Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2343: Nameless Showdown

(A/N: Those of you who want to continue the Naruto Fanfic, I’ve uploaded Chapters 1-4 with the title ‘I, Your Father, Carry a Big Stick.’)

“Arcadia? It’s a country in Greece and an island referenced in Greek mythology, located somewhere around the Peloponnese Peninsula. According to legend, it’s a place where creatures of all shapes and sizes can be found, and, according to some, the inspiration for places such as the Garden of Eden.”

As he had never heard of an Alliance called Arcadia, Izayoi could only respond with a few of the factoids he had acquired during his research. The woman he considered his mother had mentioned Arcadia during their travels, so it was one of the first things he looked into upon reaching the Little Garden.

Hearing Izayoi’s response, the white-haired youth exhaled a sigh before muttering, “So, she never told you…”

Crossing his arms, Izayoi’s expression hardened as he questioned, “That depends. Who’s the ‘she’ you’re referring to?”

Shaking his head, the white-haired youth replied, “Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to say. Besides…”

Gesturing to the chaos occurring around them, the white-haired youth added, “Now isn’t the best time to be playing twenty questions. If you desire answers, seek out those who have concealed the truth. You can start with World Dragon Kurma…”

Having said what he intended to say, the white-haired youth turned away with the intent to teleport. Before he could, Izayoi placed his hand on the youth’s shoulder, saying, “You never introduced yourself…” with narrowed eyes and a tightening grip.

Matching Izayoi’s expression, a regal aura exuded from the white-haired youth as he replied, “Circumstances prevent me from disclosing my true name. As such, my close friends and colleagues have taken to calling me ‘His Royal Highness.’ I shall permit you to do the same.”

Raising his left brow, a hint of disbelief appeared in Izayoi’s expression as he smiled sardonically and questioned, “His Royal Highness? What kind of King can’t even give his own name…?”

Instead of answering Izayoi’s question, Highness smacked away his hand before disappearing in a flash of light. Izayoi was tempted to follow him, but, seeing as things were only becoming more chaotic with each passing moment, he ultimately exhaled a sigh, muttering, “Arcadia…” as he looked towards the plateau at the center of the battlefield.

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While the other three Districts were becoming increasingly chaotic, things were relatively stable in the West. The vast majority of Communities in the area, at least publicly, were related to Heroism. Thus, while competition in the West could get extremely fierce, especially around the time Rankings were updated, they understood the importance of cooperation more than any other region.

By combining forces, the Representatives of the Western Communities managed to drive back Azi’s clone army with relative ease. They suffered tens of thousands of casualties before things settled down, but most of these could be attributed to Madara and other ‘villains.’ A veritable army of Heroes had tried to team up against her, led by the Rank 4 Hero, Blurry Bob, so she annihilated them alongside Azi’s clones.

If there were a list keeping track of the number of Players each individual had eliminated, Madara would be in the top 10. Because of this, a growing number of people were paying close attention to her every action. Many of these people simply enjoyed witnessing brutality and violence, while others found themselves captivated by her beauty. Either way, the one thing virtually everyone could agree upon was that Madara was strong…

Unconcerned with how people viewed her, Madara was seated atop a massive, thousand-armed Buddha statue with three identical copies of herself. Gifts and Abilities related to cloning had been strictly prohibited, but Shadow Clones were an exception as they were considered physical projections, not actual clones. Any sufficiently powerful blow would cause them to disperse, so even though several defeated Communities had tried to have her disqualified, she was permitted to continue.

Sensing a disturbance, Madara opened her eyes just in time to witness a series of blue and pink explosions in the distance, peppering the horizon like numerous rising stars.

Without considering whether or not she would be intruding on someone else’s fun, Madara rose to her feet and flew towards the explosions. They were several hundred kilometers away, but she closed the distance in an instant, finding several Heroes, Villains, and Azi clones being swept up by the explosions.

Ignoring the people fleeing for their lives on the ground, Madara turned her attention to a blue-haired woman ‘standing’ in the sky, high above the explosion. Said woman was facing off against a trio of two-headed Azi(s), but they couldn’t get anywhere near her as she wielded oversized canons in each hand and was flanked by a total of six gatling guns, each firing off bullets that moved so quickly they left behind distinct black trails, tearing through the fabric of space and time.

Noticing the ‘seams’ in the woman’s flesh, combined with the fact she was wearing futuristic, albeit skimpy white armor, Madara crossed her arms, raised her brows, and softly muttered, “Could this be the true form of Dragon…?”

As if she could hear Madara’s utterance, the blue-haired woman looked at her, the upper half of her face blocked by a visor that vaguely resembled a VR headset. Despite this, Madara could feel the woman’s gaze piercing through her as she continued to fire upon Azi’s clones with cold, machine-like efficiency.

Just as Madara was thinking about taunting the woman, the visored battle maiden aimed one of her oversized cannons in the Uchiha’s direction. The action caused the latter’s instincts to scream ‘danger,’ so she immediately activated her Shinra Tensei, intending to deflect whatever was coming her way. Instead, her ‘counter’ spread unobstructed, suppressing a number of explosions, crushing several unfortunate Players, and sending a couple of Azi clones flying. When it impacted the blue-haired woman, however, she just shuddered for a brief moment, ultimately unmoved from her position…

Though it wasn’t her first time encountering someone that could resist the Shinra Tensei, a frown marred Madara’s face. She was almost positive the woman had exercised some form of Authority, so she promptly extended her right hand, grasping the hilt of a katana that had appeared out of thin air.

While drawing the katana from the void, Madara’s expression became serious as she shouted, “Fan the Flames of Conflict, Gunbai…!”

As one of Vahn’s Templates, Madara had functionally limitless Gifts, a Zanpakuto, and one of his most powerful Companions. When she called out the name of her Zanpakuto, fire erupted from her body, followed by a large fan manifesting in her left hand and a relatively plain-looking scythe appearing in her right. The two were connected by a series of interlinking metal rods, functioning as a kind of chain that allowed Madara to use the scythe as both a short and mid-range weapon.

Waving her fan, Madara produced a tempestuous wind that functioned similarly to Ea, tearing apart and collapsing the surrounding space. At this point, the blue-haired woman began to take action, the cannon in her left hand illuminating as it hummed like a tuning fork.

Expecting an attack, Madara was surprised to see the space around the woman solidify before rapidly mending itself. For the briefest of moments, she almost considered that the woman wasn’t an enemy until a thin beam of light emerged from the end of the cannon, targetting her chest.

Though she was tempted to try and reflect the attack with her Gunbai, Madara decided on the ‘safer’ route, trading places with one of the Azi clones using her Rinnesharingan. Her initial target was the blue-haired woman, but the space around her currently couldn’t be distorted due to the humming of her cannon.

As the swap was instantaneous, Madara was shocked for the second time as she found another laser awaiting her where the Azi clone had been. By the time she processed its existence, a beam of white light more than 10m in diameter had already enveloped her, its velocity several thousand times the speed of actual light.

Crossing her arms and closing her eyes, Madara was prepared to endure excruciating pain. Instead, she felt a similar sense of incongruency as her body, clothes, and armor began to lose their luster. When the light faded less than a second later, Madara tentatively opened her eyes to find that her previously crimson armor was now a peculiar shade of greyish-white, resembling salt.

As if to confirm Madara’s suspicions, a gentle breeze caused her armor to begin flaking away. The same happened to her clothes, but while her hair and skin had turned a similar shade of white, they regained their luster as Madara stared at the blue-haired woman and growled, “You almost killed me, you bastard…”

Though they weren’t visible due to the visor covering her face, the blue-haired woman’s brows raised ever so slightly. Her heads-up display had allowed her to predict Madara’s movements and confirmed the hit was a success. No matter how she analyzed the situation, her opponent’s body should have been reduced to salt…

Speaking for the first time, the blue-haired woman asked, “What are you? Nothing born or guilty of sin should be able to withstand these sanctified weapons.”

Equipping a new set of armor to replace her former attire, Madara leveled her Gunbai at the blue-haired woman and asserted, “I am Uchiha Madara, Grand Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan. Declare yourself, so I may know what to engrave upon your tombstone…”

Though the blue-haired woman’s databanks recorded the existence of countless Uchiha, none of the information she had on file could explain how Madara could withstand her attack. Her records recorded the name and history of every human in the current Order, including their derivative species, so Madara either didn’t exist or wasn’t human…

Instead of revealing her identity, the blue-haired woman allowed her two cannons and the six gatling guns floating behind her to dematerialize. In their place, her right arm transformed into a black and white sword while a massive shield manifested in her left hand.

Witnessing her opponent manifest a sword and shield, a smile returned to Madara’s face. She didn’t mind using flashy attacks to take out groups of opponents, but her preference was close-range combat. The blue-haired woman gave her some ‘questionable’ vibes, but that wasn’t going to stop her from enjoying herself.

As if she could read her opponents’ intentions, the blue-haired woman charged forward at the exact same moment as Madara. Everything from their speed to the force behind their blows was functionally identical, but that just caused Madara’s smile to broaden as she slashed forward with her scythe, shouting, “Block this…!” in a spirited tone.

Though she initially planned to do precisely that, the blue-haired woman changed the angle of her shield at the last moment while simultaneously stabbing forward with her sword. The former was the correct decision, as Madara’s scythe possessed the not-so-unique property of being able to pierce just about anything. Thus, even though her attack was deflected, it managed to leave a deep trench in the shield’s surface.

All but confirming she wasn’t human, at least in the eyes of her blue-haired adversary, Madara didn’t even attempt to block the sword aiming at her heart. It appeared to pierce through her, but, in actuality, she split open a channel just wide enough for the blade to pass through her as she continued forward to headbutt her opponent.

Despite her armor possessing properties that made it indestructible under normal circumstances, a sizeable crack appeared on the front of the blue-haired woman’s visor while her HUD flickered violently. The damage was repaired almost immediately, but even a picosecond was enough time for Madara to capitalize on.

Still salty about being turned into a literal pillar of salt, Madara grabbed the blue-haired woman by the neck and attempted to use the Rinnegan’s ability to read memories and extract ‘souls.’ She wanted to understand the blue-haired woman’s purpose before deciding whether or not she should eliminate her, but she was denied the opportunity as her quarry’s chest abruptly opened up, revealing a lens-like cannon within her chest cavity…

“Well pla-”

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: ‘Chuuni vibes…’,’Madara and Gunbai go hand in hand o3o…’,’The price of saltiness…’)