Kapitel 123: 122. (Read my Other Novels!) Return to the Battlefield
Ryusei steadied himself on the fractured remains of a rooftop, the acrid scent of ozone and scorched stone biting at his nostrils. High above, the Herald of the convergence seethed with fury, its once-imposing silhouette fractured and leaking rivulets of black flame from deep cracks in its form. Ryusei's chest heaved, each breath pulling the sizzling air into his lungs, every muscle in his body thrumming with exhaustion. Yet something fierce glinted in his gaze—resolve, sharpened by years of traversing timelines and mastering the dual forces of Time and Void.
Below him, the Hidden Leaf Village lay in battered disarray. Crumbling walls, shattered watchtowers, and battered barricades all testified to the onslaught they had fought off time and again. But even as distant roars and the clash of jutsu reverberated through the labyrinth of broken streets, Ryusei felt the convergence's hateful pulse intensify, a dire herald of fresh horrors manifesting from rifts in the sky. They had injured the Herald, yes, but the battle for the Leaf was far from finished.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Minato, and Anon hovered nearby on ephemeral footholds of swirling chakra or dimensional steps. Their combined counterattack had nearly obliterated the monstrous orb the Herald had launched, but the backlash had left them all on the edge of their stamina. Ryusei's own aura flickered with the effort of sustaining advanced manipulations. Even so, the battered Herald glared with lethal intent, staff still raised in defiance.
Before anyone could launch another assault, Ryusei sensed something ripple through the storm-laden sky—a faint dimensional disturbance off to the west, near the battered remains of the village's outer rampart. He tensed, time sense prickling the back of his neck. The presence was wholly new, distinct from the Herald's aura, yet dripping with the same twisted energies that fueled the entire convergence.
"Something else is coming," he said, voice low but certain. Naruto and Sasuke turned at once, scanning the western horizon. Sakura's eyes flicked warily, while Minato clenched a kunai. The Herald, overhead, let out a hissing cackle.
"You face more than me," the Herald spat, black lightning arcing off its wounded flanks. "The convergence stirs new champions from endless realms. They come, drawn by your defiance, to feast on your precious home."
No sooner had those words echoed than a chorus of roars split the air. An entire battalion of monstrous silhouettes spilled from a fresh rift that tore itself open above the western wall. But at their forefront, a different figure emerged: tall and armored in warped plates of obsidian-like substance, each joint seeping smoky tendrils. Its helm crowned with twisted horns that seemed to shift shape in the flickering red gloom. A massive greatsword crackled with threads of ephemeral lightning, the blade's surface etched in runes that glowed an impossible, shifting color. Wherever this figure stepped, the ground itself fractured, reality shuddering to accommodate a presence that no normal dimension was meant to hold.
The monster-laden wave parted around the newcomer, as though acknowledging a higher rank. The figure raised its sword, and the legion halted mid-lunge, every abomination's face turned upward in a moment of collective dread. Then it spoke, its tone resonant and thick with centuries of scorn:
"Herald, you've grown careless. This realm should have yielded to the convergence by now."
A ragged growl rumbled from the Herald's wounded throat. "You doubt me, Knight of the Abyss? These pests have proven stubborn. I was about to finish them—"
"Silence," the new arrival cut in, scathing contempt lacing every syllable. "I do not answer to you. I answer only to the Will Beyond. And I see your incompetence writ large in your battered form." Its burning eyes drifted to Ryusei and the others, a slow grin forming. "No matter. I'll carve their realm into the Abyss. Let us see what feats these mortals can conjure."
Minato tensed. "Another commander," he muttered. "We can't let them coordinate."
Ryusei nodded, pulse hammering. The so-called Knight of the Abyss radiated a power that twisted time and space around its armor, making the air distort in shimmering waves. The legion behind it roiled like a dark ocean, ready to flood the battered village at a single command. Naruto's knuckles turned white on the handle of a newly forming Rasenshuriken, while Sasuke's eyes glowed fiercely, scanning for some weakness in the Knight's swirling energies. Sakura's luminous fists and illusions flickered, bracing for the inevitable rush. Anon, perched in the gloom behind them, vanished into living shadows to ready illusions for the next strike.
The Knight sneered, stepping forward. "Come then, mortals. My blade devours illusions. My armor laughs at jutsu. Show me how you cling to hope in the face of oblivion."
Without warning, it vanished, crossing the battlefield in a blink of fractal distortion. Ryusei barely managed to sense the time warp preceding its arrival; he jerked sideways, forging a barrier of compressed time. The Knight's greatsword slammed into it with a shriek, time folds splintering from the impact, scattering arcs of crackling black and red. Ryusei hissed in pain as feedback jolted up his arms. If not for his reflexes, that single strike might have carved him in half.
Naruto bellowed, launching his Rasenshuriken at the Knight's flank. The swirling mass of temporal-charged chakra hammered into the Knight's side, unleashing an explosion that slowed reality for a split second. The Knight snarled, armor fracturing slightly but not shattering. With a backhand blow, it scattered swirling remnants of the Rasenshuriken, the shards dissolving into sparks that whirled away in the storm.
Sasuke teleported behind the Knight, Rinnegan warping space. His blade descended in a blazing arc, the gravitational field around it prepared to slice through even the hardest hide. But the Knight pivoted with supernatural speed, parrying the strike with its greatsword in a shower of black sparks. A localized blast of negative force erupted, hurling Sasuke back. He twisted midair, bruised but unbroken. The Knight slammed its sword into the ground, unleashing a shockwave that riddled the landscape with fresh rifts. Shinobi illusions flickered and vanished as Anon tried to redirect the wave, but it still tore cracks across the courtyard, forcing Naruto and Sasuke to leap away.
Sakura darted in, illusions layering her approach. She struck from multiple angles in a dazzling volley of radiant fists. The Knight's blade whirled in wide arcs, catching illusions or near strikes, but Sakura's final blow drove into its chest plating. A small crater formed, reality shimmering from the collision of Light and Abyss energies. The Knight hissed in real pain, but it responded by channeling an abyssal aura that forced Sakura to retreat or risk being engulfed in corrosive shadows. Its eyes flicked to the cracked chest plate, brimming with grudging fury.
Then the Knight's gaze locked on Ryusei, who stood a short distance away, swirling time-distortions around himself in readiness. A deep scoff tore from the Knight's helm. "So you wield both time and the Void. A curiosity. But you're still mortal, bound to one fleeting timeline. Let me educate you in the realm of eternity."
Ryusei steeled himself. "I've walked countless timelines, encountered horrors beyond reason. You're nothing new." He reached out, simultaneously freezing the flow of time around the Knight's legs while bending a patch of Void behind it to trap any backward dash. For a heartbeat, the Knight's movement slowed, letting Ryusei dash forward, forming a white-hot spear of conjoined time-void power. He aimed the strike at the Knight's fractured chest plate, hoping to breach the armor entirely. It soared true, and the Knight roared in actual alarm.
But the armor's twisted runes flared, forging a shield of swirling negative lightning. Ryusei's spear impacted in a detonation of sparks. The Knight recoiled, stumbling, yet the spear dissipated before it could fully pierce. In retaliation, the Knight swung its sword upward with brutal speed. Ryusei snapped his arms into a protective posture, forging a last-second time barrier. The slash hammered him, flinging him across the sky with a thunderous crash. He caught a faint swirling current of wind mid-flight, halting his tumble on a broken rooftop edge. Every fiber of his being ached.
"Pathetic," the Knight sneered, black shadows coiling around its sword. "Let this world see how feeble your so-called mastery truly is."
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Minato regrouped around Ryusei, standing between the Knight and the city blocks behind them. Each shinobi breathed heavily, battered but not broken, eyes fixed on this new threat.
Ryusei coughed, a faint taste of blood in his mouth, yet defiance blazed in his stare. "We're far from done," he said, wiping his lip.
The Knight leveled the enormous blade, arcs of negative lightning scarring the air around it. "Then show me a true fight," it rumbled. "Embrace your final moments with courage if you must."
In the swirling gloom overhead, the Herald lingered, battered but alive, a silent observer to the Knight's unveiling. The monstrous legions churned at the outskirts, penned by the Leaf's squads but pushing relentlessly, an unending tide straining to break free. As the two commanding forces of darkness loomed, the battered defenders found themselves on the edge of the greatest test yet. Could the synergy of Time, Void, Light, Shadow, and Space stand against two apex foes?
They wouldn't run. Exhausted or not, the will to protect their people overrode all doubt. Let the Knight of the Abyss and the wounded Herald gather their legions. Let the storm blacken the sky until no stars remained. The Leaf's finest would hold the line, forging new jutsu, new synergy at the ragged limits of mortal ability—whatever it took.
Because retreat was no longer an option. This was the moment. And if a single spark of hope still flickered in that blackened sky, these shinobi would fight to stoke it into a blaze that repelled the darkness once and for all.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein