Truth-Seeking Orbs
Susanoo's Tachi broke off in the middle of the blade.
The broken blade fell from the void, spun several times in mid-air, and plunged into the sea below, leaving a trail of sky-blue flame.
The broken blade smashed a huge crater in the sea, sending waves splashing hundreds of meters into the air.
Ban's expression changed slightly.
He already possesses such power after only breaking through the third layer of the sealing chains?
He glanced down at the direction where the broken sword had fallen, then looked up at the Void-Chaos Shield in front of Imu that was slowly dissipating.
The crack in the shield, cleaved by the Tachi, was healing; the chaotic and void patterns were re-interweaving, coalescing, and restoring themselves.
The shield is now thinner than before.
I can see the spots clearly now.
Each time Imu breaks a chain, he releases a portion of the Origin power of the Twenty Kings sealed within.
Those Origin powers can be used to condense Demonic Energy, or to enhance weapons.
The strength of the Void-Chaos Shield depends on how much Origin power she invests.
She had just invested a great deal of her Origin power, which is why the force of the recoil was Tachi to shatter the katana imbued with the Six Paths Chakra.
But Ban didn't hesitate.
He immediately retracted Susanoo.
The colossal, sky-blue Chakra body vanished silently into the air, turning into countless specks of light, like a meteor shower falling backwards.
Madara floated in the void, his greyish-white sage robe fluttering in the sea breeze, his long white hair dancing in the air currents of Six Paths Chakra.
Ten Truth-Seeking Orb spun quietly around him, dark gold patterns flowing across their black surfaces.
He raised his right hand.
One of the ten Truth-Seeking Orb flew out of the array, like a star being drawn, and landed in his palm after tracing an arc.
The Truth-Seeking Orb rapidly deformed, stretched, and elongated in his palm, its pitch-black material churning and reshaping, while dark gold patterns rearranged on its surface.
A scepter materialized in his hand.
The scepter was entirely black, with densely packed Yin–Yang Release patterns engraved on its surface, and a dark golden light flowing deep within the patterns.
The top of the staff is a fist-sized, jet-black sphere, the surface of which flows with patterns of Six Paths Chakra and Yin–Yang Release, like a miniature sun compressed to its extreme.
The Six Paths Staff.
Ban gripped the scepter tightly, and his figure suddenly vanished from the spot.
He no longer used the sweeping, powerful style of Susanoo, but instead gathered all his power into the gray-white sage robe. All the Six Paths Chakra and all the Yin–Yang Release power were concentrated in the scepter in his palm.
His speed was several times faster than before, leaving a gray-white afterimage in the air. Before the afterimage dissipated, he had already appeared less than a hundred meters in front of Imu.
Imu's pupils contracted slightly.
She clearly saw the change in Madara. His Susanoo was gone, his Tachi was gone, but Madara's aura was stronger than before.
That kind of strength is not an expansion of physical size, nor a surge of Chakra, but an extremely refined kind of ultimate concentration, like compressing a vast ocean into a mustard seed.
His scepter had no extraneous light, no surging Chakra, yet the weight of the scepter itself was enough to slightly distort the surrounding void.
Ban's scepter cleaved down.
There are no fancy moves, no pre-charge animation.
The scepter slashed downwards at an angle, the black sphere at its tip drawing an extremely quiet arc in the air.
Where the arc passed, space was neatly sliced open, the cut as smooth as a mirror, even swallowing up sound.
Imu didn't have time to reconstitute the Void-Chaos Shield.
The shield had just consumed a large amount of chaotic and void power during the Tachi's attack and was still recovering.
She could only activate the array of weapons beside her, Heaven's Punishment Sword, the Xingtian Axe, and the Sea God Sword flew out simultaneously in an attempt to block Ban's scepter.
The scepter struck the Heaven's Punishment Sword, bending the blade in the middle, and the dark red light dimmed instantly.
The Xingtian Axe was smashed away immediately afterward, leaving a huge gash in its blade.
Sea God Sword attempted to cut in from the side, but the staff's end swung and struck the Sea God Sword precisely, sending it spinning away and embedding itself in the distant ruins.
All three weapons were smashed away within a single breath.
The scepter, still brimming with power, crashed down on Imu's body.
Imu raised his right hand, and a layer of dark red Demonic Energy shield condensed in his palm.
The scepter slammed into the shield, causing the Demonic Energy shield to tremble violently, and cracks spread outwards from the point of contact.
Imu retreated several meters, leaving a dark red ripple in the air beneath his feet.
Her crimson almond-shaped eyes narrowed slightly, and the smile at the corner of her mouth faded a bit.
Ban gave her no time to catch her breath. The scepter was raised again, and the second strike followed immediately.
More weapons flew out from the array of weapons beside Imu, Void Sword, the Chaos Sword, the Sacred Decree Spear, and Honebami Tōshirō, all rushing forward at the same time.
Ban's scepter twirled, parried, and counterattacked among the weapons, each collision causing the weapons to tremble, shatter, and fly backward.
His movements were extremely concise, with no superfluous moves or wasted Chakra; each strike precisely intercepted the weak points of the Imu weapon array.
Imu is backing away.
Her feet were on the void, and with each step she took back, the dark red ripples beneath her feet expanded.
Her crimson almond eyes were fixed on Ban's figure, on the scepter that swirled among her weapons.
She felt the pressure.
Madara's Six Paths Sage Mode, combined with the ultimate refinement of his scepter, imbued each of his attacks with the power to crush her weapon array.
Her weapons were shattering, her Demonic Energy was being depleted, and the power released after her third chain broke was being gradually suppressed by Madara.
The crack in the fourth chain is widening, but at a much slower rate than before.
Ban's attacks were too intense, forcing Imu to focus most of his strength on dealing with his scepter, leaving him unable to concentrate on tearing apart the fourth chain.
Below, Fugaku's order has taken effect.
The thirteen elite Night Owl Guard withdrew the moment Fugaku gave the order.
Killing Hall sheathed his sword and retreated. Taki's Lightning Release Slash drew an arc in mid-air, forcing Kizaru back. Yan and Mei simultaneously withdrew from the battle.
Kūga, Chinatsu, Yelan, Blaze, Qinglan, Iron Sand, and four elite Night Owl Guard rushed towards the outer edge of the battlefield at the same time.
In a very short time, thirteen gray-white figures broke away from the core battlefield and retreated to a safe area several kilometers away.
Akainu knelt on the scorched ground, the magma around him completely solidified.
His Flame Lord Form had long since collapsed, his wounds were bleeding profusely, and his left arm was twisted at an unnatural angle.
He struggled to stand up, but his legs were completely unresponsive.