"Master Jiraiya, this is our final farewell. Turn to dust before a god."
Deva Path Pain's utterly emotionless voice echoed through the empty, ruined steel tower. He raised the black metal rod in his hand, its surface gleaming with a cold light, aimed it at the heart of Jiraiya, who lay in a pool of blood, completely unable to resist, and thrust down with ruthless force!
Jiraiya closed his eyes in despair. In that moment, countless images flashed through his mind. Orochimaru's defection, Tsunade's tears, and that idiot Naruto, who was still shouting about becoming Hokage back in Konoha. Jiraiya's only regret was that he had failed to send the intelligence about the abilities of the Six Paths of Pain back to Konoha.
Sorry, Tsunade. Looks like I won't be coming back to drink with you... Jiraiya sighed silently.
But at the critical instant when that lethal black rod was less than a centimeter from Jiraiya's heart!
Boom!!!
The exceptionally sturdy steel dome above the tower was suddenly blasted open, a massive hole torn through it by a terrifying, indescribable brute force! Steel fragments rained down from above.
Accompanied by an ear-splitting sonic boom, a black afterimage descended beside Jiraiya like a thunderbolt from the heavens, moving at a terrifying speed utterly beyond the limits of human vision!
Deva Path Pain's perpetually unchanging Rinnegan suddenly contracted. His vision blurred for an instant, and the wrist of his hand holding the black rod, which should have pierced Jiraiya's heart, was suddenly locked in the grip of a hand like an iron clamp.
That hand looked pale and slender, but the force coming from it was as immense as an entire primordial sacred mountain bearing down! Deva Path Pain tried to force the black rod downward, but no matter how he channeled