The purple-black pillar of destruction tore through the void, carrying enough terrifying power to annihilate all existence as it crashed toward the battered Whisperer! The shadow of death, like solid ice, instantly froze the blood and souls of everyone in the cockpit.
The hope that had only just risen at the sight of the Ark was utterly crushed, reduced to absolute despair.
"No-!" Naruto let out a hoarse roar and struggled to rise, but he could not even lift a finger. His body had exhausted its last reserves over their long journey.
Sakura closed her eyes, a bitter smile of release on her face. She had done everything she could. Everything.
Karin collapsed to the floor. The light of the Eye of Prophecy went out completely, and black blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Under that terrifying pressure, her mental barrier shattered like paper.
Ayami fell to her knees before the viewport, staring at the corrupted core of the Ark and the pillar of light that heralded the end. Endless sorrow and defiance filled her eyes. "The Ark... our mission... could it... have been wrong from the very beginning...?"
Elder Mochen and Priest Lingxi remained unconscious, their lives hanging in the balance.
Only Lin Ye stood before them all, like a reef about to be swallowed by a towering wave. He stared fixedly at the approaching purple-black pillar. In the face of certain doom, the Origin Starmark on his forehead instead blazed with an unprecedented golden radiance, fierce as the sun!
He could not fall!
He absolutely could not fall here!
If even he fell, then everyone's sacrifices, all their perseverance, everything... would come to nothing!
"Aaaaaah-!!!"
A roar of boundless resolve, grief, and fury erupted from deep within Lin Ye's throat! He thrust up the tiny fragment