Facts proved that Boros possessed both exceptional reaction speed and sensory perception. Even with his gaze locked on the Divine Tree behind him, he immediately sensed the incoming threat. In an instant, he raised his arm to intercept the Truth-Seeking Orb speeding toward him.
To his surprise, the small black sphere ignored his defense entirely. The moment it touched his arm, the entire limb shattered.
"What is this...?" Boros muttered, startled yet maintaining a composed expression.
He allowed the sphere to tear through his arm and pierce his torso, confident his regeneration would handle the damage. True to his belief, the destroyed parts of his body reformed in the very next second.
Right away, he detected Shinji's life force again. Whipping around toward the source, he was shocked to see Shinji completely unharmed. His eyes widened with disbelief. Not only had the man survived, but he looked utterly untouched.
The truth was, the Shinji he had struck earlier with his "Moon Kick" had been nothing more than a wood clone. Shinji had invested little chakra into it, and at the speed of light, the clone had already disintegrated midair from friction with the atmosphere. The fact that it had not burst into a spray of blood the instant Boros made contact was already remarkable.
"Sage Art: Storm Release: Light Fang!"
A brilliant purple beam erupted from Shinji's mouth, moving at light speed. This jutsu could slice through anything, and Boros was cut cleanly in half at the waist. Before the two halves could even fully separate, his body had regenerated again.
"Shinji!"
Boros bellowed the name and surged forward at full speed.
"Sage Art: Yin Release: Lightning Dispatch!"
In a blink, Shinji's body teleported into the sky. From his hands burst two jagged, tree-branch-shaped bolts of black-violet lightning, striking the charging Boros.
"Uoooohhhhhh!!"
Boros pushed through the searing damage, his body tearing apart and reforming repeatedly as he rocketed upward without losing momentum. In the next instant, he swung a colossal hook toward Shinji midair.
This time, Shinji did not evade with intangibility. Instead, one of his Truth-Seeking Orbs shifted into the shape of the "Sword of Nunoboko," which he brought up to meet the blow. Constantly relying on intangibility felt dull to him. He wanted to see if Boros' meteor-burst strength could be countered head-on.
The Sword of Nunoboko was said to be the creation blade of the Sage of Six Paths, as its strength was tied directly to the wielder's will. The more unshakable the resolve, the greater its destructive and defensive power. If someone like Obito, whose conviction never wavered, had wielded it during the Fourth Shinobi War, the course of the battle might have changed entirely.
But that was another matter.
Shinji's will might not be legendary, yet it was unwavering. His determination now was simple: to defeat Boros with everything at his disposal.
Crack!
The Sword of Nunoboko caught Boros' fist, but a thin fracture ran along its length. Boros unleashed a relentless barrage, and after countless impacts, the blade finally shattered. His next punch shot toward Shinji's face.
"Susanoo!"
In an instant, Shinji's Complete Body Susanoo materialized, intercepting the blow and forcing Boros backward with its colossal frame.
It was clear that Shinji's Complete Body Susanoo had grown to nearly double its previous size, now reaching proportions close to Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's. It stood on par with the Ten Tails and the Thousand-Armed Buddha, each on the kilometer scale.
And even this was not the ultimate limit of Susanoo.
Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!
As the Thousand-Armed Buddha manifested, Shinji released the majority of the Ten Tails' power. In that moment, he merged the Ten Tails, the Thousand-Armed Buddha, and his Complete Body Susanoo into one overwhelming form.
What emerged was the most extreme Susanoo he could conceive.
The Ten Tails, already possessing its ten tails, now bore thousands of gargantuan arms. Its body, the very embodiment of the Divine Tree, was encased first in a layer of wooden armor. Over this rested a second layer of azure tengu armor. Massive wings stretched wide, blotting out the sky and granting it the ability to soar.
At the center of its brow stood Shinji.
"I will defeat you! No matter the cost!"
Boros kicked off the air itself, hurling his momentum back toward Shinji. In an instant, he unleashed another flying kick at full force.
Although Boros possessed nearly limitless energy, his Meteor Burst form consumed it at a terrifying rate. Even with his reserves, he could not sustain it for long. He had already resolved to burn everything he had in order to bring Shinji down.
The fused form of Susanoo, Ten Tails, and Thousand-Armed Buddha had only just stabilized when Boros' kick, no weaker than his Moon Kick, slammed into it.
The gigantic Susanoo trembled under the monstrous strike, driven back step after thunderous step.
"..."
Below, the S-Class heroes stood frozen in awe.
To them, this was nothing less than a clash of gods, while they themselves were mere mortals, powerless to intervene.
"This scale is far beyond a Dragon-level disaster. T-this… has to be God-level," Child Emperor muttered in disbelief.
"At this intensity, with neither side gaining the upper hand, if it were us against that alien, we would have been wiped out instantly," Bang said gravely.
"Yeah... as much as I hate to admit it, I doubt I could take even one of his punches," Atomic Samurai added with a strained smile.
Even Superalloy Darkshine, who prided himself on his invincible physique, began to falter in his confidence. Just watching Shinji and Boros fight filled him with a crushing sense of inadequacy. He could not help but wonder if his body could withstand even a single punch from Boros.
The thought alone shattered his composure. He sank to the ground, curling in on himself, unable to watch any longer.
"Master, are we truly powerless here...?" Genos asked quietly from beside Shinji's wood clone.
The clone only shook its head slightly, unable to give an answer.
Thud!
After being forced back to the base of the Divine Tree, the colossal Susanoo slammed its rear foot into the earth, finally halting its retreat.
In that instant, the Ten Tails' ten tails moved like mighty arms, each gripping one of Shinji's weapons, along with others formed from Truth-Seeking Orbs. The thousands of enormous hands covering its body also readied themselves to strike.
The arsenal was vast: the Sword of Nunoboko, colossal shuriken, kilometer-long greatswords, massive blades, and countless other weapons of war.
On every one of them, Shinji poured the power of Kamui.