Chapter 70 - The Entity

A/N: Hi

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Jin tightened his grip on his Zanpakuto and warily observed the gangly humanoid's eerie red eye staring back at him. Still unsure what this being was capable of, he raised Kokūnokoe in a defensive stance. 

Likewise, Konan focused unblinking amber eyes on the new enemy. Due to the abrupt change in circumstances, she halted the many paper shurikens laced with paper bombs flying in the air behind her. She then glanced sideways as though seeking guidance on how to proceed.

Vaguely sensing her gaze on him, Jin muttered, "I'll take vanguard if you can cover my back."

Konan silently nodded.

"Are you prepared now? Shall I attack?"

The guttural voice grated their ear drums.

In response, Jin narrowed his eyes and carefully advanced a few steps.

"Hm. You're a lot more reserved than the last few brothers."

'Brothers?' Jin thought while contemplating whether the opponent was trying to use mental tactics.

'Now is not the time to get distracted, Jin,' Kokūnokoe spoke from deep within his soul.

'I know.'

During the brief exchange, the entity's singular red eye rolled slightly in its gangly head and stared directly at Jin's Zanpakuto. 

"So she ended up with you in the end."

Briefly, Jin halted, but his caution did not waver. The goosebumps on his skin gave him more than enough indication to avoid being distracted by the entity's words. Even so, in that brief moment, he suddenly saw a large red eye directly in front of his face. Something that felt like a hammer slammed into his gut and lifted him off his feet. His defensive barrier instantly cracked.

"Hm. Too much? I'll tone it down a notch," The entity mumbled to itself barely loud enough for Jin to hear while dropping to one knee.

Glowing paper shurikens flew in from behind Jin. The kagune-laced jutsu sliced into the entity's tendrils but most slowed down like a rock hitting a lake's surface. Konan immediately felt the red eye lock onto her.

Mid-cough, Jin swung his blade in an upward arc. The entity backstepped just enough to avoid the blade's path. Several silvery rays of spiritual power followed behind the blade's path and sliced into the black tendrils. 

Once again, the red eye swiveled in its socket to look at Jin. 

"Blades it is, then."

A black tendril shot out from its hand and instantly solidified into a dark metallic substance. 

Seeing a blur near his left side, Jin barely pulled his Zanpakuto to the side of his head in time to block the newly formed misshapen blade. The force pushed him back a few steps. 

Once again, Kagune-laced paper shurikens flew toward the entity. This time, countless miniature explosions filled with Kagune shrapnel covered the squirming tendrils that composed its body. Goopy chunks fell to the ground in the aftermath. 

Despite the damage, the entity flickered toward Jin again as though unfazed. Jin barely defended against a flurry of strikes slicing towards his limbs.

An unending barrage of blade attacks filled Jin's sight. The eerie black blade carved chunks out of both his arms and legs even when he managed to block the black blade's trajectory. The force behind each attack simply pushed him back each time. The paper Jutsus battering the entity's back failed to deter the onslaught much, perhaps only giving him enough leeway to not lose a limb.

'This thing is toying with me,' Jin thought upon locking gazes with the unflinching red eye that seemed to fill his entire vision.

Out of desperation, he briefly tried to activate his geass. Nothing happened.

"A good idea, but a pointless attempt nonetheless," The entity's rattling voice commented as a large geass symbol formed within it.

Jin's brows shot up upon seeing the symbol.

'This thing is a code holder?' 

Focus lapsing in that moment, he failed to avoid another sledgehammer-like sucker punch to his gut that sent him flying. He crashed through a few trees and into a nearby rockface. The trees splintered in his wake, each one leaving bruises and cuts all over his back and limbs.Stones exploded into dust to break his landing.

"Mm?" The entity hummed and raised its head.

"Shinra Tensei!"

An invisible shockwave shot downward from above where Jin landed. Trees and earth crumbled and shattered. Like a tsunami wave of dust, the shockwave cascaded toward the dark entity, smacking it with tons of pressure. Smatterings of black tendrils shook and crumbled along with the shockwave, yet in stark contrast to the devastated environment, the entity barely moved aside from being rattled by the impact.

Meanwhile, Jin coughed within a cloud of dust billowing around him. Feeling something beneath him, he lowered his gaze, only to see a crushed body beneath him. Amber eyes silently returned his gaze. Then, the body dispersed into the wind as flecks of paper.

"Thanks, Konan," Jin mumbled while using a quick Teion to scatter the dust cloud.

"Mhm," Konan's quiet voice responded from somewhere nearby.

When the dust cleared, Jin blankly stared at the giant crater that used to be a forest valley. He then frowned upon seeing the partially damaged tendril entity floating above the crater. He also raised his gaze slightly to look at the newcomer to the battle floating in the air above him who was wearing the same black robes with red cloud patterns as Konan.

"This dangerous creature cannot be allowed to roam free in my world. Regardless of your input, I will eliminate it," Deva Pain said while floating down toward Jin. Konan also body flickered out from the remaining treeline.

Jin raised a brow but refrained from saying anything. Although he would not fully entrust his back to Pain, there were few combatants in this world capable of helping in this battle.

"A small interruption, I suppose," The entity commented, its grating voice echoing in the now open space. "No matter. Continue. Let me see everything the youngest is currently capable of before this body collapses. Considering what you've shown so far, I will go with this."

The entity raised its free hand toward the three. A ball of dark red energy manifested and fluctuated like a charging orb in front of its misshapen hand. A heavy aura spread out that weighed down on Pain, Konan, and Jin's bodies like an additional layer of gravity. Then, a massive blast of red energy exploded toward them.

'Cero?' 

Jin frowned. He cast multiple layers of barrier magic in front to slow down the blast while also using his barrier board to fly away. At the same time, Pain flew upward on his own while using another almighty push directed solely at the entity. Konan also flew upward with paper wings after seeing that Jin could avoid the blast on his own.

The enormous Cero exploded into the rockface behind them. As the slowest person, Jin barely avoided it and barely maintained balance under the force of the ensuing Reiatsu wave. It felt more eerie than even Hollow Reiatsu.

Both his hair and ghostly haori whipped about in the wind as he focused his gaze where the enemy attacked from. Nothing was there. Skin tingling with danger, he quickly casted layers of defensive barriers atop his skin.

Jin's eyes quickly scanned in every direction looking for the enemy. A blur barely entered his vision.

Metal clanged against metal as Jin raised Kokūnokoe and retaliated with needle-like barrier spikes. 

In response, countless black tendrils shout outward like needles to deflect each barrier spike. Then, a flux of Reiatsu spiked again. Something flickered next to them. A black rod then stabbed into the entity's arm. 

Another Cero fired, but the rod redirected the blast toward the ground. It carved out a sinkhole in the earth below.

Kagune-laced paper kunai stabbed through the air at the entity's eye in a curving trajectory from behind Pain. The eye swiveled briefly. Then, a glowing red swarm of erratic branches shot out from its eye. The sharp branches instantly pierced Deva Pain's body and cracked through most of Jin's barriers. A few pierced his body directly. 

Pain retaliated with another Almighty Push with singular concentration. This time, it actually forced the entity back. He then threw several black rods at it.

Meanwhile, Jin grunted, placed his hands together, and gathered magic as quickly as he could.

"Barrier Magic: Prism Blade Execution!" 

In the sky above the entity, a massive transparent barrier sword formed and plummeted toward the entity while it was dealing with the black rods and additional paper shurikens. The entity's eye swiveled upward just in time to meet the point of the blade. The blade plummeted through the red branches sprouting from the entity's eye before plunging into the sinkhole made by the previous Cero. It crashed into the ground at the bottom of the hole, leaving only the pommel of the barrier sword visible above the ground.

While the barrier sword dissipated into magic particles, Pain, Konan, and Jin silently scanned the surroundings for any movement. Before long, a black shadow darted into the air before stabbing into the ground at the edge of the sinkhole. The remains of a corpse rotting fast enough for the naked eye to see stood there and raised its red eye dangling from the neck of the headless corpse. Only a few dozen tendrils remained squirming around the walking corpse.

"Unfortunately, this sacrifice cannot handle any more than this," The entity said, its gravelly voice somehow reaching all three of them from at least fifty meters away as though it was standing right beside them. 

The entity then flickered into the sky in front of Jin, causing him to cast more defensive barriers. However, no attack arrived. Instead, the dangling head containing the large red eye rotated in a grotesque manner and stared at Jin's Zanpakuto.

"Take care of her."

Before Jin could respond, the eye and tendrils crumbled into ashy dust. The corpse also fell from the sky.

"It is finished, then," Pain said. His cloak was tattered in some places but still mostly his body from view.

Jin simply frowned while watching the corpse of the cultist splat onto the ground below.