One Piece: Hell Pirates

Chapter 430 430: Shadows of Past Dynasties

Even the Sage of Six Paths did not possess true space time ninjutsu, so there was no way for him to find Isshiki Otsutsuki's private dimension.

"Gamamaru, did you truly see the destruction of the ninja world?"

The Sage of Six Paths asked anxiously. He had already realized that Brook had disappeared from the battlefield, and the continued clash between the two great powers left him deeply uneasy.

"Yes. Brook will destroy the ninja world, and he has another Ten Tails as well!"

The Great Toad Sage spoke in a grave tone, but he concealed part of the truth.

What he had actually seen was Brook destroying the three sacred lands and killing the four sages. The ninja world itself had not truly been destroyed. He said it this way only because he wanted the Sage of Six Paths to stand completely on their side and deal with Brook, this alien god who had invaded their world.

"Damn it! We should never have let him grow to this point!"

The Sage of Six Paths sighed in anguish. He regretted not risking everything to seal Brook away back when Brook had not yet become this powerful.

"There is no point regretting it now. Since we cannot find him, we should first destroy the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Nations, then gather the full strength of the ninja world and wage war against Brook!"

The Great Toad Sage spoke with helpless frustration, but inwardly he was already seething.

These alien invaders wanted to destroy this beautiful planet again and again. In his eyes, they were utterly despicable.

These humans had used chakra, a foreign power, to plunge the world into endless war and ruin vast stretches of land. Especially during the great battle between the Sage of Six Paths, his brother, and Kaguya Otsutsuki, enormous parts of the world had been ravaged.

Even though the Sage of Six Paths had spent his later years restoring the earth, those mountains and rivers could never truly be returned to what they once were.

Even powerful native divine beasts like them had been forced to retreat into remote regions, turning those places into sacred lands for their races. Only there was natural energy still pure and free from the contamination of chakra.

And now, in the present age, nearly half the ninjas in the world served Brook, this foreign Grim Reaper, and dreamed of destroying the world and exterminating the divine beasts.

Why should he pity them?

No matter how many humans died, it had nothing to do with the great sages.

"The ninjas of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Nations are still descendants of the Ninja Sect. The true culprit is Brook. They were only deceived."

The Sage of Six Paths still refused to give up on his descendants.

"Brook is the real threat. Only by defeating him will the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Nations collapse on its own, and the ninja world can return to its former order."

The Great Toad Sage clicked his tongue in irritation. The Sage of Six Paths remained as kind and stubborn as ever. No wonder he had ended up fighting Kaguya Otsutsuki after being so easily manipulated long ago.

"I can summon the Kage level souls from the Pure Land and use a combined summoning technique. Perhaps we can forcibly drag Brook out."

The Sage of Six Paths had little choice left. Otherwise, he would have no option but to follow the Great Toad Sage's advice and unite the entire ninja world in a final war against Brook.

"Then we should prepare the sealing formation first. Even if we manage to summon him, it will be useless if we still cannot defeat or seal that bastard!"

The Great Toad Sage remembered Brook's terrifying ability to stop time for an instant. It was simply too difficult to counter. Even now, he had not come up with a reliable way to restrain it.

The Sage of Six Paths no longer wasted time and began summoning the Kage level souls from the Pure Land. To be honest, he did not have much confidence that he could forcibly summon someone as powerful as Brook.

One after another, the souls of the dead Kage were pulled from the depths of the Pure Land.

The moment they appeared, they slowly opened their eyes, their memories frozen at the instant of death.

Even in the Pure Land, the Sage of Six Paths had never allowed these souls to wander freely.

"This is not the Reanimation Jutsu, and it is not Impure World Reincarnation. Am I a soul?"

A black haired man in red armor looked around in shock.

"Madara! I never thought I would see you again!"

Hashirama Senju rushed over excitedly and grabbed Madara Uchiha at once.

The Kage from the other villages also gradually understood that something unusual had happened. The ones who had hated each other in life started cursing the moment they recognized one another.

The three Raikage of Kumogakure.

The First Tsuchikage and the Second Tsuchikage, Mū.

The First Mizukage, Byakuren. The Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki. The Third Mizukage.

The First Kazekage, Reto. The Second Kazekage, Shamon. The Third Kazekage.

The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

And of course, Madara Uchiha, the Asura of the Shinobi World.

Fifteen Kage level souls were making a ruckus, but the pressure of Madara and Hashirama soon forced the others into silence.

"Greetings, Kage of the past. I am the Sage of Six Paths. I am sorry to disturb your rest."

The Sage of Six Paths got straight to the point.

"But the ninja world is facing a crisis, and I need your help."

He quickly explained the danger posed by Brook and the Otsutsuki clan, then gave them a brief summary of the current state of the world, including the war between the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Nations and the Ninja World Alliance.

"What? The Land of Fire and the Land of Wind are both gone?"

The First Kazekage and the First Hokage were both stunned to hear that their villages had fallen under the control of an outsider, the Grim Reaper Brook.

"My Rinnegan was stolen!"

Madara's face turned dark at once. If that was true, then his resurrection plan had clearly failed, and the Eye of the Moon plan had become hopeless.

Damn it.

What were Black Zetsu and Obito doing?

How could they fail to protect Nagato's Rinnegan?

"The tailed beasts from the villages were collected too?"

The other Kage were shocked again. If the Sage of Six Paths had not intervened, then Brook might really have unified the entire ninja world already.

"So now I want to borrow all of your strength and attempt to forcibly summon Brook into our sealing formation."

The Sage of Six Paths had no time to sit around discussing morality. Every extra moment only made the danger to the ninja world greater.

"Can you bring me back to life?"

Madara stared at the Sage of Six Paths and asked coldly, utterly unwilling to waste time on anything else.

The other Kage immediately became interested as well. This was the legendary Sage of Six Paths, the creator of the world. Surely he should have some authority over life and death.

"No. I died a thousand years ago. What stands before you now is only a chakra body."

The Sage of Six Paths answered honestly. Although he had created the Pure Land, his Rinnegan no longer possessed the full authority of reincarnation. He had died long ago, his power had waned, and some of the Rinnegan's abilities had disappeared with time.

"Hmph. So even you are already dead."

Madara immediately turned to leave after hearing that.

He had no interest in helping these people save the world. Unless the Sage of Six Paths could send him back alive, he would rather find his own way to be resurrected.

"Madara! For the peace of the ninja world, let us work together just this once!"

Hashirama grabbed Madara's hand again, his face full of pleading. Tobirama, standing nearby, glared at Madara with undisguised disgust.

The other Kage also began criticizing Madara, calling him cold blooded for refusing to lift a finger for future generations.

At the same time, the three sages exchanged meaningful looks with the Sage of Six Paths, urging him not to waste any more time.

-------------

In the end, the Sage of Six Paths sent the troublesome Madara Uchiha back to the Pure Land. There was no time left to waste on him.

Above a massive joint summoning array, fourteen Kage level souls began pouring their chakra into the formation, channeling all of it toward the Sage of Six Paths.

The Sage himself focused completely on sensing Brook's chakra and trying to reestablish the faint resonance between the two Rinnegan.

The three great sages had also finished their preparations. The instant Brook appeared, he would be met with an overwhelming barrage of forbidden techniques.

Meanwhile, in a certain alternate dimension, Isshiki Otsutsuki stared at Brook in horror.

He had never expected a mere pair of Mangekyou Sharingan to be able to tear open a passage into this place.

Logically, such a low level spatial ability should never have been able to force open a dimension created by an Otsutsuki eye technique. Yet Brook had done exactly that.

"Thank you for the gift, Otsutsuki."

Brook grinned as he looked at the imprisoned Ten Tails larva in the distance, greed blazing in his eyes.

Mine. All of it is mine.

Isshiki immediately tried to drive Brook out of the dimension with his own power, but to his shock, it failed.

Realizing the situation had turned dire, he made a snap decision and rushed toward the juvenile Ten Tails. He intended to fuse with it and force his power to rise even further.

"Trying to run? You're out of luck. I do not just control time. I am pretty good with space too."

Brook's smile turned cold.

[Soul King's Power: Teleportation]

Brook vanished and reappeared right in front of Isshiki, then drove a fist wrapped in Conqueror's Haki straight into his head.

Isshiki's mouth and nose burst with blood. Several teeth were knocked free as his body staggered violently backward.

[Soul King's Power: Time Stop]

The flying Isshiki froze in midair.

Even the blood droplets and shattered teeth hung motionless before Brook.

"Let us end this, Isshiki Otsutsuki."

Brook's grin turned savage. Red lightning crackled around his hand as he reached out and gouged out Isshiki's eyes in one brutal motion.

Blood sprayed from the empty sockets.

The time stop ended in the next instant. Isshiki crashed backward in terror, smashing into the ground and leaving a huge crater behind. He clutched his ruined face and let out a furious, beastlike roar from the rubble.

"I will be taking your eyes."

Brook merged them into his own without hesitation. The Byakugan fused into his Tenseigan, while the golden eye remained separate.

"And this still is not the end. Your body will vanish in two days anyway, so you might as well hand it over to me now."

Brook flashed forward again, seized Isshiki by the throat, and snapped his neck.

But the Otsutsuki clan possessed terrifying vitality and regeneration. A broken neck was barely more than a minor wound.

As if it had smelled Otsutsuki blood, the juvenile Ten Tails began to stir.

Its instinct screamed for sacrifice.

It wanted to devour the Otsutsuki and transform into a Divine Tree, root itself into a planet, and complete the purpose carved into its existence.

"Waiting a thousand years for fruit is far too slow."

Brook glanced at it, completely uninterested in that route.

He immediately activated the devouring and fusion power inherited from the god of the Western Underworld, enveloping Isshiki in a mass of white matter. Even the sight of the Ten Tails larva made Brook drool with anticipation.

His body began another round of evolution.

Yet as the fusion continued, Brook noticed something unexpected.

The power contained in Isshiki Otsutsuki actually seemed inferior to the power he had gained from the leg of the Southern Underworld God, the Soul King.

Even so, he had now fully integrated his first complete Otsutsuki bloodline.

He also obtained the ability of the [Karma], the power to package consciousness and memories into a mark and resurrect through another body.

Though for Brook, that ability would likely never be necessary.

"Yohoho. From now on, I can directly absorb chakra based ninjutsu and survive in outer space."

Brook fully digested Isshiki's bloodline, abilities, and memories.

Then his expression changed again.

"There is still more good stuff here."

Inside this dimension, Brook found a fragment of Otsutsuki Shibai's flesh and genetic material.

Without the slightest hesitation, he devoured that too.

A flood of new abilities poured into him.

"Thousand mile space time vision. Bewitching control. And the ability to materialize and reflect killing intent."

Brook laughed aloud.

So this was part of the divine art that once belonged to Otsutsuki Shibai.

That so called Thousand Mile Eye could see scenes across space and time and directly seize another person's mind.

Most absurd of all, any killing intent or malice directed at him could be materialized and reflected back upon the source.

"Yohohoho!"

Brook's laughter echoed through the entire dimension.

His overwhelming aura pressed down on the one eyed Ten Tails larva until it lowered its head in fear.

The creature, which possessed only the most primitive intelligence, trembled and instinctively shut its six tomoe crimson Rinnegan.

It had sensed something terrifying.

Something like a natural predator.

As expected, Brook stepped forward and flew straight toward it, making the juvenile Ten Tails shrink back even further.

"Raising you into a Divine Tree would take too long, and it would destroy all life on the planet."

Though Brook had once considered keeping it, he knew he did not have a thousand years to wait. After all, a thousand years later, the god of the Western Underworld, Jin, would come for his life.

He looked the creature over and snorted.

"The One Tail through Nine Tails all have intelligence close to humans, so why are you, the Ten Tails, dumber than a dog?"

The thing's appearance made its nature obvious enough. Its massive lower body was like the root system meant to anchor into a planet, while the branchlike growth on its head resembled the budding crown of a Divine Tree.

"If you had a proper mind, I might have fed you and kept you around. But since you are just a fool, I may as well eat you instead."

Brook stared at it with delight, as though examining a fine meal.

"The six tomoe Rinnegan on your body may not have developed any techniques yet, but it still looks delicious."

At those words, the juvenile Ten Tails looked at Brook with tears welling in its eyes, a sight utterly at odds with its monstrous form.

That only made Brook pause.

"You can look at me like that all you want. It will not help you. The genetic mark of the Otsutsuki is carved into your existence. You can never escape their control."

Brook sighed helplessly as he looked at the pitiful creature.

He still wanted to devour and fuse with it.

But the Ten Tails larva simply kept staring at him through watery eyes, looking less like a world ending monster and more like a kitten begging to be taken in.

.....

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