Hydra

…Ami jumped on tree branches to avoid lightning more effectively. Keshita "automatically " followed Miku, and closed his eyes, reading Ami's thoughts. Tamiya began to control his ability much better, penetrating directly into someone else's body, perceiving it as his own.

Ami understood that in her current state, lightning would sooner or later catch up with her, so she took the magatama beads out of her sleeve and tore off a couple of beads, throwing them into her mouth and biting them. And she said imperiously.

"Shinto: Tenazuchi!"

Norito, a powerful prayer, gave her body strength, her heartbeat faster, and her muscles increased in size.

"How can I get to him? He's at an altitude of about two thousand meters." The girl analyzed the situation.

Thanks to the enhancement, Ami accelerated and jumped through the trees, moving like a hybrid of a cat and a monkey. At the same time, the girl managed to maintain grace. Ami had an unusual umbrella with a mirrored outer surface, with which she reflected or blocked lightning strikes. Okobo, although it seemed inconvenient for running and the battle itself, wasn’t only the finishing element of her sublime image.

"Stop running, bug!" Orochi thundered, tired of his futile attempts.

"Kyuden!"

The giant snake gathered a huge ball of energy with all eight of its heads and launched it into the forest. Ami jumped onto the tallest tree nearby and climbed to the top of it as the ball, the size of a five-story building, was already approaching. Ami jumped up and covered herself with an umbrella from below, protecting herself from the ball lightning. When it exploded, it set the nearby trees on fire and shook the ground, and the shock wave pushed Ami straight into the sky toward the snake.

The girl closed the umbrella and pointed it upwards to reduce air resistance. Ami flew vertically upwards at high speed when one of Orochi's heads noticed her. He directed a pair of his mouths towards her, full of hundreds of sharp fangs and releasing black smog to hide his presence. Ami opened the umbrella again, which one of the heads immediately crashed into, pushing the girl towards the other mouth.

In flight, Ami changed the mode of the umbrella, of which she’d many in reserve, and shot it like a hook, and caught on the neck of the third head. When the second mouth was about to grab Ami, she pressed the button on the handle and was pulled to the main part of the umbrella, climbing onto the body of the snake, and ran deep into the clouds to find its main body. she’d to run for a long time along the long neck, when Orochi tried in vain to catch her with other heads in combination with lightning attacks, until the girl completely disappeared into the gathered clouds.

"Damn it! His body is like a labyrinth…" Ami shook her head. "Where is… his heart!?"

Although her vision was unusually developed, the endlessly refracting drops of moisture successfully obscured most of her view. Suddenly, a powerful roar was heard, lightning bolts flared up from all around, and lightning rushed towards Ami. She blocked them again with her umbrella, but it was more difficult to do this in the clouds, since the distance was minimal, and they surrounded her. However, thanks to the flashes of light, she noticed a giant shadow high above in the form of a sphere against the background of sprites - electrical discharges at an altitude of fifty kilometers.

"W-what!?"

She assumed that Orochi was controlled by that sphere, and that it was the cause of the mysterious cursed rain that was trying to steal her husband's soul. But before she could even think of a way to reach it, a cluster of Orochi's lightning caught her by surprise and knocked her off her torso. Ami lost her balance and fell down. She managed to glide using her open umbrella and guided herself to the other neck below. In mid-air, she pulled the handle of the umbrella and pulled out a sword from its trunk, like from a sheath.

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi!"

She screamed, falling on the enemy's neck. The sword lengthened during the strike and cut off one of the heads, while the others howled in all-pervading pain. Ami heard a scream very close and immediately found herself in the snake's mouth, but before it could close, she jammed it inside with the umbrella that she’d opened right there. She inserted the blade back and changed the mode again: blades extended around the umbrella's circumference. Ami pressed the button, and the umbrella quickly spun, cutting off the second head. However, the girl didn’t have time to get out of it and fell to the ground from a height of three kilometers along with it. During the strike, the mouth powerfully closed, clattering its fangs. Thanks to her large and elastic tongue, she managed to reduce the damage from the fall.

Quickly recovering, Ami knocked out a tooth with the okobo and climbed out. After clearing herself of the black slime, she looked up at Orochi writhing in pain, and then looked down at the dead head, placing her hand on his large nose.

"This will not be enough…" She said thoughtfully, and then looked at the umbrella. “Yes, Yomi?”

While the girl was distracted, the dead head suddenly woke up and immediately grabbed Ami by the hand, holding it with its sharp fangs and tearing it off at once. Ami swung her umbrella and stuck it into the snake's eye and ran away. It seemed that she’d long been accustomed to such pain, not even squeezing out a tear or screaming, although her face was distorted with anger. While running, Ami threw up beads with her remaining hand, caught them with her mouth, and tore out several beads. Having found a safe place, she bit them, scattering them over the wound. The hand immediately began to heal cell generation accelerated incredibly, the bone began to grow, and around it tendons, vessels and muscles with nerves.

However, Orochi had no intention of giving her a break. After recovering from his convulsions, the snake once again concentrated powerful energy and brought it down on Ami's head.

"Kaminari!"

Ami blocked the lightning bolt with her umbrella and leaned it on her shoulder while her other arm was still healing. From under the umbrella, the girl tried to assess the situation in the sky, and her face reflected horror that she’d not experienced for a long time. In place of the severed head, two new ones were forming, like a hydra.

"W-what the hell are you! " Ami screamed at the heavens, hoping to reach them through the roar of lightning.

"I told you so…" Orochi growled slowly. "Join the Darkness, and you’ll gain the power to defeat even… death!"

"No way, demonic spawn!" Ami firmly refused.

“Darkness… could this really be her doing!?” She thought at the same moment.

"Now you see more clearly…" And the snake's voice changed to a female one.

"My daughter!"

"Izanami!" A thought flashed through Ami's head.

"Now, twice dead, I’ve become even more powerful…" The serpent's voice returned. "And my name is…

…Yamata no Hidora!"

Now a hail of lightning, colored blood-black, poured out from ten heads. Ami's arm had not yet fully healed, and she could only defend herself. She held back the onslaught of electric charge with her umbrella, but she couldn’t move from the spot.

"Accept your destiny, daughter!" A female voice was heard again from somewhere behind Ami. "And become one with your brothers!"

Ami turned and saw the second dead head writhing and rushing towards her at high speed, and then she noticed the first one, which had come to its senses again. They were very close and surrounded the girl, wanting to tear her in half.

"Umbrella Mode: Fujiyama!"

Ami said in desperation, creating a protective dome from her umbrella.

Its mirrored "petals" dug into the ground, and Orochi's severed heads hit them powerlessly, flying apart.

"Dai Kaminari!"

There was a dull sound behind the umbrella.

And at that very moment, the lightning struck even harder, pressing Ami into the ground. To avoid being crushed, she pressed the button on her handgrip, its end lengthened and shot into the ground, strengthening her support.

"Damn it, what should I do now!? I came to save my husband's soul, not to say goodbye to mine!"

Well, here you’re, bug! Time to make a roast out of you…

…Yami, Yami Kaminari!"

Ten jet-black lightning bolts struck the umbrella at once, pressing it even harder to the ground. Hidora continued to maintain the tension, heating the umbrella white hot. Ami could feel the barrel heating up, the space under the dome filling with steam from her own sweat.

"R-right now…

… to Everest…"

Memories of the icy peak cooled the mind.