Otsutsuki Statue!

The blinding lightning tore through the darkness for what felt like an eternity.

When the intense light, enough to scorch the retina, finally receded like a tide, Minamoto Takuya's vision refocused.

Before him, the puppet army that had surged like a tidal wave moments ago was gone, replaced by a scorched wasteland completely ravaged by violent lightning.

The ground had cracked open, wisps of smoke rising from it. The air was thick with the pungent smell of ozone and burning. Twisted metal limbs and shattered wooden bodies from the puppets lay scattered everywhere, leaving the area in complete ruin.

He floated above the towering palace and looked around. Other than himself, there was no second figure in the sky.

Even the puppets that had somehow escaped complete destruction in that world-ending thunderstorm were now nailed to the ground.

Restless arcs of electricity still danced wildly across their broken bodies, crackling incessantly.

These remaining puppets struggled futilely, attempting to reassemble themselves or move, but every tiny motion was mercilessly interrupted by the lightning coiling around them, making them look exceptionally stiff and clumsy.

Minamoto Takuya did not linger on these dying remnants. His gaze remained fixed on the faint barrier surrounding the palace.

That invisible force field radiated a suffocating pressure. Its energy level far surpassed any defense he had encountered before.

"Is this... the legendary power of the Golden Tenseigan?"

He murmured, his voice carrying a trace of barely restrained fervor and desire.

Power—this was one of the goals he had pursued across countless obstacles.

Yet a faint shadow passed through his heart.

Even if he could later fuse Otsutsuki Toneri's power with his own, the path to the Tenseigan still had one crucial threshold. He needed the purest Byakugan from the Hyuga Main House of the Ninja Continent as