Malphegor
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GSiN: Ch. 80
🕑 Added 2025-04-30 22:25:55 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
With a casual swing, several blades of blaze chakra slashed out, burning to ashes the incoming tree trunks that surrounded him once more.
Ryouma completely ignored the pollen, which, if inhaled even slightly, would lead to a genjutsu trap. He raised Lostvayne high above his head. An enormous amount of Shukaku's chakra was being converted by his into blaze chakra, surging toward the giant sword he wielded.
Waves of dark purple flames flowed along Lostvayne. As they advanced layer by layer, the massive blade grew increasingly larger, eventually expanding to tens of meters.
He controlled the enormous flame blade formed from blaze chakra and spun once in midair, releasing a circular wave of sword energy that spread in all directions.
All the trees within the range of his blade attack were instantly incinerated into ash. Even the sea of trees dozens of meters away was not spared. The circular wave of flame sword energy roared forward, cutting down all the wood constructs within a radius of several kilometers, while also setting them ablaze with fire to prevent regeneration.
Blazing flames surged into the sky, burning away all the paralyzing pollen that had filled the battlefield.
Taking in his masterpiece, he nodded with satisfaction.
Shukaku's chakra is really something… If I had to use all this on my own, I'd be completely drained before producing even this much chakra to waste.
Now then, how will you respond, Madara?
Seeing his sea of trees completely obliterated by one move, Madara remained calm as he continued forming hand seals. Since ordinary Wood Release wouldn't work, he would now use something stronger.
"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"
The once-still earth trembled again. From the closest remains of the severed trees, five wooden dragons emerged and slithered forward. Not only did the flames fail to incinerate them, the dragons' outer bark slowly absorbed the fire.
Although Ryouma didn't possess Wood Release, he was quite knowledgeable about these secret techniques.
Wood Dragon Technique was a technique with sealing properties, not only could it absorb an opponent's chakra, but its body could also bind and restrain large-sized enemies.
He swung Lostvayne, releasing several blaze sword strikes. Just as he expected, they only left shallow marks on the wood dragons, far less effective than the previous destruction of the tree sea. And since the wood dragons had already appeared, the next move would no doubt be Wood Human Technique.
The humanoid creature's durability surpassed even that of the wood dragons.
Madara hadn't expected to be pushed this far by a younger ninja, but he had already seen through all of Ryouma's techniques.
Now, he just needed to make sure the boy didn't escape.
As the wood dragons coiled around and restrained Ryouma, Madara clapped his hands together.
At the feet of his Susanoo, a massive wooden golem burst from the ground. However, unlike the one used by Hashirama, this one was different. To specifically counter Ryouma, he had the wooden golem change form, integrating it with Susanoo like a suit of full-body wooden armor.
Clad in wooden armor, Susanoo drew a massive wooden blade from its side and, with pure brute strength, slammed it down toward Ryouma.
Faced with this situation, Ryouma couldn't help but sigh in admiration. As expected of the God of Shinobi's power that once brought peace to the chaotic world. Wood Release really is strong for a bloodline limit… at least tougher than the Shikotsumyaku.
Boom—!
The Susanoo's strike landed fiercely where he stood. The already-ruined earth shattered even more, creating a deep trench. Several underground rivers that had never seen sunlight burst forth from below as a result of that strike.
The force behind it was undeniable, even the massive wooden blade had splintered into wood chips.
Whoosh—
In the next instant, Ryouma appeared beside a severed tree stump. Earlier in the battle, he had taken the opportunity to scatter several Flying Thunder God kunai around the area.
As a well-rounded fighter, Madara's sensory skills were second to none. The moment Ryouma completed his teleportation, the five wooden dragons lunged at him again as if they had built-in homing instincts.
Just then, Shukaku, who had been sitting on Ryouma's shoulder with both hands clasped in a hand seal, acting like a living power bank, finally spoke up. "Use that technique."
Ryouma had already planned for this. He immediately formed the one-handed hand sign for Magnet Release.
Waves of sand surged from beneath his feet, forming a wide field of flowing sand around him. The five wooden dragons became mired in the sand, their speed sharply reduced.
At the same time, he continued shaping the sand into countless massive serpents, which coiled around the wooden dragons' bodies. Black sealing patterns resembling tadpole script crawled over them.
As the sealing patterns fully activated, the five rampaging wooden dragons finally fell silent.
He then manipulated the flowing sand to consume the dragons entirely, dragging them underground for a second round of sealing.
At this point in the battle, both Ryouma and Madara suddenly stopped fighting.
They had realized something odd, neither could really do anything to the other.
Ryouma lacked a jutsu powerful enough to pierce through the armor-clad Wood Golem Susanoo. And with Madara sheltered inside that fortress, Ryouma had no way to reach his core directly.
On Madara's side, he couldn't freely use Susanoo's large-scale destructive techniques. All he could do was swing the wooden blade, and even that was ineffective against Ryouma, who possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique and could dodge anything.
The battlefield was still alight with purple fire. Underground rivers continued erupting from beneath the earth. At this level of combat, the terrain had been permanently transformed.
Desert sands, rushing water, towering wood, blazing fire... it was hard to imagine all these elements coexisting on a single battlefield.
Madara's voice echoed from the sky, "Since Hashirama, you're the first person to push me this far. I, Madara, acknowledge your strength, Aotsuki Ryouma."
Ryouma looked up and smiled. "Still so preachy?"
Since a frontal assault was pointless, it was time for a sneak attack. A true ninja must have a few dirty tricks up their sleeve.
Earlier, while forming the hand seals for Magnet Release, he had secretly added several extra signs, activating a technique he had never used before.
It was the Shadow Seal Manipulation Jutsu.
This jutsu's effect was simple, it allowed him to hide the seal formula. But when combined with Ryouma's precise chakra control, it opened up a whole new range of possibilities.
For example, right now, he had already secretly concealed a Flying Thunder God mark on the ground, and it was slowly shifting toward the location of Madara's real body behind the armor.
The potential of the Flying Thunder God Technique was extremely high.
When Minato first demonstrated the "moving mark" variation to him, Ryouma immediately realized it could be used to conceal the seal and relocate it stealthily.
Then, when the enemy focused all their attention on the kunai locations they'd detected, he could teleport instantly to the hidden mark and land a fatal blow.
However, due to the slow movement speed of the Flying Thunder God Technique under the Shadow Seal Manipulation state,
he still had to wait a little longer.
Before that, he didn't mind chatting a bit more with Madara, after all, at this point, neither of them could do anything to the other.
Compared to him, Madara was actually in a fairly good mood at the moment.
Ever since the battle at the Valley of the End, it had been a long time since he'd fought with full strength. Even though he was remotely controlling his clone, it still brought him a sense of pleasure.
But continuing like this wouldn't work, the boy knew far too many jutsu, and each one was darker and more suppressive than the last. And each was a direct counter to his abilities.
Was it just a coincidence?
He didn't know, but what he did know was that the goal of either killing or capturing Ryouma here was now impossible.
To deal with him, he would need to retrieve his Rinnegan and use Limbo: Border Jail.
But the real question was: how would he retreat?
He didn't possess space-time ninjutsu, and if he tried to retreat with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the boy would surely pursue him. With the aid of the One-Tail, Ryouma didn't need to worry about chakra consumption at all.
Should he activate that fallback plan?
Before he could make up his mind, Ryouma sensed that the Flying Thunder God marks controlled by the Shadow Seal Manipulation had been positioned.
On the battlefield that had only just quieted down for a few minutes, he moved first, the five remaining spheres behind him spread out.
Using them as a medium, amidst a deafening hum, he simulated five Rasenshuriken.
That's right, Ryouma's Rasengan Spheres were never limited to releasing only one kind of jutsu at a time. That was just false information he had deliberately conveyed before.
Up until now, none of his opponents had even qualified to witness this tactic.
Madara looked at Ryouma's movements with suspicion. That kind of attack couldn't even break through his Wood Release armor, it was less effective than the previous blaze jutsu.
He suspected that the real target was the body hidden behind his Susanoo, and that Ryouma intended to achieve victory through precision.
If even one Rasenshuriken slipped past the Susanoo's defenses, given his known level of chakra control, he could precisely tear open the ground above the hideout and cause a devastating explosion inside.
But getting past Susanoo was no easy task.
Madara's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan spun rapidly, analyzing all possible assault trajectories Ryouma might use. At the same time, he used Wood Release to sprout several wooden Dragons around the perimeter of the hideout again, fully on guard.
His Susanoo crossed its giant wooden blade in front of him, ready to strike down those Rasenshuriken at any moment.
On the battlefield, the massive flames from earlier had superheated the ground, vaporizing the water from underground rivers, forming heavy rain clouds in the sky.
The Land of Water was already a rainy island with a maritime climate, all of this only intensified the conditions.
Naturally, thunder began to rumble.
BOOM—!
A thunderclap tore across the sky.
His pupils shrank sharply, because, in his vision, Ryouma had vanished in an instant from where he stood.
What shocked him even more was that Ryouma didn't reappear at any of the Flying Thunder God kunai on the battlefield.
Instead… he turned his head, and saw the boy standing directly above the stronghold.
Several wooden dragons surged up, madly lunging to tear him apart, but it was already too late.
Buzz—Buzz—Buzz—
The five Rasenshuriken had already been launched downward under Ryouma's control.
They easily tore through the soft surface and the hard bedrock, plunging into the hollow mountain cavern where Madara's true body and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path were hidden.
With a surge of chakra, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished again in an instant.
The wooden dragons missed their target, crashing into each other instead and sending wood splinters flying in all directions.
The next second, he reappeared at another Flying Thunder God kunai. He swiftly formed a hand seal and detonated all five Rasenshuriken simultaneously.
In less than a second, a massive blue chakra storm reached critical mass, engulfing the entire mountain.
Endless gales screamed, forming blades fine enough to slice at the cellular level, cutting everything in the storm without mercy.
Ryouma glanced at the motionless Madara clone nearby, which had seemingly frozen due to the true body's distress and loss of focus, but he didn't think that was secure enough.
He looked up at the thunderclouds, then summoned a cloud of sand to lift himself into the sky.
Running his finger along the sword's blade, he replaced the blaze chakra coating it with the Chidoryu Style variant.
Then, raising Lostvayne above his head, he guided the energy, and the clouds above began to churn. Lightning crackled and thunder roared through the heavens.
Under his guidance, the natural lightning began to morph into a shape, a strange divine beast with deer antlers, lion eyes, elk body, and a dragon's tail.
With a dramatic swing of his arm, like a god passing judgment from above, he called down divine punishment.
"Kirin!"
An immense force of nature let out a roar as it dove straight down. A thunderbolt a hundred meters thick lit up the sky, visible even from hundreds of miles away, linking sky and earth in a single instant.
On the ground, countless arcs of blue lightning crawled across the land like a web, spreading over several kilometers. Under the assault of a billion volts, everything was broken down at the molecular level.
Minutes passed before the apocalyptic storm and lightning finally began to subside.
Ryouma slowly descended to the ground. The entire area within his sight had been chemically altered. Several kilometers of scorched land had become a completely inhospitable zone for any living being.
The mountain that Madara had transformed into a base was now utterly gone, replaced by a vast crater several kilometers wide.
The previously full-body Susanoo had vanished. Madara's clone lay on the ground, and as dust swirled around it, the body of a White Zetsu was revealed.
He let out a slow breath. Madara, truly a survivor from the Warring States period.
---
A few seconds earlier, when faced with the point-blank explosion of the five Rasenshuriken, Madara had used the Wood Locking Wall for defense.
And when Ryouma followed up with a high-powered version of Kirin, Madara seemed to sense something, and somehow escaped, taking even the Gedo Statue with him.
He had come to the Land of Water not only to destroy Kiri, but also to try his luck at finding Madara.
In the end, he had found him but failed to seize the opportunity to finish him.
Catching him next time would be far harder.
"Looks like I still need to train." He suddenly felt that ever since he gained Full Counter and the Flying Thunder God Technique, his mentality had started to shift toward arrogance.
With the Rikugan, everything had become so effortless. While that fostered confidence, it also made him dangerously dismissive of others.
He thought it was time for some serious self-reflection.
