"Can you extract the disk?"
Ryosuke decided to change his approach.
"Not certain."
The White Snake said, "Its will and body are tightly bound. Unless you can beat it until it can't get up again, or give me absolute, ample time to extract a disk."
Ryosuke nodded.
The White Snake was only suitable for sneak attacks or dealing with defeated enemies.
For the White Snake Sage, who could peer into all things in the shinobi world and was skilled at manipulating the power of nature itself, a first-strike kill or sneak attack was useless.
Even if you smashed the White Snake Sage into a lump of meat, it could still counterattack, still evade.
The head of the "little snack" rolled across the ground.
Ryosuke silently stared at it for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "Sasuke, in a moment listen for my signal and activate Ninjutsu Nullification."
Sasuke's eyes widened, "Brother Ryosuke, you've found a way to kill this stinking snake?"
"Call it a trial, at least. Get ready, "
As he spoke, Star Platinum appeared, grabbed Sasuke by the collar, and lifted him high.
"Eh?!" Sasuke froze.
"Ora!"
Star Platinum hurled him violently into the sky.
"Ahhhhhh!!"
Sasuke let out a shout.
At the same time, Ryosuke once again hefted the Great Blade of Ruin and charged at the White Snake Sage.
The White Snake Sage sneered, "Even if you try a thousand times, ten thousand times, it's useless!"
It manipulated the earth; countless fists formed from solid ground surged out toward Ryosuke.
Ryosuke wove between the stone fists, feet occasionally stamping down, pushing himself faster, falling lower. Just as the distance between man and snake shrank to mere meters, "Stop! Time!"
The world froze into gray and white. Ryosuke continued forward, his feet slamming heavily into the earth.
The ground shattered, yet under the halted time, countless flying shards hung suspended in midair.
Ryosuke gripped the Great Blade of Ruin with both hands.
Hiss!
From the hollow at the back of the blade burst blazing golden flames. The Dragon-Snake Pearl endlessly absorbed the natural energy of several kilometers around. The blade instantly grew to over ten meters in length.
"Give me, "
He swung. The ground beneath the White Snake Sage was split apart by a brutal horizontal slash.
Ryosuke tightened his grip, all his strength pouring into his arms. With the sound of tearing cloth, both sleeves split apart.
Like a chef flipping a wok, he suddenly lifted upward.
"Fly up!"
The White Snake Sage's massive body was hurled into the air.
Ryosuke shouldered the blade, chasing close behind.
The long blade swung like a bat, and with Star Platinum's fists together, blow after blow struck the White Snake Sage's backside.
In moments it had been battered a thousand meters high.
This was Ryosuke's plan.
Since the White Snake Sage's power came from the earth, and the earth manipulated by "Sage Art, Inorganic Reincarnation" could not reach a thousand meters into the sky,
Then if you threw the White Snake Sage high enough, it would be unable to absorb life force from the ground.
Of course, even without merging with the earth, the White Snake Sage itself possessed natural energy nurtured for millennia.
But so long as it was "individual" power, eventually it would run dry.
"Hm?"
Time began to flow again.
A breeze brushed over the White Snake Sage. It stared at the ground in astonishment.
Ever since learning Sage Arts, after merging with the earth, the White Snake Sage had never left the soil again. For hundreds of years it had not once gazed down at the world from above.
First came shock. Immediately after, panic.
Its life force was being consumed.
The White Snake Sage glared at Ryosuke, who kept swinging his blade.
"Futile! This is futile!"
The earth still lay only two or three hundred meters away. It could still use Sage Arts.
The ground swelled, a towering stone pillar rising.
One touch of the earth, and all its wounds would vanish.
But...
Rumble!
The stone pillar collapsed.
The White Snake Sage could no longer sense even a trace of sage power.
Ninjutsu Nullification… it twisted its head, glaring deathly at Sasuke falling from the sky in another direction.
Nullification lasted only an instant. But when the White Snake Sage tried again to use Inorganic Reincarnation, it was already too late.
Ryosuke triggered another time stop.
When the White Snake Sage's sight shifted once more, it was already at a thousand meters high.
It had left the range of "Inorganic Reincarnation".
"From this moment on, you are no longer the one who rules the earth, the immortal sage, but…"
Ryosuke stared coldly into its enormous eyes, "My 'little snack.'"
This wasn't a bluff.
In Ryosuke's gaze, the White Snake Sage truly saw a hunger that wasn't human.
A single Garaga had brought Ryosuke 800 soul fragments.
How much would a White Snake Sage bring?
Ryosuke wanted to know. And he wanted the White Snake Sage to know, what it felt like to be treated as "a little snack."
Star Platinum and Ryosuke together became like two vicious meat grinders. The White Snake Sage's flesh, bones, and blood fell from the sky like a storm of shattered pears.
A thousand years of cultivated life force poured out endlessly like floodwaters breaking a dam.
Death's shadow drew closer.
The White Snake Sage's pupils shrank. Its jade-like scales shook violently, streaks of blood spreading, staining the edges crimson, making its form grotesque.
Rip!
A claw tore through its flesh, sprouting from the lower abdomen.
Then a second, third…
Until the fourth claw, which halted, shrunken, deformed like a malnourished freak.
"I am the White Snake that transforms into a dragon!"
The White Snake Sage roared.
It shot upward, scales flashing, bursting apart with a bang into countless blades that flew at Ryosuke.
Star Platinum appeared, a storm of fists smashing the blades away.
But in that instant, the White Snake Sage turned, fleeing straight toward the earth.
Ryosuke followed close.
This was a tug-of-war with life on the line.
Blood spattered, scales broke, the White Snake Sage roared.
Its life force drained rapidly.
It could not comprehend, how could the fists of a human and an evil spirit, the edges of their blades, hurt this much?
It saw the ground, less than a hundred meters away.
'So close!'
Touch the earth, and all would be reversed.
The White Snake Sage made its decision. Forget "secrecy."
If it couldn't kill Ryosuke in the sky, could it not kill his friends? His family?
With its ability, nothing in the shinobi world escaped its sight. It could find and slaughter every last one Ryosuke knew.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Another time stop. Beads of blood burst from its body. Its position returned to over seven hundred meters. Its life force had fallen to the brink.
But...
A pillar of stone shot toward it.
Just now, it had successfully invoked Inorganic Reincarnation. Its distance from the pillar, only a few dozen meters.
It knew, Ryosuke's strange power, each time it warped him into the sky, required a brief rest. Before the next time stop, it would touch that pillar.
One moment of contact, and all Ryosuke's effort would be wasted. It would dive back into the earth, never giving him another chance to throw it skyward.
The White Snake Sage opened its maw, laughing wildly, "Ryosuke! The final victor is me!"
It smashed headlong into the pillar.
The next instant, the pillar turned into a white candle.
"What?!"
The White Snake Sage's expression shifted, "Illusion!"
The White Snake appeared, one hand on its hip, "Do you know? When two entities of the same coordinate world meet, they naturally cancel each other out. Only one remains in the end."
The White Snake Sage, "Huh?"
"I mean..."
The White Snake tilted its chin, pointing at the Sage, "In this world, one 'White Snake' is enough, and that's me!"
Sage energy surged. The White Snake Sage forcefully dispelled the illusion.
The White Snake, straining with all its power, had only bought a fleeting moment.
The White Snake Sage still hovered six hundred meters high.
But the stone pillar it had summoned with Inorganic Reincarnation… vanished.
Or rather, it had never existed.
It was all an illusion.
The White Snake Sage invoked Inorganic Reincarnation again.
Everything was the same as before, except one second slower than its original plan.
Compared to its thousand-year life, one second was laughably short.
But that second made all the difference.
The White Snake Sage heard Ryosuke's breathing behind it shift, from ragged, to steady.
It suddenly turned, letting out a roar, "Ryosuke!!"
"Star Platinum: The World!"
The world turned gray.
Step by step, Ryosuke walked upon the air to the White Snake Sage, long blade raised high in his hand.
Star Platinum stood on the other side, fists clenched tight.
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
Time began to flow again.
The White Snake Sage's body froze midair for half a second. The next moment, every scale burst apart, every inch of flesh shattered into fragments. From within erupted endless sword-light, slicing the remaining flesh into minced shreds.
Only a single snake head, shielded by a strange power, did not shatter.
Ryosuke lifted the head in one hand.
[Killed the White Snake Sage, obtained 3000 soul fragments]
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