With their backs against the icy Black Stone, the group gasped for breath. The dark red and pale "swamp" beneath their feet kept writhing tirelessly, making their skin crawl. The chakra in the air was pitifully thin. Every breath felt like swallowing sandpaper, leaving their chests painfully tight.
"This stone... is fucking eerie," Kankuro muttered as he scraped the sticky, pale substance from his puppet's joints. "It actually stays clean in this hellhole."
Ling said nothing, keeping his palm pressed against the stone. A faint, cool sensation seeped intermittently into his body. It was not enough to replenish his chakra, but it did slow the rate at which it was being drained. More surprising still, the Beacon between his brows, which had been restless all this time, gradually settled upon contact with that presence. Its silver-blue glow grew subdued and contained.
"It's no ordinary object." Kakashi's Sharingan swept over the stone, its mirror-smooth black surface reflecting his distorted image. "Its structure... is completely beyond anything I know. The energy response is weak but incredibly pure, as though it's... sleeping."
Sakura cautiously probed the stone's surface with medical chakra. "There's almost no detectable life force, but it is resisting the corrosion outside. It's like... a vessel made specifically to exist in this environment."
Shino's insects dared to move only within a small area around the Black Stone, their wings buzzing anxiously. "The energy field outside has stabilized, but its range is still expanding. We're completely trapped."
Despair wound around them like icy vines. Their escape route was cut off, and an ever-expanding death zone surrounded them. How long could this stone protect them?
Ling closed his eyes and tried to extend his perception into the stone. His consciousness seemed to strike an impenetrable wall, barely managing to seep through a fraction.