"Even a god will kneel before me!!"
That outrageously arrogant roar did not fade with the chilling wind. Instead, it rang through the icy Soul Space like a declaration.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly at that moment.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi bled from every orifice, a crazed, savage smile twisting his aged face. He stared fixedly at Chiya with the resolve of a man who had gambled everything, savoring his certainty that they would die together.
"It's useless... useless!!"
"Once the Death God grabs you, no power in this world can break you free!"
"No matter how powerful your chakra or how tough your body, they mean nothing before the laws of the soul! Come quietly with me, into the Death God's belly, where there is nothing but darkness and conflict!"
As the Third screamed, the Death God's arm extending through his abdomen suddenly pulled harder.
It was pale and withered, covered in eerie markings.
The hand gripped the translucent blue soul inside Chiya like a hawk clutching a chick, trying to wrench it out of its warm fleshly shell.
An ordinary shinobi-even someone as powerful as Orochimaru or Minato Namikaze-could only have submitted at this stage. This was a law, a principle of causality that mortals could not defy.
And yet.
Something struck Hiruzen Sarutobi as wrong-it wasn't moving.
Not an inch!
The Death God had clearly seized the soul, and that pulling force could have torn the soul from a mountain. Yet Chiya's soul seemed rooted inside his body, cast in steel. No matter how hard the Death God pulled, he could not move it the slightest bit!
"What's going on?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's bloodshot eyes widened. "Why... won't it move?!"
To his horror, he discovered that it was more than that. On the hideous face of the Death God's apparition, once aloof and expressionless, there now appeared a trace of... pain?
"Sss..."
A teeth-grating sizzling suddenly sounded through the silent plane of souls.
It was the sound of a soul being scorched!
Inside Chiya, an invisible layer of Reiatsu Flame, capable of burning all things, suddenly ignited across the surface of his previously tranquil blue soul.
The flames instantly spread up the Death God's arm!
"Roar?!"
The Death God's apparition let out a low groan of shock and fury. The moment his pale arm touched Chiya's soul, black smoke began rising from it, and the skin rapidly rotted and blackened!
"What... what is this power?!"
Cracks began forming in the Third Hokage's understanding of the world.
The Death God was a spiritual being! The embodiment of a law!
How could he be burned?
How could flames capable of harming the Death God exist in this world?!
"Heh heh heh... can you feel it? The sensation of your soul burning."
Chiya stood atop the tree. Although half his soul had been dragged outside his body, his expression only grew more feverish, even showing a hint of the excitement of tormenting prey to death.
He held Ryūjin Jakka in a reverse grip. The flames along its blade had drawn completely inward, becoming an extraordinarily deep, dark red.
This was Reiatsu Slash-designed specifically to strike spiritual beings!
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, this so-called Death God of yours is nothing more than a 'native god' of this shinobi world to me."
"No divinity, no divine might. He merely devours souls on instinct, like a beast."
"Does such an inferior creature think he can show off before the power of a true Death God?!"
Chiya drew a deep breath, and the ocean-vast reiatsu engine inside him ran at full power.
[Ding! Host detected resisting the laws of the soul!] [Spiritual pressure conversion rate increased to 200%!] [Active skill activated: Spiritual Pressure: Super Heavy Pressure!] [Passive skill activated: Zanpakuto: Soul Damage!]
BOOM!!!
An even more terrifying, more domineering wave of blue pressure erupted outward in a ring with Chiya at its center.
This pressure did not target the body. It acted directly upon the soul!
In the distance, Hyuga Hiashi and the others felt a sharp pain in their heads, as though someone had struck their skulls with a heavy hammer. Some even rolled their eyes back and fainted on the spot.
The Death God's apparition took the brunt of the reiatsu. His form shook, and the hand gripping Chiya loosened slightly.
"Now!"
A brilliant light flashed in Chiya's eyes.
"A mere wandering ghost thinks he deserves to take my life?!"
"Since you reached out, leave that hand behind!!"
"Get... back where you came from!!"
"Ryūjin Jakka · Swordsmanship · Cleave in Two-Nadegiri!!!"
Whoosh-!
A slash of light beyond description illuminated the dark world of souls.
It took the form not of flame, but of an exquisitely compressed golden thread of reiatsu. It ignored distance, ignored material obstacles, and even ignored the supposed boundary between the living and the dead.
Bearing the will to sever all things in the universe, that blade of light struck the Death God's outstretched arm with absolute precision!
Slice!
A soft sound rang out.
Like a hot knife passing through butter.
Before Hiruzen Sarutobi's stunned eyes, the Death God's arm-said never to release anything it seized, an embodiment of causality itself-
Was severed!
Cut off at the base!
Disconnected from its owner, the great hand gripping Chiya's soul was instantly burned into nothingness by the intense heat upon that soul.
And behind the Third.
"AAAAARGH-!!!"
The enormous Death God's apparition suddenly threw back his head and let out an agonized scream.
There were no sound waves, yet it exploded directly in the minds of everyone present, making their souls tremble.
The Death God clutched the stump of his severed right arm. No blood flowed from the wound; instead, great quantities of black mist poured out. His once-greedy eyes now brimmed with unprecedented fear.
He was afraid!
As a product of the laws that harvested souls, he experienced the terror of being harvested himself for the first time!
That human holding the sword... wasn't human! He was a Death God of a higher order!
Without the slightest hesitation.
Without even bothering to keep hold of the short blade clenched between his teeth.
Amid his screams, the injured Death God's apparition rapidly faded into black smoke. Disregarding any contract, he tore open a spatial rift and fled back to the Pure Land in utter disgrace!
He fled faster than a rabbit, terrified that a single second's delay would let that madman with the flaming sword hack him to death!
"This..."
"This..."
The chilling wind abruptly ceased.
Space returned to normal.
Only Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi remained, his hands still pressed together in the pose with which he had prepared to take Chiya down with him.
But the Death God behind him had already fled.
Not only had he fled, he had lost an arm.
"???"
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as though his brain had stopped working.
He stared blankly at Chiya, then at the empty space behind himself, before lowering his gaze to the bloody hole left in his abdomen by the interrupted jutsu.
His understanding of the world collapsed.
Completely and utterly.
That was the Reaper Death Seal!
A forbidden technique capable of sealing even the Nine-Tails, the strongest tailed beast!
The power of a law that even the First and Second Hokage, brought back through Impure World Reincarnation, could not resist!
How could it... be severed with a single slash?
Physically cutting through a sealing jutsu?
Physically driving away the Death God?
"Am... am I dreaming?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered, his voice so weak that he sounded delirious. "Why... why would the Death God flee? Why can a mortal's sword sever a god's arm?"
"This makes no sense... it defies the principles of ninjutsu..."
"Principles?"
Chiya slowly descended from the air, coming to stand just five meters from the Third.
His soul had returned perfectly to its place. Although he had reined in his reiatsu, the lingering might of his strike against a god made him appear even more sacred and untouchable.
Ryūjin Jakka remained unsheathed in his hand, its tip pointing toward the ground, still dripping nonexistent "divine blood."
"Old Third, you've stayed in this village too long. Your vision has been obscured by this tiny patch of leaves."
"Your so-called principles are nothing but the weak comforting themselves."
"Before true power, laws? The strong are the ones who make them!"
Chiya walked toward the spent Hiruzen Sarutobi, each step like a countdown to death.
"Your Death God doesn't seem very useful. He abandoned you and ran."
"Now, have you played all your trump cards?"
"What else do you have? The Five Elements Seal? The Four Red Yang Formation? Or... are you going to kneel and beg?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi swayed, then dropped to his knees with a thud.
He was not begging for mercy. His body could no longer support him after the excessive expenditure of his life force and the sealing jutsu's backlash.
Although the Death God had fled without taking his soul, the life force he had sacrificed could not be recovered. Between the grievous wound in his abdomen and his mental collapse, he was already half dead.
"Chiya..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his head. The anger had vanished from his eyes, leaving only profound fear and bewilderment.
"Who... exactly... are you?"
"The Uchiha... couldn't possibly possess such power..."
This was completely beyond the scope of ninjutsu!
It was practically an entirely different system of power!
Chiya stopped before the Third and looked down at the old man who had once commanded such influence.
"Who am I?"
Chiya smiled, a hint of mockery toward this rotten world in his expression.
"I'm simply an Uchiha clansman you people drove into a corner."
"An... avenger who has come to claim your lives."
"Well, are you finished with your last words?"
Chiya raised his sword.
Golden flames ignited along its edge once more.
"Since your Death God won't take you, allow me, this 'Death God,' to send you on your final journey."
"Don't worry. My fire works quickly."
"There won't be any pain."
"Stop!!"
In the distance, Hyuga Hiashi and the others finally came to their senses and cried out in horror.
Although they could not see the Death God, they saw the Third Hokage kneeling on the ground, and Chiya raising his killing blade!
That was the Hokage!
If the Hokage was executed here, Konoha's backbone would truly be broken!
"Save Lord Hokage!!"
Hyuga Hiashi, Shikaku Nara, Akimichi Chōza... all of Konoha's elite suppressed their fear at that moment and charged desperately toward them.
Even knowing they were rushing to their deaths, they could not stand by and watch their Kage die before their eyes!
"Too slow."
Chiya did not even turn his head.
Before the rescuers could reach him, Ryūjin Jakka descended mercilessly, bearing the will of judgment.
"The Hokage's era is over."
"Goodbye, Hiruzen Sarutobi."
Slice-!
Golden sword light swept through the night sky, cleaving not only flesh, but an era.
For that instant, time seemed to freeze.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's body stiffened. Those dazzling flames reflected in his eyes, and in his last lingering awareness there remained only boundless worry for Konoha's future, along with the words he never managed to utter-
I'm sorry...
BOOM!!!
The flames erupted.
Before everyone's despairing eyes, the Third Hokage's body was instantly consumed by Ryūjin Jakka's intense heat. There was no corpse, no blood-only ashes scattering on the wind, disappearing into the ruins of this cruel shinobi world along with his unfulfilled "will of fire."
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing the "Shinobi Hero"-Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi!] [Achievement unlocked: Shadow Slayer! The Shinobi World trembles!] [System performing final tally...] [Congratulations! You have received:...]
The system's notification chimed right on cue, a triumphant anthem of victory.
Chiya stood amid sparks swirling through the air and turned to face the Konoha shinobi, who had stopped in their tracks, their faces ashen.
He flicked his blade, the gesture effortless and cold.
"Who's... next?"
Before you continue