Shihōin Naraku stood where he was and quietly listened to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's declaration to the end.
The hem of his Hokage robes billowed in the wind, but his feet did not budge.
He held Kurikara across his body, the blade's dim gleam silently confronting the golden light in Isshiki's eye in midair.
"Everything you've got?"
Naraku repeated the words, the corner of his mouth curving upward.
The smile on his face vanished so quickly that anyone watching might have wondered whether their eyes had deceived them.
"Then let me see whether everything you've got... amounts to anything."
As his words fell, Kurikara's edge traced a sharp arc through the air, pointing diagonally toward the ground.
Only the wind and two pairs of eyes locked on each other remained between heaven and earth.
Shihōin Naraku stood with his sword held across his body, his feet planted on the cracked ground and his gaze fixed on the pale figure a hundred meters away.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki drew a deep breath, then moved without the slightest pause.
His body vanished from where he stood almost that very instant.
Naraku's pupils contracted slightly.
Fast!
Isshiki's speed had risen by more than a single level.
After reincarnating, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki had become several times faster, and Naraku only had time to bring Kurikara across his chest.
The next second, Isshiki's knife-hand slammed into the blade.
Metal collided with flesh with a deep, thunderous crash.
The ground beneath Naraku caved in with a boom. Rock within a radius of over ten meters shattered into powder and exploded outward, as though struck by an invisible giant hammer.
The force traveled along Kurikara's blade into Naraku's arms, his muscles bulging and veins throbbing beneath his skin.
"You blocked it?" Isshiki's voice sounded as though it had been forced through clenched