Chapter 57 – Weight Madness

The group entered the Reactor Hall, an underground fortress of obsidian pillars and floating walkways. Gravity twisted unnaturally—liquids flowed upward, light refracted sideways.

Kōetsu paused before a sealed chamber. "This is what happens when one draws too deeply from the Heartstone."

The chamber opened.

Inside was a sealed capsule.

A man, once a shinobi, now withered and twisted—his body bloated in places, compressed in others, his bones misshapen as if crushed from inside.

"This… is Weight Madness," Kōetsu said quietly.

Makoto backed away in horror. Yua covered her mouth. Shisui stepped forward, his Aetherion Eye scanning the grotesque figure.

"The Heartstone amplifies power… but it consumes sanity," Kōetsu continued. "Too much exposure warps your chakra pathways. Your own weight begins to fold in on itself."

Kaien narrowed his eyes. "And it's accelerating?"

Kōetsu nodded. "Yes. The Reactor Pulse is irregular. Our sages believe something deep within is stirring. A remnant intelligence… or a curse."

Shisui clenched his fists. "Why us?"

Kōetsu looked at him, serious now.

"Because you're the only ones who can enter the Innermost Ring—a place where even Jūton masters lose control. Your unique chakra patterns resist collapse… and your eyes—" he looked directly at Shisui, "—see what others can't."

Yua turned to Kaien. "So what's the mission?"

Kaien's gaze didn't waver. "Simple… and terrifying."

"We're to enter the Reactor's Core. Find the source of the instability. And if possible—seal it."

Makoto exhaled. "And if not?"

Kōetsu finished it for her.

"Then the entire Land of Collapse may be drawn into a singularity."

The final image of the chapter:

Shisui, standing before the slowly-beating Heartstone, a swirling storm of gravity surrounding him, his eye glowing with crimson defiance.

"Then we don't fail."