The purple light in Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's eyes grew ever brighter.
"Sōkyū Hatake..." He spoke the name as though weighing its significance. "The lord of Rōran... the man who has had the entire world dancing in the palm of his hand these past two years... so he already has his sights on the Otsutsuki."
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki slowly rose to his feet. As his gaunt body straightened, his bones grated with sharp cracks, like a thousand-year-old corpse stirring back to life. Yet the light in his eyes was terrifyingly bright.
"Three Otsutsuki... all in his hands..." he murmured to himself. "That means he has three Kāma samples. Momoshiki Otsutsuki's, Urashiki Otsutsuki's, and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's... if he really has deciphered the secrets of Kāma..."
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki did not continue. But he understood the consequences better than anyone.
The Ōtsutsuki Clan's power was not inherently impossible to replicate. Once someone grasped Kāma's encoding rules, it was theoretically possible to create artificial Otsutsuki, or even... artificial God Tree Fruits.
If that man named Sōkyū Hatake really had reached that point, not only would Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's revenge plan be utterly ruined, but the foundations of the entire Ōtsutsuki Clan might be shaken.
"He cannot be allowed to continue." Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's gaze turned cold and resolute. "I must... reclaim those three Kāma. At the very least, they cannot be left in that man's hands."
He raised his right hand, and a miniature Kāma mark made of energy appeared in his palm. It was his sole remaining connection to Momoshiki Otsutsuki and Urashiki Otsutsuki! Though faint, it was enough for him to sense their approximate locations and conditions.
"They're all in Rōran... all in that man's stronghold..." Ōtsutsuki Isshiki pondered for a moment. "Force my way in? In my current state, I might not win. But if I