Blazing violet light swallowed the entire sky, and the Star-Destroying Cannon's torrent of energy was like thunder hurled down by a god.
The seventh Rashomon paused for a moment upon contact, then vaporized. The ferocious demon face on the Bronze Gate had only enough time to let out half a whimper.
Neji's Byakugan stung until tears streamed from his eyes, yet he still stared fixedly at the pillar of light piercing heaven and earth—it was tearing through every barrier at a speed of three hundred meters per second.
"The eighth!" Blood seeped from Tsunade's bitten lip as Sage Chakra surged madly through her body.
A mountain-collapse-like roar came from afar as the eighth rune-covered gate exploded into a rain of metal.
The energy beam's diameter had shrunk by a third, but its core temperature still exceeded that of the sun's surface.
The ninth Rashomon collapsed after holding for several seconds, molten lava spilling across the ground.
"Thirty percent power remaining!" Veins bulged around Neji's Byakugan. When the tenth Rashomon shattered into fragments, he saw unstable ripples forming within the energy beam's core.
Neji suddenly grabbed Tsunade's wrist. "Teacher! The Tree Formation Walls need to be angled!"
The Thousand-Armed Statue's enormous palm slammed into the earth. The Tree Formation Walls that had stood vertically suddenly tilted back at a forty-five-degree angle, their ring-patterned wood carbonizing and peeling away beneath the extreme heat radiation.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The Dharma Form's thousand hands struck out as it dropped to one knee, bracing itself with all its strength behind the slanted Tree Formation Walls.
The outermost giant trees vaporized instantly, but the layers behind them refracted part of the energy toward the sky through their angled arrangement.
This tactic sharply increased the Star-Destroying Cannon's energy consumption, and the violet beam visibly dimmed.
The final