"Urgh—!"
A supremely suppressed roar burst from the depths of Orochimaru's throat, hoarse as two rusted iron plates grinding together.
Pain!
Like red-hot steel needles stabbing viciously into the very core of his soul, then brutally churning and tearing through it!
Orochimaru dropped to his knees. His left hand clutched his chest tightly, where an intricate wedge-shaped mark formed from azure starlight flickered wildly beyond his control. Every flash felt as though it were branding his soul with an indelible scorch mark.
"Star-Track Wedge"...
The collar of absolute control that man had left behind.
It reminded him that the two-day deadline was ticking away, second by second.
"Lord Orochimaru!"
Kabuto Yakushi rushed forward in horror, intending to support him, only to be flung aside by Orochimaru.
"Get away! Don't touch me!" Orochimaru's golden snake eyes had shrunk to pinpoints from the agony, while the human-skin mask on his face nearly split apart beneath his twisted expression. Cold sweat mixed with dust, carving muddy rivulets across his pale face.
This was the ruins of Ryuchi Cave.
Once the abode of sages, it was now nothing but shattered walls, rubble, and devastation. The air was thick with blood, the stench of scorched protein, and a... cloyingly sweet, nauseating scent unique to the God Tree.
Before them stood an exceedingly crude "laboratory," hastily assembled from the wreckage of the Triple Rashomon and countless boulders.
Lying upon the "operating table" was the White Snake Sage's enormous corpse, cleaved in two yet still twitching faintly. Even more horrifying was the God Tree Mutated Tumor violently torn from it. Like a gigantic living heart covered in blood vessels, it was linked by countless Chakra threads, and every beat made the surrounding rocks groan under the strain.
Two days.
Hyuga Xiao had given him only two days.