"..."
Mōryō lowered its head, but all it could see was a constantly churning and dissipating mass of purplish-black mist. The mist that made up its body was like a candle in the wind, rapidly scattering in all directions.
"It's not enough!" Mōryō's raspy voice was filled with a repressed fury and impatience. "This form cannot last long in the outside world!"
As if sensing something, it abruptly lifted its head. Within the head-shaped mist, two invisible gazes seemed to lock onto Uchiha Obito, who was standing behind Yomi.
"You have something I need on you."
Mōryō's tone was full of greed and desire. "Give it to me!"
The expression beneath Uchiha Obito's mask changed drastically. The moment Mōryō's words fell, he instinctively tried to activate Kamui to warp himself into the Kamui dimension and escape.
However, just as space began to twist...
"Hmph!"
Mōryō sneered, raising its misty hand and grabbing forward.
Buzz!
The entire space felt as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand. The stagnant air became as thick as lead.
Obito felt his body tighten. The spatial confinement locked him firmly in place, and the Kamui he was about to activate was instantly interrupted.
He couldn't even sense the Kamui dimension anymore.
"Trying to use a space-time ninjutsu in front of me?" Mōryō's voice was filled with undisguised mockery and contempt. "Don't you know humans call me a demon from another dimension?"
It had lived for over a thousand years, and most of that time had been spent sealed in a different dimension.
With nothing else to do, what else could it do but study space-time?
As a demon that moved between dimensions and the seams of the ninja world, its understanding and control of space were far beyond Obito's.
"Now," Mōryō's voice turned chillingly cold, "hand it over!"
The bone-chilling killing intent made Obito's pupils constrict.
He had no doubt that without Kamui, this thousand-year-old demon could kill him in an instant.
Obito's eyes flickered intensely beneath his mask. His mind raced as he suppressed the shock and humiliation in his heart. "The thing you want is in another dimension..." he began.
"Heh."
Hearing this, Mōryō let out a cold laugh. "Don't try to be clever. Believe me, even if you use a space-time ninjutsu to escape, I can instantly lock onto your coordinates and kill you!"
The expression beneath Obito's mask was as dark as a raincloud. As Mōryō's words ended, the strange power that had been confining space receded like a tide.
Finally, under Mōryō's silent but oppressive gaze, the three black tomoe in Obito's crimson Sharingan twisted into the shape of a Mangekyō Sharingan!
Buzz!
A twisting vortex appeared out of thin air in front of him, and an entirely black "Hollow" was thrown down before Mōryō.
It was the very Hollow that Obito had captured and imprisoned!
The moment this Hollow appeared before Mōryō, the swirling purplish-black mist violently undulated.
"What is this?!"
For the first time, Mōryō's voice showed a clear fluctuation.
Gone was the previous coldness and mockery, replaced by an indescribable mix of shock, ecstasy, and greed.
Its invisible gaze swept greedily over the roaring Hollow, analyzing and comprehending its solidified form, as well as the structure and essence of its spiritual energy.
"Hahahaha!!"
Mōryō suddenly let out a frantic, ecstatic laugh that echoed wildly through the cavernous underground space, shaking the stone walls.
"So that's it! So that's it!" Its voice trembled with excitement. "A perfect creation! What a perfect creation!!"
At this, its laughter abruptly stopped, replaced by a deep-seated malevolence and ecstasy.
"Miroku!" It seemed to roar at someone. "I no longer need your body!"
"A thousand years! I can finally get rid of you damned Priestesses!!"
As its voice fell, the purplish-black mist that had been dissipating around Mōryō was suddenly drawn inward, contracting wildly.
It quickly formed a pitch-black cocoon, enveloping both the Hollow and Mōryō. The cocoon pulsated like a beating heart.
Yomi stared dumbfounded at the incredible sight before him, while the glint of greed and intrigue in Orochimaru's golden vertical pupils seemed to ignite.
Just then, Mōryō's low voice came from within the pulsating black cocoon.
"Yomi," it said. "I can sense that the current Five Kage are all in the Land of Demons."
"Go!"
"Take my power and my army and kill them!"
"Go and use their blood and souls as a sacrifice for my return to this world!"
"Once I have completely mastered this power, the entire world will prostrate itself at my feet!"
After its voice faded, the terrifyingly powerful black cocoon began to tremble violently.
Three purplish-black tentacles shot out from the cocoon, darting toward Yomi, Orochimaru, and Obito, and burrowed into their chests!
"Ugh!"
The three of them groaned simultaneously, their bodies shaking violently.
A cold, chaotic, and malicious power instantly flooded their bodies. The veins beneath their skin bulged and writhed eerily, as if something was crawling beneath their flesh.
Then, a bizarre and horrifying scene unfolded.
The skin on the three men's faces began to writhe and twist violently, as if something was breaking out from the depths of their facial bones.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A series of teeth-grinding sounds of growing bone rang out as three ghostly pale, bony masks rapidly sprouted from their facial bones, covering their entire faces!
"This... this is..."
Uchiha Obito lowered his head, looking at his hands and the fragments of his crushed Spiral mask rustling to the ground.
Beneath the mask, the Mangekyō Sharingan that had gone blind from using Izanagi was now forcefully filled with pupil power.
Mōryō's power could instantly replenish pupil power?!
An indescribable horror gripped Uchiha Obito.
Meanwhile, Yomi felt a power within him that was more immense than he had ever experienced, a power that threatened to tear him apart. The look on his face first showed shock, then turned to an uncontrollable ecstasy.
"Haha!" He suddenly spread his arms wide, his voice hoarse with excitement. "Awaken! Phantom Army!"
With his fanatic cry, countless crimson lights suddenly flickered on in the darkness, a dense, shimmering field that filled every inch of the darkness as far as the eye could see.
The cold stone statues that had been dormant for a thousand years now awakened. Their stiff bodies began to slowly twist, their heavy joints grinding with a grating sound.
They slowly raised the stone shields and stone spears in their hands and smashed them onto the hard ground!
Boom!!
The ground trembled violently, and gravel and dust rained down from the cavern ceiling.
Driven by Mōryō's power, they began to march forward.
Toward the center of the Land of Demons—the Priestess's shrine.
At that moment, Orochimaru felt the bony mask on his face and the power that was similar to that of the Hollow. His eyes burned with an intense fervor.
Soon, he remembered what Mōryō had just said.
"The Five Kage are all there?" Orochimaru muttered. "The old man is there, so..."
That Hyūga brat who had used him back then!
That Hyūga Kawa, who had become famous in the years since he left!
He must be there too!