began coating his fists.
But Tiamat seemed to have a completely insulating epidermis; none of the death aura could stick. Even when Kaito Shirogane's terrifying physical force pierced through the demonic dragon's body and shattered the crust below...
The death aura simply could not enter Tiamat's body.
Tiamat possessed no concept of [Death].
As the Mother Goddess who created life, She was naturally diametrically opposed to [Death].
This was the highest grade of immortality Kaito Shirogane had seen thus far, far exceeding that of an Ajin. This was transcending the level of immortality conceptually, entering a realm where death simply could not be produced.
In the original work, defeating [Beast: Tiamat] relied on the appearance of the Grand Assassin Heroic Spirit, King Hassan, who could bestow the concept of [Death] upon the target.
Only then did defeating Tiamat become a possibility.
Otherwise, whether it was the Underworld overflowing or Hell manifesting in the living world, none could accommodate Tiamat.
Kaito Shirogane acted as if he completely forgot this information, continuing his frenzied bombardment. The demonic dragon violently struck back, but Kaito Shirogane's figure was like a phantom, shifting between existence and non-existence.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!!
Reinhardt and the others floated high into the air, no longer daring to stay on the ground. The pitch-black magical beasts below surged in all directions like a tide.
It seemed that after realizing the strength of these few individuals, these magical beasts no longer blindly targeted them. Instead, they complied with Tiamat's will.
They were to cleanse all life in this world first.
The Mother Goddess of Creation, having felt betrayal, had decided to eradicate all life She had created.
"Sigh..."
A sigh rang out, and Kaito Shirogane froze. Before he could throw his next punch, he saw Sousuke, radiating a golden luster, walk right out of the demonic dragon's body.
He seemed to have become some kind of phantom, ignoring the demonic dragon's body, walking straight through Her from the ground below.
But Kaito Shirogane could tell that this wasn't a phantom; it was a physical body!
The other party had truly walked out from beneath the ground behind the demonic dragon, using his own physical body.
The reason Kaito Shirogane had continuously bombarded Tiamat with Dodon Rays and physical strikes was actually to attack Sousuke.
He had first smashed Sousuke into the ground, and then thrown the demonic dragon on top of him.
"Is there anything surprising about this?"
"Even though it's a Divine Body, fundamentally, it's still a physical body composed of cells. There is distance between cells, so naturally, there's a possibility of something passing through without harming the flesh."
"A miracle is the realization of even the most minuscule possibility."
At this moment, Kaito Shirogane also roughly understood the true nature of Sousuke's special [Magic], or rather, his conceptual ability.
Fundamentally, it was a special ability akin to the superposition of traits like probability manipulation and fate manipulation. Moreover, given that everyone in Azure Sky had awakened the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light, there was a high probability that this Magic itself was also influenced by it.
In terms of the sheer completeness of a Reincarnator's abilities, Sousuke, this King of Miracles, undoubtedly crushed almost all other Reincarnators currently known.
The Mad King that Kaito Shirogane had encountered had used a combination of Authority, Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light, and special abilities to show him the extent to which a Reincarnator could amplify their abilities after fully mastering them in all aspects.
That was a different method of superposition compared to his own.
Kaito Shirogane slowly turned his head, facing the Supreme Three King who, once upon a time, had felt unapproachable to him.
The smile in Sousuke's eyes completely vanished. He saw undisguised provocation and malice in Mercenary Tao's eyes.
It was just like in a pack of beasts, where a newly born strong individual, upon realizing its own power, would always attempt to challenge the authority of the pack leader.
Sousuke disliked Mercenary Tao, and not just because Mercenary Tao was bloodthirsty.
It was more that he felt "uncomfortable" around Mercenary Tao. He was a product born completely counter to his own ideals and methods.
Sousuke could almost see Sosuke Aizen's arrogant smiling face behind Mercenary Tao.
He acted like he was lonely because he was powerful, yet he was still so obsessed with proving the importance of "power."
So much so that he fabricated this ignorant beast that perfectly fit the needs of the Infinite Dimensional Space in every aspect.
An extreme thirst for power; a complete lack of fear towards death; an absence of any moral compass regarding killing.
Sousuke could only call such a thing a beast, because the other party lacked the most important trait that makes a human human: empathy.
Creak~ Bang!
Sousuke saw Mercenary Tao clench his fist, and the air exploded outward from between his fingers in rings of smoke clouds, like a sympathetic detonation.
The next moment, two streams of kinetic force, one from the front and one from behind, pierced towards him like great spears.
But Sousuke exhaled a breath of stale air, suddenly turned around, and threw a punch.
"Mercenary Tao..."
Kaito Shirogane's pupils contracted. Because his speed was pushed to the absolute limit, the two punches he threw from the front and back were actually both real.
The force was completely real, but the moment Sousuke turned around, Kaito Shirogane realized the attack aimed at Sousuke's back hit empty air, passing straight through his body.
The next moment, as Sousuke threw a punch while turning, the force Kaito Shirogane had unleashed merged with Sousuke's fist.
Suddenly, pitch-black Conqueror's Haki erupted from Sousuke's fist. The Haki seemed as though it had just been born, but in an instant, it grew wildly like a pile of dry hay ignited by fire.
The Conqueror's Haki infusing Kaito Shirogane's fist also triggered instinctively.
BOOM!
The air detonated, and the pitch-black Sea of Life above was directly torn open.
Kaito Shirogane felt an overwhelming, immense force continuously surging from Sousuke's fist. At first, that power was only barely resisting his own kinetic force, which had been multiplied again by the Authority of Force.
But then, it surged and raged like the ocean.
Before Kaito Shirogane's eyes, behind Sousuke, the azure sky revealed by the Sea of Life being torn open by their clash truly turned into a raging ocean.
With this strike, it felt as though all the oceans of the entire world were attacking alongside Sousuke's fist.
The Conqueror's Haki on Kaito Shirogane's right fist was instantly suppressed, and subsequently, he was sent violently flying backward.
Kaito Shirogane completely lacked the tangible sensation of losing a clash of fists. For that instant just now, he felt as if he were wrestling with heaven and earth.
The entire world stood behind Sousuke. That could no longer be explained by martial arts concepts like "momentum" or "intent."
It was as if the power of the entire world truly lay behind Sousuke.
To defeat him, you had to defeat the entire world along with him!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ...
A series of blazing white shockwaves exploded behind Kaito Shirogane, but he took absolutely no damage.
In his current Eight-Fold Kaio-Ken state, Kaito Shirogane's physical resilience surpassed that of most dragons and Titan-class creatures.
The force field that naturally emanated from his body alone was enough to block most attacks.
Not to mention, the demonic dragon Grendel, already pushed to its limits, was still being ruthlessly squeezed within him.
Kaito Shirogane stomped down hard on the air, which had been compressed into a solid state by the excessive force. His feet kicked out massive cloud trails, and he finally came to a halt four or five kilometers away.
Sousuke calmly glanced at Mercenary Tao, whom he had sent flying. Then, he calmly reached out his hand and squeezed.
The next moment, Kaito Shirogane felt a massive change in the heavens and earth. The world before him twisted; the sky, the land, and the sea began to converge in front of him, connecting into a single whole.
"Feel the vastness of the world."
Only then did Sousuke finish the second half of his sentence.
At this moment, behind him, an illusory purple clock appeared once again. The final flame on the clock had begun to flicker, as if it were about to go out.
Sousuke coughed lightly. He looked at Izayoi Sakamaki, who was curiously appraising the twisted world, and said,
"Mr. Izayoi, consider this the request of a dying man. Could I ask you not to interfere in the private grudge between us outsiders?"
"It might be hard to explain to you, but I truly despise this guy. So much so that killing him would even bring me satisfaction."
"But for the sake of the world's continuation, I believe it would be better to let him live..."
Izayoi Sakamaki leapt into the air, dodging a sweeping blow from the demonic dragon's tail. The massive impact of the swing generated a terrifying shockwave thousands of meters long, tearing through the air and collapsing a mountain hundreds of miles away.
Izayoi Sakamaki realized this terrifying demonic dragon possessed a special kind of immortality, but other than that, in terms of pure combat ability, it couldn't threaten him.
The true goal of that demonic dragon was to destroy all life in this world—specifically, life forms lacking supernatural power.
He understood the true victory condition of this Gift Game: it was likely to save the world by confronting this unkillable demonic dragon.
"In other words, the only option is to kill all those magical beasts first to buy time?"
Gilgamesh had already manifested the Gate of Babylon, beginning to clear out the magical beasts on one side of the Sea of Life.
The arrogant King had regained some of his demeanor as a wise ruler. With his nation standing behind him, he absolutely would not allow the world to be destroyed by this twisted love.
Sousuke shook his head. He didn't like that solution.
"Goddess, I wish to grant you a miracle."
Sousuke spread his arms. He felt the sorrow Tiamat experienced from betrayal. That love and sorrow were completely real.
Therefore, as the type who pursued perfect timelines, he was more inclined to give Tiamat a new ending.
Even if this was highly likely just a product of Ye Zi's recorded scenes manifested by that Queen's power.
Even if this Tiamat attained salvation, the Tiamat of the real timeline remained unchanged.
But Sousuke was the type who would still do it, even knowing it was fake.
...
In the massive city square of Underwood, Ye Zi strolled out unhurriedly. She confirmed that Azure Sky's combatants and Mercenary Tao's powerful group of spirits had all entered that dangerous world at the same time.
She finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Human nature was sometimes such an easy thing to grasp. Mercenary Tao's arrogance, Sousuke's naivety—both were individuals who could see through her arrangements.
Yet they both willingly walked right in.
Ye Zi continued walking forward, placing a hand on the shoulder of Kento, who had been left outside alone.
"My foolish little brother, it's time to witness the truth of the world."
"There is no need for us to get involved in the evolutionary wars of those high-dimensional observers. Life should pass on in a dignified manner."
Kento slowly turned his head, his eyes completely calm.
Ye Zi frowned. The next moment, Kento's eyes instantly changed. The three tomoe Sharingan spun, transforming into the pattern of a Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Hah~ It worked!"
Hakumen's delighted voice came from not far away. "Kento" also slowly transformed into the appearance of Madara Uchiha.