Between the Seireitei and the Soul King Palace, there were seventy-two barriers in total. To break through them, one needed the Ōken.
Having just pierced through the first barrier, Aizen keenly understood the function of the Ōken. Strictly speaking, it was not absolutely necessary to possess the Ōken in order to force one's way up to the Soul King Palace.
Take Aizen himself, for example. He could completely shatter a barrier with his immense Reiatsu.
But doing so would consume far too much Reiatsu.
The Ōken wrapped around the surface of Aizen's body. When he approached a barrier, it resonated with it in a mysterious way. Even an ordinary Shinigami would not need to expend much effort to pass through.
That was why the Ōken was the key to the Soul King Palace. Without the Ōken, even if someone forced their way through all seventy-two barriers and reached the Soul King Palace, they would be no different from a half-crippled weakling. They would certainly be in no condition to fight Squad Zero, whose members were all composed of captain-class existences.
As for the first barrier, Aizen had merely poked a hole through it with one finger, opening a passage large enough for him to pass through. Now that he had this experience, his speed in breaking through the barriers would increase.
Starrk's cry of alarm reached Aizen's ears.
As for the Espada fleeing, Aizen paid it no mind whatsoever. What did surprise him slightly was that Starrk had been the one to take the initiative and call for a retreat.
Originally, Aizen had thought that Harribel would sacrifice herself to save the other Arrancar. It seemed he had still underestimated Starrk's fear of loneliness.
After slightly composing himself, Aizen looked upward.
The remaining seventy-one barriers were the true main course.
As for Hueco Mundo, that was a possession that would belong to the final victor.
The captains of the Gotei Thirteen shared the same thought as Aizen. They watched the Garganta close before their eyes. Aside from Sajin Komamura, everyone else vanished.
At the entrance to the Great Underground Prison beneath the Shin'ō Academy, a series of sharp whooshes rang out.
The prison's defensive force had become unprecedentedly powerful.
The captains had all arrived.
Tsunayoshi swept his gaze over the other captains. Aside from looking somewhat disheveled, they had no obvious fatal injuries.
"Just keep yourselves looking like that. There's no need for you to be healed."
"Is there no problem with the Captain-Commander?" Retsu Unohana asked.
Yamamoto had been pierced through by Aizen, and his injuries were far more serious than theirs.
"He's fine. I already gave him emergency treatment. The old man won't die. You don't need to heal him again," Tsunayoshi said.
Tsunayoshi had already wrapped Yamamoto fully in bandages and treated him with the most basic Kaidō. Yamamoto's current heavily injured state was simply a performance true to life. If the people of the Soul King Palace came to question him, Yamamoto would have a reasonable explanation.
"I understand."
Retsu Unohana was more than happy to take it easy. Like the other captains, she sat down on the ground and looked toward the screen.
On the screen, Aizen's assault on the Soul King Palace was being broadcast.
"His progress really is fast, Aizen…" Shinji Hirako said in a strange, sarcastic tone.
In the brief time it had taken them to travel here, Aizen had already passed through five barriers.
Having witnessed Aizen's true strength, Shinji no longer had any intention of seeking revenge. His hatred had already become a thing of the past after he stabbed Aizen at the Sōkyoku. Still, displeasure was displeasure, and that did not stop Shinji from making sarcastic remarks about him.
"I thought you had some method to broadcast the Soul King Palace. Turns out it really is this simple and crude," Kyōraku said, taking a sip of tea.
Far behind Aizen, several surveillance spirit bugs trailed him from a distance. These insects followed him through the holes Aizen opened.
"Isn't simple and direct exactly what works best?" Kisuke Urahara said with a smile.
These surveillance spirit bugs had been modified by him. They were no ordinary creatures.
"Tch!"
As long as Urahara opened his mouth, he was certain to draw Mayuri Kurotsuchi's displeasure.
"What do you plan to do afterward?" Ukitake asked. "Will you use Aizen's passage, or the Tenchūren?"
The Tenchūren was Squad Zero's means of travel between the Seireitei and the Soul King Palace. Under normal circumstances, it was kept in the Soul King Palace. Squad Zero would ride it down to the Seireitei, then later be fired back to the Soul King Palace by Kūkaku Shiba's Kakaku Taihō.
There were records of the Tenchūren's use. Although it was currently in the Soul King Palace, that did not prevent Kisuke Urahara from using the relevant records to imitate it and create a Urahara-style Tenchūren.
"If we use the Tenchūren, will we be regarded as forcibly trespassing into the Soul King Palace?" Byakuya Kuchiki asked.
Under ordinary circumstances, without the Soul King Palace's permission, Shinigami such as themselves could not possibly enter the Soul King Palace.
"Aizen is already attacking the Soul King Palace head-on. Who cares whether it counts as forced entry?" Kensei Muguruma said disdainfully. "We're going there to save people. They should be thanking us before anything else!"
"Observe for now."
The half-reclining Yamamoto stopped the captains' argument.
Once Yamamoto said that, all the captains understood that he might still have another plan. They immediately fell silent again and continued watching Aizen storm the Soul King Palace.
After gaining experience from breaking through several barriers, Aizen's proficiency grew higher and higher. He was no longer satisfied with poking holes open one step at a time.
As the future Soul King, his entrance ought to possess greater style.
Aizen moved his fingers. Five masses of purple Reiatsu transformed into five long dragons, coiling in his palm. He wrapped the five dragons with a portion of the Ōken's power, raised his hand flat toward the sky, and the long dragons rapidly expanded into five gigantic dragons.
Goryūtenmetsu, Ōken version.
With a thunderous boom, Aizen truly pierced the heavens this time. The power erupted by the five gigantic dragons blasted a hole the size of a soccer field through the barrier. It was unknown how many times larger it was than the person-sized hole he had opened earlier.
This was it.
Aizen revealed a satisfied smile.
He treated Goryūtenmetsu as his mount, using Hadō #99 to announce to the Soul King Palace that he, Aizen, had arrived.
"That really is… exaggerated," Kyōraku commented as he watched Aizen shoot into the sky. "How did we never realize before that Aizen loved showing off this much?"
In Kyōraku's impression, Aizen should have quietly and secretly flown up to the Soul King Palace, then found an opportunity to kill one or two members of Squad Zero. Only then would he reveal himself before everyone in grand fashion.
But how had he already reached the point of wanting to announce himself to the world before the real show had even begun?
"This is Aizen's true nature. Everything you saw in the past was an act," Shinji Hirako said, having the most authority to speak on the matter. "A guy who suppresses his nature like that—once he releases it, all that's left is arrogance."
"Arrogant, yes. And the commotion is definitely not small either. It will probably be difficult for Squad Zero not to notice," Suì-Fēng said with a cold laugh.
With Goryūtenmetsu clearing the way, Aizen's speed of advance was simply terrifying. Barrier after barrier was quickly broken open, and the disturbance he caused was anything but small.
Even from beneath the Squad One barracks, Suì-Fēng and the others could hear the thunderous rumbling above the Seireitei. If she had not evacuated the Onmitsukidō in advance, the rooftops of the Seireitei would probably be filled with members of her Squad Two by now.
"Squad Zero, huh?"
Kenpachi Zaraki grinned viciously as he stroked his Zanpakutō.
No further words were needed. He already wanted to carry his blade up there and have a fight.
"Speaking of which, just how strong is Squad Zero?" Kensei Muguruma asked curiously. "I heard they're all made up of captains?"
He was also not the type to stay obediently in line. It was just that his strength was not yet enough to support that restless heart of his.
"Kensei, don't tell me you forgot about Kirio Hikifune," Shinji said, mocking him. "You were already a captain back then too."
"That's true, but I remember Captain Hikifune's strength didn't seem like it could beat mine, right?" Kensei said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Wasn't she promoted because of some soul-related technology?"
"The members of Squad Zero are all people who created something of great significance for Soul Society. If we speak only of their strength while they were still in Soul Society, then indeed, they were not extraordinarily powerful."
The living history of the Seireitei spoke.
Three members of Squad Zero had personally been sent up by Yamamoto upon their promotion, so he understood their strength during their time in the Seireitei very well.
"However, after reaching the Soul King Palace, they reconstruct their bodies through the power of the Soul King. Those bodies themselves also become Ōken."
"In other words, the Ōken that Aizen went to such painstaking lengths to obtain is something the members of Squad Zero have possessed from the moment they ascended to the Soul King Palace."
"After being remodeled by the Soul King's power, their spiritual bodies are unquestionably far stronger. Their strength has already far surpassed the ranks of ordinary captains."
"This old man even suspects that Squad Zero's true strength is likewise capable of shaking the worlds."
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's words plunged everyone into silence.
Power on the level of shaking the worlds had already been classified by them as power surpassing Bankai.
As for Yamamoto forcibly achieving a similar effect through a second Bankai, the other captains no longer held any expectations of copying that. Synchronizing with their Zanpakutō and comprehending power beyond Bankai was the direction they were currently striving toward.
Their attention returned to Aizen's assault on the Soul King Palace.
Using the five dragons as his mount, he had already pierced through more than half of the barriers. Before long, he would reach the place he had dreamed of.
"What's that noise? Why is it so loud?"
In the Soul King Palace, at the detached palace of Squad Zero, a middle-aged man with a toothpick in his mouth, a pointed head, and a pompadour walked out of the palace gates with an annoyed expression.
"What the hell is making all that racket? Can't a guy even take a bath in peace?"
This man was none other than Tenjirō Kirinji, First Officer of Squad Zero, known as the Divine General of the East.
The thunderous sounds from the lower realm were making his head ache, so he had stepped out of his Kirinden to see what was going on.
Before Kirinji could do anything else, a black-clad ninja whose face and head were covered appeared beside him.
This was the Blade of the Soul King, one of the Soul King Palace's two tool-like attendants.
"Oh? What is it?" Kirinji asked.
After listening to the Blade of the Soul King's explanation, he replied, "Someone from below is fighting their way up? Gather at the front approach? Now that sounds like something worth watching!"
Life in the Soul King Palace was dull and tasteless. Perhaps the last time there had been any joy was when Squad Zero had gained a new member.
Becoming a member of Squad Zero meant having one's body reconstructed by the power of the Soul King. In a certain sense, they had also become puppets of another form. They existed to protect the Soul King, and because of the Soul King, they were undying and indestructible.
Did he regret becoming a member of Squad Zero?
Perhaps.
But in Kirinji's heart, there was not even the possibility of such a thought arising.
As puppets guarding the Soul King, how could they possibly harbor thoughts of rebellion?
The only thing they could do was search for as much amusement as possible throughout these endless years.
Kirinji picked his ear, grabbed the paddle he used to stir his hot springs, and transformed into a streak of golden light, shooting straight toward the front approach.
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