After the blaze died out, most of the weaker Ethereals had already been reduced to ash. What remained were the powerful upper-class Ethereals—and among them, three colossal behemoths ruled the ruined districts.
Three giant-class Ethereals—such a lineup would normally trigger a military-level response from New Eridu, likely involving the Hollow Special Operations Unit of Section 6 itself.
Admittedly, even for Zhong Yan, this was a bit of a headache. As a single shadow clone, he could barely activate the skeletal form of Susanoo, let alone fight three giants and an army of upper-tier Ethereals all at once.
But rather than panic, he activated his Sharingan and calmly began surveying his surroundings, looking for the one orchestrating the Ethereals' assault.
Before long, he spotted someone odd among the crowd.
The individual's body was saturated with etheric energy like an Ethereal's—but his physical form was unmistakably human.
That meant he wasn't a pure Ethereal.
It was likely this overwhelming etheric energy that had masked his presence initially. But now was the time to strike.
Without hesitation, Zhong Yan surged forward, ignoring the Ethereals snapping at him from all sides.
The Ethereals reacted as expected, claws and fangs slashing out—but they passed harmlessly through him, as if he were smoke.
Zhong Yan wasn't retreating. He had a target—and he was going straight for it.
The man's expression changed instantly when he realized Zhong Yan was heading for him, completely unfazed by the Ethereal horde.
Panicking, he began to retreat, trying to slip away unnoticed.
But Zhong Yan was much faster.
In seconds, the distance between them had halved. As they were about to collide, Zhong Yan extended his hand—preparing to drag the man into Kamui space.
These hybrids were immune to genjutsu, so memory extraction through the Sharingan was off the table. But inside Kamui, interrogation was still possible.
The target froze, clearly confused. It was working—until a sudden spike erupted from beneath the earth, piercing straight through Zhong Yan's body.
While activating Kamui, Zhong Yan had to remain in physical form, unable to phase through attacks. And the spike had come too quickly, too unexpectedly, from underground.
The splatter of blood signaled the impossible—
The legendary Hollow Raider had been mortally wounded.
"Uchiha. So much for the legend." The hybrid controller smirked as he watched Zhong Yan's body impaled.
His earlier panic? An act to bait Zhong Yan into lowering his guard. It had worked perfectly.
He had always wondered what made this Uchiha such a threat. Apparently, not much.
New Eridu, in the end, was full of paper tigers.
But the smugness on his face evaporated in the next instant.
With a sudden poof of smoke, Zhong Yan's body—and the blood—vanished completely.
The man froze, then retracted the spike and spun around, alert.
Even the Ethereals began scouring the area alongside him.
Then a spatial vortex opened in the distance, and Zhong Yan stepped through—unharmed, composed.
Only then did it hit him: the legend was real.
Still... he wasn't impressed. He had once been a well-known investigator too, before the organization turned him into this. And in the grand scheme of things, he was still low-ranking.
Being a "legend" was the bare minimum to survive in their world.
But this legend... was different.
This was a legend beyond what this world understood.
When the second Uchiha clone stepped out of another vortex, his expression twisted.
Then came the third.
The fourth.
And finally, twenty-eight Uchihas stood surrounding him—half charging the Ethereal horde, half targeting him directly.
One Uchiha might be manageable.
Twenty-eight?
Terrifying.
"Impressive tactics… but if you think this will break me, you're dreaming." He spoke through gritted teeth, sweat beading at his temple.
He knew his strength ranked at the bottom of the organization. Escaping this was impossible.
There was only one option left: mutual destruction.
"My god's plan is to usher in glorious evolution for the entire world! Trash like you could never understand!" he shouted, his eyes blazing with fanaticism.
Under the weight of his warped beliefs, Zhong Yan saw it clearly—
The etheric energy within him was spiraling out of control.
His body expanded grotesquely, becoming a ticking time bomb.
Zhong Yan didn't know how powerful the explosion would be—but letting a rare informant die wasn't an option.
One clone stepped forward, pushing its chakra to the limit.
Skeletal Susanoo roared to life, and a massive spectral arm shot out, grabbing the crazed hybrid mid-transformation.
With a mighty swing, the arm slammed him into the ground.
The earth cracked violently, and the sheer force knocked the man out cold.
The unstable etheric energy subsided.
His suicidal explosion—fueled by madness—ended in the most humiliating way possible.
The Susanoo clone, spent, vanished in a puff of smoke.
The remaining clones didn't waste time finishing off the Ethereals. To conserve energy, they activated Kamui and disappeared—taking their hard-won captive with them.