Orochimaru felt he had made the wrong decision.
He should never have come in.
The instant the gates to the black-clad boy's mental world opened, he thought he had glimpsed paradise: a defenseless haven where his vast, cold mental power could spread and corrode everything at will.
Even as he stepped inside, he had already pictured the glorious future awaiting him once he possessed this perfect body with its Rinnegan and Sage Body: reigning over the Shinobi World and uncovering every truth in existence.
However.
When his spiritual form actually crossed that threshold.
What greeted him was no haven.
It was purgatory.
Sssss-
Orochimaru's spiritual form was a gigantic white-scaled snake, accustomed to throwing its weight around in other people's mental spaces. Now, however, that snake had curled into a ball, its scales blackening, curling, and falling away at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Even the air carried the acrid stench of a soul being roasted.
"Where... is this?"
Orochimaru looked around in terror.
There was none of the illusory mist common to mental spaces, nor any corridors for storing memories.
All he could see was fire.
Fire as black as ink.
Wild, golden-red fire.
These flames filled the heavens and earth, without end or boundary. They burned silently, but the terrifying heat struck directly at the essence of his soul, making Orochimaru feel like a lump of lard dropped into lava, rapidly melting away.
"This is... your mental world?"
Orochimaru's voice trembled. The supposedly "immortal spirit" he took such pride in seemed so fragile here.
"You call this... a vessel?"
"What else would you call it?"
An indifferent voice came from the center of the boundless sea of fire.
Orochimaru struggled to lift his head.
In the deepest reaches of the flames, a long, pitch-black sword of