The black lightning pierced through everything, letting out one last shrill screech before abruptly vanishing.
Uesugi Sasuke stood where he was, panting heavily. The Six-Tomoe Rinnegan in his left eye and the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in his right were searing his optic nerves, and two trails of bloody tears slid down his cheeks, dripping onto the shattered ground.
Exhausted. So fucking exhausted.
This body still didn't have nearly enough chakra. That single Kagutsuchi Blade had drained almost seventy percent of his chakra. Combining the two ultimate nature transformations of Amaterasu and Lightning Release had placed a far greater burden on his body and ocular power than he had imagined.
Only he could have managed it. Anyone else would probably have been drained into a dried-up husk on the spot.
Sasuke raised his head and looked ahead.
Kokushibo was still standing.
A massive hole with charred edges pierced his chest. Countless tiny arcs of black electricity leaped within the wound, preventing his flesh from regenerating. The inextinguishable black flames of Amaterasu were spreading from that hole across his entire body.
For the first time, the Demon Progenitor's cells seemed so powerless when it came to regeneration.
Kokushibo lowered his head, all six eyes fixed motionlessly on the wound that would not heal. He gave no scream of pain, no furious roar. He simply stood there quietly, like a stone statue weathering away.
"It's over." Sasuke's voice was hoarse.
He had no strength left to deliver another slash, but there was no need. Amaterasu would finish the job.
Cracks began appearing across Kokushibo's body, like pottery fired incorrectly. He slowly raised his head, his six eyes spanning hundreds of years of time and space as he looked at Sasuke. Yet there was no longer any killing intent in his gaze, nor any