And the one responsible sat high upon his Throne, looking down on their struggles like a god.
"It's over..." Rasa murmured.
"No! It's not over!" Raikage A roared, Lightning Release chakra erupting around him once more. "Even if I die, I'm taking someone with me-"
Before he could finish-
BOOOOM!!!
A deafening crash came from the gap in the dome above the hall, shattered by Liuyu's reiatsu.
It sounded like thunder, yet also like the roar of some gigantic creature.
Then an enormous claw covered in dark red growths reached through the opening.
The claw was as large as a house, its nails like blades, its surface covered in strange runes.
"What's that..." Ōnoki's eyes widened.
The claw tore sideways-
CRACK!
The entire roof of the hall was ripped clean off.
Blizzard winds and bitter cold poured in.
Above the shattered dome, a dark red toad as massive as a mountain crouched in the night.
A white-haired figure stood atop his head.
Jiraiya.
His palms were pressed together, his expression graver than ever. The toad beneath his feet was one of Mount Myōboku's three great toads-
Gamabunta.
"Child of Prophecy..." Gamabunta's deep voice rolled through the night sky like distant thunder.
He held a huge pipe in his mouth, his single eye fixed on Liuyu below.
"I came late."
Embers flickered inside his pipe.
Gamabunta inhaled sharply, his chest swelling.
"But-"
"Not too late!"
He opened his enormous mouth.
"Water Release: Iron Cannonball!!!"
A high-pressure water cannonball over ten meters across, brimming with terrifying chakra, thundered down like a meteor.
Its target-
Liuyu's reishi Throne!
Gamabunta's Iron Cannonball fell as though the heavens themselves were collapsing.
The ten-meter-wide water cannonball, infused with Mount Myōboku's senjutsu chakra, screamed through the night sky. Air tore apart, the blizzard evaporated, and the reiatsu