The instant Luming's spear pierced the Ōtsutsuki God's core, an almost imperceptible crack echoed through the void.
It sounded like a crack forming in a glass, or a foot stepping onto ice. The sound was faint, yet the entire universe heard it.
The Ōtsutsuki God curled into a form the size of a meteorite. Dark red divine blood gushed from the spear wound through his chest.
The Existence Deletion Root Algorithm he had maintained for three days and nights faltered for the first—and only—time in his life. The lapse lasted one hundredth of a second.
In that one hundredth of a second, Naruto's rigid hands suddenly relaxed.
The shackles binding his soul shattered. His body, which had been growing insubstantial and facing relentless erasure, instantly became whole and solid again under the Myriad Sources Merit Spirit Root's supreme self-replication. Causality Threads severed billions of times reconnected, and his existence across the ages, torn to shreds, snapped back into place in a single second.
It was like a painting torn into billions of pieces reassembling itself in one hundredth of a second.
He let out a long breath he had held in for three days and nights. Damp blond hair fell across his shoulders. His eyes, sharp as blades throughout their desperate contest, now held a trace of exhaustion, yet they still looked down upon all living things.
Naruto lowered his gaze and fixed it on the Ōtsutsuki God, whose aura was crumbling in the void. His voice was calm, carrying the absolute composure of someone who knew the outcome was settled.
"The stalemate is over. Otsutsuki, you lost."
The Ōtsutsuki God shook violently. His enormous golden eyes were bloodshot, brimming with fury, humiliation, and disbelief.
For hundreds of thousands of years, he had swept across the heavens, devoured stars, destroyed