The three of them stepped into the Senkaimon side by side.
The Dangai within the Senkaimon was as chaotic as ever.
The roar of the Kototsu echoed faintly in the distance, while the Reishi barriers on both sides constantly crumbled and reformed.
In the past, Soul Reapers would mostly remain silent while traversing this path, ready to respond to any sudden crisis.
But this time, Kaien acutely sensed that their destination beyond the Senkaimon—Fuyuki City.
Was permeating the Dangai with an extremely oppressive aura through some inexplicable means.
It felt like the reaching hand of a drowning man, desperately trying to grasp every passing soul.
"The flow of Reishi isn't right," Rangiku said, gripping her Zanpakuto tightly. "The pressure in the Dangai is at least thirty percent higher than usual... It feels like the world on the other side is refusing to connect."
Shinobu Kocho felt the tremors of the Restrictive Current, her brows furrowing deeply. "That city... seems to be frantically absorbing all the surrounding Reishi."
Kaien's gaze turned extremely cold.
He could feel his Spiritual Pressure beginning to tremble unnaturally the moment they entered the Dangai.
This tremor originated from the very depths of his soul.
'Shut up,' he growled inwardly.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves!" Kaien shouted his orders. "We will reach the exit in one minute! Establish a defensive formation the moment we land, do not hesitate for a second!"
The exit of the Dangai was close at hand.
The white light that should have led to the World of the Living was now tinged with an unpleasant, faint dark purple.
Voom!!
The moment the Senkaimon opened, a wave of heat carrying the stench of decay washed over them.
Thud.
When Kaien was the first to land, the moment his feet touched solid ground, he actually felt an inexplicable shaking.
It wasn't an earthquake; it was the space itself trembling.
They were on the top floor of an unfinished high-rise building. Looking down from here, the entirety of Fuyuki City was shrouded in a deathly silent night.
But it wasn't a normal night.
There was no starlight in the sky, and the normally dazzling city lights now appeared unusually sparse and dim.
A thick layer of gray mist, barely visible to the naked eye, permeated the air.
'A Spiritual Disaster!' Kaien exclaimed in shock inwardly.
"Cough, cough... What is that smell?" a squad member asked, unable to stop himself from bending over and retching. "It smells entirely of rust and rotting flesh."
"Don't breathe so carelessly! Switch to internal Spiritual Pressure circulation!" Rangiku commanded sharply.
She walked up beside Kaien and looked at the distant streets.
Under the observation of Spiritual Sight, those originally smooth streets were actually spreading with red and black veins.
These veins extended along the ley lines, weaving into a massive web beneath the city.
"The sense of oppression is too heavy," Kaien muttered, closing his eyes to feel it.
His Second-class Spiritual Power, even without any Spiritual Pressure restrictions in place, currently felt as if it were bogged down in thick mud.
Every time he mobilized Reishi, it required several times more effort than usual.
And for the ordinary squad members, this feeling was no different from walking with a small mountain on their backs.
"This is no longer just the World of the Living... This place is being forcibly twisted by something."
Rangiku Matsumoto looked up at the sky.
She couldn't shake the feeling that above the firmament, something was looming over their heads, suffocating them.
Bzzzt—
Below the unfinished building, an old streetlamp emitted a harsh electrical buzzing sound.
Then, all the lights along the entire street completely extinguished in the exact same second.
Absolute darkness instantly swallowed everyone's vision.
Accompanying it was the sound of some heavy object dragging and crawling across the ground.
The sound was extremely dense, surging toward them from all directions!
"Everyone! Draw your swords!"
Kaien's furious roar exploded through the dark night.
Boom!!
Right at that moment, the exterior wall of the unfinished building beneath their feet suddenly shattered.
One, two... dozens of massive dark silhouettes charged out from the shadows.
They were Hollows.
But they were completely different from ordinary Hollows.
Their bone masks were covered in blood-red tentacles, and thick, black liquid continuously oozed from the Hollow holes in their chests.
It was as if... they had been twisted as well!
That suffocating Spiritual Pressure instantly spiked to its peak with the appearance of these monsters!
Kaien instantly released his Zanpakuto, Nejibana. The trident swept up a violent torrent of water, forcefully smashing the foremost monster to pieces.
"First Squad, engage the enemy! Second Squad, Kido support!" he commanded loudly.
But something bizarre happened.
The smashed monster did not dissipate into Reishi ashes as usual.
The splattered black slime landed on the ground, instantly corroding the thick concrete, and began to gather back together as if it had a life of its own.
It was actually attempting to reconstruct its body.
"Are you kidding me?!" Rangiku swung her Zanpakuto, Haineko. A sky full of ash swept across the street, only for her to discover that those mutated monsters were completely unfazed by physical cuts.
Even if they were sliced apart, they would rapidly reattach themselves using that thick, black substance.
"These aren't ordinary Hollows!" Shinobu Kocho's Reishi insects had already transmitted their sensory data back to her. She looked at the black mud, her expression changing drastically. "They are using the abnormal energy of this city to regenerate infinitely!"
Those mutated Hollows all stood firmly in place, emitting a high-frequency shriek that directly shook the soul.
This frequency caused the brains of the present Soul Reapers to spin dizzily, throwing their defensive line into instant chaos.
"Group up! First, find a way to stop the Hollows producing that shriek!"
Kaien stood at the very front of the formation, swinging the trident in his hands once more.
He summoned towering waves, forcibly carving out a space amidst the tide of monsters to cover the squad members behind him.
"Bakudo #30・Shtotsu Sansen!"
Three golden beams of light burst from Rangiku Matsumoto's fingertips, accurately locking down a massive mutated Hollow that had leaped from the third floor.
However, when her Bakudo came into contact with the black mud flowing on the surface of that monster's body, it actually emitted a hissing sound of dissolution.
In a mere three seconds, the beams of light were completely corroded away.
The Hollow let out an ear-piercing roar. Its tooth-filled abdomen suddenly split open, spewing out a large swath of thick, dark green venom.
Rangiku had no choice but to roll backward awkwardly, dodging the opponent's counterattack.
"Captain! Although the defensive power of these things isn't top-tier, that layer of 'black mud' on their bodies neutralizes Kido attacks!" Rangiku shouted a warning, wiping a handful of sweat from her forehead.
Kaien swung his halberd to sweep away a cluster of lunging monsters, sweeping a cold gaze over their surroundings.
He could feel that his timing was truly impeccable...
The Spiritual Pressure fluctuations in Fuyuki City were entering a brand-new, even more violent phase.
What had originally been just an undercurrent surging beneath the surface was now beginning to batter against the barriers of space.
'I have to find a way to weaken their connection to this abnormal energy...'
"Rangiku! Lead the squad members and evacuate toward the Fuyuki City Bridge! The terrain there is high, and the abnormal Spiritual Pressure is relatively weak. Secure a vantage point first!"
"What about you, Captain?" A sense of unease rose in Rangiku's heart.
Kaien did not look back. He slowly leveled his trident across his chest.
The Spiritual Pressure radiating from his entire being began to shift from that of wild, crashing waves to the tranquility of a deep abyss.
"I will bring up the rear, otherwise none of us will get away."
"..."
"That is an order, Vice Captain."
Kaien turned around, flashing Rangiku a bright, sunny smile.
It was a smile that could provide support even in the most desperate of situations.
"Don't worry, I am Kaien Shiba. I never fight a battle I'm not confident in winning."
'Is that really true...' Shinobu Kocho glanced at him.
Rangiku gritted her teeth. "...Understood! Everyone, follow me!"
As Rangiku led the squad in a forceful breakout, the originally dense tide of monsters seemed to sense something and frantically tried to split their forces to give chase.
"Hey, your opponent... is me."
Kaien took a step forward. In that instant, the air around him seemed to be evacuated by an invisible, high-pressure force.
His Spiritual Pressure no longer expanded outward, but instead frantically compressed into the Zanpakuto in his hands.
"Come to think of it, I've never actually tested this in real combat before..."
"Bankai!!"
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