The End Is Nigh

Flashback: Three Months Ago- 1019, 12th Month of 12- Uehara's Mindscape

Sitting under the largest tree in the mindscape, Volkarin was continuing his lesson on summoning techniques.

"To execute the summoning technique, you need to fuse all the elements, including the deviant elements to successfully complete the technique. I am sure you can correctly guess the reason?"

Uehara put on a thoughtful look on his face. His hands were even scratching his nonexistent beard while he looked down in contemplation.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he looked quite sagely.

"I presume it is for stability?"

"You presume correctly."

Volkarin continued to teach, beginning to demonstrate each handsign.

"During transportation, [Bird] (air) adjusts the air pressure pressing down on your summoned entity, ensuring that during transition, their body won't explode due to high or low pressure. [Rabbit] (sound) doesn't have much of a function but the main one allows the summon to hear the situation just when it arrives. [Dog] (water) ensures fluidity in transition. [Goat] (temperature) maintains the optimum temperature during travel. [Ox] (earth) ensures rigidity of the construct pulling the summon through space. [Rat] (gravity) maintains the gravity the summon is used to, preventing any discomfort upon arriving. For us, it may be less than a second, but for the summon, they may have been travelling for quite a while. Remember that time is relative. [Tiger] (fire) works in tandem with [Horse] (light) to…to put it simply, "maintain course". Light is quite vulnerable to strong gravity manifestations but with the explosive power of fire, it can be mitigated. [Dragon] (lightning) works with both light and earth to both resist external forces and maintain rigidity. [Snake] (darkness) hides traces of the summon. During the transition, summons are vulnerable to external attacks. There is also more related to space and time that I won't delve into right now. Now remember, everything I just said is the barebones of summoning. There are so many concepts and intricacies involved that we would have to sit here for a decade. But as time goes on, you'll come to truly understand how summoning works."

"Yes father."

…

ROAARRRR!!!!!!!!

Uehara stood atop Big Red's head, his face the definition of calm and serious. He crouched down and placed his hand atop the overlord's head.

"Let's do this Big Guy." 

FUUUSH

He channelled an astronomical amount of chakra into Big Red, covering the titan in a samurai-like chakra armour of blue with outlines of black.

[With this, he should be protected against soul attacks to an extent.]

It was the first time Uehara tried something like this so there were noticeable chinks and an area or two that required more chakra to sustain their corporeal form. Either way, his mastery over chakra would allow him to gradually adapt and improve the armour.

But right now, there was a more important job.

{Big Guy. I'll attack first. You punch him.}

After a grunt of confirmation from Big Red, Uehara clasped his hands together.

[Monkey-Bird-Goat-Tiger-Snake-Pig: Darkness True Fire] (Concept-Air-Temperature-Fire-Yin: Darkness True Fire)

Lining two fingers against his mouth, he blew out a massive dark flame that spread out like a fan. With the amount of chakra he channelled into it, the flame was reaching nearly half-a-kilometre in width alone. 

But Keiji wasn't fazed. With his power having given him a new high, he wasn't afraid anymore.

[Hmph. Calling a friend won't help you escape!]

With a sheer display of mastery and resourcefulness, Keiji slammed his foot on the ground. The impact alone was so powerful that it caused an earthquake. This upset the titan's balance and in turn, caused Uehara's aim to veer off-target.

The young demon was forced to cut off the technique, lest he burnt Big Red's foot. But Keiji didn't let that opportunity slide. In all the split seconds it took from Uehara spewing the flames to Keiji slamming his foot on the ground, the old assassin jumped into the air like a missile, honed in on the young demon.

The young hybrid in question was so caught off guard by the sudden mini-quake that when he saw Keiji's fist, it was far…far too late.

CRUNCH!

The fist landed right on his chest with such force that the sturdy skeleton armour underneath his skin was shattered…not cracked.

Shuuuu…BOOOM

His impact was so hard that it created a trench on the already highly compacted ground.

*GASP!*

Uehara couldn't help but try and take a deep breath. Blood was pooling in his mouth while his eyes were wide open in shock.

[O-one shot…]

He couldn't believe it.

[One shot did thi-]- "COUGH COUGH COUGH"

Blood spurted out. His chest was visibly caved in, the pain thrumming sporadically as tons and tons of chakra did its best to prevent his demise.

It was only through pure luck that his bronchial tubes weren't severed. It was on sheer instinct that Uehara had managed to redirect the punch away from his heart. 

Otherwise…he may have been too unconscious to do what he was about to do.

"Cough…screw this!"

Nature energy began swarming towards him en masse. His wounds began healing at a visible speed. Ignoring the pain he felt in his arms, he also extracted his origin energy , not caring anymore that he would have to sleep for decades after this. His nature chakra churned as it was extracted from each and everyone of his cells. 

Combining all these three energies circulating throughout his body, so much power was released that Uehara visibly began to float.

But as the young surin tried to focus all these powers, he heard a cry that would send him over the edge.

ROARRR!!!

The titan overlord had a giant gaping hole in its stomach. Keiji had torn through it with a very powerful chi blast that burnt a hole through the titan.

Having his companion harmed like this, Uehara completely lost all rationale.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE

"KEIIIJIIII!!!!!" 

BOOOOM

A massive pillar of golden aura was released, burning a hole through the dark rain clouds that were hovering in the sky. The power emanating from Uehara was so violent that it tore apart his ragged cloak, leaving him with black pants and shinobi sandals. His hair was flailing wildly, the string holding it together in a ponytail having long since been lost.

His pupils completely disappeared, a safety condition induced by the brain when it has too much information to process and too little resources and time to properly process the information. Thereby, sight, one of the biggest sources of useless information will be taken away.

Uehara's hair straightened considerably, spiking up in the process. The density of the nature energy gave his hair a deep-yellow appearance. His physique noticeably bulked up as well, showing some impressive muscles and contours. The heavy influx of energy in his body forced his cells to expand to better accommodate the sage chakra. But while his appearance may appear dazzling, his demeanour was anything but cheery. 

On the other side of the crater, Big Red was already bent on one knee, his hand clutching the slowly healing wound on his stomach. But even worse than that, he seemed to be breathing heavily…too heavily. The cause of this was Keiji's chi-laced punch that not only damaged Big Red's body, but also his soul.

The culprit in question was standing atop the overlord's head, the kilometre-tall humanoid catastrophe too weak to do anything about it.

Keiji had a conniving smirk on his face as he glared at Uehara, taunting the angry demon.

"Is this all you have demon? What happened to all that power from before?"

But Uehara wasn't listening to him. Not out of disrespect. But rather, comprehending spoken language is something his brain won't even bother processing at such a critical juncture. He wasn't even conscious at this point, his instincts and rage having taken over.

But the elderly assassin didn't see it that way, if the throbbing vein on his forehead was any indicator.

"Grr! You demonic scum slaughtered my family! Butchered my people! Destroyed my home and effectively ENDED the lineage of my clan!"

Keiji glared at the silent hybrid that was staring at him with pupil-less eyes. The lack of reaction continued to urk him, to the point that he gathered chi into his fist.

"Since you took everything from me…I will take everything from you as well!!! STARTING WITH YOUR COMPANI-"

*Jaw Grabbed*

[?!?!?!?!]

BOOM!!!!!!!!

(AN: ChatGPT deemed this content a violation of their policy so they can't edit out any chinks in grammar, punctuation, etc. I used grammarly as a substitute but not everything can be perfect. Therefore, if there are any grammar errors, forgive me. I am one man. Another thing. Please don't give my work piss poor ratings without giving me a reason. I am happy that views are increasing daily but it really does lower one's spirit when all of a sudden, their rating suddenly shrank. 

Either way, see you in two days and thanks for reading.)