The Aftermath and the Journey Home

Mirage finally lost all power deep within a dry riverbed strewn with jagged boulders. Its magnetic levitation system had completely shut down, black smoke continuously billowed from its rear thrusters, and its platform casing was covered in scorch marks and deep cracks, as though it might fall apart at any moment. Enduring the splitting headache from chakra exhaustion and the agony screaming through every muscle in his body, Shaye staggered down from the nearly scrapped puppet and rushed toward his three teammates on the platform.

The sight before him made him suck in a sharp breath, his heart sinking to the depths.

Xu lay limp on the ground, her eyes tightly shut and her face utterly bloodless. Her body still twitched faintly without conscious control. Even after leaving the battle, the terrifying illusions brought by the Three-Tomoe Sharingan seemed to be ravaging her mind, denying her peace even in unconsciousness. Cold sweat covered her forehead.

Lukado's condition was even more horrifying. He had taken the Great Fireball head-on. The ninja vest over his chest and abdomen had turned into charred fragments, fused to the severely carbonized flesh beneath and giving off a nauseating burnt stench. His breathing was extremely weak, each inhalation accompanied by a painful convulsion through his body. His life hung by a thread.

But the one with the most severe injury—the one who sent a chill through Shaye's very bones—was Captain Jing Liang.

He lay there with a ghastly bloody hole through his right wrist. The kunai had not merely pierced straight through; the fierce chakra attached to it had caused devastating internal damage—severed tendons, shattered blood vessels, and, most critically, a completely mangled and torn chakra pathway system. Blood still slowly seeped out, staining the rock beneath him dark red.

That nightmare-like instant replayed uncontrollably in