In that instant, countless colossal trees infused with the power of the Six Paths erupted from the ground. Their trunks were impossibly thick, their branches lush and sprawling. Every leaf shimmered with a golden light, as if woven from pure energy. The trees grew at a mind-boggling speed, rapidly intertwining to form a dense, impenetrable forest that completely enveloped the battlefield.
Using the cover of the sky-blotting trees, the Sage of Six Paths began to ascend, rushing toward the massive barrier high in the sky.
The Konoha ninjas, who had already retreated from the battlefield, watched in trembling terror as the Wood Style technique consumed the landscape. Had they not moved when they did, they would have been instantly crushed by the endless tide of wood, utterly powerless to resist. Even so, some were not fast enough, and their screams were silenced as they were crushed into pulp by the relentless growth.
At the heart of the battlefield, the gargantuan trees bore down on Kagami and Madara, their immense weight threatening to obliterate them.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kagami unleashed his Particle Style, effortlessly atomizing the wooden constructs that swarmed him. He then scanned the area for the Sage but found him gone. Suddenly, a loud cracking sound echoed from the sky, accompanied by a visible ripple across the barrier. Kagami's brow furrowed.
'So, his target is the barrier?!'
Even though they currently held the upper hand, it was only because Kagami had been prepared, using his territory to seal the Sage's spatial ninjutsu. Despite this handicap, the Sage had used his foresight to hold them off for this long. If he managed to break the barrier, he would regain his ability to escape into pocket dimensions at will. Combined with his ability to see the future, killing him would become exponentially more difficult. A comeback would be almost guaranteed.
Therefore, he had to kill the Sage before he could break free.
However, recasting his Domain Expansion would take at least half a minute—time he did not have. His repeated use of large-scale Sage Art had also depleted his reserves, making another massive Particle Style attack impossible.
"I had hoped to kill the old man without resorting to this," Kagami muttered, his eyes narrowing as he made a final, decisive choice.
His right Mangekyo eye held his ultimate ability: the power to manipulate the concept of distance. By making the distance between two points infinitely small, he could achieve instantaneous teleportation. But if he made the distance between two points a negative value, it would cause space itself to tear, creating a miniature black hole that would devour everything.
Even a small black hole was still a true singularity. Not even light could escape its pull. Anything caught within its grasp was certain to perish. But this terrifying power came at an equally terrifying cost. Kagami estimated that with his non-eternal Mangekyo, he could only use this ability twice before his eye went permanently blind. He had already used it once in an experiment, meaning he had only one use left.
To eliminate the Sage of Six Paths once and for all, Kagami decided it was a price worth paying.
CRACK—!
At that moment, under the Sage's full-powered assault, the massive barrier covering the sky splintered like fragile porcelain. The cracks spread rapidly, accompanied by a deafening roar. It was about to shatter. Seeing this, Kagami knew he could wait no longer.
His eyes spun, the familiar pattern of his Mangekyo returning as his gaze locked onto the fracturing point of the barrier.
As the Sage saw the barrier tear, a crazed, triumphant gleam flashed in his deep-set eyes. The wrinkles on his face twisted into a hideous smile of extreme excitement.
"Once I break this barrier, my victory is assured! All of you will die!" As long as he could escape into space again, he would be invincible. With his foresight, not even Kagami's Space-Time Slash could touch him.
But suddenly, his precognitive ability flared again. The future he saw caused his face to drain of all color, his throat tightening as if gripped by an invisible hand. Endless, raw despair reflected in his pupils.
In his vision, Kagami created a black hole to swallow him whole. The gravitational pull was so absolute that even with this advance warning, he could not escape. Kagami's next move sealed his fate. He was going to die.
Resentment, fury, and abject horror warred on the Sage's face. He never imagined Kagami would possess so many direct counters to his abilities. First, the spatial seal that nullified his invincibility. Then, the unavoidable Domain technique. And now, he could create something as fundamentally terrifying as a black hole. Without these counters, with his ability to see the future, no one in the ninja world could have ever opposed him.
But the Sage's thoughts mattered little now. Kagami's blood-red Sharingan was fixed on him, a mocking sneer playing on his lips. "Thinking you could turn this around? This isn't your story to win."
"Die."
Before the word even faded, two points in space directly in front of the Sage were pulled together by an unseen force. They overlapped and then, in a way that defied all logic, penetrated each other. In that moment, space tore and time froze.
A black hole, no larger than a grain of rice, materialized out of thin air. It emitted a dim, all-consuming light, its powerful gravity distorting the space around it until not even light could escape. Though small, the singularity's gravitational pull was like an invisible giant's hand, violently tearing at every inch of space for dozens of miles. Light itself was bent into strange, struggling arcs, wailing as it was pulled into the darkness.
Kagami's own barrier began to crumble under the terrifying strain. The very air seemed to solidify as dust, gravel, and debris were ripped from the ground, whistling toward the black hole's center at an astonishing speed. The distant Konoha shinobi were pulled helplessly into the sky, their struggles useless as they flew toward the point of no return. It was as if this single, irresistible force was the only thing left in existence.
The Sage of Six Paths' body was stretched and warped by the immense pull. His facial muscles were contorted in a mask of extreme fear and unwillingness, his eyes flashing with final despair. He waved his arms frantically, his feet digging deep gouges into the ground as he tried to fight the fatal gravity.
But it was all in vain.