"How arrogant!"
Although he shouted these words, just by listening to his voice, Ōtsutsuki Shibai felt as if all the blood in his body had been ignited. The Chakra wrapped around him like an aura burned into large patches of fire, and even the Sage of the Three Great Sage Lands orb behind him, resembling holy light, began to boil. A look of excitement spread across his face, and his three eyes seemed to subtly widen by half.
Suddenly, almost at a speed imperceptible to everyone present, he seemed to dematerialize and then abruptly reappear in an instant, enveloped in a muffled roar, arriving before Sawara Kiri.
The pitch-black Truth-Seeking Orb naturally condensed into a long staff, over three feet in length, in his palm as he moved, piercing straight towards Sawara Kiri's face with a whistling sound.
"Dong!"
However, a sound like clashing metal rang out, and his wild charge abruptly halted.
The Nietono no Shana, pointed directly at his face, remained stationary.
The black rod piercing towards Sawara Kiri's brow was gently gripped by a large hand, as if cast from steel, unable to advance an inch.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's expression seemed to freeze for a brief moment, as if he couldn't believe it, looking at him.
"Squeak..."
With a faint cracking sound, the surface of the Truth-Seeking Orb black rod, gripped in Sawara Kiri's palm, surprisingly showed large, spreading cracks like glass.
Finally, with a 'bang', it exploded into countless fragments.
"How could this be?!"
"You, at this time, couldn't possibly have this..."
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's scream was less of a question and more of disbelief.
But before he could finish his sentence, Sawara Kiri, who had been standing still, suddenly moved.
Although he was suspended in the air, his foot seemed to step on something solid, and his entire body abruptly squeezed into the center of Ōtsutsuki Shibai's tall frame as if teleporting. A ferocious knee strike exploded with a piercing roar as it broke through the air, directly impacting the opponent's chest and abdomen.
His two-meter-plus body suddenly folded in half from this impact, squeezed into a right angle like a broken chopstick. The gushing liquid ignited in the burning Chakra flames, and his three eyeballs bulged as if they would fly out of their sockets.
So fast!
This isn't Limitless?
This thought flashed through his mind, but his battle instincts supported his body, making him swing the black rod in his hand with all his might, attempting to tear open the defense on the surface of the man in front of him.
However, before he could even raise his wrist, he felt his long braided hair being pulled by an irresistible force, and his entire body was yanked back as if to be torn apart, followed by a whistling, unstoppable blade.
"Hiss—!"
The extremely sharp Nietono no Shana, upon striking, could not even be adhered to by the burning Chakra flames in the slightest. With a piercing shriek, it directly tore through his torso, sending scattered blood flying into the air.
Sawara Kiri's figure spun the moment this strike landed, and a sudden thrusting kick pierced through his heart like a spear, emitting a dull thud like a drumbeat.
Without any ability to resist, in just a moment of exchange, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's body fell from mid-air like a meteor, accompanied by a series of sonic booms and friction-ignited flames, roaring as he plunged deep into the scorched earth.
"Boom!!"
Uchiha Hikari and the others on the ground felt a violent tremor rise from beneath their feet, causing their bodies to involuntarily tense upwards from their tailbones.
Just standing at such a distance made all their pores constrict, their skin almost stinging.
That series of seemingly complex exchanges, in their eyes, was reduced to only a few subtle flashes too fast for the naked eye to catch, followed by the booming sound that filled their eardrums.
This time, even Hashirama had lost his usual optimistic, foolish grin, instead wearing a serious and solemn expression.
This was a realm that could no longer be described by words like 'surpassing his level'.
Both Sawara Kiri and the man opposite him were at a level he simply could not fathom.
"Whoosh."
Sawara Kiri stood in the air, gently flicking the blade, silently sensing the unprecedented surge of power within him.
Although he had been completely unable to gauge his power level for a long time after obtaining the 'Limiter Release', after completing 'Auswählen', he could clearly distinguish the gaps between realms.
He extended his palm, gently closing his five fingers, yet it compressed the air into a faint sonic boom, settling into a murky white mist.
Rather than saying 'Auswählen' was an ability, it was more like a state or 'mode' that could only be achieved after obtaining enough energy.
And the most basic ability one could gain after activating 'Auswählen Mode' was only one.
'Omniscience and Omnipotence'
Of course, even Sawara Kiri could clearly feel that the description of this ability had considerable exaggeration, but being able to foresee the future and past under certain specific conditions, and achieve 'omnipotence' over those with lower energy levels than him, was absolutely no problem.
For example, now.
"Whoosh!"
A golden spear, hurled with immense force, shot out from the scorched pit in the ground, aimed directly at Sawara Kiri's head.
However, he merely tilted slightly to the side, and the golden light, traversing like a long dragon, simply grazed his body and soared into the sky.
"Boom--"
A muffled explosion lit up the sky, causing a second sun to rise beneath the clear blue heavens. The thick clouds were torn apart by the astonishing explosion, revealing the distant, faint starry outer reaches of space.
Sawara Kiri didn't even spare a thought to look back, as if he had already seen it countless times in his myriad future predictions.
He could clearly feel that if he remained in this state for too long, his humanity would likely be gradually eroded away by the massive influx of information.
However, this truly god-like power was also so captivating.
Sawara Kiri turned his head, looking down at the figure on the ground.
He didn't even realize how arrogant, or perhaps, how disdainful, the gaze he displayed at this moment was.
"How pathetic, Ōtsutsuki Shibai."
"Did you traverse such vast time and space to appear before me just so I could see your clown-like appearance sooner?"
Just as he said.
At this moment, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's clothes were torn at the chest, his long white hair was forcibly pulled into a receding hairline, a bloody gash from the knife wound on his chest ran from his right shoulder to his left abdomen, and he still held half a shattered black rod in his hand. His three eyes were all wide, and his expression was ferocious.
He stared intently at the man standing in mid-air.
'Again, like this?'
'Again, like this!!'
'Such humiliation! Such unwillingness! Such hatred!'
'A furious urge to eliminate this scourge at its source, even if it means traversing time and space.'
The figure reflected in his three eyes seemed to slowly overlap with a figure wreathed in flames in another world at this moment.
All of them were equally detestable!!
"Sawara Kiri!"
"You are an anomaly in this world!"
He screamed, his constantly boiling Chakra pouring out in all directions like mercury. His eyeballs were filled with scarlet bloodshot veins, and his entire body's veins bulged.
"Therefore, I must eliminate you!"
"At any cost!"
Almost the instant his voice fell.
Everyone felt the recently quiet ground beneath their feet tremble once again, the tremor even more intense than the last.
Before they could steady themselves, Ōtsutsuki Shibai violently raised both of his hands.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!!"
Several long whips, composed entirely of earth, rocks, and dust, were propelled towards Sawara Kiri in the sky by the surging Chakra, carrying with them everything attached to these materials. The surrounding tens of square kilometers of earth were manipulated by him like soft mud, causing the originally flat ground to forcibly rise by several hundred meters under this violent tremor.
As a result, all the space in front of Sawara Kiri was covered by this colossal mass of tens of thousands of tons of material.
"Clap!"
Ōtsutsuki Shibai clapped his hands together, veins bulging on his forehead.
"True: Chibaku Tensei!"
A pitch-black light point seemed to compress into a tiny black hole in the sky, drawing all the countless materials flying upwards and continuously converging them towards Sawara Kiri's direction.
This wasn't over yet.
The Tenseigan in Ōtsutsuki Shibai's left eye suddenly erupted with dazzling light, and surging Chakra churned in the dry air like a surging tide.
"Ninety-Nine: Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
The soaring sea of Chakra suddenly found its destination, converging into golden spearheads, like arrows, solidifying in the air, and then all piercing down towards the converging Chibaku Tensei, impaling the massive, moon-like geological sphere into a porcupine.
Even at such a vast distance, everyone present could clearly feel the immense power contained within that terrifying Chakra.
Just observing from afar made these Kage-level experts feel their legs go weak.
But, it's still not enough!
The Chakra, still surging upwards, rapidly condensed, radiating outwards from Ōtsutsuki Shibai as its center, causing everyone present to feel as if they were frozen in place for a moment.
Namikaze Minato, most sensitive to space-time ninjutsu, immediately noticed that the space they were in had been completely distorted by an endless, great power.
"Amenominaka"
The voice, imbued with Ōtsutsuki visual prowess, the moment it was uttered from Ōtsutsuki Shibai's mouth, completely transcended the effects of sound, a low-level vibration, forming an energy like a brand, activating the supreme power unique to the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
At the same time, unlike Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's low-level usage in the original work, which teleported people to icy or fiery environments, Ōtsutsuki Shibai, putting all his effort, immediately directed the space he created towards killing his opponent.
The abruptly torn dimension exposed a boundary, like a horizon, unique to the Ninja World and other time-spaces, and all that met the eyes of those present was an boundless 'blackness'.
Just looking at that darkness seemed to draw them in, and their entire bodies distorted uncontrollably towards it.
Even Ōtsutsuki Shibai, the caster himself, was affected by this primitive natural law; all his movements seemed to become incredibly slow under the distortion of immense gravity.
He looked up in Sawara Kiri's direction, his expression growing even more ferocious.
'Be sealed forever in this boundless darkness.'
'Sawara Kiri.'
However, almost the instant this thought arose in him.
That familiar voice, as if branded deep in his bones, suddenly resounded in his mind.
"Poor fellow."
Ōtsutsuki Shibai's expression suddenly froze.
At the same time, an extremely clear tearing sound abruptly rose from everyone's frozen minds.
"Snap!"
Chibaku Tensei, Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, the space-tearing rift, Amenominaka, the black hole opposite...
Everything that appeared before them, the moment this sound rang out, burst into faint, spiderweb-like cracks that continuously spread.
Finally, all of it vanished, like a painting erased by a rubber.
Sawara Kiri still stood there, maintaining his sweeping motion.
Only his azure, ringed eyes quietly watched in Ōtsutsuki Shibai's direction.
'Impossible.'
Looking at his relaxed and effortless appearance, Ōtsutsuki Shibai could only form this single thought, as if by denying everything happening before him from the bottom of his heart, he could erase the incredible disparity between himself and his opponent.
His body, however, trembled uncontrollably as if facing a natural predator, even the radiance behind him so dim.
However, Sawara Kiri merely stepped towards him, unwilling to leave him even this sliver of almost delusional hope, advancing step by step, his voice, as always, containing a hint of warm, gentle amusement:
"What a hideous sight, Shibai."
"Just like your last death."
In this brief state of omniscience and omnipotence, he could already clearly see the opponent's ultimate fate across different timelines.
Burned to ashes by scorching flames, pulverized into the finest particles by vibrations that penetrated to the very essence, severed at the root by sharp blades, fundamentally annihilated by unstoppable space...
Death after death had forged his bone-deep fear.
And then, Ōtsutsuki Shibai began to constantly rely on the surviving Ōtsutsuki clansmen to traverse time and space, attempting to interfere with and erase the existence of 'Sawara Kiri' in various early timelines, only to be met with countless failures.
"Do you, like this, even deserve to call yourself a god?"
"Shibai."
"Shut up—!!!"
From beneath his pathetic receding hairline erupted a piercing, ear-splitting roar that seemed to penetrate the soul.
The Rinnegan in the very center of his brow was stained with blood, erupting with unprecedented Chakra under this no-holds-barred activation.
All the surrounding natural energy and Chakra essence surged towards his body.
At this moment, he no longer cared about any consequences.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai stared straight at that figure.
In his heart at this moment, there was only one thought.
Kill him!
At any cost.
"Sawara Kiri!"
"How could an ant like you understand the great power unique to a god!"
As he spoke, Ōtsutsuki Shibai's feet melted like candles, connecting with the scorched ground beneath.
Not just on a physical level.
Sawara Kiri's eyes could clearly see that even his soul had completely merged with this world.
Faintly, one could almost hear an unknown Sage of Six Paths letting out a horrified roar.
But none of this could stop Ōtsutsuki Shibai's actions at this moment.
"As long as I can kill you..."
Sawara Kiri, however, still quietly watched him, watching his body melt the Sage of Six Paths, then watching him shatter the so-called Sage of the Three Great Sage Holy Lands, incorporating all usable natural energy and souls into himself.
Finally, he let out a cry of becoming one with the world.
"Buzz--"
Earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, volcanic eruptions, continental shifts, atmospheric churn...
Only that scarlet Rinnegan merged with the sky, becoming a radiance illuminating all, a beautiful spectacle of magnetic field distortion.
Everyone standing around seemed completely unaffected, all staring blankly at this scene. Both their bodies and minds seemed to be completely still in the gray area between black and white; neither on a subjective nor objective level could any change arise.
All this power gathered in one place, transforming into boundless brilliance, all directed towards Sawara Kiri, without the slightest leakage.
Sawara Kiri quietly watched all of this.
Until the very last moment before that brilliance was about to erupt.
He slowly raised the blade in his hand.
And swung it down.