A Reckoning in Two Breaths

[Stray dog.]

When those mocking words reached Shinnō's ears, his hand froze just as he reached for the aircraft beside him.

"Run?"

His voice rang out in sharp retort. He straightened and looked toward the speaker: Arata Uchiha, the man he had briefly faced off against earlier.

Now Arata had walked into the inner hall at an unhurried pace, ignoring the plummeting Ancor Vantian.

Shinnō paid no attention to the girl Arata carried.

"Who said I was running?"

"The real question is, do you dare settle this with me here?"

As he watched the young man walk willingly into a death trap, madness stirred in Shinnō's eyes.

In a few dozen breaths at most, the City of the Sky would crash to the ground from over a thousand meters up.

Everyone inside it would be smashed to pieces, no matter how strong their body was.

But Shinnō was different. With the Zero-Tails' power and his Regeneration Technique, he had the confidence—and the nerve—to stake everything on surviving the plunge!

"If you don't dare, get lost now."

"Don't rely on Susanoo to escape at the last second."

"Otherwise, I'll have to wonder what kind of people the Uchiha Clan has produced."

Shinnō fixed the young man with a provocative stare, the mockery in his eyes unmistakable.

All the while, the City of the Sky continued its rapid descent.

Xueli's power had sealed the entire Ancor Vantian in ice. Every machine and power furnace had frozen and stopped working.

There was no way to slow the fall. No emergency measure left to use.

"That's a terrible attempt to bait me. Do all you old men favor such clumsy tricks?"

"Ōnoki did. Hiruzen Sarutobi did. Now you."

"I'll leave, of course. After you pay for threatening me."

Arata's reply was cold. That threat