Author's note:

At first, I want to say thank you to Robotopx. Your comment was indeed a great encouragement for me to update this chapter. Back then, I have considered about dropping this story since I had no motivation to continue it. However, after seeing your comment on this day, I did change my mind. If it wasn't for you, this chapter would never get published today.

Anyways, please consider about leaving your comment after reading this chapter. The more comments I get, the sooner the next chapter will come out.

Words that are written in Italics represent the thought of characters.

The clash had come to an end with Madara and Obito as the winners. Kraken, a judgment-class Honkai Beast with horrifying power had been sealed within a large satellite by Obito himself. Undoubtedly, it would be imprisoned in Kamui's dimension for the rest of its life.

In the end, the Susanoo carrying them gently landed on the ground. Soon after, the enormous humanoid avatar faded away and released both of them from its perfect defense. As soon as Obito returned to the ground, Madara asked him a very weird question.

"Why are you still wearing that mask, Obito? I thought you don't need it anymore?"

"Huh... What do you mean?" Obito gave his fellow Uchiha a confused look. However, to his surprise, Madara was correct in fact. When he tried to touch his face, instead of the bare skin of his face, the only thing his hand found was the rough spiral patterns of his mask before.

"Hmph... How strange!... I remember I did throw this mask away." Obito thought. For an unknown reason, the previous mask had returned to him without his knowing. Putting that unexplainable stuff aside, since he was already used to the power of his Rinnegan, he didn't have to cover his left eye to save his Chakra reserves anymore.

Nevertheless, Obito still had to find a new mask to hide his identity secret. In addition, he didn't like the idea of let everyone recognize his face easily since it may cause unnecessary trouble for him in the future. The mask he once wore in the 4th Great Ninja War probably would solve the problem.

"How long are you going to stay here, Obito?" Madara had to interrupt Obito's thinking since his companion had been deep in his thought for a while.

"Uhm, sorry... Nevermind!" Obito apologized to him and later returned both of them to their hotel room with Kamui. After the previous clash against the gigantic Honkai Beast, he didn't have any mood to continue their tour around Tokyo. Instead, it was more important to learn about the entity named "the Will of Honkai" that Madara had mentioned earlier. And thus, a swirl was formed and made the Uchiha duo vanish out of thin air.

From the distance, a member of the World Serpent had been watching all of their steps with his binoculars. Grey Serpent, the second in command of a mysterious organization called World Serpent was the one observing them. Besides Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, World Serpent was also an institution fighting against Honkai but in the shadow. Nevertheless, unlike the two others working under their leaders, World Serpent was like a snake surviving without its head.

Kevin Kaslana, their leader had been lost for 1500 years and there was no sign that he would return. Since then, Grey Serpent had been struggling to keep the organization from collapsing. As the day of judgment for humanity was getting closer, World Serpent now needed a leader more than ever. After endless years of seeking a worthy candidate in hopelessness, the patience of Grey Serpent was gone a long time ago. Whether the new leader was a MANTIS or not, Grey Serpent's only requirement was that person agreed to carry on the Stigma project. By taking down the colossal Honkai Beast earlier, the two unknown men had proved their capability to replace Kevin Kaslana in the role of World Serpent's leader.

"So they can teleport away!?" Grey Serpent thought in surprise. Thankfully, he had taken a photo of them before they were gone. Grey Serpent then gave his servant the photo and ordered her to find them by hacking into the security camera systems in the city. Within a few seconds, the cyborg girl quickly detected the image of two odd men wearing black cloaks with a red cloud symbol from the CCTV footage.

"Already found them!"

"Where?"

"Last night, 10:57 PM in Hilton Tokyo Odaiba hotel."

30 Minutes Later

Inside the room that the duo Uchiha rented, they were discussing their plan of next moves in dealing with the Honkai. After being told about the encounter between Madara and a mysterious being, Obito's head was filled with loads of new information.

"So the Will of Honkai is the reason behind the Herrschers trying to destroy humanity?"

"Maybe... at least according to what that entity said." Madara spoke cautiously. His experience told him not to trust any stranger once more, especially if that unknown person offered to help him all of a sudden.

"Come on, Madara! If it didn't act to save you from the Will of Honkai, you wouldn't be standing here and telling me this story. You're just having trust issues!" Obito tried to persuade his companion but Madara's stance yet remained.

"It's better not to jump to a hasty conclusion for now. We still need to do more research on the Herrschers to know the truth." The skeptical Uchiha said firmly. The last time he trusted someone without a doubt, he was backstabbed by that one and turned into a vessel for an Otsutsuki. Madara would never make the same mistake twice.

Suddenly, while their conversation was going on, the television in their room got turned on for an unknown reason. Strangely, instead of an ordinary program, a mysterious individual wearing a black hooded coat showed up on the screen. Similar to Obito, that person also wore a one-eye mask, revealing only his right eye under the mask.

"Congratulation, warriors! By defeating the Honkai Beast earlier, you've proven your power and ability in a very impressive way. Therefore, I, Gray Snake, have a great proposal for both of you. I want you to join World Serpent and become new leaders of our organization. If you are interested in my offer, see me on your hotel's rooftop. I'm waiting for your answer until the end of the day."

As soon as the bizarre masked man finished his speech, the TV screen went black again, leaving the Uchiha duo deeply confused in their mind. Through eye contact, they already knew each other's intentions without saying a word.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the building, Grey Serpent was waiting for their response as he promised. Standing beside him was Ningou, the cyborg girl who had helped him to discover their place and hacked into the television in their room.

"So... We're going to stay here for the rest of the day, right master?"

"No human can resist the lust for power, Ningyo. They will show up soon after considering the benefits my offer can bring for them. Just watch..." While Grey Serpent was speaking to his loyal servant, an air spiral formed and released an orange-masked man out of nowhere.

"So you're the one with the power to teleport?" Gray Snake speculated since he knew one of them had such a marvelous ability. Nevertheless, when it came to Honkai, there were always illogical and insane powers. For that reason, World Serpent needed leaders with equal or greater powers compared to the Herrschers.

"Madara and I have some words for you!" The orange-masked yelled out, pointing his hand at the opposite man wearing the black hooded coat.

"Madara? So that's the name of the long-haired man?" Busy guessing the other man's identity, Grey Serpent let his guard down. The unknown masked man suddenly pointed his hand toward Grey Serpent and yelled.

"Universal Pull!"

"What!?" Grey Serpent shouted in surprise. All of a sudden, he was dragged toward the orange masked man by a powerful attractive force. When he got pulled close to the mysterious masked man, another swirl appeared and sucked both of them into another dimension.

"Master!" Ningyo helplessly yelled out but it was too late already, both her master and the masked man had disappeared without leaving any traces.

Within Kamui's dimension

Grey Serpent was brought to a completely different dimension, a dark void of randomly arranged and various-sized rectangular blocks. For a moment, Grey Serpent even confused this space with the Sea of Quanta, where their former leader had been trapped for eternity. From what Grey Serpent had seen so far, that unknown masked man possessed the teleportation ability like Herrscher of the Void.

"Are you Madara Uchiha?"Grey Serpent spoke up in a calm voice. However, the dilemma he was facing reflected the opposite. As soon as he got to this place, The long-haired man called Madara instantly launched multiple black rods at him, which were deep into his body. In an explicable way, these metal bars caused him unable to move or control his body.

"I guess you've said more than necessary, don't you?" Madara frowned and glared at Obito before continuing the interrogation. He used his hand to choke Grey Serpent's neck forcefully.

"Now tell me all you know about World Serpent?" Madara demanded.

"Argh!" Grey Serpent groaned as Madara increased the pressure, causing the grasp to tighten. His grip made Grey Serpent feel short of breath.

"Calm down a bit, Madara! We should try a different approach to get information from his mouth." Obito reassured his partner and suggested another solution. He then snapped his fingers and summoned the King of Hell behind him through Naraka Path.

"You better answer our question honestly, otherwise..." The orange-masked man warned seriously. To Grey Serpent's terror, the King of Hell opened his mouth widely, releasing a tendril-like arm to draw out his life force in the form of an enlarged tongue.

To get their trust, Grey Serpent pretended to be afraid and started revealing the truth of World Serpent to them. Nonetheless, to keep the top secrets of WQ including the Project Stigma, he only let them know some information selectively. In that way, Grey Serpent succeeded in tricking the King of Hell's judgment and made both of them believe him.

"This guy doesn't seem to lie to us at all, Madara. In that case..." Before Obito could finish his sentence, Madara suddenly threw Grey Serpent into the King of Hell's mouth. Not wasting any seconds, the King of Hell instantly closed his mouth and started chewing Grey Serpent like a toy. After a while, as the King of Hell finished his job, he spitted Grey Serpent out of his mouth and then disappeared into a cloud of smoke. To Grey Serpent's surprise, all of his wounds caused by Madara before were healed in no time. Moreover, Madara finally came to his decision, something that even Grey Serpent didn't expect to be that soon.

"Despite the suspicious attitude from you... I will take your offer."

For someone who threatened his life just a minute ago, Grey Serpent was confused by Madara's easy consent. Suppressing the triumphant smile under his mask, Grey Serpent raised his voice.

"On behalf of all members from World Serpent, I declare you as the next leader, Madara Uchiha. From today onward, you shall lead our organization in the fight against the Honkai."

After finishing his speech, Grey Serpent paid attention to the mysterious masked guy with the teleportation ability. Unlike his teammate, the orange-masked man showed no interest in the leadership position of World Serpent. Instead, he decided to stay aside and watched the whole agreement in silence. Until now, his identity was still a mystery for Grey Serpent.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you mind letting me know your name?" Grey Serpent tried to be friendly to approach the masked man. To his disappointment, Madara's fellow responded indifferently.

"It's none of your business... Just call me Ghost if you want." Ghost/Obito ignored Grey Serpent's presence and walked away. He knew Grey Serpent was hiding something shady from their knowledge. However, he had to agree that Madara's decision was a wise choice. Soon or late, they would need to have a foundation against Honkai. By taking Grey Serpent's offer and becoming the next leader of World Serpent, Madara had solved their biggest problem at the moment. From now on, his role would be a mentor for Madara and support him from the shadow. In the end, Obito used Kamui to bring the three of them back to the real world.