How was she able to do that?
"Don't tell me..."
A possibility he had been desperately trying to deny was slowly becoming reality.
That bitter truth struck his mind without mercy.
The mental link connecting Charlotte to every one of her shadow clones had become an almost flawless medium for information exchange.
Every collision.
Every block.
Every shift in speed.
Even every combat pattern James displayed and the clones observed was relayed to the Void Mind personality with terrifying precision.
As though dozens of pairs of eyes were analyzing the same opponent simultaneously.
From the very beginning of the battle, his daughter's body had been forced to adapt in order to keep pace with her father's overwhelming raw power.
But now...
That adaptation was no longer gradual.
The dormant potential sleeping within Charlotte's body was growing at a rate that was nearly impossible to believe, increasing exponentially as it steadily crept closer to the true limits of James's strength.
What a cruel joke.
There was a reason why the Dmitry family had long been known as the most terrifying noble house of all.
Their bloodline curse truly shattered the boundaries of human capability.
It forced its bearer to continue evolving in response to any threat they faced, regardless of the price their body had to pay in return.
Even more terrifying...
That curse was now fused with the extraordinary combat instincts of the Uchiha Clan.
The combination of those two bloodlines had given birth to something never before recorded in history.
Charlotte's destructive potential continued to multiply.
With every passing second, she became far more dangerous than she had been the second before.
James slowly rose to his feet.
He ignored the throbbing pain centered in his chest from the brutal kick he had taken moments ago.
His breathing remained heavy.
Yet his thoughts weighed far more heavily than the pain itself.
"So Genjutsu was never going to work from the beginning..." James muttered quietly to himself.
Everything was finally starting to make sense.
Charlotte was using the Sharingan's abilities to maintain her mental stability against the illusions James cast upon her.
Even though her consciousness was under the control of Void Mind, the Uchiha's innate abilities continued to function instinctively, protecting their wielder.
More than that...
The Void Mind personality was gradually mastering every skill James had ever taught his daughter.
Taijutsu.
Ninjutsu.
Chakra control.
And her command over the Sharingan had become truly flawless.
Everything he had passed down to her was now turning against him.
James swept his gaze across the battlefield.
The arena that had moments ago been filled with the clashes of countless clones had suddenly fallen silent.
Every one of Charlotte's clones had vanished.
Only the two of them remained, standing amidst the ruins of the training ground.
Cracks split the earth in every direction.
Thin clouds of dust still drifted through the air.
Broken tree trunks lay scattered across the battlefield.
James drew a long breath, attempting to steady himself.
But at that very moment...
His Mangekyou Sharingan caught sight of something that made his heart nearly stop.
The fine veins throughout Charlotte's body were beginning to swell unnaturally.
Her blood vessels stood out visibly beneath the pale skin of her arms.
It began at her wrists.
Spread along her forearms.
Climbed toward her neck and temples, which were gradually reddening under the immense pressure of chakra being forced far beyond her body's normal capacity.
The sight instantly changed James's expression.
"That..."
Overload.
Charlotte's body is being pushed beyond its limits to match my strength.
If this continues...
Her blood vessels could rupture.
The chakra pathways within her body could suffer permanent damage as well.
Such injuries would not heal easily.
They might even remain with her for the rest of her life.
"I have to end this now."
Without wasting a single moment, James closed the distance.
Blar!
In the blink of an eye, he appeared directly before Charlotte.
He cast aside every hesitation and every shred of guilt that had been gnawing at his heart.
The only way to save his daughter was to stop her as quickly as possible.
James's fist shot straight toward Charlotte's abdomen.
Thud!
The punch landed with power measured as precisely as possible.
Not enough to endanger her life.
But more than enough to incapacitate her.
Charlotte was instantly hurled backward at tremendous speed.
Her body tore through a line of trees, smashing through trunk after trunk that stood in her path.
Crash!
Crash!
Crash!
Splinters of wood exploded in every direction.
Dust billowed skyward once more, obscuring the impact site.
"Has she finally gone down...?"
James had no intention of taking any risks.
He immediately followed the trajectory of his daughter's flight.
Within a fraction of a second, he arrived at the place where Charlotte should have fallen.
But...
No one was there.
Charlotte had vanished without leaving a trace.
James's eyes narrowed at once.
His battle instincts screamed a warning.
CHIRRRRRRR!
An instant later, a sound resembling the cries of a thousand birds erupted from behind him.
Brilliant blue lightning crackled through the air.
Lightning-nature chakra had been compressed to a lethally concentrated level.
The attack shot straight toward him.
So fast that avoiding it was nearly impossible.
Yet just before the tip of the technique could touch his skin...
Kamui activated.
In an instant, part of James's body shifted into another dimension.
Charlotte's lightning thrust passed harmlessly through him, unable to inflict even the slightest wound, as though James were nothing more than a mirage that did not truly exist within the same world.
The failure of her first strike did not shake Charlotte in the slightest.
Without giving James even a moment to catch his breath, the girl charged again.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
A relentless barrage of close-range attacks erupted without the slightest pause, forcing James to keep moving while relying on Kamui for defense.
"Good... This way, I can lure her farther away... deeper into the mountain forest."
While steadily retreating from the training ground that had been reduced to ruins, James maintained his defensive rhythm with extreme caution.
His body continuously alternated between states.
One moment, it became tangible to block or redirect attacks he could still endure.
The next, it shifted into Kamui's projection state, allowing every lethal strike to pass harmlessly through him without leaving so much as a scratch.
Yet Charlotte's offensive showed no signs of weakening.
If anything—
Her barrage of punches and kicks was becoming faster, heavier, and far more precise.
The solid blow that had struck her abdomen earlier had done little to affect the girl's physical resilience.
She was completely ignoring the pain.
It was as though Charlotte's body itself regarded every injury as nothing more than new data, constantly refining and adapting her combat capabilities.
The longer James observed the situation, the more tangled his thoughts became.
Every answer he uncovered only gave birth to even more troubling questions.
Amidst the relentless exchange of blows that continued to carry them farther away from the Wieser estate, James called upon the System.
"System."
[Yes, Host.]
"Would the Sensory Paralysis Bomb work on her in this condition?"
[Negative, Host.]
James kept his eyes fixed on Charlotte as she pursued him without pause.
"The reason?"
[The Sensory Paralysis Bomb operates on principles similar to the Genjutsu Host previously employed. Under circumstances where the subject's consciousness is completely dominated by Void Mind, interference with sensory perception is no longer effective. Only physical attacks capable of inflicting extreme levels of damage can force the subject to lose combat capability and fall unconscious.]
The System paused briefly.
Then it continued.
[However...]
"Go on."
[The System has detected changes in the subject's mental state. Emotional fluctuations within Host's daughter have begun resurfacing irregularly. A minor internal conflict is gradually developing within her subconscious.]
James's expression shifted slightly.
"So... her original personality is still fighting back."
[That possibility carries a high probability, Host.]
"Thank you. Now give me the most efficient solution according to your calculations."
Without the slightest delay, the System answered.
[System's most efficient recommendation: Inflict a fatal injury capable of immediately disabling all motor functions of Host's daughter. Once the target loses combat capability, administer a high-grade healing pill to restore all injuries and return her vital condition to optimal status instantly.]
James fell silent.
For a brief moment, he froze amidst the battle.
The System's answer was chillingly cold.
It was logical.
Realistic.
As a shinobi, James understood that it offered the highest chance of success.
The most reliable method of stopping the monster rampaging before him.
But...
As a father...
The choice felt crueler than death itself.
To wound his own flesh and blood until she stood on the brink of death...
And then simply hope a pill could erase everything...
Every paternal instinct within him vehemently rejected the idea.
It felt as though an invisible blade was slowly carving away at his soul.
Thud!
That momentary lapse cost him dearly.
In less than a fraction of a second, James's concentration shattered.
Charlotte never wasted even the smallest opening.
"Ugh!"
A heavy punch from Charlotte's left hand, reinforced with pure chakra, slammed directly into his abdomen.
At the final instant before impact, James's Sharingan caught something strange.
The attack's original trajectory had not been aimed at his stomach.
From the very beginning...
Charlotte had been aiming for his heart.
Yet just before her fist landed, its path shifted several inches downward.
As though something had forcibly altered the strike.
And then—
An overwhelming force launched James backward.
His body shot through a line of trees at tremendous speed.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Three massive trunks snapped instantly upon impact.
Only after crashing into a fourth tree, far sturdier than the others, did his momentum finally come to a halt.
Boom!
James dropped to one knee.
His hand clutched his abdomen, which felt as though it were being twisted from within.
"Agh..."
His breath caught in his throat.
"Damn it... that really hurts."
An excruciating wave of pain spread throughout his abdomen.
The organs inside his body felt as though they had shifted from the force of the blow.
This internal injury was far worse than the previous one.
James slowly wiped the corner of his mouth.
His fingertips came away wet.
When he pulled them back, dark crimson stained the tips of his fingers.
Blood.
The familiar metallic scent immediately filled his senses.
"A serious internal injury..."
Fortunately, his body possessed regenerative abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans.
As long as the damage did not reach a fatal level, injuries like this could still heal within a relatively short time.
James raised his head once more.
His eyes swept across the surroundings.
The mountain forest had long replaced the training ground they had left behind.
By his estimation, they were already several kilometers away from the main estate.
That distance should be sufficient.
The sounds of impacts and chakra explosions would no longer reach the manor.
James slowly pushed himself upright.
Though his body still swayed slightly from the internal injuries he had just suffered, his gaze remained sharp and unwavering.
Then—
The air before him suddenly trembled.
The atmosphere turned ominous in an instant.
The empty space between the trees distorted in rippling waves, as though something was tearing through reality itself from beyond the void.
James's battle instincts immediately sounded a warning.
Another attack was coming.
And before the technique had even fully manifested, James reopened communication with the System.
"System, give me a better alternative than the first option."
[Host may still take advantage of the emotional fluctuations recently detected within Host's daughter. That internal conflict possesses the potential to undermine Void Mind's dominance from within if provided with the proper catalyst.]
James fell silent for a moment.
That suggestion was far more humane than the previous one.
Though its chances of success remained uncertain, it at least offered a possibility of saving Charlotte without bringing her to the brink of death.
"I understand."
James drew a slow breath.
"Thank you, System."
[You are welcome, Host. The System is merely performing its support functions in accordance with Host's safety priorities.]
The mechanical voice paused briefly before speaking again.
[As a reminder, Host's daily quest remains incomplete.]
James could not suppress the faint smile that tugged at his lips.
Despite the heaviness in his breathing caused by his internal injuries, a quiet chuckle even escaped him.
What truly impeccable timing.
In the middle of a life-and-death battle...
With his body battered and wounded...
The System chose that moment to remind him about a daily quest.
The absurdity of it was almost unbelievable.
"The daily quest. I'll finish it later, after this mess is over," James muttered under his breath.
Before he could steady his breathing once more, a sudden chill ran down his spine.
From directly ahead—
The air erupted with a violent roar.
Several wind-element projectiles, compressed until they resembled colossal blades, tore through the sky at terrifying speed.
James immediately directed chakra into his legs.
Without hesitation, he leapt upward just before the attacks reached his position.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion shook the forest.
The giant wind blades continued forward without losing even a fraction of their destructive force.
Everything in their path was cut apart.
Massive boulders were sliced cleanly in two.
Towering trees collapsed instantly.
Bushes, branches, and even the ground itself were shredded into countless fragments that scattered into the air alongside clouds of dust.
James had no time to concern himself with the devastation below.
The moment he landed lightly atop a tree, his eyes swept across the entire forest.
Searching for Charlotte.
But...
His instincts told him something.
This was not over.
That attack had merely been the opening move.
The ominous premonition proved correct.
Almost simultaneously, dozens more wind blades appeared from every direction throughout the forest.
Each one surged forward from a different angle.
Every trajectory converged upon him.
It was an almost perfect encirclement.
"Did she create clones again...?"
Ssh!
Ssh!
Ssh!
Dozens of wind projectiles passed through his body in rapid succession.
Yet no blood was spilled.
No wounds appeared.
Every attack simply phased through James as though he did not exist.
Kamui activated once more, transferring the affected portions of his body into another dimension within fractions of a second.
Had he not possessed such a space-time ability...
This battle would most likely have ended long ago.
James understood that fact better than anyone.
He also had no intention of using Susanoo.
The colossal construct could certainly protect him.
However...
Its destructive power was simply too great.
Every swing of its blade and every collision between attacks would only expand the devastation.
Charlotte could suffer severe injuries.
That was a choice he refused to make.
Just as both he and the System had predicted...
Conventional Genjutsu was incapable of stopping Void Mind.
Ordinary physical attacks were equally ineffective at breaking the personality's dominance.
The remaining options were becoming fewer and fewer.
Only two possibilities remained.
Inflict such overwhelming physical damage that Charlotte's body was forced into unconsciousness.
Or...
Shake her soul with an emotional shock powerful enough to awaken her true personality from within.
James knew he possessed the strength necessary to wound Charlotte critically.
But...
Every paternal instinct within him rebelled against that choice.
Without realizing it, a single tear slowly rolled down his cheek.
Amid the relentless assault raining down upon him, that tear hurt far more than any wound on his body.
The choices before him were simply too cruel.
"I'll wager everything on the second option."
James's voice was quiet.
Yet the resolve within it was unshakable.
Having made his decision, James slowly closed his eyes for the briefest moment.
The Mangekyou Sharingan that had remained active throughout the battle began to rotate slowly.
Its intricate pattern receded, shrinking until it returned to the familiar form of an ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan.
Sssh!
Using the Shunshin Technique, James vanished from his foothold.
Blar!
Within the next fraction of a second, he materialized beside one of Charlotte's clones.
His resolve was set.
If he intended to stake everything on his final option, he first needed to eliminate every distraction on the battlefield.
As long as those clones remained, it would be impossible for him to focus entirely on his daughter's true body.
Puft!
The clone did not even have time to react.
A single measured strike landed against its body, causing it to burst into a cloud of white smoke that was swiftly carried away by the wind.
Yet just before his fist connected...
James turned his face away.
He simply could not bear the sight of a figure resembling his daughter being struck by his own hand.
To him, every punch was more than an attack.
It was a punishment slowly crushing a father's heart.
Ssh!
Puft!
Ssh!
Puft!
James continued moving without pause.
His body vanished and reappeared countless times throughout the forest.
Every appearance was accompanied by a single strike that instantly dispersed another clone.
He never gave them the opportunity to form hand seals or launch a counterattack.
Within an astonishingly short span of time...
Every duplicate had vanished.
Only one figure remained.
Charlotte's true body.
A heavy silence gradually settled over the forest.
James and his daughter now stood facing one another at close range.
There were no longer any obstacles between them.
Only a father...
And his daughter.
James's gaze slowly fell upon Charlotte.
His chest tightened once more.
Her condition was far worse than it had been moments ago.
The blood vessels beneath her skin had become even more pronounced.
Crimson lines spread across her wrists, arms, neck, and temples.
Some pulsed unnaturally, as though her body were being forced to contain a torrent of chakra far beyond its limits.
Her physical adaptation had surged to a far more dangerous level.
Far beyond the state she had been in when her previous punch struck James's abdomen.
Charlotte's gaze remained empty.
Black sclera surrounded the dimly glowing red irises.
The three tomoe within her Sharingan rotated slowly.
Calmly.
Deliberately.
Yet each rotation felt like another chain binding James in place.
The atmosphere between them suddenly grew still.
The mountain wind drifted gently through the trees, stirring the surrounding leaves.
Branches rustled softly.
As though the entire forest were holding its breath, silently bearing witness to the confrontation between father and daughter.
The sight awakened an old memory within James.
Five years ago...
Not far from where they stood now...
His own hands had reduced a woman possessed by a Ghost entity to ashes.
That day...
James destroyed an enemy for the first time in order to protect his family.
But today...
Fate was mocking him in a far crueler manner.
The person standing before him was not an enemy.
She was the daughter he cherished most.
Charlotte moved first.
Ssh!
In the blink of an eye, she appeared directly before James.
Her speed had reached an entirely different level.
Even to James's Sharingan, the movement almost felt as though she had skipped the space between them.
Her physical adaptation had reached another peak.
Now...
Charlotte's speed had truly become equal to her father's.
Without wasting a moment, a straight punch shot toward James's face.
Boom!
James immediately crossed both arms.
The impact sent a violent shockwave through the surrounding air.
Although he successfully blocked the attack, his body was still forced several steps backward.
The ground beneath his feet split apart, leaving deep trenches carved by the overwhelming force of the collision.
Both of his arms trembled violently.
Numbness spread all the way to his shoulders.
Yet he ignored it.
"Even stronger..."
A moment later, he slowly shook his head.
"No. She's already matched me in raw strength."
The realization tasted bitter.
The worst scenario he had feared had finally become reality.
If this physical battle continued, Charlotte's body would suffer permanent damage from being pushed beyond the absolute limits of her young age.
"That strength just now..."
James clenched both fists.
"It proves her adaptation hasn't stopped. She'll continue to evolve, continue growing stronger, and eventually surpass me... without caring whether her body can withstand it or not."
His gaze hardened.
The final decision had to be made now.
"I may become a terrible father after this, Charlotte..."
James's voice was barely above a whisper.
Yet every word was filled with boundless affection.
"But these horrific memories must not destroy your future, my dear."
His breath trembled.
"Inheriting my cursed strength has placed you upon an unbearably difficult path."
"All of this happened because of me."
"This is my fault."
"Not yours."
Tears slowly streamed down James's face.
He made no effort to hide them.
Standing before his daughter...
He was not a shinobi.
Nor was he the head of the Wieser family.
He was simply a father trying to save his child.
"Father loves you."