"Hmm? This is..."
The darkness before his eyes slowly dispersed, and a cloudlike glow gradually spread before him. Past Chiba frowned slightly. Having lost his emotions, his heart remained undisturbed, but he was still puzzled.
Come to think of it, for the past dozen or so years, he had existed as a personality. Though he possessed normal thoughts, memories, and even his original will, it was only under the protection of the Nightmare Cycle Universe Core Fragment that he had been able to survive in the cracks between worlds.
Now, the Nightmare Cycle Universe fragment—which, after more than ten years of effort and by exhausting the rules of the Naruto World and the dimensional authority of the Nightmare Cycle Universe Core Fragment, had created the transformation rule centered on his present self and the Grafting Rule, preserving his form, consciousness, and even personality—had left his body. He should have completely lost consciousness by now. No, more accurately, he should have vanished, ceased to exist.
It was impossible for him to still see the overflowing streams of light before him as he did now.
"What's going on?"
Almost instinctively, he observed his surroundings. At this moment, after the light had spread out, the darkness around him was gone. In its place was a dreamlike, shimmering radiance—soft and warm. Even his heart, which had long since lost all feeling, seemed to sense a long-lost warmth.
Of course, as he observed, he was not looking at the dazzling spectacle itself. He was trying his best to distinguish every detail within it. Yet he found nothing amiss.
Or rather, everything here exceeded his common sense. He could discern nothing from it.
And all he could do was murmur.
"Is it over?"
At that moment, a familiar yet slightly unfamiliar voice sounded behind him.
It