"This is my final strike."
Hagoromo placed his hands against the back of the Rashomon gate. With a sudden flash of lightning, the massive, heavy block of black metal lit up like an incandescent bulb pushed past its maximum wattage.
In the dead of night, it carried an extraordinary, bizarre allure that made it impossible for anyone witnessing this spectacle to look away.
Even the gaze of the Rinnegan.
Because this allure stemmed from an aura of absolute, utter destruction.
Espers are generally exceptional at quantifying and evaluating their own capabilities, especially Level 5s. But right now, Hagoromo had no clear idea of exactly what state he was in.
Rather than saying he was activating his ability, it was more accurate to say he was forcing himself into a rampage.
Moreover... for Hagoromo, there was no need to figure out his condition. He only needed to understand that he had to aim the massive piece of metal in front of him at the designated target and fire it.
A super-massive Railgun was still just a Railgun. Divine Core Raiden Mei: Rashomon was still just Raiden Mei.
This was his standard skill; he had no reason to fail.
But was that really true? This degree of quantitative change was, in reality, a complete qualitative change. Under normal circumstances, if you added up the total weight of every projectile he had ever fired with his Railgun, he probably wouldn't reach the weight of the Rashomon gate in his entire lifetime.
As Rashomon grew brighter and brighter, the summoned beasts that had been buying time for him instantly vanished. This was entirely of their own volition—the apocalyptic energy radiating from behind them compelled the summons to autonomously retreat back to the summoning realm.
If Hagoromo had been required to release the Summoning Jutsu himself, he wouldn't have had the luxury of time.
Crisis! An unforeseen crisis!
Hidden somewhere unknown, Nagato naturally sensed it, and simultaneously estimated the scale of the "jutsu" Pain was about to face.
Inside this sealed space, they had nowhere to hide, no way to evade.
Therefore, Nagato's instant decision was to temporarily pool the power of all Six Paths into the Deva Path, taking on its absolute strongest individual form to...
Defend. It could only be described as defense.
In that instant, everything seemed to fall completely silent.
The colossal beam of crimson-white light instantly incinerated all the oxygen within the space, giving every living creature present the suffocating sensation of a noose tightening around their necks.
The vortex of displaced air wrapping around the cubic iron mass effortlessly sheared open the earth, leaving a deep, burning red scar in its wake.
The trajectory extended infinitely forward into the unreachable distance.
The so-called "unbreakable" barrier Pain had set up was obliterated instantly, crumbling like wet paper under such an extreme physical attack.
It was impossible for an electromagnetic launch to accelerate an object of this size to Mach 3. However, this was likely the first time Rashomon had been used for an attack of this magnitude... It was unstoppable.
Even Shinra Tensei pushed to its absolute limit could not stop it.
The impact and destructive force of a Railgun depended on speed, but even more so on mass.
Once the barrier was shattered, air rushed back into the space, and it was as if all sound was restored in that very moment.
The hiss of vaporizing moisture was particularly prominent. Within the deep trench left by the super-massive Railgun, soil and metallic elements were fused together, glowing a dull, angry red from the intense heat.
At this moment, it seemed Hagoromo's path home was completely clear of obstacles.
Yet he stood completely frozen in place.
The consequences of overusing his ability far exceeded his initial estimations. This damage wasn't just physical; more importantly, it was the immense burden on his brain... Consequently, he stood there quietly, as if he had lost consciousness entirely.
Silent and still. Perhaps five minutes passed, perhaps ten.
Suddenly, a slender black rod was thrown horizontally at immense speed, striking his right shoulder. The powerful impact knocked him backward.
Then another one struck his left shoulder. Then another, his right abdomen. Then another, his left leg.
Hit by this four-strike combo, Hagoromo was violently thrown backward like a broken sandbag, tumbling through the air before slamming into a tree trunk.
...Under the assault of the super-massive Railgun, all the Pain puppets had vanished. Their existences had been thoroughly erased, leaving absolutely nothing behind...
Except for the Deva Path.
The Deva Path had protected itself with the entirety of Pain's power. Consequently, when facing an attack of unprecedented scale, it was dragged for thousands of meters like a bouncy ball wedged between the low chassis of a sports car and the asphalt, enduring terrible punishment until its defensive power was finally exhausted.
But that was where it ended. The super-massive Railgun had continued forward, but this puppet remained; it had not been wiped out.
Hagoromo still seemed unconscious as the Deva Path, Yahiko, walked toward him step by step.
A perfect defense had been impossible; this corpse had sustained a massive amount of damage. If it had been a living person, they would be dead ten times over. However, the reality was that as long as the black receivers on its body weren't removed, the corpse could continue to move.
"You did well, but this is where it all ends."
With a flick of its left wrist, another black rod materialized in the Deva Path's hand, immediately thrusting down to pierce Hagoromo's heart.
Yet in that very moment, Hagoromo finally moved.
Although he was still half-sitting on the ground, his right hand moved with lightning speed, snapping the black rod and stabbing it straight toward the Deva Path's chest.
However, it couldn't advance even an inch... Instead, his right hand suffered under immense torsional force, causing his bones to snap section by section.
This was the final trace of the Rinnegan's power. Nagato's chakra was nearly depleted, and the Rinnegan's visual prowess would require a considerable amount of time to recover.
"It finally activated..."
Hagoromo's right hand dropped limply, but simultaneously, the Deva Path didn't continue its attack; instead, it took several steps back.
The Deva Path stared into Hagoromo's newly opened eyes. This was the second time he was truly shocked.
"Visual Jutsu?"
Did Hagoromo possess a Visual Jutsu?
Originally, he had a pair of blue eyes very similar to Minato's, but now his pupils...
Faded from azure to pale violet, and from pale violet bled into a faint, glowing crimson.
They were as calm as a mirror lake, yet possessed an icy, deathly stillness.
Within these bottomless pupils lay a connection to an eternal, unfillable void.
"Visual Jutsu, huh... It is a Visual Jutsu, indeed," Hagoromo said. But the accurate term for this was a Causality Weapon.
Under the vision of these eyes, as long as physical contact was made with the target in a specific manner, anything could be erased—whether it was life itself, an objective existence, or even a purely conceptual entity.
It was exactly that powerful.
But whether one was a Contractor, an Alchemist, a Magus, or a Ninja, to gain something, one must lose something. It didn't have to be equivalent, but there had to be an exchange of gains and losses.
In this moment, Hagoromo's ultimate trump card, his other esper ability, had finally activated for the very first time.
Fundamentally, this was merely a supportive ability lacking direct offensive power. However, that didn't stop it from being a true, S-tier bug in the system.
It was precisely because of these eyes that Hagoromo had been brought to this world.
The reason it was called a "talent" rather than a "skill" wasn't because it had anything to do with genetics, but simply because it couldn't be used at will.
Although he was "gifted" it, if he wanted to use this ability, it still required a near-death experience to awaken—even though he was someone who had already died once and possessed ample understanding of death.
But to acquire the ability to perceive death directly, his new body still needed to experience that sensation anew.
Hagoromo had originally thought he would never need this ability in his lifetime. Later, he desperately needed this power, but his highly risky attempts had clearly failed, yielding no reward.
If he had obtained these eyes before tonight, things might have been much simpler. But there are no "ifs" in this world.
"Near-death" was an unquantifiable, ambiguous concept. Humans, after all, didn't have digitized HP bars. At what point did your health turn red? Did red health equate to "near-death"?
The precise degree was impossible to gauge. It was very easy to skip the "near" and go straight to "death."
It even tied into his subjective and objective emotions. When he actively sought it out, it was ineffective. Ironically, it was only when he truly, desperately wanted to avoid dying that he finally experienced the genuine sensation needed to awaken it.
"These are the Mystic Eyes used by the demon-hunting clan to slay demons. But to use them to slay a god... it's actually perfectly fitting."
Or perhaps he should say... As long as it's alive, I can even kill a god?
However, if using his Electromaster ability placed a physical burden on his brain, these eyes imposed an oppressive, existential burden on his very soul—the awakening and subsequent use of these eyes came with extreme discomfort and agony.
The degree of this agony... Right now, Hagoromo felt an intense, nearly overwhelming urge to gouge his own eyes out.
But he couldn't. Instead, he had to adapt to his new power.
The aftereffects of overusing his Electromaster ability still lingered. His brain remained muddy and sluggish. Having sustained consecutive injuries, his physical condition was equally terrible. This meant he couldn't maintain a high level of concentration, so he could only see the "Lines of Death," but not the far more fatal "Points of Death."
But for the current situation, the lines being visible was more than enough.
The super-massive Railgun had exhausted Hagoromo's power, but it had also exhausted the Deva Path's. Yet, because of this new awakening, the two were no longer on the same playing field.
Hagoromo now stood in a position looking down on his opponent.
"Trading an arm for an arm. It's a very fair outcome, but unfortunately, this world can't remain fair forever."
Both Hagoromo and the Deva Path were now down to only their left arms.
Hagoromo staggered forward and swung his hand.
A simple knife-hand strike touched the opponent's body, tracing along the trajectory of a Line of Death. He met absolutely zero resistance...
Instantly, the Deva Path's left arm was sent flying.
And then... The rest of its body followed suit.
Hagoromo worked meticulously. From an objective standpoint, he completed the task of dismembering the corpse absolutely flawlessly.