The god-like giant towered over the ocean. It did nothing at all; merely the chakra radiating from its body caused the sea's waves to surge endlessly.
Located within the giant's forehead, Jokichi stood high above, looking down upon all living things, as if saying: Come on, come challenge a god!
The Deva Path pondered for a moment, and all six Paths of Pain moved in unison. The Deva Path charged at the forefront, the Naraka Path was in the middle, the Preta Path and Asura Path formed the left and right flanks, the Human Path was in the rear, and the Animal Path brought up the rear.
However, the first to strike was the Animal Path.
While running, he formed seals with both hands and pressed them against the empty air, causing formula runes to spread out. A burst of white smoke exploded, and a giant three-headed, orange-and-black iron centipede charged out. Fearlessly rearing its heads high, it launched an attack from the sky.
At the same time, the Archaeopteryx circled in the sky, dropping bird eggs one after another. The giant lobster prowled in the deep sea, crashing toward the giant on the ocean surface like a hunting shark. Meanwhile, the giant crab spewed out a massive amount of bubbles, attempting to obscure his vision.
"Insignificant tricks!"
Jokichi snorted coldly. Manipulated by his will, the purple giant reached out both hands and gripped the empty air. Two giant purple chakra swords appeared in its hands. The chakra contained within them was overwhelmingly immense, dancing like flames.
"Slash!"
The giant swords swung. The air stagnated, becoming as viscous as liquid, before being torn apart effortlessly. The mountain of bubbles was blown away by the sword wind, dissipating into nothingness.
In an instant, bloody light flashed.
The Archaeopteryx, the lobster, the crab, and the iron-headed centipede were squashed flat by the air pressure generated by the swords. An invisible sword aura flew off the blades, tearing toward the Paths of Pain and Obito behind them at a despair-inducing speed.
"Scatter!"
The six Paths of Pain jumped in time, evading the attack.
Mid-air, they witnessed the path carved by the sword aura. The ocean was split in two, and seawater cascaded into the chasm, forming double-sided waterfalls.
Although it was quickly filled and restored to its original state, parting the sea with a single sword strike using human strength—even legendary deities were nothing more than this.
The Deva Path looked at the chasm below, his face grave. Although he knew this guy wouldn't be weak just by sensing his aura, he didn't expect him to be this powerful.
Suddenly, the air grew viscous, and a massive shadow appeared on the ocean surface.
Through the perspective of the other Paths of Pain, he saw the giant sword descending from the sky. One strike missed, and another slashed down immediately. The might of a single strike rivaled a Tailed Beast Ball, yet it required no chakra gathering—it was just a standard basic attack.
This completely exceeded Nagato's expectations.
"Almighty Push!"
A repulsive wave formed a dome around him. The giant sword slashed down, and the two collided, sparking metallic clangs and flying embers. Then, like swatting a tennis ball, the entire dome was smashed into the seawater.
The purple giant, due to the rebound, also leaned backward, staggering two steps in retreat.
The Asura Path manifested a third hand from his body, firing a massive missile from his palm.
"Boom!"
The missile, trailing a tail of flames, struck the giant's head. The explosive impact expanded in a ring shape, and flames entirely engulfed the head.
However, it failed to break the defense. Although the tremendous power forced the already staggering giant to retreat two more steps, it was limited to just that.
However—
"Universal Pull!"
The Deva Path, who had been smashed into the sea, had surfaced at some unknown point. He appeared behind the Susanoo and unleashed a maximum-power Universal Pull directly at its head.
Under the pull of the massive attractive force, the already staggering Complete Body Susanoo was dragged down. In front of it, the Preta Path rapidly charged forward, intent on absorbing the entire giant.
"As expected of the Rinnegan, to actually force back a Complete Body Susanoo. In that case..." Jokichi praised him briefly before his tone turned indifferent.
"How about trying this!"
The purple giant flapped its wings, and the mountain-like colossus actually took flight. It was very fast, not showing the slightest bit of clumsiness befitting its massive size. With a single flap of its wings, it soared to an altitude of several hundred meters.
The six Paths of Pain stood on the sea level, silently watching the giant in the sky, feeling somewhat powerless internally.
Exaggerated destructive power, astonishing 360-degree defense with no blind spots, agile mobility... Facing this kind of entity, there was no other way but to break through it head-on with even greater power.
Suddenly, a purple arrow burning with black flames descended from the sky, instantly piercing through the Naraka Path's body.
Next, even more arrows rained down like shooting stars. The Paths of Pain immediately scattered, maneuvering to evade.
However, because they were arrows, their speed far exceeded that of shuriken. Furthermore, being on the wide, unobstructed ocean made dodging unimaginably difficult. In just a brief moment, the Human Path and the Asura Path were successively annihilated.
"I'll just have to try this!"
The Deva Path's eyes focused sharply, and he clapped his hands together!
In the distance, tens of kilometers away, the ocean suddenly split apart, and a black sphere flew out from within.
...
600 meters in the sky. The purple giant hovered there. The sword in its hands had vanished, replaced by a giant bow.
It drew the bow to a full moon. An arrow as thick as a telephone pole, burning with black flames, shot out with a "whoosh", and then it drew the next arrow.
Doing this consumed a staggering amount of chakra. However, Jokichi had two Tailed Beast rings taking turns to replenish and recover his chakra, so he wasn't afraid at all.
Suddenly, Jokichi sensed something. He stopped firing arrows and turned to look at the sun behind him.
There was a small black dot in the center of the sun. An unparalleled attractive force erupted from that black dot, and the Complete Body Susanoo was dragged toward it uncontrollably.
Jokichi's face turned serious. He controlled the Susanoo to resist the attractive force, but it was still being dragged over bit by bit.
Beneath the ocean disguised by the Paper Person of God Technique, Nagato—whose body was emaciated to the bone and whose back was pierced with black metal rods—was bleeding from his seven orifices.
Konan looked at him worriedly from the side but did not voice any interruptions. Although she very much wanted to dissuade him, she understood his personality. Once he decided on something, it was absolutely impossible to stop him.
"It has to be now," Nagato said with difficulty.
On the other side, on the battlefield.
The Preta Path stood on the arm of the Animal Path, his legs bent.
"Hah!"
The Animal Path hurled the Preta Path fiercely toward the sky. At the exact moment he was thrown, the Preta Path's legs pushed off, launching himself upward. His target was precisely the Complete Body Susanoo in the sky currently fighting against the Planetary Devastation.
No matter how strong the Complete Body Susanoo was, it was still composed of chakra. As long as the Preta Path could touch it, he could absorb it. Only in this way did they have a chance to defeat their opponent.
While resisting the gravity, Jokichi had not forgotten to pay attention to his surroundings. The Preta Path's actions were taken in by his eyes.
Do you think you can crack the Complete Body Susanoo just like this?
Jokichi sneered internally. He then gave up resisting the gravity and instead flapped his wings, actively charging toward the core of the Planetary Devastation.
Mid-flight, the giant bow was replaced by a sword, and rotating magatama were wrapped around the blade.
"Yasaka Magatama!"
Jokichi fiercely hurled the two rotating magatama. Under this immense gravity, he didn't even need to aim. The core of the black sphere would naturally suck the attack right into itself.