Just as the Kaguya clan leader broke free of part of the Adamantine Sealing Chains and entered an even more frenzied rampage, on the verge of posing a lethal threat to the Akimichi clan leader and Uzumaki Mito—
A massive blue Chakra arm suddenly crashed down from the sky like divine retribution! It wasn't attacking the Allied Forces. Instead, it seized the berserk Kaguya clan leader with pinpoint precision!
It was Uchiha Madara! He had finally made his move!
"Gah?!" The Kaguya clan leader was both shocked and furious. Sensing the irresistible, terrifying force, he made bones grow wildly throughout his body, trying to pierce the blue Chakra hand. But how could he possibly stand against the power of Perfect Susanoo? His bone spikes struck the Chakra palm and shattered one after another!
"Pathetic. You can't even handle this little thing." Madara's cold voice came from above, laced with impatience. The next second, Susanoo's arm clenched!
Crack—!!!
A dense series of bone-shattering cracks rang out, making teeth ache! The Kaguya clan leader, who had withstood a heavy blow from the Akimichi clan leader and the Uzumaki Sealing Technique, was crushed into a twisted, mangled heap of flesh and bone by Perfect Susanoo! He couldn't even manage another scream!
Madara casually tossed the remains into the distance like garbage, then swept his Eternal Mangekyou over the chaotic battlefield below. His gaze lingered for a moment on the smaller clans, such as the Fuma, who had begun to flee.
"Anyone who flees in the face of the enemy dies."
His icy words were law, passing sentence on those who ran. Perfect Susanoo's other arm swung, its enormous Chakra Greatsword tracing a deadly arc—not toward the Allied Forces, but toward the smaller-clan shinobi fleeing behind the allied army!
Boom—!!!
The earth split open, and dust soared into the sky! Dozens of fleeing shinobi were reduced to ash in an instant!
The merciless display instantly cowed everyone on the battlefield! Both the allied army and the Allied Forces felt a chill crawl up their spines!
With the most direct and blood-soaked means, Uchiha Madara forcibly steadied the allied army's crumbling lines! The coerced shinobi of the smaller clans were so terrified that they dared not take another step back. They could only grit their teeth and charge forward even more frantically, as if advancing offered a sliver of hope while retreating meant certain death!
The allied army's morale was actually forced higher by this terrifying display. Their assault grew fierce once more, driven by a kind of desperate madness!
"Madara!!!" Hashirama Senju roared in anguish. "How could you do this?!"
"Hmph. Your pointless mercy bores me, Hashirama," Madara replied coldly. "War needs victory, not dead weight."
With that, he fixed his gaze on Hashirama. Perfect Susanoo slowly drew another Chakra Greatsword, crossing the two blades as terrifying energy began to gather.
"It's time to end this farce."
All the pressure fell on Hashirama in an instant. He knew his final showdown with Madara was unavoidable. If he couldn't stop Perfect Susanoo, all their previous efforts and sacrifices would be for nothing.
"Everyone! Hold the line! Keep the other Uchiha at bay!" Hashirama roared, bringing his hands together. His immense Chakra erupted like a tsunami!
"Wood Style: Wood Golem Technique!"
A Wood Golem rose from the earth, no less imposing than before—in fact, even larger and more solid! A more lifelike Wood Dragon, its scales sharply defined, coiled around the golem and let out a thunderous roar as it faced the towering blue war god!
Rumble!!!
Perfect Susanoo and the enormous Wood Golem crashed together once more in the center of the battlefield! This clash was far more intense and violent than the one outside the Senju Clan Compound. Neither side was holding anything back this time!
Shockwaves spread in every direction like solid tsunamis! The shinobi caught nearby, whether Uchiha, Kaguya survivors, or members of the Allied Forces, were blasted away and torn apart! A vast vacuum opened up at the heart of the battlefield!
"Die!!" Madara roared as Susanoo's twin blades slashed wildly. Every blow carried boundless rage and an urge to destroy, as if he meant to cleave the Wood Golem—and Hashirama beneath it—to pieces!
Hashirama gritted his teeth and poured Senjutsu Chakra into the Wood Golem. It swung its enormous fists, meeting the Chakra Greatswords head-on. Each clash erupted in a thunderous boom and a blinding flash of energy! Wood splinters flew, and blue Chakra fragments scattered everywhere!
The battle of gods had begun again—and it was fiercer than ever before!
The fighting below briefly stalled beneath the clash of these supreme combatants. Everyone was stunned by the sight of two giants wreaking destruction on a world-ending scale.
Tobirama Senju's expression was grim. He tried to disrupt Madara with the Flying Thunder God Technique, but Perfect Susanoo's defenses were too strong; his attacks couldn't pierce them. And Madara seemed to be deliberately keeping the battle confined to a certain area. The raging currents of energy themselves formed the best barrier.
"We have to find a way to support my brother!" Tobirama said urgently to Uzumaki Mito.
Mito nodded gravely and formed hand seals. "Sealing Jutsu: Four Symbols Sealing!" She tried to restrict Susanoo's movements with a powerful sealing technique, but the golden sealing runes flickered unsteadily as soon as they neared the raging field of energy, unable to take hold.
The Ino-Shika-Cho team wanted to help as well, but their techniques were simply inadequate against a battle on that level.
The battlefield seemed to fall into another stalemate. The supreme combatants were locked in an evenly matched struggle, while the melee below grew even bloodier and more chaotic. With the Kaguya clan leader gone and Madara no longer directly intimidating them—aside from his merciless oversight—the Uchiha's assault remained fierce, but the Allied Forces held firm through their coordination and resolve, even beginning to claw their way back from their disadvantage. After all, the allied army had been hastily thrown together and was riven by internal conflicts, while the Allied Forces were fighting to protect a shared cause.
Uchiha Sou caught his breath amid the melee. He still hadn't recovered from the shock of Madara's indiscriminate attack. He looked up at the two giants battling like gods and demons, then at his clan members falling all around him, his heart filled with conflicting emotions. Hatred, fear, a yearning for power, revulsion at this meaningless slaughter... All these feelings tangled together.
Under the immense pressure, his sense of "Weaving Logic" grew unusually active. He could vaguely "see" the line connecting Madara to Susanoo: massive, yet filled with frenzied, unstable "Dissonance." The line connecting Hashirama to the Wood Golem was even more immense and carried a kind of natural vitality, but it still deviated slightly from the world's "Harmony."
He also saw that the countless lines representing "death" and "despair" across the battlefield were growing denser by the moment.
This couldn't go on!
Sou gritted his teeth and made a bold decision. Instead of focusing on the enemies before him, he concentrated most of his mental strength and once again tried to touch those mysterious "threads of Causality"!
This time, his target wasn't any specific person, but the battlefield itself! He tried to sense the vast force of "Dissonance" permeating the air, formed from countless acts of slaughter and negative emotions!
The process was extremely dangerous! He felt as if the flood of negative energy would sweep his mind away! But he clung fiercely to the core of his "Weaving Logic" state, guiding his own faint power of Inner Harmony like a tiny boat on a raging sea, struggling to "untangle" the chaotic web of lines!
He couldn't change the course of the battle. He couldn't even clearly understand what the lines meant. But following his instincts, he drove his mental strength and intent of Inner Harmony like nails into several of the most chaotic nodes, where the sense of "Dissonance" was strongest!
The effect wasn't an immediate change, but an incredibly subtle "disturbance"!
As the Wood Golem attacked furiously, the flow of Chakra at one of its joints inexplicably faltered for an infinitesimal instant, causing its next punch to land by an equally tiny fraction of a moment later!
As Susanoo swung its blade in a mighty slash, the operation of its energy core seemed to have a grain of sand thrown into the works, causing a pause too slight to notice!
For powerful shinobi like Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju, even the smallest deviation was enough to catch their attention!
"Hm?" Madara frowned. His Eternal Mangekyou swept over the battlefield in an instant, and he assumed Tobirama or Uzumaki Mito had used some hidden method to interfere.
Hashirama felt the brief discord as well, but assumed Madara's power or his own Wood Style had gone wrong.
That moment of hesitation and distraction was all it took!
"Now! Flying Thunder God Slash!" Tobirama Senju seized the fleeting opportunity! He had already planted Flying Thunder God markers throughout the battlefield, and now appeared in an instant at one of Susanoo's blind spots—near the spot where the flow of energy had just faltered! His special Thunder God Sword, charged with all his Chakra and speed, became a streak of piercing light as he thrust it forward!
Shhk—!
This time, the Flying Thunder God Sword wasn't completely deflected! Perhaps he had taken advantage of that tiny opening, or perhaps it was the result of Tobirama's all-or-nothing burst of power. The tip of the blade managed to pierce a little way into Susanoo's armor! It was immediately shattered by the raging Chakra, but the powerful Lightning Style Chakra and spatial disruption clinging to the sword managed to seep inside, just a little!
"Ugh!" Uchiha Madara let out a muffled groan! His body wasn't injured, but his Eternal Mangekyou throbbed with a slight sting and a feeling of interference! His control over Susanoo was thrown off rhythm!
"Wood Style: Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands!" Hashirama wouldn't let this opportunity slip by! The Wood Golem's enormous palm instantly softened, radiating a powerful force of calm and suppression as it seized the chance to press against Susanoo's chest!
Humm—!
Powerful sealing force tried to seep into Susanoo and disrupt Madara's Chakra!
"Get away!" Madara roared in fury. His Eternal Mangekyou spun wildly, and his immense Dojutsu Power forcibly steadied Susanoo and strengthened it further, blasting away the Wood Golem's hand and Tobirama's follow-up attack!
But that strike had forced him back half a step! For the first time, he had been suppressed in terms of momentum!
The clash between the supreme combatants had also changed the course of the battle below. The Allied Forces' morale soared, and they launched a counterattack! The Uchiha line began to waver!
Uchiha Madara hovered within Susanoo, his expression frighteningly grim. He looked at Hashirama and Tobirama, who had been driven back but remained eager to fight, then glanced down at the allied army, which was beginning to show signs of defeat.
He knew that today he probably wouldn't be able to crush the Senju completely as he had hoped. If the battle continued, even if he won, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. The Uchiha would suffer devastating losses and might even be attacked by the surviving Kaguya, who had gone mad.
Boundless fury and resentment burned in his heart, but reason—twisted as it was—told him he had to retreat.
"...Retreat."
His cold, emotionless voice spread through the entire allied army via Chakra.
The remaining Uchiha shinobi were granted a reprieve and immediately began to cover one another as they fell back. The coerced smaller clans fled over one another's heels. The surviving Kaguya roared in defiance, but under Madara's icy gaze, they dared not cause any more trouble and retreated with the rest.
The Allied Forces did not pursue with everything they had. They had also suffered heavy losses and were exhausted; they needed time to recover.
Hashirama watched the allied army retreat like a receding tide, especially the blue war god slowly fading away. He felt no joy of victory, only deep weariness and sorrow. Once again, he had stopped Madara, but once again, he had witnessed countless deaths.
The Blood-Weeping Plain was strewn with corpses, and blood had stained the earth dark red. Both sides had suffered. There were no winners.
Uchiha Sou followed the retreating troops and took one last look back at that living hell. His face was pale, and his mental strength was nearly depleted. He didn't know whether his small "disturbance" had made any difference, but he had felt all too clearly how insignificant his own power was and how long the road of "Weaving Logic" would be.
After this battle, the Uchiha had suffered devastating losses, and the outside world had grown even more hostile. The dream of peace in Konoha seemed farther away than ever.
The shadow of war still weighed heavily on everyone's heart.
Before you continue