The Only Chance!

"Run! Shinku used a forbidden technique!"

Natsume Ryo's voice was choked with tears. "If we don't leave now, we'll all die!"

The three stumbled into the dense forest, the blaze behind them dyeing the night sky blood-red.

While running, Kawaki Aoba felt the lacquer box in his clothes and discovered that strange patterns had appeared on its lid at some point, like ancient writing burning across its surface.

"The border is up ahead!"

Yuhi Wakana pointed at the faint boundary marker in the distance, her voice filled with hope.

But before her words had faded, the ground suddenly shook violently. A massive figure burst from the earth—a giant snake formed from chakra, its eyes gleaming with an ominous red light.

"Is that... a summoned beast?"

Kawaki Aoba gripped his short blade, only to find its edge faintly heating up.

The giant snake opened its bloody maw, and wherever the black mist it exhaled reached, grass and trees instantly withered.

Natsume Ryo suddenly pulled open his collar, revealing the talisman on his chest. "Aoba, use your Lightning Release! I'll draw it away!"

"No!"

Yuhi Wakana's Water Release collided with the black mist, sending up pungent white smoke. "This is a high-level summoning technique of the Snake Hidden Group. Ordinary attacks won't work at all!"

Kawaki Aoba felt the lacquer box tremble violently against his chest as a memory suddenly flooded his mind.

He remembered what the clan elder had told him when he was young: when an ancient secret treasure awakened, only the power of one's bloodline could awaken its true strength.

"Move!"

He shoved the two aside, bit his fingertip, and dripped blood onto the lacquer box.

Golden runes spread like chains. The lid slowly opened, and a blinding beam of light shot into the heavens.

Kawaki Aoba barely managed