Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
The Shinden Saga – Arc 4: The Otsutsuki War
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Chapter 157 – Your only opponent
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At the gate of Konoha, the 7th Hokage just vanished with Boruto and Toneri through a portal that closed in their back and transported them to the desert Moon as they carried the Ryu Shinsen along.
In front of the village, the gathered ninjas are still here, surrounding the members of the Otsutsuki clan brought to them through that same portal. Naobi, Tokubei and his wife are still floating above the scene. Izuna Uchiha, standing atop of the gate, looks up where the portal of Yomotsu Hirasaka just closed. He thinks of his sensei, bothered by the words he told him right before disappearing.
"I entrust the village to you." Naruto said. But why would he say such a thing, even though Izuna never really reconciled with his past dream of becoming Hokage? Never since he couldn't hold himself back on Minoka. He may have found out that she survived, but it doesn't change the fact that he broke his nindo, and thought he ended her life that day.
Naruto knows that. So why does he give this undeserved burden to his student? If his sensei dies, Izuna will feel forced to take on the mantle for it is what Naruto wants, and he can't lie about that because he hates lies. Bothered by his thoughts that he finds striving away from the situation, Izuna shakes his head and focuses on the Otsutsuki floating above the village. No matter what the aftermath of the ongoing battles will be, at the moment, he has to protect the village that was entrusted to him.
Up there, Naobi crosses his gaze, and nonchalantly looks away without much concern. She moves her head to look at Tokubei behind her. He and Sasuke Uchiha have been intensely staring at each other since Yamitsuki left, so his plan of action is easy to guess.
"I assume that you leave me in charge of the clan and this scenery." she tells him, to which he answers with a little sound of approval before flying toward the crowd and further away from the goddess of creation. His wife, Fureya, stays close to him. Down among the celestials standing in the middle of Konoha's army, Taiyoshiki stays focused on his father and steps forward vigilantly, followed by Seimei, his friend and disciple.
Everyone else stands as still as rocks, or not exactly still. The aura of the goddess of creation, second only to the Dragon Sage, makes every pebble and blade of grass tremble, and so does she affect the ninjas around. In this quiet moment scream the crossing gazes of Sasuke and Tokubei, only waiting for each other to make a move. The Uchiha reminds himself of the mystery he wants to unveil.
"I have my battle to settle as well." he mutters, heard by his wife and daughter behind him. "Sarada, time for you to leave."
"I don't want to!" the young girl exclaims, upset, though her dad's request is reasonable.
"Don't you dare make a scene now, Sarada!" her mother answers.
"But you, Dad and Izuna are all gonna fight. I won't be the only one who runs away. Maybe I don't stand a chance against these people, but none of these ninjas do anyway!"
"Mitsuki, …" Sasuke interrupts his daughter with a question to her friend next to her. "Get her out of here and don't let her come back."
Without a word, the snake boy proceeds. Taken by surprise, Sarada lets him grab her by the waist and carry her on a shoulder to run away. She tries to get away but can't break through Mitsuki's oddly superior strength. So she gives up, left wondering why her father suddenly trusted her friend enough to ask him such a thing.
Freed of one burden, Sasuke focuses again on Tokubei, who politely waits for his rival to be ready. Now that nothing else bothers them, the masked man takes action.
Yomotsu Hirasaka
He opens a large gate from which he pulls out his double sided scythe. Then appears another portal in front of him in which he plunges his blade. Sasuke, for whom Tokubei's moves have no secrets left, calmly warns his wife to stand ready.
"Sakura." he quietly calls her name, making her get in position and turn around toward him with her fist prepared as the output of Tokubei's gate appears in Sasuke's back.
Ameno Tejikara
Unexpectedly, Sasuke uses his Dojutsu to swap places with the output gate itself, just in time for Sakura's fist to plunge in, repelling the weapon of the god of winter. Tokubei, startled, lets his scythe be pushed out of the way and sees the kunoichi's loaded punch reach through his portal and come toward him. Yet he stays calm, as he knows his own wife has his back too.
Omamori
Sakura's punch is stopped by an ethereal amber wall that appears to cover Tokubei. This powerful strike left absolutely no trace in the barrier, nor did it cause any shock wave resulting from the collision. Unsettled by this, Sakura hurries to bring back her hand before Tokubei's portal closes. Guessing that this was the doing of the woman behind Tokubei, Sakura has a staredown with Fureya as their husbands finally make their final fight happen.
Shunshin
With a Body Flicker, Sasuke disappears. Knowing that Tokubei can see through the hiding of this simple jutsu, he goes backwards through the village, toward the hills above the Hokage monument. Seeing where he is going, the masked god leaves through a portal to wait for him there.
Then, like a chain reaction, the families of the two contenders confront each other to protect their patriarchs. Fureya flies toward the village to follow her husband, but Sakura leaps up toward the sky and gets in her way. Taking her off guard she almost lands a perfect punch in her face, but is once again stopped by a chakra barrier.
Using it to her advantage, she leans against it and leaps toward where Sasuke went. To stop her, Fureya grabs Sakura's feet before she flies off and throws her away into the forest, far from the village and armies. However, the kunoichi gets a hold on the celestial's robe before being tossed and forces her to crash along with her in the woods.
Taiyoshiki, seeing his parents being carried into battles, leaps off the ground and away from Konoha's army to join his father. Of course, the son of Sasuke hurries to get involved as well.
Ameno Hohi
With his Mangekyo Sharingan's ability, he teleports himself right in front of Taiyoshiki and promptly kicks him away, into the forest. Seimei, when her friend leaves the ground, and Inoue, when her boyfriend leaves her side, yell.
"Taiyo/Izuna!" they exclaim at the same time before jumping as well and colliding together. Izuna and Taiyoshiki land in the forest, face to face, like their mothers a few hundreds of meters away. Inoue and Seimei land right beneath the walls of Konoha, in desert streets. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Tokubei are atop of the face of the first Hokage carved in the cliff above the village. In position for a new fight.
"Was last time not enough for you to realize that you can't beat me?" Sasuke provokes him. "How do you plan to make this time different?"
"I'm glad you asked." Tokubei answers in a playful tone. "Just wait and see." he adds as he lets his scythe float by his side and brings his hands together, under Sasuke's curious gaze.
Down in the village, Inoue runs toward Seimei with a kunai in hand, trying to get past her and join Izuna in the forest. The young hornless celestial lets her come and dodges her blade while making sure to stay in front of her.
"Oh, so we're having a fight, is that right?" she says. "Honestly, I don't know how strong humans are but I'm known as the youngest and weakest of my kind. Some even call me the goddess of nothing, haha!… So don't be disappointed if I'm not up to your expectations."
After this humble declaration, Seimei proceeds to make it sound like an understatement. She activates her Byakugan, catches Inoue by the ankle with a swift hand movement and tightens her grasp with such strength that it forces her to let go of her kunai and makes her hand feel necrotized.
Surprised by the inhuman strength of her opponent, Inoue hurries to leap away, which Seimei fortunately lets happen. Holding her own ankle in pain, she doesn't have time to reminisce on this, as her opponent jumps toward her again and tries to strike with a palm. Inoue manages to get away and lands on a wall from where she sees the terrible impact this juken hit left in the ground.
Of course, even if she is weaker than her fellows, this woman is still a celestial of the Otsutsuki clan and her bodily power is still far superior to a human's. To maintain distance and attack from afar seems to be wiser, Inoue thinks before leaping off the wall to avoid Seimei's next strike. She keeps bouncing from one wall to another and running away through roofs to keep a distance while throwing her counter attack.
Katon – Kitsunebi
She throws a set of 10 fireballs one after another to Seimei who sees them all coming thanks to her Byakugan. When Inoue only has one projectile left, she carefully waits for the best occasion to use it, which comes right away. After jumping off a roof into a narrow alley, she turns around and waits for Seimei to fall down, to throw the last fire orb at her. Oddly, it seems like this celestial can't fly properly like all the others, which is why she's only been running after Inoue rather than levitating.
Seeing the ball come, she deflects it with her hand, but it was only a lure that Inoue used to hide her next move.
Katon – Goryuka
Using this jutsu that she learned from Izuna, she expels a large fireball shaped like a dragon head that hits the target and pushes her back on a roof before exploding to light her on fire. Seimei stands up and uses Suiton to hurriedly undo the flames before looking at Inoue who joined her here, holding a hand sign ready.
"You're a good one alright." Seimei clumsily says before raising a hand. "I guess I gotta be seriously careful then."
Kakure Mino
She waves her arm and hand down over her body and, to Inoue's surprise, makes herself disappear behind her own limb. This little move was likely just a gimmick, but as a result, she became totally invisible. Even her chakra becomes harder to sense until totally vanishing. Inoue, knowing that her enemy is still here somehow, stays vigilant.
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In the forest, Izuna and Taiyoshiki are standing face to face, and just staring at each other. The Uchiha analyzes the Otsutsuki, who keeps his left eye closed, but shows the Sharingan in his right socket. He doesn't seem ready for a battle. Guessing the thoughts of Izuna, Taiyoshiki tries to converse first.
"Can we avoid fighting each other?" he asks, to Izuna's surprise.
"Not if you want to step in my father's fight." he answers.
"I mean no harm to him, don't worry. I simply wouldn't like the battle of our fathers to cause one of them to die, you know?"
"So that masked man is your father, huh? Don't you trust him enough to handle this fight? Or do you know he can't win this one?"
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so trustful of your father either."
To this remark, Izuna just lightly smiles and jumps into action again, knowing that neither his father nor mother, nor girlfriend will easily give up their battles. With his fist loaded up, he leaps toward Taiyoshiki and prepares to smash his torso. However, the young god stays calm and fights back with a simple stare.
Sukuna Bikona
Before he reaches his target, Izuna suddenly feels like he is getting further away, without moving. When he notices the background standing inert, he figures out that it seems like Taiyoshiki is growing larger compared to him. Or rather, that he just suddenly shrunk down to a minuscule size. When he sees the celestial raise his hand to grab him, he hurries to get away.
Ameno Hohi
He teleports out of his sight, into the woods, and suddenly finds himself back to his real height. Confused by that, he activates his brother's eye power with his Eien no Mangekyo Sharingan.
Futsunushi
By looking at Taiyoshiki, he reads the surprising true nature of his eyes and their powers, but also where he got them from.
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While the families of Sasuke and Tokubei are confronting each other, the rest of the celestials of Ashihara and ninjas of Konoha stood still. Shikamaru and Kakashi stay focused on the goddess of creation, the most dangerous person present. Rihetsuki, next to them, gulps down.
"With your army stuck here, the rest of the Union has no chance to succeed against Yasona…" he says, which makes Kuboshiki smile in the crowd.
"But we have to stay in position…" Shikamaru answers. "Don't let the other celestials move from here!" he orders the army.
Those celestials calmly look around at the trembling ninjas who obviously, for most, don't think they stand a chance against divine creatures from outer space. Yet, since they have no reason to antagonize these ninjas, they don't move. Chishiki, levitating to bring her eyes as high as Torushiki's, squints when she notices Rihetsuki standing with the humans. A celestial that she never met by the side of ninjas. How odd…
Sakitsuki, looking around to see no movement, and gazing with her golden eyes at the battles taking place on the Earth and Moon, realizes that even though this spot is calm, the conflict has begun. So she has to pick a side. Therefore she slowly elevates herself and floats away to join Rihetsuki's side.
Hebemi, Chishiki, Kuboshiki, Torushiki all let out gasps of spite. Up in the sky, Naobi raises an eyebrow, unsettled and disappointed by this hostile move from her subordinate. Saki, feeling slight guilt, explains herself.
"I'm sorry Naobi-sama. I don't want this to be about choosing who should prevail. But if it is, I can't deny that humanity needs my support more than our clan."
"You traitor!" Kuboshiki yells at her. "Choose your side if you want to, you won't change the fate of humanity. The majority of their armies will be crushed by Yasona-sama all the same."
To this provocation, Saki doesn't answer. On the contrary, she makes a slightly compassionate face, as if she was disagreeing with this, which Torushiki and Chishiki don't fail to notice. The tallest one, Torushiki, then concentrates to read the lips of Kakashi with his Byakugan as he sees him speak to Shikamaru and Rihei.
"All isn't lost for the Union. Takeshi Minamoto was mobilized as well. With the Daitengu's mind by his side, if he cooperates, I doubt that Yasona Otsutsuki really is the threat that this guy thinks she is."
Acknowledging this comment, the great Torushiki is next to leave his position. He turns toward where he senses the chakra of his mistress, in the land of Earth, and slowly walks in the direction of the ninjas who stay in position.
"What are you doing?" Kuboshiki asks him.
"Yasona-sama is still not safe." he answers. "Stay here all you want. I will help her."
"Keep them surrounded! Don't let them get through!" Kakashi exclaims, startled by the fact that this one probably heard what he said.
The members of the Suicide Corps led by Rock Lee are the first to stand in Torushiki's way. Seeing this absolute unit of a male come closer and faster, they leave their fear aside and all prepare to strike. First to leap in is Wakasa, Lee's wife, and her ranks.
Hachimon Tonko – Dai Go Tomon Kai (Eight Gates Release – 5th Gate of Limit Opening)
All together, they use the 5th gate and strike the opponent with a barrage of Goken, which Torushiki easily breaks through by pushing all of them away with a single and powerful hand wave. He then leaps forward and forces all the rest of the Suicide Corps to engage.
Hachimon Tonko – Dai Roku Keimon Kai
It is all those who can open the 6th Gate who strike together and confront the celestial who punches through until only two Taijutsu specialists remain to block his path and confront their fists to his arm, Metal and Rock Lee. They push with all their strength, but still seem not to be enough to oppose him. Still, surprised by the resistance they show, the god of thunder shows just a fragment of his power to repel them.
By emitting a sudden lightning bolt, he blinds and strikes Metal who's sent fluttering away. Rock Lee, however, manages to withstand this and pushes himself further beyond.
Hachimon Tonko – Dai Nana Kyomon Kai
He opens the 7th Gate of Wonder and, with a violent kick in the celestial's forearm, actually manages to make him take a slight step back. Startled by this, Torushiki hurries to get done with this confrontation by showing his real power.
Raijin Kata (God of Thunder Transformation)
He activates what seems to be an ancient Senjutsu powered version of the Raiton Chakra Mode, powering up his body with intense yellow and blue lightning. Pumped up, Torushiki throws his other fist into Rock Lee who blocks it with his forearms before it lands, but is still sent crashing away.
In front of the god of thunder, the ranks of the Hyuga, Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi get in position. Leading them, Choji and his fellows all use the Cho Baika to become giants and stand in the way. Ready to take them on, Torushiki steps forward but is interrupted by Kuboshiki.
Ekika Tsunami (Liquefaction Tsunami)
Jealous of his fellow's resolve to help his mistress, Kuboshiki gets involved to prove that his loyalty to Yasona is greater. Transformed into a massive wave of a mystic liquid, he flows over the fractions of the army before Torushiki, who stands still as his friend goes by, not carried by the current. Choji and a dozen of other giant Akimichi try to resist but are slowly forced to slip and submit to the wave.
Seeing the action, Konohamaru and the ninjas of the Sarutobi clan raise their hands to prepare their counter attack. But they cause Chishiki and Hebemi to react. The two goddesses raise their hands menacingly. As the two species confront each other and are about to explode into a bloody battlefield, a loud call stops everyone.
"Stop! All of you! Ninjas and celestials!" the goddess of creation, Naobi Otsutsuki, yells.
With this order, she made Kuboshiki and Torushiki step back to their position, in their original forms. Chishiki and Hebemi lowered their arms. Konohamaru and his ninjas also gave up their attack. Choji's ranks went back to their regular size and everyone returned to their wait.
The ninjas of the Hyuga clan, among Choji's ranks, went to help the Suicide Corps to get back on their feet, after they were pierced through by the god of thunder. Kakashi and Shikamaru look at the scene, impressed, and then look up at Naobi who managed to make everyone obey without insisting too much.
In Konoha, Inoue was keeping her distance from the invisible Seimei when she heard this call. She already took 4 hits and broke her ribs, but is still standing and fighting. Startled by the voice of Naobi, Seimei undoes her invisibility for a split second just before grabbing Inoue. Seeing her, the Yamanaka hurries to grasp her and starts a spontaneous wrestling duel that ends with her on top of the celestial girl with another kunai held at her neck.
"Hah! You know that this blade will barely leave a scratch on my skin, right?" Seimei tells her, amazed that Inoue managed to get on top of her.
"Sure… But whatever. I figured out your invisibility thing. You become totally invisible to all senses, but you have to undo it if you want to strike or use another jutsu, right?"
"Hah! Kinda… Honestly, I still haven't fully mastered Kakure Mino, but I'm already proud of myself for learning its basics."
"… Do you have to listen to the great goddess order or what?" Inoue asks her, kind of out of breath because of this short fight.
"I guess so… Taiyo-sensei and your man will probably stop too… if he's reasonable."
"Oh, he is. Don't worry."
Inoue gets off Seimei to let her embarrassingly stand up and walk away, back to where her fellows are. Inoue stays here to catch her breath. Even though she had the upper hand when they stopped the fight, she's clearly more tired than her opponent. If the fight had been longer, Seimei would have gone all out, and would certainly have shown herself to surpass at least the Biju. She's glad someone could stop the fight soon enough.
In front of Konoha, Naobi flies down as she sees Seimei join the few others. Looking down on her fellows, she explains her call.
"No one has authorized your vile wishes to interfere with this planet's fate. Only the Shinden were given this right. So none of you is allowed to fight."
She then looks at Shikamaru and Kakashi, whom she considers the rulers of these troops at the moment.
"Ninjas of Konoha, your only opponent here… is me. If you wish to join your allies and fight the goddess of mischief, you will have to get past me, and only me."
Kakashi and Shikamaru look at each other, then at Konohamaru and Choji, then toward where Sakura and Sasuke went. The Hokage's advisor explains how he sees it.
"We can't let the operation of the Union crumble so easily. We'll have to join them as planned to follow the plan…" he says before looking at Naobi again. "What a drag… I guess we'll have to try you then… Or at least, keep up strong until Sasuke, Sakura and Izuna can join and help us."
Naobi, with clear disgust and disregard on her face, comes a bit closer to them and stares right at Shikamaru.
"It is embarrassing, Shikamaru Nara, that you even think you will get past me, with or without the help of Uchiha Sasuke. I was under the impression that you were intelligent… I reckon it is my mistake to assume you were also realistic."
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Further in the forest, Taiyoshiki is in slight panic as he dodges fireballs, thrown by Izuna who stands aside. Conflicted between Naobi's order to stand back and his will to assist his parents, he keeps flying through the woods to locate the Uchiha and hopes to quickly neutralize him in a peaceful way.
By the assault of Izuna, he's forced in the middle of a glade where he falls victim to a trap.
Katon – Uchiha Kaenjin
Massive walls of red flames appear to surround him and lock him in. To get rid of this, Taiyoshiki focuses and localizes Izuna behind one of the walls that he hurries to shrink down with Sukuna Bikona. He now sees Izuna standing there and prepares to shrink him as well, but is intrigued when he first sees him leap aside to poorly hide behind a tree.
"Um… You know I still see you, right?" he asks, as a joke.
"You sure do. But not entirely, since I'm partially hidden." Izuna answers, which surprises Taiyoshiki. Having used Futsunushi, the Uchiha now knows how his ability works and how to escape it, and he explains it.
"Your Sharingan's power, Sukuna Bikona, allows you to shrink whatever object, or person you look at. But in the case of living things, it doesn't work unless you maintain full visual contact with them. Earlier, when I escaped your sight, I got back to my true size. And now, since you can't see my whole body, you can't shrink it."
"Impressive." Taiyoshiki acknowledges the cleverness of Futsunushi. "But if you got me figured out, why are you keeping your distance instead of just getting rid of me rapidly?"
"My Sharingan lets me see all that you can do." Izuna answers, looking at the celestial's closed left eye. "I need to stay careful. You know, you're not the first Rinnegan user I have come across."
Even more surprised now, Taiyoshiki nods out of respect and accepts to open his left eye, revealing a red Rinnegan identical to his father's. He guesses that Izuna's eye also lets him see that he can use Yomotsu Hirasaka, but he probably already knows the reason why he has such powerful eyes.
"If you've read my powers, you know that I can't use this eye to its full extent. The same goes for that Sharingan. Because, you see, they aren't actually mine."
"I know. They're fragments of powers sealed in your body by others." Izuna adds. "Your body has a special power that lets you inherit the abilities of whoever willingly seals their chakra in you. I guess your left eye comes from your father's chakra."
Mitamashiro. It is the name of the Hijutsu that Taiyoshiki was born with. What Izuna didn't say however is that the chakra sealed in him grows as in the original body, making him some sort of safe lock for chakra that those who sealed it will be able to retrieve if needed.
Also, he didn't mention that when more than 1 chakra is sealed within him at once, it prevents Taiyoshiki from using his own. Since the two chakra he has in him, from his father and the original user of Sukuna Bikona, are there since his birth, he actually never had the chance to discover his own powers.
"Listen, Izuna Uchiha, did you not hear the warning of Naobi-sama to your fellows just now?" Taiyoshiki says, ready to make his decision.
Izuna looks aside to see Naobi floating in the sky. He senses Inoue's chakra, somewhere in Konoha, and notices that she must be struggling with wounds. Taiyoshiki then suggests stopping here.
"I would have liked to help my dad, but I assume that Naobi-sama's call forbids me to do so. However, I don't want you to get involved with my parents either. I'm not much of a fighter. But you, Izuna, are remarkably strong. If you go all out against me, there is no doubt you'd win. But your might would be more useful helping your fellows against Naobi-sama, don't you think?"
Izuna stays quiet and looks around. It's true that he should honor the request of his sensei, even if he can't do so in the long term. Whether he will or won't be Hokage, his mission is still to protect Konoha. Also, he needs to help Inoue.
Suddenly, further in the forest, they see massive columns of amber crystals emerge before suddenly shattering as powerful shock waves shake and unearth the trees around them. It is the battle between Sakura and Fureya. Taiyoshiki recognizes his mother's Senjutsu in these crystals. And Izuna can clearly sense the tremendous power of his mom's Sengo.
Further away, they're distracted by a large red chakra barrier shaped like a dome that they see taking form to cover the top of the first Hokage's head on the cliff's monument.
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There, Sasuke looks around himself, trapped in this large sphere with Tokubei who spins his double bladed scythe in his arms to stretch himself and prepare for what he visibly intends to be a pretty physical battle. The Uchiha curiously looks around at the sphere that he doesn't recognize as something he can do with his Rinnegan for now. Yet it definitely is an ability of this eye.
"So we're not taking this to another dimension where you'd have the high ground?" he asks.
"No need for another dimension. Here and now, inside this barrier, I have all the advantages I need to demonstrate just how inferior you are."
Bothered by the weapon of his enemy spinning around and this disrespectfully ignorant comment, Sasuke tries to get in action really quick.
Amaterasu
He tries to use his left eye to promptly incinerate his opponent with the deadly black flames of Enton. But to his surprise, nothing happens. His jutsu just didn't work. Now with his blade in hand, he tries to spread his lightning on it and sees it suddenly vanishing in the air right as it appears. Yet his body has the sensation that it consumed the required chakra. And so he understands what is happening.
"You're figuring it out, aren't you?" Tokubei says, now ready to reveal what this dome is. "This is Gakido – Fujutsu Domu. Within this domain, not a single sample of chakra leaving the inside of our bodies will remain. It will all be absorbed and retrieved by me when I undo the barrier. You certainly understand what it means. It is you and me, with our blades and bodies only. No Senjutsu. No Space-Time jutsu. No Dojutsu abilities. No Susanoo. Just your puny human body against my enhanced celestial superiority."
After this announcement, he straightens his scythe and stands ready to begin.
"This is our last challenge. My final punishment for your lost defeated mind. And your last chance to realize the disgrace you are for the spirit and will of Indra."
By this sentence, Sasuke is reminded once more of the mystery that surrounds this man's motivation. He holds his blade forward, also ready for this ultimate trial.
"I was told that your obsession with Indra comes from a past battle you lost to him." he declares. "He beat you so badly that it inspired nothing but respect in your heart. A quite pathetic story in my opinion, but also a tale I don't believe. So, I accept your challenge. I will defeat you again, and beat the truth about yourself out of you. And even if I don't get the answers I seek, I'll at least take this opportunity to make that tale of you and Indra into a reality."
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End of Chapter 157 – Next Chapter: Goddess of Beauty