After Keiji utilized his chi to break his clothes, Uehara was left confused by the energy signature he just felt. It wasn’t anything he was even remotely familiar with. The energy signature itself seemed to be a mishmash of rottenness that made him frown in distaste.

To his senses, it was like suddenly detecting the scent of cow dung in a field full of roses.

“I don’t like this feeling.”

His eyes narrowed into crimson-red slits, his aura fluctuating violently in a cascade of black.

“I don’t like this feeling at all.”

The sensation of the weird energy absolutely, REVILED him. It was to the point that he was determined to absolutely destroy whatever, or whoever it was that had emanated such an energy signature.

Stretching his right hand to the side, he began making one-handed handsigns.

[Dog-Tiger-Pig] (Water-Fire-Fusion)

Opening his hand, smooth blue and crisp red-orange chakra formed in his palm. The two energies of water and fire, although finely separated, swirled together in harmony like yin and yang.

“[Genjo Yugo:]” (Elemental Fusion)

Upon uttering the name, strings of golden nature energy appeared and began swirling around the sphere of water and flame chakra. The nature energy soon gathered enough to form a complete, smooth golden blanket over the sphere.

Uehara fully focused on the sphere, keeping everything in balance. With his capabilities enhanced in sage mode, it was far easier to keep the sphere of potential nuclear destruction stable than if he was in base.

With the base of the sphere formed, he focused again on the energy signature he had felt.

[There!]

Locking on it, he closed his eyes in focus. Soon enough, he vanished in a swirl.

Materializing out of the dark swirl, Uehara didn’t dawdle. Rushing forward, the young demon extended his hand containing the rapidly spinning monstrosity.

[Kitai Endan!] (Liquid Flame Bomb)

Boom...BOOOOOM

A large golden dome of pure destruction was the result of the golden sphere collapsing on itself and exploding. The explosion directly destroyed the entire city, rendering every single entity and object within a three-kilometer radius, into ashes. The skies themselves seemed to be blotted out by the explosion, the weather instantly shifting into dark clouds.

However, the expected silence that usually comes after an explosion didn’t happen this time. Slowly but surely, incessant booms could be heard in the area. Those with supernatural capabilities could immediately recognize these booms as sounds of supersonic fighting.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

Contrary to belief, Keiji didn’t die from the attack. The superior physique gained from fusing with his brother allowed him to survive the explosion. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for elder Ryu. The suddenness of Uehara’s appearance, coupled with his low reservoirs of ki, immediately shrunk his chances of survival to less than one-percent. But fate had other plans and made him a statistic.

Fortunately, his physique was strong enough so at the very least, there was a complete corpse to bury. But that fact alone hadn’t even served to smother the anger boiling within Keiji’s heart. The moment he had saw Ryu die, any semblance of calm was replaced by cold fury.

Hence...

BOOM

“DIE DEMON! [HEAVENLY WIND SLASH!]”

Using the space created by their last clash of fists, Keiji had withdrew both of his swords and slashed both of them, one at a time.

Facing the two white crescent arcs barreling towards him, Uehara flew out of the way of the wind slashes and sensed them collide with the newly formed crater on the ground. This crater was of course, what was left of Kamakura. Apart from the nobles sector, every other sector, from the business sector containing the mercenary and merchant guilds to the civilian sector comprising of the abodes of commoners, was fine to an extent. With Uehara’s current mastery, drastically minimizing the shockwave of his attack to increase damage-dealt was within the realm of possibility.

Nonetheless, Keiji wasn’t done yet. The old assassin was covered by a burst of grey chi. Boosting himself, he lunged forward, shattering the sound barrier in an instant as he flew towards the target of his hatred.

Uehara wasn’t slow. Two fingers were already brought to his lips before he blew out a raging torrent of water. Keiji wasn’t affected by the torrent and simply flew slightly to the left. Anger still visible on his face, he continued to rush towards the source of the water torrent, the source of his anger.

His eyes seemed to pierce through reality itself as he neared towards the young demon who was wistfully spraying water from his mouth. Clutching his swords tightly, he prepared to slash downwards when his instincts flared.

[Right!]

Twisting his body with a surprising amount of flexibility, Keiji was able to raise his swords just in time to block Uehara’s attack. Just a few seconds prior, Uehara had taken advantage of the brief lapse in Keiji’s sight to hide within the water torrent.

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With his sage chakra, it was nigh impossible for anyone without any experience in nature energy to sense him. Even the pressure Uehara releases from sage mode was hidden to an extent. Furthermore, Keiji was too focused on the clone to notice any abnormalities.

When Uehara emerged from the water torrent, wielding a giant ice gauntlet, it was only instinct that saved him. But nonetheless…

CLANG!

The power behind Uehara’s fist versus Keiji’s hastily raised guard made the result obvious.

Shuuuuuuuuuuuu…BOOOM!

Keiji was instantly sent crashing towards the ground, kicking up dust and rubble in the process. Uehara didn’t waste time. In tandem with his clone, Uehara flew towards Keiji while the clone began firing waves of fireballs that rained down in an arc. The scene itself created an image of an oval. Keiji, who was on the ground, could do nothing but protect his vitals as much as he could. Dust and debris was kicked up by the continuous explosive fireballs.

But underneath his arms, Keiji’s facial expression was manic.

“I AM NOT...”

His chi surged…

“I AM NOT RECONCILED!”

An explosive wave of chi was released and covered the immediate vicinity. Uehara, who was just a few meters away was directly blown away by the shockwave. Even his clone was immediately dispersed in a husk of red flames.

BOOM.BOOM.BOOM

The young drake was immediately sent crashing through multiple buildings. In the end, his momentum finally ended once he crashed through the wall of the third building. Lying on the heap of rubble for a second or two, Uehara drew in a breath before sighing.

“He’s strong.”

Thoughts were swirling around in his mind, trying to find the best ways to combat Keiji.

[His weird energy is too dense so seals are out of question. His methods of fighting would make me hard-pressed to defeat him even with the water style taijutsu. Sneak attacks would prove useful for a short while but ultimately, I will be countered. My one chance to end this vanished the moment he blocked my genjo yugo. I also get the feeling that as time goes on, he will adapt to this energy he is using, making my disadvantage more visible.]

He briefly glanced to the scroll strapped to his back.

[Should I?]

The moment he thought about that, he immediately dissipated the thought.

[No. Summoning Big Red would result in an even more disadvantageous situation. He’s too big and his attack style is too simple. It’s too disadvantageous for him to be summoned.]

Just as Uehara was about to sigh in exasperation, a plan suddenly formed in his head.

[Psychology! If I summon Big Red to slaughter everyone in this city, his heart strings will be pulled. At that point, he will have to choose between selfishly destroying me and letting his beloved city perish, or selflessly save the city inhabitants and risk being killed by me.]

A ghost of a smile formed on Uehara’s face.

“I’ll do just-no. That plan will fail.”

Remembering Keiji’s expression when Ryu was eviscerated by the blast explosion, Uehara concluded that Keiji would do whatever it takes to kill him.

It was then that he palmed his forehead.

[Why am I even planning so much? It’s really tiring having to plot so many things.]

Getting up, he could already feel Keiji frantically trying to find him. Dusting off the rubble off his body, he tilted his head to the right, cracking his neck in the process. He lifted his arm to form a half-unison handsign and focused his chakra.

[I’ll just storm him.]

Large amounts of sage chakra flared, causing anyone within the region to feel like a massive weight was pressing down upon them.

Keiji instantly swiveled his head towards the source of the pressure and frowned. His own chi gushed out as well.

[Found you!]

But just as he was about to charge forward, he suddenly spotted hundreds of Ueharas dashing in different directions. Each of them were sporting different auras of either red or blue. There were also a few clones with the same dark aura as the original. The same long black spiky hair. The same slightly torn white cloak with black outlines. The same scroll clipped to their backs. All of them had a pair of black horns protruding from their foreheads as well black tear marks flowing all the way down to their jawline.

Even the pressure they individually released was equal, their crimson red eyes focusing on Keiji.

[Tch! Your tricks won’t work on me!]

Surging with power, Keiji charged forward in a burst of speed that would make even high-level amongst high-level shinobi unable to perceive him. If he couldn’t figure out where the real one was, then he might as well destroy all of them.

Gripping his swords tightly, he began wantonly slashing with his cold weapons in every direction, releasing scythes of chi in the process. Uehara and his clones on the other hand, were able to seamlessly dodge the attacks while weaving different sets of handsigns.

[Bird-Dog-Tiger-Pig: Smoke Cloud] [Dog-Goat-Dragon-Pig: Lightning Chain]

[Bird-Ox-Tiger-Pig: Lava Tsunami]

[Dog-Monkey-Dragon-Pig: Burst Tsunami]

Working in seamless action, three-hundred sage-mode clones spread around the immediate vicinity and spouted out giant plumes of grey-white smoke from their mouths. The smoke cloud was so vast that tens of kilometers of land was shrouded in smoke.

Keiji, remembering the fate his brother suffered, directly surrounded himself with chi to purify the air he breathes in. But unfortunately, fate had other plans. Another twenty clones using sage made had already finished weaving their handsigns and had casted the lightning chain technique. Each clone had directly formed ten chains, making it so that a total of a two-hundred chains were making their way towards Keiji. Furthermore, these clones had supercharged the chains, making them faster, harder, and d- [Damnit!] Keiji’s instincts kicked in again. Even in the dense smoke, he could ‘feel’ the chains make their way towards him. In a feat of acrobatics, Keiji began dodging the chains while in still in the air. He relied on gathering chi beneath his feet and then exploding it, allowing him to make split-second dodges.

But he was so focused on dodging, that he didn’t notice the formation of both a lava and water tsunami rushing him from both sides until it was…almost, too late.

BOOOM

The collision of both hot and cold forces resulted in a massive explosion, causing massive amounts of bone-melting steam to spread all over the reason.

If the surviving humans weren’t killed by the explosion, or crushed by debree broken from the shockwave, then the steam sent them on their way to the afterlife. Men, women, children…none were spared. They were simply and swiftly relegated to statistics, numbers on a scroll. In a battle of two powerful experts, they were merely…collateral damage.

At the epicentre of the wave collision, Keiji had struggled, but fortunately, managed to survive. But the same couldn’t be said for the city of Kamakura. While most of the blast damage was restrained within the crater, the height of the wave had superceded the depth of the crater.

If there was any hope of reviving his clan, now it was completely shattered.

“I’LL KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

His chi exploded like never before. His aura erupted like a volcanoe, causing the entire region to quake at the sudden surge of power. Grey flashes of chi and blue flickers of lightning were a common sight in this apocalyptic-like event.

As the epicentre of it all, Keiji’s hair was flaring around wildly, each strand of black going rigid at the sudden insertion of chi. Slowly…but surely, these strands began to turn grey. The grief and rage the Minamoto Patriarch was feeling allowed him to reach deep within himself and pull on a power that had long since existed within humans.

The power that was only inhibited by their weaker souls, was now about to be released by Keiji.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAA!!!-”

“[Kitai Endan!]”

BOOOOM