L"HIYORII!"
Hirako Shinji, Muguruma Kensei, and Kuna Mashiro let out heart-rending roars.
"Bastard!"
Without the slightest hesitation, the three of them drew their blades at the same time. Their spiritual pressure erupted as they rushed madly toward Unohana, carrying grief and fury that filled their chests.
This was their choice.
The Visored had never been cowards afraid of death.
It was just death.
Fight! Fight until the very last moment of life!
Facing the three charging like madmen, Unohana's expression didn't ripple in the slightest. She simply, slowly, drew the Zanpakuto in her hand with the same elegance as if she were admiring plum blossoms under the moon.
In that instant, space seemed to freeze.
There was no clash of blades, not even the crisp sound of weapons colliding.
Clang!
A long, trembling hum rang out, one that made the soul quiver.
As the blade was fully unsheathed, a silver ripple invisible to the naked eye spread through the narrow alley.
Hirako Shinji, Muguruma Kensei, and Kuna Mashiro's charging movements stopped abruptly midair, like a scene paused in place.
Immediately after—
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Three extremely vivid blood-red spider lilies bloomed at the same moment from their chests.
Blood sprayed like mist, reflecting an eerie and bewitching beauty under the dim moonlight, as if it were a magnificent ritual offered to death.
The three figures fell like kites with their strings cut, crashing weakly onto the cold stone ground. Blood quickly spread, dyeing the silent alley in a glaring crimson.
Kuna Mashiro and Muguruma Kensei still held their forward-charging postures, but their hearts had already been completely shattered by that invisible slash, all life extinguished.
Only Hirako Shinji struggled to breathe in the pool of blood.
Although his chest bore a wound so deep bone could be seen and blood poured out endlessly, that heart still beat stubbornly.
He wasn't dead. To a Shinigami, it was merely a light injury.
"Heh! Ha!"
Hirako Shinji clutched his wound tightly, warm liquid filling the gaps between his fingers.
He raised his head. Those bloodshot eyes locked onto the unharmed woman before him, his voice hoarse and desperate:
"Why didn't you kill me?"
However, Unohana didn't even spare him a glance.
She simply flicked away the nonexistent blood from her blade with elegance, slowly sheathed it, then turned and left. The black hem of her dress cut a cold arc across the pool of blood.
"Why?"
Shinji staggered as he tried to get up and chase after her, letting out a ragged, furious roar toward that receding figure.
But the only reply he got was the cold wind whistling through the alley.
Only when that figure completely disappeared into the darkness did he seem to have all his strength drained away, collapsing to his knees beside Sarugaki Hiyori's corpse.
His trembling hand reached out, gently closing the eyes of that short-tempered girl who had died with them still open. Tears mixed with blood, dripping onto her face, forever frozen in anger.
Behind him, Ukitake Jushiro instinctively wanted to rush forward. Even if it meant risking his life, even if it meant dying.
At this moment, doing something was better than just standing here watching.
But a cold hand pressed firmly onto his shoulder.
Kyoraku Shunsui shook his head at him, his eyes dull and lifeless.
"It's meaningless, Jushiro."
"Whether we try to stop her or throw our lives away, it won't change anything."
He understood Rosse's twisted sense of humor too well.
Unless they slit their own throats right now, Unohana's blade would only precisely strip them of their ability to fight, never take their lives.
Because every one of them still alive still had roles left to play in that "director's" script.
What a ridiculous, absurd reason.
But that was the only reason Hirako Shinji was still alive right now.
Simply because he still had value as a spectacle.
"Again… it's like this…"
Shunsui let out a bleak smile and looked up at the smoke-covered sky.
Sometimes he really wondered, 'If I could die earlier, will it actually be a kind of release?'
With the fall of the Wandenreich today, on Rosse's path to that supreme throne, only the Soul King Palace likely remained as the final obstacle.
Thinking this, Shunsui cast his gaze toward the distant main battlefield.
Even from so far away, even without seeing it with his own eyes, the terrifying spiritual pressure coming from there still made him feel a tremor rising from deep within his soul.
The final act of the Wandenreich was finally about to begin.
———
[The Main Battlefield]
The winds and clouds shifted violently.
A magnificent divine throne, constructed entirely from high-density golden spirit particles, floated in midair like a small sun, suppressing the battlefield below.
Rosse sat upon it calmly, one hand propping his cheek, those golden eyes looking down indifferently, like a god observing living beings struggling like ants.
Before his throne stood Harribel, Lilynette, and Neliel, three of the top Espada of Hueco Mundo, lined up in a row.
They didn't even need to move. Just the terrifying spiritual pressure they released at full power without restraint formed an insurmountable chasm.
Any ordinary Quincy who tried to approach within a hundred meters, forget launching an attack, they couldn't even scream before their bodies were crushed instantly by that mountain-like pressure, turning into a cloud of blood mist.
Only the Sternritter with Schrift powers could barely stand steady within that storm of spiritual pressure.
"Tch!"
Lilynette clicked her tongue, revealing a sharp little canine with killing intent, her gaze provocatively fixed on Yhwach standing below with his sword raised.
"I thought you'd keep hiding like a turtle till the very end. Didn't expect you to get impatient this fast."
"Don't be fooled, Lilynette."
Neliel let out a light laugh and saw right through it in a single sentence, "Their emperor really is a turtle. The one outside right now is just a fake used to draw fire."
"It looks like him, but it doesn't have any of Yhwach's presence. Its essence is far inferior to his."
With her authority of compassion, she could sense things others couldn't.
For example, the one in front of them was just an empty shell. There wasn't even a trace of that sky-piercing killing intent Yhwach carried.
"Huh? A fake?"
Lilynette froze for a moment, then suddenly understood, turning her gaze to the blond man standing half a step behind the fake Yhwach, his expression solemn.
"Hey! Haschwalth! Where's your emperor who only knows how to play hide-and-seek? Don't tell me he slipped away on his own and left you cannon fodder here to die?"
"His Majesty has more important matters to attend to," Jugram spoke calmly, without a trace of resentment in his voice.
He slowly drew the sword at his waist, the motion as solemn as a sacred ritual.
He knew better than anyone that both he and the Wandenreich had already been abandoned.
But this was part of the plan.
Only by letting the main forces of Hueco Mundo encircle and annihilate the Wandenreich, drawing all the firepower, could the real emperor sneak into the Soul King Palace and completely devour the Soul King's true body.
Only then would they have a sliver of hope to turn things around.
Even if the price was the lives of all the Sternritter, even if it meant the complete destruction of the Wandenreich, it was worth it.
Victory was the only thing that mattered.
"Haschwalth! Why waste words with these monsters."
Bazz-B, the hot-tempered youth with a fiery red mohawk, finally couldn't hold back.
He snorted coldly, flames surging wildly around him.
"Just go up and tear them apart! Without those three traitors stabbing us in the back this time, these three women aren't qualified to block my path!"
"Burner Finger, Full Power!"
BOOM!
With a loud shout, Bazz-B pointed toward the sky, his whole body turning into a blazing fireball as he shot toward the divine throne like a meteor chasing the moon.
Towering flames erupted instantly, forming a massive cage of fire that swallowed Rosse and the three Espada whole.
"Bazz-B! Get back!"
Jugram's expression changed drastically, but it was already too late.
This wasn't a fight. It was suicide!
With Bazz-B's strength, he couldn't defeat even one of them, let alone four.
However, at the instant when the sea of flames cut off all sight and blocked all sound, inside the inferno, Bazz-B didn't attack Rosse. Instead, he shouted urgently at the man seated high above, "The Soul King Palace! Go to the Soul King Palace! You absolutely can't let that bastard Yhwach succeed!"
Buzz!
The moment that roar left his mouth, before it could even reach Rosse's ears, a sacred yet cruel light descended without warning, or rather, erupted violently from within Bazz-B's body.
That was the light of Auswahlen.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"
A piercing scream instantly drowned out the roar of the flames.
The fire around Bazz-B quickly extinguished, as if its fuel had been drained away.
His body, once filled with explosive power, shriveled like a deflated balloon.
Weakness, frailty, the aura of death wrapped around him in an instant.
Like a firebird with broken wings, he fell helplessly from the sky.
"Bazz-B!"
Thud!
Jugram reached out and steadily caught the falling figure.
But the moment he did, his heart sank halfway.
There were no fatal external injuries, but the spiritual pressure inside his body had completely dried up.
It was the mark of having his power forcibly stripped away by Auswahlen.
"Bazz-B... What did you do?"
Jugram's voice trembled, stern and full of disbelief.
His Majesty would indeed reclaim all power at the final moment, but that should have been after they had died in battle.
The fight had just begun. There was no reason for His Majesty to weaken their own forces at this point.
Unless…
Through Bazz-B's perspective, Yhwach had seen him do something treacherous.
"Ha… haha!"
Lying in his close friend's arms, Bazz-B struggled to breathe, yet a relieved, almost mad grin spread across his face.
"Haschwalth… my friend… you might have countless reasons to serve that bastard. But me… ever since I crawled out of those ruins, I've only had one reason to keep living…"
"That was to kill him!"
"My hometown back then… that village swallowed by flames, that bastard did it! I've been barely surviving in the Sternritter all these years with only one thought, revenge!"
"And now… I finally see hope…"
Bazz-B struggled to grab Jugram's collar, a hint of wild provocation in his eyes.
"Come on! Haschwalth… just like you executed the other traitors… kill me!"
Though he survived because his Schrift wasn't highly developed, he knew Jugram too well.
Faced with such naked betrayal, Jugram, half of the emperor, would never tolerate it.
Jugram raised the sword in his hand.
The blade trembled.
In the end, after a long silence, he let out a heavy sigh.
"You've betrayed His Majesty's trust."
Clang!
He loosened his grip, letting Bazz-B slide onto the cold ground.
Then he turned, sword in hand, and began walking toward the sky, his expression complicated.
What was the point of killing him?
The Wandenreich was already finished. Everyone was going to die, including himself.
He wasn't like Yhwach, a tyrant who would devour everything for power.
Even if his closest friend had betrayed the Wandenreich, judgment should come after the battle ended.
Seeing this, Bazz-B, who had already closed his eyes waiting for death, froze.
"Hahaha! Bahahahaha!"
He suddenly burst into even more desolate laughter, tears sliding from the corners of his eyes.
"My friend! If the one sitting on that throne were you… the Wandenreich would've gone much further…"
"What a pity! We ended up with a complete bastard!"
"Betrayed trust? Don't make me laugh! When he threw us here like garbage to die while sneaking away like a rat… did he think about trust for even a second?"
"To him, all Quincies are just disposable pieces at any moment. That bastard only sees himself."
Jugram's steps toward the sky paused slightly.
At that moment, his back looked unbearably lonely.
But he didn't turn around. He only paused for a second before taking that firm step forward again.
"You might be right."
His voice drifted back with the wind, carrying a sense of final parting.
"But I also have reasons I must draw my sword."
"I hope you can live on… my only friend in this life…"
"Bazzard Black!"
After calling out that name, Jugram had no more attachments.
His golden figure turned into a solitary streak of sword light, breaking through the clouds without hesitation, charging toward that unreachable divine throne, and toward the destined end.
Everyone would pay the price for their choices.
Since he chose the Wandenreich, chose that bastard emperor, he would walk this path to the very end of his life.
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