As his consciousness was forcibly ejected from the Kamui Dimension, which defined "nothingness," the moment he returned to reality, Uchiha Itachi's mental world and his physical body experienced a violent rejection reaction.

It felt as if he had been pulled from ten thousand meters in the air where all the air had been sucked away, only to be slammed ruthlessly back onto the ground; every nerve ending was screaming, and every drop of blood was wailing.

He staggered backward violently, the stones beneath his feet unable to withstand the recoil, instantly cracking into spiderweb-like fissures.

Deep in his throat, a scalding liquid mixed with the taste of rust surged upward uncontrollably, breaching the defense of his clenched teeth.

A trickle of blood slowly slid down the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the weathered cheek of the First Hokage's stone statue, leaving a jarring and ugly mark, as if it were a silent mockery by a descendant toward the ancestor's will.

Under the moonlight, Itachi's face was as pale as fresh snow, devoid of any trace of living color.

His brain was being submerged by the tsunami-like mental backlash caused by the forced breaking of Tsukuyomi.

It was not just the excruciating pain of excessive Mangekyō Sharingan power consumption, but a structural collapse occurring after his entire worldview had been completely uprooted and crushed from its foundation.

The strongest mental attack, Tsukuyomi, which he regarded as the pinnacle of Uchiha Dōjutsu in the realm of genjutsu, had not only been torn apart head-on by a clansman younger than himself, but the opponent had even effortlessly constructed an even more unsolvable cage of nothingness where not even laws existed.

In that space, for the first time, he tasted what it meant to be truly "powerless."

His will, talent, and power, of which he was so proud, were as insignificant as a grain of sand cast into the ocean in the face of that absolute nothingness, unable to stir even a single ripple.

Genjutsu, completely defeated.

This conclusion, like a ruthless giant hammer forged from reality itself, smashed all the pride he held as the number one genius of the Uchiha to pieces.

However, he still had one last card remaining.

A trump card capable of burning everything in the world, one from which even fire itself could not be spared, representing the ultimate physical attack in the material realm.

A card he had not wished to use at this moment, because its power was too absolute; once unleashed, there would be no room for maneuver.

It was not a technique, but a phenomenon, a phenomenon known as "destruction" itself.

Lifting his head with difficulty, Itachi's right eye, which had just finished casting Tsukuyomi, was already overwhelmed, and everything in his vision began to appear doubled and distorted.

Thus, he poured all his will and his remaining Chakra into his left eye in a desperate gamble.

In that intact left eye, the three tomoe in the eye socket spun madly, eventually connecting into a Mangekyō Sharingan pattern identical to that of his right eye.

Using the last of his strength, he locked his gaze onto the figure on the opposite bank of the waterfall who had remained calm from the beginning; from Itachi's eyes, two thick lines of bloody tears slowly flowed down.

This was the physiological sign of his Mangekyō Sharingan power burning to its limit, and even more so, the embodiment of his resolute will to use everything of his existence as fuel, leaving no path of retreat.

He had to confirm with his own eyes whether the path represented by Qi was truly indestructible, and capable of withstanding the most extreme destruction that Uchiha Dōjutsu could achieve.

Mangekyō Sharingan, the supreme Dōjutsu residing in the left eye, the apex of the material realm.

Amaterasu.

"I'm sorry, Qi."

This silent apology flashed through Itachi's heart.

He had no choice left.

In order to confirm whether the path he could never tread truly existed, and to find a final tombstone for his own convictions, he had to force out all of Qi's strength, even if this strength would bring about a total destruction that even he could not predict.

The next moment, the focus of his left eye, like a fatal strike thrown by the most skilled assassin, landed with pinpoint precision on Qi's right shoulder.

There was no warning.

There was no earth-shattering flash of fire, no heatwave burning the air, and not even the slightest sound.

A cluster of jet-black flames, seemingly seeping out from the abyss of the underworld, exuding an aura of ominousness and finality, appeared out of thin air on Qi's right shoulder.

It defied all known physical laws, as if it were not "burning," but rather "negating" existence itself.

The flames madly distorted the surrounding light and space, forming a miniature, constantly collapsing black sun, intending to drag everything within sight into eternal annihilation.

The water vapor splashing up from the waterfall, the moment it approached the cluster of black flames, was completely decomposed into the most primitive nothingness before it could even evaporate.

"Hit..."

Seeing Qi accurately engulfed by the black flames of Amaterasu, a flicker of expected shock, a trace of uncontrollable reluctance, and a hint of finality flashed through Itachi's heart.

He almost thought that this duel concerning the future of the Uchiha had already ended.

The black flames of Amaterasu were said to never extinguish until the target was burned to nothing.

No one could extinguish it, no one could resist it, and no one could escape from it.

This was the pinnacle that Uchiha Dōjutsu could reach in terms of physical attacks, an absolute, unavoidable, conceptual level of destruction.

However, the scene that unfolded next shattered Itachi's already broken worldview once again, grinding the last cornerstone in his heart known as "common sense" into dust.

The black flames burning fiercely on Qi's shoulder did not spread rapidly as Itachi had expected, consuming Qi entirely.

On the contrary, it was as if attracted by an invisible black hole with infinite gravitational pull, and began to shrink and collapse toward the center of the combustion in an extremely eerie manner.

From beginning to end, Qi stood quietly in place, not even looking down at the flames of doom on his shoulder.

He just raised his eyes calmly, looking at Itachi on the opposite bank who had bet everything; that pair of eerie Mangekyō Sharingan patterns, resembling a combination of a Shuriken and a windmill, began to rotate at high speed at this moment, forming a vortex so deep that it seemed capable of swallowing all light.

Kamui.

That overbearing power capable of twisting space and defining existence was activated once again.

But this time, its range of effect was tightly controlled with a precision akin to a god wielding a scalpel, focused solely on the patch of clothing and skin on Qi's right shoulder that had been ignited by Amaterasu.

Deep within Qi's consciousness, the cold notification sound of the Family Prosperity System flashed by.

(Detected high-density Yin Release physical attack, analyzing technique structure.)

(Analysis complete. Technique name: Amaterasu. Technique principle: Using the Mangekyō Sharingan as a medium, forcibly ignite the focal point of the gaze, creating black flames that cannot be extinguished until the target is burned out. Essence: Conceptual physical attack.)

(Generating countermeasure plan. Plan 1: Large-scale space transfer, teleporting the main body to a safe location. Success rate: 100%, Chakra consumption: 3%. Plan 2: Local space excision, transferring the black flame attachment and surrounding space to the Kamui Dimension. Success rate: 100%, Chakra consumption: 0.8%. Recommended to execute Plan 2.)

In Itachi's blood-red eyes, widened by extreme shock, a scene occurred that was worthy of being recorded in the history of Ninjas, a scene that overturned the Ninjutsu offense and defense system.

The part of Qi's shoulder hit by Amaterasu, along with the black flames burning fiercely on it, and the distorted space surrounding the flames itself, were all forcibly pulled by an irresistible force, twisted into an infinitesimally small vortex, and then instantly vanished.

It was as if they had never existed in this world.

They had been precisely "excised" from this three-dimensional reality.

The wild wind in the valley blew past again, lifting the hem of Qi's black garments.

He still stood quietly in place, without moving a muscle.

On the black outfit on his right shoulder, there appeared a circular hole as smooth as a mirror, its edges seemingly cut precisely by the sharpest of blades.

But the skin beneath the hole was completely undamaged, without even the slightest trace of having been scorched by high heat.

The undying black flames that had just been capable of burning everything seemed like nothing more than a brief illusion, a harmless, and perhaps even somewhat laughable, joke.

"Even Amaterasu... can be transferred?"

Itachi was completely stunned.

He muttered to himself, his voice so faint that it was almost swallowed by the roar of the waterfall.

His body swayed violently, almost falling from the top of the First Hokage's stone statue into the deep valley.

If the breaking of Tsukuyomi meant he had lost in the battle of laws within the mental realm, and that his understanding of Dōjutsu was not as profound as Qi's.

Then, the erasure of Amaterasu so nonchalantly meant that he had also been utterly and completely defeated on the level of the strongest physical attack he could reach.

Qi's ability had completely exceeded the scope of "Ninjutsu" and entered the realm of "laws."

This was no longer a question of strength or weakness, but an absolute crushing of a low-dimensional life form by a high-dimensional one.

This man seemed to be the natural nemesis of all Uchiha Dōjutsu.

The strongest mental attack, ineffective.

The strongest physical attack, ineffective.

All his trump cards had been exhausted, and all his pride had been shattered.

Itachi stood there like a stone statue whose soul had been drawn out, appearing incomparably desolate under the cold moonlight.

The Kunai he had been holding tightly in his hand, symbolizing his identity as a Ninja and his will to fight, slipped from his powerless fingers.

"Clang!"

A crisp metallic clanging sound rang out on top of the empty stone statue, a sound that seemed exceptionally abrupt and clear amidst the tremendous roar of the waterfall.

That sound was like the sound of his entire world of convictions collapsing completely.

Strength and philosophy, both completely defeated.

What choice was he supposed to make now?

Or rather, did he even have the qualification to choose?