Nagato spoke slowly.
"You have no physical body to sustain you, nor infinite chakra."
"Now, what do you have left?"
Lie Yang stood amid the shattered Susanoo skeleton and said nothing.
Instead, a faint smile rested on his face.
Nagato frowned slightly.
"Still trying to bluff?"
"I'm not bluffing."
Lie Yang looked at him.
"I just think it's a pity."
"A pity about what?"
Lie Yang did not answer immediately.
The Void Balance appeared deep within his consciousness.
Nagato's destiny still shone brilliantly.
His fortune remained like a blazing sun, bright and heavy, carrying the immense weight to influence the course of the Shinobi World.
But now, broad swathes along the sun's edges had dimmed.
His once-abundant fortune seemed to have lost a layer to invisible flames.
Nagato's own potential had burned along with it during that desperate burst of power.
In this battle, Nagato had drawn upon the Rinnegan, the Six Paths of Pain, his spiritual origin, and the final reserves that belonged to the Child of Destiny.
He had indeed stopped Lie Yang's assault.
But he had also burned away a stretch of his future path.
Lie Yang looked at Nagato, his voice calm.
"To stop me, you burned through your fortune and potential."
Nagato's expression shifted slightly.
"Nonsense."
"Your fortune is still bright."
Lie Yang continued.
"But it has grown thin."
"That burst was your final trump card."
"From now on, you won't have another chance like it."
Nagato's fingers slowly tightened.
He refused to believe it.
Yet Lie Yang's expression had been far too calm as he spoke.
There was no bluffing.
Nor was there any bitterness at being cornered.
That composure stirred a deeply unsettling feeling in Nagato's heart.
As though the situation before him had never slipped beyond Lie Yang's control.
"Even so, you