Orochimaru's Severed Arm and the Acceleration of Impure World Reincarnation

The manic laughter suppressed deep in his throat came to an abrupt stop.

In its place came the grating crackle of teeth clenched so tightly that bone scraped against bone.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

A foul stench of burning protein mixed with the sacred yet tyrannical aura of Yang Release Chakra, spreading wildly through the dark, damp underground laboratory.

Orochimaru lowered his head and stared fixedly at his violently trembling, uncontrollable right hand.

That hand could no longer be called a hand.

Starting from his fingertips, the skin was blackening and carbonizing at a visible speed. Strange silver patterns spread wildly upward along his Meridians like living creatures. Everywhere they passed, flesh and tissue were completely annihilated, without even the slightest sign of regeneration.

This was not burning. It was not destruction.

It was purification!

A higher form of life energy was erasing him, an "unclean" existence, from the very root in an overbearing, utterly unreasonable manner!

The body he had taken such pride in, refined and modified countless times, was as fragile as snow beneath the sun before this power!

"Orochimaru-sama..." Kabuto Yakushi's voice carried an almost imperceptible tremor. Supporting Orochimaru by the shoulder, he could clearly feel that terrifying heat seeping through the clothing, as if it would set his palm ablaze as well.

"Get lost!"

Orochimaru growled hoarsely and shoved Kabuto away with his remaining left hand.

He could feel that silver force of destruction had already breached his wrist and was madly eating into his forearm! In a few more seconds—no, perhaps not even one second—this power would utterly destroy his arm, flood into his torso, and "purify" his heart, his brain, everything he was, into nothingness!

Retreat?

Run?

Fear?

No!

At that moment, not a trace of fear showed in Orochimaru's Golden Slit Pupils. Instead, they erupted