Almost the instant the words fell, Sawara Kiri's hand, which had been gripping Ōtsutsuki Shibai, suddenly released its forward grasp and instead seized his collar. At the same time, his arm swelled with sudden power.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's three pupils immediately constricted.
A colossal, irresistible force yanked his body, causing his perpetually floating form to momentarily shift, before he was abruptly propelled skyward by the force. Uchiha Hikari, who was close by, even heard a 'whoosh' of burning air.
That was the sonic boom caused by his body rapidly rubbing against the air.
With a roar, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's body became a white streak at the edge of everyone's vision, with circles of white turbulent waves constantly dispersing from the surface of his trajectory.
"Technique Reversal: Red."
Sawara Kiri silently extended his hand, his fingertips forming a gun shape.
A dark red, spherical orb rapidly coalesced at the tip of his fingers.
However, this time, there was not just one.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz—"
Accompanied by intense air vibrations, fragmented red light quickly filled Uchiha Hikari's entire vision.
"—Rapid Fire!"
In an instant, the sound waves formed by the rapidly expanding air spread outward at high speed. The red lights adorning Sawara Kiri's front shot out continuously like bullets towards the sky, one after another. Even the ground beneath them seemed to emit a rumbling vibration from the counter-force of the powerful airflow, like a scorching, continuous net spreading towards Ōtsutsuki Shibai in the sky.
However, Hashirama in the distance immediately caught that person's expression.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai floated in the sky, looking down at the ground.
His lips curved into a sneer.
He revealed a mocking smile.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—!"
Violent vibrations, coupled with an irresistible repulsive force, shot towards him. Yet, Ōtsutsuki Shibai merely extended his hand forward.
"Thud!"
Dozens of red orbs immediately seemed to strike an invisible wall, all abruptly halting and hovering in front of him.
"It's not bad power."
"But, Sawara Kiri."
Ōtsutsuki Shibai floated in the sky and spoke softly to the man below:
"What do you take a god for?"
The moment his words fell, the countless red light points floating in front of him immediately reflected back towards Sawara Kiri in a violent vibration, their speed even faster than before.
"Amaterasu!"
Uchiha Hikari beside him finally regained her senses, her starry eyes widening instantly, and her crimson pinwheel Sharingan spun rapidly.
Black flowing flames spread across the sky, attempting to burn away all the red light descending upon them like stars.
However, before her Susanoo could fully unfold, a massive force suddenly came from beside her, sending her tumbling and pushing her away into the distance.
Sawara Kiri's figure, meanwhile, shot towards the other side.
Uchiha Hikari initially didn't understand its meaning, but before she could even get up from the ground, she saw the red lights, each imbued with repulsive force, like pinwheels rolling in flames, suddenly break through the coverage of Amaterasu, smashing down onto the ground where they had just been, like meteors.
"Boom—!"
Dozens of meters of scorched earth, under the surge of countless repulsive forces, suddenly shattered completely, as if struck by countless heavenly hammers, sending countless fragments flying back into the sky.
Uchiha Hikari's expression froze, her face stiff.
On the other side, after avoiding the rapid-fire repulsion, Sawara Kiri suddenly exerted force with his feet, stepping rapidly through the air, shooting towards Ōtsutsuki Shibai like an arrow from a bowstring.
Under the activation of the Tiamat Jinchuriki, his entire being was enveloped in a burning aura of Chakra.
However, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's speed was even faster than his.
"Ha!"
He let out a pleased laugh, and the space behind his floating form suddenly vibrated, his figure instantly vanishing from the surrounding people's field of vision.
The two, one above and one below, clashed head-on in a life-or-death struggle, meeting with a resounding crash.
"Thud—!"
The surging airwaves in the atmosphere spread outwards, the intense buzzing vibrating people's eardrums painfully. The compressed airflow manifested as a visibly turbulent white sphere, which then rippled through the air in an instant.
The black rod formed by the Truth-Seeking Orb pressed against the blade of Nietono no Shana. Although both were incomparably hard and strong in the world, they made no sound whatsoever when rubbing against each other.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai and Sawara Kiri met each other's gaze, and as they felt the power in their hands, the smile on his face grew even more intense.
"Not bad!"
"Even at this point in time, you possess enough reason for me to act."
"Sawara Kiri, you are the 'anomaly' of this world."
"However."
"Boom!"
As his fragmented words fell, the black rod in Ōtsutsuki Shibai's hand suddenly lifted, and the accumulated force of their collision abruptly poured out in the direction the black rod lifted, forming a straight, upward-surging white torrent in the sky, even piercing through the thick clouds.
The fanaticism in Ōtsutsuki Shibai's three eyes grew even stronger:
"Precisely because of this, you are worthy of me traversing time and space, paying a huge price to crush you!"
"Sawara Kiri!"
The piercing roar seemed to carry an irresistible force, and the surging repulsive force, propelled by the Rinnegan's inherent "Shinra Tensei," whistled and swept over Sawara Kiri, who was close by.
Everything around him was swept backward, rapidly blurring into a series of intertwined lines due to the extreme speed.
However, Sawara Kiri's movements did not change because of this. His hands, enveloped within the Limitless, gripped the sword hilt and suddenly thrust upward.
"Clang!"
The black rod and the blade intersected, but if the camera were to Magnify, one would see that there was still a thin gap between the two, they hadn't actually collided. Only the space extending from their bodies interacted, forming distorted fluctuations like a turbulent flow.
Noticing this, Sawara Kiri's eyes narrowed involuntarily.
Solidifying Shinra Tensei throughout his body to mimic the state of the Limitless?
This guy...
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's incredible learning ability made him wary, but his movements were a step faster than before.
As his left foot stepped forward into the air, his entire body simultaneously rose a segment. The blade, which had been pressing against the black rod, rotated, using the edge near the tsuba to cut towards his neck, while his right knee simultaneously lifted.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's black rod immediately rotated back, blocking the blade while his left palm blocked the knee strike.
"Bang!"
The powerful blow, like a siege ram, showed no sign of stopping after hitting Ōtsutsuki Shibai's palm, pushing directly deeper, raising his entire body by half a segment with this single strike. The black rod in his hand was pushed aside, revealing a momentary opening.
Sawara Kiri's azure pupils suddenly constricted, and Nietono no Shana in his hand thrust out abruptly, accompanied by a piercing, sharp sound.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai, however, let out a 'chuckle'.
"Sukunahikona."
The next moment, his figure suddenly shrunk into a tiny speck, almost invisible to the naked eye, abruptly vanishing from everyone's sight.
Only Sawara Kiri felt a warning in his heart, instinctively swinging his blade out fiercely.
"Too slow!"
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's voice rang in his ear. His tiny, invisible form still contained the same power as usual, and he shot out like a sharp thorn towards Sawara Kiri.
Sawara Kiri, quick-witted, swiftly retracted his long sword and held it horizontally, an immense force suddenly erupting from the blade.
"Boom—!"
The next moment, he spun and plummeted from the sky, landing on the ground with a muffled roar like thunder. The ground within dozens of meters, under this heavy impact, was as fragile as tofu, forming a sunken crater.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's figure then expanded back to human size, looking down at Sawara Kiri, his hands clasped together.
"God: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees."
The instant this sound fell, without any hand signs or Chakra fluctuations, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet suddenly transform into a vast living creature, constantly trembling and surging.
Immediately following, countless monstrously large branches continuously erupted from underground, growing and clinging like tentacles centered around Sawara Kiri's landing point. Everyone's vision was covered and obscured by this endless sea of trees, and the fear and shock in their hearts were beyond words.
"Get out of the way!"
Even Hashirama and the others standing in the distance were awed by this terrifying scene, and Tobirama immediately shouted.
Hashirama and Madara reacted even faster than him, both forming hand signs in unison.
"Flower Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!"
"Susanoo!"
Although the two in their Edo Tensei state exerted far less power for a short time than they did in life, the only two advantages of Edo Tensei were the endless Chakra and the immortal body unique to the dead.
Theoretically speaking, as temporary perpetual motion machines, they could even turn the entire Ninja World into a sea of trees within the duration of the Edo Tensei technique.
However, facing the instantaneous emergence of this colossal forest from beneath the earth, the two former peaks of the Ninja World suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of pressure.
Whether it was the Flower Advent of a World of Flowering Trees unleashed by Hashirama, or the armor rapidly forming around Madara's body, both seemed as fragile as children's toys when facing this sea of trees surging outwards like a tsunami.
In just one encounter, the full-powered attacks of both men were easily crushed and submerged by countless surging branches.
Everything they had once prided themselves on seemed so powerless at this moment.
It wasn't just the three of them.
In the distance, Tsunade and Megumi's group, upon seeing this scene, couldn't even muster the slightest intention to resist.
Namikaze Minato reacted the fastest, quickly saying to the stunned Uzumaki Kushina behind him: "Kushina! Lend me your Chakra!"
"Eh? Ah, okay, okay!"
The Nine-Tails Chakra flowed through their joined hands, and the massive amount of Chakra immediately made Namikaze Minato breathe a sigh of relief. He immediately pulled the surrounding people and teleported them to a distant mountain peak using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Uchiha Hikari, meanwhile, flapped her Susanoo's wings in its final stage and ascended, looking down with a grave expression at the ground that had transformed from barren land into a sea of trees.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai, however, had no interest in the surrounding ants; his eyes were fixed only on the person below on the ground.
Until a certain moment, boundless radiance suddenly burst forth from the very center of the entire sea of trees.
Rising along with it was Sawara Kiri's familiar voice.
"Noble Phantasm: Mountain Range Tremor, Tomorrow's Kindling!"
"Boom—"
In an instant, a stream of light pierced through the heavens, penetrated the earth, ripped through the sea of trees, and pierced the sky, shooting directly and unyieldingly towards Ōtsutsuki Shibai, who was suspended high above.
Piercing the sky along with it was Sawara Kiri's figure, closely following that arrow.
He pressed one hand on his sword, his dark hair plastered to his scalp by the fierce wind, and his azure eyes fixed on Ōtsutsuki Shibai's neck.
"Now that's more like it."
Ōtsutsuki Shibai chuckled, but then raised two fingers, and golden light burst forth from his dark eyes.
"Daikokuten!"
A subtly star-studded alternate dimension suddenly tore open, forming a shield that covered most of his body.
The scorching radiance, upon colliding with that alternate dimension, first swelled dramatically, and then immediately, as if drawn by something, was completely absorbed by the dark rift. The surrounding spatial flow seemed to change with it, completely swallowing the light that should have bloomed.
At the same time, his body distorted, and he suddenly raised a black rod behind him.
"Clang!"
A piercing collision roar erupted from an invisible spot behind him. Under the immense force of the furious wind, his long robes clung to his body, and his pale long hair behind his head was also swept up, stretched into a straight line in mid-air.
However, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's expression remained calm, even carrying a hint of playfulness.
He looked at Sawara Kiri, who was close by, and chuckled softly:
"What's wrong?"
"Aren't you going to kill me?"
"Heh."
Sawara Kiri, however, suddenly smiled.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's heart first tightened, and then his three pupils simultaneously fell to Sawara Kiri's sword-wielding hand.
Left-handed sword?
No, that's not right.
The next moment, his gaze finally caught Sawara Kiri's right hand, resting at his waist, and the sword hilt he gripped.
For the past seven years, he had often carried two swords at his waist.
One of them was the last strike he had saved, one he had never used since his resurrection and acquisition of the Zanka no Tachi's power.
A strike that had waited for seven years.
The scorched blade was drawn out inch by inch amidst Ōtsutsuki Shibai's almost static expression. The temperature around Sawara Kiri also rapidly rose with this seemingly slow yet swift drawing of the sword. The surrounding air suddenly ignited under the rapidly climbing temperature, and the still-rolling trees beneath them withered, transforming into a swirling, vibrating sea of fire that almost enveloped the two of them in its center.
Tens of millions of degrees of high temperature, all condensed onto the tip of this scorched blade.
At the same time, under the continuous infusion of his Chakra, it reached an unprecedented level.
A temperature comparable to the center of the sun.
"Devour him."
Sawara Kiri silently chanted, even the scene before his eyes seemed to turn into solidified, burning light under the intense heat.
Draw the sword, unleash it.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's eyes suddenly widened.
The roaring sea of fire, with an unstoppable momentum, suddenly swallowed everything he could see.
"Zanka no Tachi: East — Rising Sun Blade."