Kaguya froze, her pale face tightening. She turned her head sharply, glaring at Ayanami Kaito with venomous eyes before vanishing into the void without a sound.
Kaito stood silently for a moment, his fists clenched.
Tch… you look at me like that? Then fight me head-on! Running like this again and again… aren't you tired? Because I am.
He exhaled heavily. "I didn't want to use this move, but you're forcing my hand."
Kaito's body flared with blinding lightning, arcs of electricity spreading wildly across his frame. Chakra surged outward like a tangible storm, overflowing into the boundless desert around him. The once-still golden sand trembled under his power.
"Awaken!"
Slamming both hands onto the ground, his voice carried through the entire dimension.
A low hum vibrated through the air, and an overwhelming aura erupted from Kaito's body, sweeping across the vast desert. The golden dunes beneath him began to transform—grain after grain of sand sparked, turning into roaring arcs of lightning until the desert became a vast and furious sea of thunder.
Crackle… crackle…
With a single thought, Kaito commanded the storm. Thunder surged together, waves of lightning colliding and merging into one enormous form. In an instant, a colossal giant of thunder, towering thousands of feet high, took shape.
Kaito floated between the giant's eyebrows, and in his hands, the Ultimate Thunder Spear grew larger, seamlessly fitting into the grasp of the thunder giant. The sheer size of the construct caused ripples in the surrounding space, as though reality itself struggled to contain it.
"Why must it come to this…" Kaito murmured, eyes narrowing.
He willed the thunder giant to ascend. Its massive form soared skyward, raising the thunder spear and striking at the heavens.
Crack! Crack!
The sound resembled glass shattering. Jagged rifts tore open across the desert sky, exposing enormous spatial fractures. Through them, Kaito glimpsed the entrances to the other four dimensions hidden within Kaguya's domain.
His expression remained calm. This space was only one of the many she controlled—it was weaker than the barriers of the true shinobi world. He would rip it apart piece by piece.
Each swing of the thunder spear widened the rifts, tearing the fabric of this dimension apart. Though the space tried to repair itself, its recovery was sluggish compared to Kaito's relentless assault. He wasn't destroying aimlessly—he was searching for the core, the origin that held this dimension together. Once he found it, the entire desert world would unravel.
The thunder giant marched across the endless sands, its every step shaking the world. At last, Kaito spotted it—the anomaly. The cracks in this section repaired faster than anywhere else, the very foundation of the dimension. His lips curled into a sharp smile.
"Finally… found it."
The thunder giant spun in the air, lightning surrounding it like a spiraling comet. Kaito thrust the spear downward with devastating force.
BOOM! BOOM!
The desert quaked violently. Storms of sand and lightning surged outward, blotting out the sky as the dimension screamed in protest. Winds howled, tearing through space itself.
Then came the sound—like mirrors breaking all at once.
Crack! Crack!
The desert world shattered, fragments of space splintering and falling into nothingness before collapsing completely. The thunder giant dissolved back into raw lightning, leaving Kaito suspended in the void. All around him, five distinct spatial passages revealed themselves—the core of Kaguya's dimensions, the starting point of her Heavenly Imperial Palace.
Meanwhile, in the frozen world of ice and snow, Kaguya's Byakugan scanned every ripple in the air. Her body still bore signs of injury, though her pale shoulders had nearly healed.
"Almost…" she whispered. "Soon I'll be able to unleash it."
But her words died as her expression hardened. Her widened eyes glimmered with horror.
"He… he destroyed my sand dimension?"
Kaguya's voice trembled with fury. As the creator of these six worlds, she could feel each one as if they were her own limbs. For a single space to collapse so completely… it was unthinkable.
She had fought opponents who scarred her dimensions before, but they always regenerated. Unless struck by the annihilating force of a Truth-Seeking Orb, destruction was impossible. Or so she believed.
And yet, Kaito had just proven otherwise. If given more time, he could unravel them all—leaving her with nowhere to run.
"This proves it," she hissed. "He's finally fighting at his full strength. No more games."
Her eyes narrowed as she floated higher, her long white hair swaying in the icy wind. "Good. The wounds you gave me have healed. This battle ends now."
The space in front of her rippled, then tore apart. The thunder giant reappeared, Kaito standing firm upon its brow. His voice boomed coldly across the frozen expanse.
"Run if you want. It won't matter. Once I destroy the last of your spaces, there will be nowhere left to hide."
Kaguya's expression twisted. She knew he was right. If she fled now, she'd waste what little chakra remained. She only had one chance left.
Her third eye gleamed, bursting with raw pupil power. The surrounding space cracked like spiderwebs spreading across glass, the fractures racing outward at terrifying speed.
"Expand… Truth-Seeking Orb!"
Kaito raised a brow, his grip on the spear tightening. "Finally showing your trump card?"
Lightning surged around him again as his chakra flared. He summoned the remaining elemental forces—fire, water, earth, wind—and poured them into the thunder giant. Its brilliance intensified, power multiplying severalfold.
"If that's the case," Kaito muttered, "then I'll crush it head-on."
The frozen world trembled as the power of two titans prepared to collide.