[The Wandenreich]
This was a nation shrouded in cold moonlight. Under that icy silver glow, the palace complex of the Wandenreich appeared solemn and deathly still.
Buzz!
Above the silent plaza, space suddenly cracked open like a shattered mirror without any warning.
Immediately after, several miserable figures stumbled out and crashed onto the cold marble ground.
Kyoraku Shunsui's Shihakusho had long since been reduced to tattered rags, while Haschwalth's always meticulously kept, silk-like blond hair was now stained with dried blood and the white sand of Hueco Mundo.
"Wh… what is going on?"
A voice filled with shock and suspicion rang out.
Bazz-B, who had been guarding the palace entrance, frowned as he walked over.
His flamboyant fiery red mohawk trembled slightly in the cold wind, and the piercing on his nose along with the defiance in his eyes revealed his arrogant nature.
Seeing Haschwalth almost collapsed on the ground, Bazz-B's pupils shrank. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed hold of his former close friend.
"Haschwalth! What happened? Why are only few of you back?"
Bazz-B looked around. Aside from a few half-dead Shinigami, there wasn't a single other member of the Sternritter in sight.
Even after seeing the miserable state before him, his tone still carried that arrogance etched into his bones, "Did you run into an ambush on the way? Or did those Shinigami drag you down? This time the Sternritter deployed a full ten knights, along with all four members of the Schutzstaffel and you personally joining the fight. With that kind of lineup, let alone Hueco Mundo, even slaughtering all of Soul Society should've been more than easy!"
Haschwalth lowered his head. In those eyes that were usually calm like a deep pool, there was now only a lifeless gray.
He pushed Bazz-B's hand away. His body trembled violently from exhaustion and heavy injuries, and in the end, he dropped helplessly to one knee on the stone floor.
"We.... lost," Haschwalth's voice was as hoarse as sand scraping across stone, "Total annihilation...."
"What did you say?"
Bazz-B froze in place.
"Askin, Lille, Gerard, Pernida, the four Schutzstaffel, all dead," Haschwalth spoke each name slowly and clearly, names that could shake everyone present, "Cang Du, dead. Giselle, dead."
He paused, and his tone carried a trace of humiliation even he himself didn't want to admit, "Candice, Bambietta, and Meninas defected on the battlefield and joined the Hueco Mundo palace."
BOOM!
Those words were like a nuclear explosion dropped into a calm lake. The Sternritter members who had been watching curiously instantly erupted.
Disbelief, anger, even fear, emotions spread wildly across the plaza.
"You've got to be kidding! His Majesty's elite guard wiped out completely?"
Quilge Opie's narrow eyes revealed fear from behind them. He pushed his glasses nervously and shrieked, "I don't believe it! How could a bunch of beasts that only know how to devour spirit particles have that kind of power?"
"Bambietta and the others actually dared to defect?"
Liltotto Lamperd stopped chewing her snacks, her usually lifeless eyes widening, "With their crazy personalities, they actually chose to bow to Hollows?"
"Everyone shut up!"
Bazz-B roared, shattering the surrounding chatter. He glared at Haschwalth, veins bulging on his forehead, "Haschwalth, tell me the truth. Was it because of those three bitches betraying you that you fell into a trap? If it weren't for that backstab, there's no way you would've lost this badly, right?"
Haschwalth pressed his lips tightly together and fell into a deathly silence.
"Heh! Just like your Quincy style, as always."
Ishida Uryu finally couldn't hold back anymore. Leaning against a cold pillar, he swept a cold gaze over these Sternritter who were still living in their sense of superiority, "At a time like this, you're still hung up on traitors and accidents? What makes you think that arrogance without strength alone can beat something like that monster?"
"Where did this brat come from? A Shinigami?"
Bazz-B's eyes turned extremely dangerous, heat beginning to radiate from his body, "This is Sternritter business. It's not your place, outsider, to point fingers here!"
Flames flickered faintly in his palm. Clearly, having his sore spot exposed, he was ready to attack Ishida Uryu.
"Stop, Bazz-B!", Haschwalth raised a weak hand to block him, "He is Ishida Uryu, a Quincy personally chosen by His Majesty."
As soon as those words were spoken, the entire place fell silent.
All eyes, filled with scrutiny and doubt, turned toward the high school student in the white coat.
Within the rigid hierarchy of the Quincy, those personally granted honor by Yhwach had always been limited to the Schutzstaffel and Haschwalth. There had never been a sixth.
Ishida Uryu had no mood to care about those gazes. The helplessness he had suppressed throughout the entire battle burst out at this moment, "I'm telling you, we lost badly, but we also lost cleanly. The other side only sent five people, and it completely crushed what you call your strongest lineup."
"Impossible! One-on-one, the Schutzstaffel would never lose!", Bazz-B roared.
"Never lose?", Uryu shot back mockingly, "Then go ask that one called Lille Barro how he got pierced like an insect by their 3rd Espada. Go ask that big guy Gerard how he got torn apart by the 5th Espada. And even…"
Uryu paused, a lingering trace of horror flashing in his eyes, "They didn't even need everyone to act. Their 1st Espada only made one move from start to finish. Right at the beginning, just a single Cero blast blew that idiot Cang Du straight into dust."
Each sentence was like a loud slap across the Sternritter's faces.
Everyone turned toward Haschwalth, hoping to hear a denial.
But all they got was his even deeper silence.
Deathly quiet. A suffocating silence spread across the plaza.
Their contempt for Shinigami and Hollows was completely shattered in this moment.
"Th-then… what about you, Lord Haschwalth?"
Bazz-B grabbed his shoulders, his words stumbling, "You must have held off their 2nd Espada, right? Your Balance is undefeated. It has to be that way!"
Haschwalth slowly raised his head. On that handsome face, there was only self-mockery and exhaustion.
He gently shook his head.
That simple motion told everyone everything.
"He couldn't even beat that defected 9th Espada."
Uryu added coldly from the side, "Oh right, that 9th Espada is named Candice. The same 'traitorous bitch' you were just talking about."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Bazz-B completely lost it, "I don't like that woman, but even being fair, she's only mid-tier in the Sternritter! How could she possibly beat Haschwalth?"
"How?", Uryu sneered, "Because she was still standing at the end, while your so-called strongest pillar could only kneel there gasping for air."
"You're dead!"
Bazz-B exploded completely. His eyes turned bloodshot as flames gathered into a sharp blade in his hand. Ignoring Haschwalth's attempt to stop him, he decided to tear that infuriating mouth apart.
Buzz!
A crushing pressure that felt like it could collapse the soul suddenly descended upon the Wandenreich.
Ishida Uryu's body began trembling violently. A strange black shadow surged up wildly from beneath his feet, rising from his own shadow, and in an instant, formed that familiar and overwhelmingly oppressive upper body silhouette.
"Y-Your Majesty!"
Bazz-B, who had been shouting just moments ago, instantly shut his mouth like a duck being strangled.
A flash of unwillingness and resentment passed through his eyes, but in the end, he could only spit inwardly, disperse the flames, and, along with everyone else, kneel on one knee in submission.
At that moment, aside from the Shinigami and Ishida Uryu, who served as the vessel, the entire plaza formed an extremely oppressive scene.
All the Sternritter, including Haschwalth, who was called the Emperor's other half, lowered their heads deeply toward that shadow like tamed hunting dogs.
"We greet Your Majesty."
Yhwach's cold gaze fell upon Haschwalth, who knelt at the front. His voice was low and aged, carrying emotionless disappointment, "Haschwalth, you have disappointed me. You did not bring back the victory I expected."
Haschwalth lowered his head, his nails digging deeply into his palms.
A bitter emotion surged over him like a tide.
'The victory you expected?'
'Knowing it was a dead end, knowing the enemy's strength had already surpassed dimensions, you still wanted us to throw our lives into it, and still bring back victory?'
He felt the gazes of his comrades around him. Within them was the shattering of their faith in his strength, and even a faint agreement that a loser should be punished.
At that moment, Haschwalth's heart went completely cold.
He had never been so clearly aware that this empire had no future.
"To punish your incompetence…", Yhwach spoke calmly, "use your sword to leave a mark of defeat upon your own body. Let it remind you of your failure to the empire."
The air froze once more.
Kyoraku Shunsui, Hirako Shinji, and even Ishida Uryu looked at that shadow with completely changed expressions.
There was an indescribable sense of absurdity in their eyes.
'You misjudged the enemy's strength and led to a crushing defeat, yet the punishment falls upon the subordinate who fought to survive?'
'Does he truly care about the future of this empire?'
'Or are these subordinates nothing more than livestock for him to reclaim power from?'
Haschwalth did not argue. His expression didn't even change.
Silently, he drew his shattered sword, gripped it in reverse, and drove it into his own abdomen.
Thud!
Blood burst out, soaking through his white uniform and staining the marble steps red.
Haschwalth let out a muffled groan. His face turned deathly pale, cold sweat dripping from his chin into the pool of blood.
Beside him, Bazz-B clenched his fists so tightly his arms trembled. He wanted to rush forward, but under the Emperor's pressure, he didn't dare move at all.
Yhwach didn't even spare Haschwalth another glance. Instead, all his attention shifted to the still-stunned Ishida Uryu.
"From this day on, Haschwalth is stripped of his title as the highest-ranking Sternritter."
Yhwach's tone was so calm it sent chills down the spine, "This honor will now belong to Ishida Uryu. He is the only Quincy in the three worlds capable of inheriting my full potential."
Amid the silence filled with shock and dissatisfaction, Ishida Uryu suddenly felt his body grow light. That shadow directly seized control of his limbs.
Under his horrified gaze, his body turned on its own, his steps stiff yet imposing as he walked toward the deeper parts of the palace.
'No! Don't!'
He didn't want to become a subordinate of this bastard emperor.
After seeing Haschwalth's fate, Ishida Uryu had no good feelings toward Yhwach at all.
But at this moment, he couldn't resist.
He could only watch helplessly as he was dragged away, and no one tried to stop it.
As if he had already been abandoned.
After Ishida Uryu and Yhwach left, a deathly silence remained in the plaza.
Haschwalth knelt alone in the cold wind, clutching his bleeding wound.
Behind him stood the Sternritter, exchanging uneasy glances, their worldview completely shattered.
As for Kyoraku Shunsui and the others, their situation wasn't any better.
Among those who survived, they had one more person than the Quincy side.
By numbers, at least seven of them had made it out alive.
But the reason seven survived was simply because Rosse's side allowed seven to survive.
At this moment, a silent pessimism spread throughout this empire of shadows.
———
At the same time, Soul Society, the open plaza in front of the Twelfth Division barracks.
The storm of spiritual pressure gradually subsided.
Under Aizen's supervision and Kurotsuchi Mayuri's direction, the Gotei 13 had collectively completed their evolution today.
Within the field, two clear paths of evolution could be seen.
Ichimaru Gin, Tosen Kaname, and Zaraki Kenpachi chose to forcibly infuse Hollow power into their souls. Hollow traits appeared on the surface of their bodies.
For greater strength, they abandoned the purity of being Shinigami.
But in return, they gained power.
Ichimaru Gin and Tosen Kaname now possessed first-class spiritual pressure even in their normal state, while Zaraki Kenpachi surpassed captain level even without effort, becoming the fourth SS-class powerhouse in Soul Society.
The remaining captains, on the other hand, chose the ultimate leap along the Shinigami path, deeply fusing with the origin of their Zanpakuto.
First Division Captain Sasakibe Chojiro stood at the forefront, pale arcs of lightning flickering around him like the chirping of cicadas.
Hitsugaya Toshiro resembled an ice sculpture, the extreme cold turning the ground beneath his feet into frost inch by inch.
Kuchiki Byakuya stood with cherry blossoms dancing around him without wind. The petals were finer and sharper than before, carrying an elegance of absolute control.
Most eye-catching of all was Komamura Sajin. He had shed his beastly form and returned to a human-wolf state, his massive body radiating a primitive aura.
On the steps above, Kurotsuchi Mayuri suppressed a crazed grin.
Though his appearance had changed the least, the stable pulse of second-class spiritual pressure around him proved he had also completed his evolution.
At this point, all captains of the Gotei 13 had successfully evolved.
After this experiment, even the weakest present possessed second-class spiritual power in their normal state, while the strongest firmly held first-class power. Their overall strength was no longer inferior to the former Kyoraku Shunsui.
Under Rosse's adjustments, Soul Society had already approached, or even surpassed, the Wandenreich.
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