Chapter 144: Do Not Disturb the Sleeping Dragon
At the center of the Wandenreich, above the original site of Silver Frame City.
Ten thousand meters above the ground.
Not only could birds never reach this altitude, but even the rain clouds lay beneath it.
At a glance, it seemed clear and pure, like some secluded sacred land. In truth, however, the air was thin, the cold cut to the bone, and the environment was viciously harsh. Only lifeless technological creations could move through such a place freely.
Even in this spiritual realm created by the Quincies, that fact did not change.
And yet, at this very moment, three monsters wearing human skin were fighting fiercely at that very height, completely disregarding the danger of the high altitude.
Flames surged in torrents, hot enough to melt steel in an instant.
Spiritual pressure shook the heavens. Ordinary wandering souls could not exist beneath the same sky.
Whether Shinigami, Quincy, or Hollow, none of them could even get close, much less interfere in that battlefield. The moment they approached, they would be reduced to ash.
Seen from that perspective, this place ten thousand meters in the sky truly could be called a secluded pure land.
"Yamamoto Genryūsai, you really have grown old. You are no longer the cold and ruthless 'Yamamoto Genryusai' from the past."
"You should know this yourself. The old you would never have done something as foolish as deliberately shifting the battlefield just to keep your subordinates from being dragged in."
"Oh, and speaking of foolish things, there is another one. You failed to seize the chance Aizen worked so hard to create. From the very moment we met, you should have gone all out and tried to kill me with the strongest strike of your Bankai."
"Though even that would have failed in the end, it would at least have proven that my decision to list you as a special war power was justified."
"Instead of making me feel the disappointment I do now."
Yhwach's great black cloak billowed like the treacherous hearts of men.
His pure white military uniform was like the orderly, bared teeth in his mouth: stark, cold, and sharp like a drawn blade.
He brandished a reishi greatsword against the flaming long blade while mocking his opponent without restraint.
His bearing was calm and leisurely, without the slightest sense of urgency.
Then, as his words fell, a blade flashed.
It was as absurd as if it had crossed time and space.
Yamamoto Genryūsai's nerves were strung tight, his attention focused to the limit, yet he still failed to react in time.
An attack enhanced by The Almighty was no different from fate itself.
And yet strangely, that fated strike did not land on Yamamoto Genryūsai.
Instead, it cleaved empty air, splitting open the sea of clouds beneath their feet.
"Ryūjin Jakka, First Form: Nadegiri...!"
The instant he saw that, Yamamoto twisted his wrist, the blade in his hand slashing straight for Yhwach's neck.
Boom!
Yhwach caught the flaming blade with his bare hand.
The sword erupted with flames fierce enough to rival a volcanic eruption, yet they could not break through his palm. He held the blade firmly, and only a few sparks leaked between his fingers.
Yhwach did not spare Yamamoto another glance.
Instead, he cast a frigid gaze elsewhere.
"One uses Kyōka Suigetsu to disrupt my perception, while the other serves as the frontal attacker. You two have indeed played to your strengths."
"But before absolute power, that is no more than the struggling of the dying."
"A person does not fail to crush an ant simply because he cannot clearly see its shape."
"By contrast, the truly difficult thing is stepping over an ant without killing it. So you should feel fortunate that you are still alive."
Aizen stood calmly in the distance, allowing the high temperatures and surging spiritual pressure to wash over him without the slightest effect.
His white haori stirred in the wind, making him look like a lone white crane admiring itself.
"Then perhaps your own illusion has blinded your heart. If you had not opened those eyes, you would never have had certainty of victory against either of us. But now... power at this level, no matter how much more of it there is, means nothing."
"Vision determines height, and the height from which I stand is far above yours. The ants about to be crushed are you."
With that, Yhwach raised his reishi greatsword and swung down toward Yamamoto's head.
Yamamoto refused to release his own blade.
Because if he let go, Yhwach's sword would fall first.
The attack was the same.
At a glance, the outcome seemed set. It looked like he could only wait for death.
But at that very instant, several streaks of black blue light shot toward them.
Each streak carried immense power, enough that even Yhwach dared not ignore them. He swung his reishi greatsword and cut them down.
Yamamoto had been waiting for exactly that moment.
"Bankai... Zanka no Tachi!"
The moisture in the world seemed to be sealed into the blade alongside its flames. The temperature of the scorched sword soared beyond the endurance limit of all creation.
Not only that, Yamamoto himself became wreathed in flames, radiant like a great sun. His mere existence was enough to burn everything nearby into nothing.
For Yhwach, who was still grasping the blade, it was no different from seizing a fallen sun in his hand. Of course his flesh would burn.
But he had already seen through it with his eyes.
He released his grip in advance.
Taking advantage of that moment, he drew back and avoided the slash that could have erased everything.
"I see. So the reason you concealed Ryūjin Jakka's Bankai until now was to wait for Ichigo to join the battle."
"But that cannot be hidden from my eyes."
"Having Yamamoto Genryūsai act as bait to create an opening for Ichigo's sneak attack was likewise meant to draw my attention."
"Then Yamamoto activated his Bankai and attempted a one hit kill, but even that was merely a feint."
"The true killing move is the charged strike from Ichigo after his ambush, timed for the moment when I had been deceived by Aizen's illusion?"
Yhwach looked toward the clouds below. Without even seeming to move, he dispersed them, exposing Ichigo, who was charging his spirit bow.
Then, without even turning around, he swung his sword and parried.
Clang!
The incoming blade shattered cleanly.
"So that wasn't it. Then the real killing move must be you, the one capable of distorting my perception."
Yhwach turned his head and grinned at Aizen, who had retreated with a broken blade.
"You really are something. Breaking my Zanpakuto and thinking that means I can no longer use Kyōka Suigetsu?"
Aizen's tone was calm.
"Is that so?"
Yhwach glanced once at Yamamoto, pinning him in place with a pressure that made further reckless action impossible, then laughed ambiguously.
"If it were anyone else, then after having their Zanpakuto broken by me, they naturally would not be able to release it again for some time."
"But you are difficult to say."
"After all, even I do not know what your Bankai is. Perhaps you have already used it, in which case even that broken blade could still be activated. There is a chance you might catch me off guard."
"So, to avoid any further accidents, I shall be a little more serious."
"The Antithesis."
Ichigo's body tensed at once.
In the other timeline, he had not managed to kill Yhwach.
At most, after hearing the news and waiting for the Gotei 13 to arrive, he had joined forces with them to drive away the Quincy remnants and Yhwach, who had not yet forcibly opened the eyes of The Almighty.
Because he had failed to kill Yhwach and recover the power stolen from Masaki Kurosaki, he had no choice but to entrust the Captain Commander, Aizen, and the Mayuri Kurotsuchi of that parallel world with guiding her soul to the Soul Society after death.
If all had gone smoothly, she would probably have become a Shinigami.
And then, much like when he first entered the academy, she would probably have worked hard to join the Thirteenth Division and find a long term posting in Karakura Town.
By then, he, his father, Yuzu, and Karin would still have been able to see their mother often.
In that sense, perhaps it could have been called a blessing hidden inside misfortune.
But returning to the present.
Though he had not killed the Yhwach from that other world, after crossing blades with him a few times, he had still gained a basic understanding of many of his methods.
And so he quickly realized that the spiritual technique capable of stealing the power of others was not aimed at him.
Nor was it aimed at Aizen or Yamamoto.
It was aimed at the ground.
"What is he doing?"
Ichigo's eyes narrowed, suspicious and uncertain.
Beside him, Aizen frowned slightly, while Yamamoto simply slashed straight at the altar, attempting to destroy it.
But it was already too late.
Countless reishi particles, like tiny fireflies, flew into Yhwach's hand, causing his spiritual pressure to rise as if he had swallowed a tonic. It was not a dramatic increase, but it was enough.
Was that all this "bit more serious" amounted to?
Of course not.
Yamamoto shattered the altar with one blow and was about to continue attacking. No matter how much confidence he had in the defensive power of his Zanjitsu Gokui, he could not allow his subordinates to keep taking the front.
But the moment he moved, halfway through a Shunpo, he suddenly found he could no longer advance.
"?!"
"Hado No. 90: Kurohitsugi!"
The Kido, cast without incantation, arrived with impossible speed. A giant black coffin more than a hundred meters tall appeared out of nowhere and imprisoned Yhwach within it.
For an instant, it seemed to interrupt the flow of some power.
That was enough for Yamamoto to regain control over himself.
"That feeling just now... what exactly was it?"
He stared solemnly at the Kurohitsugi.
Or rather, he stared at the great enemy inside it, already certain that such a thing could never destroy him so easily.
As expected.
The next second, the coffin shattered from the inside.
"He broke through Teacher's Kido with nothing but spiritual pressure?"
Ichigo's pupils contracted.
"That is not what happened."
Aizen spoke in a low voice.
"What?"
"The thing that destroyed it was not an effect caused by spiritual pressure."
His eyes shone with a strange light.
"If I am not mistaken... that was pure spiritual power."
"Yhwach, you stole the power of your own subordinates, did you not? And not just any ability. It was a sensory type power with great versatility, something like telekinesis, enough to interfere with things on a large scale."
Ichigo froze when he heard that.
"So it's like one of those espers in the Human World who can bend spoons?"
"Exactly."
The void around Yhwach warped, and even his body itself seemed to lose any stable outline, becoming more like a torrent of power than a person. His voice echoed through layers of distorted space, as though he were speaking from an immeasurable height.
"Among the Sternritter, the strongest Quincy besides myself are Gremmy Thoumeaux, The Visionary, who exists only as a brain, and Lloyd Lloyd, who can perfectly imitate the form and powers of others."
"I have already taken both of their powers."
"At this moment, in this exhausted world where external reishi has already grown scarce, even I am affected by the depletion."
"Therefore, I have decided to discard Quincy spiritual techniques and instead use the pure overwhelming power capable of changing everything to annihilate all of you at once."
"I have gone to considerable trouble to allow you to witness the true face of The Almighty."
"I see. You are using the abilities of your subordinates to externalize the spiritual power of The Almighty..."
Aizen's expression turned thoughtful.
Ichigo listened from the side, utterly lost.
Even so, he could clearly feel that Yhwach in this moment radiated a far greater sense of threat than before.
It was obvious.
Yhwach's spiritual pressure itself had not risen by much.
But through other means, he had raised his actual combat power to a completely different level.
"Hah..."
Ichigo's brows knitted tightly, his gaze like lightning as he suddenly asked, "Yhwach... did you do the same thing to Takeru?"
"Ah."
At the mention of that name, the smile on Yhwach's face faded somewhat.
"As you can see, I have taken away his consciousness, just as I once did a thousand years ago. If no one interferes, then in time I will also take his heartbeat and power, sealing him within crystal to serve as both a symbol of the new world and a warning for all to see."
"I wish to create an ideal world in which the concept of death no longer exists. But in order to make the immortals of that world obedient, in order to make them abandon resistance and submit to the new order, they must first understand a certain truth."
"That truth is this... even if they cannot die, there will still be punishments waiting for them that are far crueler than death."
"What... did you just say?!"
Ichigo's face hardened like a glacier.
"Ichigo, my son born from darkness and fallen into darkness, I no longer expect you to suddenly awaken to your own errors. But at the very least, you ought to understand one fact. All the suffering you see now comes from the darkness around you."
Yhwach narrowed his eyes and looked down on him with disdain.
"Even if I took your mother's life, even if I harmed your friends and destroyed the Seireitei, you should not hate me. On the contrary, you should thank me... for forcing you to understand this truth."
"So surrender your neck and offer me your power. At that time, I will use the Quincy blood within you to complete the overthrow of this world ruled by darkness."
"Do you not wish to protect others? The new world I will create, the world in which no one can die, is that not the utopia you have always dreamed of?"
"You bastard... shut up!"
Ichigo erupted.
A terrifying burst of spiritual pressure surged outward.
Within the blue black radiance, additional colors began to mix and flare, like rage turned into fire. A blood red light seemed to ignite in his eyes.
Immediately, he drew back his bowstring, converting his vast spiritual pressure into a rain of arrows and slashes that filled the sky.
In response, Yhwach merely shifted his thought.
The invisible force capable of interfering with everything transformed from a calm sea into a monstrous tidal wave and swept toward Ichigo and Aizen alike.
The collision of those two vast powers resembled the explosion of a meteor dozens of kilometers wide.
"Zanka no Tachi, Minami: Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin!"
Yamamoto summoned countless skeletal warriors and sent them surging forward.
Yet before Yhwach's invisible force, they could not even get within ten meters.
"Rikujōkōrō."
Without warning, six thin beams of light appeared in the air.
It was Aizen's doing.
"You thought I would not notice? And you try to bind me with such a low level spell? Even without Kyōka Suigetsu, a Shinigami's spell is still just a Shinigami's spell."
Yhwach snorted and shattered the six beams.
But rather than disappearing, the broken pieces remained, breaking apart into countless tiny fragments of light that drove themselves into his body.
"Hm?"
Yhwach's body stiffened ever so slightly.
The shattered Rikujōkōrō had in fact been made from more than ten thousand compressed Rikujōkōrō. Though each one was only a level sixty one spell, the effect of layering Aizen's spiritual pressure and that absurd quantity together produced an astonishing binding force.
And yet such a complex Kido was not something that could be improvised on the spot.
It was obvious that it had been prepared for this exact moment.
"Getsuga..."
"Tenchi..."
Two figures struck from opposite sides, one wreathed in blue black, the other in crimson, together dividing the sky in half.
At the same time, they compressed Yhwach's invisible force from both sides.
"Tenshō!"
"Kaijin!"
A pillar of pitch black light that had not been fired earlier now surged from the front like an antimatter cannon.
From behind came another slash that seemed to divide heaven and earth itself.
Boom!
The resulting vibration of spiritual pressure was enough to shatter even souls.
Takeru's consciousness stirred at last.
It felt as if he were walking out of a world made only of darkness.
Yet the moment he opened his eyes, all he saw was shadow.
For a brief instant, he even wondered whether Yhwach had stolen his sight as well.
"Shimiya kun, thank goodness. You finally woke up!"
"...Inoue?"
"Shimiya kun, how do you feel? Does anything in your body still feel uncomfortable?"
"I'm fine. More importantly..."
Takeru sat up from Orihime's embrace and looked around.
Only then did he realize he was lying on the Divine Bird's back, with Nanao, Isane, and Nemu guarding him.
Nanao had set up a barrier. Through it, the fierce battle across the broad battlefield below was clearly visible.
Gerard, Haschwalth, and the nearly exterminated flock of monstrous birds were locked in an intense struggle against Kyōraku and the others.
And above that, high in the sky, other people were fighting.
"That spiritual pressure... Yhwach, Kurosaki, Teacher, and the Captain Commander?"
With just a slight extension of his senses, Takeru immediately understood the current state of battle.
"Captain Takeru!"
Nanao, Isane, and Nemu were also visibly relieved.
With him awake, that alone was one of the few genuine pieces of good news they had received since this battle began.
After all, the flow of the war was still anything but favorable.
Especially the spiritual pressure coming from above. It gave them all an unmistakably unsettling feeling.
"It's good that you're all here. We can discuss everything else after the enemy is dealt with."
Takeru rose to his feet.
Seeing that, Isane cried out in alarm, "You don't mean to join the fight again, do you?!"
She had arrived late and had not witnessed the battle process firsthand.
But this world, nearly burned down into ash, was enough to make her tremble.
When she had first passed through the tunnel and entered, she had thought she was stepping into purgatory. The heat itself seemed capable of igniting the reishi inside her body and evaporating her soul.
After fighting for days on end, and after using such absurd power to seal the Wandenreich, he should by all rights have been utterly drained and collapsed long ago.
Waking up now was already a miracle.
By all logic, there was no way he should still be in any condition to keep fighting.
Though she did not say all of that aloud, Takeru could still understand her meaning.
"Yhwach possesses the ability to see and interfere with the future. It is not absolute, but it is extremely troublesome. I spent a great deal of effort just to hold them there. Right now, they could retreat at any time."
"The Captain Commander and the others can at most protect themselves. Killing Yhwach is another matter entirely. If we do not settle this while they still have the will to fight, then once they realize they cannot break through, they will certainly think of something else, and then things will become truly troublesome."
The instant those words fell, Isane, Orihime, Nanao, and Nemu all understood how grave the situation truly was.
Takeru looked up toward the sky and spoke quietly.
"My original plan was to drag them all down into hell with me. But since all of you managed to return within the expected time, that is for the best. Now we can kill him while paying the smallest price possible."
"On the condition that I take part in the battle."
"But Shimiya kun, your body..."
Orihime hesitated.
"It's fine. I can absorb spiritual power and convert it into life force. My stamina and injuries have already recovered. Even my mind... while I was unconscious, I got enough rest."
"I only have about eighty percent of my full combat strength at the moment, but that will be enough."
As his fighting spirit rekindled, Takeru's aura surged far beyond what it had once been.
Clearly, the brutal battle over these past days had tempered him thoroughly and forced out the growth he deserved.
Influenced by that confidence, Orihime clenched her fists as well.
"Then I want to fight too!"
"Of course."
Takeru looked at her.
"I can't do it without you."
After the Seireitei defense battle ended, Orihime had come to the Soul Society to assist with postwar reconstruction.
And in private, she had already told Takeru the little secret that she had "accidentally reverse absorbed the left arm of the Soul King."
That was why he had not been surprised at all when she managed to restore the consciousness Yhwach had stolen from him.
In fact...
There was a very real chance that the final blow against Yhwach might ultimately depend on her.
"Nemu, you and the others go reinforce the rest. Inoue and I will go up and support the Captain Commander."
"Understood."
Now that Takeru had awakened, Nemu, Isane, and Nanao no longer needed to remain at his side.
They could free themselves to treat the rest of the wounded.
Once they departed, the Divine Bird rose again, carrying Takeru and Orihime straight up through the clouds.
"Oh? Captain Takeru has recovered? That is certainly the best news we have had since the battle started."
Kyōraku looked up, then smiled toward the besieged Haschwalth.
"If you people choose to run now, I don't think any of us would find that unacceptable."
"Run? There is no need."
Haschwalth swung his sword, blocking Unohana's strike, and replied calmly, "Compared to Takeru, the original from whom I once killed that reigai was not worth mentioning in the slightest."
The next second, something came flying toward him.
He instinctively raised his shield to block it.
The object shattered on contact, releasing a foul stench so violent that Haschwalth's expression twisted for the briefest instant.
Ukitake appeared above him like a phantom, his twin blades crossing as they descended.
Just as Haschwalth tried to withdraw, a person emerged from the shadow cast by Ukitake's body across his sword.
It was Kyōraku.
"You were just a little slow."
Puchi!
Kyōraku's blade cut cleanly through Haschwalth's left wrist.
This was Kageoni switched instantly into Takaoni, using the advantage of height to amplify the slash until even Seikessen's defense was broken.
At the same time, Ukitake moved swiftly and hacked at the shield, joining forces with Kyōraku to knock it away from Haschwalth's hand.
Though the price they paid was nearly being cut in half by Haschwalth's counterstrike.
"There. Now that your sword can't transfer damage into the shield and reflect it back at us, things are different."
Fine beads of cold sweat covered Kyōraku's brow. His face was pale from the blood loss at his waist, and his own left wrist now bore a wound identical to Haschwalth's, making it difficult for him to even grip his sword.
Ukitake looked even worse. He could only grit his teeth and hold on.
Seeing that, Haschwalth replied in the same steady tone as before.
"Trading my shield for the two of you losing your combat capability seems a fair exchange. Now all that remains is to guard myself against Mayuri Kurotsuchi."
"What does that mean? Have you decided that I pose less threat than those two?"
Mayuri sounded genuinely displeased.
"While I am pleased that you killed that imposter who used my face, stole my inventory, and spent my budget, if you look down on me because of that, then I may have to drag your soul into my laboratory and prove to you what a scientist can do."
"It just so happens that I have always wanted to know what exactly is so special about your soul compared to the Quincy souls I have studied."
"Oh, and one more thing. It is not entirely correct to say the two of them have lost their combat capability."
As he spoke, a bizarre smile spread across his face.
"Bankai."
At that moment, Unohana ran her fingers along her blade, and endless blood began to pour from it.
"Minazuki."
That blood flowed past the feet of Kyōraku and Ukitake.
Their injuries healed at once as though they had never existed.
"...As expected. That move again."
Haschwalth's heart sank.
The last time he had been delayed, it had been because of exactly this.
"You say 'as expected'? Then it seems the one you killed did at least have enough wit to report properly. But there is one thing that reigai could never do, and that is what I have done here."
"After receiving the relevant information, I had enough time to alter the medicine prepared for Arrancar into a reishi virus specifically tailored for Quincies."
Mayuri poured a bottle of medicine into the blood sea at his feet and gave a cold laugh.
Zzzzt.
Haschwalth, who stood in the same blood sea, suddenly felt his head grow light and dizzy.
"I had originally been wondering how exactly to get this virus into your body. Fortunately, Minazuki has already solved that problem for me."
"Now then... are you prepared to dedicate your soul to science?"
"..."
Haschwalth leaned on his sword. His breathing gradually became ragged.
Images from the past flashed before his eyes, and for some reason, his heart gradually grew calm.
"Yes... I suppose it truly is time to return everything."
"Lille Barro... I leave the future of the Quincies to you."
At the same time, ten thousand meters above.
Ichigo, Aizen, and Yamamoto had each been driven back one after another.
Yet Yhwach did not press forward.
Instead, his expression suddenly sharpened as he looked down into the clouds below.
"That spiritual pressure..."
"Hm?"
"Takeru?"
All three of them noticed it in the same instant.
Then the cloud layer burst apart.
The pure white Divine Bird emerged as if a flood dragon had burst from the sea to soar into the sky, its body gradually encased in silver blue armor.
It was none other than Shunko: Armament Susanoo.
Two giant hands gripped soul blades, and Yasaka Magatama wrapped around them. The overwhelming power was completely compressed and restrained, revealing itself only at the exact instant the Divine Bird charged and slashed toward Yhwach.
The blade light burst forth, becoming the only light left between heaven and earth.
Boom!
Yuisen collided head on with the invisible spiritual force from a distance and unleashed a shockwave so violent that space itself seemed to quake.
"Shitenn Kōshun!"
Not just the soul blades.
The Divine Bird itself, along with Takeru and Susanoo wherever Orihime's touch reached, was dyed in the color of dawn.
Then, together, they broke through that invisible barrier and sent the previously invincible Yhwach flying.
.....
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