Orochimaru's consciousness blurred as his golden snake eyes lost focus, but his left hand still clutched the Scroll. "So this is how it ends. Just a little more, just one last step…"
At that moment, his blood-soaked right hand, still gripping Kusanagi Sword, tightened suddenly. His unfocused eyes burst with blazing light, holding neither fear nor regret.
There was only the mad joy of a gambler overturning defeat at the brink of ruin. A hoarse laugh escaped his throat as he stared at the sword in his hand.
The Kusanagi Sword was undergoing a drastic change. The blade twisted and writhed like a living creature, while the hilt peeled away like shedding skin to reveal dense, cold scales beneath.
The sword's shape changed rapidly, no longer straight but serpentine, with two small crystal gems like snake eyes appearing at the guard. It was a success.
This was the Zanpakuto, forged with Tashinsenki's soul as the core and countless 'Xu' souls as fuel. Laughing wildly, Orochimaru followed instinct and shouted with his last strength.
"Plunder it all, Snake Princess!"
Obito Uchiha shouted, "Twice! Twice already! Is that still not enough?!"
As Orochimaru called out the name of the serpent-shaped blade, a cold and vast presence burst out in an instant. The sword body fully transformed into a living white giant serpent and surged straight into Orochimaru's body.
Puchi. Puchi.
Countless bundles of nerves glowing blue, branching like the roots of a tree, erupted from the severed waist of Orochimaru's upper body. They plunged wildly into the cold, shattered rock beneath him.
Rumble!
The moment those nerve bundles touched the ground, the entire underground rock layer of the ruins and even the whole island seemed to come alive and boil. An enormous invisible neural network spread madly, covering the depths beneath the ruins and extending into deeper and wider strata.
Crack. Boom.
Several bottomless Lie fissures spread like spiderwebs, and massive slabs of rock arched upward like the spine of a giant beast. They lifted Orochimaru's body and burst out of the ground.
'White Fang' leapt out from the ruptured earth without hesitation and reached the surface.
Looking up, one could see a colossal stone serpent formed entirely from the island's bedrock breaking through the ground. Its huge body coiled and twisted, made of hard basalt, and its enormous head rose high with two blue flames burning in its hollow eye sockets.
Orochimaru's shattered upper body now rested atop the mountain-like head of that coiled stone serpent.
"So this is power. This feeling. Hahaha!"
Orochimaru looked at his hands and then at the rock serpent beneath him, letting out a hoarse and crazed laugh.
This was the Shikai ability of "Shaji". It manifested the wielder's mind into detachable nerve bundles, granting anything they touched a 'soul' and turning it into part of the wielder's body, controlled like one's own limbs.
It was similar to "Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation", but the power it displayed was many times greater. Not only inorganic matter could be affected, and if Orochimaru wished, he could even touch a human body or a soul and reshape it, freely altering flesh itself.
"Everything written in that Scroll was real."
Orochimaru looked down at 'White Fang' and did not attack, instead speaking coldly. "Tell me, is that Lord of the Void Realm still there?"
This time he had truly learned his lesson, and even with far greater power in hand, he no longer dared to underestimate 'Void Realm'. He could sense that the power of Zanpakuto could still grow stronger.
He did not want to be killed by the higher 'Great Hollow' recorded in the Scroll before he had even gotten used to holding Zanpakuto. Moreover, that 'Great Hollow' clearly had the chance to kill him just now, but stopped upon seeing the Scroll.
Facing Orochimaru's question and guess, 'White Fang' only looked at him deeply and answered in a hoarse voice, "He has always been there, everywhere."
Orochimaru's pupils froze slightly, then his mouth split into a grin. Beneath him, the stone serpent opened its massive jaws, revealing fangs made of jagged rock, as if it too were smiling.
'White Fang' silently gripped the broad blade behind him, ready to strike with full force, but froze at Orochimaru's next words.
"Please give my regards to that existence for me," he said. "Farewell."
With that, Orochimaru controlled the massive stone serpent and turned without hesitation, plunging into the sea around the island.
He was not foolish. His current power came from finding a small diary, and there was no telling how terrifying the diary's owner might be. Even a slight chance that such a being was alive was unacceptable.
As for whether fleeing at this moment was shameful, there was no one else here, and yielding to a godlike existence was not disgraceful. The most important thing now was to return to the mainland, understand Zanpakuto's abilities, and gather information.
He had a feeling that many things had happened while he was gone. It did not matter, because with Zanpakuto in hand, as long as he did not face the Five Kage or Void Realm, he could do anything he wanted.
The mist of Kirigakure had once been like a soft veil.
Today, however, the thick fog was stained red, like a burial shroud descending. The air was filled with heavy blood, scorch, and damp smells, mixed into the nauseating stench unique to the "Blood Mist Village."
In front of the Mizukage Building, everything had become a grinder of flesh and blood.
"Kill! For the glory of the Kaguya clan!"
"Dogs of the Mizukage, die!"
"Hahaha! Kill, kill, kill! Die, die, die!"
The Kaguya clan Ninja were like enraged beasts, eyes bloodshot as they charged fearlessly toward the defense line formed by ANBU and other Kirigakure Ninja. They wielded bone blades, bone spears, and bone spikes, each strike filled with suicidal intent.
They ignored defense, pain, and even Kunai and Ninja Blade piercing through their bodies. All they wanted was to tear open an enemy's throat with bone before falling.
Madness. Pure madness.
Rather than a rebellion, it was a collective suicidal charge. They could not endure the oppression of Fourth Mizukage, and this was the Kaguya clan's nature, far more extreme than most of the Uchiha Clan.
Compared to the Kaguya clan's howls, the opposing Kirigakure Ninja remained silent. Behind ANBU masks were cold eyes as they slaughtered without a sound in the fog.
No matter how many comrades fell, there was no reaction. They were killing machines without emotion.
Kaguya corpses fell like harvested wheat, and their proud Shikotsumyaku looked clumsy and fragile before the trained Kirigakure ANBU. Remains were scattered everywhere, blood pooling into sticky streams that flowed into the drains.
Amid this chaotic slaughterhouse, one figure moved like a ghost, leaving a trail of blood wherever he passed.
It was a small figure, with long gray-white hair clumped together by blood and stuck to a filthy face. He looked barely over ten, thin enough to be blown over by the wind, yet his gray-white eyes held no childlike fear, only deep emptiness.
It was Kimimaro.
His movements were light and precise, every dodge exact, every strike fatal. Unlike his clansmen, he did not clumsily swing bone weapons, because his body itself was the perfect weapon.
A Kirigakure Ninja emerged from the fog and slashed at his back. Kimimaro staggered from the blow but was not injured, as four hard, sharp bone spikes burst from his back and pierced the attacker's body.