Seeing this, Seiryū's eyes flashed slightly.
"Reversing your own time? That's quite an impressive Dōjutsu."
The Dōjutsu of the Ōtsutsuki Clan were truly unreasonable.
Even abilities like this could manifest as Divine Techniques.
In many worlds, time and space were considered among the most difficult powers to counter.
No matter the world, abilities involving time were extraordinarily troublesome.
Seiryū's perception was extremely sharp.
After observing Isshiki's condition, he laughed.
"Still, it isn't without weaknesses. It can only restore physical injuries, can't it?"
No technique was truly flawless.
Isshiki's Time Reversal appeared overwhelming, but it still had a limitation.
It could reverse the condition of his physical body, but it could not restore damage inflicted directly upon his soul.
That meant the technique was not impossible to counter.
And Seiryū possessed several abilities capable of directly attacking the soul.
"You haven't even reached Kekkei Mōra, yet you already possess the ability to kill someone who has."
Isshiki's expression became extremely grave.
"You truly are terrifying."
If Isshiki had not awakened a time-based Divine Technique, even the tremendous vitality of a Kekkei Mōra-level existence might not have been enough to keep him in good condition after that attack.
A shattered body alone would not kill someone at the Kekkei Mōra level.
However, it would create an enormous opening.
If Seiryū seized that opportunity and continued attacking, only one outcome would await him.
Death.
"Thinking about surrendering?"
Seiryū grinned brightly.
"Too bad. Surrender isn't an option."
"There's only one outcome for you today."
"Death."
"I already promised Kaguya that I'd give your Chakra to her so she can recover her peak strength."
"Don't be too arrogant."
Isshiki's voice turned cold.
"The outcome hasn't been decided yet."
"What happened just now won't happen again."
"I won't give you another opening."
As long as Isshiki remained vigilant, Seiryū would not be able to catch him with the same method twice.
And with Time Reversal available, Isshiki possessed an enormous margin for error.
'Boom, boom, boom.'
The battle erupted once again.
The uninhabited region of the Land of Fire shook continuously beneath the force of their clashes.
With shockwaves this intense, any capable Sensor-nin in the region could detect their battle.
Konoha had already established a sensory water sphere to monitor the Chakra fluctuations from both combatants more precisely.
Through the changes in those Chakra signatures, they could barely determine how the battle was progressing.
For now.
They appeared evenly matched.
'I need to force him to use Dragon Vein Chakra.'
'Only then can I open a passage into another space-time.'
While dealing with Seiryū's relentless attacks, Isshiki continued making calculations.
Dragon Vein Chakra.
Karasuki.
And the blue nine-tomoe Rinnegan.
Only by combining these three sources of space-time power could Isshiki open a passage into another space-time.
So he waited.
He was waiting for Seiryū to use Dragon Vein Chakra.
'Boom!'
Seiryū naturally had no idea what Isshiki was planning.
If he had known, he probably would have cooperated simply out of curiosity.
The possibility of traveling into another space-time interested him as well.
But because he did not know Isshiki's intentions, Seiryū avoided techniques such as Cero and continued fighting with Taijutsu and Kenjutsu instead.
At that moment, the katana formed from his Truth-Seeking Balls collided with Isshiki's black rod.
A visible shockwave spread from between them.
The earth fractured across a vast area as countless cracks appeared.
Under the force of the collision, Isshiki withdrew and dispersed the impact, stopping several hundred meters away.
His expression had become increasingly unpleasant.
Seiryū had been using Taijutsu and Kenjutsu from the beginning.
He had barely used Ninjutsu at all.
Clearly, Seiryū was deliberately avoiding techniques that Isshiki could absorb.
Taijutsu and Kenjutsu were indeed among the best ways to deal with a Kekkei Mōra-level opponent like him.
'I need to force him to use Dragon Vein Chakra.'
Isshiki's eyes turned cold.
He had already thought of a method.
'Boom!'
The Kekkei Mōra-level Chakra within his body surged violently.
The surrounding air seemed to grow heavy.
Isshiki raised his right hand.
An immense amount of highly compressed Chakra gathered into a single point.
A massive sphere resembling a Tailed Beast Ball appeared above his palm.
"Try blocking this!"
Isshiki shouted coldly.
The condensed Chakra sphere shot forward toward Seiryū, obliterating everything in its path.
Because of the angle of the attack, it was not aimed solely at Seiryū.
Konoha lay directly behind him.
Isshiki was deliberately forcing Seiryū to stop the attack.
He already knew a great deal about Seiryū's abilities.
Seiryū could use Dragon Vein Chakra to unleash techniques similar to Tailed Beast Balls.
This was Isshiki's opportunity.
Unfortunately for him.
Seiryū had absolutely no intention of blocking the attack directly.
Instead, he used Space-Time Ninjutsu to redirect it.
The massive Chakra sphere vanished.
Then it reappeared not far from Isshiki.
'Rumble!'
The Chakra sphere formed from Kekkei Mōra-level Chakra contained terrifying destructive power.
Its explosion devastated an area more than a thousand meters across.
"Damn it!"
Isshiki emerged from the Daikokuten dimension after avoiding the explosion.
His expression had become even darker.
Seiryū had neutralized the attack in the most irritating way possible.
"You didn't seriously think that would work, did you?"
Seiryū still had no idea what Isshiki's true objective was.
Seeing the man's gloomy expression, he smiled mockingly.
What exactly had Isshiki been thinking?
Trying to blast both Seiryū and Konoha with a massive Chakra attack?
Did he think the Flying Raijin Jutsu was just for decoration?
Isshiki remained silent for a moment.
He took a deep breath.
Then he thought of another method.
He turned his left hand over.
Karasuki appeared in his palm.
Isshiki injected pure Ōtsutsuki Chakra into the pink turtle and awakened it.
"I didn't want to resort to this."
"The backlash from interfering with space-time is something even a Kekkei Mōra cannot easily withstand."
Isshiki revealed a vicious smile.
"But if that's what it takes to eliminate you, then I have no choice."
Karasuki could travel through time.
It could return to the past and interfere with events that had already happened.
However, changing history came with consequences.
The backlash from altering established events was something even a Kekkei Mōra-level existence could not easily endure.
One mistake could even result in death.
Of course.
Isshiki was only saying this for Seiryū to hear.
He had already tried using Karasuki.
But for some unknown reason, even this treasure capable of traveling through time could not return to the past.
Something was interfering with it.
Isshiki did not know the reason.
But that did not prevent him from using Karasuki to bluff Seiryū now.
His objective had never changed.
Force Seiryū to use Dragon Vein Chakra!
'Hum.'
Isshiki activated Karasuki.
A strange humming filled the air.
Blinding white light enveloped his body as though a space-time passage were opening around him.
"You bastard."
Seeing this, Seiryū's expression darkened.
He immediately rushed forward.
Even Kaguya had not known Karasuki's exact location.
Yet Isshiki had somehow recovered it.
Without knowing Isshiki's real objective, Seiryū naturally could not stand by and let him disappear into another point in time.
Just as the space-time passage was about to close, Seiryū followed directly behind him and entered it.
Before Seiryū could even see his surroundings clearly, a massive Chakra sphere was already rushing toward him.
"Cero Oscuras!"
Seiryū reacted instantly.
His first instinct was to use the Flying Raijin Jutsu to redirect the attack, just as he had before.
But Space-Time Ninjutsu was restricted inside the passage.
So he immediately used Cero Oscuras instead.
The technique required no hand seals.
With Seiryū's current strength, its activation speed was nearly instantaneous.
He merely pointed one finger.
A brilliant beam of deep purple light tore forward and collided directly with the incoming Chakra sphere!
'Rumble!'
The explosion erupted as expected.
Dragon Vein Chakra contained space-time power.
Using it inside an already unstable space-time passage immediately interfered with the surrounding structure.
The entire passage began shaking violently.
Then.
The space-time corridor tore open.
A new opening appeared.
One that led into another space-time!
"Hahaha!"
Isshiki laughed loudly.
"So this is the passage into another space-time!"
"As expected, your Dragon Vein Chakra was the missing key!"
His objective had been achieved.
The passage into another space-time was open.
Now he could finally carry out his plan.
Travel to another space-time.
Harvest its Chakra.
And become even stronger!
'Boom!'
A violent repulsive force erupted.
Seiryū was blasted backward.
Isshiki gave him a cold smile.
"When I return from the other space-time, that will be the day you die."
"Of course, from your perspective, only an instant will pass."
"I'll return almost immediately."
"So prepare yourself."
With those words, Isshiki stepped through the opening leading into the other space-time.
The blue nine-tomoe Rinnegan on his forehead immediately shone.
Its space-time power surged outward and forcibly began closing the passage behind him.
"So that's what you were planning?"
Seiryū steadied himself and frowned.
He had not expected Isshiki's true objective to be traveling into another space-time.
What did he intend to do there?
Obviously, become stronger.
If Isshiki succeeded, that really would become troublesome.
"Tch. I was saving this for an emergency, but I don't have much choice now."
Seiryū clicked his tongue.
With a thought, his left eye suddenly transformed into a three-tomoe Sharingan.
The Dōjutsu Izanagi, which had previously been stored within his left eye through the Transcription Seal, activated.
Izanagi rewrote the unfavorable reality Seiryū was currently facing.
At that moment, his Flying Raijin Jutsu was no longer interrupted by the collapsing space-time passage.
A Flying Raijin formula that Seiryū had secretly marked onto Isshiki activated.
Isshiki himself had never noticed it.
'Swish!'
Seiryū vanished.
At the exact moment the passage into the other space-time was about to close completely, he followed Isshiki through it.
'Boom!'
Immediately afterward, the entire space-time passage collapsed and exploded.
But both Isshiki and Seiryū had already entered another space-time.
(To be continued.)