Chapter 164 (Patreon)

Boom!

The golden beam and dark-red Ranged Slash struck the black sphere one after another.

The two attacks exploded upon impact, instantly blooming into a massive firework of gold, black, and dark red across the predawn sky.

The resulting roar was comparable to the detonation of a Tailed Beast Bomb, shaking the heavens and earth.

Even Madara, protected inside the Truth-Seeking Ball, felt his ears ringing.

Whoosh!

Using the deafening explosion to conceal his approach, Mihawk raced upward through the air with Geppo.

Nemesis flashed in his hand.

His first swing severed the turbulent three-colored energy surrounding the black sphere. He then became an afterimage and swept past it.

Only a silvery-white line remained in the sky, fading like a shooting star.

The black sphere remained suspended in the air for a moment.

Then its darkness began to fade as though it were being washed away. The entire sphere gradually became transparent before vanishing into nothingness.

Boom!

The moment the final Truth-Seeking Ball disappeared, Mihawk abruptly turned and released another enormous Ranged Slash downward.

The dark-red crescent struck Madara and sent him plummeting toward the ground.

However, upon closer inspection, an invisible barrier stood between Madara and the Ranged Slash.

A Limbo shadow had intercepted the attack.

Although Madara was blasted downward, the Ranged Slash had not injured him at all.

Mihawk and Hinata descended from the sky soon afterward.

They landed several hundred meters from where Madara had struck the ground. Mihawk’s breathing had become noticeably heavier.

Unlike Hinata, who relied primarily on chakra, Mihawk had fought using his physical strength, Haki, and swordsmanship from beginning to end. He had barely consumed any chakra, but the burden on his body was considerable.

Earlier that day, he had fought Madara’s reanimated body. After that came Obito as the Ten-Tails’ jinchūriki, followed by the current Madara, who also wielded the power of the Ten-Tails.

He had even endured a direct blow from Limbo moments earlier.

Sweat now covered Mihawk’s body.

Madara, meanwhile, had suffered no lasting injuries. Aside from the damage to his white Six Paths robe and a few stains on his face, he looked almost untouched.

“Amazing! Truly amazing!”

When the dust cleared, Madara showed no anger over the destruction of all his Truth-Seeking Balls.

Instead, an excited smile spread across his face.

“No one aside from Hashirama has ever pushed me this far! I, Madara Uchiha, acknowledge your strength!”

His smile widened as his voice became increasingly wild.

“Now, can you still dance? Continue entertaining me until the Ten-Tails completes its evolution!”

Hinata glanced worriedly at Mihawk, who was still breathing heavily.

“Mihawk-kun…”

“Madara…”

Rather than answering Hinata, Mihawk took several deep breaths.

His breathing soon returned to normal.

He slowly returned Nemesis to its sheath and stared directly at Madara with his ice-blue Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

“The next attack will be the final one.”

“Oh?”

Madara’s smile remained, but his eyes became completely serious.

“You’re finally going to reveal your trump card?”

He could not afford to dismiss Mihawk’s declaration.

After personally witnessing the power of Mihawk’s and Hinata’s eyes, Madara had felt a degree of pressure he had rarely experienced before.

Unlike the period in the original story when he possessed only one Rinnegan, the current Madara had already reclaimed both.

There was an enormous difference between wielding one dōjutsu and possessing the complete pair.

Obito, who possessed only his right Mangekyō Sharingan, had been unable to activate Kamui quickly enough to escape Madara. Only after coordinating with Kakashi and using both Kamui together had he successfully entered the alternate dimension.

The same principle applied to Madara.

In the original story, while he still possessed only one Rinnegan, Naruto and Sasuke had forced him onto the defensive. His Limbo could create only one shadow at the time.

After reclaiming his left Rinnegan, however, the pressure released by his eyes alone had been enough to make even Sakura, a Kage-level fighter, tremble.

The number of Limbo shadows he could produce increased to four, and he could casually create multiple Chibaku Tensei at once.

Only with both Rinnegan could Madara display the complete power of his dōjutsu.

The Madara standing before Mihawk had already reached that state.

His only remaining limitation was the incomplete Ten-Tails. The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had not fully evolved, and the beast still lacked the other half of Kurama’s chakra.

Even so, Madara’s strength had fully entered the Six Paths realm and surpassed its ordinary threshold.

Mihawk and Hinata had also reached that broad level of combat power. Individually, neither could easily overcome Madara, but their abilities complemented each other perfectly.

When they fought together, they could display strength beyond what either of them could achieve alone.

That was why Madara did not dare underestimate Mihawk’s final attack.

“Haa…”

Mihawk released a long breath and slowly closed his eyes.

Every technique possessed its own strengths, weaknesses, and natural counters.

Mihawk had known this for a long time.

He had once believed that he would never need to use the technique he was now preparing.

Although his combat strength had reached the Six Paths level, he possessed neither Six Paths chakra nor the bloodline of the Ōtsutsuki clan.

Against Madara’s seemingly immortal Six Paths body, only an attack comparable to Might Guy’s Eight Gates Released Formation could inflict enough damage to threaten his life.

Otherwise, Madara’s endless regeneration would eventually exhaust any opponent.

Mihawk had considered this problem long ago.

A year after arriving in this world, he had activated the Strongest Template System and obtained the Hawkeye template.

From that moment onward, he had wondered how an ordinary person could confront someone standing at the Six Paths level.

The Hawkeye template was extraordinarily powerful, but its strength alone still fell short of that realm.

No matter how much Mihawk considered the problem, he could think of no method—aside from the Eight Gates Released Formation—that would allow an ordinary shinobi to challenge a Six Paths-level opponent.

That changed when he unlocked his second template and obtained the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

For the first time, Mihawk saw the possibility of killing someone at the Six Paths level.

However, his Mystic Eyes were still an incomplete version that lacked their original foundation. They could not directly grant him power surpassing the Six Paths realm.

Even so, his knowledge as a transmigrator allowed him to understand that jutsu and other supernatural phenomena could also possess death.

The Breath of All Things strengthened that ability even further.

Even before fully unlocking his second template, Mihawk had already learned to perceive the death of many different things.

Most importantly, he could perceive the death of air currents.

That discovery had allowed him to develop an attack several months ago.

No—

Calling it merely an attack would not be enough.

It was an ultimate sword art.

Mihawk’s swordsmanship had always been simple and deadly. Even before obtaining the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, he had pursued a sword capable of slaying even ghosts with a single strike.

After awakening the Mystic Eyes, that path of swordsmanship finally took shape.

Because of the limitations of his physique, Mihawk’s raw physical strength had never reached the level of the original Hawkeye.

Although ordinary Ranged Slashes placed almost no burden on him, repeatedly unleashing attacks infused with the full power of his Haki could considerably drain his stamina and spirit.

But today, he would release a slash belonging to a supreme swordsman.

An ultimate sword art that surpassed the path contained within the Hawkeye template—

A sword art belonging solely to Nerona Mihawk.