Inside the underground cavern, the soul-deep trembling brought on by that icy glance from the Sacred Lord's will slowly faded, but its shadow still weighed heavily on everyone's hearts. The rattle of falling rubble and their labored breathing rang painfully clear in the deathly silence.
"What... was that just now?" A barely perceptible dryness crept into Mei Terumi's voice. As the Mizukage, she was acutely sensitive to energy, and the sheer level of that will had left her feeling suppressed on a fundamental level.
"It was the Sacred Lord... a fragment of his will, hidden deep within this core all along." Ling braced himself and rose, his face pale from exhausting his chakra, yet his gaze remained sharp as a blade. The senjutsu chakra circulating within him was, at its essence, pure water-nature energy harmonized with natural energy, making him especially sensitive to that dark power steeped in corruption and deathly stillness. "He used this purification to 'mark' us more clearly." He could feel that the will had lingered longest on him-a member of Purifying Karma who opposed darkness with water's purity and fluidity.
"Damn it!" Raikage A slammed his fist into the rock wall, scattering lightning as he vented his helpless frustration. "Coward, hiding in the shadows!"
Ōnoki slowly descended to the ground, his expression grim. "Against an existence on that level... conventional ninjutsu will probably accomplish very little."
Gaara used his sand to bury the last wisps of dark residue. His tone remained calm, but carried an unquestionable resolve. "Whatever he is, the threat is already upon us. We have no choice but to fight."
Tsunade checked Ling's condition and relaxed a little after confirming that he was merely exhausted. "Let's return to the surface first. As for this Sacred Lord..." Her gaze swept across the other Kage.