Chapter 327: Courting Disaster, the Crisis of Assimilation
Hearing that he would have to pay the price and accept punishment, Momoshiki's expression instantly changed.
He hesitated, stammering as he looked at Kyōshiki, his body instinctively retreating backward.
However, before he could take more than a few steps, Kyōshiki casually raised his hand. In an instant, an irresistible and terrifying force of attraction burst forth.
Momoshiki hadn't even had time to react before his body was forcibly dragged forward, thrown off balance, and pulled straight toward Kyōshiki.
His neck was seized in Kyōshiki's grasp, and in that moment, Momoshiki's heart trembled with shock once again.
This was supposed to be a state of pure consciousness without a physical body.
Yet, at this very moment, being seized by the other party felt exactly as if his true body had been subdued.
Such an unbelievable sensation was something even Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki had never experienced before.
He instinctively began to beg for mercy: "Don't… don't kill me… I… I can still… still collect chakra fruits for you!"
"That's true, but, Momoshiki, punishment is inevitable."
"Because I am only one step away from no longer needing chakra fruits to strengthen myself and aid my evolution. Can you comprehend such a realm?"
"It seems you never will. But that's fine—become a stepping stone on my path to growth."
As he spoke, Kyōshiki showed no mercy. He unleashed his power, forcibly absorbing Momoshiki's chakra.
In an instant, the manifested consciousness of Momoshiki in his grasp dissolved into nothingness, dissipating as a swirl of black-and-white smoke.
At the same time, on a distant planet countless miles away, the meditating Momoshiki's physical body suddenly shuddered.
He snapped his eyes open, his expression twisting in alarm. "Damn it…"
"That bastard… if I had known, I would never have reached out to him. To think… this would end up killing me instead…"
Muttering to himself, Momoshiki desperately tried to activate the power of the Kāma, intending to separate it from his body and escape death as he had once done against Uchiha Dali.
But he had underestimated Kyōshiki.
At the very moment his attempt was about to succeed, Kyōshiki's power had already crossed endless void to affect him.
In a single instant, his body began to shrivel and collapse.
Feeling his life force and chakra drained away in a heartbeat, Momoshiki's pupils were filled with sheer terror and disbelief.
He instinctively lowered his gaze toward his body.
His once strong and muscular form was visibly withering at a speed perceptible to the naked eye.
In just the blink of an eye, his body was utterly drained—not only was every trace of chakra consumed, but even his very existence was erased completely.
"Kyōshiki… you damned… bastard…"
In the final moment before his body disappeared entirely, Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki finally found the courage to voice the words buried deep within his heart.
But alas, it was both the first and the last time.
After consuming Momoshiki's chakra, Kyōshiki's body showed no change at all.
He scoffed, curling his lip in disdain. "Still far too weak. This power alone is nowhere near enough to push me to the next level of evolution."
"But no matter… it won't be long."
He lifted his gaze toward a distant star blazing with boundless light and heat.
"That power will be mine, sooner or later."
"For now, I should deal with some meddlesome insects first."
With that, he stretched out his hand, tearing open a spatial portal in the void before him, and stepped through with ease.
...
The chakra of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki was far more powerful than expected.
Even after being refined into a chakra pill, with its energy greatly diminished and diluted, it still brought an immense boost to Uchiha Dali's strength.
At first, he hadn't noticed much change.
But as Isshiki's chakra fully dissolved within his body, Dali finally felt the transformation it was forcing upon him.
At this moment, he was floating high above the Divine Tree, waiting in the void for the tree to bear fruit.
Yet just then, his body began to transform bit by bit—he was starting to undergo an Ōtsutsuki transformation.
His skin, like that of the other members of the clan, was turning pale blue.
What's more, a peculiar itching sensation spread across his forehead, as if something were about to grow from it.
He instinctively reached up and touched it—his fingers met something hard and rough. In that instant, his heart skipped a beat.
"A… horn?"
Images of the other Ōtsutsuki clan members naturally surfaced in his mind.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, Isshiki, Momoshiki… nearly without exception, every one of them bore horn-like protrusions upon their heads.
What grew on their heads had nothing to do with him. But for such an ugly, unsightly feature to sprout on his own… that was absolutely unacceptable.
"In the past, I've absorbed powerful chakra before, but my body never underwent such changes. Not even when I awakened the Supreme Rinnegan did this happen. Why now?"
Dali immediately began searching for the cause.
And soon enough, he found it.
The reason his body was changing now was not due to the chakra itself—but because of the influence of Isshiki's Kāma.
Even though it had been refined into a chakra pill, Isshiki's Kāma—essentially his genetic imprint—still lingered within.
The two had fused completely together.
The only difference was that Isshiki's consciousness was no longer present.
But because his genetic information still remained within the chakra, it was now forcing changes upon Dali's body as he absorbed it.
If left unchecked, it wouldn't necessarily harm him much, but Dali could not accept becoming a copy of "Ōtsutsuki Isshiki."
He immediately took action, quickly unleashing his own chakra to expel Isshiki's influence.
He herded the foreign chakra running wild through his body into one confined space, compressing its range of activity.
By the time this step was complete, beads of sweat were already forming on his forehead.
But he didn't stop—pressing on without pause, he continued driving his chakra, intending to strip away every trace of Isshiki's genetic information contained within that cluster of energy.
Once that was done, he would claim the power for himself—without inheriting the other man's genetic data.
Yet at that very moment, Uchiha Dali remained unaware—danger was already closing in.