---Ryouma's POV---
Countless black sealing jutsu patterns surged up from the waves of sand, slithering across the sea of sand like giant serpents. They sealed the grotesque tentacle monster entirely beneath the sand layer.
"Amazing!" Obito exclaimed with wide eyes. "Shukaku is actually this strong?"
Shukaku clenched his fists, a tone of clear irritation in his voice. "The enemies Ryouma and I once defeated were far stronger than these monsters!"
"Those pillars!" Kakashi pointed forward.
I turned my attention to where he indicated. Suddenly, the thirteen massive pillars began secreting a large amount of black liquid, which flowed out from the altar and started corroding the sealing formations across the sand sea.
I quickly formed hand seals, manipulating the sand to form two giant hands that struck against the layer of black barrier.
Boom!
Despite how thin the barrier looked, it easily withstood the strike of my giant sand hands.
"Hahaha, don't waste your strength." The Bishop walked step by step to the edge of the barrier, laughing loudly.
"This barrier was personally created by Jashin as a reward for me. Even the Five Kage wouldn't be able to do anything to it. Although Konoha sent people earlier than I expected, unfortunately for you, the ritual was already completed the moment those children were teleported here."
Walking over to one of the massive pillars, he reached out and caressed the face of a young girl. Her eyes were still open with defiant unwillingness, and the fear etched on her face was exactly as it had been in life.
"There is no such thing as a savior, that's just a laughable fantasy! I waited here just to savor the climax of this tragedy and let you witness your own helplessness and failure! Hahahaha~"
Obito burned with fury. "Take your hand off her!"
Kakashi turned quickly to me, knowing how skilled I was in techniques. "Is what he said true?"
"Yes." I nodded slightly. "At least by the time my shadow clone arrived, this formation was already fully activated."
That was also why I sighed after dispelling my clone. Regardless, even if the ritual had been completed, I still had things I needed to do.
With a flick, I threw a Flying Thunder God kunai and instantly vanished from my spot, reappearing at the barrier.
The Bishop was still unaware of the gravity of the situation, continuing to laugh maniacally. "Don't bother, this barrier isn't powered by crude chakra. Even someone like you can't... What?!"
Ignoring his lunatic ranting, I drew Lostvayne and slashed.
"Full Counter!"
An invisible domain expanded at extreme speed, instantly shattering the black barrier shattered instantly, and a torrent of massive dark chakra surged toward the Bishop.
The thirteen giant pillars around the altar were all knocked down by the immense shockwave.
He was also sent flying by the force, slamming into the altar behind him. Cracks appeared all over his body, yet from within, countless fine tentacles emerged, stitching the torn flesh back together like surgical sutures.
I frowned at the sight. Clearly, the Bishop had modified his body, it reminded me of Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear Forbidden Jutsu. So this was the "Honored One"? A bit underwhelming if this was him. Well, not everyone could be like Gojo.
"Cough cough~" He looked around at the collapsed giant pillars in confusion, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Using the Body Flicker Technique, I instantly appeared in front of him and struck his head with a palm. Black sealing patterns rapidly spread out, encompassing him along with the altar behind him into the range of the seal.
Obito and Kakashi crossed the sea of sand and arrived next to the altar.
Seeing the sealing jutsu being activated, Obito clapped his hands.
"Did it work?"
"Uh..." Kakashi, hearing Obito's words, suddenly had a bad feeling.
Don't tell me this guy is about to jinx it again...
I focused on the rhythm of the sealing formation. Logically, everything should have worked.
"Should I layer another Four Symbols Seal on top?" I pondered.
"Heheheh." The Bishop let out a deep chuckle.
Kakashi asked coldly, "Why go to such lengths to summon an evil god?"
The Bishop's laughter became even more grating. "Summon? Summon? Summon? Who said my goal was to summon Jashin? Hahahahaha! You think a seal like that can suppress His power?"
His voice was filled with provocation and disdain. Suddenly, black threads burst out from the altar like venomous snakes, weaving through the air of the underground cavity to form a massive, complex formation.
Above the altar, a phantasmal spatial gate slowly began to appear.
The Bishop's voice trembled with excitement and echoed throughout the underground space. "Soon, I will shed this fragile human body and enter the world of the evil gods to become a god myself!"
Oh, his true goal had never been to summon Jashin to destroy the shinobi world, that was just propaganda to lure in followers.
"Hahaha! Through my research of this ancient altar," he continued, "I discovered that Jashin isn't a single entity, but a species, a whole race!"
I quickly formed a one-handed seal and launched the Great Flaming Annihilation Arrow at the Bishop.
Dark purple flames engulfed his body, but he showed no sign of pain. His eyes remained fixed on the gateway above, as tiny charred tentacles continuously fell off his body.
Kakashi threw several kunai at the gate, but they passed through as if piercing nothing but air. "No physical form?"
Actually, there was a physical form, it was just that, under my Rikugan observation, I saw the gate was hidden in a subspace overlapping with the shinobi world.
I glanced at Obito beside me. This method of phasing was quite similar to Kamui.
Wuuu~ Wuuu~
A few deep, resonant roars came from within the spatial gate, like the mournful cry of some primordial beast. It was an indescribable, strange sensation.
"That sound?"
I felt it was very familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before.
Wuuu~ Wuuu~
The roar grew clearer. The spatial gate slowly opened a crack, but then could not widen any further.
It seemed the Bishop hadn't lied, this portal opened by the altar indeed could not allow the true form of the colossal evil god to pass through.
From that small gap, he could already catch a glimpse of what lay beyond. To be honest, it was dark, so dark that without focusing carefully, I could barely see anything at all.
It was an ocean shrouded in darkness, and from it, a gigantic figure slowly rose. Its emergence was accompanied by a series of low, eerie echoes, like whispers drifting on the night wind.
Its body was immense and grotesquely misshapen, a writhing mass of dark, leathery flesh that seemed to shift and undulate with each movement. Countless eyes of varying sizes dotted its surface, each one glowing with a sickly yellow light. Massive, bat-like wings stretched from its sides, their membranes torn and scarred.
From its central mass extended numerous tentacles and appendages, some ending in grasping claws, others in mouths filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth. The creature's "head," if it could be called that, was a pulsating dome of flesh crowned with twisted horns that curved like bones.
The Bishop raised both hands above his head, and under the scorching flames, like a true fanatic, he chanted sacred verses:
"Oh great Evil God, you are the ruler of darkness, the sovereign of the old days, please take me to where you reside!"
I could sense both Obito and Kakashi looking at me in unison, that familiar pattern when things were about to go sideways.
At that moment, however, I was staring at the Evil God through the crack in the sky.
Damn!
What was wrong with this world?
There was Mōryō, a demon from another world;
There was the Ōtsutsuki clan, a parasitic alien race;
There were tailed beasts, immortal chakra creatures;
Yokai like the Nue and Satori;
Evil spirits haunting the Pure Land;
Shinigami summoned by the Dead Demon Consuming Seal;
Ghosts bound to cursed artifacts... And now Lovecraftian horrors too?
"Ghatanothoa? Fuck my life." The moment I said this, the ritual symbol in the air suddenly burst into sickly yellow light.
In an instant, the yellow light illuminated the entire underground space with an otherworldly glow. The next second, my vision blurred as I felt myself being pulled into some kind of vortex.
My figure abruptly vanished from where I stood.
---Third POV---
Back in the underground chamber, Shukaku hadn't even reacted when a wave of weightlessness hit it, slamming it hard into the ground.
"Ryouma?"
It didn't have time to feel the pain, quickly scrambling up and looking around, its small yellow eyes widened, but it couldn't find the person it most wanted to see.
Kakashi recalled that the Bishop had just said the altar could only allow one person through. He quickly looked toward the gate, and sure enough, saw Ryouma's figure inside.
"He's been transported into the gate!"
Upon hearing his urgent reminder, both Shukaku and Obito immediately turned their gaze toward the gate.
The phantom gate in the sky began to slowly close.
"Is that even possible?" Shukaku said in disbelief.
Obito hurled two wire-bound kunai toward the gate, but as before, they were ineffective.
"Damn it!"
"Damn it all!!"
Two voices full of rage echoed through the underground chamber. The first was naturally Obito's, and the second was the Bishop's.
At this moment, thanks to Ryouma being teleported away, the flames that had engulfed the Bishop were gradually worn away by newly sprouted fine tentacles. He no longer looked so pitiful.
However, in contrast, he no longer had that previous confident, in-control demeanor. Instead, he looked like a gambler who had lost everything, collapsing to his knees, crying bitterly.
Bang, bang, bang...
He pounded the ground with his fists again and again, cursing with each blow.
"Bastard! Bastard! BASTARD! That was my chance!"
In terms of emotional breakdown, he now was no less devastated than Kakashi, Obito, or Shukaku.
Despite his youthful appearance, he was actually an old relic, even older than Kakuzu. He had spent his entire life painstakingly researching this altar in order to open the gate to that dark world. Eventually, he managed to repair the damaged technique circuits around the altar.
Even the massive thirteen stone pillars had been built and intricately carved by his own hands.
All of it was for this very day, to step into that dark world and assimilate into becoming an Evil God.
The ritual had gone smoothly… yet he ended up as nothing more than a stepping stone. All his work had been hijacked by a damn brat from Konoha.
"Ryouma! RYOUMA! YOU BASTARD! Aaaaargh!!"
The Bishop, who had once laughed madly even while engulfed in flames, was now like a broken man, lying on the ground and wailing.
Seeing him like that only enraged Obito even more. He stormed up, grabbed the Bishop by the collar, and shouted, "Tell me now! Is there any way to bring Ryouma back?"
The Bishop looked at Obito with a dead-eyed expression of hopelessness… and surprisingly, he actually answered. "It's impossible now. The dark chakra left behind by that idiot Evil God has already been used up. Unless another, even dumber Evil God opens the gate from the other side, he's stuck."
With his life's dream shattered, he no longer hid his contempt for the deity he once worshiped.
"Whether it was repairing the altar or sacrificing young souls, I was the one who got here first. So why? Why did it turn out like this?!"
Obito stopped listening to the Bishop's muttering and let go of his collar weakly.
"How could this happen…"
The thought of possibly losing his best friend forever made him feel like his heart was being crushed.
"Obito... your eyes?" Kakashi exclaimed.
Obito pulled out the Flying Thunder God kunai Ryouma had once given him. Reflected on its blade were his now glowing crimson eyes, the two-tomoe Sharingan.
Kakashi didn't believe the situation was beyond saving yet. His gaze passed over the Flying Thunder God kunai in Obito's hand, and suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit him. He turned to Shukaku and asked, "Didn't you study the Flying Thunder God Technique before? That means Ryouma might be able to teleport back on his own, right?"
"Right!" Obito looked at Shukaku like a drowning man grabbing at a life preserver.
Shukaku scratched its head in frustration. It did know some things about the Flying Thunder God Technique, and that was exactly why it was troubled.
"The technique can theoretically teleport across dimensions, but if the distance is too far, it might not work due to the massive chakra cost."
---Ryouma's POV---
I had landed lightly on a piece of ruined structure, remnants of what appeared to be a sunken city that served as Ghatanothoa's domain.
Having just shaken off the disorienting weightlessness, I immediately began to concentrate, attempting to sense the coordinates of the shinobi world.
To use the Flying Thunder God to travel across dimensions, two conditions must be met:
First, a massive amount of chakra was required.
Second, absolute focus was needed to sense and lock onto the Flying Thunder God mark.
How much time and chakra it would take depended entirely on how far apart the two dimensions were.
Wuuu~ Wuuu~
That deep, roar echoed again, interrupting my focus.
No wonder the Bishop had to modify his own body. With me being an ordinary person, my presence on this dark sea stood out like a drop of ink on white paper.
I could feel Ghatanothoa's numerous eyes beginning to focus on me. Several of its larger tentacles rose from the waters, moving toward my position.
"Sigh… couldn't we just mind our own business? But no, you just have to make a move."
I sighed, drew Lostvayne, and formed a one-handed hand seal to coat the blade with blaze chakra.
With a swing, I released two arcing waves of flames that struck the approaching tentacles, bursting into brilliant sparks and forcing them to retreat beneath the surface.
"Damn, that thing's hide is thick as stone."