Chapter 290 – The Sin of the Bloodline Apotheosis (Ketsumyaku no Shinka)
"So… my development's already reached eighty-six percent?"
Gen stared at the glowing status window before him, a strange sense of disbelief rising within.
On the surface, a mere four percent increase didn't sound like much—
yet the sheer weight of the power coursing through his veins told a different story.
Especially because of what appeared next.
"The Bloodline Apotheosis… it finally succeeded."
He exhaled slowly, eyes trembling.
He had waited for this—
ever since the day he first awakened in this world as a powerless commoner.
From that moment, he'd known:
the Bloodline Apotheosis was his only path to transcendence.
Even after gaining the blood of the Ōtsutsuki, he had never stopped climbing.
And now, after countless battles, sacrifices, and near deaths—
he'd finally arrived.
A surge of raw, boiling energy spiraled through his body.
His heart pounded. His chakra howled.
Yet, amidst the exhilaration, a faint frown tugged at his brow.
"Why does it say 'Primary Tier'…?"
He stared at the words on the panel, irritated.
This wasn't just any energy source he'd used.
This was Momoshiki's divine core—
a crystallized essence that had devoured Kinshiki and contained power beyond measure.
Even if some energy was lost during the fusion process,
the result shouldn't have been this… underwhelming.
Before he could think further, a familiar, cold voice echoed inside his mind.
"You actually did it."
Kaguya's tone wasn't one of awe or admiration.
It was quiet—almost fearful.
"The 'Path to Godhood'... it's even more terrifying than I thought.
Now that you've proven it works, everyone will go mad for it."
"Hm?"
Gen blinked. He was still wondering why Momoshiki's power felt weaker than expected—
but Kaguya's reaction told him something else was happening.
Then he looked around…
and froze.
"This is—"
The entire Amenominaka was flooded in radiant light.
Brilliant rays burst from above, piercing the sky,
as though the heavens themselves were congratulating him for achieving the impossible.
But beneath that divine glow…
everything else was dying.
The barren wasteland below had become utterly lifeless.
His colossal God Tree Source, once towering and full of vitality,
now stood withered—its once-glowing branches thin and frail,
its leaves dull and crumbling into ash.
It looked as though its very life had been drained away.
"How… how is this happening?"
Gen whispered, staring at the contrast between the radiant heavens and the dying earth below.
For the first time, he felt a chill—not from fear, but from awe.
"So this… is the Bloodline Apotheosis?"
"Yes," Kaguya replied, her voice trembling slightly.
"This is the true form of the Bloodline Apotheosis."
She took a deep, shaky breath.
"Gen… do you even understand what your 'Path to Godhood' means?"
"Then enlighten me."
Gen crossed his arms, intrigued.
From his understanding, the Bloodline Apotheosis was the perfect fusion of all chakra natures—
a total unification of every element, forming the most pure and complete energy possible.
Simple in theory. Impossible in practice.
Even for the Ōtsutsuki, it was something only whispered about.
And now, he had achieved it.
"You should know," Kaguya said after a pause,
"I obtained my Bloodline Apotheosis through the fruit of the God Tree.
That energy is infinite, Gen—
it's the manifestation of boundless chakra and the ultimate leap of life itself."
"Infinite energy… evolution of life," he repeated softly.
It wasn't just raw power.
It was a foundation—a rewrite of the body and soul.
Abilities like All-Killing Ash Bones or Yomotsu Hirasaka were not just jutsu—
they were "mechanisms" granted by the Bloodline Apotheosis.
And the "values" it raised—
body durability, divine chakra capacity, dimensional resonance—
were simply metrics of a higher lifeform.
But even so—
it wasn't invincibility.
Kaguya herself had fallen to Naruto and Sasuke.
Urashiki had died pitifully.
Isshiki and Momoshiki both perished despite their power.
Even Obito—reborn as a pseudo-god—had fallen.
Power alone wasn't enough.
"And yet," Kaguya continued, her tone grim,
"to forge the Bloodline Apotheosis the normal way, our clan gathers God Tree fruits.
They are refined by the elders into divine pills, and distributed to chosen members."
"But do you know," she asked quietly,
"how many fruits it takes to condense a single Bloodline Apotheosis from such diluted energy?"
Gen's eyes narrowed.
"How many fruits…?"
And then it hit him.
Each fruit meant the death of an entire world—
a planet stripped of all life, left as a barren corpse.
And to refine those fruits into weakened pills for others…
"So they've destroyed how many planets?"
"How many lives—just to reach this step?!"
Kaguya sighed.
"Very few worlds can survive the planting of a God Tree and recover, like this one.
Most become dead stars—forever hollow."
She paused, her voice trembling faintly.
"But you… you've done what even the gods feared.
Through your so-called 'Path to Godhood' and your obedient Ten-Tails…
you achieved the impossible."
"The ones who already possess the Bloodline Apotheosis will become more deranged than ever.
And those who don't… will lose their minds chasing it."
She didn't dare say more.
If Gen's method spread—
if the Ōtsutsuki learned that he had bypassed the fruit entirely—
then the entire clan would descend into chaos.
"Tch. Then let them all die," Gen said coldly. "None of them are innocent anyway."
Still, he now understood one thing very clearly:
For an ordinary being, forming a Bloodline Apotheosis was impossible.
The energy cost was absurd—
enough to annihilate countless worlds.
Even Kaguya had needed an entire, complete fruit to evolve.
He had achieved it only by draining Momoshiki's core dry and nearly killing his God Tree Source.
"And even then, it's still just the primary stage," he mused.
"To climb further, I'll have to keep devouring energy endlessly…
No wonder Isshiki wanted to keep planting trees."
For the first time, he truly understood the madness of the Ōtsutsuki.
And a part of him—dark, restless—almost admired it.
"Still," Kaguya broke his thoughts, "how did you make the Ten-Tails so… obedient?"
Her tone was sharp, almost fearful.
"Even as our clan's pet, the Ten-Tails is feral and uncontrollable—how did you—"
"Don't ask what you shouldn't," Gen cut her off. "I'm not in the mood."
He didn't plan to tell her the truth.
Though even he wondered if he had truly drained his God Tree Source dry.
But then—he froze.
"Wait…?"
He could still feel it—
the faint pulse of energy flowing from the tree back into him.
"It's still feeding me…?"
Realization dawned. He immediately stopped the absorption process.
"Stupid thing. You'll kill yourself…"
He scowled, but curiosity soon replaced irritation.
Peering deeper into the Tree's core, he found that Kaguya had been right—
the Tree's energy was regenerating on its own.
As if desperately healing itself.
And then, he sensed something else—
the lingering chakra of Momoshiki and Urashiki's sacrificed bodies
feeding into the process,
their divine remnants nourishing the Tree like fertilizer.
Slowly, the once-withered branches began to stir again.
And deep within… something new was forming.
"It's… producing a fruit?"
Gen's lips parted in surprise.
Even after everything he'd drained from it,
the God Tree Source was still strong enough to begin a new cycle.
"Stubborn, aren't you?" he chuckled. "Fine. Take your time."
He could feel it clearly—the energy gathering, compressing, transforming.
It would take time, yes—
but once the fruit was complete and he consumed it…
"The Bloodline Apotheosis should advance to the Intermediate Tier."
His eyes gleamed.
"And if I use Shibai's body for the third fruit…"
"Then I'll reach the Advanced Tier—the level of a god among gods."
He smiled faintly.
"At that point… I might really surpass everything."
---
Kaguya said nothing.
She didn't dare.
"Fine," she murmured finally. "I won't ask about the Ten-Tails anymore."
But her mind still churned with unease.
After a long silence, she finally asked the one question that had been haunting her.
"Gen… you've achieved the Bloodline Apotheosis.
Then why… do you still lack the Rinnegan?
Why hasn't your third eye opened?"
"The third eye?"
Gen turned slowly, his expression unreadable—
and for a fleeting instant,
the faintest trace of light flickered in the center of his forehead.
Gen could feel it—
the strange, pulsing energy slowly forming between his brows.
Even after severing his link with the God Tree Source, that energy still stirred faintly,
though its growth had clearly slowed.
It made sense—he was already nearing his limit.
The vessel could only hold so much divinity before it ruptured.
"Could it be the same as Isshiki?"
Kaguya's voice drifted through his mind, wary and uncertain.
"Or perhaps… your own awakening triggered it?"
When he didn't reply, she continued, her tone sharp but curious.
"Still, you must have gained something new, haven't you?"
Gen's lips curled faintly.
"Indeed. New power… and quite an interesting one at that."
Though the chakra gathering in his forehead had slowed,
his eyes themselves had undergone a transformation.
And with that evolution came a revelation.
He could see it—
the invisible barriers between dimensions,
the delicate seams of reality itself.
He was still within the Amenominaka
yet he could see everything beyond it—
clearer than daylight.
"Even those who hide between space-time corridors…
I can find them instantly."
The realization made him smile.
These Full Moon Eyes weren't just beautiful—
they were a weapon of omniscience.
And the upgrade hadn't stopped there.
Every one of his foundational abilities—speed, perception, chakra control—
had skyrocketed.
And then there was the new gift—
a divine technique born from the transformation.
"So this is… Shin-Tenshin."
It was unlike Yomi-no-Tsukuni,
yet somehow connected to it—
two sides of a transcendent whole.
If Yomi-no-Tsukuni governed the realm of death and transition,
then Shin-Tenshin ruled the realm of space itself.
It allowed him to convert the entire spatial field within range into attack vectors.
"In simple terms," he murmured,
"even if I strike forward…
my attack can emerge from any point within my domain."
Offense was no longer bound by direction or distance.
And even when defending—
he could manipulate the spatial layer around him,
redirecting enemy attacks in the blink of an eye.
"Combine it with Yomi-no-Tsukuni, and I can even delay an attack—
send it straight back to my enemy later."
He chuckled softly.
The two divine arts were perfect complements—
space and time intertwined,
offense and defense united.
Yes, the chakra cost was monstrous—
enough to drain even an Ōtsutsuki dry.
But for Gen, whose very being had transcended human limitations,
it was manageable.
"Once the next God Tree fruit matures," he murmured,
"I'll undergo a second leap…"
His gaze glimmered with excitement.
"And with this new divine art,
retrieving Shibai Ōtsutsuki's body will be effortless.
That will mark my third evolution—the threshold of godhood itself."
The thought alone sent a thrill through him.
His progress was far beyond expectation.
Every step now felt like he was rewriting the rules of creation itself.
"Momoshiki, Urashiki, Isshiki…"
"You three better hurry and wake up from those Karma seals."
He smiled darkly.
"After all… I still need to finish harvesting you."
His laughter was soft, but it made the air grow cold.
---
Kaguya, trapped within him, fell silent.
The way he smiled—the gleam in those inhuman eyes—
made her feel something she hadn't felt in millennia.
Fear.
She looked upon the withered God Tree,
the Bloodline Apotheosis forged from his "Path to Godhood,"
the merciless way he hunted and consumed his own kin…
"This man…"
She could no longer tell whether she was gazing at a savior or a demon.
Quietly, she whispered into the void:
"Hagoromo… your cruelty lives on."
"Look closely, my son."
"See what kind of monster your ideals have created."