Takuno also felt that he was now incredibly strong.
Even he himself hadn't anticipated reaching such a level of power!
All his efforts and deep calculations certainly hadn't been in vain.
This current power was Takuno's most satisfying reward!
Kaguya floated in the space of the Tenken Domain, the blood moon's radiance blocked out. She no longer attempted to escape using Yomotsu Hirasaka.
After so many failed attempts, continuing would only be a waste of energy.
She felt the complete lack of chakra replenishment from the Infinite Tsukuyomi within her body, and given her current strength...
She couldn't even gather the vast energy needed for her ultimate technique, the Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb.
Moreover...
"Even if I really use it..." Her Rinnegan stared intently at the figure opposite her, "Will it truly drag him down with me in destruction?"
This question gnawed at her will.
The opponent had already plundered her God Tree's essence and, in their recent clash, had mastered her Natural Assimilation and Yomotsu Hirasaka with unbelievable speed!
Those eyes of his were like a monster born for "plundering" and "learning"!
"If I use my remaining chakra to activate the Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb, he will surely master it as well..."
This realization was painful but unavoidable. Takuno's terrifying speed in mastering abilities was an 'anomaly' beyond her comprehension, encountered after a thousand years of sealing.
The Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb? It was merely a larger aggregation of energy. To him, it might just be the next 'textbook' waiting to be dissected.
Thinking this, an unprecedented sense of powerlessness completely engulfed Kaguya.
In her pure Byakugan, the last glimmer of struggle extinguished, leaving only hollow despair.
She slowly lowered her hands, abandoning all forms of resistance, like a delicate porcelain doll, quietly awaiting fate's judgment.
"Has she given up resisting?" Takuno understood her thoughts as he observed Kaguya's posture.
At this moment, he couldn't help but sigh again.
If Madara were here, or Nagato, or even Obito...
They would never give up struggling as easily as the Progenitor of chakra before him.
Madara, even if beaten to the point of a shattered spirit, with broken bones and a bloody, mangled body embedded in a deep pit, as long as he had a shred of energy, he would struggle to crawl towards the God Tree, his eyes burning with an almost fanatical flame.
In the face of an absolute power gap, Madara had wavered, and had been shocked by the absurdity of the Truth-Seeking Orb barrier being shattered by bare hands, but he never stopped trying.
He never stopped 'flailing,' that resilience and arrogance sustained him until his body was completely unable to move.
Obito, moreover, was a miracle of will.
Who would have thought that a person regarded as a pawn by Madara and even controlled by his cursed seal could, through his deep-seated obsession with Rin Nohara...
Force his way through the restraints, snatch the Rinnegan from Madara's grasp, and ultimately succeed in merging with the Ten-Tails, transforming into the perfect Six Paths form.
He became the most unexpected variable in that war; his will, in desperation, erupted with the power to rewrite destiny.
Nagato, needless to say. His life was a testament to suffering and perseverance.
Even when faced with Madara's admitted schemes, Obito's betrayal, and enduring the pain of rapid bodily aging, he still activated Rinne Rebirth to save Konan.
If Konan hadn't been his only weakness and concern, with his Rinnegan carrying Yahiko's dream, and his resolute will capable of inflicting 'pain,' he would never have surrendered so easily.
However, Kaguya, the source of power, was entirely different.
Indeed, her Yin Release, derived from the God Tree, was vast as the sea, an absolute embodiment of power.
But strip away this unparalleled power, and consider the core of her will alone...
That drive to seek a way out in desperate situations and the spirit of never giving up, she appeared so pale and weak compared to the previous three.
A thousand years of sealing might have dulled her edge, and her over-reliance on absolute power made her lose the opportunity to temper her will in adversity.
When Takuno completely sealed off space with his 'Heavenly Authority' Dōjutsu, cutting off all her retreats and supplies, the string of resistance in her heart easily snapped.
Despair quickly consumed her, replacing any thought of turning the tables or mutual destruction.
Kaguya's surrender was not born of mercy or enlightenment, but rather the undeniable exposure of the fragile essence of her will beneath her seemingly invincible facade of power.
This formed a striking and profound contrast with Madara's arrogant defiance, Obito's break out of obsession, and Nagato's sacrificial protection.
The will of ordinary people in the Shinobi World, at certain moments, could bloom with a brilliance even more dazzling than that of the ancestral gods.
"Are you no longer resisting?" Takuno asked aloud.
Kaguya glanced at him but did not answer; her demeanor was the best reply.
Takuno said nothing more and snapped his fingers.
Kaguya was instantly startled, because, without her even noticing, the opponent had already appeared before her...
No, that wasn't it.
It wasn't that Takuno had appeared before her, but that she had been transferred before Takuno without perceiving it at all.
However, she quickly suppressed her surprise. Such things, for Takuno, should be quite normal.
Takuno's fingertip gently touched Kaguya's smooth forehead.
An indescribably terrifying suction force instantly erupted!
Kaguya's pure Byakugan suddenly widened, and for the first time, a fear named 'annihilation' appeared in the depths of her pupils.
She could clearly perceive that all the power within her body, including the chakra accumulated over a thousand years, the primordial power gained from merging with the Chakra Fruit, and the Yin-Yang Release controlling all things...
Was now like a bursting flood, uncontrollably surging along that finger, madly flowing towards Takuno.
"Ugh..." Kaguya let out a suppressed cry of despair, her body trembling involuntarily.
She finally understood Takuno's intention, and at the same time, she realized that for her, Takuno was a more dangerous existence than anyone else.
For others, even her son Otsutsuki Hagoromo, could only use sealing to deal with her body, which was completely fused with the God Tree and almost immortal.
But Takuno was different!
He had already plundered part of her God Tree's essence, and now possessed power of the same origin as hers, but even superior.
He didn't need to seal; he could achieve a more complete end: absorption.
Takuno was like a bottomless black hole, greedily devouring everything belonging to the Progenitor of chakra.
Kaguya could feel the foundation of her existence being rapidly drained.
Everything about her transformed into an invisible torrent of energy, continuously flowing into Takuno's body.
This plunder was absolute, fundamental.
When Takuno absorbed her last shred of power, he would only need a thought to completely erase her will, like wiping away dust.
By then, Kaguya, the origin of chakra in the Shinobi World, would not be sealed on the moon or in another dimension, but would truly and completely vanish from this world.
Not even a trace would remain.
Facing the threat of death, she tried to struggle, her will driving her remaining power to activate Yomotsu Hirasaka to escape this desperate situation.
However, Takuno's Tenken Domain, which enveloped the entire space, was indestructible; the rules of space were completely rewritten, and all Space-Time Ninjutsu lost their meaning.
She was like a fly pinned in amber, futilely feeling her life and power being mercilessly stripped away.
The Initial Sphere Space was silent. Kaguya's faint thoughts of resistance, spurred by death, slowly crumbled and vanished once more.
She... resigned herself to fate.
Just as Kaguya completely gave up resisting, and Takuno's finger continued to absorb her power...
An anomaly suddenly occurred!
A dark, viscous shadow, like an arrow from a bowstring, shot out at a speed beyond its own limits.
It darted from the depths of Kaguya's wide, flowing sleeve, aiming directly for Takuno, who was within arm's reach!
It was Black Zetsu!
Its body, composed of pure Yin Nature chakra, was as tiny as dust before Takuno's current power, which was capable of overturning the Shinobi World, its threat almost negligible.
The pressure emanating from Takuno, merely from its natural dispersion, was enough to suffocate ordinary Kage-level experts.
However, in Black Zetsu's small eyes, what burned now was not fear, but the madness and despair accumulated over a thousand years.
"Mother!!!"
A silent roar exploded in its consciousness.
How could it just stand by and watch?
Watch its mother, whom it had spent a thousand years, used every scheme and trick, and sacrificed countless pawns to revive...
At the peak of regaining her power after breaking free from her seal, be completely annihilated by this monster before it, her very existence drained and absorbed, turning into nourishment for the opponent's power?
This outcome was more thorough, more despair-inducing than sealing!
Not sealing! It was complete annihilation!
This realization pierced Black Zetsu's remaining sanity; a thousand years of obsession had already surpassed its consideration for its own existence.
It was born from Kaguya's will; its sole purpose was to revive its mother.
Now, that purpose was about to be utterly crushed by Takuno.
No matter how strong Takuno was, strong enough to seal space and leave Kaguya nowhere to escape, strong enough that his power surpassed even its mother's...
This despairing gap could not extinguish the insane flame in Black Zetsu's heart, born from a thousand years of obsession.
It compressed itself to the extreme, transforming into a dark arrow that condensed all its unwillingness, and at the fastest speed of its life, it lunged towards Takuno!
This lunge had nothing to do with power, nothing to do with winning, and not even about life or death.
This was its final, most humble yet most tragic resistance to a thousand-year destiny, only to buy its mother, who created it and gave it its sole meaning, a slim, almost non-existent chance... of survival?
Or merely to prove that it had fought with its last shred of existence for its mother.
However, the power gap was absolute!
No matter how firm Black Zetsu's will, no matter how resolute.
It still couldn't touch Takuno; in fact, the moment it shot out, it was immediately frozen in mid-air, completely unable to move.
Kaguya, however, looked at Black Zetsu with some shock.
That dark mass, which she had once regarded as a tool or even a flaw, was now condensing its meager power, lunging towards the invincible Takuno.
Why? This question caused a ripple in her almost numb despair.
The suction from Takuno's fingertip was greedily devouring everything about her; space was completely locked down by the Dōjutsu named 'Heavenly Authority,' rendering even Yomotsu Hirasaka useless.
The battle was lost, death was imminent.
Even at this point, why could Black Zetsu still resist for her?
This resistance, originating from a tool, was even more... pure than she had imagined?
This made her involuntarily think of two other beings, her true flesh and blood, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura.
However, what flashed through her mind was not the warmth of childhood affection, but cold, piercing images.
Hagoromo's resolute Rinnegan, Hamura's condensed compassion and determination, and...
The sealing punch they jointly delivered to her!
The pain of a thousand years of lonely sealing was far more deeply etched than Takuno's current absorption.
And Black Zetsu... Black Zetsu was merely a consciousness she had inadvertently split off, a twisted creation carrying her resentment and obsession.
It didn't even have a fixed form, nor powerful strength; its very birth carried a hint of 'accident'.
She had never expected anything from it, merely viewing it as a necessary part of her revival plan, a pawn that could be discarded at any time.
Yet, it was this insignificant consciousness, which she considered an 'accidental product,' that silently lay dormant for a thousand years while she was sealed by her own sons, plotting a slim revival plan;
That ran around manipulating the situation for her when she had just regained her power;
And now, in this desperate situation where she was completely suppressed by a new enemy, her power being drained, and she herself had almost given up resisting...
It could still do this much for her!
It knew that lunging at Takuno was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, it knew that resistance was futile.
Yet it still burned its last existence, just for that almost non-existent possibility of distracting Takuno for a moment.
This 'unintentional' loyalty, contrasted sharply and painfully with the 'bloodline' betrayal she experienced.
A trace of inexplicable complex emotion rippled almost imperceptibly in her heart, which had been cold for a thousand years.
She looked at the dark shadow, instantly frozen in mid-air by Takuno, struggling in vain.
For the first time, towards this 'consciousness' she had never truly acknowledged, she felt a... stir that even she found unfamiliar.
Finally, Kaguya spoke.
"Please spare him." Kaguya's voice was somewhat dry.
This was the first time in her long life she had pleaded for another being, and that being was the enemy about to devour her.
"Spare... Zetsu."
Takuno calmly looked at Kaguya: "Reason? Is a tool you never truly cared about worth pleading for at this final moment?"
Kaguya opened her mouth, then said.
"All you want is my power. I can willingly give all my power to you. Zetsu itself is merely a creation of my will and possesses little power, so killing him would be meaningless to you."