Only then did Shūhei Hisagi finally realize something was wrong.
Behind him and Hotaru Kanisawa, at some point, a Hollow several yards tall had appeared.
Clearly, this Hollow possessed the ability to turn invisible and hide its own Reiatsu. That was why it had been able to sneak up behind them and launch a surprise attack.
After realizing the truth, both Shūhei Hisagi and Hotaru Kanisawa felt a chill of lingering fear.
If Harry had not discovered the Hollow and stopped its attack, Hotaru Kanisawa might very well have been killed by the ambush, and even Shūhei Hisagi standing beside her might have been seriously wounded by the Hollow.
They had no time to apologize to Harry. The two of them quickly began thinking through the current situation.
Based on this Hollow's abilities and Reiatsu, its strength was clearly outside the screening standards. And now that it had appeared inside the field training area, it was obvious that something had gone wrong with the exercise.
Carefully observing the Hollow's Reiatsu, they found that it was stronger than everyone present. It might have already reached a level above fifth seat.
What should they do now? They were very likely no match for this Hollow.
There was only one person present whose Reiatsu could compare to this Hollow's, and that was Harry, who had possessed sixth-class spiritual power upon enrollment.
But Harry had only been enrolled for a year. He had not studied either swordsmanship or Kidō in depth. How could he possibly be this Hollow's opponent?
Shūhei Hisagi gritted his teeth. He was just about to rush forward, lead the surrounding sixth-years in stopping the Hollow, and have the other first-years evacuate as quickly as possible.
But the moment he took a step, his entire body suddenly froze.
Harry turned sideways and spun, the Asauchi in his hand drawing a silver-bright arc beneath the moonlight.
There were no flashy techniques, only pure sword pressure exploding along the path of the blade.
A huge slash visible to the naked eye shot out and flew toward the Hollow. The air seemed to be split open by an invisible trench, and Reishi collided violently on both sides of that trench, letting out a crisp sound like shattering glass.
The Hollow's roar caught in its throat. The skin on its chest suddenly caved inward, and the massive slash easily sank into its skin, which was hard enough to rival steel. That sword pressure pierced through its spiritual body like an ice spike, grinding the flesh inside it into dust.
When the sword pressure flew out from the other side of its body, its massive frame crumbled inch by inch in the aftershock. Even as it turned into drifting fragments of Reishi, it still maintained its pouncing posture.
With a sharp sound, Harry sheathed the Asauchi, his movements clean and decisive. Not even the faintest trace of dirt stained the blade.
Shūhei Hisagi witnessed the scene, and the hand gripping the hilt of his Zanpakutō suddenly tightened until his knuckles turned white.
He had only been enrolled for less than a year, yet this new student's strength was actually greater than that of many seated officers.
"That sword pressure..." Hisagi's Adam's apple bobbed, and the spiritual markings at the end of his chain flickered unsteadily from shock. "In terms of pure Reiatsu condensation, it's at least at a third seat's level."
Hotaru Kanisawa was just as stunned. Her fingers unconsciously twisted the sleeve of her uniform.
"Impossible..." Her voice trembled with disbelief. "The Shin'ō Academy curriculum never teaches new students how to condense sword pressure to that degree. He hasn't even achieved Shikai!"
Hotaru Kanisawa had always thought of herself as a minor genius. Her grades had always been in the top three among the sixth-years, so she had carried a little pride in her heart.
But after seeing Harry make his move, she finally understood that there was always a higher sky beyond the sky, and always someone greater beyond oneself.
"Senpai, are you all right?" After dealing with the Hollow that had been lurking in secret, Harry glanced at Hotaru Kanisawa and asked with concern.
"Ah, I'm fine." Hearing Harry's question, Hotaru Kanisawa finally came back to herself. "Thank you, Harry. If it weren't for you, I might have died."
Shūhei Hisagi, standing nearby, was also filled with gratitude. "Harry, thank you for saving Kanisawa."
"No need to thank me. It was nothing." Harry's tone was calm. "But you two shouldn't relax either. Since there was one invisible Hollow, there may be another. We need to stay on guard."
Shūhei Hisagi and Hotaru Kanisawa froze for a moment, then both nodded heavily.
In the end, however, things did not become that bad. Until the field training ended, they did not encounter any more dangerous Hollows.
In a corner of the field training area unknown to everyone, two figures had been standing there openly from beginning to end, watching the entire exercise, yet not a single person had discovered them.
Sousuke Aizen stared thoughtfully at Harry's back, then said to Kaname Tōsen beside him, "Kaname, what do you think of that child?"
Kaname Tōsen's expression remained serious. Even when facing Sousuke Aizen's question, he was no different. "An outstanding talent. Perhaps even stronger than Kaien Shiba. Lord Aizen, do you intend to bring him under your command?"
Sousuke Aizen did not answer Kaname Tōsen's question. Instead, he murmured to himself, "An interesting child."
What Kaname Tōsen did not know was that Sousuke Aizen seemed to have noticed Harry glancing in their direction as he left.
Although it had looked like nothing more than an ordinary sweep of the eyes, Sousuke Aizen had a feeling that he had been discovered.
The possibility was almost negligible, but Sousuke Aizen had always been a cautious man. He would not let even the smallest possibility slip by. So he decided that, in the days to come, he would observe this interesting new student more closely.
After the field training exam, life in the Soul Reaper world returned to normal.
During this time, Harry continued using the personal cheat system he had designed for himself to accumulate Reiatsu and build up strength, preparing for the day in the future when he would take control of this world.
Meanwhile, in the multiverse, trouble had found Harry.
And this trouble was Harry's old acquaintance, Thor.
When Odin died, everyone had expected that some cosmic power would take advantage of Asgard's weakness and invade Asgard.
Sure enough, only a few months had passed before certain forces could no longer restrain themselves.
The energy dome over the floating city suddenly exploded with a ring of lightning, and Thor's figure, wrapped in storm winds, crashed onto the platform at the top of the tower.
The moment he steadied himself, he shouted, his voice anxious, "Harry, save me!"
Harry was currently researching how to rapidly increase the Reiatsu of his soul fragment. When he looked up, he happened to see Mjolnir in Thor's hand slam into the ground. The electricity it kicked up raced along the patterns of the platform, surging half a foot high and smashing out a shallow crater several yards wide.
He ignored the wound on Thor's brow that was deep enough to expose bone, as well as the bruising around his left eye, and said calmly, "The floor of that platform is made from high-quality magical alloy. You just smashed out such a large crater, so you'll need to compensate me one hundred thousand energy coins."
Thor did not care about those energy coins at all. He said anxiously, "The Kree fleet broke through Asgard's defensive line. Their energy weapons can tear through our magical barriers. The palace has already been surrounded for three days. After Father died, there was no longer anyone in Asgard who could destroy an entire fleet alone. We are no match for the Kree. I had no choice but to come to you for help."
"The Kree?" Harry was somewhat puzzled. With the Kree's cunning, they should not have been the first force to invade Asgard.
Even if they wanted to invade Asgard, they would most likely send one of their vassal forces to launch a probing attack against Asgard first, rather than directly deploying a large number of warships to invade Asgard like this.
There had to be something hidden behind this.
Harry was a little confused, so he asked Thor, "During your battle with the Kree, did anything about them seem different from usual?"
Although he was extremely anxious, Thor also knew that rushing would not help at a time like this. He tried his best to calm himself down while recalling the earlier battles.
"The Kree's attack this time wasn't too different from before. Wait, I think I've remembered something. In past battles, the Kree preferred space combat and tried to avoid ground combat as much as possible. They liked using planet-killer cannons to directly alter a planet's ecosystem. But this time, during their battle against Asgard, they launched ground attacks multiple times. At first, we simply thought the Kree wanted an intact Asgardian ecosystem so they could enslave the Asgardian gods. Looking back now, it really does seem abnormal."
"Be specific," Harry said.
"They built a large number of combat robots, and the technology behind those combat robots is highly advanced. They seem to have traits of living beings, which doesn't quite match the Kree's usual technology."
"Robots?"
Harry quickly thought it over. He remembered that the leader of the Kree was a powerful artificial intelligence.
Could the Kree have suddenly changed their battle strategy because something had happened to their leader, the Supreme Intelligence?
Wait.
He had forgotten to factor in variables from other universes.
When it came to other universes and artificial intelligence, these two elements could not help making Harry think of Ultron, who should have appeared but whose birth Harry had prevented.
No way. The Kree's sudden attack couldn't be related to Ultron from another universe, could it?
To confirm this, Harry pressed further. "Thor, what reason did the Kree give for declaring war this time?"
"It seemed to be... for the peace of the multiverse?"
Fuck, that was definitely Ultron!
After making brief preparations, Harry decided to go to Asgard with Thor, help Asgard resolve the Kree invasion, and take the opportunity to see whether the Kree's supreme leader, the Supreme Intelligence, had been controlled by Ultron.
As Asgard's signature weapon, the Bifrost was peak cosmic technology. Even though Asgard was currently in battle and had been completely sealed off by the Kree Empire, the Bifrost could still be used, bringing Harry and Thor to Asgard.
Inside the Bifrost's energy channel, Harry and Thor rapidly advanced toward Asgard.
Thor's expression was ugly. "Damn Kree Empire. They used some kind of spatial technology to seal off all of Asgard's surrounding space, preventing us from teleporting directly into Asgard. Otherwise, with your portals, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble."
Harry said thoughtfully, "Their technology for sealing off the space around Asgard seems to be at the highest level in the universe. It looks like a force from another universe really has stretched its hands into ours."
Thor was somewhat puzzled. "Harry, what do you mean by that?"
Harry told Thor his guess.
Thor clenched his fists. "Damn it. I knew something was wrong. That bastard called Ultron, I'll make sure he pays for this one day."
At that moment, a continuous sound like shattering glass suddenly rang out.
A hard metal arm abruptly pierced through the Bifrost's energy channel and thrust inside. Immediately afterward, it grabbed toward Thor, who was closest to it.
Thor reacted quickly. He instantly reached out, grabbed the metal arm, and dragged its owner into the Bifrost channel.
When the owner of that metal arm appeared in front of them, Thor loudly warned, "Harry, be careful. This is a Kree mech. Their weakness is the core in the chest. As long as you can destroy it, you can destroy these Kree mechs. Otherwise, because they're made from memory metal, they'll keep regenerating."
Thor tore off the Kree mech's arm and tossed it aside. Sure enough, the metal in the other parts of the Kree mech turned into silver liquid and flowed rapidly, trying to repair the torn metal arm.
Thor had rich combat experience and would never give the Kree mech a chance to counterattack.
He punched the energy core in the Kree mech's chest. After the energy core was destroyed, the Kree mech trembled violently, then its entire body turned into silver metal and collapsed into a puddle of metallic liquid that no longer moved.
After the first Kree mech arrived, many more Kree mechs followed, piercing through the Bifrost's energy barrier and entering the channel.
These Kree mechs were not too strong. They were roughly at the level of Tony when he had just obtained nanotechnology but had not developed it further.
Whether it was Thor, who had initially awakened the power of the God of Thunder, or Harry, both could easily defeat these Kree mechs.
However, the Kree mechs also had their own advantage, and that was their overwhelming number.
They were not mindless either. They were not rigid machines that knew only how to attack blindly.
After Harry split open the core of the thirtieth Kree mech with a sword of lightning, they decisively changed their plan.
The moment they entered the Bifrost's energy channel, they no longer attacked. Instead, they immediately self-destructed.
The damage caused by their self-destruction far exceeded the damage caused by their attacks, already reaching the level of a nuclear explosion.
However, even if dozens of Kree mechs self-destructed at the same time, Harry could still control those explosions, completely resolve them, and let the Bifrost safely deliver them to Asgard.
But just as Harry was about to cast a spell, a new accident suddenly occurred.
A dazzling golden light suddenly crossed through space and struck directly where Harry and Thor were.
This golden light was extremely special. It ignored the concept of space. The moment it was fired, it instantly reached its destination.
Because of that special property, even Harry, caught off guard, was struck by the golden light.
Of course, the more important reason was that this golden light held no malice toward Harry, so Harry had not noticed it.
When the golden light faded, Harry and Thor discovered that they were no longer inside the Bifrost's energy channel. Instead, they had arrived in an unfamiliar place.
Ahead of them, a man wearing a blue combat suit with the number 4 written on the chest smiled at the two of them and said, "Don't worry, friends. You've been saved!"
Harry: "..."
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