"Hold steady!"
"Use chakra to adhere to the ground!"
Nara Shikaku's roar seemed so faint amidst the chaos.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The desert further away was violently torn apart, and massive bedrock slabs were uprooted, howling as they flew toward the core in the sky like stone projectiles hurled by a god.
That "black dot" was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye!
It greedily devoured all matter shot toward it: giant rocks, the sea of sand, metal fragments, water currents...
The moment they touched it, they were silently compressed and condensed.
In just a few breaths, a terrifying giant rock sphere with a diameter far exceeding a hundred meters, forcibly melded from the matter of the entire battlefield, hung high above the desert!
It blocked the sunlight, casting a deathly shadow; its surface continued to grow, emitting a dull, thunderous sound of compression.
The gravitational field covered almost the entire core battlefield!
Flying sand and stones blotted out the sky, forming a reverse world-ending storm!
The defensive formation built by the Allied Shinobi Forces was instantly torn to shreds, even for powerhouses like the Raikage and Killer Bee.
They also had to exert their full chakra, pinning themselves firmly to the ground to resist the terrifying suction that threatened to tear them apart and bury them along with the earth!
However, in this grand scene that seemed like the apocalypse had arrived, only one person remained detached.
On the suspended, ancient stone seat, The Collector Takuno still leaned back lazily.
His dark robes didn't even show a single wrinkle in the violent gravitational turbulence that was enough to tear steel apart.
His gaze beneath the mask was as calm as an abyss, "appreciating" the destructive scene of Tendo Pain's final struggle with great interest.
"Oh? Chibaku Tensei..." His voice carried a faint, imperceptible hint of admiration, as if he were critiquing an interesting piece of art.
"It does have a bit of the 'Six Paths' shadow. Unfortunately, the controller is far too inferior; it only has the form."
Right, he was speaking on a thousand-point scale.
That terrifying gravity, enough to pull even a Tailed Beast off the ground, vanished into nothingness the moment it touched the ten-meter range around the stone seat, as if hitting an invisible barrier.
He didn't even lower the hand supporting his cheek, completely regarding this world-ending power as a gentle breeze.
"Minato! We must stop it! The core should be that initial black sphere! Attack the core!"
Nara Shikaku's voice was nearly drowned out in the violent gravitational turbulence.
Minato's golden pupils were sharp as swords, firmly locking onto the deep black dot faintly visible at the core of the giant rock sphere.
The Flying Thunder God kunai traversed the gravitational field with difficulty; he teleported to a relatively stable high point and spoke to Inoichi through the mental link.
"Inoichi! Maximum range mental transmission! Target: the core black sphere! A full-power strike!!"
"Understood!"
Inoichi endured the Pain of his mental connection being torn by gravity, sitting cross-legged and forming hand seals, the veins on his forehead bulging.
His spiritual energy expanded like an explosion!
"All forces, hear my command! Target the core black dot of the rock sphere in the sky! All attacks, congregate!!!"
This command was not transmitted through sound but exploded directly in the minds of all Allied Shinobi Forces Shinobi on the battlefield who could still move, like a thunderclap!
A moment after the notification was delivered...
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
"Earth Release: Rock Pistol!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Magnet Release: gold sand Shuriken!"
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
Countless voices roared in response amidst the gravitational storm!
In an instant, the light of Ninjutsu of various colors and forms, like a reverse-flowing galaxy, struggled to break free from the shackles of gravity from all corners of the desert and surged upward!
Raging flames, roaring thunder, traversing gold sand, hissing water dragons...
Although most attacks were distorted, weakened, or even diverted by gravity along the way, their goal was more unified than ever.
That massive sphere!
Hundreds and thousands of Ninjutsu torrents, like moths to a flame, struck the black sphere area encased in rock one after another!
The sounds of explosions rumbled into one, continuous and unending!
Rubble flew from the surface of the rock sphere, and dust filled the air!
Minato's figure flickered frantically amidst the sky-filling Ninjutsu light and flying rubble!
The Yellow Flash was like a shuttle of hope cruising through the storm of destruction.
He was searching, waiting for that one and only opportunity!
Finally! Under the impact of countless Ninjutsu, especially a beam of white Dust Release light emitted by Ōnoki with all his might, and the continuous thrusting of the gold sand giant spear controlled by Gaara regardless of the cost.
Crack! Boom!
A section of the giant rock sphere facing the main force of the Allied Forces shattered under the continuous concentrated fire!
Although it was only a brief gap a few meters in diameter, in that instant...
The deep "black sphere" encased within, emitting primitive gravitational fluctuations, was exposed to Minato's vision!
The chance!!!
Minato's figure instantly vanished from his spot! A Flying Thunder God kunai lodged in a shattered rock fragment became the perfect springboard!
A golden light flashed! Minato's figure had already appeared in front of the collapsing gap, directly facing the pitch-black core that emitted devastating gravity!
The violent gravity nearly tore him apart, but a flame of unprecedented determination burned in his azure eyes!
His hands moved rapidly in front of his chest, forming seals so fast they were mere afterimages!
Natural Energy converged frantically into his body as if summoned, merging with his own massive chakra to form a violent Senjutsu chakra storm!
Orange eyeshadow appeared on both sides of his cheeks, and his aura instantly became vast!
That storm was compressed and shaped to the extreme between the palms of his hands!
It was no longer a rotating sphere of chakra, but condensed into a brilliant light wheel with an extremely sharp edge, rotating at high speed!
The Wind Nature chakra was empowered by Senjutsu energy and compressed to the limit, presenting a dazzling bright silver color that seemed capable of cutting through space itself!
The light wheel hummed, emitting an ear-piercing shriek; its edge's light was so sharp that its mere existence caused subtle ripples of distortion in the surrounding space!
"Sage Art: Wind Release: Spiraling Light Wheel Sky-Cutting Third Style!!!"
Minato let out a roar that pierced the battlefield, injecting all his strength and will, along with his belief in protecting the Shinobi World and ending the Pain!
The muscles in his arms bulged as he fiercely threw this white light wheel, containing the ultimate cutting power, toward the pitch-black core that emitted endless gravity!!!
Rip!!!
There was no world-shaking explosion!
Only an ear-piercing shriek, as if space itself were being forcibly sliced open!
That Sage Art: Wind Release: Spiraling Light Wheel Sky-Cutting Third Style light wheel was like a blade of judgment piercing the darkness, striking the core black sphere of the Chibaku Tensei with incomparable precision!
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
Where the bright silver light wheel collided with the deep black sphere, a light bright enough to blind eyes erupted!
A pure law of cutting was in frantic effect!
Buzz!!!
The black sphere trembled and wailed violently!
The spatial distortion structure that constituted its core gravitational source snapped inch by inch under this ultimate cutting power, like a tightened lute string!
The next instant!
Poof!!!
A slight sound, like a balloon being pricked by a needle.
That pitch-black core, which emitted gravity that devoured everything, suddenly shrank inward under the continuous cutting of the brilliant bright silver light wheel, and then...
Completely disintegrated! Annihilated!
The moment the core shattered, the terrifying, world-destroying gravity that had shrouded the entire battlefield... suddenly vanished!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
Without the maintenance of the gravitational source, the massive rock sphere suspended in the sky, forcibly condensed from countless rocks and sand, let out a moan of despair.
Its massive volume instantly lost balance under the absolute laws of gravity and began to collapse and disintegrate from within!
Countless giant rock fragments and sand fell like a meteor shower, with sharp howls that tore through the air, crashing down toward the desert battlefield below!
Chibaku Tensei... had been broken!
Simultaneously, Tendo Pain's figure also fell straight down along with these falling rocks.
On the desert, the Allied Shinobi Forces, having survived the disaster, looked at the collapsing world-ending sphere above their heads, their faces a mix of unbelievable ecstasy and the shock of facing a second disaster.
On the stone seat, The Collector Takuno merely adjusted his sitting posture slightly, and a light snort of unknown meaning seemed to come from beneath his mask.
It was as if this battle of slaying a 'god,' witnessed by him as a "spectator," had finally reached a turning point.
The dust from the disintegration of Chibaku Tensei had not yet settled, and the Allied Shinobi Forces were still immersed in the gasps of survival and the unbelievable sense of victory.
However, Minato's figure had already appeared at the spot where Tendo Pain fell like a golden flash.
The body that once belonged to Yahiko now lay at the bottom of a charred pit, the purple ripples symbolizing the Rinnegan dim and dull.
Blood was gurgling from "Pain's" mouth, nose, corners of the eyes, and even ear canals.
That was the terrifying backlash from forcibly activating Chibaku Tensei and then having it violently broken, which crossed space and acted deeply upon Tendo Pain's body.
The symbol of the former leader of the Akatsuki was now nothing but a miserable wreck.
Minato stood before Yahiko's 'corpse,' his expression extremely complicated.
Before his eyes flashed the instructions from Master Jiraiya when he was heavily injured and dying, and that heavy sigh of his teacher: "If there is a turn of events, spare Nagato's life."
This bond between master and disciple and the pity for a fallen comrade clashed violently with his responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces who must end the threat.
Ultimately, responsibility outweighed hesitation.
Minato's gaze sharpened, and a high-speed rotating chakra sphere, the Rasengan, instantly condensed in his right palm.
He raised his arm high, his target aimed directly at Tendo Pain's core.
Just at this critical moment...
Tendo Pain's face... actually twitched upward!
A smile filled with thick mockery appeared stiffly on that blood-stained face.
Those hollow Rinnegan seemed to focus briefly, looking directly at Minato.
Minato's heart suddenly constricted! A strong instinct, honed from countless life-and-death battles, screamed a warning.
"Not good!"
This was definitely not a normal phenomenon! Nagato... he still had a trump card! Or rather, he didn't care about the survival of this body at all!
"Heh heh..."
A raspy, non-human laugh, like the sound of bubbles bursting from deep within Yahiko's throat, clearly reached Minato's ears.
In the next moment, before Minato could make any reaction...
"ROAR!!!"
A roar far more shrill and crazed than any before.
A shriek filled with endless Pain and a desire for destruction tore through the momentary silence of the entire battlefield!
The source of the sound was precisely the Ten-Tails, which everyone thought had a severely damaged head and was at its last gasp!
The Ten-Tails' massive remaining body suddenly twitched and expanded violently!
It seemed to be completely detonating the last of its remaining life force, as well as the life force forcibly squeezed out by the Allied Forces' attacks!
The charred tissue of the destroyed part of the head frantically writhed and proliferated into keratinized, forming an even more hideous and distorted structure.
Ten giant tails that had been hanging limply stood straight and swung frantically, bringing with them air-tearing shrieks and destructive energy storms.
Dazzling, ominous dark purple lightning erupted from the cracks on its body, like countless wildly dancing venomous snakes coiling around it.
Even more terrifying was the sudden change in the weather!
With the Ten-Tails as the center, the sky was instantly swallowed by dark clouds as thick as ink, blotting out all light, and in an instant, daylight turned into an eerie twilight where one couldn't see their own hand.
Blood-red and dark purple lightning dragons frantically traversed and exploded within the churning clouds, each flash reflecting the silhouette of the Ten-Tails below like a doomsday shadow.
The earth shook and cracked violently like a fragile eggshell, and bottomless giant fissures spread rapidly, swallowing unfortunate wounded and traces of battle.
Violent hurricanes were generated out of thin air, picking up sand, stones, debris, and even broken ninja tools, forming several death tornadoes that connected the sky and the earth.
Heavens change, earth shifts!
This scene was exactly like the apocalyptic omen brought by the arrival of the Ten-Tails in legends.
At this moment, the Ten-Tails had officially entered its Incomplete Second Form!
It turned into a thin, standing form, the tails behind it became like claws, and the head had only one eye and one ear.
The faint morale that had just risen in the Allied Forces' formation due to defeating the Six Paths of Pain and Chibaku Tensei was instantly crushed to pieces in the face of this world-destroying scene.
Minato froze in place, maintaining the posture of condensing the Rasengan, his golden hair flying wildly in the gale.
His pupils constricted, staring fixedly at Yahiko's face before him, which was frozen in a mocking smile, then he suddenly looked up at the apocalyptic scene that seemed about to tear the whole world apart.
An even more cruel battle had only just begun.
Simultaneously, on the high-altitude stone seat, The Collector Takuno, who had been leaning back lazily, had a deep light faintly rise in his left Six-Tomoe Rinnegan.
He gazed at the Ten-Tails below, which had undergone a dramatic change in form and triggered celestial anomalies, and a nearly imperceptible small curve seemed to hook the corner of his mouth, as if saying...
"Now... this is getting interesting."
Konan stood atop the Ten-Tails' massive, scarred body covered in dark purple lightning, the gale blowing her paper-like long hair.
She watched as the familiar figure of Tendo Pain, carrying Yahiko's cold remains, fell powerlessly from the debris of the defeated Chibaku Tensei.
A tearing pain instantly gripped her heart, almost suffocating her.
That was Yahiko!
The Yahiko who had once led them in pursuit of peace, but ultimately fell under a Kunai to protect her and Nagato!
Almost out of instinct, her slender white arm rose slightly, and chakra condensed at her fingertips.
In just an instant, she could turn her Paper Wings into spears, pierce through the gale, and catch the falling figure to bring him back.