Chapter 402: Really Thinking He's a God
The towering avatar of the Wood God Dragon glared down at the interloper in his domain. He realized that the overwhelming magical aura surrounding Ren had abruptly shifted. In the blink of an eye, the young mage had taken on an entirely different appearance.
"You don't understand?" Ren asked, his voice echoing through the cavernous, wooden interior of the dragon. "It's a transformation."
"Hmph! Such parlor tricks are meaningless," God Seed Aldoron sneered, his wooden physiology shifting aggressively. "No matter what insignificant form you take, you cannot defeat me."
"Defeat?" Ren tilted his head slightly, his eyes cold and devoid of mercy. "I'm not interested in defeating you. My mission is to kill you."
Normally, Ren was relatively lenient when executing his missions. If an opponent had committed a standard crime, he usually incapacitated them, handing them over to the Magic Council or the Rune Knights for an official trial. He only resorted to outright killing if the enemy had committed an exceptionally vile, unforgivable sin.
But the colossal entity before him had moved far beyond the mere concept of 'sin.' Although Ren wasn't exactly a self-proclaimed champion of absolute justice, dealing with a cataclysmic threat like the Wood God Dragon required absolute measures. For the millions of lives this beast intended to consume, killing it a hundred times over still wouldn't be enough.
[System Commencing.]
[Full Body Take Over: Uchiha Itachi.]
Ren's magical signature vanished entirely, replaced by a dense, suffocating wave of foreign chakra. He changed his Take Over character once again, slipping into the legendary form of the Akatsuki prodigy, Uchiha Itachi. A high-collared black cloak adorned with ominous red clouds materialized over his shoulders.
"Kid, it matters not what you change into—" the God Seed began to boast.
"Amaterasu," Ren recited in a flat, emotionless voice.
His onyx eyes bled into a piercing crimson, the three tomoe blurring together into the intricate, spinning pinwheel of the Mangekyō Sharingan. A single trail of blood leaked from his right eye.
Whoosh—!
A localized spatial distortion occurred in his line of sight. Suddenly, a massive blast of pitch-black flames ignited out of thin air, latching directly onto God Seed Aldoron's body.
"Ugh, aaaaaah!!" the avatar shrieked, instantly recoiling as the unquenchable fire began to eat away at his wooden flesh.
"What kind of foul fire is this?!" Aldoron roared, frantically trying to swat the flames away, only for them to spread further. "It can actually burn my divine body?!"
Ren remained perfectly still, his crimson gaze calmly sweeping across the surrounding cavern. Wherever his eyes focused, the black flames of Amaterasu instantly blossomed, quickly igniting the dense, magical wood that formed the interior of the dragon's body.
In the world of Naruto, Amaterasu was widely feared as the ultimate physical attack, an inextinguishable black fire claimed to burn all of creation to ash. It was hyped to the heavens in the early stages of its universe. Yet, ironically, it rarely succeeded in burning a major opponent to death from beginning to end, often making it seem quite lackluster in execution.
However, that apparent lack of lethality wasn't because Amaterasu lacked destructive power. Its absolute incineration was beyond doubt. The technique was simply somewhat rigid, dealing continuous damage over time and leaving exceptionally fast opponents plenty of reaction time to shed their clothing or sever their burning limbs.
But here, the circumstances were vastly different. The target Ren needed to attack was an infinitely large, stationary landscape of highly flammable wood. There was nowhere for the dragon to run, allowing the inextinguishable black flames to spread and feast exactly as they pleased.
"Awoooooh!!"
Far outside the cavernous interior, the true, continent-sized body of the Wood God Dragon let out an apocalyptic scream of pain. The sheer volume of the roar shook the very atmosphere, causing his massive, mountainous body to tremble violently and send localized earthquakes tearing across the landscape.
"What's going on?! What kind of madness is that guy up to now?!"
On the back of the dragon's right hand, Kiria of the Blade Dragon staggered as the ground beneath her heaved. She was currently locked in combat with the God Seed Wolfen. These bizarre, humanoid plant manifestations posed no real threat to her; a single swing of her Blade Dragon Slayer Magic could effortlessly sever a dozen of them at once.
"Aldoron..." God Seed Wolfen murmured, his expression shifting into something uncharacteristically solemn.
Clearly, the absolute core of their existence was in severe trouble. Was it truly the work of that young man from just a few moments ago? The very idea seemed unfathomable to the sentient seed.
Meanwhile, the chaotic tremors were felt in the other four towns built upon the dragon's body. The remaining members of the dark guild Diabolos were fiercely battling against their own respective God Seeds, desperately trying to survive the awakening of the massive beast.
In Left Hand Town, the destruction was widespread.
"Just who are you supposed to be, Lord?" Armor Dragon Madmole grunted, crossing his massive, metallic-plated arms as he stared down the entity in front of him.
"I am the God Seed, Metro," the towering, muscular wooden figure proclaimed in a deep, rumbling voice. "I am here to eliminate all foreign outsiders who dare tread upon our god."
With a mere wave of Metro's thick hand, several giant wooden golems rapidly sprouted from the cobblestone streets. They lunged forward, launching a coordinated, heavy-hitting assault on the Armor Dragon.
Miles away, in Left Shoulder Town, the atmosphere was equally tense.
"My name is God Seed Doom," a slender, wooden figure draped in jagged leaves hissed, a sadistic grin stretching across his face. "I am the one tasked with bestowing the absolute fate of death upon the rebels who oppose Aldoron."
"The fate of death?" Skullion Raider, the Corpse Ash Dragon, replied with a dry, disdainful chuckle.
His body passively dissolved into a swirling vortex of black ash, effortlessly evading the incoming vines. "Don't make me laugh. The only fate awaiting the Wood God Dragon is to be carved up and eaten by us."
On the opposite side of the continent-sized beast, Right Shoulder Town was engulfed in a frenzy of destruction.
"I am the God Seed, Gears," a highly mechanical-looking plant entity stated mechanically. "I am the executioner who eliminates the redundant gears that hinder Aldoron's perfect system."
"And I am Nebaru of the Sticky Dragon!" a feral, hunchbacked man shrieked, his eyes wild with unhinged battle lust. "A proud Mage of Diabolos who's going to rip you apart!"
Deep inside the cavernous core of the Wood God Dragon, the battle raged on.
"Hah!"
God Seed Aldoron unleashed a furious surge of magical power, violently waving his arm. He forcefully severed the massive chunks of wood from his own body, shedding the numerous ignited pieces into the abyss below. The unquenchable Amaterasu flames continued to burn the discarded debris as it fell, reducing it to mere ashes before it even hit the ground.
"Oh, your reaction time is quite fast," Ren commented, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning lazily as he watched the desperate maneuver. "If you hadn't violently ripped away your own flesh to shed the Amaterasu flames, your entire avatar would have been burned down like cheap firewood."
That was the sole, glaring downside of the fearsome Amaterasu. Because it burned on the surface layer first, it was easily bypassed if the victim was willing to shed their outer defenses or mutilate themselves. It was the exact reason it was so often joked about as the absolute attack that couldn't actually burn anyone to death.
"Human, you have truly enraged me," God Seed Aldoron snarled, his eyes glowing with an intense, sickly green light.
Aldoron was genuinely furious this time. This battle was taking place inside his very own body, next to his most vital organs. While the localized burning of Ren's Amaterasu might not cause fatal damage given the dragon's unfathomable size, the sheer agonizing pain and utter humiliation it brought could not be easily erased.
"Angry already?" Ren teased, a mocking smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "For someone so impossibly big, you sure are narrow-minded."
"Damnable human!" Aldoron roared, his voice distorting into a demonic, booming echo. "Now I will let you witness firsthand how severe the consequences of enraging a god truly are!"
The interior of the cavern began to violently warp and twist as Aldoron clapped his hands together. "Forest of Sword Halberds!"
Instantly, thousands of hyper-dense, razor-sharp wooden spikes grew from the surrounding walls, ceiling, and floor. They completely enveloped the spherical space, trapping Ren in an omnidirectional cage of deadly thorns.
"Now, taste this never-ending sword dance!" the God Seed bellowed triumphantly.
With an explosive surge of kinetic force, the tens of thousands of massive wooden spikes shot toward Ren from every conceivable angle. They tore through the air with deafening sonic booms, threatening to impale him a hundred times over.
"Susanoo!"
Seeing the inescapable barrage, Ren immediately tapped into his overflowing reserves. He activated the ultimate technique of the Mangekyō Sharingan. A massive, ethereal burst of orange-red chakra erupted from his body, rapidly solidifying into a towering, skeletal ribcage that completely covered the area around him.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The relentless storm of wooden spikes slammed into the glowing ribs of the Susanoo. The cavern echoed with deafening, metallic clangs as the supposedly armor-piercing halberds shattered harmlessly against the absolute defense.
"What?!" God Seed Aldoron gasped, his glowing eyes widening in sheer disbelief.
He hadn't expected Ren to be able to completely block his ultimate area-of-effect attack without even moving. This bizarre, skeleton-like magical construct possessed a defensive power that completely defied common sense.
"It seems your Magic's power isn't all that great after all," Ren mocked from safely within the glowing ribcage, his arms casually crossed.
"Don't be too arrogant, human!" Aldoron spat back, channeling even more magical energy into the cavern walls. "This sword dance will not end! Until your frail life reaches its conclusion, they will continue to fall. Even if your defensive Magic is powerful, how long can you possibly hold out?!"
"Defensive Magic?" Ren raised an eyebrow, his smirk widening into a dangerous grin. "Who told you this was just defensive Magic?"
Ren pumped a massive influx of energy into his eyes. His Susanoo rapidly transformed, evolving past its initial skeletal state. Ethereal flesh and blood grew quickly over the glowing bones, weaving together into thick, muscular tissue. A moment later, traditional samurai armor materialized, locking into place over the construct's massive body.
In the armored giant's left hand, a solid, ornate shield manifested—the Yata Mirror. In its right hand, an ethereal gourd materialized, pouring out a stream of fiery liquid that instantly shaped itself into a massive, blazing longsword—the Totsuka Blade.
Without missing a beat, Ren commanded the Susanoo to step forward. The giant swung the blazing Totsuka Blade directly toward the God Seed.
Aldoron's instincts screamed at him. He quickly threw himself to the side, ducking just beneath the massive, sweeping arc of the ethereal fire.
Rumble—!!
The blade completely missed the avatar but violently cleaved into the cavern wall behind him. The magically reinforced wood of the dragon's interior was slashed open with zero resistance, leaving a massive, burning gap in its wake. On the outside of the continent-sized beast, a devastating, bleeding wound suddenly erupted across Aldoron's chest.
"Awoooooh, aaaaah!!!"
The Wood God Dragon's massive true body let out a deafening, agonizing scream, the sheer force of its pain causing the clouds above Guiltina to part.
"Damn it!" God Seed Aldoron cursed, scrambling to his feet as he looked back at the horrific gorge Ren had effortlessly sliced open.
He hadn't expected Ren's attack power to be so absurdly high. The physical durability of a God Dragon was absolute, yet this ethereal blade had cut through the dragon's dense internal body as if it were nothing but warm butter.
"It seems that casual little attack just now made the Wood God Dragon's true body quite uncomfortable," Ren chuckled darkly, his Susanoo raising the fiery blade once more. "I'm a kind-hearted person, so I'll be sure to finish you off as quickly as possible to end the dragon's pain."
Ren's eyes locked onto the God Seed, and the Susanoo reeled the Totsuka Blade back for a devastating, downward execution strike.
"Stop!" Aldoron roared in genuine panic.
The corner of Ren's mouth curled up mockingly. How could he possibly listen to the pathetic demands of the enemy and actually stop his attack now?
The giant, flaming blade slashed out again, descending with the force of a falling meteor. Combined with Ren's already superb, heavily refined swordsmanship, the physical power of this flaming strike was pushed to an even more terrifying extreme.
"Awoooooh, aaaaah!!"
"You're looking for death!" Aldoron shrieked in desperation.
Refusing to be cut down, the God Seed rushed toward Ren with terrifying speed. Channeling every ounce of his immense, world-warping Magic Power into his arm, he threw a devastating, earth-shattering punch directly at the glowing giant.
Ren didn't even flinch. He immediately raised the Susanoo's left arm, positioning the Yata Mirror to intercept the blow.
Boom—!
The collision generated a massive shockwave that tore through the cavern, splintering the surrounding wood into shrapnel. Yet, behind the ethereal shield, Ren remained completely unmoved.
The Yata Mirror was a Divine Artifact natively held by Uchiha Itachi's Susanoo. It possessed the absolute, conceptual defense setting of 'adapting to any chakra nature transformation' and 'reflecting all incoming attacks.' The original creator of the technique had established that this shield provided the highest, most absolute rank of defense in the entire ninja world. Against raw magical kinetic force, it was an impenetrable wall.
The Yata Mirror effortlessly absorbed and nullified the momentum of Aldoron's desperate, god-tier attack, bringing the massive fist to a dead stop.
"Your attack is lacking!" Ren declared, his voice cutting cleanly through the echoing shockwave. "And you call yourself a god? You're nothing but an overgrown reptile, placed on a pedestal by the ignorant. You've actually started to believe you're a god."
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