EPISODE 50: The Otsutsukis versus The Snake King
The Snake King unleashed his horizontal fire tornado aimed at Indra's fire-style Susanoo and at Ashura's yellow-chakra giant. Before it reached them, the orange Susanoo jumped into the sky with its wings. Ashura's giant made a large yellow shield to block the attack. Zet left their side and began to get closer to the Snake King's location, running from the left side of the arena. He looked very small in comparison to the dark king and the other two chakra giants. However, thanks to the powers that he had gained from Spiral, he also had deadly abilities that could compete in this battle—the same ones he used to destroy Maida's village in the future. The same could be said about Su, who had gained the full power of the black guardian…
As soon as the horizontal fire tornado clashed with Ashura's shield, it was obvious that the shield wasn't going to last long. This chakra attack was not like others. Its power was being augmented by something else, making it worse than a normal attack from a fire-style user. The Snake King didn't have the fruit of chakra, but he could use the fruit of darkness to increase the destructive power of all his other techniques.
Su raised a large black shield in front of Ashura's giant and the Snake King's attack was halted by it. Su's shield removed the added effect of the fruit of darkness from the attack, making it much easier to stop.
"Young Ashura don't waste time blocking his attacks! Most chakra shields are not effective against them. Dodge them all and land your most powerful techniques on him as soon as possible! Zet and I will try to weaken him or delay him so that Indra and you can finish him off!"
The black shield that Su summoned was more effective than Ashura's shield to stop the Snake King's attack, but it faded away too, once the whirlwind of fire was gone. Then, Su began to move towards his former master from the right side of the arena, opposite of Zet. Ashura understood that he really had to use his most powerful techniques against this enemy. This was the only time that he had seen his father being defeated. Obviously, the dark king was powerful, so finishing him off as quickly as possible was their best option to win.
Indra's Susanoo unleashed a massive fire-style cascade from the sky:
"Fire-style jutsu! Grand infernal blaze!"
The attack looked like a giant version of Kagami Uchiha's infernal blaze, since the one doing it was the Susanoo, which was a much larger body than a human. The destructive blaze was going to flood the entire area where the Snake King was standing.
Before the hellish blaze reached the surface, the Snake King dropped the blade of light and the blade of darkness on the sand. He began to create a giant shield of light with the large white auras that appeared around his hands. When Indra's river of fire arrived, the white shield absorbed the whole thing. Then, the shield reverted back into its previous shape, around the Snake King's hands, but now it wasn't a simple white aura anymore. It absorbed Indra's attack, creating four giant balls of fire, two on each hand.
First, the Snake King threw the two balls of fire that were in top of his hands—the two that he wasn't holding. He aimed them perfectly at Zet and Su, even though he wasn't even holding those two inside his hands. After that, he threw the other two that he was holding, as if they were fast-ball pitches. These two went like meteorites towards Indra and Ashura. Without breaking a sweat, the Snake King had absorbed and used Indra's power against all four of them.
Zet and Su used the powers that they had gained after their battle with the guardians. (Their current forms weren't human anymore. They could even enter the ground if it wasn't 100% solid. They were not aging either.) They moved in different directions underground and managed to escape the direct hit of the two fire blasts. Ashura's chakra giant evaded the fireball so fast that it fell down on the sand. Then, the fire bomb that didn't hit Ashura destroyed the other side of the coliseum. Indra also evaded the one that went his way, but he was surprised at how easily his attack was taken advantage of, and how fast that orange ball came his way. This opponent they were facing was pretty powerful…
"So he can even absorb chakra-based attacks? If this is how it's going to be, then long-range combat isn't the way to do it! This has to be done the old-fashioned way!"
Indra's Susanoo held its two fire-style chakra swords, one behind his head and the other in front. Then, it descended on free-fall towards the Snake King, like an orange hawk that resembled a phoenix. The Snake King only had enough time to grab the blade of light from the sand, since the Susanoo stopped him from reaching the blade of darkness. Indra landed in a matter of seconds, way too fast, just like before. However, the Snake King had enough to hold him back with the blade of light. Thanks to it, he managed to stand his ground against Indra's ferocious offensive with the fire-style swords. Indra kept on pushing back the Snake King, but he still didn't feel that he was winning. He had not landed a single strike on the dark king and the blade of light definitely felt more powerful than his fire swords. He had to avoid getting touched by it at all costs…
During Indra's clash in close-range combat with the Snake King, Hagaromo managed to reach the location where he placed the seal of the six paths. He removed the sand and the whole circular figure became fully visible again. It was still there, as if nothing had happened. And it was time to begin its activation. Hagaromo used the rinnegan's conversion technique—the same one he taught Jim Namikaze. His right eye began to convert its power into natural sage chakra, and Hagaromo began to transfer all of it directly to the special seal. His remaining rinnegan was going to be the price to activate such a powerful sealing technique. Before, he didn't have to make such a sacrifice because he had Ten-Tails (the fruit of chakra's living form); but now, his only way to gather such enormous power was giving up his other special sharingan—which was in its final form since he was a young man.
Hagaromo was feeling pretty weak. It wasn't clear to him if it was due to his bleeding wound or because this was his true human limit. He had not experienced weakness or lack of power since he obtained the Ten-Tails. And he had been its host during his entire adult life. Nonetheless, Hagaromo fought against his own weakness and he continued the process to activate the seal, regardless of what it could represent for his own wellbeing. What could happen to him was not as important as completing the plan for the future. He already knew that in a few minutes his rinnegan would be gone and the grand seal would be ready to be used…
During that moment, Zet and Su came back to the surface. They were getting much closer to the Snake King. Ashura's chakra giant stood up again and new hands of chakra came out from the back of his shoulders. He was about to use some kind of powerful wind-based technique that required all those hands. In the heat of battle, Indra maintained his sword clash with the Snake King in a tie, but, he was about to find out just how serious and dangerous this enemy was…
The Snake King had been pushed back by Indra for a while, but it was partially on purpose. He wanted to grab the blade of darkness and they were going that way. Finally, his empty hand got the chance to grab the blade of darkness from the sand; and Indra also saw the perfect opportunity to strike down the dark king. Using the fire sword on his right hand, Indra was going to halt the blade of darkness; and then, he would have the opening to go through the Snake King's body with his other sword. It was going to be a perfect finishing move. Unfortunately, he didn't know how the blade of darkness worked…
When the Snake King went on to raise the dark blade to land a vertical slash on the Susanoo, Indra raised his Susanoo's right arm to block it with its fire sword. Then, he would finish the Snake King with a forward-moving horizontal strike using the fire sword in his other hand. He knew the dark king wasn't going to move and the opening would stay there because the king would have to continue using the dark blade to block his first fire sword at the same time. Indra planned to execute the two moves with his swords simultaneously. However, in his air of anticipation for victory, he missed a very crucial detail: the Snake King had dropped the blade of light as soon as he grabbed the blade of darkness. It was as if he knew that he had a more lethal weapon to deal with Indra now, so he didn't even need the other one.
Indra was terribly surprised when the dark blade cut through the fire sword of chakra, through the Susanoo's right arm, and through its whole right wing as well. It was exactly like what happened to Sasuke's Susanoo in Hagaromo's vision. The Snake King's black blade could cut through all chakra-based bodies and materials with ease. It could destroy them in the same way that dark-style techniques could destroy other chakra-based techniques. This was also why Su's shield had been more effective than Ashura's to stop the dark king's fire-style attack.
The Snake King evaded and countered Indra's dual move flawlessly with a three-way move of his own. As he cut through the Susanoo's fire sword, he also moved his entire body—which was facing forward—into a sideways position and he grabbed the Susanoo's second arm, while it was coming forward to impale him with the other sword. Indra couldn't go through him as he expected.
Right when the blade of darkness finished cutting down the Susanoo's arm and its right wing, the Snake King dropped the black blade again and grabbed the orange Susanoo's neck with his left hand. He was still holding the Susanoo's remaining arm with his right hand. Then, the Snake King's hands began to get engulfed in a dark aura and he lifted the orange Susanoo from the ground. Indra was in the head of the orange Susanoo—which was a protective chakra giant created by his mangekyou sharingan's power. The Snake King's hands and their darkness began to consume the neck and the other arm, while the Susanoo's feet were meters above the sand. The other fire sword fell down from the Susanoo's remaining hand. Things were beginning to look bad for Indra, and the Snake King knew it.
"You are a powerful and skilled warrior, but you have no idea of what you are fighting against. This is what will bring your demise, young fool. You shouldn't have challenged me without knowing who I am. Now you are finished!"
For some reason, Indra didn't look like someone who saw either defeat or death on the horizon. It was quite the contrary:
"It is ironic, but I was thinking the same exact thing about you, dark fool!"
The Susanoo lifted one of its knees all the way up, crashing it against the Snake King's jaw. Next, it precipitated the other knee right into the stomach. That was enough for the Snake King to let go of his grip. Indra's Susanoo fell in the ground and it grabbed the remaining fire sword with its mouth. Then, it struck the Snake King's body with the entire sword, just like it did before, when it saved Hagaromo and Ashura. The strike was so strong that it destroyed the entire fire-style sword… but Indra didn't stop there. Just like before, he continued. The Susanoo landed a hook kick on the bald king's head as well. Clearly, Indra wasn't one of the top warriors from the Otsutsuki Clan for nothing…
Indra's reaction was awe-inspiring, but not as damaging as it looked. A different opponent would have been knocked out after that. However, this was the body of the former Guardian from the Zeta Realm, the body of Kusanagi—the one that protected the three holy fruits of power, which were considered the greatest treasures of their realm. His body had been created with the powers of the three fruits combined, so it was far tougher than what a giant human of that size would be…
The Snake King couldn't avoid Indra's kick to his head. However, it gave him the chance to grab the orange Susanoo's opposite leg. Once he got a hold of it, he threw Indra and the Susanoo violently towards the closest standing edge of the coliseum's structure. The Susanoo crashed heavily with the building and all of it fell down on Indra. Then, the Snake King began to make a growing sphere of darkness between his two hands. It kept on growing until it had a width of seven meters. When the growth stopped, he launched it towards Indra, whom was still half-trapped in the spot where the Susanoo collided with the structure.
"Dark-style energy-bomb!"
The dark bomb reminded Indra of Ashura's chakra bomb right away. It was the attack from Ashura's chakra giant that had beaten him and his Susanoo before. If it was that powerful, then it was something that could kill him if it landed directly on him. He had to avoid it at all costs.
The sphere wasn't moving even 20 percent as fast as Ashura's chakra bomb, but the Susanoo was still trapped. Indra saw no time to escape it; therefore, he used his mangekyou sharingan again—this time to regenerate the Susanoo's right arm and its right wing. The Susanoo pushed the debris apart and stood up exactly when the bomb arrived. Indra had no chance to jump away before it got there, but at least, his Susanoo was able to hold it back with its two hands. Indra was inside the Susanoo's head, so the dark bomb didn't reach him. However, it began to consume the Susanoo's hands and its two arms. Obviously, the orange giant wasn't going to last much longer. And the dark bomb was as deadly against chakra as the blade of darkness itself.
Indra had to act quickly. Now, he knew that they would only be able to defeat this enemy with their most powerful abilities. Anything below that probably wasn't going to work with this guy.
The orange Susanoo pushed Indra upwards and out of its head. Indra went flying up like an arrow because of the massive force of the push. As soon as Indra left it, the orange giant became lifeless, as if its real life-force had left it behind. Then, the dark bomb covered the Susanoo and provoked a huge explosion, when it clashed with the remainders of the destroyed building there.
Indra went up to an incredible height, and when he stopped moving up, he unleashed his sharingan's special power once again:
"Lightning-style Susanoo!"
Like Sasuke Uchiha, Indra's innate elements for chakra techniques were fire and lightning. Moreover, his strongest style was lightning—just like Sasuke…
A light-blue Susanoo, which looked very similar to the fire-style Susanoo, began to materialize around Indra. Indra stayed in its head, just like before, and the Susanoo's wings kept him airborne. However, something unexpected happened to Indra. He felt a powerful pain on his mangekyou sharingans and blood began to come out from the right one. This meant that his special powers were not going to last much longer. He had to land his ultimate technique—the giant lightning arrow—on the Snake King before it was too late…
When Indra was still fighting against the dark bomb that destroyed his orange Susanoo, Zet and Su got close enough to the Snake King to join the battle. They saw what Ashura was doing, so they chose to support him.
Zet summoned Spiral's "mad growth forest" around and below the Snake King's legs. This was the same strange technique that Spiral used against Hokage Naruto, during Hagaromo's vision from the alternate future. It was a battalion of white branches, like the ones he would use at Maida's village in the future. The branches grabbed the Snake King's legs and continued growing in spiral patterns.
At the same time, Su used the dark prison jutsu, which summoned two dark-style boxes on the sides of the Snake King's body. The boxes glued themselves to the Snake King's rib cage and began to form a dark ring around it. The ring's purpose was to stop the movement of the target's body. Su planned to stop the Snake King from leaving that spot long enough for Ashura's attack to land on him.
While Zet and Su's powers of the guardians were on display, five giant yellow portals began to appear around the Snake King. They looked like the ones that Ashura had used in his first battle with the earth sage, Jim Namikaze. Ashura's chakra giant had been preparing five massive chakra shurikens (or giga-rasenshurikens, like Naruto's). There were five other yellow portals around Ashura's giant as well. What was about to happen there was obvious. Even the Snake King figured it out pretty fast.
Instead of attacking Zet and Su, the Snake King wasted no time and he summoned two hands of sand that brought back the blade of darkness and the blade of light to his hands. He didn't even try to break the multitude of branches that were holding his legs or the black ring around his ribs. He knew he could destroy those easily later. He also knew that he had to block the upcoming attack from the portals no matter what.
Ashura unleashed his first massive technique at that instant:
"Five-edged Sun of chakra! Planetary chakra-shuriken!"
With its hands of chakra, Ashura's giant introduced the five giant shurikens into his five portals and they came out from the other five portals, ready to clash on the Snake King. The Snake King only had enough time to unite his two blades, before the five great chakra shurikens fell on him. At the center of the five portals, and where the Snake King was, the shurikens joined forces and they began to form what looked like a Sun of chakra. It continued spinning fast and it became gargantuan in size.
Eventually, Ashura's ultimate chakra-shuriken produced an explosion there and it began to fade away. Zet and Su almost got caught in the explosion, but thanks to their non-human abilities, they avoided it underground. After that, they came back to the surface again.
There was a lot of sand and dust around the Snake King, so the attack's impact wasn't visible right away…
At that moment, Hagaromo was almost finished transferring the rinnegan's full power to the seal of the six paths. In just a couple of minutes, he would be able to activate it. Therefore, he reminded Indra and Ashura about it, one final time:
"The Snake King must be at the center of the coliseum to use the seal of the six paths on him. Soon, it will be ready."
Although they were feeble, Hagaromo's words reached Indra and Ashura via telepathy. The other rinnegan would be gone soon, so even that simple ability wasn't going to be possible for Hagaromo anymore…
Ashura didn't think that the seal of the six paths would be necessary, after his last attack. However, when the winds dissipated the dust, the reality became clear to Ashura.
The Snake King had used his twilight shield, like he did before to block and destroy Hagaromo's strongest attack. Ashura's offensive destroyed the twilight shield, but it only reached the dark king's body at the very end, when it was over. It barely did anything to him!
Ashura was shocked with the outcome. Now, he really knew what they were fighting against. It was likely that only a direct hit from Indra's arrow and a direct blast with his chakra bomb would work to destroy the Snake King. Otherwise, their father's seal was the best plan. Ashura believed in Indra's power and his own though, so his chakra giant began to prepare the bomb right away. From the looks of it, Indra's lightning Susanoo was preparing the grand lightning arrow as well. They would do it. Ashura and Indra believed in their power!
When the spinning Sun of chakra was completely gone, the few remains of the twilight shield gathered around the Snake King's hands and they began to form two gray spheres. From them, dozens of gray shadow-clones began to come out. These "twilight clones" had the powers of both types of clones from before. They could move freely through the air, like the white mages of light, and they had black swords to attack, like the dark clones that wounded Hagaromo. They and their weapons were created from the combined powers of the fruits of light and darkness. In essence, they were both—the clones of light and the clones of darkness united—in one. Therefore, these new clones were not weak against the light-style or the dark-style. The original guardians and the two followers that gained their power—Zet and Su—were weak against either light, darkness, or this unique "twilight" element that combined the power of both. (The Zeta-style from the Zeta Realm was also known as the twilight-style by other sources. Its use was banned. Its techniques were forbidden because they altered reality in improper ways that blended light and darkness to accomplish it. Almost no one could use them anymore and they had not been taught for decades, so the leaders of the Zeta Realm believed that those ancient "twilight" techniques would be gone for good…)
At first, Zet and Su thought that they would have to fight the twilight clones, but the clones were not for them. The Snake King wasn't a fool. He knew what they were doing and he knew that the other two were a bigger threat for him. Therefore, he aimed for the fastest way to defeat his four opponents, beginning with the two more powerful ones. The twilight clones went after Indra's Susanoo, in the air, and the Snake King was going to take care of the yellow-chakra giant, on the other side of the coliseum.
The dark king looked around for Yuvol, but the white snake was nowhere to be seen. Therefore, he couldn't summon his original sword, the Sword of Kusanagi (Kusanagi was the original name of this powerful giant that was now the Snake King). He used his second best choice then: the twilight blade. Essentially, it was a hybrid of the blades of light and darkness—just like the twilight clones were hybrids of the two previous types that appeared.
Thirty twilight clones were created and all of them went after Indra. Half of them made a large circle around Indra's lightning Susanoo and unleashed the same technique that the clones of light used around Hagaromo before. The other half waited to attack Indra, after the field of light was casted around him. Indra was almost done with preparing the giant lightning arrow. He couldn't stop it to get rid of the clones because he would have to start it all over again. What mattered to him was landing that arrow on the Snake King at all costs. However, when the twilight clones activated their field, he lost his sight of what was happening below and he began to see white light everywhere. He also perceived that some of the clones would attack him, even though he wasn't seeing them.
The others went into the field ready to attack Indra and his Susanoo. They could see him, but he wasn't seeing them. Indra's Susanoo released a massive surge of electricity that held them all back. He wasn't reaching the ones that were keeping the field of light active though…
Ashura finished his bomb of chakra and the yellow giant held it with the two hands it had in front. He also noticed Indra's situation above. His elder brother almost had the grand arrow ready, but the clones were holding him back. He had to help him! Ashura was certain that the powers of the chakra bomb and the arrow together would be more than enough to destroy the Snake King. This was possible, but first, Indra had to break out from the field of light. Otherwise, he couldn't aim the arrow at the Snake King.
Suddenly, a twilight portal appeared in front of Ashura's chakra giant. It was gray, but it felt just like the initial dark-violet portal from where the Snake King came from. Ashura's instant reaction was to look at where the Snake King was; and he saw that there was another large gray portal there. However, the dark king wasn't there anymore. This worked like Ashura's special technique with portals; and when Ashura noticed it, it was already too late…
The twilight blade came from the gray portal and went through the body of the yellow giant. The Snake King came out of the portal with it. He was holding the sword and his hands were covered by gray auras as well. He let go of the twilight sword and it remained stuck in the yellow giant's body. Half of it was visible from each side of Ashura's giant. The sword also began to destroy the yellow chakra that Ashura's giant was made of.
As soon as the Snake King impaled the chakra giant, he left the twilight sword behind and made a shape with his hands and fingers that looked as if he was about to use both of them for knife-hand strikes. It was worse than that though. With one hand he penetrated and held the chakra bomb that Ashura's giant was holding. The gray aura around the hand seemed to have a neutralizing effect over the bomb. The other hand went straight for the chakra giant's face. He was going to grab Ashura and he would remove him from the protective chakra body. He expected that this action would put an end to the chakra giant immediately. And he would kill one of his two powerful opponents in one shot.
The surprise attack on Ashura didn't go exactly as the Snake King expected though…
The yellow giant had more than two hands, and until now, he was showing only two of them. The other four were hiding behind its shoulders. Ashura had very little time to think, so he didn't hesitate. There was no time for hesitation in a situation like this. Two hands of chakra came from the giant's back and grabbed the Snake King's second hand-knife, before it reached the face. Since the twilight sword was already destroying the chakra giant, Ashura turned the bottom half of the body into yellow-chakra clones that looked just like him and sent them to help Indra. Then, Ashura revealed his biggest surprise: he had been preparing two chakra bombs since the beginning. The first one was neutralized, but the second one was still ready. And he used it, before the top half of the chakra giant crumbled:
"Take it! This is for what you did to my father earlier!"
The last two hands came from the back holding the other chakra bomb. They crashed the heavy-looking chakra sphere on the Snake King and it exploded right away, all over the dark king. The explosion was unlike anything we have seen. It was yellow and very intense. Its blast also reached what was left of Ashura's giant; and it almost reached Hagaromo's location. Luckily, it didn't get to the holy sage…
Ashura's yellow clones broke the circular formation that the enemy's clones were keeping around Indra's Susanoo. Indra regained his normal vision, but he couldn't see the outcome of what happened below right away, because the bomb lifted an enormous cloud of sand on the coliseum. However, he saw Ashura's yellow clones fighting against the twilight clones, so he knew that Ashura had survived. Because of that view, he also realized that their true enemy had to be a human, just like them. The real enemy surely resembled the twilight clones and their cloaks in appearance, just like the chakra clones resembled his brother Ashura. "He" was also using a much larger and stronger body for combat, in the same way as they did with the chakra giant and the Susanoo. However, this enemy was on a different level than them because his other body was real. It wasn't a body of chakra or a product of the mangekyou sharingan's power. It wasn't like theirs, which were just extensions of their own power. It was a different body under the full control of the same person…
Was that part of what the great fruits of power were capable of?
The cloud of sand began to fade away quickly. Ashura was lying on the sand, approximately, one soccer field of distance from where his bomb's blast took place. He was still inside the coliseum. He wasn't too hurt because his chakra giant pushed him out in time, just like Indra's orange Susanoo did before its destruction. Therefore, the actual blast didn't catch him. The landing was still very abrupt though; and he had used too much chakra to accomplish what he had done. He knew he would be able to get up again, but he didn't have enough chakra to create any other powerful attack like those. He used his chakra mode at its maximum level to pull out what he did there. Now… it was up to Indra…
The Snake King was still standing, even after that huge direct blast. Half of his left arm was gone and the left side of his body was bleeding all over the place. Part of his armor was gone as well. The other side of his upper body had suffered damage too, but it wasn't bleeding at all. Apparently, his head and his legs were fine, even though they were close to the explosion too.
He was still very alive, although that attack had been truly lethal—even for the former guardian of the fruits of power.
Zet and Su came back to the surface after the chakra bomb's explosion. They quickly realized that Indra also had an attack of this caliber, so this was their best chance to eliminate their most powerful obstacle.
They got very close to the Snake King and both used their powerful branch-growth technique together. Zet's branches were white, like Spiral's. Su's branches were very similar, but darker, like the branches that guardian Black could summon from beneath the surface. Both types of branches grabbed and held the Snake King's legs again. Then, Zet stood tall in front of the king. He had never seen the dark king in a worse condition than this, so he began to believe that their victory was guaranteed. And being the proud bad guy that he was, he obviously had to put himself on a pedestal before sealing the deal:
"I bet you never thought that this day would come: the day when you would be defeated, even with all the great powers that you have. It turns out that even you are not fully prepared to counter the full power of your guardians and the greatest warriors from Kaguya's bloodline."
The Snake King was going to heal himself first, but Zet's arrogant words angered him, and he did something else.
"You talk big words for someone who would still be an ordinary human sage if it wasn't for me and my guardians. I see that you two still believe that you can beat me. I shall teach you a final lesson about power. You will see how far below me you still are."
The Snake King summoned a pillar of sand that lifted the remaining piece of the twilight sword from the ground. Even after he grabbed it with the hand that wasn't destroyed, Zet and Su still looked like they were seeing victory in their side. The dark king attempted to land strikes on them with the broken sword, but all of them failed. Zet and Su—just like Black and Spiral—could easily enter the ground when it wasn't 100% solid. The sand there made it very easy for them to avoid any attack that didn't penetrate the ground.
Finally, they saw their chance to finish the dark lord once and for all. Su used the dark ring of immobility, as soon as the Snake King lifted his hand and the broken sword above his head. The dark-style technique made one black ring and four black lances around the Snake King's wrist. The lances pierced the ring and the wrist to keep it in place. This couldn't immobilize the hand completely, but it slowed down the whole arm considerably. It ensured that the sword wasn't going to strike the ground fast again—unless the binding technique was destroyed first.
Su said the only words he had for the Snake King during that whole showdown. From the ones present, he was the one that had known him for the longest time. He had been one of the dark lord's first followers from the Second Human Realm.
"To think that even Goddess Kaguya couldn't kill you, but we are the ones who will is such a great irony. This is it for you Snake King, Master H, or whatever you real name is."
Zet saw a complete opening and went on to do what he had been wanting to do for a while:
"Have a taste of your own guardian's full power! Rise, Spiral's tree of death!"
Zet placed his hands on the sand. Then, a large and grotesque-looking tree of wild branches came from the sand, behind the Snake King. (This was the same "tree of death" that Spiral used during the tragic incident with Rin Nohara in Naruto Shippuden.)
The tree's top took the shape of a spine and it pierced the Snake King like a sword. It went through the dark king's stomach and, after it pierced him, it continued growing, until it reached Zet. It was another lethal attack, but the Snake King was still on his feet. He didn't seem as mighty anymore though. However, he still looked as if he saw himself on the winning side of the balance:
"You two became much more powerful thanks to Black and Spiral, but you are still mistaken if you believe that my guardians' techniques are enough to defeat me!"
Zet smiled.
"You are the one mistaken. Indra's arrow is what will kill you, not your guardian's technique. Mark my words, it won't defeat you, it will kill you."
Zet pointed to the sky above the coliseum and behind the Snake King. Indra's giant arrow of lightning was ready. Indra just had to get the remaining twilight clones out of his way and he would have a clear path to shoot it.
The Snake King saw the lightning Susanoo and the upcoming attack. For the first time, he truly saw himself in danger. Without even thinking, he unleashed one of his most powerful attacks, using the combined powers of light, darkness, and lightning-style chakra. He avoided using his full power before to keep his pride high—if he used it, it meant that someone was getting close to being his equal, even without the fruits of power. However, this situation demanded it.
A white and bright light came from the Snake King's open hand and rose many meters above him. This happened at the same moment when Hagaromo finished the transfer of the rinnegan's chakra to the seal of the six paths. Indra also had his arrow aimed at the Snake King. Hagaromo's last rinnegan disappeared, leaving both of his eyes as they were when he was a kid (they were dark-green before he had the sharingan and the rinnegan). Now, he was a normal human, but he still had the ability to activate the seal that could stop the Snake King…
Hagaromo was on his knees, ready to activate the seal, and Indra was in the air, ready to shoot the grand arrow, when the Snake King's all-mighty technique was fully released:
"Grand Zeta-style jutsu! Supreme Valhallia!"
The bright light grew and began to cover everything, while dark-looking thunder-like strikes began to fall en masse, within the areas that were beneath the light that covered the whole coliseum.
Hagaromo was stopped by the "Valhallia storm" before he could use his grand sealing technique. However, Indra shot the arrow straight at the Snake King's position before the storm of light and darkness reached his Susanoo:
"This is it! Say goodbye to your behemoth form! Grand lightning arrow!"
The unnatural storm reached Indra and he couldn't see the final outcome of the lightning arrow right away. Nonetheless, the heavy and destructive noise from the arrow's blast left it clear that it had not landed on sand. It hit its target…
What happened to the others wasn't visible right away because the strange storm lasted for seventy seconds, and it took another minute for the intense white light to leave. However, it was visible that Indra's Susanoo fell back down to the surface, after a few black thunders from the storm hit it directly.
Indra's second Susanoo was lost when it hit the surface. It simply began to fade away. It happened not just because it acted as Indra's shield against the storm, but because his mangekyou sharingan eyes couldn't take it anymore. Creating the ultimate lightning arrow put Indra's sharingans at their limit…
Indra and Ashura ended up on the sand, more than fifteen meters away from the spot where the Snake King was. Ashura used his best wind-based shield, but apparently it had not been enough to block the full impact of the storm. Indra was saved by his Susanoo, but his sharingan eyes lost their mangekyou form and blood began to come out from his eyes again—this time from both of them. His vision was cloudy. He knew that he had to stop using them; otherwise, he was running the risk of partial blindness, due to using the sharingan beyond its limits…
When the grand arrow and the lightning storm of light and darkness were gone, the outcome was revealed, at last.
The Snake King was lying on the sand, motionless, with blood everywhere. He attempted to turn the broken twilight sword into another twilight shield, but Indra's arrow was too fast—it reached him before he could do it. The arrow destroyed what was left of the sword with its initial impact and fell on him next, provoking another huge explosion. If something had come close to killing the giant Snake King up to that point, Indra's arrow had to be it. Half of his remaining arm—which he used to block the arrow too—was blown away. The side of his face that was touched by the arrow's lightning was burnt and bloody. The body looked the same way; the parts of it that came in direct contact with the arrow were incinerated. And half of the leg where the arrow landed was completely gone. He wasn't moving at all…
Indra's arrow and Ashura's chakra bomb practically defeated the powerful giant. They were at the same level of the powerful attacks that the host of the fruit of chakra could have done. The main difference was that these "ultimate techniques" were a one-shot-thing for Indra and Ashura. Even at full power, they could not use them again until they recovered completely. Goddess Kaguya and Hagaromo, however, could have repeated them right away because they were the hosts of the fruit of chakra; so they were not going to run out of chakra, like everybody else. (This was what made the Snake King so powerful. He had an endless resource of power for light-style and dark-style techniques of any scale. In addition, the elements of light and darkness had many uses that had nothing to do with attacking. He had an unlimited supply of some of the most useful and powerful techniques…)
However, even with his supreme advantages, the dark king had fallen. Unfortunately, the same happened to the others…
Spiral was the only one there that was left intact. He ran like a madman and, at the end, he still had to use his Spiral shield, which looked like a man-sized shell. Yuvol—the white snake—was freed from Spiral's branches and simultaneously got his tail and his head fried by the Valhallia storm. Unlike Spiral, he didn't have time to put up any special shield. The truth was that Yuvol wasn't that powerful. Besides using rock-style techniques and being able to turn into Master H's Sword of Kusanagi, there wasn't much more he could do. He was no match for the ones involved in this battle…
Zet and Su were the most unlucky ones, at first. The Snake King unleashed the twilight storm with them in mind. He knew that its reach was up to ten meters below the surface, so they would not be able to hide from it anywhere. They were alive, but Zet and Su were left lying on the surface—not far from the Snake King—and they had taken a severe beating from that storm. Even with their regenerating abilities, they couldn't recover from it fast enough…
Ashura and Indra were starting to recover their senses. Both were on the sand, close to each other. Ashura was the one with the best condition because he wasn't affected by the repercussion of using the sharingan eyes. Ashura had normal eyes. He inherited his special chakra mode from birth, just like Hagaromo inherited some of his powers from Kaguya (even before he became the new host of the Ten-Tails). Indra and Ashura couldn't block the storm's impact completely, but they were in better shape than the Snake King and Hagaromo.
Hagaromo was hit pretty hard by the storm. He was lucky because none of the black thunderbolts fell too close to him, but the destructive currents in the air still reached him. He couldn't use a wind-barrier, like Ashura, and he had no sharingans anymore, so he had no Susanoo, like Indra. Zet and Su could regenerate, so the devastating impact on them was nowhere near as lethal as what Hagaromo suffered. He wasn't the host of the fruit of chakra anymore. He was just an old man that could barely move after the harsh effect of those currents on his body. And he still had the bad wound from before…
The situation was critical. Everything was ready for Hagaromo to use the seal of the six paths on the Snake King. The bad news were that he barely had any strength to get up and cast it. Fortunately, it seemed like the dark king had been beaten… wasn't he?
The Snake King was not moving at all and his big eyes were closed. The violet color of the skin around his eyes was flickering though. Something was happening. It felt as if his life force was getting weaker for a moment. Then, someone else appeared there. A two-meter-tall portal of light materialized in front of the Snake King's face and the man of the black cloak walked out of it. He didn't have the black hood on either. However, the angle shown to us only revealed the view behind his face. His face wasn't revealed to us yet. He had green hair, like Zet, and two small horns on the sides of his head, like Kaguya and many of the ancient humans at the Zeta Realm. His hair was longer and darker than Zet's though…
Finally, we heard his real voice for the first time. He sounded like a man close to Jim Namikaze's age. He also sounded confident, despite what happened there so far:
"I didn't expect that they would be at this level. They must be direct descendants of Kaguya and the Sage of the Six Paths. They must have inherited part of their power too. Still, they are not a problem and I won't lose you here. You will continue to be my most powerful vessel and the almighty king from the Realm of the Snakes. You and I will continue existing as one and the same."
It became clear that "the man of the black cloak" wasn't always the same person in body, but it was the same mind behind the black curtain, each and every time…
Jim Namikaze had seen some of the other "vessels" in his visions, but he had not seen the real enemy yet…
The green-haired man put on the black hood, covering his head and his face. Then, he lifted his hands and pillars of light began to surround the giant Snake King.
"Zeta-style life-regeneration jutsu! Bring back this body to the way it used to be!"
The parts of the body that were gone began to regenerate and all the wounds started to heal very quickly. In less than two minutes, the dark king's giant body looked as if Indra's arrow and Ashura's bomb had never fallen on it.
Indra noticed what was happening, even with his cloudy vision. His attack succeeded in luring out the real one, as he expected. Unfortunately, his eyes were still hurting too much at that moment. He and Ashura couldn't do anything before the real enemy left.
The man of the black cloak left with the same light and the same portal that brought him. The violet color around the Snake King's eyes stopped flickering after that. Somehow, it felt as if the temporary visitor had never left the place. When the Snake King opened his eyes, the same presence was there again.
The Snake King stood up free of injuries as if the battle had not happened. He quickly noticed where the four that fought him were located. He walked up to Zet and Su first. They had not finished recovering from the damage that the Zeta-style storm did on their special bodies. (The bodies of the guardians were particularly weak against "Zeta," or twilight, techniques. And Zet and Su's bodies were exactly like the bodies of guardians Spiral and Black.)
The Snake King created two spheres on his palms; one was dark, meaning that it was some sort of dark-style technique from the fruit of darkness, and the other was white, because it was made using the fruit of light. Both had some transparent spots, so whatever they had inside would be visible from the outside as well.
The white sphere went up to Su Otsutsuki and picked him up. The dark sphere did the same thing with Zet. Then, both spheres went up and stopped in front of the Snake King's face. Zet and Su tried to do something, but these spheres were meant to obstruct the power of those that were weak against light or darkness. The white sphere stopped Su from using his dark-style techniques. After all, Su's body—or Black—was the product of the fruit of darkness, so almost all his techniques used the dark-style and were weak against light-based powers, like this sphere. Likewise, the dark sphere blocked Zet's attacks, which used either chakra or a mixture of light and darkness. Zet didn't have Spiral's body—like Su had Black's—but his body ended up just like Spiral's anyways. It was made with the fruit of light and with the power of darkness in a 50/50 ratio. Despite that, Spiral was much weaker against the dark-style, so Zet also had this weakness.
Su couldn't do anything, but Zet managed to move inside the sphere—perhaps because he wasn't 100% weak against it. Right away, the Snake King did something that changed the spheres. The white one turned into lances of light and the black one into lances of darkness. Then, all the lances impaled Zet and Su. They looked totally helpless after that attack. They would have died for sure if they had been normal humans—like they were before their battle against Black and Spiral, at the Realm of the Snakes.
The strange lances kept them airborne, until the Snake King grabbed them. Then the lances disappeared. The dark king had Zet in one hand and Su in the other.
"You two must have begun to realize by now that you can't defeat me. Only the host of the fruit of chakra had a chance against me. Besides, you should have known that I wasn't going to create guardians that could beat me easily. You still don't understand the extent of the power I possess."
The Snake King noticed that Ashura and Indra were starting to recover, so he didn't waste his time with these two. He threw Zet and Su to the two opposite edges of the coliseum, causing the final collapse of what was left there. Once again, Zet and Su were lucky because they were not human; otherwise, they would have been dead already.
The Snake King walked up to Indra and Ashura and grabbed them before they could do anything to avoid it. Indra couldn't use the sharingan and he didn't have his two swords with him. Ashura didn't have enough time to activate the eagle sage mode either. The Snake King didn't use spheres or techniques on them. He went straight to grabbing them with his bare hands.
When Hagaromo saw that, he knew that he had to hurry. He had to find the strength to initiate the seal of the six paths that had been completed already. He had to do it not just because the Snake King was now standing at the center of the coliseum and this was their only plausible way to beat him, but because Ashura and Indra's lives were at stake too. Besides, he already knew that this had to be done to save the future. Although, seeing his sons in danger was what pushed him the most, without a doubt.
Unfortunately for him, he had not figured out yet that Zet—the one he saw as "the other" white guardian—was, in fact, his third son, whom had disappeared several years ago. And he didn't know that the "new Black" was his long-lost brother…
The real Snake King had a bit of a bad temper, but he also saw himself as someone that was wise and powerful, so he definitely liked giving his worthy opponents a few final words before he finished them:
"You two must have realized it as well. Under different circumstances and against any other opponent, you would have won and I would be dead now. However, the power of the holy fruits surpasses all; and I possess two out of the three that exist. You can't defeat me, even if all of you are the offspring of former hosts of the fruit of chakra. Your power is not enough to beat its original source. Only the host of the third fruit has a chance, but I have developed the means to defeat such a person as well. And anyone else who tries to stop me will face certain death, like you two."
Indra realized that the Snake King was standing at the very center of the coliseum and he remembered Hagaromo's words. They had to keep the dark king there at all costs. It was their last chance now! Therefore, he started to make small talk to delay things:
"It's so ironic that we would be defeated here, standing at the very center of our own coliseum, a monument of the Otsutsuki Clan. Here, at the same place where we trained so many times, and had so many battles, and learned so many things. Oooh, how tragic this is!"
Immediately, after hearing Indra's words, Ashura realized that the Snake King was at the right location. Maybe, that was why Indra was talking so much crap—that wasn't like him at all, and Ashura knew it. Ashura took a peek at Hagaromo and noticed that he was struggling to do something. They still had one chance left. Thus, Ashura joined Indra in talking clever gibberish—anything as long as they could keep the Snake King exactly where he was.
"To be honest, I don't think I will miss the coliseum. I think it is much more tragic that we were not at a beach or at an amusement park during this defeat…"
The Snake King wasn't in the mood to stand there listening to his opponents' conversations though. He had said what he wanted to say already, so he began to lose his patience with them very quickly. Then, his powerful and angry voice was heard again:
"Shut up already! I thought you two were two serious elite warriors instead of two powerful idiots! You didn't seem this talkative before either. Are you trying to delay your imminent death? There is nothing you can do now!"
Then, the Snake King had a sudden epiphany. He had forgotten completely about the one that had the fruit of chakra before. Hagaromo certainly wasn't dead yet. Besides, why didn't he see Yuvol or Spiral during the long battle he had there? Something didn't feel right. His clever intuition knew it…
He looked around with his eyes, keeping a tight hold of Ashura and Indra. When he spotted Hagaromo, he knew that he had missed something important at some point. Hagaromo had some sort of seal on the ground; thus, something was going to happen there.
Hagaromo was on his knees when he finally did it. He couldn't stand up, but being on his knees was enough to do it. Ashura and Indra gave him enough time and spiritual strength to pull it off. At last, he activated the real seal!
"Seal of the Six Paths! Fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, and life! Carve the seal of our real on him, and vanish him from it forever!"
With the final activation, a new giant tracing of the seal—the same complex sign that Hagaromo had created—revealed its existence on the surface of the entire coliseum. This was something that Hagaromo had been planning for many years. Even the coliseum itself had been built with this in mind. Only he knew about it though…
The giant seal that appeared everywhere on the ground was as large as the coliseum itself, and it looked exactly like Hagaromo's smaller version of it. Apparently, the humongous one was the real deal and the small one that Hagaromo created first was just a key to activate the one on the coliseum.
The giant circle became the new view of the coliseum's ground. It had all the same signs that Hagaromo traced on the small one. The edges of the grand chakra circle appeared below the borders of the coliseum, and the immense amounts of sage chakra that began to flow through them pushed all the destroyed structures out of the way. Then, out of the circle's border, hundreds of hands of chakra came out and grabbed the Snake King. There were hundreds of them, so he couldn't escape them.
The Snake King had to let go of Indra and Ashura. The hands began to immobilize him quickly. They lifted him up and kept him several meters above the ground. Ashura managed to grab Indra and stop their fall with one of his wind-based techniques. Ashura was the first one there that began to get his power back. He couldn't use the chakra giant again, but he knew he could use his eagle sage mode. Indra, on the other hand, didn't seem recovered yet. His eyes went back to normal. And without his mangekyou sharingan, his power was definitely much lower.
The six seals that Hagaromo placed on the Snake King's body—during their battle—began to show up now, on the ground and on the enemy's body as well.
A brown circle with a gorilla's face inside appeared on the Snake King's forehead. An orange circle with a fox's face and a green circle with a human's face appeared on the shoulders. On the legs, the blue slug's circle and the yellow dragon's seal showed up. Then, the eagle's white circle revealed itself on the Snake King's chest. When the dark king noticed this, he finally understood that the whole thing had been a planned trap for him, since the beginning. Someone knew that he would attack them there, before it happened. However, many things were unclear… How could Hagaromo know that he would attack them that day and at that time? And how did the old sage have so much power left to pull this off?! He didn't even have the fruit of chakra anymore!
Obviously, there was much more about Hagaromo than what the Snake King knew…
The six seals on the Snake King were united with their replicas on the ground by the currents of chakra that flowed through the whole thing. (All of that sage chakra came from the conversion of the rinnegan eye. The Snake King didn't know that a final sharingan could be that powerful. In fact, he didn't even know that a sharingan eye could have such power, until Sasuke Uchiha defeated his top human vessel in the future, many decades later...)
When all the currents of chakra were united, they began to form a new seal on the Snake King. The new sign looked like the seal for the Human Realm (not the Zeta Realm, but Naruto and Hagaromo's Human Realm). [Just like the Earth Realm had a seal, which was required to travel to it, the other realms had their own seals as well. And they could be used for more than just teleportation-based travel. An example of this was what Hagaromo did using the seal of the six paths…]
The Snake King began to fear the worst when he saw that. He remembered that Hagaromo said it would "vanish him forever." The Snake King used his full strength and, to everyone's surprise, he began to overcome the hold of the grand seal. No one was supposed to be able to do such a thing. However, he was still moving very slow. He wasn't going to break out of it easily.
Ashura realized that someone had to hold him back. Otherwise, one of his hands or one of his legs would break free and the seal would not be successful. However, how would he do that without the chakra giant? After all, the Snake King was a giant too, so holding him wasn't that simple.
Hagaromo didn't look as worried as Ashura because, even though he had not seen every detail, he already knew that the Snake King's "new guardians" would betray him until the end. Although, he still didn't know who they really were…
Zet and Su came back and used their abnormal growth of branches from the ground to hold the Snake King again. Not finishing them earlier had been a mistake that the dark king was going to regret for sure…
Hagaromo had not seen what would happen next. He just knew that things would work out in the long-run, based on the events that he was able to see. He also knew that he was the only one that didn't make it alive out of that conflict... What was going to happen to him and when? He didn't know it. Hagaromo's special sharingan saw many things, but it didn't see everything; and his visions didn't show him all the details that mattered either. That was the real weakness of his special sharingan. Even though it saw the future and its possible paths, it never saw all the details and it could only see what happened at the Second Human Realm, not at the others. Therefore, flaws in Hagaromo's plan for the future could happen and not all of his decisions were necessarily the best ones… only time would tell their true outcome…
In his desperation, the Snake King created a giant sphere of light and darkness that looked a lot like Ashura's chakra bomb, but it was much larger. It began to appear above his hands, which had been pushed up by the power of the seal. He couldn't throw it at the coliseum because it would destroy him too; and he had difficulty to aim it because he could barely move his hands. Despite his limitations, he managed to give it a small push that started its trajectory towards the right place. Ashura got very worried when he noticed that the direction was where the Otsutsuki Clan was located, just a few miles away from there.
The Snake King thought that this was his way to escape. He talked directly to Hagaromo:
"You are going to have to choose between saving your people or defeating me. They don't have much time left now, so you better think and act quickly, if you want to save them. I can make the giant twilight bomb go away now, but first you have to stop this sealing technique."
Zet and Su got worried because they knew that this was their best opportunity to defeat the dark lord. They didn't care about the people at the Otsutsuki Clan. What mattered to them was getting what they wanted. And for that, Hagaromo couldn't let go of the seal.
On the other hand, Ashura and Indra worried about their clan and about their friends and families there. Indra felt very frustrated. There wasn't much he could do. Without the sharingan and the Susanoo, he couldn't even make it on time, and much less stop that thing.
Ashura asked Hagaromo to end it:
"Father! Please, stop the seal! We need to destroy that sphere, or else everyone will die!"
Hagaromo was serious and very clear about what was more important:
"I can't do that Ashura. If this doesn't succeed, there will be no future for our world. If this doesn't happen, it won't be just our clan, everything else will be destroyed as well."
"How can you say that!? Don't you care about your people!? Or are your visions of the future more important than us!? I won't let this happen!"
When the Snake King heard Ashura's words, he figured out that the Sage of the Six Paths could see some events from the future. It was the only way to explain how this elaborate trap was waiting for him there. And it really wasn't too surprising for him, because, if the fruit of darkness gave him the power to possess others and even a timeless realm of his own (the "Possession" Realm), then, it made sense that the owner of the fruit of chakra would have some power that was at that kind of level as well…
Ashura became an eagle sage and left the coliseum in a hurry. He flew past the great twilight sphere, which was just two miles away from the clan. He could feel its power and he knew that the eagle sage mode wasn't going to be enough to stop it. He couldn't summon the chakra giant or make full use of the chakra mode, but there was something else that he could do. There was a special and forbidden sage mode that rivaled even his father's power. It was the human sage mode that used the eight inner chakra gates of the body. He didn't have much time, so he chose to use it.
Besides having the eagle sage mode active, Ashura began to open the inner chakra gates one by one, until he opened the seventh one. Hagaromo never taught him how to open the final one because he thought that Ashura could end up doing something crazy like this—and he was right. Ashura pushed towards the eight one, but seven open gates were already too much for him; and the power he felt was already unbelievable, so he made his move, before it was too late.
He was engulfed by a large mass of green-looking sage chakra. It had the same color as the seal of life that had the face of the human from the Zeta Realm. Without too much thinking, Ashura's green aura clashed with the sphere in the sky. He did it from below, hoping to either destroy it or change its course towards the atmosphere.
Everyone felt the powerful clash. The Snake King was surprised; he didn't expect that people that didn't have the fruits of power would be capable of these things. Hagaromo couldn't hold a few tears because he knew what would happen to Ashura after that. Ashura would survive, but he was going to feel the worst pain of his life, possibly for months. Nonetheless, Hagaromo never let go of the seal of the six paths. He never stopped it. His only consolation was that the realm would be saved and only he wasn't going to make it. He also knew that the "fruit of chakra" was going to be safe divided into nine different parts…
After the grand clash, the sphere's path was pushed upwards, meaning that it would not hit the ground. Ashura lost all his chakra and his power, all of a sudden, and he began to fall down half-conscious. He had never done anything like that before, but it was a success. He expected to die after that final fall. However, he was saved by other wind-style user before he reached the ground. It was his uncle and Hagaromo's fraternal twin, Hamura Otsutsuki. He arrived in time with many others from their clan.
Once the sphere of light and darkness reached a high-enough altitude, it exploded and its explosion was devastating. It would have destroyed their entire clan for sure, if it had landed there.
Ashura had to be taken to the medical ninjas at the clan right away. It wasn't clear whether he was going to survive—but we already knew he would make it. Hamura knew that something very serious and dangerous was happening at the coliseum, if even Hagaromo had not been able to stop it. He and the other elite warriors from the Otsutsuki Clan ran towards the coliseum, which was miles away from them. Hagaromo and Indra were still there…
After that, the Snake King knew that Hagaromo wasn't going to free him easily from the seal, so he threatened him with something else:
"Son of Kaguya, if you don't release me from this now, I will guarantee the death of your other son before this ends!"
Hagaromo already knew that both Indra and Ashura were going to make it and they were going to live for many more years, so he ignored the dark king's words. Then, the Snake King used the power of the fruit of darkness to cast his own seal of darkness on Indra. (It looked like Orochimaru's seal of the three black commas, seen in the Naruto series.) Three black commas, with the same shape as the ones on the Snake King's forehead, appeared on Indra's left leg.
Nothing happened at first, but Hagaromo knew how malign that was. As a child, he was one of the few that witnessed Kaguya's grand battle with the Snake King, during the war with the snakes; and he still remembered how the Snake King casted that seal on her when he was losing the battle.
Hagaromo believed that the dark seal of the three commas was what changed Kaguya's stability after that battle. Possibly, it was the force that led Ten-Tails to take over her. She never had problems to control it before, but, after that battle, things were never the same again. Hagaromo feared that the same thing would happen to Indra because of that seal. Naturally, he had never seen this particular event in his visions of what would happen…
Nothing was changing there though. The Snake King still saw himself trapped and the seal of the Human Realm was almost finished on him. He feared what would happen next, so he used his full strength and power to break free. Zet and Su got quite alarmed when he began to move a little more, even with all the branches and the hands of chakra from the seal that were still holding him.
At that point, Yuvol came from beneath a pile of sand and he didn't even look at the Snake King. He started to make his escape right away. He saw that the initial dark portal—from where the Snake King came from when Jim Namikaze left—was ten percent of its original size now, but it was still there. Therefore, the open path to the Realm of the Snakes wasn't gone yet. Yuvol began to move towards it with haste. He could still save his own tail if he got there before the portal was gone…
It was at that same moment that the Snake King experienced his biggest surprise so far:
A thin and long white branch, which was shaped like a lethal sword, impaled him through the very center of the heart. The deadly branch came from behind. It was Spiral's doing! The dark king couldn't struggle anymore after that. And Spiral had his first epiphany:
"I see now why you always kept Yuvol hiding as a backup. It certainly gave you the upper hand in situations like this. You could still win, even if you had lost already. Unfortunately, it works on you too."
The Snake King never saw that coming, so his anger exploded:
"You-u?! Do you have any idea of what you are doing, you fo-ool!"
"Yes, I actually do. I am going to stay here with them, and it would be very convenient if you can't put a foot here ever again. Just like you, I realized that this human world is much more fun than seeing rocks, dry caves, and fat snakes all day long, every day. I hate it! So I am going to stay here and you won't be able to stop it. I am done following you and that good-for-nothing snake!"
After that, it was obvious that the real Spiral wasn't a fool. He just sounded like one half of the time. He was also as powerful as Zet and Su, as far as we know. Perhaps, he could even become a bigger threat than them… There is no doubt that one of Zet and Su's biggest mistakes over the century that followed was underestimating the real power of their "third wheel," Spiral…
Yuvol reached the portal that brought them there. It was shrinking, meaning that the Snake King was losing power and the time to return was running out quickly. Yuvol didn't think twice. He jumped into the small dark-violet oval before it was completely gone. Saving his own skin was more important to him than saving "the master."
The Snake King noticed when Yuvol escaped. The seal was also finishing its completion on him. He probably only had one minute left before the seal's effect could take place. There was only one thing left for him to do: expose his real self to stop Hagaromo.
The same white portal of light from before appeared just three meters away from Hagaromo, whom was still on his knees holding the seal. And the same green-haired man of the black cloak came from it. This time he had the black hood on and he was holding human-sized versions of the blade of darkness and the blade of light, just like his "vessel" did in the battles with Sasuke and Hokage Naruto, in Hagaromo's vision of the alternate future.
As soon as he got there, he attacked Hagaromo with an X-shaped slash, using the two blades. He was going to repeat the same attack aimed at Hagaromo's neck. However, his hands and arms were held back and stopped before he could complete the movement. The smaller blades of light and darkness were stopped cold at the sides of Hagaromo's head. And the real Snake King couldn't kill Hagaromo. He was very surprised at first:
"What is going on!? Why do I feel just like I felt in the giant body that is caught under the seal!?"
Hagaromo answered and his upper body fell to the ground afterwards:
"The seal of the six paths affects the main body and any other body that is connected to it at the location where the seal is being used. Thank you for coming, Snake King."
When Hagaromo fell down, the human Snake King noticed that the grand seal was completed and it had appeared on his true self as well. In other words, the seal of the six paths was present on the entire coliseum, on the giant king, on his true human self, and also in front of Hagaromo, on the sand. The small one in front of Hagaromo wasn't just a key to activate the whole thing. It did to the human enemy what the one on the entire coliseum did to the giant one.
Indra saw the real enemy standing in front of his father and he knew that this was his last chance to do something. He was seeing better already, even though his sharingan wasn't back yet. The cursed seal of the three commas made him feel a little strange—a little different perhaps—but it wasn't stopping him from doing anything. He managed to prepare a small one-foot-long arrow of lightning. This one wasn't even one percent as powerful as the giant arrow from before; nonetheless, it still had potential to be lethal. From the spot where he was lying on the sand, Indra shot the arrow straight at the man of the black cloak that was facing the opposite way. It hit him right below the neck, on the spine.
The human Snake King was caught by surprise and the electric shock made him fall to the ground. The small hands of chakra continued holding his arms and legs, but they didn't stop his body from falling down. On the way down, his hood was pushed back completely. Unfortunately, we still saw him only from a back-side view, so his long green hair was the only thing visible.
Ironically, he and Hagaromo ended up side-by-side on the sand, with their faces facing each other. Who would have thought that?
Hagaromo was one of the very few people that knew what truly happened in the ancient past, before Kaguya became "the Goddess" and before he was born. However, even he didn't know the entire story. And whoever-this-guy-was surely knew about it. Hagaromo seemed a little surprised when he first saw the enemy's human face. Regardless, he had to ask:
"What is your connection to Kaguya? Why are you doing all of this? And, why do you still look so young?"
Clearly, it wasn't the first time that Hagaromo had seen that face…
The human Snake King was aggravated and hostile after that arrow hit him. His movement was still blocked by the hands of the seal though.
"I don't have to tell you my secrets 'holy sage.' What are you going to accomplish with this seal that you placed on me? Whatever it is, you must be less smart than Kaguya if you think this will be enough to stop me."
"My seal will ensure that you and your most powerful body won't put your feet on this realm again. Any technique that you use to come back to this world will not work. And if you ever find a way to come back, it will be to face your true end at the hands of the saviors from the future."
The human Snake King laughed at Hagaromo's words, while he and his giant counterpart began to disappear. He also said a few final words before he was gone for good:
"You won this battle, Hagaromo Otsutsuki, but not the war. Remember about what happened after I fought your goddess. Fighting me brought her downfall. The same will happen to you, or at least, to your son, because my dark seal works a lot like yours. It is permanent. Besides, I haven't aged a bit since I obtained the fruit of light, so I will outlive all of you anyways. Rest assured that I will find a way to come back. I still need the fruit of chakra, which is here, in this realm…"
The giant Snake King and the green-haired human of the black cloak disappeared. The completed seal took them back to the Realm of the Snakes and took away their ability to travel directly to the Second Human Realm…
Spiral could barely believe it. The Snake King wasn't dead, but if he couldn't come back, then, they had truly won. Zet and Su, on the other hand, were not too surprised. Zet, in particular, didn't look too happy:
"As always, he had to be the winner. Even without one rinnegan, the owner of the fruit of chakra, the Sage of the Six Paths, the Ten-Tails' jinchuuriki, Hagaromo Otsutsuki, still wins. It's always him and his cursed Ten-Tails beast."
Su was in a much better mood, even if his voice sounded treacherous:
"We have been lucky Zet. Thanks to their help, we succeeded at defeating the Snake King. We may not have to worry about him again."
Spiral's mood and his voice changed to their usual state—mostly childish and foolish.
"Zet, Su, where are we going now? Should I lead the way? Can we go anywhere I want!? Ple-e-ease!"
Zet didn't sound like someone who had just won. He sounded angry:
"Spiral, you are not the boss here and I can destroy you with that technique he taught me, if you ever give me trouble. If you really want to join us, you will have to work for us. Now… there is something I must do. I have waited years for this moment to arrive…"
Zet left Su and Spiral and he began to walk towards Hagaromo. On his way there, he raised his hands while he walked past Indra. He couldn't afford to get attacked by Indra during "the process," so he trapped him with three branches and used a fourth one to bury Indra's face on the ground, while Indra talked. Indra barely had time to say something:
"What are you doing!? You traitorous bastard-d-d!"
When Zet stopped walking, he was in front of Hagaromo. Hagaromo was still alive, but in critical condition on the sand. Zet revealed his intentions, while a bunch of white branches lifted Hagaromo from the sand:
"It's time to extract the power of the fruit of chakra and pass it on to a new host, which will be me, the son that never got anything from you, until now."
Hagaromo heard Zet's words and finally recognized his face. It was then that the Sage of the Six Paths realized his mistake. And it was too late to change anything. His plans to save the future never took into account that "the second white guardian" was, in fact, his lost son. He missed that important detail because it was never a direct revelation in his visions. And missing that fact made the future worse because Zet was one of the biggest villains of that future. If Hagaromo had known it before, all of that suffering could have been avoided.
What else could he have missed?
NEXT- Episode 51: The Battle's Aftermath
