Earth Core Movement Compresses Space, Overloaded Crystals Backlash

The tremor from deep within the earth was no longer a premonition, but the overture to an impending destruction.

"Hum—hummm—"

The entire metal structure of the energy hub groaned under the unbearable strain. The beam beneath Mizuki Han's feet swayed violently, as if it would snap in two at any second. Debris and dust rained down from the rock walls, and the air grew thick with the pungent, stirred-up scent of ancient strata.

This was no ordinary earthquake.

Mizuki Han's icy gaze locked onto the jonin clad in rock armor. He saw the ground beneath the jonin's feet—the solid stone—churning and writhing like boiling porridge, defying all laws of physics.

An extreme sense of oppression surged from all directions: from beneath his feet, from the walls, and from the ceiling, squeezing in with frantic intensity.

"Earth Release: Earth Core Movement!"

The jonin's gravelly voice rang out clearly amidst the roaring chaos, like the pronouncement of a deity.

The moment the words fell, the very shape of the space began to undergo a terrifying, visible distortion!

"Boom—crack!"

The rock wall to his left bulged inward, crushing a row of massive metal pipes and emitting a piercing screech of twisted steel. The support beam Mizuki Han had just been standing on was crushed into a "U" shape like a fragile toothpick.

The complex terrain he had relied on for maneuvering was being fundamentally erased by a brute, unreasonable force!

This was no longer a ninja technique "attack"; it was a strangulation of "space" itself!

Mizuki Han's pupils contracted to the limit. His brain calculated frantically, but every optimal solution was dismissed one by one in the face of this constantly shifting, shrinking battlefield.

His frost traps were a joke against the writhing ground. His speed advantage was rendered non-existent in this desperate situation where there was nowhere to stand.

The jonin remained where he was, the center of this destructive storm, the only "fixed point." He didn't even glance at Mizuki Han again, merely maintaining that ancient hand seal, coldly manipulating the earth to grind this "rat" that annoyed him—along with this entire space—into pulp.

"Thud!"

With another deafening roar, the beam beneath Mizuki Han was launched skyward by a rising pillar of rock. Mid-air, he twisted his body forcibly. Just as he was about to collide with the ceiling, he kicked off the deformed wall, using the momentum to leap toward the other side.

However, the spot he had predicted to land on—a previously flat patch of ground—collapsed the instant he was about to touch it, forming a hideous pit.

There was nowhere to run!

The entire energy hub was turning into a shrinking meat grinder made of stone.

Mizuki Han's breathing grew ragged, not from fear, but because the intense movement and hyper-focused mental state were burning through his physical stamina at a frantic pace.

The thirty percent of his chakra he had reserved for probing was already exhausted.

Deep within his dantian, the forty percent reserved as his trump card for a finishing blow and the thirty percent meant for survival flowed silently, like two distinct, clear streams.

Should he use them?

The thought flashed through his mind, only to be extinguished instantly.

Use the finishing-blow chakra to attack? Facing that rock armor connected to the earth itself would be like throwing an egg against a rock. Use the survival chakra to flee? In this completely sealed, constantly compressing space, where could he possibly run?

A dead end.

A dead end more pure and unsolvable than the one he had faced against Kisame.

The "creak" of the crushing rock walls grew closer. The space left for him was now less than ten meters square.

A flash of desperate madness crossed Mizuki Han's eyes.

Since he could not find a way out, then... he would squeeze a bloody path from within!

He stopped dodging and chose a relatively stable, narrow corner about to be sealed by the converging walls. He dropped to one knee, lowering his center of gravity to the absolute minimum.

Then, he made a decision that even surprised the jonin.

He poured that forty percent of pure, lethal chakra—his trump card—into the meridians of his left arm like a floodgate opening, without reservation, pouring it in frantically!

"Ugh—ah—!"

An indescribable, agonizing pain exploded from his left shoulder, sweeping through his entire body!

It wasn't like being slashed by a blade or burned by fire; it was a structural, tearing agony that radiated from the cellular level, from the deepest reaches of his meridians!

If his previous micro-manipulation of Ice Release was like letting a stream flow through a riverbed, then this was like forcing an entire ocean into a fragile capillary!

The meridians in his left arm wailed under the impact of this overwhelming chakra torrent. Beneath his skin, blue veins bulged and twisted, writhing like countless struggling earthworms.

Then, the mutation began!

An extreme chill—not from the outside, but originating from the depths of his own bloodline—began to erode inward, starting from his left hand!

"Crack... crackle..."

A faint sound, like glass shattering, echoed from his fingertips.

Mizuki Han looked down to see the skin on his left fingertips rapidly losing its color, turning pale and translucent, like jade that had been frozen for a thousand years.

This crystallization was spreading upward at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Palm, wrist, forearm...

The texture of his skin was changing; the structure of his flesh was reorganizing. These were no longer the warm limbs of a human, but were transforming into something cold, inorganic, and non-living!

This was the backlash of overdriving his bloodline limit!

The price of power was being displayed before his eyes in the most cruel and intuitive way possible!

The intense pain caused his consciousness to flicker with darkness, but he gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, while the reason and coldness in his eyes remained unshaken. He felt control over his left arm slipping away rapidly, feeling that part of his body "dying."

But he did not care.

As long as he could survive, let alone an arm, even this entire body was a price he could discard at any moment!

"Ice Release... Overload: Crystal Defense!"

He squeezed the words through his teeth, and his left hand, already half-crystallized and radiating a ghostly blue cold light, slammed into the ground beneath him!

"BOOM--!!!"

An unprecedented, freezing storm, carrying the scent of both destruction and rebirth, erupted violently from the center of his palm!

This time, it was not thin frost, nor was it tiny Ice Shards.

It was countless hideous, thick ice crystals, shimmering with a chilling, lethal light, like a thicket of thorns breaking through from the depths of hell, spreading, piercing, and expanding in all directions with a savage, wild growth!

They collided with the crushing rock walls, emitting a deafening roar!

They braced against the collapsing ceiling, sending countless shards of stone and ice flying!

Within a mere two seconds, a massive, ice-blue hemisphere composed of countless high-density ice crystals, over five meters in diameter, had forcibly carved out an absolute domain belonging to Mizuki Han within this space that was being pulverized!

The compression of the rock and the expansion of the ice crystals—two diametrically opposed forces—unfolded the most primitive and violent struggle within this cramped space. The ear-piercing sound of friction and cracking was incessant, as if it would tear one's eardrums to shreds.

At the center of the storm, the Jonin clad in rock armor stopped his technique for the first time.

His rock-encased head turned slightly, and his gaze, filled with a hint of surprise, pierced through layers of ice crystals to land on Mizuki Han, who was half-kneeling in the center of the ice sphere.

What surprised him was not the strength of this power, but the madness and ruthlessness behind it—the willingness to destroy one's own foundation.

"Burning your life force to buy a moment of respite..." The corners of the Jonin's mouth, beneath his rock mask, curled into a cruel arc. "How truly... foolish and heroic a struggle."

Far from retreating, he increased his chakra output!

"Since you want to die so badly, I shall grant your wish!"

"Earth Core Movement: Final Oppression!"

"Rumble—"

The speed at which the entire space contracted suddenly doubled!

The ice crystal hemisphere Mizuki Han had propped up instantly bore a terrifying pressure several times greater than before.

"Crack! Crack-crack!"

Crisp shattering sounds erupted from all sides of the ice sphere. Hideous cracks, like spiderwebs, spread rapidly across the crystalline surface.

This sanctuary, bought with the "life" of half his arm, was on the verge of collapse!

"Pfft—"

Mizuki Han could no longer suppress it, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out, splattering onto the ice in front of him like red plum blossoms blooming in the snow, a shocking sight.

He raised his left arm.

His entire forearm had completely lost all sensation. It possessed an eerie, blue crystalline texture, and one could even see the veins and bones inside, also frozen into ice crystals, through the translucent surface.

This arm was ruined.

The intense pain surged like a tide against his taut nerves, nearly swallowing his consciousness whole.

Outside, the sound of the ice sphere shattering grew more frequent, and the rock walls, representing death, were closing in inch by inch, mercilessly.

With his left hand about to be lost and his sanctuary on the verge of breaking, could he still manage a counter-kill?