Shinji's expression darkened.
He had indeed prepared thoroughly for this battle. Challenging the Plague Overlord as a Kekkei Sōra, he had caught it off guard. He was certain of that.
But he had also overlooked something: he had underestimated how deeply the Plague Overlord had infiltrated the Six Rings World.
It seemed the Plague Overlord had long since learned the situation inside the Six Rings World. It had probably even sensed some of the strategy devised by the Lantern Bearers. It had only been lured in because it couldn't bear to give up the bait of the Breeding Overlord's remains.
Even so, the Plague Overlord had taught Shinji a lesson. It had struck once and killed four Lantern Bearers under his command, turned his subordinates into its puppets, and used the power of the lamps to wear down his Chakra.
"Whew."
Shinji let out a soft breath.
Four intense battles had erupted at once, three of them forcing him to fight through Shadow Clones. The toll from this battle had been staggering.
Only because he had now successfully advanced to Kekkei Sōra could he keep going. At his previous level of Kekkei Mōra, even at the peak, he would have already reached his limit.
Even so, he still needed a brief rest. He had to refine all the energy around him that he could understand—Natural Energy, life energy, wind, even gravity—back into Chakra to replenish himself.
As he replenished his Chakra, Shinji kept an eye on Whitebeard and Night Hawk, both possessed by the Plague Overlord, while analyzing the Overlord's abilities.
Based on their encounters so far, he concluded that the Plague Overlord's ability was called "Disease."
This so-called "Disease" was not an illness in the conventional sense. It was a state—or perhaps a concept.
The Lantern Bearers possessed by