The instant the Sage of Six Paths' projection shattered, the disturbance outside felt as though the sky had fallen. It wasn't a sound, but something far more sinister: a vibration that bored out through the gaps in their bones, carrying a grating creak of something... of rules being forcibly snapped, though they heard nothing at all. Shikkotsu Forest had descended into utter chaos. The huge glowing mushrooms overhead flickered like they were having seizures, and the moss underfoot turned soft as sludge, leaving them stumbling, unable to keep their footing. The natural energy that had once felt so soothing now left their throats parched and stinging, darting wildly about like headless flies.
Ling clutched the Black Stone against his chest. The icy stone now felt almost hot to the touch, and an unnatural glimmer seeped through the cracks on its surface. The Beacon between his brows throbbed violently, sending pain through his skull, while a chill of impending doom slithered down his spine.
"The shield... can't hold." The Katsuyu Sage's thoughts reached them as though from deep beneath distant waters, carrying an almost hollow calm. "The last foundations... are being 'erased' too..."
No sooner had those words faded than the dome around them, its imitation daylight barely sustained by glowing fungi and vines, began shedding fragments of light like shattered glass. Before the fragments reached the ground, they turned to ashen powder in midair and vanished without a trace. The view outside emerged-not the familiar night sky, but a roiling, murky mixture of pale white and dark red, like a pot of thick, poisonous soup gone horribly wrong.
"Go! We have to get out of here, now!" Kakashi grabbed Ling, who was still standing in a daze, the tomoe in his Sharingan spinning rapidly. "Back to Allied Forces headquarters! At