The words had barely left her mouth.
A terrifying surge of power erupted from Eri's body!
There was no buildup, no warning—just in an instant, the air shattered. Crimson streaks of blood exploded from the Grass ninja around them! Their battle-hardened bodies, forged through years of training, seemed as fragile as paper, tearing apart at the slightest touch!
—Commandment: Judgment!
The ultimate ability from the Dragon Clan world, a force embodying the concept of "absolute death," unleashed its fury in the corridor of the Grass Village hospital!
From where Uchiha Hikari and Eri stood, everything in their line of sight was obliterated in a heartbeat!
A torrent of blood sprayed outward, blooming like massive scarlet flowers!
"Death!!"
Eri spoke again, her voice ringing out as she swung her right hand.
Her slender fingers traced five parallel arcs through the air.
This time, the power of Judgment was even more devastating than before.
The moment the word left her lips, an invisible domain expanded from Eri, engulfing the entire corridor and the hospital rooms on either side! Massive cracks appeared everywhere—on the Grass ninja standing in the hallway, on those rushing in from the sides, even on the walls themselves. In a split second, they all crumbled into heaps of shredded flesh and broken stone!
"Eri! Stop it, now!"
After two consecutive uses of Judgment, veins bulged on Eri's face and hands.
Hikari, holding Eri's hand, could feel the girl's blood surging wildly, her body temperature spiking. Those gentle, obedient eyes now glowed with a molten gold hue.
—This was bad news.
The cost of using Judgment was the rapid erosion of dragon blood, which could lead to unpredictable consequences.
Seeing Eri about to speak again, Hikari didn't hesitate. She shouted and quickly covered Eri's mouth with her hand.
The moment she did, her left hand and forearm erupted with dense, crisscrossing wounds. Flesh tore open, blood sprayed, revealing jagged white bone beneath. Unbearable pain hit her like a tidal wave, but the cracks in her bones began to mend, new flesh sprouting… only to tear apart again in the next instant!
Rip, heal, rip again…
This cycle repeated seven or eight times in a single second!
Blood splattered onto Eri's face, snapping her out of her trance-like state. Her eyes slowly regained focus. She stared at Hikari's mangled, skeletal arm, then turned back, tears welling up in her eyes with a look of panic.
"Hikari…"
She mouthed the word silently.
"Don't worry, I'm right here."
Hikari's lips curved into a gentle smile.
Only after confirming Eri had calmed down did she finally release her grip on Eri's mouth.
This was her first time experiencing the raw power of Commandment: Judgment.
It was… more brutal than she'd expected.
Even with her regenerative abilities, her left arm was nearly destroyed. Her powerful healing couldn't keep up with the destruction. After the fourth tear, her hand was reduced to bone, and the agony of her flesh and bone shredding seven or eight times hit her all at once. Even with her incredible pain tolerance, it was almost too much to bear.
Thankfully…
As Eri stopped using Judgment, Hikari's regeneration kicked in. New bone and flesh began sprouting from her elbow, though the process was slower than usual, as if her body was still reeling from clashing with Judgment.
"At this rate, it'll take two or three minutes to fully regrow my arm…"
"But the blood loss is pretty bad. Rebuilding my blood supply might take even longer…"
Hikari discreetly wiped away the tears that had nearly spilled from the pain, deciding to let her arm regenerate on its own for now. Worst case, she had a Senzu Bean to fall back on. If it grew back wrong, she could always chop it off and start over…
Meanwhile, the Grass Village hospital had turned into a literal hellscape.
Dozens of Grass ninja had perished the moment Eri gave her command. Not a single body was left intact.
The walls lining the corridor were reduced to crumbling ruins.
Through the gaping holes in the walls, piles of mutilated corpses littered the hospital rooms, crimson blood pooling and flowing out, merging with the blood in the corridor to form a trickling red stream.
In the eerie silence, only one person clung to life—a red-haired woman from the Uzumaki clan, her breaths so faint they were barely audible.
"Karin…"
"What?"
Hikari waded through the blood-soaked floor, stopping beside the red-haired woman.
Eri's Judgment had spared her, and only her.
The woman's eyes were lifeless, unable to see, her vitality nearly gone. Yet, driven by some unshakable obsession, she stared blankly at the white ceiling, her lips trembling as she whispered "Karin" over and over.
Hikari slipped a Senzu Bean into her mouth and poured water down her throat to help her swallow.
Perhaps because her consciousness was fading, her wounds showed no signs of healing, but the bean kept her clinging to life, her breath a faint thread.
Hikari sighed, gently pulling a bloodstained bedsheet over the woman's body with her right hand.
The air grew still for a moment.
Then, a young voice cried out from the corridor's entrance:
"…Mom!!"
Hikari looked up to see a red-haired girl with glasses, sobbing as a burly man grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her back, tossing her like a ragdoll to someone behind him.
Beyond the man, a group of nearly a hundred Grass Village ninja gathered, clutching kunai and short swords. Their eyes burned with a mix of fear and rage as they glared at Hikari and Eri.
"Damn you! You killed the captain and the others…"
"Monsters… that woman must've brought this disaster upon us! Those damn Uzumaki, after all the village did for them, they dare collude with outsiders to slaughter our ninja!"
"Both of you, surrender now! Or I'll kill this Uzumaki brat!"
"…"
Eri, still wracked with guilt over hurting Hikari, kept her lips pursed, tears streaming as she stared at Hikari's hand, oblivious to the chaos around her.
Hikari, on the other hand, turned calmly. She pushed the red-haired woman's bed next to Eri, then stepped to the edge of the corridor, scanning the crowd.
As she moved, the Grass ninja instinctively backed away, though they continued their pathetic display of bravado. One older "elder" held Karin by the neck, shouting threats to assert his dominance.
"…What a pathetic sight."
Hikari closed her eyes briefly, as if she couldn't bear to look at their ugly faces any longer. "People like you… why do you even exist in this world? What do you think life is?!"
Her voice thundered like a spring storm, and as she slowly opened her eyes, a magnificent flame blazed within them.
Behind her, a towering, dark crimson giant rose into the sky, looming like a skyscraper!
—Susanoo, Fourth Form!