Omokage knew Ronin had a wide-area flame attack like Great Fire Annihilation.
He believed that even if Ronin breathed fire inside the church, it wouldn't threaten him.
What he didn't expect was that the first strike didn't come from the ground outside the church—
It came from above.
Clay smashed through the church roof, poured into the interior, and showed no sign of stopping.
Was there another Conjurer working with Ronin?
The thought flashed through Omokage's mind for only an instant before flames ignited outside the windows.
Glass shattered. The temperature inside the church spiked violently. The falling clay rapidly hardened.
He couldn't stay inside the church.
Dolls smashed through windows and rushed out—only to hit the ground and break apart with dull crashes.
Omokage's heart bled.
Ordinary dolls were easy to make, sure—but they were still something he created bit by bit, with real money.
Losing them like this without even seeing the enemy—how could he not be furious?
And in that fury, a thought inevitably rose:
Had he underestimated Ronin?
No.
The Uvogin doll's aura erupted. It grabbed a long church bench with one hand and charged the wall.
With a thunderous impact, the "truck-like" Uvogin doll blasted a hole straight through the wall.
The clay didn't stick to it, and the flames were forced aside as the broken wall opened a path.
Omokage followed behind the Uvogin doll with more dolls in tow.
But the moment they got outside, a massive "lid" shaped like a tusked boar's head slammed down from the sky.
Earth Style: Dropping Lid.
Still a B-rank large-area technique—meant in anime to deal with giant summons.
Now Ronin's shadow clone used its remaining chakra to set a trap and drop it right where they'd emerge.
BOOM!
The Uvogin doll unleashed Big Bang Impact—but in the next second its arms shattered.
However, with Uvogin as a shield, the Phinks doll hidden behind him—ready to act—burst out with the power built from spinning his arm.
Cracks spread across the boar-shaped lid, then it exploded apart.
At the same time, a torrent of Nen bullets shot out from beneath the shattered lid, blasting toward the treetop where Ronin's shadow clone was positioned.
But on the other side, lightning was already crackling.
Wrapped in thunder, Ronin's figure flashed like a bolt, closing in on Omokage in an instant.
Omokage lifted his head in that moment—his hollow eye sockets aimed directly at Ronin's eyes in Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Then, in the next second, Omokage cried out:
"How?!"
Eye contact had been made—but the condition for stealing the eyes hadn't been fulfilled.
The reason was the sunglasses Ronin was wearing.
The Nen blooming from Omokage's empty eye sockets didn't connect to Ronin's Sharingan in time—it was blocked by those sudden sunglasses.
For a Sharingan "ninja" to have to avoid an enemy's gaze—this was a brand-new experience for Ronin.
But Omokage's ability clearly had a flaw—and the shadow clone had already tested that flaw earlier.
Now Ronin's fingers formed a blade, lightning chakra surging over his hand as he struck in a single instant of contact.
Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite.
Omokage's body was cleaved in half by lightning.
Blood sprayed—
Yet Ronin's sense of danger didn't fade.
Because under the Sharingan's perception, even though this Omokage bled, his body structure was no different from a doll.
Earlier, the Omokage doll had been wrapped in thick Nen and had actually fooled Ronin's Sharingan.
Was this the "fake death" doll from the movie?
As that thought flashed, Ronin's Sharingan saw Nen threads snapping tight ahead—
Machi's Nen.
And at the church entrance, another figure appeared quietly.
Another Omokage.
Behind this Omokage were three more figures: Machi, Nobunaga, and a scar-faced middle-aged man Ronin didn't recognize.
So the earlier "Omokage" had worn Omokage's face, but the ability it used was Franklin's.
This Omokage—with three shadows behind him—was the real one.
Lightning faded from Ronin's body as he stopped just before the tightened Nen threads.
His sunglasses were gone—stripped away by the Nen emitted from the hollow-eyed fake when they brushed past each other.
So now Ronin's crimson three-tomoe Sharingan stared directly into Omokage's eyes.
In that instant, both moved.
Omokage's fingers twitched. Nen threads yanked an eyeless doll into position in front of him, and the razor-straight threads tightened, ready to slice Ronin apart.
But all of Omokage's movements halted in the very next second.
Because even though Ronin was still in front of him, enormous, rusted spikes had pierced straight through Omokage's limbs.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique.
A gigantic Sharingan hung like the moon in Omokage's vision, slowly turning.
Pain crashed over him in waves.
Ronin could feel his chakra being drained rapidly by the Sharingan.
But Omokage, not far away, stood rigid and frozen.
A kunai appeared in Ronin's hand.
With his other hand, he formed a seal. Chakra quickly transformed into Wind Release and was poured into the kunai, forming a pale-blue layer of energy around it.
The next moment, Ronin hurled the kunai straight at Omokage's heart.
At the same time, Ronin could no longer sustain the genjutsu—
the Shackling Stakes illusion ended.
Shhk!
The kunai pierced cleanly into Omokage's chest.
Just waking from the phantom sensation of his limbs being nailed down, Omokage felt a stabbing agony in his heart.
He looked down in disbelief and saw a kunai that had pierced through his protective aura and stabbed into his heart.
"So… I'm losing here?" Omokage's eyes were full of disbelief.
He was supposed to be the perfect counter to Ronin—so why was he the one dying?
Blood flowed from his heart. With every breath, blood sprayed from his mouth.
The shadows behind him vanished quickly. The dolls around him didn't even enter a final frenzy—they collapsed like wheat being harvested.
Maybe I shouldn't have come…
That was Omokage's last thought as he fell.
But it was too late.
Ronin panted hard. When he threw that kunai, he'd truly been sweating inside—
Afraid Omokage would break free and dodge the final strike.
But thankfully, the Wind Release chakra on the kunai had pierced Omokage's defenses and killed him in front of the church.
Ronin forced his breathing steady and stepped into the church.
The flames had gone out, but the interior was still hot.
He hurried upstairs and found the Pairo doll wrapped in hardened clay.
It was still frozen in a "descending" posture.
Ronin had already exited Sharingan state, but with Nen coating his palm, he easily tore open the clay shell.
With two hard tugs, he ripped out two Scarlet Eyes from the doll's sockets.
Even with clay stuck to them, Ronin still felt warmth radiating from the eyes.
Only then did he finally feel a sense of release.
~~~
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