"Testing... your combat power?"
Madara's expression immediately turned cold.
That was insulting.
"Then show me what other trump cards you still have!"
Madara sneered.
How much time had passed since their last battle?
No matter how extraordinary Seiryū's talent was, surely he could not have continued growing at such an absurd pace.
He had also spent more than two years trapped by the Dragon Vein and was still remarkably young.
Possessing his current strength was already monstrous enough.
Madara refused to believe Seiryū had even more hidden away.
"Dragon-Human Hollowification, or in terms you understand, something similar to a Tailed Beast Transformation, combined with the Eight Inner Gates Formation gives me Six Paths-level combat power."
Seiryū smiled meaningfully.
"So what happens if I add another transformation on top of those two?"
"How strong do you think I'll become?"
He released his current transformations and returned to normal.
After his latest breakthrough, Seiryū's control over the Eight Inner Gates Formation had improved tremendously.
He could now activate and deactivate it almost at will.
"This is Dragon-Human Hollowification."
As Seiryū spoke, Dragon Vein Chakra surged through his body.
His appearance changed.
Dragon-like traits emerged across his body, transforming him into a hybrid between man and dragon.
Combined with his already striking appearance, the transformation gave him a distinctly dangerous air.
"And this is the Eight Inner Gates Formation."
The eight gates within his body opened in succession.
Crimson Chakra erupted around him like burning flames.
Because Seiryū had completely mastered the transformation, his body no longer visibly deteriorated when he activated it.
Only the blazing red Chakra cloak remained.
It looked almost like a Saiyan powering up.
"And next is something I only mastered recently."
Seiryū's grin widened.
"You already know I can use Senjutsu."
"So naturally, you should also know that true Senjutsu normally requires Sage Mode."
"However, my body was unusual. I could use Senjutsu, but I couldn't retain Senjutsu Chakra long enough to enter Sage Mode."
"I've solved that problem now."
"So after combining Dragon-Human Hollowification with the Eight Inner Gates Formation, I can add a third state."
"My Sage Mode is a little unusual."
"I call it Quincy Vollständig."
"Vollständig, activate!"
The surrounding natural energy immediately came under Seiryū's control.
It flooded into his body and transformed into three distinct forms of Senjutsu Chakra.
The three reached equilibrium.
Then Yang Power was born.
White wings formed from condensed Yang Power behind Seiryū, their shape resembling several connected tomoe.
This was the defining feature of his Vollständig.
"BOOM!"
An overwhelming pressure erupted from Seiryū.
The air itself seemed to become heavy.
Natural energy across the surrounding region was thrown into turmoil.
Even the sky changed.
Dark clouds gathered.
Lightning flashed.
Thunder rolled endlessly.
Bolts struck across the horizon as though nature itself were reacting to the birth of some terrifying existence.
Unlike a naturally evolved level of power, Seiryū's current strength had been forcibly stacked through several transformations.
The resulting pressure constantly leaked from his body.
Anyone capable of sensing Chakra within a vast distance immediately broke into a cold sweat.
Shock.
Fear.
Disbelief.
"This Chakra."
Even Madara, already the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki and a Six Paths-level existence, felt sweat form across his forehead.
His heart tightened.
"Sage Mode."
Madara clenched his fists.
"Your Senjutsu wasn't coming from the Dragon Vein?"
Seiryū had always been capable of using Senjutsu, but Madara had never seen him enter a true Sage Mode.
He had assumed Seiryū's Senjutsu came entirely from controlling the Dragon Vein.
Yet now Seiryū had clearly entered Sage Mode.
And it looked nothing like any Sage Mode Madara knew.
"It has nothing to do with the Dragon Vein."
Seiryū looked pleased with himself.
"It comes from the Senjutsu of all Three Great Sage Regions."
"I combined all three Sage Modes and produced an entirely new transformation."
"One that isn't any weaker than Dragon-Human Hollowification."
Combining the Sage Modes of all Three Great Sage Regions was unprecedented.
And Seiryū doubted anyone would surpass that achievement anytime soon.
Its value was enormous.
"Two transformations bring me to the Six Paths level."
"Three should put my combat power somewhere around the Kekkei Mōra level."
"That's my estimate, anyway."
Seiryū rolled his shoulders.
"I haven't tested it against a proper opponent yet."
"So I'll use you, a Six Paths-level fighter, to find out."
"My current power."
Boom!
Although this was not Seiryū's first time entering the state, excitement still surged through him.
Especially now that he finally had an opponent strong enough to test it against.
He casually threw a punch.
The resulting fist force surged across the battlefield like a flood.
It carved a deep trench through the earth far below.
A casual punch was already comparable to his previous Dragon Fist Burst.
His power had crossed into a completely different category.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Madara shouted.
His Rinnegan flared at full power.
A vast repulsive force expanded in a broad fan and slammed head-on into the incoming fist force.
"RUMBLE!"
The collision resembled the detonation of a massive bomb.
A catastrophic shockwave exploded outward.
Fortunately, their battle had already moved far away from Kirigakure.
Otherwise, that single exchange might have destroyed what remained of the village.
The power was even greater than Nagato's full-powered Super Shinra Tensei from the original story.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Seiryū's fist force overwhelmed Madara's repulsive field.
Madara was blasted backward.
One mountain after another shattered as he tore through them.
An entire stretch of the landscape collapsed.
One casual punch had altered the terrain.
Its destructive force far exceeded that of an ordinary Tailed Beast Ball.
"Cough!"
Madara ended up embedded deep inside a mountainside and spat out a mouthful of blood.
His condition was miserable.
That strike had been truly terrifying.
Even his Six Paths body had struggled to withstand it.
Cracks covered his body.
His chest had partially collapsed.
Blood poured from his wounds.
Yet his tremendous vitality immediately went to work.
The injuries began closing before his eyes.
Madara's expression remained extraordinarily grave.
Only one punch.
And it had injured him this badly.
His voice came out hoarse.
"What kind of monster are you?!"
He had become a Sage.
The difference between them should have narrowed.
Instead, it had grown.
Was this really power a human being should possess?
Was this what combat power comparable to Kekkei Mōra looked like?
But according to Seiryū, Urashiki had already possessed Kekkei Mōra.
Urashiki had never displayed anything like this.
"Banshō Ten'in!"
Madara roared again.
His Rinnegan erupted with power.
Most of his injuries had already healed.
Another few seconds and he would be completely restored.
He reached toward the distant landscape.
A mountain was torn from the earth.
Madara hurled it directly at Seiryū.
It accelerated past the speed of sound.
At that size and velocity, the impact alone was terrifying.
Boom!
But against the current Seiryū, such an attack was almost meaningless.
He simply raised one hand and punched.
The entire mountain exploded into countless fragments.
"From now on, feel free to call me Sage Seiryū!"
Seiryū laughed and threw another punch.
A vast wave of fist force tore through the air with a deafening roar.
It surged forward like a collapsing mountain range.
"Sage Art: Wood Style: True Several Thousand Hands!"
"Top Transformed Buddha!"
Madara unleashed Six Paths Power through his strongest Wood Style technique.
A colossal wooden Buddha rose behind him.
It stood over a thousand meters tall.
Thousands of arms spread out behind it.
Then they struck.
This was no longer merely Hashirama's strongest Wood Style.
Fueled by Six Paths Power, it had reached an entirely different level.
The true pinnacle of Wood Style.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The collision was violent.
Thousands of wooden fists hammered continuously into Seiryū's incoming attack.
Each arm shattered into splinters upon impact, but the sheer number of strikes gradually weakened the fist force.
Finally, the colossal Buddha used its massive body to endure what remained.
It was pushed backward more than a hundred meters.
Cracks spread across it like shattered porcelain.
Large sections collapsed.
"Huff... huff."
Madara breathed heavily.
Releasing such an enormous burst of Chakra all at once had placed some strain on him.
Not because his reserves were running low.
Six Paths-level Chakra remained vast.
It was simply the natural consequence of unleashing that much power in an instant.
"ROAR!"
Dark-blue Chakra erupted around the damaged Buddha.
Susanoo armor began covering its enormous body.
At the same time, Chakra flooded through the Wood Style construct and repaired the sections that had been shattered.
Majestic Attire: Susanoo.
Senju power and Uchiha power combined into another monstrous technique.
Possessing Rinnegan did not prevent the use of Susanoo.
Even someone without their eyes could still activate it after awakening the technique.
Once Susanoo had been engraved deeply enough into the user, it became almost instinctive.
These Rinnegan had not originally belonged to Madara.
But at the Six Paths level, his compatibility with them was no worse than Ryota's.
Just as Nagato, after receiving Yin Power, could wield his Rinnegan with compatibility comparable to its original owner, Madara could do the same.
"Hehehe."
"Hahahaha!"
Madara laughed wildly.
"Come!"
"No matter how strong you are, I won't be defeated so easily!"
"I am Madara Uchiha!"
That was simply the kind of man Madara was.
Proud.
Rebellious.
Unyielding.
Even if his opponent was a Sage.
Even if Seiryū was stronger.
Madara would never openly admit defeat.
In the past, he had been willing to retreat temporarily for the sake of his plans and ambitions.
But now that he had become a Sage, there was nowhere left to retreat.
So there was only one thing to do.
Fight.
Fight with everything he had.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The thousand-meter-tall Majestic Attire Buddha marched toward Seiryū.
Every step made the earth shake like an earthquake.
Thousands of fists covered in Susanoo armor descended.
Each punch shattered the air.
The attacks came like a relentless storm, dense enough to blot out the battlefield.
Seiryū could not help admiring him.
"Even after realizing the difference in strength, you still have that kind of fighting spirit."
"You really are worthy of being called a powerhouse, Madara!"
Seiryū drew back his fist.
"Dragon Fist Burst!"
What kind of destructive force could his strongest Taijutsu technique produce in this state?
Thud.
A surprisingly dull sound came first.
Then the approaching fists vanished.
Not shattered.
Not pushed aside.
They were simply annihilated by the overwhelming force, as though someone had erased them from existence.
And it did not stop there.
The fist force tore straight through the thousand-meter Majestic Attire Buddha.
Nearly half its body disappeared.
Then the remaining force continued onward.
Toward the sea surrounding Kirigakure.
From high above, one could clearly see what happened next.
The ocean split.
A colossal trench appeared across the water, stretching so far into the distance that its end could not be seen.
That was the result of Seiryū's punch.
In the movie, Toneri Ōtsutsuki had used Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, empowered by the giant Tenseigan, to cut the moon in half.
That was at most Six Paths-level destructive power.
And one should not forget that the moon itself had originally been created through Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei.
Seiryū's current combat power was already capable of contending with Kekkei Mōra.
Naturally, he possessed enough power to damage or destroy the moon as well.
Splitting the ocean with one punch was hardly impossible.
"BOOM!"
A Chakra blade collided with Madara's Six Paths staff.
The ground around them rippled violently from the impact.
Wherever the shockwave passed, everything collapsed.
A gigantic crater formed beneath them.
Inside it, the two locked weapons.
Seiryū held a katana-shaped Chakra blade and grinned at Madara.
"You've got guts."
"You still dare to fight me at close range?"
Madara pushed back with everything he had, an unruly smile appearing on his face.
"How else am I supposed to kill you?"
"I'm not that easy to defeat."
"And even if I lose, I'll make sure you pay for it."
"That won't be easy."
"Then let's find out!"
Madara's Rinnegan flared.
His Chakra surged.
An invisible repulsive force erupted at point-blank range.
"BOOM!"
The already devastated earth suffered another impact.
Shinra Tensei swept outward and enlarged the crater even further.
A Six Paths-level fighter was not incapable of harming someone with Kekkei Mōra-level combat power.
There was a gap.
But not an absolute one.
A full-powered Shinra Tensei at point-blank range remained extremely dangerous.
Seiryū was blasted backward.
It felt as though a massive hammer had struck his chest.
Several ribs broke.
His internal organs were injured.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
Even someone whose life had genuinely evolved to the Six Paths level would have been injured by such an attack.
Of course, for Seiryū, wounds like these were insignificant.
His recovery ability repaired them almost immediately.
"ROAR!"
Crimson Chakra flames ignited behind Madara.
Under his control, the flames changed shape.
They transformed into enormous claws and tore toward Seiryū.
"Six Paths Senjutsu: Crossfire Offering!"
"Die!"
"Heh."
Seiryū sneered.
Golden chains burst from his body.
They twisted together and collided with the incoming crimson claws.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions filled the crater.
Madara laughed wildly.
"As expected!"
"Only battle allows someone to master new power quickly."
"You came here to use me as a test for your strength."
"So I'll use you to familiarize myself with the power of a Sage!"
The Six Paths staff in Madara's hand changed shape.
It elongated and twisted into a massive spear resembling a double helix.
Ame-no-Nuboko.
The Sword of Nunoboko once associated with the Sage of Six Paths.
Madara pointed it directly at Seiryū.
His laughter echoed across the battlefield.
"This battle isn't ending so easily!"
"Come!"
"Let's continue!"
"This battle will decide the fate of the shinobi world!"
Seiryū merely shrugged.
"Decide the fate of the shinobi world?"
"That's a little dramatic."
"You're not my only enemy."
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)