He didn't know how Indra had appeared here, or why—but it didn't matter.
Even if it was Indra himself.
Even if it was the Sage's own son.
Even if it was the Sage of Six Paths in person—
They would all kneel the same.
Ryusei's fist would make sure of it.
His heaven-defying body, his unbreakable will—these were his answers to gods and legends alike.
Nothing born of this world or beyond it could stop him.
Not anymore.
In real time, Ryusei's mastery over his newly acquired Sage Mode and evolved slug physiology surged to new heights.
His body increasingly grew conceptually semi-liquid—chakra-conductive and adaptive—allowing enemy energy to flow through him instead of into him.
He first fused his lightening-based Earth Release technique—one that allowed him to manipulate weight and reduce mass, learned long ago from Iwa—with the Slug Sage's ability to shift density at will.
"Sage Art: Gravitational Shedding!"
The result was speed that broke perception itself.
He no longer moved through the air; he slipped between its particles.
The air warped around him as his mass fluctuated at a microscopic level—bones hollowing, muscles loosening, density dropping to almost nothing.
Every cell adjusted its weight in perfect sync with his chakra flow.
Each step became a flicker of displacement, his presence there one instant and gone the next.
Even Indra's eyes—eyes that could follow the flow of chakra itself—struggled to trace his movement.
He was now beyond motion, beyond friction, a streak of translucent force cutting straight toward the Susanoo's core.
His higher form became fluid when absorbing or evading attacks, solid when striking back.
Every motion blurred the line between matter and chakra.
"Sage Art: Transcendent Mirage!"
Then the technique that followed transcended the Dustless Bewildering Concept itself—he became something beyond visibility or definition, slipping through Indra's Susanoo like mist, reforming as he attacked.
His speed, his stealth, his rhythm—everything sharpened past the point of comprehension.
It was the perfect Sage Mode type for his preferred ultimate taijutsu stack.
Even Indra's godlike eyes couldn't fully track him.
Indra's attacks couldn't touch him. He wasn't just lightning-fast; he had become weightless, presence-less. His form now hovered between matter and chakra, half tangible, half formless.
Every strike, every surge of energy passed harmlessly through him, unable to grasp what no longer fully existed in either world.
Around the battlefield, invisible shapes of him soon flickered as well—his newest creation, mastered in the heat of combat:
"Sage Art: Myriad Cellular Division!"
Ryusei split into dozens of perfectly linked bodies, each could be tailored in size and form, some as small as droplets of water, others as massive as hills.
All shared his chakra, senses, and will in seamless unity.
If one was destroyed, the nearest would instantly absorb its fragments and rebuild it, the network self-healing like a living organism of endless regeneration.
Soon, dozens of Ryuseis moved as one, silent, unseen, surrounding Indra and the remaining Chinoike like ghosts closing in from every direction.
In that moment, Ryusei felt it—he had finally completely stepped beyond 'humanity'. It wasn't arrogance, but realization.
His body, his chakra, his mind—they no longer obeyed the limits of flesh. He had ascended.
However, Indra was far from finished. Stunned, yes—disbelieving, yes—but fear had no place in him. He had never been the type to retreat from the impossible.
He understood now the nature of the change before him—Ryusei had shifted beyond mortal concept.
The only counter to that… would have to be conceptual as well. Not mere Uchiha Yin, but the fusion of Yin and Yang—drawn from the Chinoike followers still tethered to him.
In an instant, Indra dismissed his colossal Susanoo. His body fell freely through the air, robes fluttering, as he began absorbing the Chinoike around him through the same 'Rite of the Crimson Divinity'.
Their bodies disintegrated into red-black streams of chakra that swirled into him, forming a vast vortex of corrupted creation—an energy that tore at the boundary between thought and matter.
The power expanded outward, engulfing the battlefield.
Every trace of Ryusei's presence was assaulted at once—conceptually, spiritually, physically.
The red-black maelstrom lashed against his invisible existence, striking him with imagined pain that instantly became real.
Thousands of phantom cuts appeared across his body, his clones flickering under the sheer conceptual weight.
Indra's lips curled into a triumphant smirk. "No matter how high you climb, Senju, you still bleed."
Then, his confidence broke.
A sharp, wet crack sounded from behind him—followed by an eruption of searing pain. His smirk froze as sealing marks began to bloom across his back, spreading like wildfire.
He looked down in disbelief. A fist—Ryusei's—was buried halfway through his chest. The slime-like essence of the Ryusei in his current Slug Sage Mode had already begun merging into him, dissolving his chakra pathways while carving sealing formulas through his body from within.
"How…?" Indra choked, his chakra convulsing violently. He tried to detonate himself, to erase his body before capture—but Ryusei's grip tightened, rooting the disintegration process in place.
"You really thought only you could rewrite reality?" Ryusei's voice was calm, steady, and almost amused. "Sorry, Indra. You have just learned what real adaptability looks like."
The sealing marks flared, glowing with shifting patterns of Yin, Yang, and natural energy combined.
Ryusei leaned closer, his narrow eyes glinting.
"Now rest," he said quietly. "And while you do… I'll be reading everything you ever knew."
Indra's body convulsed one final time before the light consumed him—his chakra sealed, his consciousness absorbed, and his memories laid bare within Ryusei's grasp.
The reason Ryusei appeared beside Indra so suddenly—just before that black-red energy could tear him apart—wasn't magic or luck. It was his improved "Slug Flying Raijin".
Ever since the Shikkotsu Forest had accepted him, since his essence merged with Katsuyu's in those black pools, their connection had become absolute.
During Sage Mode, their chakras were almost indistinguishable. That bond meant one thing: Ryusei could summon fragments of Katsuyu mid-battle and merge them into his Sage Art: Myriad Cellular Division constructs secretly.
Although turning half-slug, half-human might be a bit "disgusting" to normal people, Ryusei didn't like to be "normal", and the payoff in battle made it more than worth it.
How? Why did that matter?
Because only Katsuyu could reverse summon.
Now, so could Ryusei's clones.
Each fragment, each clone, became a potential anchor.
It meant any piece of his network—no matter how small—could call him across space in an instant.
It was a complete game-changer, now finally nearly on par with the original Flying Raijin in versatility.
The fragment nearest to Indra had done exactly that—reverse-summoned Ryusei to its location just before the world around them was obliterated.
He materialized beside Indra and struck first, cutting straight through his Yin–Yang technique before it could fully manifest and completely destroying everything in the environment.
Ryusei understood now—it wasn't mere power. That red-black energy let Indra turn imagination into reality within its reach, making thoughts themselves lethal.
It was Yin–Yang in its purest form—reality-bending through will alone.
This was what Ryusei had been after from the very beginning: the only way to Indra's real memories, the source of those impossible Yin–Yang techniques.
From the moment the battle began, every move he made led toward this outcome. But it had been far harder than he expected.
Had he not mastered "Gravitational Shedding" and "Transcendent Mirage" mid-fight, he would've been finished—along with everyone else.
Indra had been a High Six Paths tier even without the Chinoike Yin–Yang ritual powering him, and Ryusei only reached that level during the battle, through sheer breakthrough and evolution.
If not for his allies keeping Indra a bit more occupied, he would've never come this close, never closed the gap, got those breakthroughs, and never seized victory—or Indra's knowledge—in the end.