A blinding flash of light instantly covered the entire field of vision, piercing deep into the eyes like a blade, while a faint rumble of thunder stabbed into the eardrums. The golden light, seemingly only a foot long, at this moment burst forth with a brilliant radiance as if to tear the sky apart.
However, in Sawara Kiri's Six Eyes, even more lethal than this golden light were the sudden black fissures that appeared around him, spreading out like a net.
'Space rifts?!'
His azure pupils contracted sharply, and his hands, which had been held on either side, simultaneously released, his body immediately vanishing from its original spot.
"Boom—!!!"
A deep roar suddenly echoed across the entire land. The piercing golden light, the moment it landed on the giant wooden golem, instantly extended for hundreds, even thousands of meters, like a sharp bolt of lightning, easily slicing the wooden golem, which was covered by Susanoo, into two halves, like a hot knife through butter.
In front of that golden light, any substance with a Chakra structure seemed as fragile as paper, offering no resistance whatsoever.
"Kiri!"
Uchiha Hikari's voice had just left her lips when a familiar figure suddenly appeared beside her. The girl's tense expression finally seemed to relax a little.
However, at this moment, Sawara Kiri had no spare energy to worry about the girl beside him. Instead, he looked at Nagato, who still stood in the sky, overlooking all living beings like a true god, with a slightly more serious expression.
"It missed."
Nagato unclenched his hand, which still bore some charred marks. His three eyes simultaneously turned, looking towards Sawara Kiri in the distance, his voice seemingly without much ripple.
On the contrary, Hashirama and Madara, who had just been entangled with Sawara Kiri, both suffered. Most of their bodies had turned into ash, and they were now rapidly reforming like myriad butterflies returning to their nest.
However, their gazes towards Nagato were equally wary.
Especially 'Madara,' the culprit of everything, felt the most apprehension in his heart.
He could clearly feel that the pair of Rinnegan, quietly embedded in Nagato's eye sockets at this moment, were indeed the ones he had cultivated during his lifetime. That connection from his bloodline simply could not be severed.
But what made him feel uncertain and surprised was that these eyes, which were genetically his, had now merged with that strange blue eye in Nagato's body, forming a new whole.
Even if he tried to use the convenience of his own Rinnegan's ocular power to establish some connection with those eyes, there was still some kind of power around Nagato that easily blocked all his ocular power from the outside, making it impossible to establish a complete ocular power channel.
This unprecedented situation filled his heart with a sense of urgency.
If his resurrection plan having some problems was still imaginable, then what was happening here now was completely beyond his comprehension.
'This Nagato guy…'
'What exactly happened to him?'
'And is this strange power the ocular power of that eye?'
Yin-Yang, uniting with all things, thereby becoming the supreme power of this world.
Madara, who deeply believed in this prophecy, could not imagine what kind of power could rival the Rinnegan.
What made him feel even more humiliated was that he was actually being controlled into a puppet-like state by such a thing.
His strong self-esteem made his chest feel as if it were burning with fire.
Relatively speaking, the knowledgeable Tobirama immediately noticed something amiss from the strange clothing on Nagato.
"Big brother."
He lowered his voice, looking at Nagato standing in the sky, staring intently at the pure white robe, his tone somewhat uncertain: "The family's secret scrolls should have recorded the appearance of this clothing, right?"
"The volume about the Sage of Six Paths."
"Eh!"
Hashirama's eyes widened, and his Edo Tensei body, which was recovering, also shook violently: "There's such a thing?!"
As soon as he spoke, Tobirama realized he had asked the wrong person, and his face instantly darkened.
On the contrary, Madara suddenly turned his head to look at him.
Immediately after, his eyes stared intently at the long robe on Nagato.
On the back of this pure white robe, the Ōtsutsuki Clan emblem was imprinted.
Was Nagato not from the Uzumaki Clan, but an orphan of the Ōtsutsuki Clan?!
Just as the three of them were speculating, Nagato had already turned around, looking down at Sawara Kiri, and spoke as if showing off:
"What? Was that last attack so incomprehensible to you?"
"This is my current power."
"The unification of the Tenseigan and the Rinnegan, the supreme power secretly passed down by the Ōtsutsuki Clan, the ultimate essence that can only be obtained through the sacrifice of millions."
"Sawara Kiri."
"This is the power I painstakingly acquired to kill you."
Konan in the distance looked up towards Nagato, her charming face now filled with conflict, biting her lips, unable to speak.
With her strength, she naturally couldn't judge who was stronger between the two, but for some inexplicable reason, she didn't want Sawara Kiri, who had forcibly taken her, to die at Nagato's hands.
Konan felt that her mind might be having problems.
Relatively speaking, the other people around seemed calmer.
Or rather, ever since Uchiha Hikari began to use Engraved Tsukuyomi, most of them had become somewhat numb. Disasters, akin to natural calamities, descended one after another, and they were completely powerless.
Now, they could only choose to trust Kiri.
Sawara Kiri, however, continued to look at Nagato with his azure eyes, a hint of ironic smile on his face, sighing:
"Whether this power can kill me is hard to say, but to call it 'yours' might be a bit of an exaggeration, wouldn't you say?"
"Nagato."
He pointed to his own eyes, then towards Nagato, indicating: "I can see it."
"Inside your body, a black entity forcibly binds those three eyes together like a cage, barely extracting a portion of their power for your use."
"To say it's 'your' power…"
"Your body is merely a shell used to contain that power."
"To the extent that it has already been hollowed out into an empty shell."
"Compared to my life or death, you should first consider how much longer you can live."
Nagato's expression seemed to freeze for a moment upon hearing this, but it quickly calmed down.
After all, what did it matter?
Konan had betrayed him, Yahiko had died on the moon, and now only he was left in this world, empty.
In that case—
"As long as I can kill you, that's enough!"
Almost at the instant his words fell, two short blades, one gold and one silver, suddenly appeared in his hands, and he stepped forward.
"Whoosh—"
A sharp whooshing sound seemed to tear open a viscous passage in the thin atmosphere. Both dust and airflow were completely transformed into shockwaves spreading outwards under the unbearable intense impact. Concentric ripples intertwined, carving out a path hundreds of meters long across the vast land.
"Sawara Kiri!"
"Die—!!"
The Ōtsutsuki robe flapped wildly in the wind. The six Truth-Seeking Orbs wrapped around his body spun rapidly like flywheels. His entire being seemed to be enveloped in a gleaming film, and the gold and silver blades in his hands suddenly crossed!
"Be careful!"
As Uchiha Hikari's voice cried out, her Mangekyo Sharingan, operating at full power, spun at an unprecedented speed. A dark red Susanoo instantly rose from the ground, skipping all previous stages and directly ascending to the fourth stage, its entire body covered in deep-colored armor, and its incomplete feathered wings also spread out.
Just the residual Chakra shockwaves spreading outwards created a dust storm around the two of them.
Sawara Kiri glanced at Hikari's direction with some surprise.
However, Nagato ignored it completely. The silver short blade in his hand was thrown like a javelin.
"Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
As a dull roar sounded, the surface of the sturdy Susanoo armor was instantly smashed with a deep crater, as if struck by a heavy hammer. The front of the Chakra-supported armor was deeply dented into a semicircle like a meteorite crater, and the immense force even pushed the two individuals inside the Susanoo back continuously, tearing a gully dozens of meters long in the dark earth.
This was the only attack they could barely block.
When the second Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion pierced into the Susanoo, everything blocking their way instantly shattered like foam.
"Clang!"
Just as the golden short blade was about to pierce them, the silver-glowing Nietono no Shana suddenly raised its blade and unsheathed.
As an S-rank tool, the long sword finally displayed its unique sharpness at this moment.
"Unaffected or interfered by any external objects, capable of forcing an opponent into close-quarters combat, absolutely sharp."
The rule power attached to this weapon caused the tangible Nietono no Shana to turn into a blurry void the moment it sliced towards the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion. The instant they collided, it was like two strong but unrelated energies clashing, erupting into rings of intense waves at this close range.
"Thud—"
The dull thud seemed to directly impact the heart of everyone present.
Just this momentary stalemate, however, caused a mocking expression to suddenly appear on Nagato's face.
The next moment, Sawara Kiri suddenly saw a network of black, lightning-like cracks enveloping his entire body, spreading throughout the entire range covered by Limitless.
At the same time, Nagato low-roared:
"Limbo: Border Jail!"
Madara's eyes in the distance suddenly widened.
My ocular jutsu?!
In an instant, four split and invisible shadows simultaneously spread out from Nagato's body, all swinging the black rods condensed in their hands towards Sawara Kiri.
However, just as these four black rods were about to invisibly pierce into the cracks spread throughout space—
Sawara Kiri couldn't help but sneer.
"Full of holes."
The Nietono no Shana in his hand suddenly erupted with even greater force than the previous second, pushing the golden blade in Nagato's hand upwards with a whoosh. He stepped forward, but his figure had already vanished.
"What?!"
Nagato's triumphant expression hadn't even had a chance to fully develop when Sawara Kiri's figure was no longer in his sight.
Immediately after, he felt his long hair at the back of his head suddenly pulled by an immense force. His entire body, like a lead ball, spun in a semicircle in mid-air, piercing the air with a bang, and crashing into the distance with a dull sonic boom.
Before his body even landed, Sawara Kiri's figure was already moving parallel to him in front, even having the leisure to ask with a low chuckle:
"Is this your trump card to defeat me?"
"You bastard—"
Before he could finish his words, Nagato's vision was already filled with a rapidly expanding crimson sphere between him and Sawara Kiri.
"Technique Reversal: Red."
A violent repulsive force suddenly propelled his body into the earth, sending him crashing deep underground amidst a cloud of dust that swept across the sky.
But compared to the pain brought by this attack, what enraged Nagato even more was the humiliation from Sawara Kiri.
"Bang!"
Heavy shattered rocks and flying dirt were all pushed away by him, and he stood up from the soft mud at the center of the impact point.
However, the so-called 'god' who had been so high and mighty before was now covered in mud, having fallen into the mortal realm.
In contrast, Sawara Kiri stood high in the sky, looking down at him, yet seemingly speaking to someone else:
"Still not planning to show yourself?"
"Bastard!"
Nagato roared hoarsely. The six Truth-Seeking Orbs that had been circling his body suddenly aligned neatly in front of him under his command, pointing vertically towards Sawara Kiri:
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!!!"
A world-overwhelming golden light suddenly shone. The amount of Chakra infused into this wave was countless times more than the previous two. Nagato himself stood firm deep underground like a sturdy cannon, his 'muzzle' pointed directly towards Sawara Kiri.
At the same time, in the invisible world, the four materialized shadows of Limbo: Border Jail surrounded Sawara Kiri, all extending their black rods towards him, locking onto Sawara Kiri's possible directions of movement, waiting for that instantaneous opportunity.
Faintly, one could see black, crackling networks flashing at the tips of those black rods.
This was precisely the space-tearing power inherent to the Tenseigan.
Nagato's temples and forehead were filled with bulging veins from exertion, his three eyes staring intently in Sawara Kiri's direction.
I'll kill you!
"Rumble Rumble Rumble—!"
Thunder roared, and the sky overturned.
The golden light, suddenly shot out from the crater where Nagato was, whistled towards Sawara Kiri. From a distance, it looked as if a god had drawn a long golden path across the horizon, continuously extending, extending towards the farthest reaches of the sky, until it pierced through countless dense cloud layers, sweeping a part in the Earth's atmosphere.
Just the residual recoil transmitted to the ground made the earth beneath everyone's feet tremble like an earthquake, shock after shock.
Even Hashirama and Madara, upon seeing this scene, couldn't help but stop in their tracks, looking in disbelief at the battlefield of these two 'gods.'
The Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, capable of splitting the entire moon, unleashed its unique immense power at this moment.
The great power to destroy heaven and earth.
However, what was even more astonishing was the man who stood in the path of this attack.
Sawara Kiri seemed to have no intention of dodging, completely unconcerned even when Limitless was disrupted by spatial interference. He simply calmly raised the Nietono no Shana in his hand, serenely watching the golden light continuously extending towards him.
"Whoosh—"
The moment the two sides made contact, all power converged.
Yet, it was split in two by the blade in his hand, scattering like a severed waterfall, radiating towards the dim sky beneath the crimson blood moon.
Everyone fell silent, as if even their heartbeats had frozen at that moment.
"Whoosh."
His figure vanished and reappeared.
When everyone caught sight of him again, he was already standing behind Nagato.
The head, embedded with three eyeballs, had, at some unknown moment, silently severed from the neck, floating into the sky with a bewildered expression.
"Thud."
After a long while, the sound of the head hitting the ground finally seemed to reach the minds of those around, causing their previously frozen heartbeats and time to resume in sync.
"Nagato…"
Watching this scene, Konan seemed to inexplicably feel a sense of relief, yet also as if she wanted to make up for something, she murmured a name.
"What a mischievous fellow."
Sawara Kiri muttered to himself, turning to look at the headless body that still stood in place.
The constantly recurring intense confrontations made everyone present dare not lower their guard while Sawara Kiri still maintained his fighting stance. This was also because too many incredible things had happened today, and mere head regeneration seemed not impossible compared to these grand spectacles.
Therefore, everyone held their breath, staring at the body that still stood in place.
However, after waiting for a long time, the head did not reconnect with the body.
Just as those around began to feel somewhat bewildered—
"Heh—"
A teasing low chuckle suddenly emanated from the headless body, causing everyone present to tremble and goosebumps to rise.
Only Sawara Kiri remained quietly watching.
A black head extended from the headless body, twisting 180 degrees backward, facing Sawara Kiri with that familiar, sickening smile, asking as if bewildered:
"How did you find out?"