The forcibly carved underground passage was filled with violent energy currents and a nauseating dark presence. Purple-black energy reached endlessly from its walls like living tentacles, trying to entangle and corrode the intruders. Searing gusts mingled with howls that polluted the mind, relentlessly battering everyone's senses.
"Don't let these things touch you!" Ling led the way, brilliant blue senjutsu chakra blazing around him like fire. It purified and dissolved every dark tendril that approached, forcing open a temporary path. But his face was growing visibly paler. Such intense purification consumed enormous amounts of senjutsu chakra and mental energy.
Kakashi followed close behind, his Sharingan missing nothing. His Lightning Blade flashed intermittently, precisely severing the particularly dense energy beams that attacked from strange angles.
Behind them, the Five Kage worked together to keep the passage stable. Raikage A and Tsuchikage Ōnoki repeatedly blasted the rock walls trying to close around them and the surging torrents of dark energy. Mizukage Mei Terumi used powerful Water Release to wash away and dilute the corrosive energy surrounding them. Kazekage Gaara built temporary defensive barriers with sand, blocking most of the splashing energy. Tsunade held the center, her Strength of a Hundred Seal continuously supplying chakra. Besides standing ready to treat any casualties, she used her immense chakra to stabilize the passage and prevent it from collapsing completely.
It was a race against time and annihilation!
"Just ahead!" Ling abruptly pointed toward the end of the passage, where it opened into an enormous cavern-the very "nest" he had sensed earlier! At its center, a dark, man-sized tumor now pulsed even more violently. The twisted faces on its surface screamed silently. Countless purple-black energy veins writhed like venomous snakes, extending from the tumor and burrowing deep into the surrounding rock and earth. They greedily drained leyline