"My blade hasn't even warmed up yet."
Chiya's casual words echoed through the rainy night, yet struck like a sledgehammer against Nagato's already wavering "heart of a god."
Asura Path had been sliced apart, and Preta Path had been burst from within.
The coordinated tactics that the Six Paths of Pain took such pride in seemed utterly powerless before this young Uchiha.
"If taijutsu and ninjutsu absorption are both useless..."
Floating in the air, Deva Path Pain narrowed his Rinnegan slightly and issued a new command through the curtain of rain to Animal Path below.
"Then overwhelm him with numbers!"
"Animal Path! Summon them all!"
"Summoning Technique: Rinnegan Amplification!"
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!
Several enormous clouds of white smoke erupted once again across the already devastated tower platform. But instead of dispersing, the smoke rapidly swelled, as though something inside were forcing it apart.
"ROOOAR!!!"
With a series of deafening roars, several colossal beasts appeared out of thin air!
The first to charge out of the smoke was a Hell Multi-Headed Dog as enormous as a small mountain. It had three hideous heads, thick fluid oozed over its body, and every beat of the wings on its back whipped up a foul-smelling gale.
Next, a giant Utakata Crab bearing a heavy shell barreled out. With each sweep of its massive pincers, it sheared through the surrounding steel structures as easily as slicing tofu.
A piercing shriek rang out overhead.
A Yatagarasu with a wingspan exceeding fifty meters spiraled down, its sharp beak gleaming coldly, ready to dive and peck at the prey below.
And that was not all.
A Chameleon, a Rhinoceros, a Bull...
Within just a few breaths, Animal Path had summoned six or seven giant summoning beasts, each comparable in size to a tailed beast!
The entire tower platform instantly became hopelessly crowded.
The enormous beasts formed an impenetrable ring, trapping Chiya's tiny figure at its center. Their looming presence blotted out the sky, exerting enough pressure to make any ordinary ninja suffer a mental breakdown on the spot.
"Wh-what are these things..."
Hidden behind distant cover, Sasuke went completely rigid.
He tilted his head back and stared blankly at the drooling Multi-Headed Dog. A single one of its fangs was larger than his entire body!
"This isn't a fight between ninja at all..."
"It's practically... a Monster Brawl!"
Uchiha Izumi was pale too, her fingers whitening as she gripped her kunai far too tightly. Before these primordial giants, the human body seemed so small and fragile.
"Chiya... can he win?"
Even Izumi's voice trembled.
Although she had witnessed Chiya's strength, instinctive fear still gained the upper hand in the face of such overwhelming numbers and size.
And yet.
Chiya's reaction, standing at the center of the beasts' encirclement, defied everyone's expectations.
He neither dodged nor showed the slightest panic.
Quite the opposite.
As he looked around at the summoning beasts roaring, drooling, and waving their massive pincers, he suddenly... smiled.
It was the satisfied smile of someone gazing upon a lavish dinner.
"Crab, wild dog, roast bird, beef..."
Chiya ran his tongue over his slightly dry lips. Rather than fading, the red gleam in his eyes burned even brighter.
"Nagato, you're far too kind."
"You knew I was tired from fighting, so you sent all these 'ingredients' right to my doorstep?"
"Ingredients?"
Deva Path Pain snorted from above. "Still talking tough on the brink of death."
"Attack! Tear him apart!"
ROOOAR!!!
At Deva Path's command, all the summoning beasts attacked simultaneously!
The Hell Multi-Headed Dog struck first, all three heads opening their bloody maws as it snapped viciously at Chiya amid a foul gust.
The Yatagarasu plunged from the sky, driving its sharp beak downward like a drill.
The giant crab spewed vast amounts of foam, attempting to obstruct Chiya's vision and movement.
It was a lethal trap.
Not a single blind spot remained!
"Chiya! Run!!" Sasuke shouted in despair.
"Run?"
Chiya stood his ground, watching the giant beasts converge from every direction as he slowly plunged Ryūjin Jakka into the ground beneath his feet.
"At my dinner table, 'running' has never been an option."
"Only... how well done."
HMMMM!!!
At the very instant those countless bloody maws were about to reach Chiya.
Chiya sharply twisted his hand on the sword's hilt.
"All things in the universe, turn to ashes!"
"Ryūjin Jakka: Fire Rejection!!!"
BOOOOOM!!!!
Time seemed to stretch at that moment.
An indescribable ring-shaped shock wave of golden-red flames exploded outward in every direction, centered on Ryūjin Jakka!
This was not merely fire.
It was an absolute repulsion field formed from high-density reiatsu combined with extreme heat!
Any substance that dared approach this ring would instantly suffer a devastating blow!
"Awroo?!"
The vicious expression of the Hell Multi-Headed Dog charging at the front instantly froze.
Its prized immortal body, which "split whenever attacked," became a joke at that moment.
Because splitting required injury, whereas now, it was "disappearing"!
The golden ring of fire struck its body with neither cutting force nor impact, only pure, extreme heat reaching thousands of degrees!
Sssss!
Before the Multi-Headed Dog could even scream, the fur, flesh, and bones of its three heads vaporized the instant they touched the fiery ring!
Its body tried to split, but before new cells could grow, the even greater heat burned them straight to charcoal!
"What?!"
To his horror, Nagato discovered that the Multi-Headed Dog's chakra signature... had vanished!
Next came the Yatagarasu.
It died just as quickly as it dived.
Whoosh!
It was like a moth plunging headfirst into magma. Its enormous wings ignited instantly, followed by its entire body turning into a giant fireball. It let out a piercing death cry in midair before becoming a heap of black ash that scattered on the wind.
"Gurgle..."
The giant crab met an even more gruesome fate.
Its incredibly tough shell, which even explosive tags could not blast open, instantly turned red-hot under Fire Rejection's extreme heat.
Then...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A rapid series of explosions erupted inside its shell.
The moisture within its body had boiled instantly, producing high-pressure steam that burst it apart from within!
It had truly become... steamed crab!
In just two seconds.
Everything within five hundred meters of Chiya became a golden inferno.
Every summoning beast, whether armored, flying, invisible, or capable of splitting.
All were reduced by the eruption of "Fire Rejection" to charred corpses that still burned!
Flames towered into the sky.
Waves of heat rolled outward.
Before that scorching heat, Amegakure's ceaseless rain evaporated into clouds of white mist, making the entire battlefield resemble a paradise even as it reeked of hellish char.
"Urgh..."
In the distance, Sasuke caught the mixture of fragrant meat and scorched flesh drifting through the air. His stomach churned, and he nearly vomited.
It was too brutal!
How was this a battle?
It was plainly a one-sided... slaughter!
"How is this possible..."
Animal Path Pain stood rooted in place, staring blankly at the sea of fire before him. For the first time, bewilderment appeared in his Rinnegan.
His army of summons... had been wiped out?
With one move?
They had not even lasted a minute?
"Th-this is his fire?"
Nagato's real body sat in his wheelchair, coughing violently as a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Although the summoning beasts had been summoned, maintaining them consumed enormous amounts of chakra. Their total annihilation in an instant dealt him tremendous backlash.
"Phew..."
At the center of the sea of flames.
Chiya slowly withdrew Ryūjin Jakka from the ground.
Like obedient children, the surrounding flames gradually subsided with his movement, leaving only charcoal strewn across the vitrified ground.
He stepped on the skull of an enormous beast whose original form could no longer be recognized, producing a crisp crack.
Crack.
Chiya walked out of the smoke, step by step.
He was still dressed entirely in black, without so much as a speck of dust on him.
He looked at the three remaining figures before him-Deva Path, Human Path, and Naraka Path-as well as Animal Path, who had become a commander without an army.
"What? Feeling the loss already?"
Chiya kicked aside a scorched crab pincer at his feet and shook his head, looking as though he had not had his fill.
"I overdid the heat a little."
"But it's just right for dog food."
"Too bad your dog died too."
Chiya raised his blade. The flames still dancing at its tip seemed to mock the god's helplessness.
He advanced a step, and his abyssal, hellish reiatsu forced Animal Path to retreat a step involuntarily.
"Nagato, almost all your toys are broken now."
"What other tricks do you have?"
"Chibaku Tensei? Or that Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?"
The red light in Chiya's eyes surged, his voice as cold as ice:
"Stop holding back."
"Use them all at once."
"Otherwise, by the time I reach you..."
"You won't even have a chance to regret it."
Deva Path Pain floated in midair, looking down at this demonlike boy.
This time, he said nothing more.
Because he knew that words were powerless before absolute strength.
Conventional methods had failed completely.
To defeat this monster, his only option was to use that "divine technique," powerful enough to destroy everything, but accompanied by enormous risk.
Deva Path Pain slowly ascended, rising higher and higher until he overlooked all of Amegakure.
His arms gradually spread, as though embracing the entire world-or pronouncing its end.
"Chiya Uchiha."
"Since you insist on witnessing the power of a god..."
"Then I shall grant your wish."
"Feel pain..."
"Contemplate pain..."
"Accept pain..."
"Chibaku... Tensei!!!"
BOOOOOM!!!
At that moment, the earth shattered completely.
Before you continue