The giant screamed in agony and rage as crimson Chakra poured out like a waterfall. They had done it. The monster was finally crippled.
Cheers and renewed resolve spread through the fighters. "Good work, everyone. Keep coordinating, don't stop!"
An Yamanaka Clan Jonin spoke directly into their minds using Mind Transmission. He avoided attacking the monster's chaotic spirit, instead weaving a mental network to coordinate all Konoha Ninja.
Orders flowed clearly, guiding every movement. That coordination was the reason they could seize such a perfect moment.
Watching this, Yunchuan Hyuga's eyes flickered slightly. He had no intention of destroying Konoha now, and even later it would require careful control. After Hashirama Senju's death, Konoha survived because of its deep foundations and countless techniques, not a single individual.
Even so, the cost was heavy. The Nara Clan suffered mental damage and could no longer use Shadow Secret Technique. The Yamanaka Clan maintained the network under extreme strain, while Akimichi Clan lost its strongest fighters.
Countless Konoha Ninja lay dead around them. In this battle, only those with great power or special Ninjutsu could avoid becoming expendable.
Shisui Uchiha gasped for breath, blood still streaming from his eyes. Worse, the monster's aura remained deep and unfathomable, its severed arms already regrowing.
"How is this possible?" His voice was hoarse as he stared at the giant. "Is its Dojutsu Power endless?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart sank. He knew Shisui could not last much longer, and the monster was learning, becoming more precise with every strike.
Then, suddenly, the voice of the Yamanaka Clan Jonin echoed again. "Do not lose hope. Reinforcements are coming, and there is good news."
"When the black creatures released by Fugaku Uchiha are killed, Fugaku Uchiha's aura weakens."
Understanding dawned instantly. "Those black creatures feed it," Shisui Uchiha shouted. "Kill them, and the main body weakens too!"
Before Hiruzen Sarutobi could rally them further, a soul-shaking boom erupted overhead. It was not thunder or Ninjutsu.
Everyone looked up. The sky itself was torn open by two hands, revealing a vast black rift. Thick darkness spilled out, carrying an unbearable presence.
The Yamanaka Clan Jonin froze, terror widening his eyes. He collapsed to his knees, retching violently as fear crushed both mind and body.
From the rift, a shadowed foot stepped out, followed by three more figures. Their auras pressed down like solid darkness.
They hovered above, looking down at the people of Konoha like ants. Everyone trembled.
They did not know what those beings were. But their bodies knew one thing clearly.
These were beings far more terrifying than the crimson giant below.
It was already five in the morning, and the sun rose on the distant horizon. A faint red light filtered through the clouds, yet no one felt any warmth from it.
That was because a rift tore open the sky, split wide like the gate of the Abyss. Four figures seemed to walk out from the Abyss, stepping slowly from the torn scar in the air.
The figure on the left was powerfully built, wrapped in pale White bone armor, with White-colored Sui hair drifting in the airflow. Two broad bone blades crossed on its back, and a cold, emotionless mask covered its face.
There was a hollow hole in its abdomen, and the number "2" was marked on the back of its left hand. It stood in silence, radiating a pressure that made breathing difficult.
The figure on the right was slender, with clearly female contours. Long purple hair flowed freely in the wind, and a mask covered the upper half of its face.
Besides the number "3" on the back of its right hand and the Void Hole at the position of its lungs, the most striking feature was the wings behind it. They looked like a pair of human arms, with membranes stretched between five fingers, and on closer inspection they were formed from countless finger bones.
The two figures in the middle were closest to human in shape. The one at the back bore the number "1" and had red hair, while the one in front wore a black robe that concealed all features.
In the next moment, thick darkness like ink flowed downward, forming a staircase that extended to the ground. 'Shadow' did not remain in the sky, but stepped down slowly, one step at a time, toward Konoha.
His pace was slow and casual, as if he were strolling through a garden. Yet with each step, a suffocating chill seeped into everyone's hearts bit by bit.
The people of Konoha stared at the black-robed figure, yet felt as if their gazes fell on empty space. The harder they tried to focus, the sharper the pain in their eyes, like countless invisible needles.
A misty red glow drifted down behind him, but around his body there was only a deep, shifting darkness. All light, even sight itself, seemed to be chewed up and swallowed, making it impossible to tell reality from Xu illusion.
It was like when Kakashi Hatake once faced even a heavily injured and defecting Orochimaru and dared not act. It was also like Sasuke Uchiha later standing frozen during the Chunin Exams under Orochimaru's killing intent.
If what Kakashi Hatake and Sasuke felt from Orochimaru was killing intent, then what the people of Konoha felt from 'Shadow' was different. There was only an unimaginably deep and cold malice.
It was hard to believe such nearly tangible malice could exist in a human form. Just one glance made them feel as if they had fallen into an icy abyss.
When 'Shadow' stepped off the staircase and one foot touched the ground, a clear footstep sounded. That sound seemed to give someone a shred of courage.
A burly Akimichi Clan Jonin standing in his path instinctively raised his foot to block the black figure. Yet the moment he moved, as 'Shadow' brushed past him, a cold and deathly aura swept lightly over half his body.
That chill sank deep into flesh and blood, making half his body lose all sensation, as if it had turned to ash and scattered. He was not truly killed, but it was the instinctive sixth sense of death carved into all living beings.
His body screamed at him not to move forward. Any attempt to touch or block that being would be erased.
It was as if someone whispered in his ear to do nothing. He could still go home alive, see his wife and children, and in the coming years feel grateful that he chose to live that night.
That fear from the depths of the soul froze the blood of the Akimichi Clan Jonin. His pupils dilated, and though his body was intact, he stood rigid as the figure passed by without sparing him a glance.
'Shadow' did not pause. He walked straight through the encirclement of Konoha and stopped before the crimson giant.
"Come out," he said calmly. "Let me take a look at you."
To the ears of those in Konoha, his tone was as casual as someone choosing a dog in a pet shop. Yet unexpectedly, the previously frenzied crimson giant fell into complete silence the moment he appeared.
After 'Shadow' spoke, the pale White exoskeleton at the giant's front opened, and the White-colored figure stepped out. Before 'Shadow', its hatred and rage seemed soothed, leaving only closeness as it knelt on one knee by instinct.
"The first naturally born intermediate 'Great Hollow' in the Ninja World?" 'Shadow' looked down and chuckled softly. "Formed on Fugaku Uchiha's foundation, absorbing the hatred and anger of the Uchiha Clan."