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OPI Chapter 456: Titans, Shinigami, and the Nichirin Sword
🕑 Added 2025-07-08 16:45:49 +0000 UTCOn both banks of the vast River Styx…
Countless Titans and armored, blade-wielding skeletons were locked in brutal combat.
Every moment, titans fell, or skeletal warriors were smashed into fragments.
But—
The tide of battle was clearly beginning to turn in favor of the titans.
These Pure Titans, unless their nape was sliced open and the human body inside killed, could regenerate lost limbs and even decapitations in seconds. On a battlefield of this scale, that ability gave them a massive advantage.
Their only flaw was that they moved purely by instinct.
Fortunately, Eren possessed the power of the Founding Titan, allowing him to control large numbers of Pure Titans across the battlefield.
So there was no risk of any of them suddenly wandering off in the middle of a fight, charging off in random directions.
At that moment—
At Eren’s command, the figures of the intelligent Titans from throughout history began to appear across the battlefield.
[BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!]
In an instant, golden lightning and brilliant flashes of light erupted in various parts of the battlefield.
The very next moment, titans of all shapes and sizes burst forth from surging waves of heat, dazzling and overwhelming the battlefield.
Led by Reiner Braun, the Armored Titans charged headfirst into the endless sea of skeletons, crashing through them like living battering rams.
The Beast Titans, each bearing distinct animal features, rampaged across the battlefield like awakened Zoan-type abilities gone berserk.
The War Hammer Titans summoned their signature cold weapons, engaging in ferocious melee combat with the black-robed Shinigami descending from the skies.
Gleaming white spears, blades, and halberds clashed with massive jet-black scythes. A symphony of metal clashing rang out endlessly, accompanied by bursts of dazzling sparks.
At that moment—
Led by Bertolt Hoover, five Colossal Titan inheritors finally soared to a certain altitude using Moonwalk, then spread out across the sky, keeping distance based on the distribution of forces below.
A second later—
The five exchanged a glance midair.
Then, in perfect unison, they ceased their Moonwalk, letting their bodies plummet freely toward the battlefield.
When they were roughly 200 meters above ground—
The five men, without hesitation, bit deeply into their palms.
[Zzzzt—Zzzzt—Zzzzt—Zzzzt—Zzzzt—]
As expected, golden lightning burst into bloom.
But this time, the sheer scale and intensity of the light far exceeded anything seen from the previous Titan transformations.
[BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!]
Blinding white light swallowed all color on the battlefield in an instant.
Roaring steam surged outward as a crushing wave of heat, engulfing everything in its path.
In the blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of skeletal soldiers were reduced to ash in five simultaneous explosions.
When the chaos finally settled, and the light faded—
On the scorched black earth along both banks of the River Styx, five craters had been blasted open, each one filled with flowing magma.
And standing at the center of each crater—
Were towering, crimson-skinned figures, their muscles fully exposed, their bodies wreathed in vapor, radiating an overwhelming pressure.
It didn’t take long—
Before the army of the King of the Dead stationed there completely collapsed.
Eren Yeager led his massive fleet straight down the River Styx, advancing without resistance.
The Five-Ringed Cross Flag, symbol of the World Government, drew ever closer to the Citadel of the King of the Dead.
...
“Saihoku Estuary has fallen already?!”
Sanast stared at the Den-Den Mushi in his hand with a mix of shock and rage, his voice thick with disbelief.
“You had 300,000 troops there! Plus 500 Shinigami! And you couldn’t even hold it for a single day?!”
But then, as the footage shifted to the moment five colossal Titans transformed and exploded simultaneously, he fell silent.
To someone like him, that level of destructive force wasn’t particularly impressive.
Still, he had to admit—it was a terrifying weapon of mass destruction on the battlefield.
At the same time, the Supreme Commander of the Shinigami Army observed the combat performance of other intelligent Titans.
Yet none of it was enough to make Sanast take them seriously.
“These Titans’ explosions pack a punch, I’ll give them that. But their limitations are obvious too. If we Shinigami rush in and engage them in close combat, unless they want to die together with us, they won’t be able to use that move again.”
Sanast understood well that when faced with these massive Titans of unknown numbers and unknown cooldown times, the skeleton battalions wouldn’t be of much use.
From this point forward, the battle would rest solely on the shoulders of the airborne, more powerful Shinigami.
Fortunately, the rest of the enemy Titans didn’t seem particularly strong. Taking them down shouldn’t be too difficult.
But at that moment, a black spatial rift suddenly appeared in front of him, faintly glowing purple around the edges.
“That is…”
The soul-flames within Sanast’s hollow eye sockets flickered violently.
Behind him, 3,000 black-robed Shinigami instantly went on high alert.
They were all thinking the same thing—forces from the Shinobi World had arrived!
Yet, contrary to expectations, the spatial rift didn’t grow larger. Instead, as two figures stepped through, it slowly faded away.
One was a stunning woman dressed in a violet-gold kimono, her figure tall and graceful, a long crimson-gold blade in her hand.
The other was a black-haired man clad in crimson armor over a fitted black bodysuit, a strange forehead protector crowning his head.
“A ninja, just as I thought!”
The moment he spotted the forehead protector, Sanast recognized it instantly.
He hadn’t participated in the invasion of the Pure Land in the Shinobi World.
But he had seen several ninja souls that Imu had sent earlier.
“Why do you carry the King of the Dead’s aura?!”
Sanast’s gaze abruptly shifted to the woman. His right hand stretched out, and in a flash, a massive blood-red scythe formed in his palm.
“Well, I suppose that makes sense. We’ve known each other for centuries, but this is our first time meeting in our current forms. Let me properly introduce myself.”
“Pleased to meet you, Commander Sanast. My name is Enma. Back then, I was just a blade.”
With a smile, the woman—now in her elegant, dignified form—offered him a calm glance.
"You are the sword that the King of the Dead forged!"
Sanast was visibly shocked.
He couldn’t comprehend it—how could a sword become a person?
“That’s right. But now I am no longer the weapon of the King of the Dead. I now serve as the blade of Lord Imu.”
“Imu… you mean the ruler of the World Government?”
“Correct,” Enma declared, her voice firm and commanding. “Under Lord Imu’s orders, starting today, I will serve as the ruler of the Underworld. I am here to take control of the Underworld of Starfish World and oversee all matters of the afterlife on behalf of the World Government.”
Brimming with confidence, Enma made her declaration loud and clear.
Sanast, however, erupted in fury.
“Such arrogance! The King of the Dead is returning soon—and when he does, all of you will be doomed!”
“Commander Sanast,” Enma said coolly, narrowing her eyes, “I know everything you know. There's no need to try to scare me with the name of the King of the Dead.”
“The fate of the King of the Dead is sealed. The day he is reborn will be the day he meets his true end. I suggest you face the reality of the situation. I’d be more than happy to welcome you—and your Shinigami Army—into the new order.”
Sanast fell silent.
After a brief pause, he raised his crimson scythe and pointed it at her.
He said nothing, but his response was clear.
Behind him, all 3,000 black-robed Shinigami raised their black scythes in unison.
“Sigh… so I really couldn’t convince you?”
Enma shook her head with visible regret.
She had genuinely hoped Sanast would submit peacefully.
But now that it had come to this, she didn’t waste another word. She turned to the man beside her—Senju Hashirama.
“I’ll leave those black-robed Shinigami to you.”
Senju Hashirama asked eagerly, “Can I fight that guy, Sanast?”
Of course, he was hoping for a battle against a powerful opponent.
But Enma responded coolly with just one line: “You’re no match for him.”
The words had barely left her mouth—
Her expression suddenly turned fierce, and the crimson-gold longsword in her hand was unsheathed.
In that instant—
An intensely radiant golden light illuminated the scarlet sky of the Underworld like a blazing flame.
The moment that golden light touched the black-robed Shinigami, they scattered like a startled flock of crows.
They clearly abhorred and resisted the warmth carried by that light.
And then—
All that golden light rapidly condensed in the sky, forming a towering blade of light that stretched from the heavens to the earth, cleaving straight toward Sanast.
“The aura of the Sun?!” Sanast exclaimed.
Yet there was not the slightest hesitation in the hand that held his scythe.
At once, he unleashed a terrifying blood-red slash to meet the incoming golden blade head-on.
[BOOM!!!]
The instant they collided, the entire sky of the Underworld was forcibly split in two.
The formless spiritual energy between heaven and earth boiled like scalding water, trembling violently.
The pitch-black land below began to fracture layer by layer.
A tidal wave of energy surged outward like a tsunami, completely scattering both Senju Hashirama and the 3,000 black-robed Shinigami.
Falling back to the ground, Hashirama looked up at the two clashing lights still violently pushing against each other in midair—releasing terrifying power in all directions—and murmured quietly: “So this is power at a higher level…”
He could feel it clearly: both Enma and Sanast were far stronger than Admiral Aokiji, the one who had previously defeated him.
The realization sent Hashirama’s heart racing, blood boiling with excitement.
Unfortunately… he was too weak right now.
He couldn’t even participate in a fight like that.
At that moment—
The 3,000 black-robed Shinigami turned into streaks of shadow and surged toward Hashirama from all directions.
“Perfect timing!!!”
Hashirama showed no fear—instead, his eyes lit up with battle spirit. He slammed his palms together in front of him and roared: “Deep Forest Emergence!!!”
