In the center of the battlefield, Makima stood with her hands behind her back, watching the deathmatch between the two top-tier Devils with an indifferent gaze.
Bang—!
Susanoo's chainsaw collided heavily with the Gun Devil-man's machine gun arms. The chainsaw spun at high speed, grinding against the metallic limbs, sending sparks flying.
The next moment, the gun arm the Gun Devil-man was using to block was completely severed. The giant chainsaw followed through, looking like it would split him in two.
But at that critical instant, Makoto's movement inexplicably halted for a split second.
Seeing this, Makima's lips curled into a satisfied smile: "So you do hesitate after all, Makoto-kun."
Instantly, the Gun Devil-man looked up, the gun barrel on its forehead emitting a blindingly bright light.
Boom—!!!
A deafening explosion erupted. It was no longer a bullet, nor could it even be called a cannon shot. It was like a destructive laser, slamming heavily into the chest of the chainsaw Susanoo.
The massive Chakra Giant was sent flying, crashing through countless buildings before finally stopping.
Makoto leaned against the giant form inside Susanoo, his head lowered, panting heavily, his steps slightly unsteady.
The chest of Susanoo in front of him had been blown open, a massive hole left behind.
"Offer a thousand years."
Makima suddenly spoke softly.
A golden halo the size of a hoop appeared beside her. A brilliant golden spear slowly emerged from it.
That was the Angel Devil's ability… the longer the lifespan offered, the more terrifying the power of the summoned weapon.
Makima could freely manipulate the powers of all those who had contracted with her.
The next moment, Makima gripped the golden spear, aimed it at the opening in Susanoo's chest, and threw it with all her might.
Squelch—!
The golden spear pierced directly through Susanoo's body, stabbing deep into Makoto's chest, pinning him to a shattered wall.
"It's over, Makoto-kun."
Makima walked slowly towards him. The Gun Devil-man, which had been attacking fiercely, inexplicably stopped and stood frozen in place.
As if under Makima's control.
Makoto lifted his eyes slightly, his gaze unfocused: "Did you orchestrate all of this?"
Makima didn't answer the question directly. Her tone carried admiration: "The Chainsaw Man's power is truly terrifying. Even when people around the world no longer fear you, you still retain such immense strength... This is exactly what I wanted."
Makoto stared at her for a moment, then let out a soft laugh: "I'm not like those idiot protagonists in third-rate novels who lose their nerve at the sight of a woman. Anyone who dares to strike at me, even if they're beautiful, even if they've been intimate with me, I won't show mercy."
Makima was slightly stunned. She narrowed her eyes: "Don't be stubborn, Makoto-kun. Let the Chainsaw Devil come out."
She knew very well that when the host, Makoto, fell into complete despair, the original Chainsaw Man, Pochita, would take over the body.
Everything she had done was to force out the Chainsaw Devil, to make him eat her, thereby erasing control from the world and creating the perfect world she envisioned.
"Is that so? Are these your last words?"
Makoto let out a strange laugh, his eyes filled with mockery.
"Eh?"
Makima's brow furrowed slightly. Before she could react, she heard Makoto speak again.
"Do it, Ishigami."
Click—!
The familiar sound of the Gun Devil-man chambering a round echoed again.
Bang—!
Before Makima could turn around, a bullet pierced through her body from behind.
Thud—!
Makima fell heavily to her knees, struggling to turn her head.
She saw the gun barrel covering the upper half of the Gun Devil-man's face slowly recede. The face obscured by the weapon transformed back into Yu's.
"You... how could... you should have..." Makima's face was filled with disbelief.
"Should have been dead, right?"
Makoto's voice came again.
Makima stiffly turned her head back. She saw the golden spear still pinned to the wall, but Makoto, who had been impaled by it, was gone.
He, who should have been pinned dead, now stood before her completely unharmed, the wound on his chest vanished.
The only difference was that his left eye had become a lifeless, grayish-white.
"What, did you... do?" Makima spat blood, her voice trembling.
"Turn reality disadvantageous to me into illusion, and turn illusion advantageous to me into reality… this is the ultimate forbidden technique of the Uchiha Clan, Izanagi."
Makoto reached into his left eye socket and forcibly gouged out the blind eyeball.
The cost of using this technique was the permanent loss of that eye.
Crack—!
He casually crushed the discarded Sharingan.
Just then, Yu stepped forward. He raised his hand and shot off his own arm with a bang, offering the severed limb to Makoto.
Makoto, as if drinking water, raised the severed arm and let the dripping blood pour into his mouth.
The next moment, the eye socket from which he had shed blood tears rapidly regenerated, a brand new eye growing back.
Combining a Devil's regeneration ability with Izanagi allowed for almost unlimited usage.
"Turning illusion into reality, turning reality into illusion..."
Makima repeated the words, her expression changing drastically as she suddenly grasped the key point.
Makoto smiled faintly: "That's right. You thought Ishigami was controlled by you, killed by the Gun Devil, and that you attached the Gun Devil's heart to him, turning him into a Gun Devil-man."
"But actually, the moment he 'died', Ishigami activated Izanagi to revive. You were completely unaware and still infused the Gun Devil's power into his body."
"So what you created wasn't a Devil-man whose consciousness was controlled by the Gun Devil, but a Gun Weapon-man whose mind was controlled by Ishigami Yu."
Yu looked at Makoto with gratitude: "Senpai, is it really okay to use such a precious Mangekyo Sharingan for me? Wouldn't it have been better to use it on this woman?"
His gaze towards Makima was filled with hatred, 'To receive Senpai's favor and instead of being grateful, to betray and scheme against him, this woman... she deserved to die! Deserved a thousand deaths!!!'
Earlier, at Yukiko's coffee shop, what Makoto had secretly given Yu was the Mangekyo stolen from Danzo… Shisui's right eye.
He had also placed a Transcribing Seal on that eye: as long as Yu died, Izanagi would automatically activate.
Like Madara tricking Hashirama back in the day, he had set up this chess move.
But Yu was still confused: "Couldn't you have just used Kotoamatsukami to alter her thoughts? Then we wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble."
Makoto said calmly: "I have no interest in using Genjutsu to manipulate someone's thoughts. Besides, she has a contract with the Japanese Prime Minister. Any attack against her will be randomly transferred to Japanese citizens in this world."
Yu's pupils contracted: "This woman's abilities are even more twisted than I imagined!..."
"But, if that's the case..." He suddenly realized a fatal problem.
Makoto nodded: "Yeah. Ordinary methods can't kill her."
"That's right."
At that moment, Makima finally spoke, drawing their attention.
The gunshot wound in her abdomen had almost healed. She slowly looked up at Makoto:
"No matter what, you can't kill me. Let the Chainsaw Man come out."
Makoto slowly crouched down to her eye level.
"Do you think that by having Pochita eat you, completely erasing the concept of control from the world, the world will become perfect?"
Makoto crouched down, his gaze directly meeting Makima's concentric-circle eyes.
Makima's brow furrowed slightly, a dazed confusion spreading in her eyes, as if asking, 'Isn't it?'.
Makoto let out a scoff, a hint of mockery in his tone: "Not to mention humans, even among animal groups, there exists a relationship of control and being controlled. Control itself has never been an absolute bad thing. While it's true that most of the world's rulers are bastards, often, it's not wrong for capable individuals to lead ordinary people."
As he spoke, the image of a majestic figure standing in the setting sun from his previous life suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Even if you are eaten and the concept of control temporarily disappears, humanity will still develop and rebuild order. Before long, the idea of control will emerge again, and a new Control Devil will be born along with it."
In Makoto's view, Makima was essentially no different from the paranoid madmen of the Uchiha Clan.
They both had a pathologically extreme obsession with peace, both delusionally believing that a single solution could bring about eternal tranquility for all ages.
Madara and Obito chose the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Makima chose to eliminate the concept of control.
In the end, they were all impractical fantasies.
True peace was not that simple.
If humanity in his previous life couldn't solve it in thousands of years, how could a few of them figure it out?