LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 126: 125. A Final Descent
A hush choked the battlefield, as though the very night inhaled and refused to exhale. The Herald and the Knight of the Abyss hovered side by side, battered but unbroken, their combined auras twisting the battered sky into a vortex of molten red and black. The swirling storm crackled with arcs of dimensional lightning. Buildings below lay half-collapsed, and shattered debris littered every street, each piece testifying to the fury of the battles already waged. Yet in spite of the exhaustion etched on every Leaf shinobi's face, in spite of the walls smeared with dark blood and the acrid smell of ash, none retreated.
Standing at the epicenter of the battered courtyard, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ryusei, and Minato formed a resolute line. Behind them, the squads that had harnessed Time, Void, Light, Shadow, and Space energies regrouped in battered ranks. Though bruised and drained, they stood shoulder to shoulder—ANBU, Genin, Chunin, and Jonin alike—ready to push themselves past their mortal limits. Because if the Leaf fell now, every timeline the convergence touched could crumble into oblivion.
Lightning flared, illuminating the hideous cracks spiderwebbing the Herald's dark form and the fractured armor of the Knight. Thunder boomed overhead, the sound reverberating through the rubble-strewn streets. In that glaring flash, the two fiends each lifted a hand, forging a conjoined mass of swirling negative energy between them. The dimension overhead began to warp, forming a dome of crackling power that glowed an ominous red. A wail echoed, as though countless realities lamented at once.
Naruto caught the fleeting reflection of that storm in a puddle at his feet—red, swirling, hungry. His heart pounded, adrenaline spiking. He turned to Sasuke, exchanging a brief, understanding nod. Though words went unspoken, Naruto knew his friend stood ready for one last stand. Similarly, Sakura exhaled and brought her fists close to her chest, illusions of radiant starfields flickering along her knuckles. Her eyes brimmed with the same fierce determination that had carried her this far. Minato's gaze danced between his dimension seals and the swirling orb forming in the fiends' combined hands, calculating how best to intercept or redirect it. Ryusei hovered slightly off the ground, eyes half-lidded with concentration. Threads of temporal folds and Void manipulation weaved around him like serpents, ready to shield or strike at a moment's notice.
A monstrous roar cut through the tension. The Knight pounded its greatsword against the ground, sending rifts snaking across the courtyard. Shadows poured from its battered frame in an overwhelming wave, as though summoning the last remnants of the convergence's horde to flood the Leaf's defenses. In the corners of battered streets, new monstrosities crawled out of swirling black holes, drooling acid and howling with mindless hunger. Some crawled along walls, shrieking at squads who immediately formed up to meet them, illusions flickering, gravity pulses rumbling, pockets of frozen time snaring them mid-lunge. The Leaf's defenders refused to yield an inch, forging a ring of unstoppable synergy around Team 7.
High above, the Herald unleashed a savage hiss. "Enough delays—your dimension is forfeit!" The swirling sphere of combined energies it clutched with the Knight abruptly expanded, devouring the overhead clouds. Sparks of black lightning crackled along its surface, arcs leaping out and scorching the rooftops. A sickening force crushed the air, making it hard to breathe, as though reality itself were pulling away from the center of that sphere. Stone fragments and debris lifted off the ground, swirling in a vortex, drawn by the unstoppable gravity of the convergence's final blow.
Naruto ground his teeth, forging a giant Rasenshuriken that shimmered with reversed time around its edges. His arms shook from the sheer strain of feeding it chakra. "We finish this," he rasped. "One last strike."
Sasuke's sword flared with dark gravitational sparks, bending the air into shimmering folds. Blood trickled from a corner of his mouth, but his eyes were unwavering. "Let's see if they can handle everything we've got."
Sakura inhaled, illusions swirling into her fists, each breath fueling the radiant power that had devastated so many fiends. Her mind flickered to images of her younger self, uncertain and overshadowed—no more. If her fists were the final line, she would strike with enough might to defy the convergence itself.
Minato hovered, intangible distortions of space flickering at his ankles. Symbols of advanced sealing arrays glowed on his forearms, a testament to his mastery of dimension-based jutsu. He locked eyes with Naruto and Sasuke. "We aim for the orb. The Knight and Herald won't let us get close easily."
Ryusei's aura rippled, half a cloak of swirling Void, half a mantle of shimmering time-laced brilliance. He took a shaky breath, arms raised. "I'll try to hold them in a stasis field for a second—no more. Make that second count."
Without further warning, the Knight and Herald hurled their combined orb of cataclysmic energy downward. It blazed like a malignant star, black lightning arcs cracking the sky's surface. The air pressure alone threatened to flatten entire squads, and the ground beneath them quaked with near-earthquake intensity. Rocks, broken timbers, and the remains of siege barricades flew upward, drawn into the swirling orb's gravitational wake.
In that instant, Ryusei bellowed, channeling every ounce of skill and synergy he possessed. A bubble of time-distortion enveloped the orb, halting its plunge for the barest fraction of a second. The forced stasis spread across the Knight's scorched armor and the Herald's fractured silhouette, making them both recoil with savage fury. Time itself screamed at the strain, sending cracks of distortion flickering around them.
Seizing the moment, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura leapt simultaneously. Naruto launched a swirling Rasenshuriken bigger than he'd ever conjured, arcs of reversed time spiraling along its edges with chaotic brilliance. Sasuke warped the air around his blade, forging a gravitational edge so dense it tore open small rifts. Sakura poured illusions of radiant starlight into her fists, forging a single unstoppable blow. In midair, they merged their combined energies into a whirling storm of unstoppable force.
Minato flicked forward, unleashing a cluster of dimension seals around the frozen orb, shaping its path. He used raw skill to lock its vantage, preventing an escape. The entire scene collapsed into a single climactic collision: the defenders' swirling synergy of Time, Void, Light, illusions, and dimension-sealing slammed into the catastrophic orb, shattering stasis in an inferno of pure, devastating brilliance.
The roar that ensued was impossible to describe: a cacophony of thunder, shrieking space-time, fracturing illusions, and raw willpower. The ground dissolved into a crater, winds howled at hurricane speeds, and the orchard of swirling debris soared outward. Shinobi across the Leaf shielded their eyes or ducked behind illusions. Even the monstrous legion faltered, many stumbling back with howls of alarm.
For a heartbeat, the Knight and Herald shrieked in unison, silhouettes contorting in the glare of infinite energies. Armor, flame, shadow—everything swirled into a maelstrom of cosmic-level clash. Then, in a cataclysmic flash, the orb collapsed, exploding outward in wave after wave of crackling luminescence. Reality itself groaned as space and time folded, each wave of scorching wind felt through every alley and courtyard. Darkness gave way to a sphere of radiant light that devoured the gloom. For a fleeting second, it seemed day had broken in the middle of a blood-red night.
The shockwave flung Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Minato, and Ryusei in different directions. They soared like ragdolls, battered by feedback. Dust and swirling energy enveloped the plaza. Squads everywhere clung to illusions or sealing arrays for protection, bracing as the unstoppable force rumbled overhead. When the resonant thunder diminished, an uneasy quiet settled—interrupted only by the drizzle of loose rubble. The spectacle of blazing afterimages lingered behind their eyelids.
Slowly, the dust settled. Ragged coughs came from where Naruto had landed, bruised but still conscious. Sasuke emerged from behind a half-shattered stone pillar, sword cracked, chest heaving. Sakura unsteadily rose, illusions flickering feebly around one bloodied fist. Minato's coat was ripped, and cuts dotted his arms, but he was alive, forming a trembling spacefold barrier to shield a cluster of wounded shinobi. Ryusei knelt on broken cobblestone, panting. His aura flickered dangerously, time-distortion glitching in and out as he forced himself not to collapse.
Above them, an enormous rift swirled with dying embers of negative lightning. In place of the Knight and Herald, only a shimmering cloud of black vapor glowed. Whether those foes had been annihilated or vanished to regroup was uncertain—no silhouettes remained. The sky, once boiling red, now displayed faint cracks of dawn along the eastern horizon. A hush, fragile as glass, descended over the battered village.
Naruto coughed, staggering upright. "We—did we—did we get them?" he rasped, voice laden with exhaustion but still tinted with an unbreakable optimism.
Sasuke's eyes sought the rifts overhead. "No sign of them," he managed quietly. "If they're gone for good, we—"
Sakura slumped beside them, a halting smile crossing her lips. "We might have done it. But we need to check the entire perimeter."
Minato exchanged a look with Ryusei. Both stared at the horizon, where the first faint glimmer of dawn peeked through ragged clouds. A pang of caution resonated in their expressions, but also a flicker of hope. However battered the Leaf might be, they had endured yet another cataclysmic wave.
Ryusei exhaled shakily, mustering enough breath to speak. "We need to see if the convergence withdrew or just changed form. Either way, we're not letting our guard down."
The squads converged, battered but triumphant for this fleeting moment. A hushed cheer rippled through lines of shinobi who realized the monstrous presence overhead had diminished. Though the final verdict on the Knight and the Herald remained uncertain, their immediate threat had been neutralized. And with the faint light of dawn creeping into the sky, one question lingered in every mind: Did this victory mark the final break in the convergence's onslaught, or was the worst still to come?
End of Chapter 90: The Rise of Shadows (Page 9)
After Final Descent page, Next chapter. Until then pages of pure action giving Team 7 individual scenes to show their Next level Combinations.