The tumor's pull was like an invisible giant hand, gripping Hyuga Xiao's limbs tightly.
He did not struggle.
Instead, he used that force to press his palm harder against the tumor's surface. A sticky, slick sensation came from his palm, as if he were touching the outer membrane of some rotting organ, warm enough to make him nauseous. A dull throbbing came from inside the tumor. Each beat shook the entire cave, sending bits of stone raining down.
"The greatest mistake you made," Hyuga Xiao said in a terrifyingly calm voice, "was forcing power that did not belong to you into a fragile vessel."
Before his words had even faded, the Covenant Stone Fragments in his palm erupted with a dazzling azure light.
"Roar—!"
An inhuman roar came from within the tumor.
It was neither Yomi's voice nor Mōryō's howl. It was the wail of a monster born after two consciousnesses had torn at each other, fused, and warped inside the same shell. Dozens of purple-black tentacles burst from the tumor's surface, each as thick as a tree trunk and dripping corrosive chakra mucus as they lashed wildly in every direction.
Kurenai Yuhi had already retreated ten meters away, her hands forming seals.
"Genjutsu: Tree Binding Death!"
Thick vines grew from the cave walls out of nowhere, wrapping tightly around those tentacles. Yet after only three seconds, the purple-black chakra surging from the tentacles corroded the vines away, turning them into black smoke that dispersed.
"Xiao!" Hong cried urgently.
Hyuga Xiao did not respond.
His consciousness was forcing its way into the tumor through the Covenant Stone Fragments in his palm.
His vision shifted in an instant.
He "saw" it.
It was a chaotic space of darkness, where two masses of consciousness were colliding frantically. One was Yomi's twisted humanoid