Half the people present had now fallen under genjutsu, on a scale no ordinary genjutsu could achieve.
But this was not Sasuke's power.
Even if he exhausted the eye power of his Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke as he was now could not cast genjutsu on such an enormous scale.
It had only been possible through the Tailed Beasts' chakra.
At that moment, Sasuke was effectively serving as the Tailed Beasts' temporary jinchūriki. They supplied the chakra, and all he did was use it to cast a single technique.
Just as his adult self had told him he had once done during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
So, for a short time, Sasuke and the Tailed Beasts were also linked telepathically.
The Tailed Beasts did not seem to have realized this yet, though, and chatted away as if no one else were there.
As he listened, however, something caught Sasuke's attention, and he turned toward Nine-Tails and Naruto at the far end.
Nine-Tails' voice was absent from the Tailed Beasts' internal discussion.
And the other Tailed Beasts seemed used to it.
"Aaargh!!!"
The entire venue had been silent for a while before someone let out a scream, shattering the stillness.
He fared even worse than Granny Chiyo, trembling all over as he collapsed onto the ground, his eyes vacant.
But no one mocked him. Everyone who woke from the genjutsu reacted the same way.
Having been dragged into the space where the battle against Urashiki Otsutsuki took place, everyone's heart was now steeped in darkness and terror. Even after waking from the genjutsu, their nerves remained stretched to the limit, like strings about to snap.
Oppression and unease hung in the air, as though the Ōtsutsuki from the genjutsu still wielded some invisible power over everything here, leaving them no escape.
Only