Shadow and Inifinity

A shockwave coursed through reality as Gojo Satoru's last technique, Infinite Collapse, detonated at point-blank range.

The shockwave cleaved through the void, shattering the very strands of destiny. The stars above the ones that had blipped in and out of existence were now being sucked into the singularity Gojo created.

Everything was being erased.

Everything except Erebus.

The Devourer of Fates came out of the explosion.

He was no longer whole.

His titanic shape flickered, chunks of his void-corrected form gone, his multitude of writhing limbs whittled down to four.

But he was not defeated.

Something new burned in his infinite eyes.

Rage.

"You have hurt me, Satoru Gojo." Erebus' voice was no longer a whisper; it was a roar, the kind that shook every plane of reality.

Gojo wiped blood from his mouth with a grin.

"Yeah?" He cracked his knuckles. "Then let's just see how much more I can take from you."

But before he could do anything, Erebus lifted his hand.

The world froze.

Leash of the Abyss Inciting Incident

An unseen force pounced and crushed Gojo's body.

His feet seemed to sink into the degenerating battlefield, as if the force of gravity had been magnified tenfold.

His Limitless Zero flickered.

His whole body froze up like a statue.

"What the hell?"

Erebus smiled.

"You have disobeyed me for too long.

"Now, you will drown."

The sky ripped apart; tenebrous chains of raw, abyssal energy surged forth from it, writhing like living snakes.

They twined about Gojo's limbs, burrowing in his flesh, severing his bond to reality itself.

Gojo Satoru could not move. For the first time in his life.

It wasn't only a physical harness. It was conceptual.

His mind screamed warnings.

It was a binding technique unlike anything he'd ever seen.

It was unmaking his very being.

"Tch!" Gojo's teeth clenched together as he was resisting the void itself.

Then he felt it.

A hand on his shoulder.

He turned.

Itachi.

The Sharingan that had not used its power for heavy use glowed, but the track of his body was about to collapse.

Blood streamed down his face. His chakra was nearly gone.

And yet he still stood.

"No one binds Satoru Gojo," Itachi said simply.

He raised his hand.

And activated the final Uchiha technique.

The Betrayed—A New Enemy, The True Master of Fate

"Izangi-no-Mikoto."

The instant the words left his lips, the battlefield reshaped.

The chains binding Gojo snapped.

Time itself rewound.

The countless eyes of Erebus opened wide.

"You"

Itachi advanced, his sight almost completely lost.

"Devourer of Fates, that's what you used to call yourself."

His Sharingan transformed.

"Then let's see what you can eat, my."

A new player came onto the field.

Then, from deep inside Itachi's corpse, a figure appeared, a gigantic being with translucent armor covering it and a sword made from the very essence of fate.

The true master of fate.

"Izanagi-no-Mikoto," Itachi said in a whisper.

The entity raised its blade.

And Erebus, for the first time, stepped back.

The First Clash: The Uchiha's Final Gamble

Itachi moved first.

Honour's Susanoo flared one last time to fuse with Izanagi-no-Mikoto.

The battlefield shattered when his blade cut down.

Erebus lifted his arms to shield himself from the blow.

And failed.

Daga je prošao kroz samog ponora i odsekao Erabolu desnu ruku do baze.

Simply put, a wave of fate exploded in all directions, ripping apart the last remnants of the Shadow Legion, removing their very being in an instant.

"You dare?! " Erebus roared in fury.

But Itachi was not finished.

He jumped forward again, and his blade shone with the potent energy of all the Uchiha who had blessed him with their power.

"Satoru!" Itachi shouted.

Gojo understood immediately.

The last remnants of the abyssal chains fell from him.

His cursed energy exploded like a supernova.

"Got it." Gojo smirked.

"Let's end this."

The Final Showdown—Shattering the Void

They attacked together, Gojo and Itachi.

The sword of fate from Itachi fell.

Gojo's Limitless Zero detonated and blazed ahead.

Erebus lifted his last arm, attempting to stop the attack.

But it was too late.

The two forces met in the heart of the abyss.

A moment of silence.

Then.

Erebus' when a titanic detonation engulfed him.

The Abyss itself screamed.

Reality imploded and then coalesced.

The darkness started to break apart.

And as light returned, Erebus disappeared.

Cliffhanger—The Cost of Success

It was over.

The abyss was fading.

The battlefield was leveling off.

Gojo hit the ground on his feet, winded, his body on fire from the fight.

Solarius fell next to them, defeating Aegis, their divine essence blinking slowly.

Itachi was standing before them, unmoving, with his hand around his sword.

Gojo turned. Smiled.

"We did it."

Then.

Itachi fell.

Gojo's smile vanished.

Blood spurted from Itachi's mouth.

His body was breaking apart.

"Hey," Gojo moved closer, "What the hell, Uchiha? You're supposed to be the unkillable genius, right?

Itachi raised his gaze, his sight nearly absent.

"Izanagi-no-Mikoto." His voice was no more than a whisper.

"I rewrote fate… to kill Erebus.

Gojo's fingers trembled.

Solarius stood, his expression sober.

"And the price?"

Itachi gave a faint smile.

"My own existence."

And then his body became light.

Conclusion: Bringing an End to the War

The battle was over.

The Abyss was no more.

But the price had been paid.

As the light of dawn returned at last, Gojo clenched his fists.

He had won.

But it did not feel like victory.

Solarius laid a hand on his shoulder.

"He will not be forgotten."

Gojo exhaled slowly.

Then he looked up into the sky.

Toward the future that had been secured.

But at what cost?

The battlefield had an eerie silence.

No more screams of the dying. No more howls from the abyss. No more shattered planes shredding reality.

Nothing remains to echo but the last battle.

But held still, Gojo's fists balled tight and breathing heavy. His body shook not with fatigue but from the enormity of what had just occurred.

Itachi was gone.

Not just dead. Erased.

The price of rewriting fate.

Gojo's fingers twitched. His mind screamed at him to deny it, to resist reality itself.

But there was nothing to fight against.

Itachi had made sure of that.

"Damn it," Gojo whispered.

A gust of wind swept across the battlefield, bringing the faint scent of ash and something else, finality.

The war was truly over.

Yet Gojo had never felt emptier.

The Survivors of the War Inciting Incident

A voice broke the silence.

"We must go."

Solarius.

And there, beside him, the last of the Eternal Watchers in tatters, his divine armor shattered, his weapons broken. His six arms, previously brimming with celestial energy, dimmed.

He had survived.

But just barely.

"The Abyss is going to collapse," he went on, his tone even but his eyes heavy. "We need to get out before we are taken with it."

Gojo didn't move.

He stared at where Itachi had stood only a moment ago. There was no body. No trace.

Just emptiness.

"Gojo." The voice of Solarius was more forceful now.

No response.

Then the ground trembled.

The battlefield, what remained of it, began to split.

Black cracks divided the ground like the fatigue lines in a pair of old shoes.

Solarius turned sharply.

"We don't have time to grieve, sorcerer."

Gojo gritted his teeth.

Mourning?

No. This wasn't mourning.

This was rage.

This was lost.

This was the sense of winning the war, but of losing something more.

Gojo exhaled sharply.

Then he moved.

"Let's go." There was a chill in his voice sharper than usual.

Solarius nodded.

And together they both disappeared, fleeing the collapsing void.

The Gods Who Watch the New Enemy

They reemerged in a realm beyond the confines of time.

A limitless sky spread out above them, textured with golden clouds and streams of light.

The Ethereal Realm.

Or so it was called the abode of the gods.

And waiting for them were the Watchers.

In their humanoid or celestial forms, a council of titans. Their eyes, each a different color, representing time, fate, creation, and destruction, focused on the two warriors.

"You have been successful," one of them said. It was neither male nor female, neither loud nor soft. It simply was.

Solarius inclined his head some.

"The Abyss is no more."

The Watchers did not react.

Instead—they looked up to Gojo.

"And yet, there was a cost."

Gojo tensed.

His fingers twitched. His instincts told him something was wrong.

Then, a Hightower raised one of their hands.

And then, in a single instant, Gojo fucking saw.

A vision.

A sneak preview of what the gods had known all along.

The war had not ended.

Erebus was gone, yes.

But a different kind of thing was rising.

Something even worse.

And the gods had allowed it to happen.

Gojo's eyes narrowed.

"You knew." His voice was quiet.

The Watchers did not deny it.

"The Abyss was never the real threat," one spoke at last. "Only the beginning."

Gojo's blood ran cold.

The validation the real enemy had yet to show.

And Itachi had died fighting a war that had never really ended.

Gojo's slow grin stretched across his face.

But there was no humor in it.

"Well, isn't that nice?"

The Turning Point: The Gulf of Malacca Reopens

Before Gojo could speak any further, the space around them shattered.

A rend in reality opened up, revealing a new darkness, one that was not the Abyss.

Something ancient.

That even the gods themselves recoiled from.

"It has begun." Solarius' voice was grim.

"The true war."

The first figure stepped through that other world.

Gojo's six eyes sharpened.

And in that instant—he knew.

This was not just some other enemy.

This was something else.

A creation that would dwarf even Erebus.

The first of the True Forgotten.

A single word slipped from the being's lips.

A name.

"Itachi."

Gojo's entire body locked up.

His heart stopped.

His mind rejected it.

No.

It wasn't possible.

But then the figure stepped fully into view.

And Gojo saw the truth.

"You're Itachi Uchiha,"

Alive.

But not the same.

His eyes were not his own.

Something more than cursed energy, more than chakra, radiated from his body.

Something far worse.

Gojo took a slow step forward.

"You." His voice was little more than a whisper.

Itachi met his gaze.

And smiled.

A broken, twisted smile.

"Did you miss me, Satoru?"

The War Was Never Over

The gods were silent.

Solarius' fists clenched.

And Gojo.

For the first time in his life.

Didn't know what to do.