(T/N: Chapter 109 does not exist)
Tendō Pain shielded Nagato behind him. The black cloak adorned with red clouds was soaked in blood. Nagato clutched Konan's cold corpse, his Rinnegan eyes brimming with venomous hatred and despair.
Everyone was dead. In the end, he was the only one left.
Things hadn't been this dire at the start. Dust Release had devastated the battlefield—Ōnoki had seemed like the true savior, turning the tide single-handedly.
The battle had reached a stalemate. It looked as if neither side could gain the upper hand.
Then Matron flashed a smug grin that said, "This old lady is the most beautiful in the world."
"What the hell are you smiling at?" Sasori asked instinctively.
"I'm smiling at how pointless your efforts are. Don't you get it? You're the last living people in this world. Everyone else is dead!"
The words had barely fallen when Neji, Sasuke, Karin, and Gaara all started laughing too.
"They're all dead…"
The eerie chorus sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"Don't listen to their nonsense!" Tsunade shouted, but her voice lacked conviction.
In recent years, the Shinobi World had suffered repeated natural disasters. Birth rates had plummeted, death rates soared, and the population had sharply declined. There weren't many people left. Even if the Allied Shinobi Forces managed to defeat the demons, it would take many years before the world could recover.
No one wanted to believe Matron's words.
But she didn't bother explaining further—because some truths don't need emphasis.
The demon's clones had tied up most of the Shinobi World's top fighters. Meanwhile, the true body of the demon silently harvested its "food."
Souls ravaged by calamity, filled with pain and despair—those were the demon's favorite delicacies. The demon bombs, laced with intense poison and radiation, had scoured the land clean.
And now, even on the Allied side, things were starting to collapse. Aside from Ōnoki, the rest were just ordinary humans. Their stamina had limits, and fatigue was steadily catching up.
But the demon clones didn't need rest. No matter how long they fought, they remained tireless. The longer the battle dragged on, the worse it became for the shinobi.
Sasori had run out of puppets. Kabuto had exhausted all of his Edo Tensei materials. Konan had no choice but to launch full-on bombardment mode. Even the Six Paths of Pain entered the battlefield one after another.
They couldn't retreat. The demons would hunt them down.
Already heavily wounded, the Fourth Raikage was the first to fall. Then, Tsunade suddenly exploded—literally. During the attack on the City of Peace, her body had sustained hidden damage. Normally, her massive chakra reserves were enough to suppress the backdoor Sasuke had left behind.
But as the fight dragged on, Tsunade had even released the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Once her chakra was depleted, Sasuke didn't waste the opportunity—he sent her off to reunite with Jiraiya.
Next came Mei Terumī. Karin smashed Kabuto to death. Matron pierced Sasori's regeneration core. The two of them then casually dispatched the exhausted beauty from Kirigakure.
The number of fighters kept dwindling. The refugee-modified soldiers and the regular shinobi of the Allied Forces had basically annihilated each other. Amid the sea of corpses and blood, only a few remained—still fighting with everything they had.
The fewer people there were, the less Konan had to hold back. With no fear of collateral damage, she unleashed countless exploding tags, surging like ocean waves. Even Ōnoki was startled by the scale of her assault and turned to flee.
As Konan blanketed the battlefield in exploding tags, she made sure to engulf Ōnoki as well. Clearly, she intended to take everyone out in one final move. If she succeeded, no one in the Shinobi World would be left to resist Akatsuki!
Konan's ideals were lofty. Unfortunately, Ōnoki ran too fast. Though powerful, he had no desire to test his body's defenses against a trillion exploding tags. Besides, given how things looked, the Shinobi World was probably done for. But Ōnoki still believed he could use the Box of Ultimate Bliss to transform the Land of Earth into the last utopia for humankind.
For the survival of the species, he figured it was best to cut his losses and escape. So, with great "righteousness," he fled the battlefield.
The flood of exploding tags unleashed devastating force. Matron, Beelzebub, Hyūga Neji—who had been hiding in the shadows waiting to land a sneak attack—and all the corpses littering the ground were reduced to ashes.
Karin wrapped herself tightly in her human-skin cloak and dove into the mist conjured by Sasuke. Sasuke activated defense mode. Gaara surrounded himself in a protective ball of sand.
The endless sounds of exploding tags were like festive firecrackers, strangely celebratory in their rhythm.
No one knew how much time passed before the explosions finally stopped. The lingering shockwaves even cleared the smog in the sky, revealing a rare glimpse of blue.
The battlefield was empty.
Konan smiled in satisfaction. "The shinobi and the demons… are all dead, right?"
Nagato looked at her with a complicated expression.
Could it be that Konan was actually the strongest member of Akatsuki?
Six trillion exploding tags—perhaps even more terrifying than the Ten Tails.
Nagato couldn't help but wonder if he had chosen the wrong path. Maybe Akatsuki had already achieved its goal, and they just hadn't realized it until now...
Shhk!
A slash from out of nowhere struck Konan in the back.
Ever since Yahiko's death, Konan and Akatsuki's ideals had been Nagato's twin pillars of spirit—equally irreplaceable.
Now, watching Konan die right in front of him, Nagato's last thread of reason snapped.
"WHO DID THIS?!" he roared in agony, as if his heart were being scraped over ice. His chakra surged out of control.
He was going to kill. He was going to avenge Konan!
Another mysterious slash came—this time striking Nagato himself.
But he didn't seem to feel any pain. Blood gushed freely as he controlled the Six Paths of Pain with laser focus, scanning for the attacker. He would find them—and he would make them die the cruelest death imaginable.
Black Zetsu had once tried to negotiate with this hidden attacker.
He'd died on the spot.
...
The invisible slashes continued.
Nagato gritted his teeth.
Were there still demons alive?
No. Every demon clone that had taken part in the battle had already vanished. They might've survived the exploding tags under normal circumstances, but… the demon had withdrawn the magic power from their bodies at the last second.
Naturally, they all died in unison.
The demon had no reason to keep them around. This world had already been harvested. The few remaining survivors were nothing but breadcrumbs.
And the demon wasn't going to waste energy on breadcrumbs.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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