In the competitor rest area, the enveloping Adamantine Sealing barrier had already been lifted the moment Karin received Menma's retreat order.
Gaara, Karin, and the others had all received the same retreat instruction.
Kirigakure's team, Kumogakure's team, and Konoha's teams also looked up and saw this purple-black shadow, as desperate as a Tailed Beast.
"Get out of here! That monster is about to unleash its big move!" Karin pushed up her glasses, her face pale as she shouted.
Gaara's expression was also extremely grave. The One-Tail within him was constantly urging him.
"What are you standing there for! Run!"
A large amount of sand gushed from the gourd on Gaara's back, rapidly enveloping Kankuro, Temari, Big Sis Hinata, and the unconscious Naruto, who were closest to him, forming a sand cushion, carrying them as they flew towards the Hokage Rock.
"Follow me!" Gaara also shouted to Sasuke, Shikamaru, and the others from Konoha.
Sasuke, Shikamaru, and the others also realized the arrival of a catastrophe.
The Chakra Ball condensing in the oarfish's mouth emitted Chakra Fluctuations that made their souls tremble.
"Go!" Sasuke shouted to Shigaraki and Sai, then turned and ran.
Shikamaru pulled up Choji, who was still somewhat weak in the legs, and Ino also gritted her teeth and followed.
Omoi, Karui, and the others from Kumogakure, and Ao, Suigetsu, Chojuro, and Honoka from Kirigakure, also needed no urging. Each used their utmost strength, desperately rushing out of the arena.
At this moment, mission, standoff, competition… all were cast to the winds. Survival was the only goal!
Just as everyone began their desperate flight, the standoff in the sky reached its final moment.
Urashiki controlled the purple-black oarfish. The dark purple Chakra Ball in the center of its giant mouth had already expanded to a terrifying diameter of over a hundred meters. The Chakra energy inside rolled violently, emitting a low rumble like thunder, causing the ground of the entire arena below to begin cracking and sinking.
"Die!! Ant!! Turn to dust under the breath of Amenosubaruboshinomikoto: Ryugu!!!" Urashiki's golden eye on his forehead glared wide open, a mad and gleeful grin on his face, his hands suddenly pressing down!
The oarfish's giant head rose, its giant mouth aimed at Menma below. The dark purple Chakra Ball, over a hundred meters in diameter, suddenly brightened, spitting out from the oarfish's mouth, crashing down towards Menma and the entire arena below!
Where the light ball passed, space showed twisted ripples.
"So this is your limit, Urashiki?" Facing this earth-shattering strike, Menma merely let out a soft snort.
He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing up, fingers forming a virtual grip.
Inside his body, the vast, ocean-like Chakra of the Dark Nine-Tails began madly gathering, compressing, and spinning towards his palm.
No dazzling light, no violent Chakra leakage.
All the Chakra was confined to a tiny space by extreme control.
A pitch-black sphere, only the size of an apple, so deep it seemed capable of devouring all light, slowly took shape in his palm.
The sphere was surrounded by a ring of light, like a Wind Release Technique. At its center was the ultimate darkness of a black hole, as if it could twist and suck in even sight.
Spiralling Ring!
This was his unique technique, developed on the basis of the original Tailed Beast Bomb and Rasengan.
It compressed destructive power to the extreme. When hitting a target or actively released, it could produce a massive explosion surpassing a Tailed Beast Bomb, even exceeding [Super Shinra Tensei].
"Go."
Menma's wrist flicked lightly, gently tossing the small black ball towards the descending dark purple Chakra light ball.
The black ball silently rose upwards, meeting that behemoth.
The size comparison between the two was hopelessly disparate.
The next instant, the edge of the black ball and the dark purple Chakra light ball touched.
There was no earth-shattering loud bang. What appeared first was an absolute darkness that devoured all sound and light!
Centered on the point of contact, a pure black sphere, only a few meters in diameter, instantly expanded, silently 'swallowing' the front end of the dark purple Chakra light ball. Then—
Hum—!!!
A low hum that seemed to act directly on the depths of the soul suddenly spread outward from that black sphere!
Then, a blinding white light, enough to dazzle human eyes, erupted from inside the black sphere!
As if a miniature sun had been ignited above Konoha!
The white light instantly devoured the black sphere, devoured the dark purple Chakra light ball, devoured the winding purple-black oarfish in the sky, devoured Urashiki's ferocious face, devoured Jigen's grave gaze in the distance, and also devoured Menma's small, dark red figure below.
Then, the explosion truly began!
Rumble—!!!
A terrifying explosion, like the opening of the universe, mixed with white light, Chakra turbulence, centered on the point of contact, madly spread and swept in all directions as a sphere!
Wherever it passed, all matter… rock, buildings, steel, wood, corpses, debris...
The moment it touched, first silently turned into the finest dust, then was completely annihilated by the terrifying white energy flow, leaving not even dust behind.
Jiraiya, Adult Sasuke, and Boruto, who had just evacuated the arena area and rushed to the Hokage Rock, only felt an irresistible, terrifying pushing force from behind!
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" Jiraiya roared, pressing his hands to the ground in hand seals.
A thick earth wall rose from the ground, but before the shockwave, it lasted less than half a second before collapsing with a roar.
"Amenotejikara!" The purple light of Adult Sasuke's Rinnegan blazed.
He barely managed to evade the most fatal energy turbulence with Boruto and Jiraiya.
The three, like leaves in a storm, were viciously flung away, tumbling and crashing towards the viewing platform above the Hokage Rock.
On the other side, Kakashi, Guy, and Asuma, pouring Chakra into their feet, clung to the ground, yet were still pushed back by the shockwave, plowing three deep trenches in the ground.
Yukimi, Yusuke, and Neji were similarly in a sorry state, barely protecting their vital points, but also battered by the impact.
The group retreating from the competitor rest area direction was even more miserable.
Gaara's sand barriers shattered layer by layer before the shockwave. He let out a grunt, blood at the corner of his mouth, but still did his utmost to control the sand, protecting the several people beside him.
Temari, Kankuro, Karin, Kurotsuchi, and the others each used their own defensive measures, yet were still blown into disarray.
Sasuke, Sai, Shigaraki, Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were together swept up by the shockwave, viciously slamming to the ground, rolling far away.
The Kirigakure and Kumogakure's groups were no exception, like stones tossed by a strong wind, sent flying.
Suigetsu directly elementally transformed into water, trying to reduce damage, but the furious Chakra Turbulence still shattered his water form into pieces.
"We're gonna die! We're gonna die!" Omoi's new lollipop had long since flown away somewhere, as he and Karui clung tightly to a giant rock, trembling in the Chakra Turbulence.
No one knew how long had passed.
The desperate roar and tremors finally gradually subsided.
Those who had luckily not been directly devoured by the explosion struggled to their feet, or crawled out from the rubble and debris.
Sasuke felt someone shaking him, Ino's tearful voice came to his ear: "Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, wake up!"
He barely opened his eyes, crusted with blood and dirt, coughed up a few mouthfuls of stagnant blood mixed with sand, and, leaning on Ino, stood up shakily.
Shikamaru also helped Choji to his feet. They were all covered in dust, with multiple abrasions. Choji was even more bruised and swollen, but fortunately, all were still alive.
They looked around. Then, everyone froze.
Where was the magnificent arena?
Where were the towering stands, solid fighting platform, encircling spectator seats?
All that could be seen was a huge, unimaginable, bottomless sinkhole, its edges still rising wisps of smoke and the red glow of lava.
A giant deep pit, with an estimated radius exceeding five kilometers and a depth likely over a thousand meters, shockingly regular and shocking!
Their current location was precisely the edge of this terrifying sinkhole.
Beneath their feet was cracked, scorched black earth, still radiating high temperature.
The viewing platform above the Hokage Rock, where they had stood before, was now only a small, broken platform, hanging alone on the edge of the sinkhole, as if it could collapse at any moment.
Inside the sinkhole was absolute dead silence.
Everything that had originally existed here was gone, completely erased from the world, leaving not even a trace of debris.
The pit walls were made of glassy rock, formed by instantaneous melting and cooling at extremely high temperatures.
The pit bottom was a deep darkness, faintly visible slowly surging dark red lava light.
Some underground water veins slowly flowed into the sinkhole. The cold underground water flowed over the high-temperature pit walls, emitting a 'zzzz' white steam.
A cold wind curled up from the sinkhole, carrying the smell of sulfur and scorched matter, blowing over the stunned faces of the survivors.
The relief of escaping death had not yet risen before it was completely crushed by the apocalyptic scene before them.
The entire area north of the Hokage Rock... had disappeared.
Boruto sat collapsed on the scorched ground, looking at the giant pit before him, which seemed to lead to the entrance of hell. His lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Adult Sasuke gripped the Kusanagi Sword tightly, his Rinnegan filled with unprecedented gravity.
He seemed to see the terrifying scene of the village after 'Pain's attack on the village' described by Naruto and Sakura.
Jiraiya looked at the deep pit, a look of near despair on his face.
'Not even a Tailed Beast Bomb could do this, right?!'
Jiraiya somewhat stiffly turned his head, looking at the village below the Hokage Rock.
He dared not imagine that if the explosion had occurred in the center of the village, the entire Konoha Village would likely have been erased!
'Was this kind of power... really something a Ninja could achieve?'
Just as Jiraiya looked up, gasping heavily, searching for the dark red and white figures that had been fighting moments ago, his pupils suddenly shook.
There, above the sinkhole, Urashiki looked in terror at the Chakra Rod piercing his abdomen, coughing up a large mouthful of blood.
The passing of life, the fear of death, made Urashiki's entire body tremble.
"You..." He tremblingly raised his head to look at Menma opposite, and found that the greed in the other party's eyes was so familiar.
Pfft—!
Urashiki only felt his vision blur. A hand had directly plunged into the Golden Rinnegan on his forehead.