The once dark, gloomy sky had become impossibly clear, without a cloud in sight. It was not because the weather had improved, but because the clash between those two towering gods and demons, each hundreds of meters tall, had punched straight through the atmosphere.
Sunlight poured down unhindered onto the devastated, scorched earth, yet brought not even a trace of warmth.
Everyone was trembling.
Even the allied forces of the Five Great Nations, sheltered more than ten kilometers away behind multiple defensive barriers, were knocked off balance by the shock waves.
"Is... is this the power of a god?"
Ōnoki lay on Akatsuchi's back, staring up at the two giants standing between heaven and earth in the distance. The shrewdness that once filled his aged eyes was gone, replaced by the blank terror of someone looking at an unknown creature.
Before those two behemoths, the Dust Release he took such pride in probably would not even qualify to trim their toenails.
At the center of the battlefield.
The purple-and-gold Susanoo and the blue statue-clad Susanoo remained locked blade to blade.
The ground beneath their feet was long gone, replaced by a vast, bottomless crater whose edges were still collapsing. Magma churned below, releasing the acrid stench of sulfur.
"Hahahaha! Good! Very good!"
Madara Uchiha stood at the blue giant's brow with his arms folded. Far from being angered by their evenly matched exchange, he threw back his head and laughed wildly.
His laughter pierced through Susanoo's chakra cloak, making the surrounding air hum.
"This feeling! This pressure!"
Madara abruptly lowered his head, an almost tangible frenzy for battle burning in his Gray-Brown Impure World Rinnegan.
"Other than Hashirama, you're the first person in decades who could take that slash of mine and still stand firm!"
"Chiya Uchiha!"
"You've earned the