Susanoo formed a spear in its hand, raised it high, then brought it crashing down.
Otsutsuki Baldy burst apart with a smack, turning into a splatter of flesh and blood.
Gazing at the bloody "river" he had carved, Aoike swept again with more force, drawing fan-shaped pie charts one after another.
"Retreat! Everyone who can escape, get out..." What Otsutsuki Ikki feared most had come to pass. Aoike's Mangekyō Sharingan was no mere beginner's power; he had already become one of the strongest people in this world.
Otsutsuki Ikki gritted his teeth, tensing every muscle as veins bulged across his forehead. He poured all the chakra in his body into his technique, its power surging like an erupting volcano.
Yet against the powerful Aoike, all of it was like an egg striking a rock, or an insect trying to topple a tree.
Still, he refused to back down, trying to fend off even a little of his opponent's fearsome assault.
Clang! A tremendous crash rang out. The white figure flew backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming into a distant cliff face.
To everyone's surprise, Otsutsuki Ikki didn't go down. He quickly climbed out of the crater and rose to his feet, his gaze resolute and unwavering.
He drew a deep breath and pushed his potential further, making the chakra around him blaze and churn violently.
Through sheer willpower and incredible perseverance, Otsutsuki Ikki had somehow gained enough strength to face Susanoo head-on—at least for a time.
He drew forth a seemingly endless stream of chakra and hammered it against Susanoo's hard outer shell, each blow landing with a dull thud.
Though Otsutsuki Ikki was giving everything he had, the gap between them was simply too great.
When his condensed chakra struck Susanoo, it was like fragile eggs colliding with an immovable boulder. At most, they left a few insignificant scratches.
But the enormous, gleaming Susanoo swung its weapon, each casual strike as thunderous as a bolt from the heavens.
The battle was completely one-sided. Every clash tolled the death knell for Otsutsuki Ikki.
His muscles, bones, and internal organs were as fragile as tofu under the force of the blows.
Otsutsuki Ikki could no longer mount a proper counterattack. Before long, he was covered in wounds.
His left arm twisted like a strand of dough and went numb. Dislocated bones contorted his figure, and his whole body trembled from the devastating injuries. Blood trickled from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth...
As he teetered on the brink of death, all his ambitions replayed in his mind...
He had wanted to destroy the Ninja World that had failed Hamura and rebuild it as a new world belonging to the Otsutsuki. That ideal was the reason the Otsutsuki Branch Family existed.
The moon was bitterly cold. Like prisoners, they were confined there, wasting away generation after generation as they guarded Kaguya's seal.
Meanwhile, the people who benefited from their sacrifice on Earth didn't cherish peace. They had even stolen the Ten-Tails' husk.
It was a betrayal!
A desecration of their mission!
Of the three Kage Level powerhouses in the Otsutsuki Branch Family, only he, the strongest, remained alive.
Consumed by boundless resentment and indignation, he struggled back to his feet once more!
"I still have a noble ideal to fulfill!"
"The failed world has yet to be purged!"
"How could I fall here?!"
With his remaining right hand, he formed Hand Seals awkwardly. The Branch Family members who hadn't yet retreated, along with the souls of the dead strewn across the ground, flew toward him with their chakra and clung to Otsutsuki Ikki's twisted body like sticky malt candy.
"Your secret technique is seriously disgusting," Aoike said, reminded of the zombies in Resident Evil. A chill ran through him.
"Takemikazuchi."
Lightning turned to liquid and coated Susanoo's fist, binding it tight like blue chains.
Aoike took aim at Otsutsuki Ikki as he charged toward him, and put everything he had into it.
A loaded punch!
The blinding white light briefly outshone the sun.
The shock wave from the collision tore up the ground and sank the earth, devastating the barren landscape.
Everything... Otsutsuki Ikki's life and his ambition to destroy the Ninja World alike, came to an end.
Half of his swollen body had been blown to pieces, flesh and blood flying everywhere. The other half had been charred black by the scorching heat, its skin covered in hideous cracks from which countless pale growths burst forth.
His battered remains stood upright on the ground, his eyes lifeless, not a trace of vitality left.
Cracks covered Susanoo's arm. Once the power of "Takemikazuchi" faded, it shattered with a bang.
"You're the strongest opponent I've faced so far."
Aoike was forced to dispel Susanoo and couldn't help praising him.
Though it was only Susanoo's muscle form, there were very few people who could break through it at this point in time.
Under Aoike's hunt, most of the inferior Otsutsuki had fallen on this battlefield. Only a small number had escaped.
"Heavenly Controller of Fate."
The Mangekyō in his left eye turned, its power flooding outward like a rising tide.
Plunder. Deconstruct. Digest.
Taking the essence and discarding the dross, he reduced the corpses covering the ground to ash.
Most of the factors were redundant and chaotic. Only those from Otsutsuki Ikki and a handful of others were useful.
After restoring himself, Aoike still had two-thirds of his Mangekyō's power left, and his Byakugan's purity had reached its limit.
Without the ocular technique Heavenly Controller of Fate, Aoike would probably have been left half-dead after this battle.
The Mangekyō's consumption was astonishing. Fortunately, Otsutsuki Hamura had been born after Kaguya ate the God Tree Fruit, and his descendants still carried a small number of God Tree factors.
They had increased his ocular power slightly while greatly reducing its cost.
His body was back to full strength, but the exhaustion in his mind from the successive battles wouldn't fade.
Still, to prevent anything from going wrong, Aoike could only force himself onward to claim the fruits of victory.
Toneri, whose bloodline was closest to that of a pure-blooded Otsutsuki, was the key to transforming the Byakugan into the Tenseigan.
Meanwhile...
Some of the Branch Family members who had made it back rushed to work without taking time to recover, setting up the final... deadly trap the Otsutsuki had prepared for Aoike around the Tenseigan they were assembling!