Chapter 65: Pain's Six Paths Are Close to Being Destroyed
"Finally here."
Ayaan, who had already entered the Rain Village, looked into the distance. A small black dot appeared in the sky.
Not only that, but his Observation Haki also sensed the presence of several others with powerful chakra but extremely dead auras — clearly the remaining Six Paths of Pain.
Before Ayaan could act, Jiraiya stepped forward. Seeing the Deva Path Pain approach, his voice trembled as he asked, "Are you… Nagato?"
The Deva Path turned his head stiffly, his expression blank and eyes lifeless. "Nagato no longer exists. I am now the god who will create a new world."
Ayaan shivered at the cringe-worthy line and scratched his arm. "Seriously? There's a limit to being chuunibyou. Don't you feel embarrassed saying that? I'm getting secondhand shame just listening."
Nagato didn't know what a "chuunibyou" was, but he clearly understood the mocking tone. He remained silent and simply raised one hand.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The Six Paths of Pain, being reanimated corpses, didn't display emotions, so it was unclear whether the attack was out of anger or pride.
Ayaan, unfazed, extended his own hand. A thick black mist surged out, clashing directly with the invisible repulsive force. The two forces canceled each other and vanished.
"So gravity and anti-gravity cancel out…" Ayaan murmured to himself.
The Yami Yami no Mi he had consumed wasn't based on chakra but on space and gravity—mirroring a black hole. That's why most chakra-based elemental techniques were so ineffective against it. Fire, water, wind, and lightning could do little against gravitational space.
Jiraiya was stunned that a fight broke out within two sentences. He quickly said, "Wait! I still have questions for Nagato!"
Ayaan replied casually, "You can ask him when we find his real body. You think he'll answer you now?"
Just as Ayaan finished speaking, the other five paths of Pain attacked.
The Human Path, Asura Path, and Preta Path charged in together, while the Animal Path began summoning a frenzy of beasts.
Ayaan sneered and responded with a casual wave of dark mist. The Preta Path was the first to confront him, seemingly trying to absorb the black fog.
But the result was instant — the black mist engulfed him, and the Preta Path disappeared without a trace.
Although the Naruto world referred to Ayaan's ability as "Dark Release," this was actually the power of the Yami Yami no Mi, unrelated to chakra. The Preta Path's chakra absorption ability was completely ineffective. Instead, it was sucked in and compressed inside the dark space, crushed into a mess of rotten flesh.
Hidden in the distance, Nagato's eyes narrowed. He hadn't expected his strongest defensive Path to be destroyed so easily.
"What… What is that? It's not ninjutsu… It feels more like a dark, crushing space."
While the Preta Path was being consumed, Nagato still retained some sensory link. That link vanished only when the body was completely destroyed. But during that short time, Nagato had glimpsed a part of the darkness.
"Damn… There's not even a corpse left. I can't revive him with the Naraka Path."
A cold sense of dread settled over Nagato. At that moment, the five-second cooldown of the Deva Path's ability ended, and he unleashed a far more powerful Shinra Tensei.
Ayaan scoffed and raised his hands. Waves of pitch-black energy surged outward like a storm, meeting the repulsive force head-on. The two clashed for a moment—then the black mist swallowed the Shinra Tensei whole.
Though the repulsive force was strong and the Shinra Tensei nearly rivaled Ayaan's Yami Yami no Mi in raw power, it lacked flexibility and had a cooldown. Meanwhile, Ayaan could release his ability at will. In a prolonged battle, the black mist was clearly superior.
Seeing this, Nagato immediately used the Animal Path to reverse-summon the Deva Path before it could be consumed.
Ayaan didn't pursue. Instead, he turned around and threw a punch. With a loud crack, blood splattered and a transparent chameleon appeared and died instantly — its skull shattered into dust.
"So annoying," Ayaan muttered. "Time to get serious."
"Eight Gates — Open!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ayaan vanished. His speed was so fast that he was practically invisible. With one punch, the Naraka Path exploded into pieces.
"So fast!"
Nagato's eyes widened in disbelief. "That speed and power… Impossible!"
But disbelief wouldn't change the outcome. In a matter of seconds, explosions rang out like gunfire—Bang! Bang! Bang!—and in less than thirty seconds, all of the remaining Paths of Pain were reduced to mist and blood, except the Deva Path, which still floated in the air.
"This… this is the Eight Gates!"
Jiraiya's face was full of shock. But he wasn't surprised that Ayaan had mastered it — what stunned him was the lack of any visible changes.
Normally, activating the Eight Gates caused the user's hair to stand up, veins to bulge, muscles to swell, and chakra to overflow. But Ayaan had none of that. The only sign was slightly more violent chakra inside his body.
That meant his physical body was so ridiculously powerful that it could fully suppress the rampaging chakra of the Eight Gates.
"That's because I only opened the third gate," Ayaan said, glancing at Jiraiya. "If I opened more, I wouldn't be able to control it so cleanly."
Jiraiya: "…"
Are you even human? You wiped out the Six Paths of Pain using only the third gate?! If you opened six or seven, would you punch Uchiha Madara and step on Hashirama like ants?
While Ayaan and Jiraiya casually chatted, Nagato — hiding far away — could only feel shame.
Just a moment ago, he'd declared himself a god of the new world. Now, he'd been completely humiliated. It was like that scene from a movie, where Loki declared himself a god and was smashed into the ground by the green brute.
Nagato, pale and sickly, now had a flushed red face.
Thankfully, the Deva Path floating in the sky was just a corpse and showed no expression — otherwise, what little dignity he had left would've been lost.
Though… there wasn't any dignity left to lose now.
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