Cyrus gave no answer to Aizen's question. He simply closed his eyes, lifted one foot, and lightly brought it down.
The ground beneath him had already melted, yet a faint tremor still spread outward from that single step.
Along with it, his flames extended into the distance, and through his perception, Cyrus could clearly sense that something hidden beneath Soul Society had been caught within the reach of his power.
This time, he didn't hold back.
A violent surge of power swallowed everything below, while Soul Society on the surface began slowly disappearing beneath its influence.
Only after finishing did Cyrus open his eyes.
"About time."
His gaze shifted past Aizen to Ichigo standing behind him.
"You're not going to attack? Give it a try. Maybe you'll actually beat me."
Aizen's expression changed slightly before he also turned toward Ichigo, but another voice spoke before the boy could answer.
"There's no point. Things have already gone too far. Even when I still properly existed, I couldn't have stopped this, much less in my current state."
A figure appeared behind Ichigo.
He looked like an utterly ordinary man, though his body was faint and translucent.
"The Soul King."
Aizen identified him immediately.
The Hōgyoku's power originated from the Soul King, and the instant this figure appeared, Aizen felt the orb within him react.
"Yes. I originally hoped you might carve out a new path."
The Soul King looked at Aizen calmly.
"But now, it seems there won't be much opportunity for that anymore."
Aizen had initially regarded him with confusion, but those words immediately changed his expression.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Cyrus smiled.
"Everything you did—or really, everything in this world—was being pushed forward by someone behind the scenes. Those people I found earlier thought they had mastered the Soul King's power, and they tried to push you into reaching a higher level so they could get their hands on something beyond them."
His smile sharpened.
"What they didn't realize was that everything they were doing was being nudged along by someone else too."
"I never meant any harm."
The Soul King looked at Aizen with a gentle expression.
"I once believed you had the greatest potential. But now…"
His gaze shifted toward the utterly confused Ichigo.
"I've found this boy."
Ichigo hadn't understood much of the conversation, but he still remembered the important part.
"You're supposed to be really strong, right? Then stop this guy! He's killed a ton of people and he's trying to destroy the whole world!"
"Sorry. I can't."
The Soul King shook his head. Then, after seeing the look Ichigo gave him, he turned toward Cyrus instead.
"If I give you what you're searching for, will you stop?"
"You know what I'm looking for?"
Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
"A passage between worlds. You entered this world through one. If I show you where that passage is, will you stop?"
The Soul King asked again.
"And after I leave, you destroy the passage—or simply move this entire world somewhere else?"
Cyrus replied.
"That is possible."
The Soul King actually nodded, making no attempt to deny it.
"Compared with the world you came from, this one is incomplete. It is still growing. Destroying it now would be a terrible waste."
"And what does that have to do with me?"
Cyrus shook his head.
The overwhelming heat surrounding him suddenly began to recede as all that power contracted back into his body.
Yet instead of becoming less threatening, Cyrus somehow became far more terrifying.
The explosive power hidden inside him was now so concentrated that merely looking at him made the eyes ache, while every instinct screamed of danger.
"This was never a real, complete world to begin with. I need that spatial passage to confirm a few things."
The Soul King's expression cooled.
"Aren't you afraid I'll destroy it right now?"
"If you could, why wait until now?"
Cyrus suddenly smiled, bright as the blazing sun.
"You're a parasite too, aren't you?"
The Soul King went still.
"You wait for this world to cycle again and again, letting it slowly grow. Once it matures enough, you'll probably be able to take complete control of it."
Cyrus voiced his conclusion plainly.
The Soul King said nothing.
Aizen's expression, meanwhile, became almost comical. He seemed like he wanted to laugh, yet couldn't quite manage it.
In fact, part of him was beginning to hope Cyrus would simply destroy the entire world and get it over with.
"Your own world has no master."
After a long silence, the Soul King abruptly looked up.
"And you can only occupy one world. At most, this place could become a subordinate world under yours."
"I never planned on staying inside one world forever."
Cyrus shook his head and looked upward.
"Wouldn't that be unbearably boring?"
Then his tone changed slightly.
"You can feel it too, can't you?"
"You still have time to stop."
The Soul King's voice suddenly carried unmistakable urgency.
Ichigo noticed it immediately.
"Weren't you acting like none of this mattered a minute ago?"
"That's because he thought that even if Cyrus destroyed this world, he could simply force it into another cycle."
Aizen supplied the explanation.
"But now, something has changed. Either the next cycle won't happen the way he expected…"
His eyes narrowed.
"…or there won't be a place for him in it."
Then Aizen looked toward Cyrus with open curiosity.
"So this so-called Soul King is an outsider too, just like you?"
"What? Interested in seeing the world beyond this one yourself?"
Cyrus asked.
"Curious."
Aizen didn't bother hiding it.
"Oh."
Cyrus nodded, then shook his head.
"If this had happened earlier, maybe. Now it's already too late."
The instant those words left his mouth, the entire world shuddered.
The light dimmed all at once.
Far above them, flames were burning across the sky.
They were so distant and enormous that they were almost impossible to see clearly, yet they were unmistakably spreading inward from beyond Soul Society itself.
Wherever those flames passed in the distance, nothing remained behind them.
Only absolute emptiness.
"Spare me."
The words came from the Soul King.
This time, he was genuinely panicking. The calm, detached figure from moments earlier seemed to have vanished completely.
"I'm just a high school student! Please, let me go! I'll give you anything you want!"
He suddenly shouted at Cyrus, his composure collapsing altogether.
Aizen's expression finally broke.
He had spent so long obsessing over the possibility that his life, his ambitions, and even his rebellion had all been subtly manipulated by someone behind the scenes.
And now the true figure supposedly standing behind everything had revealed himself to be… this.
If the Soul King had maintained his earlier composure, perhaps Aizen could have accepted it.
Now he genuinely wanted to draw his sword and cut the man down himself.
Even Ichigo looked at the Soul King with obvious disgust.
Begging like that in front of an enemy trying to destroy the world was pathetic.
Ichigo, however, had no intention of giving up. He turned back toward Cyrus and tightened his grip on his sword.
"If I cut you down, all of this should stop, right?"
The corner of Cyrus's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
Of all the people he could have run into, it had to be one of those brainless, hot-blooded protagonists he found most annoying.