The Ten-Tails' roar gradually subsided, and the desert fell into an eerie, deathly silence.
Dust and sand settled slowly like a bloody mist, revealing twisted limbs and shattered weapons strewn across the ground.
Surviving Allied Shinobi huddled behind piles of corpses, trembling, their very sobs choked in their throats by fear.
The Ten-Tails' single Rinnegan swept indifferently across the battlefield, as if inspecting mere dust.
At this moment, the Shinobi Allied Forces truly understood the meaning of "Pain."
"To think such a change would occur?" Tendo Pain watched the transformation of the Gedo Statue, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes.
His knowledge of the Gedo Statue had been obtained from Obito and The Collector.
Evidently, they had not informed him of the reasons behind this series of changes.
To this day, he still did not know Obito's true objective, and The Collector was likely watching everything unfold from somewhere.
If he hadn't intervened, it meant that the development of events might have been under the other party's control all along.
Thinking of this, Nagato's heart felt a trace of solemnity.
"Damn it, it can still keep getting stronger?" Minato looked at the transforming Ten-Tails; even he could not remain completely calm at this moment.
The power of the Ten-Tails was simply too great—so great that their numerical advantage was being forcibly erased!
Furthermore, Shinobi of the alliance were dying every single moment...
Minato was powerless to stop it, his heart bleeding in silence as a look of determination filled his eyes.
He... would definitely prevent the worst outcome from happening, or at least make their sacrifices worthwhile!
"...Oho, it seems I'm a bit late."
The frivolous tone was like a pebble thrown into a stagnant lake, instantly shattering the suffocating atmosphere of despair brought by the Ten-Tails' roar.
This figure appeared abruptly in mid-air, as if tearing through space itself, hovering precisely between the mountain-like, hideous head of the Ten-Tails and the ant-like Allied Forces below.
The newcomer was dressed in simple, dark clothing, wearing a Fox Mask that bore a half-smile.
It was none other than the one whose name made the entire Shinobi World turn pale: "The Collector," Takuno!
Shock! Like an invisible shockwave, it instantly swept through every faction at the heart of the battlefield!
Minato's golden pupils suddenly constricted to pinpricks!
It was this very figure who, with an unmatched posture and right before his eyes, had forcibly extracted the violent Nine-Tails from within Kushina!
Moreover, his strength was incredibly powerful; if the other party were an enemy, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Fortunately, he did not see the man wearing the clothes of the Akatsuki, which proved there was still a chance for things to turn around.
Ōnoki's small body, floating in the air, suddenly trembled, and an unbelievable horror erupted in his cloudy old eyes.
"It's... it's him!"
The terrifying existence who had broken into Iwagakure alone and, with absolute strength, nonchalantly crushed everyone, forcing him to hand over the Four-Tails and Five-Tails chakra!
That sense of humiliation and powerlessness buried deep in his heart surged up once again.
Compared to the destructive Ten-Tails before him, The Collector brought an even more heart-stopping sense of pressure.
A low growl, suppressing endless fury, burst from the depths of the Raikage's throat.
Violent blue-green Lightning Nature chakra crackled uncontrollably across his body, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the masked figure.
It was this bastard who, in past wars, had disrupted Kumogakure's strategic deployments and caused immeasurable losses!
Ay's muscles were as tense as iron, his teeth nearly grinding to dust, and his intense killing intent almost broke through his reason.
However, just as his impulse was about to explode, a thread of rationality forcibly suppressed it.
He knew the other man's terror; charging forward now would be no different from suicide!
Those thunderous fists ultimately only clenched tighter, veins bulging, yet he failed to take a single step forward.
This feeling of frustration, woven from anger and wariness, almost drove him mad.
For the first time, the figure of The Collector was clearly reflected in Gaara's always calm, emerald-green eyes.
Rumors about this person had long been widespread—mysterious, with unfathomable strength, toying with Tailed Beasts like playthings, and single-handedly stirring the winds and clouds of the Shinobi World.
Seeing him in person now, that indifferent posture that stood above the battlefield as if transcendent was more impactful than any legend.
Is this... that legendary monster?
A flash of surprise and solemnity crossed Mei Terumī's charming yet sharp eyes.
She frowned slightly, her red lips parting as she silently let out a breath.
"So... this is 'The Collector'?"
She had heard of this mysterious figure's various deeds countless times, but this was her first time seeing him with her own eyes.
The way he appeared before the Ten-Tails as if taking a stroll, and that aura of treating the tragic battlefield below as if it were nothing...
It made her instantly understand why this person's name alone could trigger such heavy wariness at the Five Kage Summit.
A chill quietly crept up her spine.
The Akatsuki side was also thrown off their original rhythm by this sudden intruder.
Obito's figure, hidden within the folds of the Kamui Dimension, suddenly stiffened.
His crimson Sharingan stared fixedly through the hole in his mask at the figure in the sky, his pupils constricting violently! The Collector?!
How could he appear here? Hadn't he always been pulling strings from behind the scenes, or watching coldly from the sidelines?
Obito's thoughts surged; The Collector's power was unfathomable, and his stance was extremely ambiguous.
He had only snatched Tailed Beast chakra before; now that his true self had arrived at this final battlefield, what was his purpose?
Was it to seize the power of the Ten-Tails? To disrupt the situation? Or... did he want the Ten-Tails chakra?
The Collector's appearance once again filled this already unfavorable situation with variables.
The huge variable and the powerful sense of threat caused Obito's heart to sink to the bottom.
Tendo Pain's floating, orange-haired figure turned slightly, his cold Rinnegan focusing on The Collector.
There was no change in expression on Pain's face, but the purple ripples in those Rinnegan seemed to flow a bit faster.
"Finally... you've shown yourself."
Nagato thought to himself; this was not outside his expectations, and was even faintly within his calculations.
The desert wind seemed to come to a complete standstill at this moment.
The destructive aura of the Ten-Tails still shrouded the land.
But at this moment, everyone's gaze—whether filled with fear, anger, shock, doubt, or vigilance—
Was firmly locked onto the figure wearing the Fox Mask, hovering between the destructive beast and the despairing Allied Forces.
The Collector!
His appearance was like the hand of fate that controlled everything, suddenly seizing the throat of this Final Battle concerning the survival of the Shinobi World.
What would happen next? No one could predict.
The Collector was seen yawning, a trace of fatigue flashing in his eyes.
Then, The Collector simply snapped his fingers casually.
Snap.
The sound was not loud, yet it was like a war drum beaten directly in the depths of one's soul.
It pierced through the lingering echoes of the Ten-Tails' roar, the howling sandstorm of the battlefield, and the wails of the wounded with absolute clarity, resounding in the heart of every living being on the desert battlefield.
Everyone—whether it was the Allied Shinobi struggling to hold on, the Akatsuki members locked in combat with their opponents, or even Obito peering from the Kamui Dimension—
And the Tendo Pain floating high in the sky, their hearts couldn't help but throb violently along with that light sound!
An indescribable tremor passed through them, as if some higher-dimensional existence had cast its gaze upon them.
Immediately following that, an even more hair-raising sight appeared.
Right behind The Collector, space rippled silently like the surface of water.
It wasn't a condensation of Earth Release, nor a summoning from a Jutsu, and there were no traces of violent chakra fluctuations; it was purely "creation out of nothing."
Sand, air, light...
It seemed these most basic material particles had instantly completed their reorganization and shaping under the command of some absolute will.
A massive, ancient stone throne, bearing the marks of ages, condensed out of thin air!
Its lines were cold and hard, exuding an eternal sense of weight, with subtle yet profound energy ripples flowing across its surface, as if it contained the power of laws beyond understanding.
It just hung there in the void, steady and firm, ignoring the laws of gravity as if it had existed in that patch of sky since time immemorial.
The Collector's figure moved slightly, and with an indescribably elegant and lazy posture, he drifted backward and settled firmly, leaning against the throne that had appeared out of nowhere.
His slender body sank into the wide backrest, one arm resting casually on the cool armrest.
With the back of his hand supporting his face, his eyes beneath the mask seemed to carry a trace of playful weariness.
His other leg was leisurely crossed, his toe swaying slightly in the void, creating spatial ripples barely detectable to the naked eye.
Having done all this, it was as if he had just found a comfortable spot to sit down.
That posture—ignoring the Ten-Tails' pressure and treating the tragic battle field below as if it were nothing—interpreted the transcendence and indifference of one looking down upon all living beings to the extreme.
The entire battlefield fell into an eerie silence.
Even the violent Ten-Tails seemed to hesitate for a moment due to this inconceivable creation and that indifferent gaze, its low growls weakening by several degrees.
Countless gazes, filled with shock, fear, confusion, and disbelief, were fixed dead on the figure upon the throne.
Finally, under the watch of tens of thousands of eyes, The Collector spoke.
His voice was not loud, yet it sounded directly in the depths of everyone's mind with absolute clarity.
It carried a sort of nonchalant laziness and a trace of imperceptible mockery:
"Carry on, don't mind me." He tilted his head slightly, the mask seeming to outline an invisible smile.
"I'm just... here to watch a good show."
As his words fell, the silence was broken, turning into a hum of suppressed intensity.
Minato clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
Watch a show? At this moment of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, with the survival of the Shinobi World at stake, he actually said he was just here to watch a show?!
But witnessing that miracle of creation out of thin air and recalling the power with which the other party easily subdued the Nine-Tails, that bottomless terror made any questioning seem pale and weak.
He could only forcibly suppress his churning rage and anxiety, his azure eyes staring fixedly at Pain and the Ten-Tails, searching for a fleeting opportunity for battle.
Ōnoki floated in the air, feeling that his Dust Release was like child's play in the face of the other's nonchalant creation methods, a chill shooting from his spine straight to the top of his head.
The shame of Iwagakure being plundered of its Tailed Beast chakra intertwined with the powerlessness of facing absolute strength at this moment.
He has become... even more powerful!
"Monster..." he cried out silently in his heart.
Raikage Ay's entire body surged with intense lightning, symbolizing the tidal waves within his heart.
He wanted to roar, to question, to smash lightning into that high-and-mighty spectator, but his reason held him back firmly.
The other party's strength was unfathomable; acting rashly would only bring destruction.
He could only pour this humiliation and rage doubly onto Kakuzu before him, letting out a roar twisted by suppression.
Gaara's sand stirred uneasily, his emerald eyes reflecting the figure on the throne.
For the first time, he felt a pure pressure brought by an unknown existence that surpassed Tailed Beasts and surpassed understanding.
It was a sense of being crushed on the level of fundamental laws.
Mei Terumī's red lips were tightly pressed, her charming face full of solemnity.
"Watch a show... quite the 'watch a show'..."
She felt an unprecedented chill, as if she herself were nothing more than a character on a stage.
The Allied Shinobi felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
They had thought the Ten-Tails was already a cataclysmic disaster, but this mysterious existence that had appeared now, with the methods he displayed and his indifferent attitude, made them feel even more despair than the Ten-Tails.
Invisible fear gripped their hearts, and the hands of many holding weapons were trembling slightly.
Obito, hidden in the Kamui Dimension, had his Sharingan beneath the mask constrict sharply, filled with unprecedented vigilance.
What exactly does he want to do? Truly just watch a show? Or... is it for the Ten-Tails?
Nagato's Rinnegan cast over a trace of cold inquiry, clearly also full of doubt regarding The Collector's true intentions.
But one thing was certain.
Whether it was the Five Kage, the Allied Shinobi, or the members of the Akatsuki—
None of them dared to disturb this Collector whose attitude was unclear.
They could only hope or pray that what The Collector had just said... was true!
Otherwise, this person's arrival would turn all their resistance or all their plans into the most complete joke!
The Collector, who was Takuno's Wood Clone, leaned against the throne, his hand propping up his cheek, his eyes beneath the mask calmly scanning the various states of the living beings below.
The despair of the Allied Forces, the vigilance of the Akatsuki, the hideousness of the Ten-Tails, and that blood-soaked land...
Everything seemed to have nothing to do with him on the throne.
He just sat there quietly, like a true spectator, waiting for the drama named "The End of the Shinobi World."
To pull back the curtain on its bloodiest, most chaotic, and most... interesting climax.
Of course, his fatigue at this moment was not fake; the gains of his true body had caused even him, as a Wood Clone, to be involuntarily immersed.
Fortunately, he had finally regained his clarity, but the Final Battle had already begun.
He, who had originally wanted to come and watch the show at the first possible moment, was indeed a bit late.
At this moment, sitting on the throne, he was both watching the show and recovering his spirit.
Now, it could be said that he had completed everything that could be completed, and was just waiting for the arrival of the final act.
Takuno glanced at Nagato, then at Obito, the corners of his mouth curling up.
He hoped they wouldn't let him down!