It was Orochi—victorious in its resurrection—but now twisted into something utterly new.
Its entire body was clad in pitch-black scales. From its back sprouted dozens of warped serpentine heads, each baring jagged fangs and flicking crimson tongues.
Worst of all was its "face": the original Great Snake's features had warped beyond recognition. Its eyes were fused shut, but six vertical pupils had torn open across its forehead, burning with an eerie, blood-red glow.
Its lower body had become a colossal snake tail, thick and muscular, dragging across the ground and corroding stone wherever it slithered.
"BALDY!!!"
All six crimson pupils locked onto Saitama at once, brimming with hatred deep enough to rot bone.
"The agony you put me through… I'll return it a hundredfold!"
Saitama tilted his head, scratching it blankly.
"Do we know each other?"
"BASTARD!!!"
The Great Snake roared, its massive tail whipping as it launched itself like a living missile.
BOOM!!!
The impact could have shattered a mountain—
Yet Saitama didn't move an inch.
He simply raised one hand and stopped the monstrous charge cold.
But the Great Snake wasn't finished.
Dozens of snake heads lunged at him from every direction!
Clap! Clap! Clap!
With his free hand, Saitama idly swatted them aside—too fast for the eye to follow. Each strike smashed scales apart and sent blood spraying across the cavern floor.
"Hey—don't go around biting people. It's gross," Saitama complained.
The Great Snake recoiled, shock flickering across its many eyes.
Even after fusing with the Great Snake's power—
Even after crawling out of death itself—
It still couldn't budge this human.
Not even a step.
"Impossible… this is IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
The monster shrieked, its scales writhing unnaturally as its frame swelled further.
All the Orochi remnants spread throughout the cavern rushed toward it, merging into its body.
Its aura spiked violently.
Saitama clicked his tongue.
"What a pain."
The suffocating malice rolling off the creature felt irritating—like a mosquito that refused to die. He clenched his fist slightly, preparing to end the farce with a single serious punch.
But a firm hand pressed down on his shoulder.
"Wait, Saitama.
Let me."
Kaito stepped forward.
He could feel the power climbing inside the creature—no longer just Dragon-class.
It had broken past even Dragon Peak.
A monster stepping into the tier beyond Dragon.
Saitama paused, then shrugged. He stepped back, letting his arms hang lazily at his sides.
"Oh, you wanna play? Cool. Do it quick, though. I'm starving."
ROOOOAR!!!
The Great Snake's evolution reached its peak.
Now a towering colossus over a hundred meters tall, its dozens of serpent heads writhed like a maddened forest of vipers. Every scale gleamed with metallic luster.
All six pupils fixed themselves on Kaito—overflowing with arrogance and contempt.
"KING!" it hissed—its voice like a chorus of ten thousand serpents.
"You are strong. The strongest on the surface.
But I… I have surpassed the limit! Stepped into the realm of gods!
Before me, you are nothing but an insect waiting to be crushed!
I will rip apart your false 'strongest' title and become the ultimate lifeform!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Kaito chuckled.
A thunderous roar burst from his chest—so deep it seemed to shake the air itself.
BOOOOOOM!!!
*Emperor Engine · Perfection — Activated.*
This was no heartbeat.
This was creation announcing the arrival of its sovereign.
Crimson-gold aura erupted from Kaito's body like flowing stars. In an instant, a golden armored giant—equal in size to the Great Snake—towered behind him.
Its body surged with rippling crimson-gold energy. Every fiber of its massive frame radiated the power to shatter worlds.
The cavern trembled.
And then—
Streams of crimson-gold aura raced along the stone walls, reinforcing them, hardening them, preventing the ground above Z-City from collapsing under the pressure of what was about to unfold.
A safeguard.
Because what came next…
would destroy everything unprotected.
"Come on."
From within the golden armored giant, Kaito's muffled war cry boomed like a god speaking through iron.
"Show me what the so-called ultimate lifeform is truly capable of!"
"SEEKING DEATH!"
The Great Snake roared back—but rather than charge recklessly, it shifted into an opening stance.
A stance Kaito recognized instantly.
*Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.*
"Oh?" A gleam flashed in Kaito's eyes.
"So you stole the Great Snake's martial arts memory."
The monster lunged.
In a single instant, dozens of massive fists—each large enough to flatten a fortress—came crashing toward him like collapsing mountains.
Kaito didn't retreat.
His arms darkened as Armament Haki surged across them, mixing with the crimson-gold aura surrounding the giant. The two energies intertwined until they glowed a piercing purple-gold.
He stepped forward—
—and met fist with fist.
*"Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist."*
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Two titans nearly a hundred meters tall clashed like ancient gods in a world forged of stone and fire. The reinforced cavern shook violently, yet held—only because Kaito had braced it earlier.
The Great Snake's blows were a raging mudslide, a torrent of violence that would swallow entire cities without slowing.
But the golden giant's movements were a vast ocean—endless, fluid, absorbing and redirecting all force before turning it back with tenfold precision.
The duel escalated.
The monster's technique sharpened rapidly, adapting under the pressure of death. Every movement grew closer to the true Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.
But it wasn't enough.
Kaito's mastery overshadowed it completely.
His strikes slipped into every opening like living blades; every counterattack landed on vital energy nodes, shattering scales and sending shockwaves through the serpent's colossal body.
The Great Snake roared in agony as wound after wound accumulated.
Kaito frowned.
"Still… not enough."
Even now—after its revival, transformation, and martial evolution—the creature failed to stimulate the danger he needed.
It possessed power, yes…
But lacked the *cutting edge*, the lethal intent, the destructive essence necessary to push him beyond the Limiter.
Perhaps feeling that disappointment…
…the Great Snake's six pupils blazed blood-red.
ROOOOOAR!!!
"NOT ENOUGH!
POWER—MORE POWER!!!"
It abandoned Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist entirely.
A surge of raw, primal killing intent burst from its body—violent, uncontrolled, hungry.
The martial will of the Great Snake, suppressed during its imitation of Bang's technique, now erupted in full.
"BZZZZT—!"
The entire cavern thrummed with its transformation.
The monster sank into a new stance—wild, explosive, cruel.
A stance born not from flowing water…
…but from a heart twisted into pure violence.
*Violent Heart Liberation Fist.*
This was the forbidden technique the Great Snake had stolen from Bang's sealed scroll—the very art that had led it down the path of betrayal.
Kaito's eyes brightened.
A technique that squeezed the heart's power into a single, violent point of annihilation—
Perfect.
*Exactly the kind of power that could finally push him to the edge.*