"Shengu Xuan... a heretic like you should never have existed in this world. Since conventional power cannot erase you, I'll show you a god's true wrath!" Deva Path Pain's hoarse voice echoed through the deep crater, carrying a chilling resolve.
Meanwhile, inside a hidden tower several kilometers from the battlefield.
The light was extremely dim, and the air reeked of medicine and rust. A skeletal, red-haired man who resembled a dried corpse sat within an enormous mechanical apparatus. Countless black metal rods covered his back, tightly connected to the machinery, constantly drawing chakra from his body.
This man was Nagato-the true leader of the Akatsuki and the controller behind the Six Paths of Pain.
"Pfft-!" Nagato suddenly pitched forward, spraying a mouthful of vivid crimson blood onto the mechanical console before him. His purple Rinnegan were horribly bloodshot, and tiny wounds had even split open at the corners of his eyes.
"Nagato! Stop! Your body can't withstand this level of chakra depletion anymore!" Konan, who had been keeping watch beside him, turned deathly pale at the sight. She rushed forward recklessly, trying to disconnect Nagato from the machinery. She knew that when Deva Path Pain's Shinra Tensei had been forcibly shattered, the terrifying backlash had traveled through the chakra network and struck Nagato's real body head-on.
Nagato raised a hand with extreme weakness, stopping Konan. He gasped in great gulps, his chest heaving like a worn-out bellows that might fall apart at any moment.
"I can't stop... Konan... that Shengu Xuan... he isn't human at all..." Nagato's voice trembled violently, filled with unprecedented terror and despair.
Through Deva Path Pain's vision, Nagato had clearly sensed the power Shengu Xuan had just unleashed. As someone who possessed the Rinnegan and proclaimed himself the god of the Shinobi World, Nagato's perception of