The translocated Satsuki and the Shadow Clones tumbled into a gloomy, peculiar space.
There was no sky or ground—only endless mist laced with razor-edged spatial shards. His Domain was heavily suppressed, its radiance dimmed by half.
Barely steadying himself, Satsuki saw a figure stride slowly from the mist—Shun's true body.
"You came in personally… so this really was a trap aimed at me?"
Satsuki's pupils contracted and deeper dread surged within him.
He could feel that this dimension's rules were completely under Kaguya's control, yet Shun moved unhindered, even using those rules to amplify his own strength. In contrast, his Mental Energy was so suppressed he could barely access sixty percent of his peak power.
"Here, no one will save you." Shun spoke indifferently, his golden Nine Tomoe Rinne Sharingan blazing.
"You've cast plenty of mental-type Shinjutsu. Let's see how you like tasting them yourself—watch how well I perform them."
With that, he lifted a finger toward Satsuki. Pale-purple Chakra surged from its tip—his copied Shinjutsu: Mental Impact.
Satsuki's pupils shrank and he instinctively channeled Mental Energy.
Mental Impact!
An identical pale-purple beam shot from his finger and the two Shinjutsu collided mid-air.
With a dull thud, the twin beams exploded, purple shock-waves billowing outward.
Before Satsuki could exhale, a stronger mental pressure slammed into him.
Shun flashed forward, palm striking out.
Psionic Barrier!
Several purple walls of light sprang up around Satsuki, locking him in tightly. Their thickness and energy density exceeded his own full-power version by thirty percent.
"Impossible! How can you wield my Shinjutsu so powerfully?" Satsuki snarled in shock and anger, instantly countering.
Psionic Barrier!
A purple wall rose before him, blocking in the same manner.
He wasn't done yet.
Mind Storm!
Within the mist, a purple energy vortex spun toward Shun.
Shun merely glanced coldly and used the same move.
Mind Storm!
A far larger, faster-spinning purple vortex formed, swallowing Satsuki's like a leviathan devouring a goldfish, then barreled onward.
"Ugh—"
Rebounded by his own Shinjutsu, Satsuki felt a hammer-blow to his chest. He spat a mouthful of blood and stumbled back against the Psionic Barrier.
His mind rang with a terrible realization. "It's you! You've been hiding your true strength all along!"
He finally understood why, even after he unleashed his full power, Shun's Shadow Clones could still keep up and why Shun had never rushed to finish him.
"You deliberately wore me down with clones, forcing me to reveal my trump cards—just so you could copy my Shinjutsu."
Shun calmly said, "Not too slow on the uptake."
Demonic Eye of Terror!
Countless twisted, terrifying illusions poured from his eyes—far more vivid and oppressive than when Satsuki cast the technique.
Already reeling from a backlash of Mental Energy, Satsuki's mind was in turmoil. Confronted by this wave of illusions, he plunged into utter terror, his body trembling uncontrollably, his defensive rhythm completely shattered.
"No! This is my Shinjutsu! There's no way you could surpass me!'
Fighting through the fear, Satsuki forced his mind to steady. He poured every last shred of Mental Energy into countering with the same move.
Demonic Eye of Terror!
Yet the moment his illusions appeared, Shun's visions crushed and shredded them utterly. Only then did despair set in.
The Shinjutsu he relied on for survival had become a weapon turned against him, each move wielded with power far beyond his own.
Shun flashed in front of him, a black longsword wreathed in space-time energy materializing in his grip.
Swish!
The razor-sharp blade sliced effortlessly through Satsuki's neck.
The violet light in Satsuki's eyes dimmed rapidly, the madness replaced by utter despair.
Watching his own body collapse, blood gushed from his mouth as he tried to speak, but no sound came.
Without pause, Shun summoned a Soul-reaping rope and forcibly dragged Satsuki's soul out.
In spectral form, Satsuki let out a shrill wail, yet the chain held him fast—no escape possible.
"How dare you treat me like this! The Ōtsutsuki clan will never forgive you!"
"Rest easy. The Ōtsutsuki clan will soon cease to exist."
Face impassive, Shun turned, rope in hand, and strode toward the spatial passage leading to the Ancestral Star's netherworld. Then he hurled Satsuki's soul into the depths of the netherworld.
"Satsuki, suffer well in the netherworld."
On the other side of the rift, the dark millstones of the netherworld were already turning slowly.
The instant Satsuki's soul crossed the threshold, a colossal suction dragged it into the grinding stones.
"NOOOOO!!!"
The piercing scream tore through the spatial rift, only to be swallowed by the creaking of the millstones.
A pale violet Mental Energy seeped out like water. With a wave of his hand, Shun collected it.
This purified Mental Energy was one of the very aims of his kill.
Task complete, Shun tapped the void and in a flash returned to the battlefield of the Ōtsutsuki Palace.
"Shun, looks like you've already dealt with Satsuki." Kaguya stood beside him, as if rejoicing in the victory.
Satsuki's mental control had troubled her. His fall removed a major threat.
"No rush—five remain."
Shun's voice was steady.
His gaze swept the five defiant Otsutsuki outside the hall, pausing on each.
"Next is Yojin. His life arts are too troublesome. If we don't remove him quickly, the coming fights will only get worse."
Seeing Shun return unharmed, the five froze, disbelief written across their faces.
"If this man is back… does that mean Satsuki is already dead?"
The question had barely left their lips when a thunderous roar shook the air, sending stones skittering across the ground.
"You dare kill Satsuki! I'll make you pay—I'll strip every last breath of life from you until your souls scatter to nothing!"
The voice, dripping with mad killing intent, belonged to Yojin.
"Life Domain—open!"
Yojin lapsed into frenzy, drawing life force from his personal dimension without restraint.
With each surge of vitality, his frame visibly swelled, muscles knotting like boulders, veins writhing beneath his skin like worms. His eyes burned crimson, packed with savage bloodlust and his aura grew ever more terrifying, like a rampaging beast.
Shun clapped his hands, summoning thousands of Shadow Clones. The clones charged while molding Chakra, surging toward the berserk Yojin.
A new fierce battle began.
Having seen the earlier fight, Kaguya knew the pressure on Shun and wanted to share the burden.
"Let me fight this time. My All-Killing Ash Bones can deal him heavy damage."
Reading the resolve in her eyes, Shun used Ten Directions to glimpse the future, confirming no danger.
"Alright. Be careful. Once Yojin goes berserk, his intellect drops. Just buy me some time."
"Satsuki... is he really dead?"
Kugen's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva.
He stared fixedly at Shun's figure, his eyes flashing with intense wariness and confusion.
Fear was like a cold vine, instantly wrapping around the five Otsutsuki, making them feel chilled to the bone.
Satsuki's strength was not considered top-tier among them, but he was by no means weak. Yet now, he had been slain so cleanly and decisively by Shun and Kaguya.
This made them realize for the first time that the combination of these two was far more terrifying than they had imagined.
"Stop putting on an act." Shun's eyes were cold as frost.
An invisible wave of energy spread out from him as the center, causing the blood and minced meat on the ground to splatter everywhere.
"Next, it's your turn."
A chilling killing intent pressed down on the five high-ranking members like something physical, causing the surrounding temperature to drop by several degrees.
"Hmph, don't think you can be arrogant just because you killed Satsuki. With the five of us joining forces, do you think we'd be afraid of a junior like you?" Migaki suppressed the fear in his heart and let out a deafening roar toward the sky.
He slammed his feet into the ground, and a gravity Domain instantly expanded, crushing toward Shun like an invisible giant boulder. Wherever the gravity Domain passed, the surrounding space and light were distorted.
The Shadow Clones in the front row were pressed down by the sudden gravity, their figures sinking before turning into a cloud of smoke and dissipating in the air.
Kugen forced himself to steady his mind. The space in front of him shattered inch by inch like glass, and countless pitch-black spatial fragments swept toward the Shadow Clones like sharp blades.
Murata, Yojin, and Seirin also dared not hold back in the slightest, launching full-power attacks simultaneously as the battle instantly escalated.
The five Otsutsuki cooperated fully, and their offensive was far more violent than before.
Multiple types of energy intertwined to form a lethal, multicolored energy light curtain.
Although the Six Paths Level Shadow Clones were fearless, they collapsed one after another under such a dense attack. Golden smoke dissipated in large patches, and the air was filled with the sizzling sound of Chakra annihilation.
In just a few seconds, more than half of the remaining Shadow Clones were lost, but the momentum of the five Otsutsuki's charge was also halted, preventing them from advancing any further.
"Is this all the ability you have?"
Seeing this, Murata's face showed a hideous sneer, his gaze occasionally flitting toward Kaguya's direction.
His body flickered, and he instantly entered a Void State, his figure and aura disappearing completely as if he had merged with the space and become invisible.
In his Void State, his speed was extremely fast. As he shuttled through the turbulent energy of the battlefield, he was not affected in the slightest.
A sharp, pale gray energy spike condensed in his hand, stabbing toward Shun's brow and brain.
Murata felt a secret joy in his heart. 'Everyone who has seen this move of mine is already dead. As long as this strike hits, I can finish him off.'
"Shun, be careful!"