"More... complete..." Madara Uchiha gritted his teeth.
"Yes, more complete." The Old Woman was still smiling. "Trials can deepen love, can't they, Madara Uchiha...?"
The Old Woman's elegant, calm, utterly absorbed voice made Madara Uchiha's brow furrow.
Shock shot from his head to his toes in an instant. Humiliated and furious, Madara Uchiha growled, "Bastard," and reached toward the Old Woman again.
This time, however, the Old Woman did not passively take the blow as she had before.
"Wait, Madara-" Yanbai wanted to stop him, but it was already too late.
The Old Woman did not move, yet Madara Uchiha was crushed against the wall behind him as though an invisible wall had pressed him there.
Even though Madara Uchiha himself made no sound, the wall cried out in his place.
The wall's silent scream became vivid in their ears.
Madara Uchiha's body had barely slammed into the floor.
With a thunderous crash, a powerful rumble surged toward Yanbai. He rushed to Madara Uchiha and blocked the next wave of attacks for him.
It was as though the sun had exploded in the center of the room.
Everything before their eyes turned white.
The strange vibrations and scorching air brought unbearable pain.
The Old Woman had clearly not moved at all.
Yet a strange, violent tremor rose through Yanbai's feet and shook his internal organs, while the shock wave tore everything in the room to pieces.
Amid the ruins, where any ordinary person would surely have died, came the grinding sound of clenched teeth.
"Stop, Great-Grandmother."
Yanbai knelt on one knee in front of the fallen Madara Uchiha. His clothes had vanished completely, exposing a beautiful body unlike that of an ordinary person.
Smoke rose from Yanbai's entire body. His eyes were icy, as though declaring that this was not