Chibaku Tensei!

Deva Path Pain realized he had been played by Doflamingo's "cicada shedding its skin" trick, a flicker of irritation crossing his face.

This outsider is truly cunning. When did he swap himself with a puppet? Was it when he slipped out of my sight?

Pain calmly analyzed the situation. What was this man's purpose in coming to Amegakure? He had headed straight for the center of the village from the start—did he have a specific goal? Deva Path Pain decided to return and investigate.

Soon, Deva Path Pain returned to the devastated center of the village.

Konan saw Pain and immediately stepped forward, concerned. "Nagato, how is it?"

"He left a puppet behind and fled," Pain replied, shaking his head.

"I feel something is wrong. Why hasn't his ability dissipated?" Konan pointed to the ground beneath their feet, which was still composed of white strings.

Could this guy still be nearby? A possibility crossed Pain's mind.

Meanwhile, Doflamingo was struggling to "dive" through the ground beneath Pain's feet. He had used his String-String Fruit ability to create a puppet via Shadow Puppet String to distract Pain, while he himself traveled through the earth—which he had assimilated with his fruit powers—to approach his mission target. This was his battle plan!

After witnessing the Six Paths of Pain's ability to resurrect, Doflamingo had no intention of continuing a head-on fight.

Up to this point in the battle, he couldn't gauge the state of his opponent since they were puppets, but he had continuously unleashed various awakenings of his fruit and tanked several waves of attacks, exhausting much of his stamina and Haki. Yet, he hadn't even seen the true enemy, fighting only puppets the entire time.

This forced Doflamingo to begrudgingly admit that he might not be a match for Pain right now. Regardless, he had to finish this damn mission! Assimilating such a vast area of terrain with his fruit ability was no small burden for him!

As Doflamingo moved through the ground made of white strings, the surrounding lines automatically parted, allowing him to approach the mission target in a near-straight line.

Finally, after traveling underground for who knows how long, he broke through the final layer of terrain. Doflamingo's eyes lit up as he felt the ground beneath him vanish, and he dropped into a massive underground cavern.

It was a vast, dim, subterranean space, impossibly shaped into a perfect cube, with an unknown light source at the top faintly illuminating the entire cavern.

A mysterious object, roughly 70 meters tall, stood silently in the very center of the cave.

How tall is 70 meters? Take the Giant of Light, Ultraman, for example: Tiga stands at 53 meters, while the earliest Showa Ultramen—Ultraman, Seven, Jack, and Ace—are only 40 meters tall. Of course, this doesn't mean the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path could crush an Ultraman; it's purely a comparison of size. After all, even a 70-meter Demonic Statue would likely be torn to pieces by an Ultraman in a few moves.

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was a giant, withered humanoid figure, its eyes covered by a mysterious blindfold-like structure, with nine closed eyes upon it. The statue's color and body resembled withered wood, and ten pillar-like protrusions extended from its back as it stood silently in the underground space.

"So this is the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path? Fufufufu, quite an imposing aura!" Doflamingo swaggered up to the giant statue, compared it to the image in his mind, and confirmed that the object before him was indeed the mission target.

To avoid any further complications, Doflamingo immediately activated his String-String Fruit ability. Using the fine strings to pull himself, he landed gracefully on the statue's head. Then, a massive amount of white strings surged from his feet, slowly wrapping around the Demonic Statue like a silkworm cocoon.

[Mission Target: Acquiring ownership of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Reincarnator must maintain conscious awareness for 1 hour.]

"Looks like this will do. I hope that guy doesn't find out too quickly."

In the Amegakure office, Konan and Pain were conversing.

"I've already dispatched the village ninjas to search, but there are no results yet," Konan reported.

Pain remained silent, turning to look out the window as he muttered to himself, "The Ninja World has just emerged from the flames of war; hearts are restless, and all sorts of figures are beginning to take the stage. What is this man's purpose in coming to Amegakure? Our Akatsuki is merely an ordinary bounty hunter organization..."

Pain and Konan pondered for a long time without a clue, so they could only wait quietly for the search results from their subordinates.

Before long, a Jonin came to report.

"Report, my lord. We have searched both inside and outside the village, but found no trace of the stranger."

"Understood. You may leave," Pain waved his hand.

Pain rested his chin on his hand, looking out the window at the ground and buildings that had returned to normal. He stared fixedly at the spot where Doflamingo had first appeared, as if deep in thought.

The intruder clearly knew nothing about Amegakure, but he wouldn't have invaded the village for no reason. Moreover, he was massive—a height of 3 meters was practically a giant; how could they not find him? Could he fly or burrow through the earth?

Burrow? Pain looked at the spot where Doflamingo had first appeared—wasn't it directly above the Demonic Statue? Could his goal be the Demonic Statue?

Pain scanned his surroundings, stepped out of the office, moved to a nearby open area, and quickly formed several hand seals.

"Summoning Technique!"

Pain pressed a hand down, yet nothing happened... He naturally did not know that the moment the Reincarnator made contact with the Demonic Statue, someone within the Main God Space had begun the work of siphoning luck and copying the statue.

Under such a special state, Zhu Shen would certainly not allow anyone to interrupt, so he naturally shielded the space around the Demonic Statue, making it impossible to be summoned.

"Heh heh heh, foolish—and truly bold!" Pain's face darkened. It was clear the intruder's target was the Demonic Statue.

At this moment, the fire of rage burned within him. The Demonic Statue was a power of his Rinnegan, yet it had been shielded by the opponent using some unknown method! In this instant, he felt as if his Tailed Beast plan and the peace he pursued were being shaken to their very foundations!

Carrying his burning rage, he returned to the office, quickly activated a mechanism, and took a secret passage toward the underground cavern.

At this moment, Doflamingo in the underground cavern was nervously watching the progress bar in his mind.

"81, 82..." The progress bar grew slowly.

Pain pushed open the rotating stone door from the secret passage and entered the underground space. The moment he stepped into this secret chamber, he was stunned by the scene before him:

The giant statue that had stood in the center of the arena was gone, replaced by a massive white cocoon. Sitting cross-legged atop the cocoon was a yellow-haired man wearing heart-shaped sunglasses.

"Unforgivable. Unforgivable!"

The stone slabs around Pain began to crack, and the space itself seemed to distort... Chakra surged violently, and the air felt as if it were beginning to burn...

Pain ignored the countless white strings winding toward him, slowly aiming his right palm directly at Doflamingo.

"Shinra Tensei!"

An irresistible wave of force surged forward, aimed precisely at Doffy hovering above.

"Fufufufu, I was waiting for you!"

Doffy reined in his aura, and the white threads erupting from him seemed to have been prepared in advance, weaving into several massive shields before him! Not only that, but the giant white cocoon beneath his feet also poured out countless fine threads, anchoring him firmly in place.

Doffy naturally knew that this mysterious repulsive attack was too fast to dodge, but it had a fatal flaw: a cooldown period of approximately five seconds.

Therefore, the moment after this strike would decide the victor! With this thought, a confident and arrogant smile spread across Doffy's face.

But the very next moment, reality slapped him hard in the face!

The invisible repulsive force collided with the massive white threads, destroying everything in its path with unstoppable momentum. It tore everything to shreds!

"Bang!" A humanoid figure was launched instantly, like a rocket taking off amidst a thunderous explosion, piercing through hundreds of meters of crust above and flying into the sky over Amegakure...

"Pfft~" A spray of blood misted the air.

"How is this possible? Such powerful repulsion!"

In the center of the massive crater, Deva Path Pain rose slowly with an indifferent expression. Before Doffy could react, he activated Banshō Ten'in to draw him directly into his reach.

"Summoning Technique!"

With a shift in position, the two were instantly transported to a valley not far outside Amegakure. Clearly, the other Paths of Pain had been waiting there, summoning Deva Path and Doffy together.

The moment they changed battlefields, Doffy suddenly erupted, his right hand coated in highly condensed Armament Haki, slamming toward Deva Path Pain's head.

Deva Path glanced at Doffy with extreme indifference, then a spherical repulsive field enveloped him. Doffy's domineering strike was reflected back, sending him crashing into the side of a mountain.

Pain dissipated the repulsive space and slowly rose into the air. He looked up at the sun, then down at Doffy, who was lurking within the mountain, waiting for an opening. He spoke coldly:

"Mortals always delude themselves into thinking they can understand the will of a god. You don't even understand the pain of others, so how could you understand a god? As for me, I have grown beyond a mortal through the infinite existence of pain, transforming from a mortal into a god!"

Deva Path Pain thought of his dear friend Yahiko and the people of Amegakure caught in the fires of war. His voice grew firmer, his hands slowly pressed together, and a sacred, indescribable air settled over his face.

"Without shared experience, there can be no mutual understanding. Feel pain, contemplate pain!"

"Chibaku Tensei!"

A black sphere of chakra energy flew from Pain's hands and rose into the sky.

In that moment, the world seemed to collapse:

The earth sank, mountains crumbled, and rivers, trees, and everything else were drawn by a grand, irresistible gravitational force, gathering toward the black sphere in the sky!

The black sphere was like a black hole, pulling in all matter from the entire world. The sky darkened, as if even light could not escape the suction, and even the sun was obscured!

"What is this! Damn it!"

Doffy desperately activated his Devil Fruit ability, weaving threads into the ground to anchor himself against the gravity. But the very mountain he had anchored himself to was crumbling and disintegrating; how could he escape such a terrifying gravitational field? All his white threads snapped... After struggling for a moment, Doffy was swept up by countless rocks and debris, pulled toward the black sphere in the sky.

Finally, after the entire valley had been reduced to a massive deep pit—perhaps having absorbed enough matter—the black sphere in the sky had transformed into a colossal meteorite, several kilometers in diameter!

"You could never understand true pain!"

Pain looked at the massive meteorite in the sky and said calmly.

With this, that man is completely sealed. Now, I shall proceed to extract his memories!

Inside the meteorite, Doffy was crushed by countless boulders, leaving no room to move. His internal organs felt as though they had been displaced, and he had no idea how many ribs were broken. At this moment, his monstrous constitution and formidable Armament Haki were of no use; they only prevented him from being crushed into powder on the spot...

Doffy was at his limit. Gritting his teeth until they nearly bled, he glared at Pain, the one who had caused all of this. "Damn it, damn it all!"

Since he was captured by pirates as a child, he had never suffered such a humiliating defeat! Since reaching adulthood, he had never known loss, yet now, he had been beaten so miserably! Suppressed within earth and stone, unable to move a muscle, even turning his head was a luxury!

But he knew he could not give up. He must not lose consciousness. As long as he held on, there was still a chance!

Finally, sustained by his hatred and unwillingness to accept defeat, the blood-covered Doffy heard a sound like music from heaven:

[Main Mission: "Ten-Tails Body" completed. Do you wish to return immediately?]

"Return!"