"Let me show you what Lord B can do!!!"
Seeing the cultivation body within arm's reach, Killer B's face lit up with joy.
He raised his elbow with all his strength.
Wrapped in the power of the Tailed Beast Cloak and the destructive force of Lightning Release, he slammed it toward the crimson figure suspended in midair, tightly bound by the massive lightning dragon.
Tailed Beast Lariat!
With this strike, he bet everything—
The pride of the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki.
And the lives of the three thousand Kumogakure shinobi.
He could not allow that monster to free its hands and rampage through the Kumogakure ranks.
Even the defensive specialists of Iwagakure couldn't withstand that machine-gun-like barrage.
Naturally, Kumogakure wouldn't fare any better.
So Killer B's plan was simple.
Hold it here.
As long as the monster couldn't enter the crowd—
It couldn't massacre them.
Then Kumogakure would survive.
Losing one third of their elite forces in a single encounter…
For a great ninja village, that pain was unimaginable.
It could honestly be called a devastating blow to their strength.
So now—
He had to eliminate the threat immediately.
Yet just as his elbow was about to strike the cultivation body—
The calm face of the crimson figure suddenly twisted upward in a strange smile.
Crack—
Crack—
Black fissures spread across its body like spiderwebs.
Like a balloon inflated beyond its limit—
It shrank inward for a split second…
Then exploded outward.
WHOOSH—BOOM!
All the power contained within the cultivation body ascended to its ultimate peak—
And detonated.
The sunlight vanished once again.
For a moment—
It looked as if the sun itself had ignited in midair.
And shattered.
At that instant—
The entire sky became nothing but blinding white.
Killer B's triumphant grin froze on his face.
Only now did he realize what was happening.
His expression twisted in horror.
"DAMN IT! That thing is self-destructing!"
What kind of madness was this?!
They were fighting normally—so how did it suddenly decide to blow itself up?!
But there was no time to think.
The explosion was already happening.
There was no way to escape.
Killer B could only squeeze every ounce of energy from his muscles and cells.
The Tailed Beast Cloak and Lightning Armor were his only hope of survival.
And not just him.
The three thousand Kumogakure shinobi below were also stunned.
Before they could even attempt to flee—
The blinding light swallowed them.
The battlefield was consumed entirely by white.
Even the storm clouds above were temporarily pushed aside.
Crack.
Crack.
Below, the ground shattered, rose, and collapsed in endless waves.
Soon—
A massive hemispherical blast over one hundred meters wide appeared.
Spreading outward with the power to destroy everything.
Wherever the light passed—
Rock, trees, mountains, animals—
Even the shinobi of the two allied villages—
Were swept by the blinding radiance within a fraction of a second.
In that instant—
Lifeless matter vanished.
Living beings were gravely wounded.
The battlefield fell silent once more.
Thousands of people—
Not a single sound.
Or perhaps—
All sound had simply lost meaning before that power.
Killer B, closest to the blast, took the full brunt of it.
His Tailed Beast Lariat—
Along with the Eight-Tails' chakra cloak—
Melted away as if striking molten lava.
His enormous body was blasted away instantly.
"B!!!"
Inside his mind, Gyūki roared in alarm.
More and more dark red chakra surged outward.
Trying desperately to rebuild the Tailed Beast Cloak to protect him.
Hiss—
The white light spread endlessly.
The dark red chakra was torn apart, evaporated, destroyed, and regenerated again and again.
An endless cycle.
It continued for nearly thirty seconds—
Before the blinding light finally faded.
What remained was devastation.
At the center lay a massive crater.
Over one hundred meters in diameter.
Nearly ten meters deep.
The edges of the crater had been melted into dark red glass-like rock from the extreme heat.
Thin smoke rose from the surface.
The air carried the choking smell of burning flesh and sulfur.
At the bottom—
The ground looked as if it had been flattened by a giant roller.
Farther away, the forest at the edge of the Forest of Death had been flattened outward in a radial pattern.
Carbonized.
Blackened.
Where the blast passed—
Not even large stones remained.
Only a thick layer of black ash.
Occasionally mixed with fragments of dark red chakra and shredded flesh writhing weakly on the ground.
Remains of the octopus-like Eight-Tails.
Thud.
"I… I survived?"
At the edge of the crater, a surviving Kumogakure ninja collapsed.
His body was like a boneless sack of mud.
"Thank goodness… I'm alive…"
Thud.
Thud.
More Kumogakure shinobi regained their senses and collapsed onto the ground.
The Lightning Armor that once covered their bodies had long faded.
Their chakra was completely exhausted.
Their faces were pale as corpses.
Some unlucky shinobi stared blankly at their charred hands.
Others clutched their eyes, blood tears flowing down their faces.
The explosion's power still lingered.
"Hah… hah…"
Another Kumogakure jōnin struggled to stand.
But the moment he raised half his body—
"BLARGH!"
He vomited a mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
Then he collapsed again.
Whether he lived or died was uncertain.
But judging by the state of things—
Death was only a matter of time.
Across the entire Kumogakure force—
Of the original three thousand shinobi, fewer than one thousand could still move.
And every single one of them was utterly exhausted.
Even lifting a finger was difficult.
"L-L-Lord B!"
Suddenly someone realized something and crawled toward the edge of the crater, shouting downward.
Though irritating at times—
Killer B was still the village's ultimate weapon.
They had already lost the Raikage and the Two-Tails jinchūriki.
They could not afford to lose the Eight-Tails as well.
At the bottom of the crater, within a twisted rock crevice formed by the blast pressure—
Killer B was wedged inside in a grotesque posture.
Half his body had been burned black and carbonized.
White bone exposed.
The Eight-Tails' dark red chakra cloak had thinned to a mist.
Struggling to repair his wounds.
Each surge of chakra forced fresh blood from the countless injuries across his body.
Hearing the calls above, Killer B spat several mouthfuls of black blood.
Weakly asking within his mind,
"G-Gyūki… are you still alive?"
His voice was barely audible.
Even within his consciousness it sounded like the buzzing of a mosquito.
"Won't die."
Gyūki replied irritably.
Equally weak.
Like a dying old octopus at the end of its life.
At that same moment—
A faint smile slowly appeared on Uchiha Kai's lips.
Because before his eyes—
System notifications were appearing nonstop.
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