Two invisible supreme laws collided in the void, clashing and tearing at each other.
One frantically deleted the other, while the other frantically repaired himself.
They were like two people erasing each other's writing, writing as they erased and erasing as they wrote, waiting to see who ran out of ink first.
The Ōtsutsuki God's body shook violently, his very existence dissolving at a frantic pace.
His face twisted as he gritted his teeth and drove his divine powers at full speed.
"Self-Replication! Eternal Lock!!"
The two strongest beings in the Heavens were locked in the ultimate dead-loop battle.
There were no dazzling moves, no hot-blooded clashes. Only the most tedious, most lethal tug-of-war between laws, where every millisecond counted.
Naruto's nerves remained taut the entire time. He dared not blink, breathe, or let his attention waver in the slightest.
If he paused for even a hundredth of a second and interrupted Self-Pasting, his opponent's deletion algorithm would erase him completely.
He fished a strip of jerky from his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing as he formed hand seals. His cheeks moved, but his fingers never slowed.
"You're fucking... eating at a time like this?" The Ōtsutsuki God's voice emerged from the void, thick with disbelief.
He had lived for hundreds of thousands of years and fought countless powerful opponents.
Some cried in battle, some laughed, and some sang, but no one had ever eaten snacks while their existence was being deleted.
"I'm hungry," Naruto mumbled around his jerky. "We've been fighting so long, I can't keep going without something to eat. Want a strip?"
"I don't!"
"Suit yourself." Naruto stuffed the remaining jerky back into his pocket. "You don't have a physical body anymore anyway. You couldn't eat it."
That remark nearly broke the Ōtsutsuki God's