Feedback from the clones began to arrive quickly and Jugo sighed. The quantity was small, his Bind hindered most of the experiment itself, but there were too many puppets, so the sheer number was causing his performance to accelerate rapidly.
Within a few days he had already digested more than half of the potion and the speed was only increasing, making him think about his future advancement to becoming a disciple of silence.
He wasn't sure what his powers would be, the name seemed too generic to him, but a Sequence 3 is stronger than a Sequence 4, that's a fact, so the excitation was still evident.
The experience kept coming back to him, each person who had a puppet offering a different experience, no script, each person with different actions, some playing, others caring, others even treating the puppets as friends.
Jugo realized more and more as he recovered his memories that each doll had a different bond with its owners, some larger and some smaller, but each one unique.
Unilateral, of course. But when you looked at it from a macro perspective, you could clearly see hearts open to something between object and living being.
The more Jugo watched, the more he understood what it meant to be a puppet, it was the connection between thing and being.
When the potion was finally completely digested, Jugo had a terrible headache, but he felt stronger than ever.
The advance in the performance wasn't as strong as the advance in the sequence, but even so, he was still at least twice as strong as when he had just advanced.
Most importantly, he was ready to move forward.
Not only was his potion digested, but the number of followers far exceeded the norm, whether mortals or ninjas.
So, feeling that the time had come, Jugo looked for a safe place to move forward.
Jugo was much more confident in this advance than in the last one, so he didn't go very far from the village, only going as far as an artificial cave a few kilometers away, one of Orochimaru's many hideouts.
Sitting cross-legged in that dark, earthy cave with only the flickering light of the torches around him, Jugo stood in the center of the room, his thoughts slowly giving way to an artificial calm.
Opening his eyes, Jugo sighed, he didn't need any local preparation this time. This breakthrough depended solely on previous long-term preparations.
Jugo didn't drink the potion directly, but entered the Tenebrous World and began to command through his connection with his followers. Slowly, all the followers scattered throughout Otogakure, whether civilians, ninjas, or werewolves, including Kimimaro, Orochimaru and even Kabuto far from Otogakure.
Everyone stopped, closed their eyes and began to pray to the Father of Devils.
The immense flow of prayers left Jugo silent for a moment, then, in the next moment, he felt it all pointing towards him.
If it were a regular Sequence 4 Beyonder, he would need to have his "followers" nearby to complete this stage, but Jugo had the Tenebrous World.
Feeling the prayers of hundreds of thousands of believers at once, Jugo decisively chose to drink the potion.
Outside the Tenebrous World, Jugo's body began to tremble, his form slowly becoming incorporeal, part of his body transforming into the black bands representing his mythical creature form. Seen from the outside, Jugo appeared to be slowly fading away, part of his body becoming "nothing."
Jugo felt strange, in the progression to Wraith, he felt as if he were trapped in an endless cycle of rebirth and death, slowly losing his identity, in the progression to Puppet, he felt as if he were separating, becoming nothing, as if he would scatter until nothing of him remained, now, in this progression, he felt...
Empty.
Deep down, everything seemed silent, a silence so heavy it was maddening, even his thoughts seemed silenced, he couldn't even think.
His eyes glazed over, Jugo felt as if he were no longer anyone, not even a thing, he was slowly ceasing to exist.
As Jugo sank deeper and deeper into this feeling, he was completely transformed into his mythical creature form, only part of his right side of his face remained. If Jugo could sense anything now, he would know that the moment he fully transformed, there would be no turning back.
But he was enveloped in an endless silence.
The black bands were slowly reaching his only eye, only a small piece of Jugo remained. But it was precisely at that moment that Jugo's connection to the Tenebrous World deepened, like a torrent, hundreds of thousands of prayers hitting Jugo at once.
Suddenly, all that silence was filled with voices, as if Jugo had just entered a packed football stadium, the voices of hundreds of thousands merged into an extreme cacophony.
The voices he heard in his mind grew louder and softer, the more stronger and synchronized they were with his thoughts, the louder he could hear them, but at that point it didn't even matter, with so many voices at once, all silence had vanished.
At that moment, Jugo's single eye became as sharp as a snake's, he was able to think again. Not only that, realizing his precarious state on the verge of losing control, he activated Bind with all his might. Jugo's body began to tremble fiercely, as if he were fighting, his body also began to slowly reform.
The black stripes slowly giving way to flesh and blood.
Jugo's eyes were sharp, torn between madness and perseverance, he fought with all his might.
The more his body reformed, the louder he could hear the voices, it was deafening, but that was precisely what helped him stay awake.
The silence receded, but did not give up, trying to pull him towards it, trying to transform him into a part of it, but Jugo had the overwhelming advantage, no matter how much the silence tried to advance, the voices of the Father of Devils' followers created a protective layer without gaps.
Finally, minutes later, Jugo's body completely reformed, the "silence" did not vanish, but as if it had found a point of support, it entered Jugo completely, as if it had accepted him as its master instead of wanting to transform him into a part of itself.
Jugo's body soon calmed down, the advance had been extreme, he had become much stronger, but he didn't care about that at that moment. He entered the Tenebrous World and asked his followers to stop, the sound was so deafening that if they all continued, he wouldn't even be able to think straight.
The believers soon stopped praying, returning to their own lives, but Jugo, who had finally achieved silence, returned to the real world, feeling the changes in his body.
Jugo gained many new curses in this sequence, in addition to the enhancement of his previous abilities. Unlike other advancements, the disciple of silence only had one main ability.
The longer he remains silent, the more potent his curse becomes, given enough time, even affecting an angel is not impossible.
This ability is highly conditional, but it is still extremely powerful in its own right.