They passed through the partition covered in "Sword of Ninja Love" talismans, and the entire world suddenly fell silent.
The solid sensation beneath their feet vanished at once.
There was no ground here, only countless bronze gears meshed together and spinning madly in place, forming a "mechanical barrier" that defied all physical common sense.
Tiny stones, broken metal parts, even a drop of engine oil drifting in from nowhere—all floated quietly in midair. Newton's coffin lid simply did not exist here.
The air was as thick as a pot of boiling asphalt. Every breath felt as if rust and mercury had been poured into their lungs, burning them with pain.
"A gravity failure zone."
Hiruzen drove the Adamantine Staff backward into a gap between the gears, clinging to the barrier like a gecko as his vigilant gaze swept over the others. "Grab onto something stable nearby. Don't drift away!"
Everyone's gazes converged on the center of the space.
There was no roaring river of chakra as they had imagined, only a violent "Singularity."
It resembled an exposed mechanical heart, floating above a bottomless abyss. Purple-black Chaos energy and golden Dragon Vein chakra violently collided within it, producing sharp, sizzling explosions like high-voltage sparks tearing through the air.
Amid the shifting light and shadows, the scenery around them flickered constantly like a broken old-fashioned projector skipping frames.
One second, they seemed to be standing in the glorious, magnificent royal palace of Rōran, with golden bricks beneath their feet. The next, the image tore apart, throwing them back into crumbling ruins filled with rusty pipes and dry bones.
The intense dizziness made their stomachs churn.
"Ugh... what the hell is this place? It hits harder than bad liquor."
Colonel Ka dry-heaved twice against a tank tread, but when his beady eyes swept