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Chapter 28 — Konan, Open Your Mouth!
Before they knew it, they had ascended over ten kilometers—into the stratosphere.
No normal lifeform could survive here.
Even at the edge of the layer, the temperature had already dropped below –60°C, the air pressure to one-fifth of what it was at sea level, and worst of all—oxygen was almost nonexistent.
Any one of those conditions could kill an ordinary person in moments.
Even a skilled shinobi, powerful but physically fragile without enhancement, would only die slightly slower.
Konan had fully paperized her body to maximize flight speed—so the cold didn't harm her.
Whether the pressure changes would affect her body, she didn't yet know.
But the most immediate danger—was lack of oxygen.
Even in her paper form, she still needed air to sustain life.
Her lips were bluish, her face flushed red and turning faintly purple.
[Quick! Open your mouth!]
Suppressing his panic, Alex extended a thread from his paper body—a special hollow fiber created through Earth Grudge Fear.
The thread could carry gases, or store them for brief moments.
He inhaled deeply.
A powerful suction force drew in the thin air around them, concentrating what little oxygen existed.
It wasn't that oxygen didn't exist here—it was simply too thin for lungs to extract efficiently.
Alex condensed the oxygen and began channeling it through the thread toward Konan.
'She's losing consciousness…'
Konan didn't respond. She kept flying mechanically upward, her mind already fading.
'Tch—no choice then.'
Alex guided the white thread to her lips, gently prying them apart. The thread slipped between her teeth, and he began feeding her the collected oxygen.
Konan's tongue twitched as the thread entered her mouth, instinctively wrapping around it and sucking faintly—drawing in the fresh air.
The oxygen flowed into her lungs, jumpstarting her fading body.
Gradually, color returned to her cheeks, and her awareness flickered back to life.
"Cough… cough…"
Konan coughed weakly, feeling the thread still deep in her throat—it tickled uncomfortably, almost to the point of gagging.
[Konan, are you alright?] Alex asked, concern dripping from every word.
Konan adjusted the thread's position with a soft breath, taking a deeper inhale.
"I'm fine, Alex."
"You saved my life… again."
[You and I are one. No need for thanks.]
Seeing her color return, Alex finally relaxed. But there was no time to rest—Shinnō was still behind them.
With a sudden boom, Shinnō erupted from the thick clouds below.
He was less than fifty meters away.
Hearing the roar of turbulence behind them, Alex turned sharply.
They were now in a region where even air itself was a threat to life. Even Konan, fully paperized, had nearly suffocated.
Would Shinnō be affected?
He was—but not nearly enough.
The frigid air coated his body with a crust of frost, white ice shimmering on his skin. Each breath poured thick plumes of steam from his mouth and nose.
Inhaling such freezing air should've shredded his lungs—but Shinnō didn't seem to care.
Because of the thin air, he opened his mouth wide, sucking in great quantities as though trying to devour the sky itself.
Whatever damage the cold caused, his monstrous regeneration simply undid it.
He slowed—slightly. Perhaps by ten percent.
A faint pulse of dark chakra rippled across his body; the frost shattered and fell away, leaving only a dusting of white on his eyebrows.
Seeing Konan above him, he raised both hands.
Super Activating Fist!
Countless fists blurred, hurling black beams upward like cannonfire.
They flew faster than Konan herself, arcing around midair to chase her like guided serpents of death.
Sensing mortal danger at her back, Konan's skin prickled. Still biting the oxygen thread, she twisted her wings and veered hard to the side.
"You can't run, White Tiger!" Shinnō's savage grin tore across his face.
This was his Eight-Gate-enhanced Super Activating Fist—far more potent than before.
The beams suddenly curved, tracking Konan through the air.
Homing beams?!
Alex felt the chakra patterns shift—their trajectory bent unnaturally, like serpents turning mid-strike.
[Konan, move—now!]
He knew she couldn't; she'd just finished a sharp dodge, and there was a brief moment of physical lag—barely half a second, but long enough for death.
So Alex acted.
He pressed himself flat against her chest, forcing his paper body downward like a shock pad.
The sudden push sent Konan's body jerking backward—
Just in time.
The black beam streaked past her face, grazing by so close it burned a hole through the paper of her cloak.
DUANG!
Alex rebounded like a rubber sheet off the "soft cushion," wobbling madly.
Konan snapped out of her stunned state, letting the backward momentum carry her into a dive—dodging a rain of pursuing beams.
Now alert, she watched each ripple of black light with fierce focus, predicting their erratic turns.
Shinnō's laughter echoed through the thin air as he unleashed more beams, hundreds filling the golden sea of clouds below.
The sky had become a battlefield of light and death—black streaks twisting through the blinding sunlight, white feathers and paper fragments scattering like snow.
Alex's paper body rippled atop his "safety cushion," eyes narrowed.
'Maybe… this could work.'
An idea sparked.
[Konan!]
She nodded immediately. No time for questions.
After dodging another volley, Konan soared upward, directly over Shinnō.
Her arms spread wide, chakra flaring like a storm.
Thousands upon thousands of paper sheets appeared out of thin air—enough to blot out the sun.
Alex followed suit, unleashing his own Paper Release to match her—doubling the mass.
Two halves of the sky turned blinding white.
The air roared as their creations merged.
Sheets of paper swirled inward, fusing into a single colossal structure—a towering white pillar piercing the heavens, over a kilometer tall.
Its base sharpened into a massive spike, gleaming in the sunlight like polished steel.
"Woommm!"
The pillar began to spin, faster and faster, until its roar cut through the air in a screeching wail.
White airwaves spiraled along its surface—it had become a gigantic drill, its shadow swallowing Shinnō below.
Shinnō laughed maniacally. "Finally stopped running, have you, White Tiger? Keh keh keh! Looks impressive—but it's still just paper!"
He drew in his aura, dark chakra surging to his hands. "Behold the apex of my power—!"
"Super Super Activating Fist!!"
A deafening roar split the sky as a single black beam, so dense it seemed to devour light, blasted from his palms.
The beam widened—ten meters across—and slammed straight into the spinning drill's tip.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The drill's razor tip shattered instantly, a wave of black ash exploding outward. But in the next instant, new paper surged forward, reforming the spiral.
Destroy. Regenerate. Destroy. Regenerate.
Endlessly.
The titanic white drill held, spinning faster to counter the black beam's pressure.
In the golden sky above the clouds, white and black collided—two opposing forces locked in furious combat.
Fragments of paper and ash fell like rain, marking the battlefield of gods.