Anko couldn't even believe what she was seeing. She watched with utter disbelief as the Rider of the Apocalypse swung his hammer with such speed that it formed a shield in front of him, completely repelling Orochimaru's combined attack.
She bit her lower lip almost instinctively, rubbed her right hand, and as she watched, a strange feeling buried itself deep in her mind and soul—a feeling of complete obedience.
"Still, what… in the world is that thing?" Anko asked herself. She felt an urge to bow down and kneel, to worship the Rider of the Apocalypse. However, even though that feeling lingered inside her, her strength as a Konoha Jounin allowed her to suppress it quickly.
It was as if something had struck her—Anko's eyes widened suddenly. "Devan!!!" she screamed, quickly turning her head only to see the necromancer completely unconscious, lying on the ground not far away. With slightly uncoordinated steps due to the Rider of the Apocalypse's influence on her mind, she staggered toward Devan.
"What… luck. Orochimaru couldn't get close to you," she muttered softly. One of her hands reached forward as she approached, and her eyes began to glow in a peculiar way. "I don't know what you summoned, but…" Anko thought back to Devan's words.
"I will defeat Orochimaru." She repeated Devan's promise, and the smile on her face grew wider as she drew closer to the necromancer's body.
Not far away on the battlefield—
"Such terrifying physical strength," Orochimaru muttered, narrowing his eyes. With a click of his tongue, he inflated his stomach, and a moment later, began spewing out a giant snake from his mouth.
"Disgusting," the Rider of the Apocalypse murmured. "You don't seem all that dangerous. Better to end this quickly." He tightened his grip on his hammer.
The half-expelled snake opened its mouth and spat out a bright, shining white sword, perfectly sharpened.
"The Sword of the Serpent," Orochimaru thought, grabbing the weapon by its hilt as it fell from the serpent's mouth. He spat out the rest of the snake and looked forward—only to find the Rider of the Apocalypse gone from sight.
"He disappeared? No, impossible." A chill ran down Orochimaru's spine. He crouched slightly, holding the sword with both hands as he sharpened his senses.
"Will you appear in front of me? Behind me? I need to know," he thought, the Rider of the Apocalypse's aura growing stronger, distorting his mind.
"I have to—" The mad scientist didn't finish his words. His pupils dilated in an instant—his alertness turned into reaction. He swung his sword with all his might.
Orochimaru struck so hard that the hilt creaked, the air itself splitting with a deafening sound. To his right, the Rider of the Apocalypse appeared, hammer raised in ferocious motion.
"Grooaghh!!!" the Rider roared, pouring all his strength into his weapon. Orochimaru gritted his teeth but didn't roar—he channeled all his might into his arms, slamming his sword against the Rider's hammer.
Clash
Clash
In an instant, both weapons collided, releasing a shockwave and a thunderous sound that echoed across the entire area.
"Tsk!!" Orochimaru let out a grunt of pain. His hands felt like two twigs being crushed by a child. The blade of his weapon looked ready to shatter, and the roaring sound made his ears bleed.
"T-this…" the mad scientist barely managed to whisper as he staggered backward several steps. His hands lost their grip on the Snake Sword, which went flying. He held back the pain in his arms while glaring fiercely at the Rider of the Apocalypse.
"What the hell are you?!!" Orochimaru shouted, his sanity starting to slip.
He swallowed hard, a faint sense of dread filling his chest as his body trembled uncontrollably. His serpent-like eyes shook as he panted heavily.
"No… this, this isn't right. This shouldn't be happening. It's time to retreat," Orochimaru told himself, crouching down, never taking his eyes off the Rider.
"There was once a man who tried to save humanity. There was once a man who tried to defeat a giant," the Rider of the Apocalypse spoke, his words resonating through the very air. Everything around them began to distort as if scorched by unbearable heat.
"Can you believe it? There were once men capable of achieving great things in this world, and yet…" the Rider seemed to smile beneath his mask. Orochimaru squinted, sneering in disgust, before leaping toward the Rider with all his strength.
However, at that very moment, a small snake slithered out from Orochimaru's pant leg, ready to flee at any second.
"And yet, none of those men remain in this world. So, What happened to them?" the Rider of the Apocalypse began to glow with a ghostly green light. His hammer, once made entirely of molten iron, transformed into a weapon of some fantastical green material.
"Nothing…" the Rider of the Apocalypse swung his hammer fiercely through the air. "Sentence of the Underworld!!" his roar echoed for more than a mile. From his body burst a deep green aura, expanding rapidly like a dome of light devouring everything in its path.
Orochimaru, now in the form of a small snake trying to escape, felt his clon disintegrate instantly. His mind filled with terror as an overwhelming sense of fear gripped his soul.
If he focused, he could almost see something else before him—some other presence. Orochimaru, in his current form, thought he saw a shadow standing in front of him—completely black, absorbing all light.
"What the hell…?" Orochimaru couldn't understand. He couldn't grasp what was happening, what the Rider of the Apocalypse was, or what Devan truly was. But he finally understood why, when he met with Danzo a few days ago, the man had told him to be careful.
Orochimaru stared at the black shadow before him, his serpent eyes gleaming, his soul trembling with terror. One name suddenly crossed his mind before he whispered it—"Is that… Lucifer Morning Star?" he thought, just as the Rider's green dome touched his serpentine body.
"I'm… dead," Orochimaru muttered with a faint smile of resignation as the green light consumed him, disintegrating him completely.
His snake body turned into green dust in the blink of an eye. The dome of light quickly began to shrink, losing its size.
The dark clouds above started to fade, and daylight once again bathed the forest.
And before it all—the one responsible, the Rider of the Apocalypse—was no longer there. Once the green dome shrank to the size of an apple and vanished, everything seemed to return to normal, except, of course, for the cracks in the ground and the chaos left behind by the brief but devastating battle between the Rider of the Apocalypse and Orochimaru.
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