Trinity, Final Battle (Part 1) (4K)

"Tch, this looks really ugly."

Satoru Gojo admired Bai Cangshu in every respect, except when it came to aesthetics and fashion. He felt his host still had a great deal to learn.

This appearance, as if several organs had been forcibly stitched together, was difficult for Satoru Gojo to look at.

Uchiha Madara also snorted coldly. He was dissatisfied that, after taking control of the body, this guy had actually installed the Hyuga Clan’s eyes onto it as well.

"What use are those things?"

Like a Shōnen who had received a novel toy, Bai Cangshu swayed slightly as he walked out of the woods. The strange fields of vision overlapped: a full 360-degree view, X-Ray Vision, long-distance vision, superhuman dynamic vision, and the traits of countless other eyes had all been crudely combined within this body.

And because the eyes he had acquired were actually "temporary items" that could not be taken out of this world, he had practically used a method akin to "illegal modification" to forcibly graft them onto himself.

What he wanted was not power, but an experience.

As Bai Cangshu became increasingly aware of his extraordinary nature, he began pursuing inhuman experiences across every dimension.

For instance, jumping straight down from a great height without using any abilities. Such injuries could no longer kill him, and the healing of those wounds—even the revival of life—was part of his extraordinary power.

Just as humans exercised their muscles, he was familiarizing himself with these new physical traits and instincts.

Moreover, Bai Cangshu believed that he would surely acquire even more extraordinary qualities in the future. What he was doing now was merely experiencing them in advance.

Of course, in Satoru Gojo’s eyes, Bai Cangshu’s actions did not contain nearly so much Logic. Ever since that intense Satsui no Hado had entered his body, his host had been growing more and more unhinged.

This current behavior was one of the signs that he was becoming increasingly insane.

But Satoru Gojo would not remind him. He wanted to know what lay at the end of this madness.

Would he ultimately become a frenzied beast and walk into a dead end, or transcend everything and become a mad demon?!

"Mercenary Tao, what exactly are you trying to do?!"

The Fourth Raikage stood in front of Gyūki. He and Killer B worked together flawlessly; standing side by side, they resembled two Tailed Beasts.

But at this moment, he truly could not make sense of the situation before him.

Mercenary Tao, who had gone after Ōnoki, had suddenly returned, yet his appearance had changed drastically. And the surging killing intent around him was not aimed at A or Killer B.

Instead, it seemed to be aimed at… that golden beast.

"Mercenary Tao, if you join forces with me, the Erdtree Era will surely arrive."

The Elden Beast had already grown beyond a hundred meters in size. Its body floated through the air as though unaffected by gravity, constantly swimming through the sky as a deep voice rang out from above.

There was no longer any trace of Hiranaka Minoru’s emotions in that voice.

"The pain, hatred, and everything else in this world are born from death, and everything will be resolved through death."

"I know, Mercenary Tao. You captured the Death God, and you possess Yellow Springs. As long as we unite, the Greater Will will ultimately seal away this world’s Destined Death completely…"

Pfft!

A tearing sound split the air. Rings of ripple spread through the sky as a spark of lightning carrying a chunk of stone pierced through one of the Elden Beast’s wing-like limbs in an instant. Golden blood scattered through the air.

This made Uchiha Shisui, who was approaching from afar, look grim.

"He actually broke free from Kotoamatsukami’s influence?!"

To Shisui, Kotoamatsukami was the most powerful Genjutsu. Its power did not lie in being impossible to resist or anything else.

It was that this technique left no trace at all.

Someone affected by Kotoamatsukami would never realize that their thoughts had been altered. They would only believe that such thoughts had genuinely come from their own heart.

Just like Mercenary Tao at this moment, he should theoretically have talked himself into it. He had plenty of reasons to stand on the Golden Order’s side.

If profit could not convince him, then morality would. Or rules. Anything would do. When a person wanted to convince themselves, there were always many ways.

What was hardest for people to break was stubbornness—the beliefs in their own hearts.

Kotoamatsukami was precisely a technique capable of reshaping another person’s inner thoughts.

In a sense, it was the ultimate embodiment of his Ninja Way of non-killing. So long as the target was chosen properly, one could achieve their goal without bloodshed.

But now, Mercenary Tao had clearly broken through those restrictions.

He had attacked the representative of the Golden Order!

Uchiha Itachi’s expression eased slightly, but when he saw the hundreds of dead ninjas and even more ordinary people on the battlefield, his face still darkened. In the end, he turned and headed toward the Erdtree’s massive trunk.

Several hundred meters behind the two of them, a voluptuous woman stood beside the white-haired Jiraiya.

"Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade, let’s go."

Uchiha Itachi did not call for Shisui. Even now, he could not determine where the path in Shisui’s heart led.

Seeing so many people dead in battle, including many Konoha ninjas, Tsunade frowned and wanted to try to save them.

But Uchiha Itachi said,

"I advise you not to do that, Lady Tsunade."

"Mercenary Tao is a madman. The best way to deal with someone like him is not to draw his attention."

Tsunade had never encountered Mercenary Tao, but after being brought back, she had already heard far too many rumors about him. She looked toward Jiraiya. This man, who could communicate with the Toad Sage, nodded solemnly as well.

The three decided to destroy the Erdtree completely. No matter what Mercenary Tao’s true goal was, as long as he could be held here for now, they had a chance to achieve their objective.

Moo!

The Elden Beast rolled through the air, and Hiranaka Minoru could no longer suppress that beastly nature. The golden Claymore rose high before slashing down at Mercenary Tao’s position.

The golden slash crashed down amid flames and radiance.

The shadow beneath Bai Cangshu’s feet suddenly shifted. A tall, thin shadow appeared under him, and Bai Cangshu clasped his hands together.

Clap!

Bai Cangshu’s figure abruptly vanished as black cursed energy streamed endlessly from his soul and bloodline.

The cursed energy Bai Cangshu emitted was extraordinarily intense. The Satsui no Hado seemed to mingle with that power, fermenting like dry tinder meeting blazing fire.

He appeared hundreds of meters in the sky. The gale howled, and Bai Cangshu was exceptionally excited, but Satoru Gojo could not laugh at all now.

Because he discovered that although he was controlling this body, that guy’s will was continuously radiating outward.

The other man’s intense killing intent was like strong liquor, drowning his soul.

"Ha… So it means I should just massacre everything here and not care about anything else…"

As Bai Cangshu’s face changed, Satoru Gojo’s voice became strange as well. The violence hidden deep in his heart, that desire unique to higher beings to wreak destruction, was awakening.

It was the nature he had always suppressed with his humanity, rationality, and the philosophy Suguru Geto had given him—that the strong should protect the weak. Now, it was gradually revealing itself.

Bai Cangshu naturally welcomed this development. Just as he had expected, helping bring about the descent of the Golden Order required thinking about many things. But when one only wanted destruction, there were many ways to avoid Kotoamatsukami’s influence.

For example, whenever anything related to the Golden Order was involved, he could forcibly transfer control of his body to Satoru Gojo or Uchiha Madara.

For example, he could use constant slaughter to push his Satsui no Hado toward—or even beyond—the critical point, allowing killing intent to control him.

What he was doing now was a combination of both methods. On one hand, he let Satoru Gojo and Uchiha Madara take control of the body; on the other, he allowed that mad killing intent to engulf them.

Satoru Gojo spread his arms in midair. The absolute spatial awareness granted by the Six Eyes allowed him to track his own position and the enemy’s even if he spun dozens of times and hung upside down in the air.

Rumble!

The golden slash instantly sheared away the forest outside the meteor crater. The ground split open at once, a section of the mountain began to collapse, and golden flames then rained down from the sky.

The forest, corpses, and rubble all began to burn.

The Water Release unleashed earlier by the ninjas evaporated, producing vast clouds of steam.

Yet Satoru Gojo remained upside down in the air, his arms spread wide like a crucified figure hanging inverted in the sky, purple light rising in his eyes.

He held still for a moment. Only after hearing the sound of the mountain being blasted apart did he lower his head and look below. He drew his hands in, and his entire body suddenly accelerated downward.

The Limitless Cursed Technique was incomparably refined in his hands. Attraction and repulsion coiled around his body, allowing him to accelerate to a terrifying speed almost instantly.

A sonic boom cloud exploded as he shot directly through the sound barrier.

Bang!

Before the Elden Beast could even pull back from its sword swing, the air in front of its body exploded, and a fist suddenly punched through.

Ring!

A black flash appeared in an instant. Satoru Gojo rarely pursued Black Flash deliberately, but this body was far from ordinary. Soul Power flowed through it at every moment, and the cursed energy circulated even more smoothly than it had in his former body.

Black Flash was unleashed almost naturally.

Pfft!

A golden barrier lit up before the Elden Beast. Specialized protections against magic and lightning were useless; only universal protective incantations could serve a purpose at this moment.

Black cursed energy drilled in through its front, then exploded the flesh within its body and burst from its back, spraying large amounts of golden blood in every direction.

The Elden Beast cried out mournfully, turned, and plunged into the void. Golden flames then fell from the sky and enveloped Bai Cangshu’s body.

Satoru Gojo did not want to dodge, but the shadow beneath his feet shifted again in an instant.

The soul of the long-haired, Prideful man took control.

Bang!

Smoke exploded, and Bai Cangshu’s body vanished.

Feeling the powerful Chakra within his body, as well as the Rinnegan he had regained, Uchiha Madara burst into laughter.

Buzz!

At that exact moment, a Tailed Beast Bomb tore through the sky and knocked the Elden Beast, which had just emerged from the void, out of the air.

The Chakra explosion from the Tailed Beast Bomb stirred the air like a Category 12 hurricane. The meteor crater was instantly flattened, and the terrain, already shattered by the battle between two Giant Beasts, began to collapse entirely.

Yet Uchiha Madara, standing on the ground, merely stayed where he was and raised one hand, horizontal or vertical, blocking all flying sand and stones.

The strength of this body delighted him, but the Tailed Beast and Kumogakure ninjas interfering in his battle made him deeply displeased.

Purple killing intent rose. Uchiha Madara suddenly turned, clasped his hands behind his back, and charged toward the Fourth Raikage.

A’s heart jolted. He did not understand Mercenary Tao’s current state and could only instinctively dodge like lightning in his Strongest Lightning Release Armor.

While running, he turned back to observe Mercenary Tao’s movements, only to meet the purple eye in the other man’s forehead.

In that instant, he suddenly felt as if his body had frozen.

"Genjutsu?!"

He realized it immediately. Above him, one of the Eight-Tails Gyūki’s tails slammed down, and Tailed Beast Chakra instantly dispelled the Genjutsu affecting him.

But in a flash, Mercenary Tao had already appeared before him. A fist came flying toward him. A instinctively raised both arms to block, but Mercenary Tao had already shifted his center, his fist sweeping past A’s front as he twisted and drove a kick into A’s unguarded abdomen.

That delicate taijutsu movement reminded A of the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Madara kicked the Fourth Raikage away, but the Lightning Release Chakra around him made Madara realize that taijutsu alone could not kill him easily.

His hands formed seals instantly, and a torrent of flames erupted once more, engulfing the Fourth Raikage and Gyūki.

A small black ball of Chakra appeared between his hands.

Chibaku Tensei!

Using the X-Ray Vision granted by the Byakugan on this body, Uchiha Madara easily caught sight of the Tailed Beast and A within the flames.

He threw out the ball of Chakra, then changed his hand seal.

Banshō Ten’in!

Uchiha Madara used these abilities with even greater brutality, instantly dragging the Eight-Tails Gyūki and A over so that they came into contact with the black ball of Chakra in an instant. Terrifying gravity erupted.

The collapsing mountains and rubble around them all gathered toward the sky.

Moo!

Behind him, the Elden Beast rolled twice through the sky before diving down again. Its golden greatsword, dozens of meters long, swept horizontally.

Uchiha Madara had immense combat experience. With the Byakugan enhancing him, there was no chance he would be caught off guard by such an attack.

He instantly used the Body Flicker Jutsu to evade, staring coldly at the Elden Beast.

"A beast from beyond the heavens shall be buried by a stone from beyond the heavens."

Powerful Chakra surged into the sky. The heavens darkened in an instant, and terrifying pressure abruptly descended from above.

The Elden Beast sensed that oppressive force as well. Raising its head toward the sky, it saw an enormous meteor that seemed capable of shattering the sea of clouds, likely more than ten kilometers in diameter, crashing down from above.

The powerful air pressure it generated alone forced everything down as if it were about to flatten them to the ground.

Uchiha Madara released his power without restraint. He spread his arms, watching the enormous meteor descend from the sky and completely obscure the Erdtree’s radiance, just as he was about to laugh wildly.

But a tyrannical will instantly seized control of the body. With one step, he crossed into the wind, appearing the next moment before the wildly struggling Gyūki.

The black Dragon Slayer was gripped in his left hand. The instant he emerged from the wind, he raised the sword and slashed!

"Don’t waste it, Uchiha Madara. This is a rare and delicious Food Source among the Tailed Beasts!"

Pfft!

A massive octopus tentacle was severed directly, then taken away in his hand.

He casually tossed it into the air, then formed hand seals with both hands.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

A massive fireball instantly roasted the octopus tentacle.

Bang! Bang! Bang…

Amid a series of impacts, the collapsing mountain turned into massive spheres of rock, sealing the Fourth Raikage and Eight-Tails Killer B within them.

After the enormous meteor descended from the sky, the Elden Beast shrieked and flew upward. Countless golden rays burst from every part of Its body, striking the meteor together.

Crack—boom!

As the meteor shattered, countless huge rocks fell from the sky. But an even larger meteor came crashing down from above, suppressing the Elden Beast before it could react and driving it out of the air.

Bai Cangshu stood where the meteor was about to fall. He merely grabbed the enormous octopus tentacle and took a bite, the tender flavor of the meat filling his mouth and nose.

Boom!

Everything was buried beneath the enormous meteor.