Flesh squirmed and bubbled as a charming face appeared behind the bronze helmet.
Squelch!
A sword penetrated his chest from behind, showering blood. Black looked over his shoulder and saw a snake, with half of its body coming out of the earth, carrying a sword in its mouth. His black, calm eyes landed on the sword itself then, searching for something. When he couldn't find the words and numbers, he lifted his gaze, planting it on the distant ninja.
"You could've at least used the real thing, no?" Black jested, smirking at Orochimaru. Then he grabbed the fake Sword of Kusanagi, as it was neither an Artifact nor an Item, and pulled it out, ripping the snake in half.
The white-skinned ninja's mouth donned a pained twitch. The snake coming out of his mouth completely slithered out after losing its head and fell lifelessly, its body twitching in sync with its master's mouth.
"Who… What are you?" Orochimaru hissed, taking a step back. He kept trying to lift his dead, black hands but failed. Beads of sweat dripped from his chin as his heart kept pounding. My Jutsu… Hiruzen! I curse you!
Now that's all Black ever wanted. Orochimaru must initiate a conversation by himself. Otherwise, given his personality, he would never let Black approach him within 8 ft of his body.
Black turned around and threw the fake sword away. The bronze helmet and cuirass disappeared off his body. Though the Titan's Buff didn't boost his strength anymore, Murasame's Little War Horn was still valid. Not to mention, even if he were to lose Murasame's buff, he wasn't worried about the subsequent decrement in his Stats for 3 hour period.
Black could exchange all concepts with Kai, which included the negative effects of using Skills, Items, and Titles as well.
He casually walked toward the main storyline character, the scores of eyes vanishing off his hands. Secretly, tiny eyes appeared on the back of his neck, the tips of his elbows, and over his head, hidden under his black hair. It wasn't all good relying on Haki alone. Samurai Jack had already honed this lesson in Kai's bones.
"We could have started with that, Orochimaru," Black jested, dusting off his jacket. "And I thought you have come to see life in a new light… Maybe only yours, then?"
Orochimaru's slitted, golden eyes narrowed. He took one more step back. "What do you want?" he asked, not getting the answer to his first one.
Black chuckled. He swept his hand at the empty air. It was empty before, but now there was a book in his hand, with a black cover donning a Title in runic letters.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard!
"This is an Item from another world," Black said, lifting the Book way above his head and swaying it left and right.
…
[
WARNING: Instant eradication of Contestant's existence upon mentioning Systems or the Primordial Tower to any in-world Character
]
…
Black shrugged off the notification. "It can devour your life story without causing you any harm," he continued, calmly listing out the Book's abilities. "Once devoured, the Book lets me call out an Imaginary Orochimaru based on the life story, which can be used for quite a many miscellaneous purposes."
Orochimaru didn't even look at the Book as if he didn't believe a single word coming out of the enemy's mouth. He took another step back.
Black didn't mind. "The trick is," he added, sensing the monstrous vibrations the Book was giving off, "I need to be within 8 ft of you to use this ability. If you just let me…"
It happened then.
There were some still tens of meters left between Black and Orochimaru.
Suddenly, in a circular area, with Black as the center, sparks lit off, shaking the entire, broken earth.
The last three steps Orochimaru had taken had already brought him out of the circular zone containing hundreds of hundreds of Explosive Tags, each attached to the back of a snake slithering underground.
It was such an ingenious trap that even Ad Infinitum failed to calculate it.
Of course, Black and the AI had already picked up on the presence of snakes underground. But they concluded it was a means of Orochimaru's escape or attacking him with the real Sword of Kusanagi this time.
And as the paper bombs went off, even Ad Infinitum could only get the time to conclude one thing. "The first attack with the fake sword was a bait…"
BOOM!!!
"Hehe… Hahaha… HAHAHA!" Orochimaru laughed like a maniac as he looked over his shoulder, eying the hundreds of meters tall mushroom cloud. He had lost his hands, but his feet were still working. The pain from moving a single muscle was unbearable, yes. Still, there was no other choice as well.
Orochimaru brought his gaze forward, his laugh dying into a menacing but thoughtful expression. Where did that three-headed snake go? I sensed…
As if Destiny, Luck, and Opportunity itself had decided to descend in front of Orochimaru today, a humongous ball of silvery, white mist appeared in front of him out of nowhere, assuming the form of a three-headed snake, with the middle head extremely blur.
Orochimaru had already strained his legs to run as fast as he had ever in his life. So all he could do was to look at the over 30 ft tall white serpent and its yellow, black, and stony vertical slits.
Thump!
Thumppp!!
Thumpppppp!!!
Orochimaru felt an incredibly, irresistible tug at his heart. A will demanded him to give up. A will demanded him to lose all his defenses. A will demanded him to close his eyes.
Three-Headed Devourer's Ability - Bloodline Manipulation!
No matter what form Orochimaru assumed, no matter what body he possessed, at the end of the day, his true form was still that of a snake. He wasn't totally immune from the Ability of a B- Magical Beast, which was already a grade higher than the entire Timeline's overall Grade.
Still, Orochimaru was Orochimaru.
A monstrous killing intent burst out through his slitted pupils, forcefully ignoring the call of the bloodline.
It wasn't over, though.
The thing was… the Destiny, Luck, and Opportunity that had descended in front of him, wasn't in Orochimaru's favor at all.
-Time.-
Skill - Time Shift!
The hiss was the hammer of judgment.
The last thing Orochimaru could afford was to slow down. But the rules of the world stopped treading their intended path once he entered a radius of a hundred meters from the white serpent.
Then appeared the monstrosity itself.
Orochimaru couldn't even move as he saw the abomination taking shape in front of his eyes.
Over a third of his body was gone. The rest was scorched black. There was no head. Nor could one spy any appendage. Whatever remained kept squirming as if millions of worms were wriggling inside it.
Orochimaru, already resisting the Skill, spied something that numbed his mind.
Kidomaru's third eye. Jirobo's head. Tayuya's girly fingers. Parts of Sakon and Ukon…
It's eating them… Orochimaru concluded, seeing everything getting digesting within the scorched flesh. It's eating them…
All the Sound Four's remaining body parts became the surplus source of Calorific Energy.
With a bang, the flesh began taking shape, becoming a giant, black reptilian mouth with hundreds of needle-like fangs.
…
[
Contestant Kai Stormborn
You are hereby WARNED!!!
…
Orochimaru is under the protection of Timeline's Lead Providence.
All physical, magical, and spiritual attacks on him before the next phase of Timeline will absolutely and instantaneously result in Timeline Backlash.
]
…
-Applaud for me…- The hideous form Black had assumed in sheer anger after losing his Calm hissed. -… Oh, Timeline!-
An incomprehensible event took place, then.
All around the scorched flesh, tiny dimensional cracks opened and vanished, invisible to all. From those unseen cracks, the sound of cheering and clapping seeped out in bursts of roars. If one closed their eyes, one could even imagine millions of wizards and witches just whistling, shouting, and crying with sheer joy.
Skill - Timeline's Applaud!
…
[
Skill: Timeline's Applaud
Grade: B-
Specification: Acknowledgment of Timeline for a Wonderful Performance
Requirements:
1. Intelligence >40
2. Breath >30
3. Perception >20
4. 1st Threshold
Attributes:
1. MP Consumption: 300
2. SP Consumption: 200
Effects:
1. Prevents a Timeline Backlash from originating once in a single Random World
2. Prevents a Timeline Backlash from arriving once in a single Random World
Warning: Any action that can permanently damage the Timeline will not come under the Skill's Effects.
]
…
The scorched, squirming, snake head lunged at Orochimaru, disregarding the System's warning about the Timeline Backlash.
With one great crunch, Black bit off Orochimaru's entire lower half.
Selene's Skill wore off at the exact moment.
Orochimaru, biting off an inhumane scream, fell to the ground, raising a tiny cloud of dust.
Black appeared at the top of him, with his original appearance. The flesh within him was still squirming, regenerating organs. Not that he needed most of them.
He put his leg on Orochimaru's head and slammed it into the earth. "Stay down," he said, finally taking a breath and letting the Calm return. "Look what you made me do."
Black couldn't afford to kill Orochimaru. His death would permanently damage the Timeline, making Timeline's Applaud invalid. Moreover, the System mentioned that all physical, magical, and spiritual attacks on him before the next phase of Timeline will absolutely and instantaneously result in Timeline Backlash.
If he was right, then the next phase of course meant Orochimaru possessing Gen'yumaru.
As Selene melted inside him once again, Black finally took out the Book, letting it sing the Song of History.
…
[
Story: The Legacy of Immortal Experiment
Story Status: Incomplete
-Primordial Theater-
Act 1: Impure World Reincarnation
Grade: C+
…
*******************
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