174: Final Battle Prelude: Divine Soldiers from Heaven

Mountain Graveyard.

The air here was filled with the fresh scent of newly turned earth and an overwhelmingly thick aura of pretentiousness.

Uchiha Madara, the legendary pinnacle of the Ninja World, was currently standing in a “I am the strongest in the world” pose, arms outstretched, savoring the long-lost sensation of a flesh-and-blood body, brought about by incomplete Rinne Tensei.

His pulse was beating, Chakra surged—what could be more wonderful than this?

“Finally… finally, I’m back!” Beneath Madara’s feet lay Black Zetsu, prostrate on the ground, and Obito, who had already lost his usefulness. He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everything, directly fixing on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, bound by chains and resembling a descending evil god.

“This false world, these tiresome conflicts, will all end in my hands! Ten-Tails, come to me! The light of Infinite Tsukuyomi will illuminate the land, bringing true peace!”

His lines were epic, every word resounding, as if he were writing the prologue to the era he was about to usher in.

However, just as the script was halfway through, an ill-timed prop stole all the spotlight.

The sky darkened.

It wasn't the gradual dimming of storm clouds, but as if someone had flicked a light switch, and with a “snap,” all the world’s light sources were confiscated by an absurdly massive shadow.

Madara’s grand pronouncements caught in his throat. He instinctively looked up.

Above the clouds, a creation defying all reason was slowly descending. It wasn't an aircraft, nor a summoned beast; it was more like a… mobile fortress.

It was cast entirely from dark metal, its structure so complex it resembled some kind of exquisitely precise mechanical labyrinth. Countless arthropod-like structures slowly opened and closed beneath the fortress, and shimmering energy patterns flowed across its surface, like the meridians of a living creature.

This thing didn’t match any technology tree in this world.

It was Naihe Bridge, and at this moment, it had expanded to its limit, transforming into an aerial fortress vast enough to eclipse the sky.

“What… is that?” Black Zetsu’s sinister voice, for the first time, contained a static-like hum, similar to a computer before it crashes.

Madara didn’t answer, because the answer had already descended from the sky.

At the bottom of the fortress, ten massive hatches opened simultaneously, like a deity opening its eyes of judgment.

Ten streams of light, trailing long plumes, plummeted vertically with an unstoppable momentum.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!…

Ten consecutive, heavy thuds, so loud they made the earth groan, erupted in the Mountain Graveyard. Dust soared skyward, and the entire battlefield trembled violently.

As the dust slowly settled, Uchiha Madara saw a sight he had never witnessed in his entire life.

Ten colossal puppets, each with a unique form, radiating cold metallic luster and terrifying energy signatures, had formed a perfect encirclement with him and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path as their absolute center.

The tall, humanoid owl assassin Owl · Stealth, its alloy wings reflecting the last vestiges of daylight, cold as blades.

The monstrous giant desert rock spider Shanxiao - Giyan, its eight legs like blades, deeply embedded in the ground.

The pangolin Armor · Fortification, specializing in defense, with earthy yellow runes flowing across its heavy armor.

The six-armed Asura · Modified, each arm foretelling a storm of slaughter.

And then there was Netherworld, like the embodiment of the Shinigami itself, its mere presence distorting the surrounding light.

These ten puppets, like divine soldiers emerging from myths, transformed the area into a desperate battlefield with the clear objective of “we are here to clean up trash.”

“Puppet… Ninjutsu?” Madara’s cognitive system was assaulted as never before. “Sunagakure’s trick? No, that’s not right…”

Before he could analyze it further, one of the puppets moved.

Kou Ken’s sturdy body sank slightly, and its right foot stomped heavily.

Buzz—!

The ground was no longer soft earth, but transformed into some kind of stage mechanism. Super-alloy barriers, shimmering with sealing jutsu, rose from the ground at an almost imperceptible speed, seamlessly connecting and finally closing, forming a massive, isolated, enclosed gladiatorial arena.

The sky was obscured by Naihe Bridge. The ground was sealed by these alloy barriers.

The entire world seemed to be reduced to this single stage of death.

After Uchiha Madara’s initial shock, it was replaced by extreme arrogance and disdain.

“Haha… Hahahahahahaha!” He burst into laughter, his voice filled with contempt for the “iron lumps” before him. “How foolish! Have you prepared such a magnificent stage for me? To dare to confront me directly!”

He slowly raised his hand, the patterns in his Rinnegan suddenly glowing, emitting a purple light that looked down upon all living beings.

“Then, let me show you the insurmountable chasm between mortals and gods!”

“Witness the power of a god! Shinra Tensei!”

World-destroying repulsive force erupted!

Centered on Uchiha Madara, an invisible yet terrifying force, capable of leveling the entire Konoha Village, swept outwards in all directions! The air was instantly displaced, emitting a piercing shriek; the ground beneath his feet cracked in layers, violently thrown outwards. This was the power of the Six Paths, the ultimate manifestation of All Things Creation, a natural disaster that mortals could not resist!

However, just as this repulsive force was about to reach the encirclement, at that very instant.

Shanxiao - Giyan and Kou Ken moved simultaneously.

No hand signs, no charging.

The two puppets, one on the left and one on the right, simultaneously and without prior coordination, plunged their thick, metallic-sheened forelimbs into the earth beneath them.

Shanxiao - Giyan’s “Sand Iron Energy Absorber” and Kou Ken’s rune-covered gauntlets simultaneously glowed with starkly contrasting eerie lights.

An invisible gravitational wave, calculated billions of times by the Myriad Forms Ingenuity Box, was unleashed with overwhelming force.

Not one, but two gravitational waves.

These two gravitational forces, like two invisible giant hands, precisely grasped the turbulent repulsive force field.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no dazzling brilliance of clashing energies.

In the circular area where repulsion and gravity converged, something far more terrifying occurred.

Space, like playdough kneaded by a naughty child, began to violently twist, fold, and finally, emit a bone-jarring “crack” sound.

Black cracks appeared out of nowhere, only to vanish instantly.

Madara’s Shinra Tensei, powerful enough to destroy everything, was, under this bizarre counteraction, forcibly “countered” and nullified from the level of physical laws.

It wasn’t blocked, nor was it absorbed.

It was like a piece of incorrect code, directly selected by an administrator, and then the Delete key was pressed.

It vanished into thin air.

The Mountain Graveyard fell into a deathly silence.

Uchiha Madara’s arrogant laughter abruptly ceased, like a rooster whose neck had been squeezed, the subsequent syllables all caught in his throat.

The “everything is under control” expression on his face solidified, shattered for the first time, and finally dissolved into pure, incredulous shock.

The beginning of this self-directed, self-staged final battle of the Ninja World unfolded in a way that surpassed his understanding of Ninjutsu, of the Six Paths, and of all power in this world.

In the silence, the ten puppets seemed to receive the same command, all stepping forward in unison.

The perfectly synchronized metallic footsteps, like a death knell, heavily struck Uchiha Madara’s heart.

A cold, emotionless voice, seemingly synthesized from countless data streams, echoed from all directions, as if each puppet was a speaker.

“Uchiha Madara, is your ‘God’s power’ an unactivated test version?”