Chapter 177: The Power of the Primordial Sea
The instant after Shiromo stopped Uchiha Hikari and said, "Let me handle it," he appeared behind Terumi Mei.
Time Erasure + Time Stop + the insane base speed from his own physical stats.
If Shiromo didn't already have absurd stamina, he'd basically be at the level of getting someone pregnant just by staring at them.
"Don't be scared. Let's do it again."
Shiromo placed a hand on Terumi Mei's shoulder.
Hearing his voice behind her, and feeling that massive surge of power suddenly flood into her body, Terumi Mei's eyes hardened with resolve.
The Keystone Shiromo condensed from natural energy was essentially just a convenience tool, so others wouldn't need close physical contact like during those two times in the Land of Wind when he had to personally transmit natural energy.
Now that Shiromo was directly feeding natural energy into Terumi Mei, there was no need to worry about the Keystone's various limitations.
The only drawback was the same as with Gaara and Temari, Terumi Mei couldn't control her body herself right now and could only let Shiromo take over.
All she could do was carefully experience what this state felt like.
As Shiromo's natural energy poured in, the red patterns on Terumi Mei's blue robe and hands gradually turned gold.
A thin layer of pale blue-gold energy wrapped around her entire body.
Originally, Terumi Mei's blue clothes and red hair already matched Kyogre's color scheme perfectly. In that earlier state, aside from some minor changes to her clothes and arms, there hadn't been much of a transformation.
But now it was different.
Now she looked like she'd entered something similar to Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or Tenseigan Mode, completely cloaked in energy.
The patterns on her hands and clothes shifted into intertwined gold, white, and blue.
Even her pupils turned gold.
She had basically taken on the full Primal Kyogre color scheme.
Her hair color didn't change, it was just bathed in energy and gave off a faint glow.
Which was normal. If her hair had turned blond too, she'd have become a Super Saiyan.
Whoooosh!
As Shiromo's natural energy pushed Terumi Mei into her complete form, the rainfall in the sky suddenly intensified.
A torrential downpour poured down like the heavens had split open.
At the same time, the sea around the island began churning violently.
Several massive waterspouts shot into the sky, connecting directly to the dark storm clouds above.
Around Terumi Mei's body, several water spheres condensed once again.
But this time, they were far larger than before, and no longer the normal color of water, instead glowing with a bluish-white light.
Boom!
The moment the spheres finished forming, they fired forward like beams of light, blasting straight toward the wooden golem.
Terumi Mei could clearly feel it, this was still water.
But compared to her earlier attack, the power difference was heaven and earth.
"This move is called Origin Pulse. It's the authority technique belonging exclusively to the ruler of the seas."
Shiromo named it in advance, just to prevent Terumi Mei from coming up with some bizarre name herself.
At the same time, he confirmed another of his earlier theories.
Some fundamental laws differed between worlds, causing the same rules to not always apply.
But at the same time, some underlying principles were also the same.
For example, in the Pokémon world, Kyogre and Groudon's first Primal Reversions were officially stated to have been triggered by a meteor striking the ocean, causing geological upheaval and releasing [natural energy], which allowed both of them to undergo Primal Reversion.
And now, regarding Kaguya, the Sage of Six Paths, and Senju Hashirama, Shiromo had formed a new hypothesis, one that he'd need to verify after returning to Amegakure and seeing whether Orochimaru had discovered anything new.
"Origin Pulse?"
Terumi Mei stared at the scene in front of her, completely stunned.
The wooden golem that she'd barely managed to shatter one arm of before, only for it to instantly regenerate, was now completely obliterated into fragments by a single attack.
"What's going on with the weather around us?"
She finally snapped out of it and noticed something was very wrong.
"This state is called [Primordial Sea] Mode. If you don't deactivate it, or if you're not defeated, this rain will keep falling, letting the ocean continuously swallow the land, until the entire world is drowned beneath the sea."
"...Why does it suddenly feel like we've turned into world-destroying villains?"
Terumi Mei went quiet for a moment before speaking.
"Once you can use it on your own later, just turn it off after you're done, Ok? You're not actually planning to flood the world, are you?"
Shiromo shot back.
"That's true… wait, then hurry up and pull it out… uh, I mean, take your hand away and cancel the mode! The Land of Water already has barely any land to begin with. If more of it gets swallowed by the sea…"
Terumi Mei suddenly panicked.
She wasn't just the Kirigakure Village leader anymore, she was now the ruler of the entire Land of Water.
Everything being submerged was her territory.
And once she thought about that, another problem dawned on her.
As Shiromo loosened his grip and the rain gradually weakened, Terumi Mei turned around and looked at him worriedly.
"Even if I master this mode later, I feel like I wouldn't dare use it casually."
"Every time I use it, the world loses more land. Use it a few times and even if I don't want to be a destroy-the-world villain, I'll basically already have done it."
"Don't worry."
Shiromo patted her arm.
"Once I make a [Desolate Land] for Kurotsuchi, it won't be a problem anymore."
"[Desolate Land]?"
"It continuously devours the ocean and expands the continent."
"...Why does it feel like you've got it backwards? Her Iwagakure is inland, what does she need that for?"
Terumi Mei complained.
"And what do you have to do with 'land' anyway?"
Shiromo rolled his eyes.
"Kurotsuchi uses Earth Release, but she spends all day flying around in the sky. She doesn't really have much to do with the ground either, does she?"
Terumi Mei immediately fired back.
"Funny enough, based on my experience making your Blue Orb, I suspect that once she wears the Red Orb, she'll have to stand on the ground as much as possible to absorb natural energy from the earth."
"After entering [Desolate Land] Mode, she probably won't even be able to fly anymore, even if she wants to."
Shiromo let out a long sigh.
That was the price of being the embodiment of the land.
You had to stay firmly planted on it.
The two of them returned to the lakeshore.
At that moment, Senju Hashirama was in the middle of regenerating, the broken half of his Impure World Reincarnation body reforming from countless paper strips.
Luckily, Hashirama wasn't as much of a pervert as Uchiha Madara.
Impure World Madara had deliberately (maybe) let himself get hit by Dust Release just to expose his body so everyone could admire his "beloved."
If Hashirama were that deranged too, pointing at certain body parts at a moment like this and saying those were places Madara had once injured or "entered", that would be absolutely disgusting.
"My mark disappeared."
Uchiha Hikari stepped forward, curiously examining Terumi Mei as she returned with Shiromo.
"Mark?"
Terumi Mei looked at Shiromo in confusion.
She had no idea Hikari had left one on her at all.
(End of this chapter)