"This is impossible..."
"How are we supposed to stop something like this..."
Several high-ranking devils eventually dropped to their knees. It was only natural; above their heads, a massive meteor far larger than a radius of several hundred meters was falling from the sky. Faced with that overwhelming sight, they had no choice but to lose their fighting spirit all at once.
"So what you said was true, Sirzechs..."
"Looks like we have no choice but to fight with everything we've got."
Watching Madara's battle from a distance, Beelzebub and Asmodeus had no choice but to join in. If things continued like this, it was obvious that most of the high-ranking devils would be crushed to death.
And the first to step forward among the Demon Kings was Beelzebub.
"Kenkara Formula."
He formed a huge magic circle in front of him.
"Ooh! Lord Beelzebub's!"
"With this, that meteor!"
The devils who saw Beelzebub's magic circle all let out sighs of relief. Then the magic circle grew larger and larger, and as it passed through the falling meteor as if swallowing it whole—
KWA-KWA-KWAAANG!
—the meteor began to shatter in midair with a terrible roar.
"He's controlling the meteor with magical power and breaking it apart. What a troublesome spell."
If it was a technique with a physical form, it probably wouldn't work. In that case, just like with Sirzechs, he would have to close the distance and fight in close quarters without giving them any room. And if Sairaorg had appeared while he was still in perfect condition, Madara might have been driven into a corner instead. From here on, he would have to eliminate every annoying close-combat fighter first—or take out the Demon Kings themselves. That was, once this attack was over.
"Haa... haa... haa... Because of its size, I ended up consuming quite a bit of magical power..."
Perhaps because he had shattered a meteor over several hundred meters wide, he had spent a considerable amount of magical power and needed a brief rest. Just as he was trying to catch his breath—
"You blocked it well. But what about the second one?"
Beelzebub's jaw dropped in shock at the one-plus-one special stacked on top of the first.
"W-What did you say!?"
"Step back!"
In the end, Sirzechs stepped forward. He deployed multiple magic circles in front of him and then—
"Ruin the Extinct!"
—launched small magical bullets condensed from Sirzechs's power of destruction. But this time, matching the scale of the target, he kept producing magical bullets larger than an ordinary person, filling the space so densely that they could swallow the meteor whole. Then, as they surged toward the second meteor, they overwhelmed it with sheer numbers and erased it without leaving a trace.
"So Sirzechs Lucifer is stronger at long range than in close combat after all."
When they had fought recently, it had been one-on-one, so he had been able to suppress him in close combat. But this time the situation was different. If Beelzebub and Sirzechs supported each other from a distance, it would become a very troublesome combination. And if the remaining Demon King, Asmodeus, was a close-combat type, Madara might have to take a step back himself. But he still didn't seem to be moving.
"Then now's the time to finish this."
"Fire Release: Ash Concealment Technique."
"! What is this!?"
"Volcanic ash!?"
"I can't see anything!"
"Cough! Cough! Damn it, it's in my throat!"
In that opening, he scattered volcanic ash in all directions, obscuring everyone's vision. And within this haze, the only one who could move was Madara, who possessed the [Sharingan].
"Ghk!"
"Kuhk!"
"What the hell!"
"S-save me! Khk!"
"What's going on!?"
"I can't see ahead!"
"What in the world is—"
"...."
The moment Madara blanketed the ground in volcanic ash, the sounds of devils collapsing one after another echoed from all around.
"Falbium!"
"I know!"
As the situation turned grim, Asmodeus responded to Beelzebub's shout and stepped forward. He spread a magic circle, and a typhoon-like gale roared in. Then he swept the volcanic ash away all at once.
"....."
"So they've all been taken out..."
There was no devil still standing on the ground. At this point, the only ones who had not been retired were Tannin, who had escaped into the sky, and the three Demon Kings. Madara, standing atop the fallen devils, lightly licked the blood from the wound on his own body and said,
"Good! This is battle! At last, it feels like I'm alive! Your turn now, Demon King bastards!!"
"Is that man really a monster...?"
"Against all the high-ranking demons..."
Like a rabid hound drunk on battle, Madara's appearance made Sirzechs and Beelzebub click their tongues. And now, the real fight was beginning. The fortunate thing for them was that even if the high-ranking demons on the ground and the remaining Tannin fought the three Demon Kings, the Demon Kings still had the higher chance of winning.
"I understand your power well. If we fought one-on-one, you'd be a cut above us Demon Kings. But did you really think we'd just stand by and watch without making any preparations?"
The disadvantage Madara had in this battle was the probing phase. Madara and the devils had not yet truly collided, and neither side knew the other's techniques. So they had no choice but to learn by clashing, and Sirzechs and the others exploited that. Even if they had to use the high-ranking devils as sacrificial pieces, if they could stop the calamity in front of them and protect the Demon World, rebuilding it would always be possible. And now, believing they had learned all of Madara's tricks, the Demon Kings personally entered the battle.
"Sirzechs."
"Ah."
The three Demon Kings floated in the air, looking down at Madara. Then Sirzechs extended his hand, and red magical bullets the size of baseballs formed in front of him.
"The technique that erased Heavenly Star Destruction... I'll have to be careful not to let it touch me."
"I'll ask you one last time. Why are you doing this?"
He stopped and threw the question at Madara. Madara answered,
"Are you trying to stop me with words? What a useless thing to do. If you want to open my mouth, then first stop my body!!"
Without being dragged into Sirzechs's pace, Madara formed seals. Then—
"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Song Technique!"
—he launched a preemptive attack. Sirzechs fired the destruction bullets he had been preparing, erasing the dragon-shaped flames rushing toward him at high speed. Then he rained magical bullets down around Madara in return.
"An attack that swallows everything regardless of attribute... no, is destruction itself the attribute!"
Because getting hit would be dangerous, Madara evaded everything with the [Sharingan]'s dynamic vision. Even as the ground turned into a wreck, he found the dodge points and slipped through every attack. The Demon Kings clicked their tongues at movements even devils could not have managed. Then—
"Kenkara Formula."
This time, Beelzebub spread a magic circle across the entire ground.
"!! The ground itself!"
He controlled the earth itself, tearing it up and turning the surface into jagged spikes. As they surged toward Madara, he was attacked from both sky and ground at once. But once again, he summoned the blue giant to block the simultaneous assault.
"That thing is troublesome. I can't tell what it's made of, but it doesn't seem to have infinite durability."
As Sirzechs and Beelzebub's attacks continued, cracks slowly began to spread through [Susanoo]. Madara frowned slightly, then closed his eyes and opened them again as if calming himself.
"I see... as expected, you are beings worthy of the name Demon King. In that case, this Uchiha Madara will answer with full power as well."
Amid the relentless barrage of magical bullets and earth spears, a vast blue chakra erupted around Madara together with a violent pressure wave.
"!!"
"W-What is that...?"
The pressure grew stronger and stronger, and Sirzechs's magical bullets and Beelzebub's earth spears were all blown back by it. Standing at the center of that storm, Madara said,
"Demon King or whatever you are, everything is meaningless."
"I-It's getting bigger..."
"A monster..."
Inside the [Susanoo], which had grown enormous before anyone realized it, he looked down at the Demon Kings floating in the air and said,
"With this Perfect [Susanoo], that is."
Its form changed again. The wildly surging chakra stabilized, and it transformed into a colossal warrior-like giant with swords at both hips. The ultimate power of the Uchiha, possible only after awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan—Perfect [Susanoo] itself—finally revealed its true form. Before [Susanoo], even the former Dragon King Tannin began to feel as small as a child.
"To stabilize that kind of magical power! What in the world—"
"Is this truly a human being!"
"You lot don't have time to admire it! It's coming!"
"The only one who can stop me is Hashirama. But he's gone now. That may actually be fortunate for you as well... because..."
The [Susanoo] drew its sword from its sheath. Then, as light flashed and the blade swung—
KWA-AAAAANG!
The earth trembled. With a vibration as though heaven and earth itself were being overturned, a slash shot toward the mountain ranges directly ahead. The mountain ranges were erased in a single blow.
"If I'm alone, the area I need to redraw the map for gets smaller."
"A mountain range... in one strike..."
"A-A god...?"
"Is the Demon World finished...?"
With one sword swing, the mountain range vanished. Sirzechs and Beelzebub were stunned, and Asmodeus fell into despair. Even they, called Demon Kings, possessed magical power far beyond that of the high-ranking devils and were revered as transcendent beings—but that was not the level of a devil or even a transcendent being. It was power approaching that of a god: power that could split mountains in a single blow, destroy a country alone, and redraw the map of the world. Faced with the strongest power of the Uchiha, the Demon Kings all lost the will to fight.
"You're not resisting?"
"..."
"..."
"Good. If you won't fight, then I'll destroy the entire Demon World along with you!!"
Having lost all interest in the Demon Kings, who could only stare at Perfect [Susanoo], Madara was disappointed. He raised [Susanoo]'s blade upward, and just as the sword meant to erase the Demon Kings was about to swing—
"Wood Release: Advent of a World of Trees!"
Suddenly, enormous tree trunks surged up from behind Madara and wrapped around the giant [Susanoo], binding it in place. And when [Susanoo] stopped, Madara turned around—and there, he saw...
"This chakra... Hashirama!?"
"It's been a while, Madara."
The legendary ninja praised as the god of shinobi, Senju Hashirama, stood there with long black hair, pitch-black eyes, and the same light armor as Madara.