Chapter 123: The Soul King's Prophetic Dream.
An unknown simulated parallel world, at a certain point in time.
The flames of war, still set alight by the Wandenreich, drove Seireitei and even Soul Society to the very edge of extinction.
That was the original Blood War.
To save Soul Society, someone stepped forward.
But the group he led was no band of righteous men. They were infamous assassins, their names soaked in blood. Their methods were so brutal and merciless that they surpassed even the Quincies.
It felt less like they were saving the world, and more like they were fighting to own it.
Competing with their rivals over who was more vicious, who was more qualified to dominate everything.
That night, Seireitei was swallowed by war. Corpses carpeted the ground. The scene was as tragic as hell itself.
Even so, both sides ultimately concentrated their forces under their respective commanders, converging for a battle to the death.
The first generation of the Gotei 13 lost more than half its members.
The bodies of Quincy elites piled up like mountains.
Yhwach stood atop that mountain of corpses, proudly accepting Yamamoto Genryūsai's challenge.
However, something no one expected happened.
A young Shinigami, neither a Quincy nor a first generation Captain, crawled out from the heap of bodies. Gripping a Western rapier style Zanpakuto, he stabbed Yhwach in the back without hesitation.
The sharp blade was spotless, as if it had not killed a single enemy before. It was as though he had hidden among the corpses from the very start, waiting only for this moment.
The enemy commander, the Quincy King, had been trying to turn the tide of battle with his own hands. His attention was completely fixed on the leader of the assassin group at that instant.
"Ugh!"
The Quincy King's chest was pierced. The excited, confident expression on his face froze, and his pupils shrank to pinpoints in shock.
"Now…!"
The young Shinigami roared.
In the next instant, the assassin leader, who had just reached the peak of the corpse mountain, brought his blade down without the slightest hesitation.
He completely disregarded his subordinate's presence. He cared nothing for the so called pride of the strong.
The flaming longsword in his hand burned like a furnace, yet his heart and gaze were even colder.
The strike, saturated with murderous intent, erupted like a volcano. Terrifying flames surged outward, incinerating everything in their path.
However, after the mountain of corpses was burned into ash…
The Quincy King was nowhere to be seen.
Was he dead?
Not exactly.
Because it was the middle of the night, and shadows covered the earth.
The remnants of the defeated Wandenreich scattered and fled. Yet a small group did the opposite. Led by the Grandmaster of the Sternritter, Jugram Haschwalth, they carved out a reishi space inside the shadows of Seireitei and used it as a hiding place.
"Jugo! You actually managed to save His Majesty?"
Lille Barro, a member of the Schutzstaffel and Haschwalth's childhood friend, stood inside a pure white hall that looked as if it were sculpted from ice and stone.
He and the defeated soldiers around him stared in stunned silence at the two figures who stepped inside.
…
Haschwalth himself looked disheveled, every bit the image of a defeated man. With Yhwach unconscious on his back, he walked with a heavy expression to the only chair in the room and carefully set him down.
Yhwach's head hung low. His limbs were limp.
A bloom of blood spread across the chest of his pure white uniform like a flower.
"Has His Majesty… passed away?"
Lille Barro's voice shook from the depths of his soul.
"No," Haschwalth said, shaking his head. "His Majesty is still alive, but his heartbeat and consciousness are gone."
Then, a leisurely voice drifted through the hall.
"To add to that, besides his heartbeat and consciousness, his power no longer exists either."
"?!"
"!"
"Who's there?!"
"Who is it?!"
Haschwalth had chosen only pure blood Quincies. Too many people would risk exposing their location, and carving out a reishi space demanded real skill. Everyone here was strong enough to be called elite.
And after such a crushing defeat, hiding inside the enemy's headquarters, their nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
Yet not one of them, not even Haschwalth or Lille Barro, had sensed a stranger entering the refuge beforehand.
The shock hit like a blade to the throat.
"There's no need to be nervous. I bear you no ill will."
As the voice spoke, a figure emerged at the entrance. The air rippled around him, as if he were surfacing through water.
That bizarre method of appearing was one thing.
But what seized Haschwalth's attention, and the attention of everyone else, was the Shinigami uniform, the captain's haori, and the two weapons at his waist.
One was clearly a Zanpakuto.
The other had a unique design, closer to an exquisite handicraft or ceremonial ritual sword than a battlefield weapon.
"A Shinigami…?!"
"A Captain of the Gotei 13!"
"Damn it! We've been discovered!"
Their reactions varied, but most were steeped in hostility and killing intent. Some were already ready to attack without a word.
But the moment bows were formed and Heilig Pfeil gathered…
"Even if I say I have no ill will, the truth is simple," Aizen said with a smile. "You cannot pose even a thread of threat to me."
His spiritual pressure surged out like a burst dam. It flooded the entire refuge hall in an instant, slamming the remnants to the ground.
Strained, choking breaths filled the air.
"He… he… he…"
Before long, foam spilled from mouths, and bodies went limp as one after another fainted.
"You see?" Aizen's smile did not change. "This is no different from how you stand before your King, is it?"
"…Damn it!"
Lille Barro braced himself on shaking arms, forcing his body upward. In the end, he could only barely raise his head, just enough to look at Aizen.
Having greater strength than the others had given him only one thing.
The qualification to look up at the opponent.
The irony was suffocating.
It truly was no different from the first time he had met Yhwach.
Haschwalth was the only one still standing. Even so, his expression was grim. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, knuckles white.
"Have you come to wipe us all out?"
"True," Aizen said calmly. "My attire and spiritual pressure expose me as a Shinigami. Tracking you here to exterminate you would be the expected course."
"However…"
His eyes reflected a cold indifference, as if nothing in the world mattered.
"That would be meaningless."
"It would change nothing."
"So I will not do it. Not only that…"
Aizen took a slow step forward.
"I personally intervened to save your King."
"You… what did you say?!"
Lille Barro's shout cracked with disbelief.
Even Haschwalth froze.
"Does it sound unbelievable?"
Aizen restrained his spiritual pressure and continued walking, as if he were strolling through his own garden.
"As a Shinigami, I interfered with my own leader's senses at the critical moment. I gave the enemy's second in command, hiding in the shadows, a chance to save his King."
"A King whose sōketsu was pierced, who lost his spiritual power, and because of that loss of power, lost his heartbeat and consciousness, becoming like a living corpse."
"Even without my interference, you would have saved him."
"But then I would not have had the perfect pretext to open a path to this place, stand before you, and peacefully study the Quincy King's body inside a ready made safe house."
"Spouting clever nonsense, you bastard. Go to hell!"
Lille Barro lunged.
Dense reishi flashed around his palm, shaping into a flame blade more terrifying than any clean edge. He drove it straight toward Aizen's chest.
Aizen did not even spare him a glance.
It was as if he had done nothing at all.
Yet the instant Lille Barro raised his hand, his body split open without warning. From shoulder down to lower abdomen, he was torn apart as though struck by a blade.
No one saw it.
Perhaps it had not even happened.
And yet the blood was brutally real.
"Wha… t…!"
Lille Barro toppled backward into his own blood, eyes glassy.
"Lille…!"
Haschwalth's pupils shrank. He forced down the instinct to draw his sword.
Something surrounded Aizen.
It was formless, shadowless, without any mass of spiritual pressure.
No matter how hard Haschwalth focused, he could only catch a faint, blurred distortion, like heat haze.
But that alone proved it.
Something was there.
And it was lethal.
To act rashly would mean being carved apart just like Lille Barro.
"Oh?"
Then something even more unnerving happened.
Aizen, who had been several steps away, was suddenly beside Haschwalth.
A hand rested on Haschwalth's shoulder, giving the sickening impression that Aizen had been standing there the whole time, simply unnoticed.
"Can you perceive the existence of Kyōka Suigetsu through spiritual pressure perception?" Aizen asked softly. "As expected of the strongest Quincy beneath Yhwach's command."
"With that level of observation, you won't do anything meaningless."
"Just who… are you…?"
"The one destined to transcend all," Aizen replied, tone as casual as stating common knowledge.
Haschwalth's breath caught. His vision went black, and his body slumped to the ground.
"To endure this long under my spiritual pressure," Aizen murmured, withdrawing his hand, "it seems my suspicion was correct."
"Even if this is an illusion… it is not entirely illusion."
Not long after, the entire reishi space was modified beyond recognition.
It became a laboratory, completely under Aizen's control.
Yhwach, unconscious, heartless, and powerless, remained in his chair, sealed inside a crystal for Aizen to study.
"So this is the Quincy King," Aizen said quietly. "No, perhaps I should call it the power of the Soul King."
"How interesting."
"But what is even more interesting is this world, a world identical to the real one."
"The all knowing, almighty god who opened the Three Worlds and established the cycle of souls was defeated by mortals."
"The reason is simple."
"That god had a prophetic dream."
"A dream that encompassed past, present, and future."
"Through it, he saw the end of the world clearly."
"And so… he abandoned resistance and allowed mortals to seal him away, becoming the cornerstone that maintains the existence of the Three Worlds."
"This world is built upon a sin."
"The sin of murdering and betraying the savior."
"However…"
"Before being sealed, for unknown reasons, he created a divine artifact capable of absorbing reishi and generating space within itself."
"He also created the King's Seal, a device that can transfer all phenomena to other space times."
"He transferred his prophetic dream into the space within the blazing water mirror through the King's Seal, forming a parallel world that exists between reality and illusion."
As he reached that point, Aizen, seated in his chair, tilted his head back and surveyed the laboratory that had once been a Quincy refuge. A mysterious light gleamed in his eyes.
During this period of research, he had already grasped the essence of this world.
And he had answered many questions.
"Gin must be very pleasantly surprised right now, isn't he?" Aizen murmured. "That divine artifact he schemed and struggled for, the one he paid such a price to obtain, truly possesses the power to travel through time and space."
"Unfortunately… this is only a dream dreamed by the Soul King."
"No matter what you do, it cannot change the true course of history."
"In fact… the history of this world itself might not even match the true history."
Aizen's judgment was correct.
The blazing water mirror was created by the Soul King.
The prophetic dream was transferred into the reishi space inside the blazing water mirror through the King's Seal, and then manifested.
Because it was the Soul King's prophetic dream, it was almost impossible for it to be wrong. Once manifested, it naturally looked like a parallel world.
But it was not a true, naturally occurring parallel world. It was an illusory dreamscape.
A simulated parallel world was a more accurate name.
A world copy formed by a dream.
If reigai were Shinigami copies created by Kagerōza, then this simulated parallel world was a world copy created by the Soul King.
Before a copy is born, it is identical to the original.
After it is born, it inevitably diverges as time passes, developing a true self.
A world was no different.
This simulated parallel world had one thing the real world did not.
The King's Seal.
After transferring his prophetic dream into it, the Soul King did not retrieve the King's Seal. He left it behind, drifting within this world.
As a result, even if history should have developed identically, a few errors were inevitable.
For example, two people existing in the same era while holding the same Zanpakuto.
Or for another example, the mysterious Hell recognizing a human and bestowing power upon them.
There were many such contradictions.
The further time advanced, the more frequently they appeared.
But none of that mattered to Aizen.
The point in time where he existed was the beginning of the Gotei 13's establishment.
Errors were rare.
Going back further would have been possible, but there was no longer any need.
"Using the Eight Mirror Sword to force the blazing water mirror's ability into a berserk state, sweeping everyone into it and scattering them across different points in time within this world," Aizen said, pacing before the crystal.
"To return to the original world, one only needs to change history enough that the world's self correction mechanism ejects them."
"That is not difficult."
"As long as they live, they will eventually accumulate enough influence."
"But…"
Aizen stopped in front of Yhwach, satisfaction curling into a smile.
"The entire group has to meet the criteria before any of them can leave."
"That is why I wanted to involve as many people as possible."
"The more people there are, the longer the delay. And that gives me enough time to study the Quincy King."
"Everything here may be an illusory dream where nothing can be taken away…"
"But the reishi information is real."
"Yhwach, and the Soul King."
"Once my analysis is complete, I will not need to force my evolution through battle and crisis."
"I can simply skip that stage."
Aizen placed his hand on the crystal, as if resonating with its reishi.
Yhwach's corpse began to glow.
Reishi particles slowly flowed into Aizen's fingertips. They climbed up his palm as deep blue patterns surfaced beneath the skin like veins.
It was not Seikessen.
It was a method evolved from it, used to absorb reishi information.
The patterns spread across his body and converged at his chest.
A faint light quietly bloomed.
Even the Shinigami uniform could barely conceal it.
A fist sized halo, brimming with vitality like a second heart, expanded and contracted in steady intervals.
It was unmistakably unnatural.
"Speaking of which…"
The smile vanished from Aizen's face. His eyes closed, and his voice became perfectly emotionless.
"I do not know what circumstances the others are facing at their various points in time."
"But Takeru, the only one left outside, not swept in…"
"He must be having a hard time right now."
Aizen's head tilted slightly, as if addressing the corpse inside the crystal.
"…What do you think, Yhwach?"
.....
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