Nagato saw the incoming surge of Yin Release and immediately recognized its danger.
The concentration and purity of that chakra were beyond anything natural; it could easily breach even his enhanced natural energy defenses if allowed to reach him.
He decided to end it before it struck.
He knew that he needed to bring out something new in the moment. He got inspiration.
Starting from drawing the natural energy from the air around in a single, focused motion, he formed an immense blade of compressed radiant white-gold energy, his strongest external construct yet.
"Sage Art: Avatar Blade of Nature."
The colossal sword materialized around his ethereal guardian and cleaved forward, slicing straight through the incoming black dragon of Yin chakra.
The clash detonated in a blinding shockwave that tore the clouds apart.
Without pause, Nagato raised both hands. "Sage Art: Meteor Shower."
The sky above darkened as countless orbs of condensed natural energy descended like falling stars, hammering Indra's Susanoo from above.
Each impact exploded in a burst of pure nature energy, shaking the land and rippling through the massive construct's chakra layers.
On the other side, Ashina was moments from collapse, the haunting figures of his clan nearly consuming him.
But Ryusei's chakra pulse reached him just in time, steadying his mind and restoring focus.
Ashina drew in a deep breath and slammed his palms together.
His sealing markings ignited across his arms and torso, ancient tattoos glowing in deep crimson light.
This was one of the Uzumaki's forbidden arts, thought lost when the clan was destroyed, later stolen and modified by the Raikage line of Kumogakure.
It allowed the user to absorb natural energy into sealing formulas, then merge it with elemental ninjutsu through body seals.
Ashina had finally perfected it.
"Sage Seal Art: Elemental Unison Array."
The five elemental seals burst open along his arms, releasing blackened elemental streams, Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, and Wind, all merging through his Adamantine Sealing Chains.
They surged upward like living currents, striking from below at Indra's colossal Susanoo, perfectly synchronized with Nagato's meteoric barrage from above.
Heaven and earth collided on Indra's position, the air splitting with the force of two perfected sages attacking in unison.
On the other side, Ryusei's real body was rapidly closing the distance, cutting through the air toward the colossal Susanoo, and ultimately, Indra, seated within its core.
Beside him in the air, Pakura's Radiant Blade, Renjiro's White Slash Arcs, now infused with traces of natural energy in addition to wind and lightning, Kiyomi's Black Susanoo, the chaotic field and entropic 'zooms', and Kanae's newly perfected Frost Release all struck in unison, clashing against the countless arms and weapons of Indra's towering Susanoo, as they were also getting closer.
Meanwhile, Ryusei's four Slug Sage clones moved in perfect coordination, shielding their allies' minds from the ongoing waves of Yin-based assault.
Ryusei perfectly coordinated everything telepathically, directing the entire battle in real time, every movement, every strike, every defense synchronized through his mind alone.
However, Indra's Mangekyō was so advanced, and he was so full of energy now that he could accelerate nearly all of his own attacks, no matter the size, while similarly slowing his opponents', constantly twisting the flow of battle itself to his will in an almost unfair way.
Meanwhile, he also unleashed his next ultimate barrage without hesitation, a seamless cascade of techniques, each more overwhelming than the last.
"Let me show you," Indra said coldly, voice echoing through the air like rolling thunder, "why mortals were never meant to touch divinity."
He raised his hand, chakra spiraling into form. "You crawl with the power of borrowed gods," he continued, eyes burning with dark conviction. "I am that power."
Each word carried weight; his tone was neither boastful nor angry, merely absolute.
"This world was built on my failure," he murmured, almost to himself, "and I will end it with my hand."
Then his eyes flared, the Mangekyō patterns spinning violently. "Fall, and remember the name—Indra Ōtsutsuki."
The sky answered with a roar as his barrage began.
First came Chakra Blade: Divine Edge, a conceptually negating kind of weapon forged from an even more powerful Yin Chakra, invisible yet impossibly sharp.
The blade carved through the air and space alike, like a void slicing through barriers and chakra constructs as if they were nothing.
It cut apart Nagato's falling meteors and shattered Ashina's sealing chains mid-extension, leaving afterimages of destruction trailing behind.
Before the shockwave even faded, Indra's Lightning Release Barrage followed.
Dozens of lightning spears burst outward from his Susanoo, each one moving with conscious precision, guided by his eyes alone.
They streaked across the sky, hunting Ryusei's allies, one spear locking onto Kiyomi's Susanoo, another raining down toward Pakura and Renjiro. The sky lit up like a storm of wrathful gods.
Kiyomi barely managed to intercept a few; her own perfect Susanoo met the assault head-on. Its twin hammers surged with lightning and fire, striking back hard enough to fracture the very air, sparks spilling from every impact like molten stars.
Then came Genjutsu: Infinite Mirage.
Entire copies of Indra appeared mid-air, identical in chakra and movement.
Even Kiyomi's Mangekyō and Ryusei's Byakugan struggled to tell them apart.
These mirages moved as real combatants, attacking alongside the original, swinging weapons, firing lightning, and dividing the battlefield into chaos.
Next, Indra invoked Yin Release: Thoughtform Creation.
The air thickened as dragons and beasts formed out of his imagination alone, chimeric constructs of chakra, roaring and twisting around the Susanoo like extensions of his will.
And then came his signature, Indra's Divine Judgement. The sky ruptured.
Black lightning fell like divine punishment, each bolt infused with Yin chakra so refined it struck not the body, but the soul itself.
Ryusei's allies screamed as the storm descended, their defenses buckling.
However, Ryusei's body endured through it all, the full force of Indra's divine assault crashing against him without breaking his form.
His durability now bordered on absurd, each layer of his defenses feeding into the next, now alongside his newly acquired Slug Sage Mode buffers as well.
Around him, the Sage Slime Armor shimmered like a living membrane of condensed chakra, thick and fluid yet impossibly dense.
It dissolved and absorbed every incoming strike, even those infused with Sage energy, storing their impact before releasing it back as bursts of retaliatory force. Every blow against him became potential counterattack fuel, his armor responding as though it had its own will.
Beneath that, his inner layer, "Sage Art: Eternal Mitosis Armor", pulsed with a slow, living rhythm, like the heartbeat of a creature that refused to die.
Every impact against him triggered a chain reaction within his body.
The hypercharged slug acids coursing through his veins ignited, dissolving trauma before it could even settle, then bursting outward as corrosive vapor.
Wounds healed the instant they formed, while the same acid expelled from his pores, coating the air around him in a shimmering haze that devoured hostile chakra on contact.
Each strike against him became a backlash, energy redirected, acid flaring outward, burning through Indra's constructs and lashing the attacker in return.
Physical damage no longer reached him; it was absorbed, recycled, and weaponized. Every blow fed his body, refined it, and sent the pain back in kind.
His four Slug Sage clones mirrored these techniques perfectly, positioning themselves around the weaker others, Renjiro, Kanae, Kiyomi, and Pakura, forming a shifting barrier of liquefied chakra and light.
The clones absorbed the brunt of the destruction, shielding his allies until the overwhelming pressure finally dissolved them into mist.
By then, however, Ryusei's true body was also already moving, carving through the heart of the chaos.
His chakra flared brighter than ever, each step breaking apart the remnants of Indra's Susanoo as he surged forward on it, relentless, alive, and unstoppable.
His body flickered within its core, merging with the terrain through Sage Art: Symbiotic Reclamation.
The ground and air became extensions of him as he absorbed natural energy, healing and restoring his strength even as he moved.
His chakra flared violently, ever fluid and adaptive.
Meanwhile, under Ryusei's telepathic command, Nagato brought his hands together, chakra flaring through his Sage Mode-enhanced body and chakra.
"Senjutsu: Deep Forest Emergence!"
The ground split open as colossal trees erupted upward, their trunks twisting like serpents and roots snaring the Susanoo's legs.
Each vine pulsed with luminous green natural energy, the forest itself becoming a living restraint powered by natural energy too.
At the same time, Ashina's Adamantine Sealing Chains, still infused with his pre-programmed elemental power and natural energy, lashed down from above, forming a dark restraining and corrupting cage.
Together, the twin forces, Nagato from below, Ashina from above, locked the titanic construct in place, the earth itself trembling under the strain.
Now it came down to moments.
Either Ryusei managed to completely immobilize Indra's true body within the Susanoo, keeping him pinned and under constant pressure, or Indra's power somehow would break free first, unleashing a single counterstrike powerful enough to wipe out the rest of them, especially the weaker ones. Ryusei had no clones left this time around; the outcome would hinge entirely on his next move.
However, the deeper Ryusei pushed, the heavier the resistance became.
A strange Yin–Yang energy filled the air out of those twenty ritualists, which was too conceptual, too close to the root of creation itself for even his Slug Sage armor to dissolve.
It clung to him, dragging at his movements, while Indra's Mangekyō ability compounded the effect, warping the flow of time around him and slowing him further. For the first time, Ryusei thought he might be the one struck down first.