章 105: Chapter 106

[A/N: Alright, the chapter was modified past the first part, changing the way things happened but still giving me the ending that I wanted and needed for the rest of the story.

The next chapter will be coming this week.]

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*Yuichi's POV*

"Oh! It's you! I'm so happy you choose me!" was the first thing I heard from the boy with the Roman numeral 'V' on his neck as he appeared in the dimension I stayed in and looked around the area

He noticed me directly but avoided eye contact, he was surely aware of my ability, and this made me think that it might lead to my victory.

I just had to have eye contact with someone who can be wherever he wants whenever he wants...

"Of course I had to, we have something to settle after all." I lied as I released my Tenseigan Chakra Mode coupled with my Sage Mode

I knew he couldn't die no matter how many times I pummeled him, but it didn't mean that there isn't something to learn about his ability by doing so.

I just have to kill him, many, many times.

As such, I teleported in front of him, stabbing him right in the heart with my hand and making his body disappear before materializing 0.55 seconds later 55° to my right.

Shifting my focus, I manifested a sword of chakra before slashing him, cutting his head while I noticed that he closed his eyes as soon as he reappeared.

The same amount of time later, he reappeared behind me at a 165° angle, letting out "Geez, you don't know when to give up, do you?" as he was still leisurely standing

I knew his goal wasn't to beat me, since he couldn't, as such, Isshiki surely asked him to occupy me for as long as possible... That's why I sent us to this specific dimension, a land of ice with active volcanoes where time was flowing differently.

Hours here would only take minutes outside... I literally have time on my side, but I shouldn't let him know.

Nevertheless, he once again appeared behind me at a 165° angle, making me raise my hand and causing his body to suddenly burst, the blood in his body being controlled by me as I no longer needed contact with it to use Blood Release on him.

He then emerged from my left, an angle of 330° this time, so I raised my chakra sword and sent black lightning shaped like a bird toward him, exploding on contact and roasting his entire body before it disappeared again.

'275° now' I thought as it was again on my left albeit further than the time before so I simply raised a finger and launched a sequence of light projectiles that pierced his heart, brain, and crotch because why not

"Hey, that was mean! I may not need it, well, unless the boss does, but still!" the boy let out as he reappeared on my left again, a 275° angle, which made me look suspiciously at him, his devotion for Isshiki was stronger, or stranger, than I thought

Despite his apparent 'outburst', he kept his eyes closed, so I decided to stomp the ground which sent a wave of ice spikes toward him, encasing him before I made it shatter with a simple movement of my hand, his body broken in pieces before appearing 110° to my right only to be taken in an explosion, making him vanish once more.

'Eh, these explosive traps I made actually worked' I thought with a smirk as he reappeared behind me, with an angle of 220°

"How shrewd." he let out with a pout, his expression telling me that he was enjoying my useless struggle against him before I used Banshō Ten'in to attract him toward me, impaling him with hundred of bones covered in steel coming out of it body

This made him vanish and reappear with the same angle of 220°, so, as my chakra sword began to heat up, I dashed toward him and slashed before it could reach his body, sending a plasma blast that began to melt his body as it passed through him like butter.

'He definitely is the perfect training dummy' I thought with a smirk that made him shiver when he reappeared on my right

He hoped that my patience would run out, but unfortunately for him, I was extremely patient... And excited now that I had someone I could test my numerous, possibly lethal, techniques, just to see if I could use them against others or not.

'This... Might be funnier than I anticipated' I thought again as I continuously killed him, making me wonder if he even felt pain, not that it mattered to me

Nonetheless, I murdered him again and again, blowing, impaling, shattering, melting, poisoning, or cutting his body into pieces many times for a few hours, his confidence still intact as everything I did was for naught, or so he thought.

'This should be the 550th time' I thought as he was eaten by one of my good old Triffid, the acid contained inside their body melting him almost instantly

"You're definitely perseverant, not like those guys from the other continent." the boy said as he reappeared which made me frown

"What do you mean?" I asked, my knowledge of the other continent being poor as I only saw it while I was on the Moon

"Mmh... The boss told me it wasn't a secret... Alright! I was just saying that the people from the other continent surrendered quite quickly, it was fun seeing them struggle against us at first, but after the boss killed all inhabitants, it was boring to stay there." the boy said which made me frown as I now understood why the Ten-Tails felt so much stronger than Kaguya's

'The other continent is already a wasteland..? I should finish quickly and help Kaguya, Isshiki might have recovered more power than I thought he would' I thought before shaking my head and reviewing what I learned during our previous exchanges

After killing him so many times, I believed that I learned the 'rules' of his apparition.

First of all, he always reappears 0.55 seconds after vanishing, regardless of whether or not he died, and how he did.

He never retains any sort of damage when he comes back, and he's able to 'float' and thus not necessarily reappear with his feet on the ground, though he never appeared too high up, in fact, he only appeared high up when I was in the sky too.

What was important to notice however was that he always reappeared with an angle multiple of 55°, thus, he had six different points of apparition around me from where he died.

While I could try that one on a sixth chance, I had to be careful because I only had one shot at using Kunitokotachi, since failing would make him wary and even harder to catch.

Luckily for me, it looked like he truly followed a pattern, one that renewed every fifty-five deaths.

As such, as I killed him one more time when he materialized on my right, I preemptively looked 165° to my right, almost behind me, and locked eyes with him as he reappeared, using Kunitokotachi on him as he didn't close his eyes yet.

Once the space around us changed, the boy appeared unmoving in front of me, so I instantly changed the way his body worked, not by removing his Omnipresence ability since I wanted to absorb it through Suijin, and neither by killing him here because I didn't believe that it would be successful.

And I was glad that I did it quickly because I sensed that something was amiss so I deactivated my technique and fell back as the boy was at close range and tried to pierce my heart with one of his daggers, both inside and outside my technique.

'He could move outside while in my technique too? Now I know why Shibai was unbeatable, heck, I feel like this boy didn't inherit the full ability' I thought before hearing the boy said "What a weird technique you had, that's why Isshiki told me to avoid eye contact, well, now I know that I don't need to." as he smirked and floated around

However, I made it seems as if I didn't hear him and began to look around me while saying "Where is he?" which made him frown and no longer keep a relaxed composure

"What are you saying? I'm right here!" the boy exclaimed as I continued to look around before closing my eyes as if I tried to sense him through another mean

"Weird, I don't feel him anymore." I let out as I even deactivated my Tenseigan Chakra Mode and Sage Mode making him even more doubtful

"Stop playing with me!" the boy let out before dashing toward me with his daggers in front of him

However, I didn't budge and saw him pass through me as if he was a ghost, making him extremely surprised and letting out "What's happening?" before trying to attack me once more only to pass through my body again

While he tried another time, I sat down cross-legged and made it seems as if I was recovering chakra from our 'fight', one that was unfairly sided toward him... Until now.

One thing I realized was that he didn't act childishly, he was childish... And because of that, he was also weak-willed, something I was currently taking advantage of.

After all, I believed his ability could be resumed by one sentence: 'I think therefore I am', or simply put, as long as he believes he exists, then he will.

So, all I had to do to nullify his omnipresence was to make him believe he no longer existed.

"W-What's happening to me? Did I become a ghost..?" the boy let out as he tried to touch me only for his arms to go through just like before

For dozen minutes, the boy continued to run around me, trying to interact with anything around us, but even the ground was no longer tangible to him.

I sensed how his previously playful expression changed into a depressive one as he didn't try as hard as before while mumbling "I-I don't want to disappear, I need to serve Isshiki-sama..." while some tears dropped on the ground as he fell on his knee, barely floating in the air

As I deemed him miserable enough, his will shattered to the point of not even caring about his surrounding, I got up, neared him, and laid my hand on his head before saying 'Suijin' in my mind, slowly absorbing him as he didn't even react to what was happening.

The process of absorbing a living being with Suijin was normally extremely painful for my target, as such, the lack of reaction the boy had was good enough proof that he lost all hope.

And as it was slowly over since his body liquefied before getting drawn to my right eye, I felt as if I absorbed more than just one individual somehow, something I believed was caused by his ability as he might have multiple instances of himself.

'Mh? I can't use it directly..? It's been a while since I had to digest after using Suijin' I thought as I couldn't yet look into the boy's memories or use his ability, maybe because of how powerful it was since it originally comes from Shibai Ōtsutsuki

"Well, it doesn't matter, it's not like I need it right now." I let out before checking how everyone else was doing in their fight

'All Inners are dead aside from Isshiki... Let's go help Kaguya' I thought before leaving this time-distorted dimension

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*Third Person POV*

In a red mountainous dimension constantly under a yellow sky, two powerful individuals were fighting.

One was a beautiful pale-skinned woman with long sweeping grey hair that seemed alive, a Rinne Sharingan on her forehead with some blood dropping out of it, two brown horns albeit one was broken, and ash-colored bones coming out of her palms, one shorter than the other.

Her clothes seemed tattered, and wounds could be seen on her body despite having a powerful regeneration.

The reason? The man in front of her.

While he first appeared as a young and tall man with a mohawk of black hair ending in a long ponytail, a seemingly normal human, only in appearance as he was modified biologically, and with the Roman numeral 'IV' below his left eye, right now the man standing in front of her was completely different.

His skin was as pale as the woman's, however, he had short pale blue hair with a zigzag pattern surrounded by one long curving horn coming out of his left brow and wrapping around the back of his skull until his right temple where it came out.

He also had a peculiar right eye, the Hōgan, a Dōjutsu previously exclusive to Shibai Ōtsutsuki.

And unlike the woman, the man showed no trace of injuries, his complexion relaxed, even arrogant as he played with his opponent.

"It doesn't matter how much you struggle, Kaguya... Your fate was already written in your genes as a low-caste of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, and it is to die today!" Isshiki said as he raised his arms like a megalomaniac, a smirk plastered on his face despite his usual bored expression

"You would have killed me already if you wanted. I know you need me alive." Kaguya replied as she finished healing, her pride over her strength was shattered as she was outmatched by Isshiki

Isshiki recovered a cold expression as he looked at Kaguya and exclaimed "You're right, I could've killed you many times if I wanted to... However, you're wrong about something."

The next moment, Isshiki's eyes released a dangerous glint as he declared "I don't need you alive." before summoning thousands of long and pointy black rods pointed at Kaguya and surrounding her to the point of disturbing her chakra flow and usage of Yomotsu Hirasaka to transport herself away

"After all, you aren't my target, just a disposable tool." he finally added before hurling the rods toward Kaguya whose eyes were wide opened as she realized she was wrong about his plan

However, while Kaguya braced herself for the assault, no blood was spilled as she was suddenly coated by a massive wing with black feathers.

The wing then unfolded and revealed a tall man with long white hair and black marking on his face who knelt and held Kaguya before letting out "Are you alright?" as the black rods were negated by the Natural Energy covering them.

Before Kaguya could answer back, she instead exclaimed "Be careful! Isshiki's plan wasn't to get me!" as she was genuinely scared after knowing that Yuichi was the one in danger instead of herself

Yuichi simply looked at her calmly while making sure Isshiki wasn't moving and ended up replying "Don't worry, I will." before patting Kaguya's head as he added "Go help the others, I will take care of him." then teleported her away before she could say anything else

"Trying to protect her by sending her away? To reduce your chances of winning, love sure makes people foolish." Isshiki exclaimed as he once again smiled, a crazy smile as he felt himself being even closer to his ambition

His gaze on Yuichi was one of obsession, of opportunity, as if he was the only chance he had to achieve godhood.

"I won't deny that love made me do foolish things more than once..." Yuichi first replied as his body got covered in a pale blue color while getting up and then pressed a point below his stomach that made his hair crazy while his sweat now blue-colored evaporated in the air before adding "But it's also what's pushing me forward." and then disappear from Isshiki's sight

*Yuichi's POV*

Without wasting time, Isshiki summoned a black cube to his left as I reappeared there, but while he expected the extremely dense cube to block my incoming attack, Isshiki ended up being sent flying away as I kicked it with my knee and sent him along with it.

This broke one of his arms as well as a few ribs while my knee also broke, though both of us regenerated our bones relatively quickly, me more than him, however.

Then, I summoned massive wooden roots around him that were coming from the ground before grabbing him, but as he was getting strangulated, he suddenly shrank in size and slipped away while creating black rods that stopped them from catching him.

Since I didn't want to let him slip away, I teleported in front of Isshiki who knew that he was done for if he stayed small, being not fast enough to evade, as such, he grew back to a normal size and took my uppercut directly in his guts, sending him flying away before getting slammed back down as I teleported above him and did a spinning kick that broke a few more of his bones.

Isshiki was not enjoying what was currently happening, not unusual considering it was the first time he was ever put into some difficult situation, still, I felt that something was off, and as such, I tried to finish him quickly.

When he was slowly getting up, he barely saw me speeding up toward him and tried to stop me by creating hundreds of black rods from the ground to impale me, unfortunately, my maneuvers in the air were meticulous as I began flying through the rods until I reached Isshiki and grabbed him by the throat before surrounding both of us in Natural Energy-infused crystals to avoid getting backstabbed by one of these rods since they negated chakra.

"It's over now, Isshiki." I let out as I tried to use Kunitokotachi on him but he kept his eyes closed, preventing me from doing so

However, while I expected a proud man like him to get enraged, he only chuckled before opening his eyes, an opportunity I took to use Kunitokotachi only for nothing to happen at all, making him let out "Come on, I'm waiting." which made me frown so I instead opted to crush his throat before separating his head, and his spine, from his body with brute force, breaking the crystals surrounding us

While I wanted to make him implode via his blood, I saw my light-blue chakra cloak slowly vanish, making me realize that I lost my ability to use anything chakra related, thankfully, my Sage Mode was still active so I was more or less alleviating the drawbacks of opening the Seventh Gate which deactivated as well.

'What's happening? What did he do?' I thought as I looked at Isshiki's seemingly corpse and sensed how my body was changing without me doing anything for that

"Finally." Isshiki's head let out as it disappeared and revealed a fully healed Isshiki where his body previously stood, his hand holding something I recognized as he threw it away

'A Sharingan? Did he use Izanagi with it?' I thought as I understood why I couldn't sense it before since he probably stored it inside his pocket dimension which seemingly kept the eye fresh and new

"What did you do to me?" I asked as I carefully looked toward him in case he moved since I knew that I also lost the perception of my Dōjutsu along with my usage of chakra

"Me? I did nothing, you're the one who did this to yourself." Isshiki said as he touched his throat, making me aware that I still reached him before

'Myself..? Don't tell me' I thought before letting out "The boy?" as I recalled the weird feeling I had when I absorbed him through Suijin

This made Isshiki chuckle as he saw me getting weaker "You're partially correct. You, you never absorbed an Ōtsutsuki before, have you? And I'm talking about a pure-blooded one, not any of those disgusting descendants of Kaguya."

"I didn't... Don't tell me, Shibai? You made me absorb him fully through the boy?" I asked as I realized that the sensation I felt when I absorbed the boy wasn't caused by his ability but by his modified DNA using Shibai's

"Correct." Isshiki replied as he tapped his clothes to remove the dust on them before adding "I've observed you for a while and saw your ability to absorb your opponents through your right eye, I understood that this absorbed everything from your opponent, even a dried drop of blood from far away... So, by using Shibai's genes when making these homunculus as you call them, I made you absorb Shibai's corpse which I kept close all this time."

"There is a reason why Shibai successfully achieved godhood without anyone preventing him to do so. You see, we Ōtsutsuki are ambitious, and therefore are capable of doing anything to achieve whatever we are aiming for. This also means killing a fellow clansman to absorb their power, and to prevent that from happening, Shibai created a technique to prevent anyone who tried to get his powers through absorption, even a small amount, or even copying them, something also applying to me and a few others." Isshiki started to explain which made me surprised as I didn't expect such a technique to exist and even more affecting Suijin which normally absorbed everything from my target and essentially made it compatible for me to use

"The other Inners were bound to die in no time because I used Shibai's DNA for them, as for you, since you absorbed his entire physical body, you should die from it soon, though the technique got weaker after his ascension." Isshiki then added which made me ask "You... Didn't use his DNA yourself?" while looking at Isshiki's Hōgan since it was a Dōjutsu possessed by Shibai originally

"Me? While I modified my vessel's body to reincarnate properly, I didn't mix Shibai's genes into it. As for my eye... It's only hereditary, you absorbing Shibai's corpse wouldn't affect me." Isshiki revealed, quite a surprise to learn that he was related to Shibai

Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to gather as much Natural Energy as possible while we conversed, since it was not something he could sense, and the moment I saw him move a toe, I created a massive explosion on his location, one that, if it didn't blow him up, changed him into stone because of the large amount of Natural Energy used.

Regardless of my attempt, I felt like he had more of these eyeballs than I wanted him to, making me think that he either robbed them from the graves or it was from the time of the Warring States.

'This is going to be hard and annoying, isn't it' I thought as I stayed on edge and saw my already pale skin becoming greyish

I then sensed chakra accumulating on my left, Sage Mode allowing me to at least feel it even though my eyes couldn't follow, so I instantly flew away and saw a massive black cube crush the place I once stood.

Isshiki was quick to follow as he dashed in front of me and, surely out of payback, did an uppercut aimed right at my guts, sending me flying away.

Before he could catch up to me, I deployed my wing and released a salve of sharp black feathers toward him, only for him to shrink them all to nothingness before continuing his advance toward me.

The more time that passed the more I felt my body changing, both in a good and bad way as I was losing the feeling of my left arm and leg first, forcing me to use one hand to block Isshiki's punch.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stop his other hand so I tried to evade it by moving slightly to the side only to feel something impaling my still-moving leg from behind.

The moment he pinned me down, I felt more black rods impaling my arms and legs, making it impossible for me to move at all.

While I did feel something growing on my head, probably horns like the Ōtsutsuki had, Isshiki let out "It's over, your transformation into an Ōtsutsuki is at the stage where you are at your weakest, perfect for the sacrifice."

There was a sense of urgency when he said that, as if he didn't want me to fully transform, and yet, I also felt like it shouldn't be possible, from his perspective.

However, I knew that my body was becoming different, and while I couldn't do anything right now to fight him, I knew the Ōtsutsuki had a way to survive death...

'I guess that's my only chance' I thought as I lost the feeling of my entire body, my chest included so only my head remained functional

"Now, let's end this, shall we." Isshiki exclaimed before creating a large black rod aimed at my chest

"It seems like you failed to protect them after all." Isshiki added before impaling me, making me cough a lot of blood before my vision started to blur until I was slowly blacking out

"It's time to feed the seed, his transformation into an Ōtsutsuki should be slow enough to allow the tree to grow before it's too late." was the last thing I heard Isshiki say to himself before falling unconscious as he dragged my body with him out of the dimension

*Third Person POV*

While Yuichi suffered from chakra poisoning, his body was also changing after absorbing an Ōtsutsuki, and this possibility made Isshiki hasty since it was still Shibai's body out of all members of his Clan, making him the strongest sacrifice one could ever dream of for a chakra fruit but also a potential double-edged sword...

But with Yuichi out of commission, it looked like Isshiki successfully achieved his plan, and if that happened, this planet was doomed.