Amidst the heart-wrenching agony, the consciousness of Toneri's father suddenly became clear.
He still had one more chance for redemption.
Past mistakes could no longer be undone, but at this moment, within this abyss of despair, he suddenly had an epiphany.
If he could personally end Takuno's life here, the outcome of everything would be completely rewritten!
Even though Takuno was so powerful it was suffocating, possessing strength that made one tremble, he wasn't entirely without a chance for victory.
The power of the Golden Tenseigan surging within him absolutely had the capability to kill the opponent; he simply hadn't been able to truly unleash it.
More importantly, there was Takuno's arrogance—the man not only allowed him to activate the Golden Tenseigan but even turned a blind eye to his attacks.
This arrogant posture might just become the lever he needed to shift the gears of fate.
However, a deeper problem weighed on his mind.
How could he awaken an even greater power?
He had to surpass his limits and completely detonate that hidden energy...
In the eyes of Toneri's father, a murky, uncertain light flickered, revealing a hint of desperate madness.
Takuno stood quietly in the center of the battlefield, just watching Toneri's father like that.
Seeing the other party remain frozen for so long, Takuno's brow furrowed imperceptibly.
Is he giving up just like that?
In that case, let's end it here.
He raised his wrist slightly, destructive energy accumulating in his palm, preparing to take the man's life.
At this critical juncture, a sudden change occurred!
A chaotic and heart-pounding torrent of chakra erupted without warning from within Toneri's father's withered body!
That chakra was neither pure nor strong; instead, it was filled with distortion and madness, instantly swallowing him whole.
Takuno's pupils contracted; the distortion of this chakra made him feel an instinctive repulsion.
In an instant, he perceived the other's intention—he was burning everything that remained, sacrificing life itself just to exchange it for one final strike!
A smile of appreciation slowly bloomed at the corners of Takuno's mouth.
Instead of retreating, he leaned his body forward slightly, the fire of inquiry and battle intent igniting in his eyes.
"Come! Let me see just what level the true power of the 'Tenseigan' can reach!"
He was answered by the heart-wrenching howl of Toneri's father.
The out-of-control Tenseigan chakra, no longer bound by the host's will, began to mutate violently!
Countless pale, pupil-less miniature "eyes" burst frantically from beneath his skin!
In the blink of an eye, that once-human form was completely submerged by a terrifying shell composed of densely packed "eyeballs."
This sight was enough to make any witness's sanity plummet; those with trypophobia would find it even harder to bear.
"As expected... it's a complete rampage." Takuno witnessed this horrific scene with an unusually calm expression, even carrying a hint of understanding.
He recalled the scene of Toneri eventually losing control in the original story.
While this scene was even more gruesome, the logic was the same—that "Golden Tenseigan," which served as the source of power, was originally a forbidden object formed by the forced fusion of countless ordinary Byakugan.
Now, the power of the collective was backfiring on the host, triggering such a mutation—it was entirely within the realm of reason.
Time passed amidst the suffocatingly horrific spectacle.
Watching Toneri's father's figure being completely drowned by eyeballs, the inquisitive light in Takuno's eyes gradually dimmed, replaced by a touch of genuine regret.
"In the end... you still couldn't master it?" he whispered to himself.
Just as Takuno thought the matter was settled, that "eyeball aggregate" suddenly contracted inward and then exploded!
Blinding light and violent energy fragments swept in all directions.
Takuno narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the position where the existence once known as Toneri's father had completely dissipated through the raging energy flow; a sigh vanished into the wind.
"Still... you couldn't do it."
"Hmm?"
Just then, Takuno's keen perception instantly captured a strange aura spreading across the battlefield.
His pupils shrank slightly, and the scene before him made his heart skip a beat.
Those chakra flows that should have rapidly dissipated did not disappear; instead, as if drawn by an invisible vortex, they were frantically converging toward a certain point in the void in an extremely eerie manner!
"This is...?" There was a hint of undisguised surprise in Takuno's voice.
He looked toward the core of that violent energy flow and saw a bead emitting a faint but pure emerald-green light, floating quietly at the center of the energy storm.
It seemed to possess a life of its own, greedily devouring the surrounding chakra; though small in size, it radiated heart-pounding and terrifying fluctuations.
"A Truth-Seeking Orb?!" Takuno's exclamation blurted out, carrying both shock and confirmation.
He recognized this legendary symbol of supreme power.
The moment his words fell, another change occurred!
A hand composed purely of chakra reached out without warning from that energy convergence point and decisively snatched that emerald Truth-Seeking Orb!
Immediately after, Toneri's father's blurred yet solid figure reappeared in Takuno's vision.
However, at this moment, he was no longer a body of flesh and blood.
His figure appeared illusory and transparent; for this all-out strike, he had already sacrificed his own life, soul, and even existence itself without reservation!
That chakra hand gripping the Truth-Seeking Orb was the manifestation of his final will and power.
The moment he grasped the Truth-Seeking Orb, the aura around Toneri's father surged once again!
An even more violent torrent of chakra erupted with him at the core; the energy between heaven and earth was violently stirred, and the air emitted an unbearable hiss.
The emerald Truth-Seeking Orb hummed in his palm, accumulating destructive energy.
Seeing this, a fire of unprecedented excitement ignited in Takuno's eyes!
"Heh... just what I wanted!" Takuno barked, without the slightest hesitation.
On the other side, the Majestic Attire Susanoo: Dragon God instantly dissipated, its massive chakra rapidly retracting.
The Mangekyo Sharingan patterns in his eyes suddenly lit up, and that ouroboros design began to spin frantically at an unprecedented speed!
In the blink of an eye, darkness descended!
A towering Perfect Susanoo rose from the ground, standing majestically upon the shattered earth.
It was entirely pitch-black, like an incarnation of the abyss, radiating a pressure that made the soul tremble.
Within the giant palm of the Susanoo, he gripped that legendary divine sword capable of cutting through time.
At this moment, it wasn't just a sharp edge upon the blade; instead, thick, pitch-black flames that refused to dissipate were rising!
These flames distorted light and scorched space, silently declaring their power to annihilate everything.
The battlefield fell into a dead silence at this moment.
One side sacrificed everything, holding a Truth-Seeking Orb to channel the power of heaven and earth;
The other stood within a pitch-black Susanoo, a peak powerhouse wielding a demon sword that could cut through all things.
Both were condensing their own strongest killing moves.
An eerie balance shrouded the entire space, like the suffocating silence before a storm, foreshadowing the final, earth-shaking collision about to erupt in the next moment!
On the moon, the dead wasteland was completely ignited by two world-destroying powers.
In the next instant.
Toneri's father and Takuno, these two beings standing at the peak of power, simultaneously gave their all, unleashing the ultimate strike that could decide the fate of the world.
The Truth-Seeking Orb condensed in Toneri's father's hand was no longer in a rounded form.
It transformed into a brilliant golden rainbow piercing through heaven and earth—the ultimate manifestation of chakra, a giant sword that seemed ready to split the entire world apart!
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
The giant sword reached for the sky, its golden light blazing; where its edge pointed, space distorted and cracked.
At the moment Toneri's father swung this blade capable of severing all phenomena, his figure also merged completely into that peerless golden light like a star burning itself out; his will was the edge!
Regardless of the victory or defeat of this strike, he had already completely exhausted everything he possessed!
Opposite him, the abyss-black Perfect Susanoo stood tall.
Takuno, positioned at its core, flashed a look of resolve in his eyes and swung his hands down violently.
"Sever it! Futsunushi!"
The Susanoo's towering chakra blade slashed out fiercely!
Unlike the pure golden light, this slash was wrapped in unquenchable black flames that burned all things, carrying a despairing aura that swallowed all light, turning into a black sky-splitting strike that was not at all inferior to the "Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion"!
In the next heartbeat, time seemed to freeze.
Extreme gold and extreme darkness, carrying the momentum to tear through the void, collided violently!
"BOOM!!!"
A terrifying energy impact that defied description erupted instantly from the point of collision!
The entire moon was completely swallowed by these two colors, which were frantically intertwining and clashing due to the collision.
The vast sea of golden light and the deep, all-consuming dark tide clashed violently...
Every flicker of light was accompanied by a violent tremor in space.
Blinding glare and deep darkness pressed against each other, turning the moon's surface into a chaotic purgatory of light and shadow.
The dissipating destructive energy shockwaves swept across every inch of land and every ravine; no corner could escape its power.
The entire moon groaned under the weight of such a collision.
After enduring countless energy tides and who knows how long the struggle between light and darkness lasted...
Finally, the golden light pierced through the deep night at this moment!
The profound black flames were suppressed by the golden glow.
The scales of victory tipped violently amidst the radiant light.
However, the limit of what the golden light could achieve was only to suppress that deep darkness; it could not manage to completely eliminate the opponent.
Finally, having exhausted all its power, the golden light receded like a tide, gradually dissipating between heaven and earth.
The dust slowly settled, leaving the battlefield in ruins.
The only thing still standing tall was Takuno's towering, pitch-black Susanoo!
But now, this giant—a symbol of absolute defense—was also covered in a web of fine cracks, its massive armor broken and peeling in many places, clearly having suffered heavy damage in the earth-shaking collision just now.
Standing within the crystal at the core of the Susanoo, Takuno's gaze pierced through the damaged giant's body, scanning the battlefield.
There was no arrogance of a final victor in his eyes; instead, a hint of undisguised wonder flashed through.
He knew in his heart that in the head-on confrontation of ultimate moves just now, in a pure contest of power, he had lost.
The power known as the "Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion" indeed possessed a sharpness that surpassed the heights his own strike could reach.
However, the scales of victory did not ultimately tip away.
After the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion exhausted itself suppressing his attack, it lacked the follow-through and failed to completely cut through the incredibly tough defensive barrier of the pitch-black Susanoo.
Moreover, Toneri's father, who had unleashed this strike, was already completely spent; he had turned himself into the chakra for the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and could never stand again to perform it a second time.
However, Takuno also felt a bit chilled at this time; this was only the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion driven by Toneri's father, who had failed to awaken the true Tenseigan.
If it were his son, Toneri—who inherited the atavistic Ōtsutsuki bloodline and had awakened the complete Tenseigan—performing this technique personally, that world-destroying golden light blade would likely truly be able to pierce through his Perfect Susanoo!
Of course, that was just a hypothesis.
A faint, imperceptible curve touched the corner of Takuno's mouth; even facing such a lethal situation, the forbidden power "Toki-Mayumi" contained in his left Mangekyo would be enough to activate at the critical moment and allow him to evade a certain-death outcome.
Not to mention, he wouldn't be foolish enough to actually try to clash head-on with the opponent at that time.
Was his right eye, the Sarutahiko, not useful enough?
Still, he had truly felt the power of the Tenseigan in this collision.
"So this is... the true power of the Golden Tenseigan?" Takuno whispered.
Deep in his eyes, a burning desire flickered.
If power of this level could be fully mastered and utilized to its limit, there was no doubt that its possessor would step into the legendary "Six Paths" realm!
A pity... a hint of regret rose in his heart.
Whether it was Toneri's father, who had just burned his life to bloom one last time, or the Toneri he knew from the "original story," neither seemed to have truly controlled the full power of that massive Golden Tenseigan.
A pearl covered in dust—nothing could be more tragic than this.
Takuno's gaze turned to the spot where Toneri's father had dissipated, where only scorch marks and residual energy from the battle remained.
He showed no trace of mockery or contempt.
The way the opponent had burned his life to launch that final strike, that persistence and resolve—he had seen it all clearly.
He was a worthy opponent.
He was simply unfortunate to have met him.
Takuno understood.
At this moment, Toneri's father, possessing the power of the Golden Tenseigan, would have been able to hold his own or even win against any top powerhouse in the entire Shinobi World, except for Takuno himself.
He shook his head slightly, casting aside pointless thoughts.
With a thought from Takuno, the massive pitch-black Susanoo emitted a low hum, and its enormous energy body dissipated.
His figure landed lightly back on the scorched earth.
His gaze then turned toward the ancient palace that had been miraculously protected by the last of the Golden Tenseigan's power during the earth-shaking battle just now.
The dust had settled, and victory was in his grasp.
Now, it was time to pluck the fruit that belonged to the victor.