With a slash of his longsword, Otsutsuki Kinshiki was sent flying, his massive body hurtling toward Momoshiki's castle like a cannonball.
The next instant, Momoshiki's castle erupted with a deafening crash. Under the lingering force of the grayish-white sword aura, a full third of it collapsed.
As the rumbling gradually subsided, a chakra presence no weaker than Shin's suddenly surged into the sky. Changes also occurred amid the castle's rubble. Gravity seemed to have been distorted somehow, and broken stones floated upward.
A white figure slowly emerged. His pure white eyes held nothing but indifference as he stood above the ruined castle and said coldly, "You are Uchiha Shin?"
Shin floated in midair at the same level as him, his Rinnegan reflecting the other man's figure. With a soft laugh, he said, "You actually know my name. Just as I guessed, did that old man, the Sage of Six Paths, release you?"
"The Sage of Six Paths?" Otsutsuki Momoshiki echoed in confusion.
In his era, Kaguya had been his enemy. Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura had not yet grown up, so he naturally did not know Hagoromo's later title.
Shin shrugged. "Forget it if you don't know. It's hard for me to work up any interest in chatting with an antique like you. It's enough that I know who it was. Oh, and one more thing—if you don't save that subordinate of yours, time will corrode him until not even scraps remain."
"Hm!" Otsutsuki Momoshiki's gaze sharpened as he lowered his head toward the collapsed castle. Kinshiki's massive body lay amid the ruins, a sword wound at his waist deep enough to reach the bone. But that was not the real reason he could not get up.
A ring of strange gray chakra clung to the area around the wound,