"Tch."
How could Isshiki not know what Furina's reminder meant? But was it that he did not want to? Of course not.
If he wanted to fully unleash his power, this body would collapse and disintegrate along with it. Even if he managed to deal with Furina, without a suitable next host body he would die right along with it.
But the problem lay exactly there: he had not prepared any next suitable host body at all. If he revealed his true form now, whether he could defeat Furina was unknown, but he himself would definitely die.
Furina did not give Isshiki much room to catch his breath. In the next moment, Rasengan—formed through changes in Water Release chakra nature—transformed into countless streams of blue light that assaulted Isshiki from every direction without any gaps.
"Bang!"
Relying on his shrunken body, Isshiki could still nimbly dodge continuously even amid the dense barrage of light streams. Yet while he could evade the streams, he could not simultaneously handle Furina's attacks while dodging them.
With yet another heavy blow, Isshiki could already clearly feel his physical condition declining. At the beginning, even if he could not dodge he could still block, but this time even blocking had become very difficult.
And it was foreseeable that the situation would only continue to worsen from here.
"Don't push people too fa—"
Before Isshiki could finish speaking, a blade of light extending from Furina's arm instantly pierced through his chest, forcing the rest of his harsh words back down his throat.
As the light blade entered his body, Isshiki instinctively widened his eyes. At the same time, the hesitation he had felt earlier finally solidified into a decision.
"?"
Watching Isshiki use black rods to sever the light blade, along with the large cloud of dust kicked up when he smashed into the ground, a hint of interest flashed through Furina's eyes.
She could sense a sudden threatening presence behind the dust. Although it was not particularly strong, compared to before it represented a qualitative leap.
"So this is your original appearance? Then what about your earlier form? Was that you possessing someone else's body?"
"Possessing? You could say that, but I prefer to call it a blessing. He should feel honored to have me use his body."
Seeing Isshiki's new form that carried a distinctly Ōtsutsuki aura, Furina nodded in understanding. Those unfamiliar eyes were presumably the source of those special abilities he had just used.
Having brought out his true form, Isshiki had already realized he had been forced into a dead end. Yet strangely, even at this moment, he showed little sign of anger. Instead, his entire demeanor returned to the elegance he had displayed when they first met.
"Oh, is that so? Then I'm very sorry, but he probably won't feel honored anymore. Because I can clearly sense that that body of yours has already disappeared from this world. And this current form of yours—I can feel it won't be able to hold on for much longer either, right?"
Sage Mode itself greatly enhances the user's perception, and at Furina's level this was even more pronounced. Practically nothing around her could escape her awareness.
For example, the continuous draining of vitality from Isshiki's current body—even if left alone, he would die on his own in a couple of days. Another example was the malice Momoshiki and Urashiki harbored toward her from the sidelines.
Although they showed no outward sign of it, her powerful perception gave her something akin to the Nine-Tails' ability to sense good and evil. She had been fully aware of the malice these three Ōtsutsuki had held toward her from the moment they met until now.