Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2215: On Edge

After sending her message to Okita, Nobu, appearing as a 190m tall hydra with eight heads, eight tails, and a mixture of red and black scales focused her attention on her surroundings. Her instincts told her the ruby-eyed assassin was still alive, so, taking advantage of her eight pairs of Mangekyou Sharingan, Nobu scanned every inch of her surroundings.

As she had yet to get used to manipulating multiple heads to perform different functions, the maws of Nobu's eight heads opened at the same time as she mused, "Come out, come out, wherever you are~." in a playful yet bone-chilling tone.

Sensing movement nearby, three of Nobu's draconic visages, almost as if they were on autopilot, turned towards the motion before unleashing fiery red breath that liquified the metallic structure of the satellite on contact. Unfortunately, the thing that had caught her attention was the remnants of an Imperial Dragon, not her opponent.

Clicking all eight of her tongues, a blood-red aura began to exude from Nobu's body as the notion that her opponent had fled gradually settled within her mind. She couldn't really blame her, but, at the same time, she couldn't help feeling annoyed. This was supposed to be her opportunity to show off, yet, the moment she unleashed one of her trump cards, the opponent just fled? Talk about anti-climactic…

Just as Nobu was thinking about reverting to her human form, she noticed a glimmer of silver out of the corner of her leftmost set of eyes. This implied that the attack was a fair bit slower than the speed of light, yet, in spite of this, Nobu felt an immediate stinging sensation near the upper ridge of her left eye as what appeared to be a fuuma shuriken grazed her.

"You sneaky little sh*t…!"

Though the wound healed instantaneously, the attack was all Nobu needed to know the ruby-eyed assassin was still nearby. She was most likely just lurking in the Shadow Axis and looking for a weak spot she could exploit.

Taking advantage of her eight heads and the expanded visual range of the Mangekyou Sharingan, Nobu used six of her heads to achieve a panoramic view of her surroundings while the remaining two monitored her blind spots. She even plopped down onto the ground, her belly sinking into the superstructure of the satellite so that her opponent couldn't easily manifest beneath her.

Nearly as soon as Nobu's preparations had been made, yet another glimmer of silver entered the periphery of her fifth head's right eye. Instead of trying to dodge it, however, she simply closed her eyelid as a feeling of incongruency washed over her. The vision of her fifth head was shared by her third and sixth, yet, in spite of a perfect overlap in her line of sight, only her fifth head noticed the glimmer of silver. It had seemingly emerged from a position in full view of her sixth head yet she had somehow missed it? Impossible.

Realizing her opponent must have an Innate related to presence erasure or perception alteration, the expressions on Nobu's eight heads became markedly more intense. She still had two massive trump cards at her disposal, but, without knowing the specifics of her opponent's ability, she would be exhausting herself for nothing.

As the crest of the Oda Clan began to spin in each of her eyes, the blood-red aura that had been exuding from Nobu's body surged outward like a tidal wave of miasma. It was a blood toxin that possessed extremely corrosive properties, so, confident that she had sealed off the ground, Nobu began to gather energy in each of her throats. If her opponent didn't appear soon, she was going to lay waste to everything in her surroundings…

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Unbeknownst to Nobu, the opponent she was so desperately searching for was currently standing atop her centermost head with a pensive expression on her face. As Nobu had speculated, she did possess an Innate related to stealth. So long as her opponent believed she was hiding, she could stand right in front of them without drawing attention. This would be negated if she attacked them directly, but, thanks to her status and identity, she, Hattori Hanzo, had numerous ways to bypass such a restriction.

The problem Hanzo was facing was that she had no way to bypass Nobu's defenses. The scales of her Yamata-no-Orochi form were nearly as durable as the bones comprising her Susanoo. To make matter worse, even if she could penetrate Nobu's defenses, the latter simply regenerated. The one time she had tried a poisonous numbing agent, Nobu didn't even register it as an attack…

"How troublesome…"

Plopping down atop Nobu's head, Hanzo briefly considered withdrawing and reporting back to Amaterasu that her mission was a failure. Unfortunately, she was nearly as prideful as Nobu, so, as the 'Greatest Ninja in History', Hanzo refused to retreat without securing at least a minor victory. To this end, she had decided that she would annoy Nobu for as long as possible before catching up to Tomoe and Okita. The latter's swordsmanship had terrified her quite a bit, but, so long as she didn't die six more times, she could continue pestering them without having to worry too much.

With such thoughts on her mind, Hanzo pulled out a thick bamboo container filled with a mixture of salt, sugar, and water. Her throat was feeling rather parched after experiencing her body being reduced to atomic ash by Nobu's breath attack. Thus, before continuing with her plan to annoy and pester her quarry as much as possible, Hanzo took a moment to wet her throat before pulling out a leaf-wrapped onigiri and pulling down her facemask to reveal facial features remarkably similar to Musashi. The only notable difference was their eye color, and, every time she opened her mouth to take a bite, rather prominent canines could be seen within Hanzo's mouth…

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Feeling a strange sense of discomfort, a frown marred Musashi Black's face as the dumpling she had just grabbed slipped from her chopsticks. With her dexterity, she could juggle grains of rice using the thin utensils, so, while most people wouldn't have taken notice of such a slip-up, Pink promptly finishing slurping up a mouthful of noodles before asking, "What's wrong with you…?"

After a relaxing evening and uneventful night, Musashi Pink had asked Black if she wanted to eat breakfast together before they proceeded to kill one another. This was readily agreed to by Black, who, ever since she had tasted Rindo's cooking, became noticeably more amicable.

Shaking her head, Black attempted to dismiss Pink's concerns, stating, "It's nothing…" in a curt tone. She actually didn't know why she was suddenly feeling off. Even if she did, she wasn't going to talk about it with someone she was about to kill.

Raising her brows, Pink observed Black's somewhat downcast expression with a curious glimmer in her ever-shifting eyes. Had this been a few hundred years ago, she might have attacked the woman then and there. Instead, she actually felt a tinge of sympathy towards the olive-skinned woman, the expression on her face softening ever so slightly as she asked, "Are you on your period…?"

Having just picked up a ceramic cup filled with tea, Black ended up getting drenched as her grip on the cup caused the entire thing to shatter. Her expression immediately darkened, and, though she had noticed the concern in Pink's tone, Black's voice became icy as she mouthed, "Don't go giving those sheep outside strange thoughts…"

As she had just been trying to lighten up the mood, Musashi Pink simply shrugged in response to Black's words before returning to her seemingly bottomless bowl of miso pork ramen. Rindo had gotten tired of preparing certain dishes on demand, so, rather than cooking the same thing over and over again, she had enchanted a few containers and dishes to perpetually replenish. The taste suffered a bit, but, compared to the food prepared by others, it was head and shoulders above the competition. Rather, at this point, even the most prominent Gods of Cooking could be brought to their knees at the mere sight of Rindo's cooking…

Though she continued glaring at Pink for several seconds, the fragrant aroma wafting from her food compelled Black to return to her meal. The flavor of the bite-sized dumplings actually made her feel a lot better, so, despite feeling a growing sense of unease, Black simply ignored it as she practically packed her cheeks with dumplings…

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Feeling several more tremors, Tomoe briefly shifted her attention away from the battle between Okita and an eighty-meter long Imperial Dragon that closely resembled the Leviathan Vahn had encountered in the Akamatsuverse. She couldn't believe Nobu was still battling, as, whenever the latter activated her Yamata-no-Orochi form, even people on the level of Artoria would need to be cautious.

"The Divine Realm truly is filled with a host of exceptional beings…"

Resolving herself to put more effort into her training, Tomoe returned her attention to the battle taking place a few hundred meters away from her. Okita was more than capable of slicing through the sapphire blue metal comprising the automaton's outer shell, but, much like the creature it was based on, the Model Leviathan was capable of generating and manipulating a horrifying amount of water. It was also extremely elusive, so, while Okita could conceivably defeat it in a single strike, she first needed to locate its true body within an endless tide of rapidly regenerating water constructs.

Drawing back her bowstring, an arrow of light began to form at Tomoe's fingertips as her rather futuristic-looking bow suddenly 'bloomed' to form three separate boughs. A mass of vibrant blue energy began to gather at the tip of the bow, and, though she was much weaker than both Nobu and Okita, Tomoe was still able to unleash powerful arrows capable of fragmenting into hundreds of smaller, highly penetrative arrows.

With several of Tomoe's arrows piercing into the largest mass of water, a shrill, high-pitched roar echoed through the massive, layer-like chamber they were fighting in. Okita immediately loosed a series of sword beams that could dwarf even skyscrapers, but, despite creating numerous rifts that prevented the water from immediately reforming, the roar of the Model Levithan continued to echo without so much as a tremble in its voice.

Within each fragmented section of water, a brilliant blue glow could be seen before a series of water-formed serpents, the largest of which was more than fifteen meters in diameter, barreled towards Okita. She was easily able to slice through each of these, but, rather than dissipating, the persistent projectiles simply multiplied based on the number of attacks Okita dished out.

Though she no longer had her Furthest Earth, the footwork that allowed her to step and basically teleport wherever she wanted, Okita had obtained a truly ludicrous Innate known as Planeswalking. It required a tremendous amount of energy, but, so long as she had even a basic understanding of where she wanted to go, she could theoretically go wherever she wanted.

With a functionally infinite amount of energy contained in the vessel of her sword, the only thing preventing Okita from using Planeswalking as her preferred means of transport was the fact she simply didn't like using it. It was an ability she believed should be reserved for combat, so, unless someone like Vahn asked for her help going somewhere, she only used it whenever she felt it was 'necessary'.

Feeling annoyed by the Model Leviathan's trickery, Okita sheathed her inordinately long katana, a slight pout marring her expression as she glared at the hundreds of homing water serpents. At the exact moment when they were about to make contact with her, a mesmerizing glow exuded from the depths of her silver eyes. In the very next moment, a thin line of light appeared to bisect reality itself as Okita appeared behind the Model Levithan and slowly resheathed her sword…

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Nobu is an angry girl…','When two trolls battle against one another…','TIL that you don't mess with Okita…')

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