Getting back to Asura, he had finished the ritual and met up with his group. The change brought by the ritual took time but he already felt the increase in power.
With simple guidance from Gaea, Asura mastered the basic Sage mode and reached a new level of power.
But it didn't make him think of being the strongest because Shuten already knew Sage mode, she just never used it against others.
It was just the basic Sage mode that provided a 20 times boost in power by absorbing the energy from nature.
Going to a higher level of Sage Mode allowed the user to truly control nature and become part of it.
Naruto was the pioneer of Senjutsu and he made it easier, he made it stronger.
"Well, I hope you guys are ready. I am going to cripple you guys, so no bad feelings." Duo's voice could be heard from his Mech.
He was having fun with them.
All of them were gathered in a stadium for Mech battles, it was huge and very open. It had the necessary settings so no one got killed inside or any real damage reached the outside world.
Asura, Byakuya and Shun stood atop a hill looking at Deathscythe floating in the air releasing green particles that shielded it from their senses.
Benimaru and Natsu stood atop the giant trees in the forest while Himawari floated above everyone at the back.
Shuten followed Himawari and decided to watch so she was sitting with Terra and Benimaru's new friends.
"Do your best Uncle Duo, here we come. Let's do it!" Hima gave a cheerful war cry as she aimed with her bow and released it with full power.
The chakra arrow was like light beam released from her hand and it covered the distance instantly, dividing into hundreds as it aimed for the head.
In the family, Hima followed Hinata's fighting style with the bow and summoning style from Naruto.
Just as the arrows were released, Hima made hand signs causing a summoning circle to open and releasing a giant snake with wings to fly out.
'Hima, just provide support this time.' Asura asked as he held his book called the Legend of the Legendary Heroes.
'Roger!' Hima replied as she watched her attacks disappear with the wave of the targets dark bat like wings.
She didn't feel any pressure at all. Hima took everything with a fun and positive outlook, not a bad bone in her body.
Duo was testing them out so he was still visible and just barely dodging anything.
Byakuya went next as he unsheathed his blade and focused chakra on it before cutting towards his target.
Disappearing from the hill, Byakuya appeared on the other side of the battlefield while leaving behind a pink colored chakra slash that was layered multiple times.
It was his strongest attack, thousands of slashes combined and working together that it looked like sakura petals attacking his foes.
Shun followed without a word, with a thought the giant hands behind him turned into spears and tore through the air.
The ice and magma flew through the air to meet together at point of collision causing an immense explosion.
Seeing the attack finished, Natsu followed up with a charged fire ball that was so hot that the passive heat turned the forest to ash.
Benimaru followed the attacked with a lighting beam that ate up Natsu's large fireball, combining their powers and hit Deathscythe.
"Not bad, just some practice and you guys will break through this defense." Duo muttered as he read the threat levels and just like always he was impressed.
The kids were real monsters.
"Duo, Asura still hasn't attacked." Shun reminded him as he looked towards Asura.
Asura saw the results of the attacks and it was as expected. Hima had yet to use her full power and it went the same for the others.
Even with full power, it wouldn't change the outcome.
Flipping through the fantasy book filled with magic and monsters, Asura released a chakra pulse that changed the world around them.
The book started affecting reality and soon two figures appeared called the lonely demon and the mad hero.
The Lonely demon had powerful eyes that could analyze anything and use anything while the Mad Hero had reality warping powers and the power to devour existence.
These were the strongest parts of Asura's collection and the other one was based on Prince Nyarlothothep called the Crawling darkness.
The lonely demon was a human sized dark skinned being with small horns and two powerful eyes. He walked forward and his eyes spun releasing magic circles into the air to surround Duo.
The eyes were analyzing the armor before trying to cancel it out.
But the power from the master was lacking and the ability as well, so the demon was unable to break the defense but it was very effective. The Mad Hero walked forward and both of them pointed at the target releasing a thunderstorm of red lightning.
Asura followed up with his own attack, white lighting fell from the skies and covered up duo. Both lightning attacks had the power of erasure.
Mad Hero could completely erase everything from existence that it never existed. In the story he erased a lightning spell that the spell never even existed anymore, forgotten.
Duo floated in place as the barrier blocked the attack but anyone could see that the lightning's erasure function eating into it.
The power of the attack wasn't anything for the Mech but the atomic erasure didn't care about the power of the target but their resistance to such a thing.
"Amazing, you have improved so much in a month. Did you take some drugs or what?" Duo was tripping as the system considered Asura a real threat, it was insane. Deathscythe was made to combat planetary threats so it meant, Asura was closing in on that level very fast.
'Boss, you got some monsters here.' Duo felt excited as he spun his scythe with the laser edge that could cut through almost anything with utter ease. It also had the atomic dismantling function and a virus function.
Deathscythe had the fear factor, stealth, speed and sound attacks that shattered everything as it could reach very high frequency levels.
"I am not done yet." Asura closed his eyes and everyone was surprised as he entered Sage Mode, his threat level increased instantly.
He went from being a chunin level to hitting the mid level of Jounin, meaning stronger than EMS Madara and close to Duo's real level without the Mech.
"Hory shit!" Duo exclaimed as Asura extended his arms into the sky and opened them wide slowly.
With his movement the battlefield was filled with light, it was Asura's new attack. He came to sudden enlightenment when going through the ritual and he combined light with existence erasure.
Everything that light touched was erased and it blinded everyone as it even cancelled their abilities that allowed them to ignore such powerful light.
Duo felt his barrier get bombarded continuously by the dangerous light and saw the danger levels, it had reached Elite Jounin level of danger.
This was too dangerous without Deathscythe, as he would have died instantly without any resistance.
Everyone was shocked by the show of power and they also read the reading on their communicators. They had the best things available so it was easy for them to read danger levels or find any information.
Himawari was just happy and clapped in excitement at the show while Shuten just smiled with amusement as she touched the light with her body.
It tried to erase her but it got cancelled instead, 'Not bad, little brother.'
Shuten praised him and Asura's gaze shifted to her, and saw her cancel his attack. It was expected but a disappointment nonetheless.
He had used up quarter of his chakra for this attack and erased the whole battlefield but she stood in this desolate land without outside protection.
'How far has she gone?' Asura wondered because Shuten never answered, she didn't speak about her powers with anyone but Naruto and some other people.
'Sister, please attack me.' Asura asked as he wanted to know and maybe get some enlightenment from it.
'Are you sure?' Shuten asked as he walked out of the safe zone while the land fixed itself.
'Yes'
Shuten smiled as he blade appeared in her hand and her scent covered the region. She swung once and released a purple slash that looked like poison.
Asura created a barrier with his Senjutsu with multiple layers believing he should easily handle the attack since Shuten wasn't in sage mode.
But nothing went as plan, as the attack eroded everything in its path and hit the barrier with extreme speeds. It showed that Shuten without sage mode was already Jounin level.
The barrier was reinforced by his bond with nature and it was strong enough to easily handle any attack on the jounin level.
That was his expectation but Shuten's attack ate away at his barrier and grew stronger as covered him in poisonous liquid that slowly ate away everything.
Asura realized that Shuten's attacks had devouring qualities, making them very hard to defend against.
It wasn't even the strongest as Asura looked at his leg and saw it boneless. The poison slash was a distraction and Shuten used her reality warping to debone him.
The pain from the attack was immense even though he should be able to block it. It was Shuten's power and it enhanced the pain factor to insane levels that his concentration dropped and the poison slipped through, drowning him.
'Not bad, but cover these weak points before fighting me.' Shuten snapped her fingers and cancelled everything. Her beautiful eyes shined with amusement and power.
The utter ease of Asura's defeat showed how powerful Shuten was, and the blessing of her eyes.
Time went on like a never-ending stream and people went to sleep, some stayed awake. In this dark night when everyone was trying to rest and relax their tired bodies, the dark forces were at work.
Jashin had started his attack as darkness surged around the world but it got defeated by the defense system and Gaea.
It was not an easy process for the villains these days, quite a challenge to cause chaos is such a tightly secure land. But there was no such thing as impossible and the darkness continued to attack, the Shadow legion continued to spawn while Nyarlothothep continued to spread his miasma of despair.
But all of this was just a backdrop of the real goal.
"Hello new friend, my name is Fred. The words you hear are in my head. I say, I said my name is Fred- and I have been …very naughty." In the dark void between reality and dreams, the dream eater called Fred muttered with a smile and cheerful tone.
"The story I am about to tell, I tell you I will tell it well. Is of my Dear Lord Jashin and just how I have been so…naughty." Fred muttered with a huge smile as his various eyes looked over the world of the living.
"Viola! The dream world, a place where the humans are connected and experience very joyous things or terrible nightmares. My heart beats fast as I drew near, I felt so nice—and naughty." Fred continued as he extended his reach towards the dream world.
"I thought just how excited they must be that I would come today, they'd shout "Come Fred! Huzzah! Hooray! Dear boy – you look so... naughty." Fred said with a creepy wide smile as fingers ever so slightly entered the dream world but were repelled.
It was a mental block and Naruto's chakra acting aggressively against the intruder.
Fred looked curiously at the defense system with a big smile, "That's when my tired eyes beheld a golden barrier, like Lord Seventh it smelled, B-A-R-R-I-E-R is what it spelled, and that's how I spell... "naughty."
Fred smiled as his thousands of eyes spun taking in the barrier and finding cracks in the defense. Releasing some of his power, he read the response.
"My Dear Lord has asked, and he has asked so well. Show them nightmares, nightmares I shall give and I have felt so naughty." Fred smiled as he dove into the dream world like an unstoppable stream.
"Such a naughty attempt Lord Seventh, but Fred has been too slippery for your hands." The barrier was made for mental attacks and Naruto had never even thought about dream eaters or the dream world.
Fred slipped through without much issue and set foot into his realm and he looked so joyous as his dark body held back it shudder.
"Alone was I, with tender Dreams, and all his glory, his beautiful visage, which, I say, did encourage, me, to be... quite naughty." Fred looked around at the countless realms of dreams that were connected to different individuals.
"Dreams…..such beautiful dreams. It reminds me of the first time I knew just how, I felt, about dreams." Fred flew around excitedly as he exclaimed his love.
Fred created a scene in the dream world about his life before becoming a monstrous creature. He was a man with good looks and long blonde hair. He looked like a gentleman with a happy smile.
"It was a day, I'd not forget, the day that I first met my pet. Oh, what a lovely gift to get, I'd never felt so... naughty. My fuzzy friend is what he was, this darling little ball of fuzz, and oh, such fuzz, such fuzz, it does, demand, that I... be naughty." Fred dreamed of the little hamster of his childhood and the first time, he realized his desires.
"He looked at me, his fetching eyes, and fetching dreams did hypnotize, and filled with joy, and filled with sighs, and that's when I got... naughty." Fred smiled as he relived the memory again where he ate the dreams of his pet, leaving it a husk.
Another scene appeared with a lovely girl and his smile went wider as he looked at the dreams of a beautiful girl.
"This dripping hair, this droopy curl, unfurl sweet memories of a girl, whose tresses, oh, they'd twist and twirl, and tempt me to be... naughty. Barbara, my love was named, and her wild dreams, an imagination untamed, until one evening, I'm ashamed, I got a little... naughty." Fred sighed with a satisfaction as he took in the smell of the lovely dreams.
"Now now, don't play around my lovelies or I might get too…naughty." Fred smiled as he looked at the dream worlds and his body covered up various realms, plunging them into darkness as he ate and fed them nightmares.
A.N Hope you enjoyed and comment
Fred from Courage the Cowardly Dog, man I love this show even now.