"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!!
Hadō no Raikōhō!"
With the incantation, a massive thunderous beam of lightning shot forth in all directions.
It wasn't until the pillar of light had already passed that the echo of the chant, faint and ethereal, arrived on the heels of the roaring thunder.
A Huge Hollow was struck directly.
Where the light pierced through, a huge gaping hole appeared in its body.
Under the stunned gaze of Hiruko and the others, the Hollow's form began to dissolve into black particles, breaking apart and cascading to the ground like a river of dark fluid.
Shattered to pieces.
Completely erased.
"What... was that?"
Hiruko and the others were clearly shocked by the sudden turn of events.
None of them had expected the enemy to possess such an overwhelming ninjutsu!
No—this couldn't even be called ninjutsu.
The sheer destructive power of that attack far surpassed any ordinary ninjutsu, and could rival—no, even surpass—the legendary senjutsu!
At least, in Black Zetsu's eyes, the destructive might of this technique was on par with the most powerful beings he remembered from the past thousand years.
Especially that glorious and majestic pillar of light—it made him feel uneasy, as if a fatal threat loomed over him.
A deep, instinctual urge to escape surged within.
It was a technique that directly targeted the soul.
In other words, it countered all Yin Release and ghostly-type abilities.
Black Zetsu even suspected that, if the technique were strong enough, it could seriously injure—or even truly kill—that so-called undying remnant from a thousand years ago sealed within the Land of Demons!
As long as the power was sufficient.
And yet, the one who had cast this technique wasn't Nagato with the Rinnegan… it was that Amekage, Yahiko, whose strength had always been somewhat ambiguous within the Shinobi World.
This development was completely beyond his expectations.
"Impossible!"
Hiruko stared at the scene before him, disbelief written all over his face.
One of the powerful Hollows he had just summoned had been obliterated in an instant. It was absurd.
No one knew better than he did just how stubborn and resilient these Hollows were.
The usual ninjutsu and techniques of shinobi were almost powerless against the steel skin and high-speed regeneration of the Hollows.
Only ninja with Kage-level strength from the Five Great Shinobi Villages could deal any real damage to them.
But to kill a Hollow with a single blow—like what just happened—was something simply impossible!
Even Onoki's Dust Release wouldn't be able to completely obliterate one that easily, or so Hiruko believed.
After all, he had tested it himself.
A Hollow could survive even a Tailed Beast Bomb spat out by the Three-Tails!
"There's no such thing as impossible. When it comes to understanding and researching Hollows, you're no match for Konoha's Nara Kagetsu and Orochimaru!"
"Though I don't know how you're controlling Hollows to fight for you, I just happen to possess part of a soul—or rather, a power of the same nature as Hollows—thanks to the reconstruction and treatment I received from Kagetsu back then."
As Yahiko spoke, he swiftly eliminated another Hollow under the protection of Kakuzu and Nagato.
In the blink of an eye, only one Hollow remained.
The heavy and inexplicable pressure that had filled the air was significantly reduced with the death of the two Hollows.
The Rinnegan, with its ability to interact with and manipulate souls, gave Nagato a clear advantage against spiritual entities like Hollows.
Though he couldn't deliver the same kind of one-hit kill as Yahiko, with the power of the Rinnegan alone, Nagato could still finish the last Hollow by himself.
"Looks like the plan is over before it even began."
Uchiha Setsuna used Body Flicker to appear beside Black Zetsu.
If it were up to his own will, he would have preferred to keep fighting.
But he was no longer his younger self. And with the sudden shift in the situation, the enemy only needed three people to utterly destroy their plans.
There was certainly the problem of unexpected intel leaks, but at the core of it, the real issue was that the strength of Nagato's group had far exceeded their expectations.
It wasn't surprising that Nagato, the wielder of the Rinnegan, possessed such power.
From the start of the battle, he had already taken on a great deal of attacks from both Uchiha Setsuna and Hiruko.
But what truly shocked them was the performance of Kakuzu and Yahiko—both of whom far surpassed what they had anticipated.
Kakuzu, once a renowned bounty hunter, could be excused to an extent.
But his use of multi-layered, compound Kekkei Genkai techniques had put Hiruko, who had mastered the Chimera Technique, on edge.
Looking at Kakuzu, it was as if he were seeing a different version of himself.
And Yahiko—just now, he had instantly annihilated two Huge Hollows in a single move.
The sheer power behind it sent a chill down their spines.
Even Uchiha Setsuna, who had always trusted the defense of his Susanoo absolutely, suddenly lost confidence in it.
After all, if he was being honest, the defense and destructive power of his Susanoo wasn't that much stronger than the Huge Hollows that Hiruko summoned.
If those soul-form Hollows could be overwhelmed, then his Susanoo—created from a combination of ocular power and Yin Release—could also be countered.
"Damn it! If only we could summon those Huge Hollows inside Amegakure…"
Black Zetsu understood what Uchiha Setsuna meant.
But now that things had come to this, even he couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment.
If the battlefield had been set inside Amegakure, then the three on the other side would've been more restricted.
They could have used every tactic available to force Nagato into handing over the Rinnegan.
But the mysterious leak in their intel had ultimately ruined all their careful planning.
"Let's go. If there's really no other option, we'll just have to use our last resort," Black Zetsu said calmly.
He wasn't discouraged.
After all, he had waited for over a thousand years.
He had endured more setbacks and disappointments than he could count.
Time was on his side—he could afford to wait.
Even if this plan failed…
Even if Nagato never gave up the Rinnegan while he was alive…
Then they would simply wait until he died.
Also the Uchiha still remained, and even though the Senju clan no longer had the influence it once did, their bloodline still lived on.
At worst, the same events of the past would simply repeat themselves once more.
Time was the one thing he both had plenty of… and not enough of.
After all, a thousand years had already passed since his birth.
According to the information left behind by his mother, the Ōtsutsuki clan might be arriving to investigate around this very point in time.
"Should we summon Lord Madara now? But the Edo Tensei technique hasn't been perfected yet. If we bring him back through Summoning, his power might not be at its peak."
Naturally, Uchiha Setsuna understood what Black Zetsu meant by "the final option."
It was the contingency Madara had left them with before his death.
That option… was Edo Tensei — Summoning him back from the Pure Land, to destroy everything in his path.
This forbidden jutsu, created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was something Madara fully understood — both in theory and hand signs.
However, the reanimated bodies summoned by the technique were far too weak in his eyes, fit only to serve as cannon fodder.
They weren't even worth his attention.
But in the final moments before his death, Madara had considered even the worst-case scenario.
He entrusted the jutsu, along with part of its improved modifications, to Uchiha Setsuna — all so that, if the situation ever became dire enough, Black Zetsu and Setsuna could summon him back from the Pure Land as an Edo Tensei and allow him to personally carry out the plan.