After receiving the response, Black Zetsu asked, "By the way, Aniki, how are we going to tear apart the Underworld?"
"The Underworld should naturally be handled by the dead themselves!" Aizen said, pulling out a Scroll from his sleeve and spreading it on the ground.
After releasing the seal, a large number of eerie and terrifying masks appeared on the Scroll.
Black Zetsu roughly counted them—there were twenty-six masks in total. "These... are these the Shinigami Masks of the Uzumaki clan?"
Aizen nodded lightly and began forming hand seals in a dazzlingly quick manner.
[Conjuration: Summoning the Death Gods!]
Suddenly, ghostly howls and chilly winds filled the air. Though it was still daylight, an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere enveloped the area.
Then, twenty-six Shinigami emerged as horrifying shadows behind the masks.
In the original space-time where his main body resided, only four of the Shinigami successfully retained their spirits. The rest of the masks shattered completely.
But now, he didn't need these Shinigami to keep their consciousness, so there was no need to worry about the masks breaking.
Black Zetsu eyed the ghostly divine figures warily and edged closer to Aniki.
"If the Shinigami go berserk, I should ask for help... no, wait, better protect Aniki right away," he thought, then saw his Aniki handing him one of the refined masks.
Immediately, twenty-six pairs of cold, silent, and utterly emotionless eyes turned toward him in unison. Black Zetsu nearly flinched and dropped the mask in shock.
"Aniki, what is this?"
"This mask is the key to controlling them," Aizen explained. "I'll send you into the Underworld shortly. Once you receive my command, summon them out and tear open the Underworld!"
Black Zetsu hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly. "I understand exactly what to do!"
Aizen placed both hands on Black Zetsu's shoulders. "This is the most crucial step in saving Mother!"
Black Zetsu's heart lifted with a sacred sense of mission. "No, it's us together!"
"You're absolutely right. It's us together!"
After sending Black Zetsu into the Underworld, Aizen turned his attention to observing the battle occurring outside the Heavens.
In just a few short minutes, Isshiki and Hagoromo had already pushed each other to their limits—countless asteroids surrounding them had been pulverized!
Under normal circumstances, their chakra was nearly inexhaustible; they could fight for months and still continue.
But now, both of them felt tense and anxious.
Isshiki was worried about Seiki's main body arriving and creating unexpected complications, while Hagoromo was concerned about the battle unfolding far below.
He had sensed it—his Mother had already emerged!
"You still haven't shaken that fear. Even after all this time, Kaguya was still an unworthy mother!" Isshiki taunted mockingly.
Though space offered no sound, they communicated through thought alone.
Isshiki naturally wouldn't miss this chance to break Hagoromo's mind.
Hagoromo remained unmoved, pushing a nearby asteroid like a chess piece straight toward Isshiki. "My mother's strength does indeed instill fear in me—after all, she was the one who defied the odds to defeat a higher-ranking warrior!"
Isshiki kicked the asteroid away with one foot, his face as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot. Regardless of what had happened, this outcome alone would forever mark him with shame in the Otsutsuki Clan.
Aside from his curiosity about the peculiar nature of this planet, another reason he had not contacted the clan was to prevent this disgrace from spreading back home.
"You little brat, you've really pissed me off!" Isshiki muttered darkly, ignoring his near collapse and flying straight toward the sun to forcibly draw its nuclear energy.
In the next instant, an enormous glowing sphere formed between his raised hands.
"Have you even seen the vastness of the universe, you little cornered brat?" Isshiki sealed the surrounding space-time and hurled the ever-expanding massive energy sphere. "Today, let me show you how we harness cosmic energy!"
[Ultimate Energy Cannon]!
"That's stealing power from the sun itself—truly worthy of an Otsutsuki warrior," Hagoromo thought admiringly. When it came to mastery of power, how could his self-taught skills compare to the ancient heritage of the Otsutsuki?
"But that doesn't mean I've made no progress either!"
Hagoromo absorbed natural energy from the universe—or more precisely, cosmic rays.
Natural energy was already extremely wild, but Hagoromo saw the cosmic rays left behind after filtering natural energy as relatively tame.
In other words, complete cosmic rays were even more violent than natural energy!
Even Hagoromo had never before dared to absorb such energy.
Yet his cultivation realm surpassed that of ordinary sages. The once-chaotic cosmic rays now flowed within him like gentle lambs.
"The state I'm in now… maybe I should call it Cosmic Sage Mode?" Hagoromo mused, releasing Sage Chakra as a technique, shining brilliantly like a nebula.
[Universe Sage Art: Nebula Storm]!
The Ultimate Energy Cannon and the storm collided like the birth of heaven and earth, twisting the surrounding space-time, and nearby meteorites instantly reduced to cosmic dust.
"He actually blocked my attack—this is getting troublesome!" Isshiki frowned, thinking about how to deal with Hagoromo next.
But at that moment, an overwhelming ocular power suddenly erupted from within his body.
"Ahh!! What is this…?"
Using the explosion as cover, even Hagoromo failed to notice Isshiki's anomaly.
When the storm finally calmed, Isshiki's pained expression had returned to calm.
"I didn't expect I would lose again, especially to Kaguya's son!"
"You didn't fall to me—you fell to the world itself!"
With that, Hagoromo hurled a Truth-Seeking Ball at Isshiki.
Isshiki made no attempt to resist, merely gazing silently at him. "I will watch your downfall in the days to come…"
Soon, the Truth-Seeking Ball containing Isshiki returned to Hagoromo's hand.
Hagoromo felt puzzled by how easily Isshiki accepted his sealing, but soon he "understood."
"He must know the Otsutsuki main family will come looking for him, so he decided not to fight me to the end. Good—I was waiting for them too."
Thinking thus, Hagoromo gently rubbed the Truth-Seeking Ball in his hand — a mysterious orb of chakra — and mused silently to himself, "Although this seal isn't as stable as Planetary Devastation, it should still hold for a dozen years or so!"
There were two reasons why he didn't use the Six Paths — Chibaku Tensei to seal Isshiki. First, an additional Moon might impact the surface ecosystem. Second, he needed to be cautious about future Otsutsuki visitors rescuing Isshiki. It would be better to keep the seal containing Isshiki on his person.
Moreover, the Planetary Devastation seal was simply too large to carry around.
"At the very least, I've managed to get rid of this threat for now!" Hagoromo sighed, shifting his gaze downward. "Next, I need to ask Mother to fall back into slumber!"
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