"So this is all there is to your lightning?"
A calm, steady voice emerged from the blinding electric light. Without the slightest tremor.
Kashimo's pupils contracted violently.
The blue lightning faded away.
And there stood Rin.
One hand remained tucked inside his pocket.
Even the shoulder of his black trench coat was completely unharmed.
Not a single scorch mark could be seen.
The moment those violent blue currents touched Rin's body, they became like rivers flowing into the sea.
They were forcibly assimilated and absorbed by a higher-dimensional energy.
"This is impossible!"
Kashimo tightened his grip on the broken metal staff, the foundations of his understanding crumbling for the first time in four hundred years.
"My cursed energy possesses pure lightning properties!"
"How can you take it head-on with your body and remain completely unharmed?!"
"Lightning properties?"
A deep purple-black glow flowed through Rin's eyes.
"Your understanding of lightning is far too shallow."
Shing.
The Kusanagi Sword left its sheath.
Purple-black lightning that distorted the surrounding light instantly enveloped the dark blade.
This wasn't ordinary lightning.
It was the ultimate form of Lightning Release Chakra, fused with Six Paths Power and Yin-Yang Release.
"Let me show you..."
"What true lightning looks like."
Rin flicked his wrist.
Slash!
A purple-black crescent blade of sword energy raced across the ground.
Wherever it passed, the air emitted an unbearable shriek.
The concrete road split open, leaving behind a perfectly smooth chasm with no visible bottom.
Every hair on Kashimo's body stood on end.
His instincts, sharpened by countless battles to the death, screamed in warning.
He couldn't dodge.
The speed and range of this slash left no room for escape.
"Don't underestimate me!"
With a furious roar, Kashimo poured every ounce of cursed energy into the metal staff and swung it down against the incoming sword energy.
Boom—!!!
The two lightning forces collided violently in the middle of the street.
The blinding light forced even Toji in the distance to narrow his eyes.
But the clash lasted less than half a second.
The moment Kashimo's blue lightning touched the Six Paths Lightning Release—
It was utterly overwhelmed.
Crack!
The high-grade metal staff that had accompanied him through countless battles snapped in two.
The momentum of the purple-black slash remained undiminished.
It crashed directly into Kashimo's chest.
Pfft!
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
His body flew backwards for nearly a hundred metres, smashing through the load-bearing walls of two buildings before finally becoming buried within the ruins.
Dust billowed into the sky.
Holding the Kusanagi Sword loosely at his side, Rin walked steadily toward the wreckage.
"Cough... Cough, cough..."
At the bottom of the rubble, Kashimo struggled to prop himself up.
Everything covering his chest had already been reduced to ashes.
A charred wound deep enough to expose bone stretched across his torso.
Purple arcs of electricity continued to dance within the injury, preventing him from using cursed energy to heal.
He had lost.
Completely.
In a single exchange, he had suffered absolute defeat.
"Four hundred years of searching... And to think I'd encounter a monster like you here..."
Kashimo spat out the clotted blood in his mouth, yet the madness in his eyes only intensified.
He knew he was destined to die today.
But the pride of a warrior would never allow him to die like a coward.
"If ordinary attacks are useless against you... Then let's decide this with my final move."
Kashimo's body began to mutate violently.
His muscles swelled, and blue armour-like markings spread across his skin.
His human flesh was being forcibly reconstructed by violent cursed energy.
Mythical Beast Amber.
The only cursed technique Kashimo had ever possessed.
Once activated, his body would inevitably collapse into dust when the technique ended.
A trump card that could only be used once in a lifetime.
Upon activation, his flesh transcended human limitations and transformed into a pure energy body capable of generating electromagnetic waves and devastating electromagnetic blasts.
"Burning away your life for power?"
Rin stopped and quietly watched Kashimo.
His body was gradually becoming semi-ethereal, while the surrounding air twisted under the intense heat.
Rin made no move to interrupt him.
"As a reward for your resolve... I'll grant you a dignified death."
The Kusanagi Sword slid back into its sheath.
The Six-Tomoe Rinnegan in his left eye suddenly shone brightly.
The three tomoe within his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan connected into a single pattern.
"Die!"
With Mythical Beast Amber activated, Kashimo's speed approached the realm of light itself.
He became a streak of blinding white radiance.
An afterimage remained where he had stood, yet his fist had already reached Rin's throat.
Contained within that strike was enough electromagnetic energy to vaporize an entire mountain.
But Rin didn't move.
He merely raised his left hand.
"Banshō Ten'in."
Boom!
An overwhelming gravitational force distorted space itself and acted directly upon Kashimo's body of white light.
His supersonic charge was forcibly pulled off course.
Instead of striking Rin's neck, he was dragged straight toward Rin's outstretched palm.
At the moment despair flashed across Kashimo's eyes—Sss..
A tiny black flame ignited in Rin's right palm.
Accompanied by the shrill cry of a thousand birds, the flame expanded into a sphere of intertwined black fire and purple lightning.
A fusion of Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi and Chidori.
"Take your path of martial glory... And descend into hell."
Rin pressed his palm against Kashimo's chest.
Boom—!!!
Black flames and purple-black lightning erupted simultaneously.
The energy body of Mythical Beast Amber was pierced through instantly.
Kashimo didn't even have the chance to cry out.
His life-burning technique was annihilated beneath the combined power of Amaterasu and Six Paths Lightning Release.
Energy collapsed.
Flesh and blood dissolved.
Amidst the deafening thunder and black flames, the strongest lightning-user from four hundred years ago was reduced to nothing more than a handful of black ashes scattered by the wind.
Silence returned.
Rin stood calmly amidst the ruins.
The black flames and lightning in his hand gradually receded into his body.
At the same time, the familiar notification rang clearly inside his mind.
[Dimension Points: 222,890]
[Current Total: 222,890 Points]
[Original Total: 202,890 Points]
[Reward for killing the ancient sorcerer Hajime Kashimo: +20,000 Points]
___
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