"Now this is-Divine Punishment."
Chiya's indifferent, arrogant voice pierced through Chibaku Tensei's terrifying pull, ringing clearly in everyone's ears.
The Ryūjin Jakka in his hand no longer burned with its usual golden flames.
The blade seemed to merge with the void, becoming transparent yet fathomlessly deep, but the reiatsu surging over it was more concentrated and ancient than ever before.
It was a destructive power that seemed to date back to the dawn of creation.
"Chiya Uchiha! You can stay sealed inside this moon forever!"
Deva Path Pain floated high in the sky, his Rinnegan gleaming with confidence and grim resolve.
Chibaku Tensei was the Rinnegan's most powerful Sealing Jutsu.
The immense pull generated by its gravitational core forcibly tore rocks, soil, and even buildings from the ground for several kilometers around, gathering them around the core to form an indestructible, enormous sphere!
Once complete, this "artificial moon" would float in the sky, becoming a permanent seal.
Even a tailed beast could not break free!
Rumble-!!!
Under Deva Path Pain's full control, Chibaku Tensei suddenly accelerated.
The immense pull dragged relentlessly at Chiya's body. The entire platform of the High Tower beneath him, along with the surviving buildings in half of Amegakure, was forcibly hauled toward the pitch-black gravitational core, converging in the sky at an unbelievable speed.
Caught in that terrifying gravitational pull, Sasuke and Izumi clung desperately to steel reinforcing bars in the ground, barely keeping themselves from being swept away.
They watched in despair as countless howling boulders, metal fragments, dirt, and dust enveloped Chiya's figure, layer after layer.
The enormous black sphere expanded and closed at a visible pace, forming a gigantic ball of rock several kilometers in diameter, its surface bristling with jagged stones!
It hovered in the night sky above Amegakure like a newborn little moon, radiating death.
"It's over..."
Sasuke stared at the "moon" slowly rotating in the sky and slumped to the ground in despair.
"Is this the power of a god...?"
"Has Chiya... been sealed away?"
Izumi's eyes filled with tears as well.
She knew Chiya was strong-unimaginably strong.
But Chibaku Tensei was a jutsu that the legendary Sage of Six Paths had once used! It was an absolute seal that even Kage Level fighters could not withstand!
No matter how powerful Chiya was, he was still flesh and blood. How could he possibly escape a seal of this magnitude?!
"It worked!"
Nagato's real body panted violently in the darkness as searing pain tore through him again.
Controlling Chibaku Tensei placed an enormous burden on both his chakra and his body.
But he had succeeded.
He had finally sealed that arrogant Chiya Uchiha with his own hands.
"Hmph."
Deva Path Pain gazed at the enormous "moon" in the sky, his Rinnegan gleaming with cold satisfaction.
"Even the strongest mortal is nothing but dust before a god."
"Chiya Uchiha, you will remain imprisoned within that sphere until your life reaches its end."
"That is the price of blasphemy."
However.
The very next second after Deva Path Pain finished speaking.
Something suddenly changed!
The enormous rocky sphere that had just formed and hung in Amegakure's night sky.
Suddenly.
Began turning red!
It was not merely a change in its surface color. A blood-red glow shone from within, inspiring a heart-stopping dread!
Sizzle-!
Immediately afterward.
Countless cracks began appearing across the sphere's incredibly hard rocky surface!
Beams of golden light shot from those fissures like rays of doomsday judgment!
It resembled an egg heated red-hot, crushed furiously from within by an invisible force and about to burst!
"What?!!"
Deva Path Pain's pupils contracted sharply, and his face instantly filled with incredulous horror.
"What is this?!"
"Why is Chibaku Tensei turning red?!"
He could feel a terrifying heat that chakra could not explain erupting exponentially from inside the rocky sphere. The temperature was so high that even the Chakra Threads connected to him began to destabilize, sending searing pain through him!
"No... impossible!"
Nagato's real body thrashed violently in his wheelchair as he cried out in despair.
Chibaku Tensei was an absolute seal! In theory, chakra and power within it would be suppressed to the utmost. Such a powerful counterattack should have been impossible!
Unless...
Unless this power had already transcended chakra itself!
"Nagato..."
Just then.
A deep voice filled with destructive intent rang clearly from inside the burning rocky sphere.
"Your understanding of power..."
"Is far too shallow."
Hum-!!!
As Chiya spoke.
A dazzling point of utterly pure white light suddenly appeared at the center of the burning rocky sphere!
It was neither flame nor chakra.
It was reiatsu.
Compressed to its utmost limit, even surpassing the limits of Ryūjin Jakka's Shikai...
It was the nascent power of Bankai: Zanka no Tachi!
"A mere Chibaku Tensei..."
"Cannot hold me."
"Nagato, now I'll show you..."
"What true Divine Punishment looks like!"
Chiya's voice rang throughout Amegakure like the tolling bells of judgment.
The next second.
Boom-!!!!
The enormous rocky sphere, its core blazing white, suddenly unleashed a golden heat ray powerful enough to pierce heaven and earth!
That ray was no ordinary flame. It was pure energy, produced by concentrating all of Ryūjin Jakka's heat into a single point at the blade's tip, then releasing it with the utmost explosive force!
This was the move Chiya had just unlocked: [Zanka no Tachi: North-Tenchi Kaijin (Pseudo)!]
Its very concept was to reduce everything to ashes!
No matter how hard Chibaku Tensei's rocks were, they could not withstand destruction on a conceptual level!
Szzzz-!
Like a sharp sword through tofu, the golden heat ray pierced straight through the entire rocky sphere from within, meeting no resistance whatsoever!
From its core to its outer shell!
"No!!"
Deva Path Pain shouted in despair.
He felt Chibaku Tensei's gravitational core being utterly destroyed the instant the heat ray pierced it!
Without the gravitational core to hold it together.
The enormous rocky sphere, previously bound so tightly.
Suddenly halted in midair.
Then.
Crack-!
Cracks spread swiftly in every direction from the hole pierced by the heat ray, covering the entire sphere!
Then.
Rumble, rumble-!!!!
A thunderous blast rang out, powerful enough to shatter everything in the world.
The "artificial moon" that had just formed in the night sky over the Land of Rain exploded in an instant!!!
Countless enormous fragments of burning rock hurtled down from the sky like an apocalyptic meteor shower, trailing long tails of fire!
Carrying terrifying kinetic energy, they slammed into the ground of Amegakure, unleashing one deafening crash after another!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At that moment, all of Amegakure became a true hell.
Streets were torn apart, buildings were pierced through, flames surged into the sky, and explosions rang out without end.
The sudden shock wave left Sasuke and Izumi dazed and reeling. They scrambled behind a pile of collapsed rubble, barely escaping with their lives.
They looked up at the sky.
The enormous "moon" had vanished.
All that remained were flames dancing across the sky and, standing proudly at their center... a figure in black.
Chiya.
He floated in midair, his robes snapping in the fierce wind.
A faint glimmer of white light still flickered at the tip of Ryūjin Jakka in his hand.
That strike had exhausted all his reiatsu.
But its effect... was enough to make every "god" in the world tremble!
"Cough, cough... urgh!"
Deva Path Pain fell from the sky and slammed heavily into the ground. The violent impact made him cough up another mouthful of blood.
Trembling, he raised his head to look at the man who resembled a god or demon.
He had lost.
The attacks of the Six Paths of Pain had been utterly destroyed, one after another, in the most brutal, domineering way possible.
The Super Shinra Tensei he had been so proud of had been cleaved apart with a single slash.
His final trump card, Chibaku Tensei, had been blasted apart from within!
This power...
Had completely surpassed Nagato's understanding!
"A god...?"
Chiya slowly descended, pointing Ryūjin Jakka at Deva Path Pain, who lay collapsed on the ground with horror written across his face.
"Nagato, do you still think..."
"You're a god?"
A cold smile appeared on Chiya's face.
"Now..."
"It's time to meet your real body."
He stepped forward, ignoring the meteor shower still falling around him and the raging sea of fire.
He had only one destination-the structure at the very center of Amegakure-
The High Tower!
That fortress of steel symbolizing a "god's" power and ambition.
Before you continue