"Power of the Moon?"
Sara had seen this thing before, in fact, less than an hour ago, she also spat out a bunch of it. It wriggled around, disgusting to death, and Ryosuke burned it all clean with one big fire.
It's just that the Moon Power bugs Sara spat out were all cut apart by Ryosuke with Ripple. The longest one was only as long as a finger. After she spat them all out, there was nothing left in her body.
But the white thin threads coming out of the Queen of Roran's mouth were like strands of spiderwebs, connecting to each other, and also like winding poisonous snakes, crawling toward the sky along some kind of trajectory.
Their target… was Uchiha Itachi, who was fiercely fighting in the sky.
The Queen of Roran's complexion visibly withered. Her face turned sallow, wrinkles climbed up her skin, her muscles shriveled, and even her bones became brittle in a short time, no longer able to support her standing.
Aburame Shibi, who had raised bugs for years, reacted first, "Itachi is extracting her life force!"
In his view, the so-called Power of the Moon was a type of parasite.
Itachi scattered the larvae, letting them parasitize the bodies of the people of Roran. They slowly grew, and in daily life, they provided a lot of help to their hosts, enhancing physique, granting chakra, and so on.
But at critical moments, the parasites would extract life force from the host and feed it back to the mother body.
This was the truth of the Power of the Moon.
This was Uchiha Itachi's disgusting trump card.
The Queen of Roran knelt on the ground with her mouth open. Under the pull of the white threads, she had no choice but to raise her head, looking toward Uchiha Itachi high in the sky.
Similar threads appeared in every corner of Roran.
Everyone in the entire country, regardless of gender or age, having been forcibly injected with the Power of the Moon, had at this moment all become Itachi's backup energy packs.
The Queen of Roran didn't understand.
She never expected that the lover she trusted would betray her. At the very least… she thought she was special to Itachi.
She looked toward the sky and let out an elderly, mournful cry, "Why… why…"
"For long-lasting peace."
Uchiha Itachi said calmly, "Since the past, I have always known that for peace and stability, a certain amount of sacrifice is inevitable."
He locked eyes with Ryosuke, raising the Totsuka Blade to his chest, "When everything ends, I can use my death to apologize at their graves. Our deaths will open up a new path."
No matter how strong Ryosuke's recovery ability was, it couldn't be stronger than the combined life force of hundreds of thousands of people.
Uchiha Itachi intended to grind Ryosuke to death through pure attrition.
His answer was Star Platinum swinging its fist with full force.
Itachi raised the Yata Mirror to block, but halfway up, he noticed something wrong,
The shattered Yata Mirror… didn't regenerate!
Itachi's heart stopped.
'Impossible...'
With the life force of all Roran's citizens acting as backup energy, the Dragon Vein Armor and Susanoo should have already recovered. He sharply looked down,
He saw white threads wrapped around Susanoo's body. But when he looked further down, he saw droplets of rainwater frozen in midair, covering the white threads.
The Ripple force attached to the rain was like a valve, firmly locking all the life force that was supposed to flow to Uchiha Itachi.
BOOM!
Thunder echoed in the sky.
Weather Report and Rainbows' End's coordination was like this blazing lightning, cutting off the last trump card Uchiha Itachi had left.
The lightning lit up the sky.
It lit up the tens of thousands of hateful faces between the buildings below.
Uchiha Itachi, who had always lived in shadows, hoping to become a hero of the dark, for the first time was exposed under everyone's gaze. His hood was blown off, revealing a hideously charred face.
The blinding light made Itachi instinctively squint.
'Light?'
'Why is there such scorching light?'
He squinted toward the sky.
He saw, thunder rolling within the clouds, silver dragons roaring, and a towering giant glowing like a star standing inside the thunderclouds.
Star Platinum held its hands high, fists clenched. Countless lightning dragons swirling in the clouds plunged straight down, tens of thousands of lightning bolts gathering in its fists.
Itachi's expression sank, "Ryo..."
Ryosuke didn't want to hear his nonsense. He raised a hand and pointed, "Star Platinum: The World!"
Time stopped at that moment.
The rolling thunderclouds above, Uchiha Itachi's open mouth, the houses collapsing from the battle's shockwaves, and the dust floating in the night, all of it froze in stopped time.
But there was one thing.
Even in the frozen world, Ryosuke could still hear it clearly.
The anger of the people of Roran.
"Ora!"
Star Platinum punched Susanoo's chest. Through the cracks, it found Itachi's hiding spot. Then it took a deep breath.
Its already massive upper body grew even larger, and then, "Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
Weather Report, Catch the Rainbow, Star Platinum, using three Stands at the same time, further shortened the time stop.
But in just that brief moment, when time resumed...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Dragon Vein Armor shattered completely.
A huge hole exploded open in Susanoo's chest. Cracks rapidly spread across its limbs uncontrollably, and no matter what Uchiha Itachi tried, he couldn't repair it.
Even the deeply hidden, surgically modified body of Uchiha Itachi began to break apart uncontrollably.
Not Ripple. Not Golden Spin. Not any strange ability.
Just pure, extreme force.
That was Star Platinum.
And that was Weather Report.
This was the strongest link skill of Star Platinum and Weather Report, two six-star Stands.
Uchiha Itachi was terrified.
The Dragon Vein Armor, Susanoo, and his modified body, his three carefully prepared life-saving measures, had all failed. Tenshōkyoku couldn't keep up with Ryosuke's battle rhythm. Itachi couldn't see the outcome.
He was genuinely afraid.
"Ryosuke! I can't die. If you kill me, the Uchiha clan will never be revived! I am their only hope!"
Ryosuke laughed angrily, "You're a f**king idiot!"
He charged forward with his blade.
Uchiha Itachi might be stupid in big-picture decisions, but his battle IQ was undeniable.
Seeing that only Ryosuke was chasing him, Itachi frowned, suddenly realizing something, and burst into laughter, "You're bluffing! Ryosuke, you can't summon that hulking evil spirit anymore!"
"You can only summon two strong evil spirits for a short time! To block the Moon Power and stop the civilians of Roran from being drained dry, you must maintain this storm!"
"But at your speed, you cannot catch me!"
Without Star Platinum's time stop, without Crescent Moon's gravity manipulation, relying only on Weather Report and Ryosuke's own flight speed, he indeed couldn't catch a fully fleeing Uchiha Itachi.
After all, Star Platinum hit him too hard just now, Itachi had been forced to gain missile-level initial velocity.
He looked at Ryosuke chasing him with a blade, laughing coldly in his heart.
This was the difference in "capacity."
Uchiha Itachi had decided he would bear all the sins himself and leave innocence to his past self. He had prepared for it, sin, infamy, death. He would bear them all alone.
"Ryosuke, maybe at the very end, you might kill me."
"But at least today, I will be the victor."
He only needed a little bit of time to summon Susanoo again. Everything Ryosuke had done would be meaningless.
Yes, he only needed a little more time...
"Hm?"
Uchiha Itachi frowned.
Because Ryosuke suddenly swung his blade at the empty air, there were still nearly a hundred meters between them, like a madman. And at the tip of that swing… was a strangely shaped kunai?
'The Flying Thunder God kunai!'
Uchiha Itachi did have high battle IQ.
The moment he saw the kunai, his expression changed drastically; he quickly scanned around, Amaterasu flames ready to ignite.
"Looking for me?"
Watergate's clear voice came from behind Itachi.
From... his blind spot.
It wasn't only Uchiha Itachi who had excellent battle IQ.
The abilities of the Uchiha clan all relied on their eyes. As long as you attacked from outside their field of vision, you could bypass most of their abilities.
The next second, a flash of gold, Minato and Itachi disappeared.
When they reappeared, the two of them were right in front of Ryosuke.
The massive blade of destruction, burning with crimson-gold flames, swung horizontally toward him.
"Goodbye."
Minato whispered in Itachi's ear, turning into gold light again and vanishing, leaving Itachi alone facing Ryosuke.
"Yata Mirror!"
At death's door, Uchiha Itachi exploded with potential, desperately summoning the Yata Mirror.
The destructive greatsword clashed against it.
The blade stopped.
'It... blocked it?!'
Uchiha Itachi was overjoyed.
But before he could smile, Ryosuke stepped forward. His cold gaze and the burning golden flames intertwined as he looked down at Itachi.
In that instant, Itachi seemed to hear Ryosuke whispering next to his ear, "Any more trump cards?"
"If not..."
Crack! Crack!
Cracks crawled across the Yata Mirror.
Itachi's pupils shrank sharply.
"Then go to hell."
The Yata Mirror shattered completely.
The blade reflected in Uchiha Itachi's eyes, sliced through his body, and then pierced through the sky, leaving a crimson-gold gash in the night.
A mark that lingered for a long, long time.