The world was silent.
Ardyn stood in the middle of a crater at the edge of a ruined village.
Dusk-colored clouds hung motionless in the sky.
The air reeked of decay and old chakra, as if the land itself had been bled dry.
Ahead of him: three familiar faces.
Naruto. Sasuke. Sakura.
But something was deeply wrong.
Their skin was pale, their eyes glowing red with slitted pupils—no longer the children he'd studied in the academy. Their chakra signatures were tainted, tethered together like puppets strung by a single source.
"You shouldn't be here," Naruto growled.
His voice was layered—like two voices were speaking at once. The second was ancient.
Sakura's fists clenched, energy crackling across her arms.
Sasuke said nothing. His Rinnegan spun unnaturally, almost… broken.
Ardyn raised an eyebrow.
"This is a pocket dimension," he said. "Reality stitched together from altered memories. Fabricated destinies."
He looked around. "But the threads are sloppy."
Sakura lunged.
He dodged—barely—her punch shattering the stone beneath his feet like paper.
"Too slow…"
Ardyn flowed back, forming a void seal mid-air. His body blurred, teleporting behind her, palm outstretched—
But Sasuke intercepted him, blade of black lightning erupting from his hand.
Ardyn's arm caught it—but the pain was real. Too real.
[System Interface Disabled in This Realm]
[Reality Lock Active – Void Manipulation Limited to Physical Anchors]
That made things harder.
No code commands. No dimensional hacks. Just him… and raw skill.
So that's how Obsidian Ardyn wants to play this.
Back in the Real World – Konoha War Room
Tsunade stared at the projections on the table. Chakra readings were still unstable. The dimensional rift was gone.
But not dead.
Lyra stood nearby, her Chronoform still glowing faintly.
"He's not dead," she said firmly.
Tsunade turned toward her. "How do you know?"
Lyra tapped her chest. "Because my Omnitrix is still locked on to his frequency."
A pause.
"And it's moving."
Meanwhile – Void Realm: Anti-Konoha
The battle raged.
Ardyn ducked under another strike—Sakura and Naruto attacking in perfect synchrony, enhanced by some kind of hive mind effect.
He needed space.
He needed information.
And most of all—he needed to break the illusion.
This world is stitched from possibilities. Genjutsu at scale. Layered illusion on top of altered history. But something is anchoring it…
He leapt backward, snapping his fingers—and summoned the Void Blade.
It flickered. Glitched. But held.
He swung it wide, tearing a hole in the battlefield itself.
If I can cut the realm, maybe I can find the stitching…
And then he saw it.
Far above, tethered by dark chains to the fake sun, hung a massive, floating eye—Obsidian Ardyn's surveillance node.
He was watching.
Inside the Node – Observation Chamber
Obsidian Ardyn lounged on a throne woven from timelines that never came true. Around him floated fragments of other worlds—frozen Ben 10 timelines, shattered Dragon Balls, corrupted Titan serum vials.
A monitor displayed Ardyn's struggle below.
"I thought he'd break sooner," he muttered. "But he's adapting."
He snapped his fingers—and injected a new thread into the simulation.
Back on the Battlefield
Suddenly, Naruto paused mid-attack. His body seized. Then—he screamed.
Dark veins crawled across his skin.
"Help me—!"
But it wasn't Naruto's voice anymore.
It was Kurama.
"The boy was consumed in this timeline," the fox growled, clawing for control. "The Akatsuki turned him into a weapon."
Ardyn's eyes narrowed.
So this version of Naruto… is a vessel fused with Kurama under Madara's direct control.
But if Kurama's still in there…
He jumped forward—not to strike, but to connect.
Chakra-to-chakra.
Palm to heart.
Void to tailed beast.
"Kurama," he whispered. "Fight it."
For a moment, nothing.
Then—Naruto's body convulsed.
His eyes flickered—red, then blue. Then back.
"W-What…?" Naruto gasped.
Sakura screamed, lunging toward them—
Only to be stopped by Sasuke.
Not because he wanted to save Ardyn.
But because his eye had just shown him something.
The sky above cracked.
A shard of the real world pushed through.
Ardyn grinned.
Found the stitch.
He raised his hand—
And plunged his Void Blade into the sky.
The eye above screamed as the illusion shattered like glass.
Reality Screamed. The Realm Collapsed.
Naruto and Sakura vanished into stardust.
Sasuke remained—just his eyes, suspended in a dark void.
And from the space above, Obsidian Ardyn descended.
No longer watching.
Now hunting.
"You broke the stitch. Impressive."
He drew his blade.
Ardyn drew his.
Their voids collided again.
But this time—Ardyn smiled first.
"You're not the only one who learns from failure."
[CHAPTER END | NEXT: Dimensional Duel – Void Prince vs. Void King]