As Kaguya's voice faded, the world changed.
There was no warning, no hand seals, not even a prelude of Chakra fluctuations. The battlefield on Turtle Island beneath Shengu Xuan's feet, blasted full of holes, along with the smoke still drifting through the sky overhead, collapsed inward from every direction like a crumpled painting.
All color drained away in an instant.
In its place was an endless expanse of deep, dark red.
The ground was red, the sky was red, and the soil underfoot had cracked into tortoiseshell-like fragments. A scorching, rusty smell filled the air, as though he were standing on the surface of a slowly dying planet.
"Amenominaka." Kaguya's voice came from every direction, as though this entire space were her throat. "One of my six spaces, the Primordial Space."
Shengu Xuan stood where he was, glanced down at the dark red earth beneath his feet, then looked up at the sun giving off a sickly red glow and wrinkled his nose.
"What kind of taste is this? Red on red? Looks like a darkroom."
He turned his head. Kaguya stood ten meters away, her white robe perfectly still in the windless space, her pale purple eyes watching him coldly.
Her body was still translucent, and the phantoms of her two horns were unstable, but the aura she radiated in this space was noticeably stronger than it had been on Turtle Island.
"Home-field advantage?" Shengu Xuan raised an eyebrow. "You dragged me into your territory so you could use the space itself to make up for your missing Chakra?"
Kaguya did not deny it. She simply raised her right hand and spread her fingers.
The entire Primordial Space responded to her movement. The dark red earth beneath them began to crack and heave. What surged from the fissures was