Sora felt the shift, an explosive force clawing its way out, overwhelming his senses. At that very moment, Arthur's essence ejected from him, spiraling upward like wisps of smoke.
Arthur had always been present, only choosing not to respond so that this very scene could unfold. And when it did, even he wasn't strong enough to possess the boy.
The air stormed with chakra as Sora's body transformed, overtaken by the primal urge of the Tailed Beast Chakra. His face contorted into that of rage. His robes practically ripped apart, and a swirling mass of red, bubbling chakra engulfed him in a shroud.
The transformation was terrifying. Sora's skin turned a sickly shade, and his eyes were now completely slitted. Two long, crimson tails erupted from his back, lashing out wildly, tearing through the air like whips. Even his right arm had changed, becoming swollen and monstrous.
Arthur had only ever seen this once during his fight with Utakata. It was a grotesque thing, one that could bring fear into the weak-hearted. But the difference this time was in how much anger the Nine-Tails' chakra released as compared to the Six-Tails.
Sora dropped to all fours, and his mind slipped further from reason as instinct fully took over. Nothing mattered to him anymore except the need to fight, to assert dominance like a true predator would.
A guttural roar erupted from his throat, rumbling through the cavern and sending shockwaves that knocked the occultists off balance, terror planting itself in their eyes.
"Stop him!" one of them screamed.
Arthur could practically hear the fear rising in their voices. Their words fell on deaf ears. Sora was no longer a boy; he was a creature of fury, moving in an animalistic fashion, clawing at the air and dematerializing their confidence.
With every swipe of his claws, shockwaves erupted, crashing against the surrounding walls. The force sent rocks tumbling down.
"Please, I have kids!" a woman screamed.
Sora leaped at her and tackled her down with terrifying strength, clawing at her viciously. The figure cried out, a sound drowned by Sora's growl as he unleashed more chaos.
Their mockery had become screams and confusion among the remaining members. They scurried and scrambled to avoid him, but they couldn't escape the storm of rage that the boy had become.
He charged after them, no longer thinking—only feeling the overwhelming urge to dominate, to eliminate anything that posed a threat.
From high above, Arthur watched with calm resolve. He did not intervene, only observing as the boy completely succumbed to the beast within.
There was a methodical nature to the beast's rampage, a series of strikes that split the air and sent tremors through the cavern. Part of Arthur was intrigued by the display of raw strength, but it was the kid inside that he had little regard for, focusing instead on the power itself that rushed past the boy's unconscious mind.
"I have to have it…"
As Sora tore into the remaining occultists, the boy couldn't hear the desperate cries of pain around him. All that mattered was the primal thrill from within—the delight in the destruction, the scent of fear filling the air. It was intoxicating, and he surrendered to it entirely.
There would be no turning back.
With a final roar that echoed into the depths, Sora descended upon the last of the cultists, intent on erasing any memory of their insidious presence.
It was a field of madness left in the wake of his savagery, with Arthur looking on, unperturbed and watching his investment rising in the money.
The chaos within the cavern escalated as Sora descended further into his primal frenzy. With a violent swipe of his claws, he struck down the last of the occultists, sending their bodies across the ground, lifeless and defeated.
Arthur could see Sora's heart racing with the thrill of destruction, despite things having calmed down.
As the last echoes of his roars faded into silence, Sora found himself drawn deeper into the occultists' lair, another cavernous space. His gaze landed on an array of peculiar technology spread throughout.
Because of the Nine-Tails' chakra, Sora felt the need to obliterate their creations. One by one, he began dismantling the towering mechanics with his sheer brutality.
High above, Arthur observed with a cool detachment. But he would not let the beast destroy the other thing he came here for.
"This ends now…" he commanded.
Just as the boy approached what looked to be an important device, his claws raised, ready to destroy it, Arthur took action.
'Simian Sage Mode…' His transformation was almost instantaneous. 'Sage art: golden chain: bonding jutsu…"
Adamantine chains covered with sage chakra quickly snaked through the air and wrapped around Sora with breathtaking speed, binding him tightly. Sora's growl turned into a shocked snarl as he found himself trapped.
"Learn who holds your leash, beast," Arthur asserted.
Sora struggled, the animalistic instincts within him screaming to break free, but the chains held firm. Such was their purpose—to be able to even retrain Tailed Beast.
Was Sora in his full transformation? No, he was only in version one, a transformation that Arthur could more than handle.
With grim determination, Arthur commanded the chains, sending Sora crashing against the cavern walls. The beast growled in fury.
"Still not listening?"
Arthur retracted the chains, pulling the beast back into the air and then crashing him once again. Each impact vibrated through the stone. Sora's defiance was met with relentlessness as the chains slammed him against the ground and back to the walls until he finally succumbed.
As the boy's body could no longer sustain the pressure and he fully lost consciousness, the Nine-Tails chakra receded, leaving him still and quiet. The beast's influence was snuffed out for the moment.
Arthur released his Sage Mode as he approached Sora's motionless body.
Most would not have been able to handle such a creature. But to Arthur, this beast was nothing more than an overgrown puppy on a leash trying to act like a wild mutt.
He leaned down, addressing the unconscious boy, and, taking a moment to ensure Sora would not resist, he placed a flying raijin mark on Sora's left glute.
He then stood upright and surveyed the remnants of the battle. Satisfied that the immediate threat was dealt with, he turned and walked away to collect the technology, leaving Sora lying there.
Some time later.
When Sora finally awoke, he found himself lying on soft grass beneath a moonlit sky. Upon feeling the coolness of the earth, he quickly sprung up in confusion.
The remnants of the cave were nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by an open grassland. The temple was not too far from here.
"Feeling alright?" a familiar voice asked.
He turned to see Ryugetsu, who stood nearby. Sora rubbed his eyes, hardly able to recall the previous events.
"What happened?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
"Our mission's finished," Arthur coolly stated, walking a little forward.
Sora blinked, disoriented, and admitted, "I… I can't remember anything after entering the cave."
Arthur grinned slightly, unaffected by Sora's confusion, and replied, "Not surprised since you passed out soon after…" This made Sora blush in embarrassment. How could he, a shinobi monk, just pass out like that in front of his senior? "But I appreciate your efforts."
Throughout the exchange, Sora felt an inexplicable emptiness inside, as if a part of him had been lost.
"I… I didn't do anything," he insisted with self-doubt.
Arthur's demeanor remained steady as he reassured the boy, saying, "You helped more than you know."
Still bound by a sense of amnesia, Sora hesitated. The battle from earlier was outside his grasp, a void that he simply couldn't remember. In a moment of humility, he lowered himself into a bow.
"Thank you," he murmured, the words sincere yet uncertain. "I promise to do better next time."
What else could he do except be grateful that he was taken care of after supposedly passing out? And how could he not believe Arthur, the same man who secretly healed his injuries afterwards?
As Arthur prepared to leave, he gave a slight nod in response and said, "Just remember, you are capable of more than your brothers."
With that, Arthur strode off, leaving Sora sitting amidst the grass. The boy looked up at the stars, feeling both relieved and perplexed. Despite having forgotten the events, he felt a strange comfort.
And as he sat there, questions were raised in the back of his mind. Had he truly been that helpful?
In that moment, he chose to believe the only person who seemed to care for him. Because that same person told him to embrace the unknown, allowing himself to go into the darkness, he would do just that.
Even if the boy was uncertain of what lay ahead, he trusted that man.
Sun Stream Plaza.
Pale white light covered Arthur's laboratory. It was a far cry from the events that happened in the occultist's lair.
What he had dragged back with him was their advanced technology, which would help him with new inventions.
As he laid out the equipment across a long workbench fashioned from old planks of wood, he analyzed the true nature of what he had acquired. Scanners, energy converters, control panels with conductive silver circuits—all harnessed by a system of natural electricity, derived from the elemental forces themselves.
The occultists had harnessed talents he had only read about in science fiction. Looking at them now and in person, it was clear that the fiction was real. Such devices could surely be produced on earth if it weren't for the shadow government always trying to conceal them.
"Quite interesting," Arthur mused to himself as he lightly examined a particularly intricate device. "These maxima are akin to the outdated structures I worked with on earth."
He stepped back, allowing his mind to understand these clunky hardware and sleek relics.
They looked almost like they were from a primitive age, but he knew that they were more akin to computers—something this world wouldn't focus on for another fifteen or more years.
His thoughts wandered deeper into comparison: the cult's technology was reminiscent of the early days of computing, before the advent of microchips and silicon.
'It seems as though they relied on bulky systems driven by vacuum tubes,' Arthur thought. 'No wonder it was in a cave… They'd need constant temperature control to keep this thing maintained."
The efficiency of this equipment compared to modern technology was disconcerting; these devices had reached a technological plateau, waiting to be progressed. Meanwhile, he was standing as the only one in this world that knew how to both function and improve it.
Yet there were no thoughts on doing such a thing right. Something like that required a lot of time, money, and resources.
Even if there were scientific minds like Brie, there was no way he would jeopardize the secrecy of the Cayman Jungles to outsiders. Pulling together a team and manipulating their will would not serve him well—not when other things needed to be expanded on first.
His hands moved quickly as he dismantled the components of one such device, a control panel that once must have powered some occult figure's sinister creations.
As he pulled apart various sections, he took note of how the wiring resembled the initial schematics of early computer designs. This was a form of technology that had to be adapted—one that was a reflection of pre-scientific advancement during the current Edo period.
Intrigued, Arthur collected circuits and conduits, comparing their functions with the modern iterations he was used to.
'If I can isolate the natural electricity sources and adapt these components…" he contemplated. "I can probably bridge some gaps."
As such, he worked tirelessly, reconnecting the wires into the different machines already in his laboratory.
First, he calibrated the energy converters for more effective power distribution, using his own experience to alleviate the crude designs that had governed the devices thus far.
Technicians today would have been astounded by his ingenuity. He was essentially recreating a complex system from rudimentary components, akin to building a modern supercomputer using only basic electronics.
As he reconstructed the networks of wiring, he thought about what Brie would think. Her scientific mind wouldn't be able to fathom it.
After he finished, he double-checked the main activation console. Everything was connected correctly, so he pressed the activation button. Nothing happened.