There was a small, critical difference between now and before.
Prior, I was but a wisp. A fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the Darkness that composed Me.
And subsequently limited, unable to manipulate the Darkness with the ease that I had before, in the sheer volume I could before.
Now, however...
Purple tinged lightning lanced out, rushing downwards at a blinding speed. More powerful than any lightning I had used as a wisp, faster and even more dangerous.
Thus, I wasn't surprised when Nagato vanished the moment I unleashed the spell, gone with a Kawarimi as some instinct warned him of impending doom.
I might not have minded if ninjas didn't do it so fucking frequently.
Kawarimi really was such an annoying thing to bypass.
A flash of Darkness came as I summoned my Keyblade, gripping it with my left hand. My right came up and pressed against the pauldron of my Armour, activating it and shortly shrouding me with more Darkness.
I dropped to the ground next to Hiruzen, fully clad in Keyblade Armour. He glanced at me for a moment, but then looked back at Nagato.
"Status?" He asked.
"Everybody else is working together to destroy his other bodies."
"Casualties?" His eyes didn't leave Nagato.
"None, yet." I stated. "We'll have to end this one quickly."
"Careful. This one's dangerous." The staff- Monkey King Enma stated.
Oh? Well aren't you interesting.
"Indeed" I nodded.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen." Nagato spoke. His voice was cold, emotionless, different from his Heart, where I could see... Anticipation? "Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"
What are you planning, Nagato?
I glanced around the environment; clearing, trees, a crater from where my lightning had hit the ground, some crushed rocks and broken wood which I assumed to have been done by Hiruzen and Enma...
It was fairly wide open, but the mass of trees meant lots of cover- and lots of things to use Kawarimi with.
Lots of ways to escape, too.
Escape...
How did this go before?
Oh yes.
No escape.
Around the edge of the clearing, a familiar shimmering barrier rose, briefly visible as it formed.
"No more running, Nagato." I declared. The barrier was up, and nobody was passing through- in or out.
This clearing was now our battleground.
"To attack my village and then ask a question like that..." Hiruzen sighed. "No respect these days."
I wasn't entirely certain when he moved, but I do know that one moment Hiruzen was by my side, and the next, he was thrusting the Adamantine Staff towards Nagato's head.
Fast.
Nagato desperately blocked, a Black Receiver extending from his hand and stabbing at the side of the Adamantine Staff.
It did nothing to damage the staff itself, but it did succeed in pushing the staff to the side, safely away from pulverising his head-
But not, however, saving him from damage entirely. Enma's clenched fist extended from the staff's end as it passed Nagato's head; something he was both completely unprepared for, and something he wasn't in any position to block.
Not to say that he didn't try, no. Nagato bent backwards as fast as he could, but Enma's fist still slammed into his face with a satisfying, meaty thwack, launching the man across the clearing with a single clean movement.
He recovered admirably, flipping around in mid-air and catching himself-
Right in time for him to notice me as I tried to run him through with my Keyblade.
I stabbed forwards at him, the end of my Keyblade shining with Darkness.
His feet hit the ground and stuck there, momentum carrying him backwards and downwards. My Keyblade missed him by mere centimetres, passing just over his head.
His back hit the ground and the earth shifted around him, a pillar of stone rising quickly and smashing me in the stomach, powerful enough to launch me away, even as Nagato himself sunk into the ground as if it was water.
Not that it helped him this time; as, only a moment after he did, Hiruzen slammed the suddenly much larger and much longer Adamantine Staff down where he was, the sheer force, coupled with a timed release of Chakra, shattering and tearing the ground beneath us.
A flash of pain through Nagato's Heart told me he hadn't escaped that one unscathed.
Excellent.
His arm broke out of the ground, shortly followed by the rest of him. His clothes had suffered some damage, but I couldn't see a scratch on Nagato himself.
"He was hurt by that." I noted. "How long can you keep pounding him into dust like that?"
"As long as I need to." Hiruzen replied, lifting the still overly large and cumbersome staff as if it weighed nothing.
I examined Nagato closely, a temporary lull in battle as all three of us prepared for action again.
Nagato's hands came up slowly, before he grabbed his left wrist with his right hand.
Too late, I realised that there was only four strings of Chakra extending from him.
He pulled-
And his wrist separated from his arm, a thin cable extending between and connecting both. What should have been blood and flesh was instead metal and cybernetics- and it certainly hadn't been that way a moment ago.
Attached the cable were dozens upon dozens of tiny missiles, all metallic, all of them completely filled to the brim with Chakra.
Asura Path.
Oh shit.
He could channel the abilities of the Paths himself.
The missiles ignited, launching at us with bursts of smoke and trails of fire. Enough Chakra was contained in each that any of them would do considerable damage.
I pointed my Keyblade upwards, the Darkness at the tip briefly becoming more intense.
No time to care about that, however.
The Darkness vanished, and a wave of shimmering translucent hexagons crawled around us, forming a spherical barrier.
Reflect.
Then, the missiles reached us.
Waves of them crashed into my barrier, detonating as they did, plumes of fire and smoke and force washing over it- but not breaking through it.
He just can't go quietly, can he?