Time was still accelerating. The singularity was right ahead.
That was only natural. Now that the planet had already collapsed, it wasn't possible to just stop and let everyone spend the rest of their lives drifting through space.
The universe surged beneath Ryosuke's feet, rushing forward toward the singularity of time and space.
Before long, the universe would restart.
There were two types of universal resets created by Heaven Made.
The first was the "Heaven" that Enrico Pucci so desperately longed for.
From the moment Ryosuke began accelerating time until the universe reached its end under that acceleration, all living beings in the world would, within this brief span, experience their future lives mentally, that is,
A pilgrimage of the old world.
All humans would learn their destinies during this pilgrimage. Upon reaching the space-time singularity and entering the new world to be reborn, everything would unfold strictly according to predetermined fate.
If the original universe, before any acceleration occurred, was called the "First Universe,". Then the universe after a successful acceleration, Ryosuke would call the "Second Universe."
The Second Universe was what Father Pucci described as "those with resolve are always happy", the paradise he longed to reach.
But Ryosuke did not see it that way.
Those who know and accept their fate might be able to find happiness.
But what about those who know their fate, yet cannot accept it, how could they be happy?
On what grounds can you force someone to accept such a fate happily?
Clearly, it's unreasonable.
Father Pucci experienced the universe's cycle, entered the "Second Universe," and learned that Emporio would grow up in the future and defeat him.
So before reaching that point in time, he tried to kill Emporio early, rejecting the arrangement of fate.
As a result, he was tragically counter-killed by one of the three JoJo phantom gods, Emporio.
However, before Emporio killed Father Pucci, Pucci had already activated Heaven Made once more and accelerated time again.
With the death of Pucci, the controller, the universe underwent a random cycle and entered the "Third Universe."
Survivors of the old world would directly enter the Third Universe, but those who had already died would be reborn as completely different people, and all of humanity would no longer know their own destinies.
Ryosuke stood before the singularity.
At this moment, he faced two choices.
The Second Universe, where one knows their fate and is trapped by it?
Or the Third Universe, where fate is unknown, but the dead are revived, which also meant that Momoshiki, Kinshiki, and Isshiki might very well return in other forms.
Ryosuke shook his head.
"I don't like either of these choices."
The singularity, the space-time singularity, was right in front of him. Aside from the steel ball sealing Kaguya, all living beings in the world had entered the interior of the singularity.
In the next second, the new universe would restart.
At this moment, the entire universe was gathered within this infinitely tiny, pitch-black singularity.
Ryosuke suddenly understood, this was the "Absolute Darkness" the Great Toad Sage had spoken of.
Of course. The universe had reached its end.
No matter how much the Great Toad Sage could peer into the future, he could only see events within this universe. How could he possibly see what would happen in the next cycle of the universe?
Thinking of this, Ryosuke let out a soft laugh. He tapped the corner of his eye with his index finger and pulled out a transparent, narrow tear-blade.
The blade spun several times in his palm, and then, he stabbed it straight into the singularity.
Crack!
A fissure appeared in the pitch-black singularity.
Countless fixed, clear destinies were severed once again by this blade that symbolized both happiness and calamity.
Threads of multicolored light poured out from the tear-blade.
The once-locked fates were scrambled anew. All people, all living beings in the world regained infinite possibilities.
But this did not come without a cost.
The Tear Train Ticket stripped away vitality, put simply, maximum HP.
After becoming an ultimate lifeform, with the reinforcement of Ripple and natural energy, Ryosuke's vitality far surpassed even Kars in his prime.
But no one could withstand the consumption of an entire universe.
Ryosuke's body was gradually drying up, his arms, torso, internal organs, and finally his face. His life force drained away until, in the end…
He resembled the saint's corpse from the Steel Ball Run world.
The final trace of vitality flowed into the tear-blade.
The singularity bloomed with intoxicating light amid the void. The universe fell into a brief silence, and then, the singularity exploded.
Everything in the world began anew within infinitely accelerated time, like a downhill skier plunging from an almost vertical ninety-degree drop into gliding, then gradually leveling out into smooth forward motion.
Finally… the acceleration stopped.
"Fourth Universe: A Future of Infinite Possibilities"
All things in the world returned to normal.
As if nothing had changed.
But everyone knew, everything was different.
———
The Hidan Mobile crashed.
Hidan, Yakushi Kabuto, and an Orochimaru who had just been revived by reinserting a disc were running through the desert.
They arrived at Obito, who had lost both eyes and was left with only half a body.
Kabuto hurried to return things to their owner, removing the Kamui Sharingan and hot-swapping it back into Obito. At the same time, with a smooth set of medical ninjutsu, he barely used White Zetsu cells to repair half of Obito's body.
"Stop messing around, if he can run, that's enough!" Hidan urged.
"I…"
Obito looked at the group before him, the so-called Evil God White Snake crew.
To be honest, at first, he absolutely despised the name "Evil God White Snake."
Especially since he had previously worked with the Akatsuki. Their combat power, intimidation, and style were all maxed out, letting them dominate the ninja world without restraint. Naturally, he looked down even more on the people in the Evil God White Snake group.
But after traveling together all this way, now standing at death's door, it was the ones he looked down on the most who came to save him… Maybe the old Obito wouldn't have cared. But after learning the truth behind Infinite Tsukuyomi and falling into despair, Obito felt a stir in his heart.
He pushed Kabuto's hand away.
"You should go."
"Ryosuke won't let me go. If you take me with you, none of you will escape. Only if I stay behind can you survive."
"And… I have a reason to stay."
What Obito said was true.
Although they didn't know what Obito meant by his "reason to stay," everyone present was a veteran ninja. Naturally, they knew what to do at a time like this.
Yakushi Kabuto and Hidan fell silent for a moment, then patted Obito on the shoulder. Taking advantage of the chaos while no one noticed, they turned and left, dragging along a still-dazed Orochimaru.
After the three left, Obito slowly got up from the ground and turned to look in a certain direction.
From the shadow of a crystallized sand dune, a familiar old friend stepped out, one step at a time.
Hatake Kakashi.
Two Sharingan stared at each other.
Kakashi said, "You have two choices."
"Either resist to the end, and I'll kill you on the spot."
"Or surrender, go back, accept judgment, and under the gaze of countless people, accept death… as a form of release."
Obito slowly shook his head. "I will die, but not today."
"Kakashi, give the Sharingan back to me. I'll find a way to evolve it into the Rinnegan, revive Rin, revive all those who have died."
"This is the last way to save everything."
Kakashi smiled.
A short blade was slowly drawn from his waist.
Obito's pupils contracted slightly as he recognized the blade.
The White Fang's blade.