"What's wrong? Can't handle your chakra anymore? Want me to spare you a little?" Seeing that Sasuke still refused to move, Māra taunted him again.
By now, Sasuke was certain that Māra had some way to counter the current situation.
He could not help feeling bewildered.
Normally, Ashubha was impossible to counter unless the opponent also possessed a "time" ability capable of offsetting it at the level of the technique's underlying principles.
But if Māra had such a method, why had he not used it earlier? Why wait until his eye had been blasted apart fifty times? Sasuke had had plenty of opportunities to deliver a finishing blow after destroying his eye.
Gambling with his life by refusing to use an opening move was hardly the act of a wise man.
Unless... it was not an opening move, but a "fallback" that could only be triggered once certain conditions had been met?
A sinister smile curled across Māra's lips. "Fine. If you won't attack, then I won't hold back!"
Sasuke Uchiha has already realized I'm preparing some sort of "countermeasure," but I only need to be "immersed" in it one more time to finish "adapting"!
It doesn't matter if you won't use it. I can force you to!
Bzzz! Light swirled through his white Rinnegan. In just three seconds, a Great Truth-Seeking Tear condensed before his eye!
Crack! Trailing strands of shattered space, the black teardrop shot toward the center of Sasuke's forehead!
Ashubha!
Once again, Sasuke froze every phenomenon except himself!
He shifted aside, evading the teardrop blocking his path!
With lightning speed, he charged straight up to Māra!
At that moment, reason and emotion collided, sparks of thought intertwining in his mind...
I don't know how troublesome Māra's fallback will be.
*In the worst case, everything we've worked