Kou looked at the rather disheveled Madara ahead of him, a trace of regret flashing through his eyes.
"Tch, he still managed to dodge it.
"Limbo... what a troublesome technique..."
Kou muttered to himself, with little genuine frustration in his tone, as if he had anticipated this outcome long ago.
As Kou lamented, Hashirama, whose body had already been restored, immediately arrived at his side.
He stood beside Kou, his gaze crossing the shattered crater to settle on the figure slowly straightening up. His eyes were filled with an inescapable heaviness.
"The plan... failed?"
"...Not entirely."
Kou looked at Madara in the distance and spoke calmly.
"At the very least, we destroyed Madara's Limbo clone. If he wants to use it again, it will probably take quite a long cooldown.
"Temporarily crippling that trump card he used to save his life isn't too much of a loss for us."
Hearing Kou's calm words, the heaviness on Hashirama's face eased somewhat.
He fell silent for a moment before asking Kou,
"Can we do it again? That tactic from before."
"Unfortunately, no."
Kou shook his head. Looking at Madara in the distance, he said solemnly,
"Putting aside the possibility that Madara has already seen through something, maintaining Kuenebiko-no-Mikoto on Madara for an extended period already consumes an enormous amount of ocular power.
"If we use Magatsuhi God again, it will inevitably affect how long Kuenebiko-no-Mikoto can be maintained."
He paused and said seriously to Hashirama,
"Without absolute certainty, we must never affect Kuenebiko-no-Mikoto."
"After all..."
"Without Kuenebiko-no-Mikoto, we wouldn't even be qualified to fight Madara."
"Since the plan to kill Madara directly has failed, our next task is to wear him down as much as possible and prepare for the backup plan that Sasuke, Brother Minato, and the others will handle later..."