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Chapter 409: Six Paths Seal Descends!
Madara spread his arms wide, and the Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him spun furiously, shaping themselves into pitch-black spears.
"However, how much longer can you maintain this overloaded state?"
"With my next move, I will claim your head!"
Down on the ground. Garp gasped for air heavily, every muscle in his body convulsing. The Tremor-Tremor Fruit Awakening combined with the toll of the Eight Inner Gates was overdrawing his final reserves of life force.
"Old geezer... don't get too arrogant."
Right then... A low, hoarse voice, steeped in boundless fury, echoed from the nearby rubble. Garp paused and glanced over.
He saw Akainu, swaying on his feet as he pushed himself up from a pile of crushed rocks. His red suit, the symbol of Marine majesty, was in tatters. On his chest, a massive indentation lay bare—a grisly sight. It was the wound he suffered from the kick delivered by Madara's shadow moments ago.
"Sakazuki..."
Garp frowned.
"Can you still move?"
Akainu didn't answer. He just glared venomously at Madara Uchiha in the sky, his eyes bloodshot to the brim.
It was ultimate humiliation! As a candidate for Marine Fleet Admiral... As a man who upheld "Absolute Justice..." In this battle, he had been swatted away like dead weight with a casual strike from the enemy? He even had to rely on Garp, a "retired veteran," to fight for his life?
Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!
"I am... a Marine Admiral!!!"
Boom! The magma around Akainu violently erupted, but it was no longer that dark red, viscous liquid. Instead, it was an extremely bright white, high-temperature fluid!
The temperature skyrocketed. One thousand degrees. Two thousand degrees. Five thousand degrees... Before the surrounding rocks even touched the magma, simply being swept by the radiant heat caused them to instantly vaporize and vanish.
"That is..."
Aokiji, watching the fight unfold, felt his pupils contract sharply. Even from a distance, he felt a terrifying heat capable of burning a soul to ashes.
"System... is this the 'answer' you've given me?"
Akainu felt a shackle suddenly snap within his mind, and a vicious sneer crept onto his lips.
At the apex of his despair and fury... The reward he had previously acquired from the dungeon, known as an "Asauchi," finally responded to his soul. It was the prototype Zanpakuto from the Bleach world.
At this exact moment... Fueled by Akainu's will to "incinerate all sin," it was undergoing its final forging!
Hum—! All of the magma suddenly began to recede. The sky full of white fluid funneled entirely into Akainu's right hand. The magma vanished. In its place was an ancient, charred, and utterly unassuming odachi.
But the moment this blade appeared... All the moisture in the entire dungeon world evaporated in an instant! The air became so bone-dry that just taking a breath felt like the lungs were catching fire.
For the first time, Madara Uchiha's brow furrowed. From that scorched blade, he felt a genuine... threat of death.
"What kind of weapon is that?"
Down on the ground. Akainu slowly raised the charred odachi in his hand. Not a single lick of flame rose from the blade. Because all the fire and heat had been compressed to their absolute limits, sealed tight within that razor-sharp edge. He looked up at the deity in the sky, his eyes holding nothing but icy killing intent.
"Justice will absolutely never suffer defeat."
"All things in the universe turn to ashes!"
Akainu took a powerful step forward. Pointing the odachi at Madara Uchiha, he let out a low chant that echoed between heaven and earth.
"Bankai—"
"Zanka no Tachi!!!"
Boom! There was no earth-shattering explosion. It was merely the earth beneath Akainu's feet instantly vanishing, leaving behind a crater a hundred meters in diameter. It wasn't blown away. It was utterly erased just by a sliver of the heat bleeding off that blade!
"Cheap parlor tricks!"
Madara scoffed. Three Truth-Seeking Orb black rods shot toward Akainu, carrying the power to annihilate anything they touched.
"Zanka no Tachi, East: Kyokujitsujin!"
Akainu didn't dodge. He simply swung the sword. There were no waves of sword ki. Only that scorched blade gently grazing the Truth-Seeking Orb black rods.
Sizzle—! Those Truth-Seeking Orbs, purported to defend against all ninjutsu and possess immunity to all physical attacks... The moment they met the blade... Sliced in two without a sound, exactly like a hot knife gliding through butter!
Immediately after... The severed ends turned to ash on the spot!
"What?!"
Madara's pupils trembled violently. The Truth-Seeking Orbs... were burned to nothing? That was the Kekkei Mora containing the power of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements!
"Don't lump me in with those brats who only know how to play with Devil Fruit powers."
Akainu's figure vanished instantly. When he reappeared, he was right in front of Madara. That scorched odachi, bearing enough heat to cleave through the core of a star, slashed horizontally toward Madara's neck!
"The temperature of my blade..."
"Is fifteen million degrees!!!"
"Turn to ash for me, you villainous scum!"
The shadow of death instantly draped over the insufferably arrogant Madara Uchiha. Every hair on his body stood on end, and the Truth-Seeking Orbs instantly transformed into an omnidirectional black sphere, wrapping him inside.
"Absolute Defense!"
However, Akainu's eyes held nothing but contempt.
"Before Absolute Justice, there is no defense!"
Sizzle—! The scorched blade touched the black sphere. That indestructible Truth-Seeking Orb shell was instantly burned through, leaving a gaping hole! The blade's momentum didn't falter, plunging straight toward Madara's throat!
"Is this... the foundation of the Marines?"
A manic, deranged laugh spread across Madara's face.
"If that's the case..."
"Then let's bet our lives on this strike!"
Boom! Inside Madara, the chakra of the Ten-Tails went entirely berserk. Even in his Six Paths Mode, Madara was forced to temporarily retreat from the blade's edge. That slash from "Zanka no Tachi" genuinely harbored the terrifying heat to turn all things in the universe to ash.
Madara's figure blurred into a streak of light, instantly putting thousands of meters of distance between them.
Suspended ten thousand meters in the air, he looked down on the Marines struggling like ants below. The trace of battle-fueled zeal in his eyes gradually faded. It was replaced by the apathetic gaze one might give the dead.
"Taijutsu capable of shattering the void."
"Swordsmanship capable of incinerating all matter."
"Even your use of ninjutsu and the speed of light has reached the absolute pinnacle of mortals."
Madara's long hair whipped wildly in the gale, an eerie purple light flashing in his Rinnegan.
"I must admit, you all have truly given me quite a grand surprise."
"However..."
"This is where it ends."
Madara slowly extended his hands, slamming them together in front of his chest. A soul-trembling wave of chakra erupted without reservation.
Since close-quarters combat carried risks... Since the Truth-Seeking Orbs would be burned to nothing... Then he would use absolute mass, an absolute seal, to bring this all to a definitive end!
The corners of Madara's mouth curved into a cruel arc.
"Chibaku Tensei: Six Paths Seal!!"
Rumble—!!! The earth let out a dying wail. In that moment, the entire dungeon world seemed to lose gravity. It wasn't control like the Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit. Nor was it suppression like Fujitora's gravity fruit. Rather, it was an irresistible "gravitational pull" cascading down from the heavens!
A sphere as black as ink slowly rose from the palm of Madara's hand. He then casually tossed it higher into the sky. That tiny black sphere acted like a black hole possessing infinite devouring power.
Hum—! The earth shattered. The ground stretching for hundreds of kilometers fell to pieces. Countless mountain peaks were uprooted. Enormous boulders, like summoned zealots, flew madly toward that black speck in the sky.
"What the hell is this?!"
On the ground, maintaining Zanka no Tachi, Akainu's expression abruptly changed. He felt his body float upward entirely out of his control. The very foothold beneath his boots was shooting wildly into the air.
"Not good! Grab onto something, quickly!"
Sengoku bellowed, his golden Buddha hands clamping down hard onto a massive bedrock foundation.
But a second later... That slab of bedrock, along with Sengoku's golden Buddha form, was sucked toward the sky!
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