Makiya didn't waste any time. He lunged forward again, his fists sweeping through the air and unleashing a massive wave of fire.
"SHINRA TENSEI!"
A terrifying repulsive force surged once more. This time, Nagato gave it his all. The moment it was triggered, the surrounding earth was torn up as if a colossal dragon were churning the soil.
Boom!
Makiya's legs dug deep into the ground. Golden flames manifested into countless hands that spread outward, gripping the bedrock firmly to anchor his body.
"Hah!" the Deva Path puppet roared. The repulsive output intensified, and its two Rinnegan eyes bulged as if they might pop out, heavily bloodshot.
"Rising Sun Blade: Sonic Boom Impact!"
Three flying swords coalesced in front of Makiya. They struggled through the continuous repulsive force, their sharp tips gleaming with a cold light. Like a sharp needle piercing a balloon, they bored a hole through the supposedly impenetrable barrier of force.
The other puppets' eyes flickered. Under their shared vision, Makiya's attack had nowhere to hide. The Deva Path puppet quickly dodged to the right, while the Asura Path launched an attack at that exact moment.
"Flaming Arrow Missiles!"
The Asura Path's wrist suddenly detached. Propelled by chakra, a fist the size of a sandbag streaked toward Makiya like a bolt of lightning.
Wrapped in his blue aura, Makiya's defensive power was immense. He chose not to dodge the Asura Path's strike. The flying wrist, carrying massive momentum from its chakra propulsion, slammed into Makiya and triggered a violent shockwave.
Makiya caught the wrist in one hand, his fingers crushing it into scrap metal. Though it looked like a human hand on the outside, the interior was entirely mechanical, and parts scattered across the ground.
The Deva Path took the opportunity to pull back. Makiya's eyes scanned the area and landed on a familiar-looking fat man standing nearby.
The rock beneath his feet shattered as Makiya transformed into a streak of light. He charged at the waiting fat puppet, his fist wreathed in golden flames like a falling meteor.
A mocking sneer touched the fat puppet's lips. He spread his arms and curved his fingers into claws, preparing to catch Makiya's punch.
Judging by his movements, this was likely the Preta Path—a puppet capable of absorbing others' ninjutsu and chakra, making it incredibly troublesome.
But Makiya's punch wasn't that easy to intercept. The moment fist met palm, the Preta Path's expression shifted drastically. It didn't feel like he was catching a fist, but rather a mountain falling from the sky.
Makiya had applied the explosive force of his Strange Strength Fist. While the Preta Path might have been able to absorb the chakra within the golden flames, it couldn't negate the sheer kinetic energy. As they crossed paths, Makiya ripped one of the Preta Path's arms clean off.
"What?!"
Nagato was slightly stunned. He quickly formulated a countermeasure. The Deva Path instinctively extended its arms. "Shinra Tensei!"
The familiar repulsive force reappeared. Makiya was prepared; the moment the Deva Path moved to release it, he dug his legs back into the rock.
As Makiya was slowly pushed back by the torrent of force, the Preta Path behind him saw an opening. Its remaining left hand slammed onto Makiya's back.
"Blocking Technique Absorption Seal!"
A translucent barrier expanded in front of the Preta Path. The golden flames covering Makiya's body seemed to liquefy, flowing into the Preta Path's palm and vanishing.
Even the blue aura on his body began to flicker. Interfered with by the Rinnegan, his chakra poured out as if a dam had burst, all of it being swallowed by the Preta Path.
"The battle is over, Makiya Uchiha. Your strength doesn't match your arrogance," the Deva Path said coldly. Absorbing chakra was a fundamental ability of the Rinnegan. No ninja caught by the Preta Path had ever escaped; their chakra would be drained until they were nothing more than a helpless fish on the chopping block.
The chakra Makiya had refined was indeed exhausted. True to its name, the Preta Path swallowed chakra at an incredible speed. However, the blue aura wasn't ordinary chakra—it contained a massive amount of Nature Energy.
The stone statues of countless predecessors at Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest served as a grim reminder: one must be extremely cautious when handling Nature Energy, or they would be consumed by it.
Makiya stopped mixing his Sage Chakra and instead funneled pure Nature Energy into the Preta Path. Nagato soon realized something was wrong. The once-smooth chakra control channel began to lag, and his control over the Preta Path faltered.
Crackle...
The Preta Path's body began to mutate. Its hard muscles gradually turned to stone, and its organs showed signs of petrification. Animalistic features sprouted across its skin before the entire puppet solidified into rock.
Thud!
Makiya delivered a light kick, sending the Preta Path flying. The fully petrified puppet hit the ground and shattered into countless stone fragments.
With the drain on his energy stopped, Makiya re-balanced his internal chakra to form Sage Chakra once more. The blue aura around him roared back to life, steady and fierce.
"I see. Is that state your Sage Mode?" the Deva Path said thoughtfully. "Using the properties of Nature Energy to eliminate the Preta Path... a fine tactic. To come up with such a solution the moment you were restrained shows impressive battle intelligence."
Makiya shook his head. "This method has been around for a long time. I've known about it for over a decade."
Nagato: "What do you mean?"
The occasional cryptic remarks from Makiya left him deeply confused. No matter how much he racked his brain, he could never have guessed that a certain manga artist had already laid bare all his secrets.
The Hell Path's ability to repair other puppets was indeed heaven-defying, but it wasn't the most annoying for Makiya. The truly troublesome one was the Preta Path. This exchange had been a stroke of luck, allowing him to kick the most difficult puppet out of the fight early.
Makiya took a step back and drifted into the air. His hands blurred through seals as his chest expanded.
"Sage Art: Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Augmented by Sage Chakra, the golden flames of the Majestic Destroyer Flame took on a white tint. A massive wall of pale-white fire roared across the battlefield, the rising heatwaves piercing the sky.
"SHINRA TENSEI!"
The terrifying repulsive force struck again. The transparent barrier collided with the fire, clearly showing the displacement path of the Shinra Tensei.
The invisible wall held the pure white flames at bay. With Nagato's successive bursts of power, he managed to blow the entire sea of white fire away in one go.
However, Makiya's flames, infused with the properties of Flowing Flame, didn't dissipate. Under his powerful control, the liquefied sea of fire refused to scatter, instead huddling together to dominate the sky.
Makiya changed his hand seal. Numerous blades surged out from the sea of fire, their tips pointing directly at the four remaining puppets.
"Fall!"
At his command, the swords descended from the heights like a rain of falling stars.
Longswords of pure white fire whistled through the air. Each one carried staggering heat; even a graze would cause severe burns. A direct hit would instantly incinerate even Nagato's specially reinforced corpses.
The Deva Path released its repulsive force again. However, the continuous downpour never ceased for a moment. Once the force dissipated, a barrage of fire swords followed close behind, falling straight toward the Rinnegan puppets.
The five-second interval became a fatal flaw. The Deva Path could only watch the attack approach, unable to mount a proper response, forced to control its body to retreat frantically.
Even without their special abilities, the puppets could perform high-level taijutsu. Lacking pain or unnecessary senses, they could contort into bizarre positions impossible for humans.
The other puppets used every means at their disposal. The Asura Path opened every mechanism on its body, entering an overload mode to unleash a frenzy of attacks. Missiles, laser beams, and mechanical armor were deployed in cycles to parry the incoming flying swords.
The sound of explosions was deafening. White flames erupted, and the resulting smoke obscured the area, with only the streaks of white light from the falling swords cutting through the haze.
When the dust settled, the Asura Path lay dead in the center of the battlefield, looking like a pincushion. White flames vented from every opening in its body, its internal organs already reduced to ash. The black receivers made of Yin-Yang Release fell limply, slowly melting in the flames fueled by Sage Chakra.
Nearby, the stone fragments of the Preta Path had vanished, pulverized into dust by the violent explosions. There was no longer any possibility of repair.
After all, if you can't even find a corpse, how can you fix it?
"Oh? Has the first one finally shown up?" Makiya looked up. Four Rinnegan puppets stood on a distant tree. An unfamiliar puppet stood behind the other three, being carefully protected.
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