Chapter 533: A God’s Laugh (Patreon)

Unknown Fire Dimension

"THIS IS FOR THE SURPRISING, MOTHERFUCKA!"

The Ten-Tails answered Alaric's raised middle finger with a roar that shook the dimensional boundaries around them.

GRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!

The modified Sun and Moon Seal pulled.

Golden chains tightened around the Gedo Mazō's malformed body, while black sealing script spread across its pale shell like cracks advancing through stone. The creature tore backward with enough force to split several Wood Release restraints at once, yet every meter it gained was stolen back by the spatial compression surrounding the seal.

Alaric's boots remained planted against empty space, his grin never leaving his face.

"Come on."

The Ten-Tails clawed at the dimensional boundary.

Its fingers disappeared through a fracture in space, searching desperately for anything beyond Alaric's reach, but the fire dimension closed around the opening before the beast could widen it.

Alaric's Rinne-Sharingan rotated, and the fracture vanished.

"No."

The Ten-Tails twisted toward another direction.

"Absolutely not."

Another pull brought the creature closer.

The Gedo Mazō had already shrunk from something capable of dwarfing mountain ranges into a form several hundred meters tall, though none of its power had disappeared. The modified seal compressed space rather than mass, folding the beast into a contained existence designed to fit within the internal prison Alaric had constructed.

Madara watched from within the barrier several kilometers away.

His laughter from earlier had disappeared.

Even after becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki himself, he had never witnessed the beast resist containment with this degree of animal terror. Madara had dominated the creature through the Rinnegan and black receivers. Its hostility toward him had remained buried beneath forced obedience until Alaric's impossible fire pushed survival beyond submission.

This was different.

The Ten-Tails knew where it was going.

More importantly, it appeared to understand that escape would become almost impossible once it arrived there.

The final pieces of Alaric's seal completed themselves across his abdomen.

Gold and black intersected beneath the damaged remains of his coat before dividing into nested rings. Madara's Rinnegan followed their construction and saw the partitions Hagoromo's chakra had inspired.

The innermost layer waited for the Ten-Tails.

A second barrier prevented uncontrolled access to Alaric's ordinary chakra network.

A third controlled what could leave the prison.

Beyond all of them, crimson fūinjutsu surrounded another power entirely.

Phoenix chakra.

Madara could see it running through Alaric like a second circulatory system, though the seal treated those pathways as if they belonged to another universe.

The Ten-Tails would not be permitted to touch them.

Alaric tightened his fist as the golden chains snapped inward.

KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRAAAACK!!

Several protrusions along the Gedo Mazō's back broke under the compression.

The beast shrank again.

A hundred meters.

Fifty.

Thirty.

Its single eye remained enormous compared with Alaric even as the rest of its body continued collapsing inward.

It tried one final attack.

A Tailed Beast Ball formed inside its mouth, rapidly condensing into a dense sphere of unstable chakra as it prepared to fire.

Alaric stared at it.

"Seriously?"

The sphere grew.

Alaric's smile disappeared.

"You already got me with that once..."

He opened his palm, and Gakidō manifested across the Ten-Tails' mouth before the compressed chakra could be fired.

The Tailed Beast Ball collapsed into the absorption seal.

The Ten-Tails screamed as Alaric pulled both the technique and part of the chakra gathered around its jaws into himself.

Phoenix Sage Mode absorbed the strain.

Eros repaired the lesser injuries that escaped the transformation's reinforcement.

Alaric's eyes narrowed.

"...you don't get a sequel."

The Ten-Tails reached ten meters, and the internal prison opened.

For Madara, it appeared as though darkness emerged directly behind Alaric.

It was not a portal in the ordinary sense. There was no visible destination beyond it, because the space existed somewhere inside the architecture of Alaric's soul. Black pillars could occasionally be seen through the opening, extending into an endless interior chamber where golden chains already waited.

The Ten-Tails noticed them, and its struggle became frantic.

It drove both hands into the dimensional space surrounding Alaric and attempted to push itself away.

Alaric caught one of the chains, his grip tightening as the golden seal bit into his palm.

The creature stared at him.

For a brief moment, man and primordial beast remained perfectly still.

Then Alaric yanked the seal inward with a violent, decisive force.

VVVRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

The Ten-Tails disappeared into his abdomen as the darkness closed in, every remaining chain following after it. Gold and black sealing script flashed across Alaric's entire body, and the fire dimension stopped moving.

Madara's Rinnegan widened.

Alaric remained suspended in the same position, although his body had gone rigid. His head lowered. His fingers opened beside him as the last traces of the Sun and Moon markings disappeared beneath his palms.

The pressure changed.

Madara felt it before seeing anything happen.

A pulse traveled from Alaric.

THUUUUUUUUUUUM.

The surrounding fire bent outward.

A second pulse followed.

THUUUUUUUUUUUM.

Madara's barrier cracked, and his eyes sharpened.

The pressure was not Alaric's Phoenix chakra.

It carried the unmistakable heaviness of the Ten-Tails.

Yet it no longer felt like the beast Madara had contained.

Its chakra had entered Alaric and encountered something enormous enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant presence.

The result was strange.

The Ten-Tails' chakra could be sensed beneath Alaric's own, but rather than swallowing the host as it had done with Madara, it sat within him like an ocean imprisoned beneath layers of earth.

Alaric's back arched as his breath left him.

The first physical change appeared across his abdomen.

A pale marking formed around the modified Sun and Moon Seal before spreading toward his ribs. Madara expected the pattern to continue across Alaric's entire body as it had across his own... but it abruptly halted as the seal itself asserted control, forcibly stopping the spread.

Black lines reached the boundary surrounding Alaric's ordinary chakra network and were redirected into a circular pattern instead of spreading freely.

Alaric's skin paled slightly.

His hair lifted as though suspended underwater.

The Rinne-Sharingan changed.

Its rings became sharper while the tomoe surrounding them darkened. For several seconds, a second concentric pattern appeared beneath the original eye before merging back into it.

Then a horn began emerging from Alaric's forehead.

Madara leaned forward.

The horn grew only a few centimeters before Alaric's brow tightened.

The seal around his Phoenix pathways illuminated crimson.

The horn stopped growing, a crack appearing along its surface before it broke away and dissolved into chakra before it could fully form.

Madara's eyes narrowed.

The Ten-Tails had tried to alter him, but Alaric's seal had refused.

Inside the prison, the Gedo Mazō slammed against the golden restraints.

Its claws struck one black pillar, and the entire internal world shook.

Alaric felt the impact somewhere beneath his ribs.

He closed his eyes and saw that the Ten-Tails pulled against the chakra exchange layer.

Nothing opened.

It tried another route... nothing.

It followed the unfamiliar warmth of Phoenix chakra until it reached the crimson boundary surrounding those pathways, where the creature stopped.

Something existed deeper beyond it... something the Ten-Tails could not comprehend, and for the first time in its existence, it refused to continue forward.

Alaric felt its hesitation, his mouth curving.

"Smart."

Madara heard him.

"What?"

Alaric opened his eyes.

The next pulse of chakra exploded from him.

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

Madara's barrier was thrown backward several kilometers.

Alaric remained at the center of the disturbance.

His body rose another meter while pale chakra began gathering around him. It resembled the robes Madara had worn as a jinchūriki, although the transformation could not settle into the same structure.

The Ten-Tails attempted to create magatama markings.

Alaric's existing chakra rejected the arrangement.

It tried to form a Six Paths mantle.

Phoenix chakra bled faintly through the isolation boundary without crossing it, warping the mantle before it could close.

What eventually appeared around Alaric was neither Madara's transformation nor Hagoromo's ancient form.

A long pale coat of chakra settled over his body, but its edges burned gold instead of white. Black magatama formed around the collar, though crimson lines separated them from the Phoenix markings beneath. The robe moved without wind while a faint ring of black spheres attempted to manifest behind him.

One Truth-Seeking Orb formed.

Then another.

A third.

Alaric looked over his shoulder.

"Huh."

Madara stared.

The Truth-Seeking Orbs continued until nine floated behind Alaric.

They remained smaller than Madara's had been, but far denser.

The Ten-Tails tried to send more chakra into them, but Alaric closed the exchange pathway, causing all nine to stop growing instantly.

Madara's eyes widened again.

Alaric had cut the beast off from its own manifested power as easily as closing a door.

He extended one hand toward the nearest sphere.

The orb moved into his palm, its surface shifting under his fingers... black turning to metallic silver, then red, before settling back into black again. Alaric gave a quiet hum of approval.

"Useful."

Madara remained silent as the transformation continued.

Alaric's physical presence grew heavier, though his body did not become larger. His muscles tightened beneath his damaged clothing before settling into a slightly denser form. The Ten-Tails reinforced his bones, organs, reflexes, and chakra pathways wherever the seal permitted access.

Alaric allowed those changes.

When the beast attempted to reshape something rather than strengthen it, the partition closed.

Madara understood what he was seeing.

Alaric was not allowing the Ten-Tails to transform him... he was selecting which parts of becoming its jinchūriki he wanted.

The realization irritated Madara almost as much as it fascinated him.

He had fought to dominate the beast, but Alaric had instead built an administrative system around it.

The Nine sealing rings containing the separated tailed-beast fragments remained suspended around the dimension. None reacted violently to Alaric's transformation, confirming that their chakra identities remained isolated from the Gedo Mazō now sealed within him.

The fire dimension began stabilizing as Alaric's Phoenix Sage Mode remained active, while the incomplete Ten-Tails remained contained.

For the first time, both powers existed inside one body without merging.

Madara studied him.

Alaric slowly raised his hands, his fingers trembling.

Then his shoulders began shaking as a low, uncontrollable laugh started to build in his chest.

Madara's eyes narrowed.

A sound escaped Alaric.

"Heh…"

Madara remained still.

Alaric's head lowered.

"Hehehe…"

The sound deepened.

His chakra robe flared.

The nine Truth-Seeking Orbs spread behind him as the fire dimension itself reacted to the rising pressure.

Alaric threw his head back.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Madara stared.

The laugh rolled across the dimension.

It was nothing like the amused chuckles Alaric normally allowed himself. There was hunger in it. Triumph. Something almost cruel moved beneath the sound as Alaric spread his arms and allowed the Ten-Tails' chakra to surge around him.

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

The pressure exploded outward.

Madara's expression hardened.

Alaric laughed louder.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The pale-gold chakra robe surged around him.

His Rinne-Sharingan glowed.

The Truth-Seeking Orbs rotated in a slow halo.

For the first time since meeting Alaric, Madara saw something that looked disturbingly familiar.

Not Alaric's techniques, not his eyes.

Ambition.

The laugh sounded like the release of something that had been hidden beneath restraint for years.

Madara remembered Alaric insisting that he did not need the Ten-Tails.

He remembered the man claiming that becoming its jinchūriki was merely containment.

He remembered Hagoromo apparently objecting.

He remembered Alaric dragging the beast inside himself anyway.

Now, standing with the Ten-Tails sealed within him and power that surpassed what most shinobi could comprehend flooding his body, Alaric looked ecstatic.

Madara's face slowly darkened.

'So that was it.'

The thought carried an unpleasant certainty.

Perhaps all the speeches about freedom had been another layer of theater.

Perhaps Alaric had allowed Madara to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki because he needed someone else to stabilize the beast first.

Perhaps separating the tailed-beast fragments had never been about saving them.

Perhaps even the argument with Hagoromo had been nothing more than the final obstacle before Alaric obtained exactly what he wanted.

Power.

Madara had seen men hide greed beneath righteousness throughout his life. He simply had not expected Alaric to be one of them.

Alaric's laughter became deeper.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

His head lowered as a grin stretched across his face.

Madara's Rinnegan narrowed.

"You…"

Alaric raised one hand dramatically and stared at his own fingers as Ten-Tails chakra moved around them.

Madara's expression became colder.

"You hypocrite."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The laughter stopped instantly, and Alaric blinked.

Madara stared at him.

The transformation, the oppressive chakra, the pale-gold robe, and the Truth-Seeking Orbs all remained, continuing to float behind him.

Yet whatever monstrous triumph had entered Alaric's expression disappeared so quickly that Madara wondered whether it had existed at all.

Alaric reached into the surviving side of his coat while Madara watched carefully.

Alaric searched one pocket, found nothing, and frowned.

He checked another, his hand emerging holding a slightly crushed cigar.

Before anything else, Alaric examined it.

His expression brightened.

"Oh, good."

Madara stared as Alaric placed the cigar between his lips, a tiny flame blooming above one finger to light it before he drew the smoke into his lungs.

Alaric exhaled slowly as Madara continued staring.

Several seconds passed.

Alaric noticed.

"What?"

Madara's eyes narrowed.

"What was that?"

Alaric looked around.

"The sealing?"

"The laughter."

Alaric removed the cigar from his mouth.

"Oh."

Madara waited.

Alaric gave him an entirely serious look. "I wanted to try it."

Madara said nothing.

Alaric took another slow drag from the cigar.

The smoke curled beside the Phoenix marking around his eye.

"I've seen enough people get absurd amounts of power and immediately start laughing like they've lost their minds."

Madara's expression remained frozen.

Alaric shrugged.

"I wanted to see if it felt good."

Silence swallowed the fire dimension.

Madara stared at him.

Alaric stared back as the Ten-Tails thrashed somewhere inside his soul.

Neither acknowledged it.

Madara's brow twitched.

"You were pretending."

"Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"I did just successfully seal the Ten-Tails into myself. That part is pretty satisfying."

Madara's jaw tightened.

Alaric lifted the cigar.

"But the evil laugh?" He smiled. "That was because it was funny."

Madara closed his eyes, his shoulders lowering as a slow breath left him.

Alaric watched.

"You seem disappointed."

Madara opened his eyes again.

"For several moments, I believed I had finally understood you."

"And?"

"I believed everything you said about not desiring the Ten-Tails had been a mask."

Alaric's brow rose.

"You thought I orchestrated this entire thing because I secretly wanted its power?"

"Yes."

"That would have been dramatically more efficient than what actually happened."

Madara's expression flattened.

Alaric gestured toward the damaged dimension.

"I let you become its jinchūriki, nearly got my head cut off, cooked you until the beast evolved, fought the thing while Phoenix Sage Mode was unavailable, got my coat destroyed, and took a Tailed Beast Ball directly to the face."

He put the cigar back between his lips.

"If this was all some master plan to steal the Ten-Tails, I designed a terrible plan."

Madara could not immediately dispute that.

Alaric inhaled, and smoke drifted around him.

The new jinchūriki chakra had already begun settling into his system. The immense pressure surrounding him declined as he deliberately closed the exchange pathways, leaving only enough Ten-Tails chakra flowing through his body to maintain the physical reinforcement he wanted.

The pale-gold robe dimmed, while the Truth-Seeking Orbs remained.

Alaric glanced toward them.

He closed his hand; eight vanished, leaving one beside him.

Madara watched the casual display.

"You truly do not intend to use its full power."

"Not unless I have a reason."

"You went through all of this to acquire a power you intend to leave sealed."

"I went through all of this because leaving the Gedo Mazō lying around after you abandoned it would be stupid."

Madara's gaze sharpened. "You could have destroyed it."

"And potentially damaged whatever spiritual architecture still connects it to the tailed beasts."

"You could have sealed it in another dimension."

"Then someone eventually searches for it."

"You believe no one can take it from you."

Alaric looked at him over the cigar.

"I would enjoy watching them try."

Hearing that, Madara almost smiled... almost.

The old suspicion had not disappeared entirely. Alaric possessed too much power for suspicion to become unreasonable, and the sight of him laughing beneath the Ten-Tails' chakra would remain difficult to forget.

Yet the man now floating before him looked exactly as he had before the transformation.

Annoyingly comfortable.

More concerned with his cigar than his ascension.

Madara let his gaze travel over the new chakra signature.

"You feel different."

"I am."

"How much stronger?"

Alaric considered it… then shrugged. "No idea."

Madara stared.

"You have not tested it."

"I became its jinchūriki approximately two minutes ago."

"You immediately tested the Truth-Seeking Orbs."

"Those were right there."

Madara sighed, the gesture coming with exhaustion rather than irritation now.

He looked down at his own body.

Without the Ten-Tails, weakness had returned in a way he had almost forgotten. His chakra remained immense by ordinary standards, though the difference between that reserve and what he had possessed as a jinchūriki felt like waking after a lifetime underwater and discovering the ocean had disappeared.

His heartbeat remained stable, and Alaric's seals still preserved the resurrection.

That fact brought him back to the conversation before the extraction.

Izuna.

Madara's humor disappeared, along with his fascination with Alaric's new form.

He pushed himself upright inside the barrier, and Alaric noticed.

Madara looked at the man who now contained the same primordial power he had surrendered.

Earlier, he had refused to allow Izuna's life to purchase his decision.

He had released the Ten-Tails voluntarily.

He had abandoned the Infinite Tsukuyomi before receiving proof of anything.

The bargain no longer owned his choice.

That meant the remaining promise could finally stand on its own.

Madara's Rinnegan settled upon Alaric.

Alaric took another slow drag from the cigar.

The fire dimension had quieted around them.

Madara spoke.

"You got what you want…"

Alaric lowered the cigar slightly.

Madara's expression hardened, though beneath it rested something he had spent decades burying.

Hope frightened him more than the Ten-Tails ever had, yet his voice remained steady.

"Now, revive my brother."