That was why he had said, "This world is twisted at its very roots," and why he wanted to "shatter everything and start over."
Because this world had been an experiment from the very beginning.
"Finished watching?"
Byakuya's voice came from behind him. Sasuke did not turn around. He simply asked, "Is all of this... true?"
"The Pure Soul Court has the oldest historical records, dating back to the age of the Sage of Six Paths. These images were extracted from those records. Their authenticity is guaranteed."
Byakuya walked up beside Sasuke and looked at the shattered crystals on the ground. "But the records are incomplete. Parts are missing.
"We don't know why Kaguya conducted this experiment, what its ultimate purpose was, or whether there were other test subjects besides the Uchiha."
"The Senju," Sasuke said. "The Senju Clan inherited the Sage Body. They were test subjects too, weren't they?"
"Very likely, but there's no direct evidence," Byakuya said. "One thing is certain, though-the power of the Sharingan is, at its core, a 'crystallization of emotion.'
"The more pain, anger, and hatred you feel, the stronger that power becomes.
"But the price is that this power will consume you, until you become its slave. The blindness caused by the Mangekyō is one manifestation of that price."
Sasuke fell silent.
He remembered Itachi, and the night Uchiha Ryūha had subjected the entire Uchiha clan to his selection.
That was the moment his eyes had evolved from one tomoe to three tomoe.
Every evolution had come with pain.
Every increase in strength had come with loss.
"Is there a way... to escape this curse?" he asked.
"There is, but it's difficult," Byakuya said. "The first method is to abandon the Sharingan and never use it again.
"The second is to transcend it-to