The space before him underwent an extraordinarily complex folding in that instant. The once-flat space twisted into layer upon layer of onion-like folds, each equivalent to a stretch of "compressed" distance.
The enormous God Tree spear crashed down, but the instant it touched the first spatial fold, it was as though it had struck an invisible wall that kept retreating. Its advance slowed drastically, and as it passed through fold after fold, its energy was continually dispersed, refracted, and absorbed.
By the time it finally passed through every fold and reached Sōkyū Hatake, the terrifyingly powerful spear, originally over ten meters in diameter, had shrunk to less than the width of a bucket, and most of its energy had dimmed.
Sōkyū Hatake reached out and gently closed his hand.
The remaining, severely weakened pillar of energy shattered like fragile glass in his palm and dissipated into purple energy fragments that filled the sky, drifting slowly down through the hot wind.
"...Spatial folds? Distorting space with an electromagnetic field?" Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's brow furrowed slightly, then smoothed again. "An interesting ability. But this is only the beginning."
He abruptly brought his hands together, palms facing each other, forming a gesture like a prayer.
"God Tree: Root System Rampage!"
The rift in the sky expanded again! This time, roots no longer slowly reached out. Instead, countless purple roots poured from the rift like floodwaters bursting through a dam! Like countless hungry serpents, they frantically coiled toward the ground, spreading and covering everything!
Within mere seconds, those purple roots completely obscured the entire sky, cutting off all sunlight and leaving only mottled purple light and shadows filtering through the gaps between them.
The desert became a hellish landscape covered in purple roots.
After touching the sand, those roots began frantically drawing in energy! They