As thunder roared and the heavens split, Aizen, who was facing off against Jushiro Ukitake and Gin Ichimaru in the 13th Division, looked up at the sky and smiled.
Ukitake gasped as he watched the lightning bolts streak in all directions across the fractured firmament the moment the sky tore open.
Though the thunder didn't reach the earth, it felt as if the sky itself was crushing the world beneath its weight.
The divine roar erupting from the far reaches of the heavens, a height forbidden to mortals, was enough to shake one's fighting spirit just by looking at it.
"What on earth is that...!"
"What in the world is happenin' up there...?"
Despite his confusion, Ukitake did not succumb to despair, knowing he could not back down. Beside him, Ichimaru Gin wiped away cold sweat, forcing a smile.
"That is a hammer."
"A hammer...? That's what it looks like to you?"
"Yes, a hammer. The hammer that will shatter this world."
Aizen spoke with a faint, enigmatic smile.
*
Crack, sizzle...
With every step he took, surges of lightning spread in all directions, wantonly laying waste to everything in their path.
Or rather, could it even be called 'destruction' when objects were decomposed into Spirit Particles the moment the thunder struck?
What was more terrifying was the entity controlling such power by his own will.
He approached, annihilating everything around him, yet he had not touched so much as a single hair on their bodies. That precision was more frightening than the destruction itself.
Though he was likely the same size as them, it felt as if an incomprehensible giant were standing there.
"Oh.... SHIT...!"
"Truly, a monstrous and grotesque power..."
Even the Zero Division, handpicked to protect the Soul King, dared not step forward.
They realized instinctively that the moment they moved, they would be erased from existence before they could even act.
The gap was so overwhelmingly vast that fear didn't even have time to register. Only simple awe and doubt filled their minds.
'With that much power, the Three Worlds should have collapsed already...'
Their doubt stemmed from the fact that the Three Worlds remained intact despite the release of such absurd power.
Take the Bankai of the Royal Guard, for instance.
The influence of a Zero Division member's Bankai is so immense that merely releasing it causes the Three Worlds to tremble. Why, then, did the Bankai of the Nether King—which far exceeded theirs—leave everything stable?
"How is this possible?"
Shutara Senjumaru, an incarnation of scientific curiosity before her duties as Squad 0, dared to speak.
Tenjiro, standing nearby, grimaced and glared at her for her audacity, but Senjumaru ignored him and looked straight at the Lord of Thunder.
"The Bankai of the Zero Division is so vast in its reach that the Three Worlds shake upon its release. Why does your Bankai exert no such influence?"
"Heh."
Shaku chuckled as if the question were absurd and looked at Senjumaru.
Even Senjumaru flinched before those eyes glowing with blue electrical discharge, but what followed was not a bolt of lightning, but a sigh.
"Haa... seriously. I'm trying to set the mood here, and you guys just won't help me out. You were that curious?"
The Zero Division members momentarily relaxed at his surprisingly casual attitude, but another sky-rending thunderclap forced them to swallow dryly once more.
"Does the sky cease to be the sky just because it rains? Is it not the sky because night falls? Is it not the sky because the sun rises? No. No matter which world you are in, no matter the place or the entity observing it, the sky is naturally the sky."
Something that doesn't just influence things, but simply is as a matter of course.
He was stating that he was such an existence.
"Probably by now, not just the Soul Society, but the Human Realm, Hell, and Hueco Mundo are all in an uproar."
With a smirk and a shrug, Shaku walked past the stunned Zero Division.
None of them tried to stop him. None, except for one man.
"Do you truly intend to go through with this?"
It was Jomon who blocked Shaku's path.
"Have you ever seen me use empty words?"
"The world today is not the same as it was a million years ago. Humans might not be able to adapt to a world that changes so abruptly."
Shaku blinked at Jomon's words, noting how quickly he had grasped the situation with the information available.
Ah, right. Jomon was just as brilliant as Aizen or Urahara down there.
Shaku let out a chuckle and shrugged.
"They can do it. They can change, and they'll adapt."
"How can you be so certain?"
"I'm not being certain; I'm trusting them. You're the living proof of that change, aren't you?"
Jomon gasped, then let out a shallow sigh and stepped aside.
Nothing stood in Shaku's way now.
"Man, that took forever. Taking nearly a million years just to find the answer... I really am a blockhead."
Shaku chuckled as he looked at the distant towers of the Daireiri within the Royal Palace.
"What on earth were you thinking, trusting a blockhead like me to handle the world?"
Feeling the Soul King watching him from within the Sanctum, Shaku indulged in a moment of sentimentality before reaching out his hand into the void.
"Well, I guess I'll hear the answer slowly starting now."
At that moment, space itself tore open. The skies of the Soul Society, Hell, the Human Realm, and Hueco Mundo converged as one, converging onto the palm of his hand.
For a fleeting moment, the Four Realms merged into the Primordial Sky, and the Daireiri, which had been silent for a million years, began to shake violently.
As soon as the 'world'—the very shackle sealing the Soul King—vanished, the seals began to break.
Knowing full well what this implied, Jomon swallowed dryly and watched the crumbling Sanctum.
"I should start with a light greeting first, right?"
Shaku smiled and gripped the 'sky' in his palm. The Primordial Sky condensed into a single spear within his hand.
A pale spear of lightning with a trifurcated tip.
"Trishula."
As he released the spear's True Name, he hurled it toward the Daireiri.
―――!!!
The heavens collapsed and the earth surged upward.
Or rather, the release of power was so massive it created that illusion.
Naturally, the members of Squad 0 nearby were blasted away without even having time to scream. Only two remained standing in that place.
Tenjin Shaku, the Nether King who had thrown the spear... and...
"It's been a long time."
The Soul King, who stood perfectly fine even as the spear impaled the very center of his chest.
The Soul King looked down at the spear piercing his heart and slowly closed and opened his eyes.
The sensation of death was distant. Power was flowing from the spear through his heart—enough that he wouldn't need to gather his body parts scattered over the last million years.
"...Did you purposefully transfer the power of the heavens to me?"
"Is that the first thing you say upon waking up? Cryptic nonsense. Well, I get the gist of what you're asking. And yeah, you're right. No matter how much of a god you are, if I didn't do this, wouldn't you die the moment you were released from the seal? Am I wrong?"
"What meaning does this act hold in achieving your will?"
"Plenty. I did this because otherwise, you wouldn't die completely."
"You seek to make my essence and my fragments on the earth distinct entities... through this?"
Gazing at the spear lodged in his chest, the Soul King reached out with arms made of lightning and pulled it out.
The spear no longer held any power. Naturally so, as all its energy had been absorbed by the Soul King.
Eventually, the spear, losing the power even to maintain itself, crumbled into dust within the Soul King's hands.
"You have succeeded in separating 'me' from 'myself,' yet I cannot say it was a wise choice."
"Not a good choice, you say?"
"Indeed. For you have restored me to exactly how I was at my strongest."
The Soul King spoke as he began to radiate lightning in all directions, boasting a majesty identical to what the Nether King had just shown.
Everything around them was crumbling. Despite the apocalypse-like scene, the two faced each other calmly.
The humans on earth, unaware of the details, trembled and hid in fear. The Ten Kings of Hell and the sinners prostrated themselves on the spot, and the Hollows of Hueco Mundo fled for their lives.
Faced with the lightning that returned everything it touched to nothingness, the members of Squad 0 sprawled in the back swallowed dryly. The Nether King simply shrugged and raised both hands.
"I fought barehanded back then, too. Don't you remember?"
"How could I forget?"
"And you lost to me back then, too."
"I did."
The Nether King snickered as he spoke, and the Soul King replied with a stoic nod.
A sense of utter incongruity—it felt like they were watching an entirely different world. Those nearby could do nothing but observe.
The same held true for those fighting in the Seireitei.
The Nether King looked at the people visible below the Royal Palace and smiled bitterly.
"Unfortunately, things are different from the old days. The world isn't sturdy enough to withstand our full power. So, this time, it's a one-shot deal. No grudges, no matter who wins."
"Agreed."
At the Soul King's reply, the Nether King's expression went cold, and the Soul King wordlessly began to scatter lightning.
The life-and-death struggle of the gods from myth was about to be reenacted.
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 148
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T