"The world's will??!!?! Lord Ōkuninushi, you mean... the Shinobi World... is alive!!!! Alive!!! Konan, Nagato!! The Shinobi World is alive!!!"
Yahiko could not help exclaiming in shock. He looked at the ground beneath his feet and felt his skin crawl.
If the world was alive... then what were they???
"Surprising, isn't it? We were surprised too, but we could sense it unmistakably. That was the Will of the World. That feeling of closeness... it was the being that created my father and the others."
Ōkuninushi spoke quietly, unmistakable terror in his eyes.
"Lord Ōkuninushi... why... are you afraid?"
Sensing Ōkuninushi's emotions, Yahiko was puzzled. Hadn't he said he felt a sense of closeness? Why was he afraid?
"Because... Shibai Ōtsutsuki's consciousness still existed within the Calamity Tree, and this time, the target of his possession... had become the World Consciousness itself.
He wanted... to use the power of a world to elevate himself! He... wanted to achieve that so-called Ascension!! So, in truth, he had never truly failed from the very beginning.
Everything I told you earlier was really nothing more than his scheme. Through Shibai Ōtsutsuki's power, the Calamity Tree and his consciousness completely merged with the world's consciousness.
The world... changed completely as a result. What had once been a relatively peaceful world was utterly overturned. The climate grew chaotic, and the land was ravaged.
Almost every piece of land suitable for human habitation began suffering all manner of disasters, and these changes naturally drew the attention of that deity who wielded Shibai Ōtsutsuki's power.
In her eyes, the entire world belonged to her. Naturally, she could not allow Shibai Ōtsutsuki to sacrifice the whole world to achieve his own leap to a higher form of life, so she intervened.
I don't know what happened after that... I