"Bankai — Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū!"
Ais gripped the hilt with both hands, raising the vertical blade before her petite body.
Arcs of raw electricity flickered and flowed deep within her golden eyes. An unshakable calm anchored her shining gaze, paired with a profound wisdom that seemed to pierce through the chaos of the battlefield.
High in the churning thunderclouds, golden lightning wove into a crackling net.
Acting as a lightning rod, the tip of Ais's blade gave the gathered atmospheric energy a focused target.
A deafening peal of thunder rang out, and the golden light descended in the blink of an eye.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Dozens of lightning bolts tore through the cavern and crashed violently onto the Greatest Evil.
The devastating voltage ripped through the beast's scales and underlying muscle.
The extreme heat charred the tissue black, carbonizing the flesh. Carbonized cells proved far harder to repair, drastically slowing the monster's regeneration cycle.
Possessing a certain degree of primal intelligence, the Greatest Evil adopted the survival tactic of a lizard shedding its tail.
It actively discarded the carbonized sections, choosing to regenerate from the healthy roots—a far more efficient biological process.
"Ais! She can actually output this much power?!" Riveria gasped in amazement.
A moment prior, their tactical situation had looked overwhelmingly grim.
In a single instant, the tide had turned.
Not only had Ais broken free from the frenzied malice of Avenger entirely on her own, but she had accessed this staggering level of strength?
'All of it stemmed from the Zanpakuto in her hands: Gonryōmaru.'
Finn had acquired this specific weapon during the initial forging contract between Rayleigh and the Loki Familia.
It had cost the faction a staggering sum of Valis.
Riveria thought she understood the blade's abilities. No—she had believed she understood them.
Witnessing the tremendous scale and astonishing atmospheric manipulation before her now, her previous assumptions proved undeniably shallow.
'This was exactly what Rayleigh meant when he vaguely mentioned a Zanpakuto's secondary release stage.'
'The supreme, ultimate mystery of the soul-bound blade: Bankai!'
"I'm going in, Gonryōmaru!" A genuine, soft smile broke across Ais's usually expressionless face.
She gathered the ambient lightning accumulated in the localized weather system directly into her blade.
She shot straight toward the Greatest Evil's neck like a fired railgun.
The judgment of the lightning sword flashed by.
Torn clean through by the devastating electric edge, the Greatest Evil's enormous head severed from its neck and plummeted toward the scorched earth.
"We won!"
"Amazing, Gonryōmaru!"
"We beat it... huh? Gonryōmaru?"
Landing softly on her boots, an excited Ais spoke to the Zanpakuto in her grip—but received no response.
She raised the hilt level with her eyes.
The steel blade of Gonryōmaru was shattering little by little, dissolving into fine dust and scattering into the wind.
Ais stared blankly at the disappearing weapon as sheer panic breaking across her face.
She cupped her palm beneath the ruined steel, desperately trying to catch the fragments.
But that slight physical touch acted as the final straw.
The blade of Gonryōmaru collapsed completely.
Only the wrapped hilt remained in her grip.
"Gonryōmaru?" Ais called out the spirit's name, her voice trembling.
Silence answered her.
In that instant, a hollow wave of emptiness crashed over her soul, as though she had lost a vital piece of herself.
"This cannot be real…"
The girl's body swayed.
She collapsed limply to the ash-covered ground, her vacant eyes still locked onto the ruined hilt.
A few seconds later, the Sword Princess lost consciousness.
"Ais!" Riveria sprinted over, gathering the unconscious girl into her arms.
After running a frantic diagnostic check, she discovered Ais had suffered no serious internal trauma.
She was merely exhausted, as she reached mind zero.
That realization alone shocked the High Elf.
'After channeling such power, how could this be the only drawback?'
She certainly did not wish harm upon Ais.
Yet, wielding an energy output that so obviously exceeded the physical limits of a Level 2 vessel should have triggered massive backlash on her.
Leaving scarcely any physical burden defied the fundamental common sense of the Falna.
Her gaze fell upon the hilt of Gonryōmaru resting in Ais's limp grip.
'This is…! The Zanpakuto's blade had shattered entirely.... the sword was gone, could it be…?'
"It was Gonryōmaru. The spirit bore the physical burden to protect Ais," Rayleigh's voice sounded from behind Riveria.
He stepped forward, his eyes locked on the crater. "Don't relax your guard. That monster is not dead."
"What?" Riveria stood up immediately, tracking his gaze.
Sure enough, the colossal black carcass was writhing.
The decapitated body dragged itself blindly toward its severed head, attempting to reconnect the tissue.
"It's still alive?!" Riveria raised her jade staff to cast, but Rayleigh held up a hand to stop her.
"Leave the execution to me."
Riveria glanced sideways at the boy.
Registering the calm anchoring his expression, she hesitated for a brief moment before stepping back to yield the vanguard.
Rayleigh reactivated Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.
Hundreds of millions of scattered cherry-blossom petals condensed, forging countless glowing katana blades that surrounded the entire crater.
The innumerable swords hovered in neat, perfectly spaced ranks, forming a vast, inescapable gladiatorial cage.
"Senkei: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi," Rayleigh declared. "With this, it ends."
He raised a single hand.
The countless suspended blades of Senkei pivoted in unison, aiming their razor tips directly at the Greatest Evil trapped in the center.
The ugly monster had reached the end of its rope.
However, if given a brief window to breathe, its regeneration would fully repair the damage in under two minutes.
For Rayleigh, that window provided enough time to kill the beast ten times over.
"Secret Art—Ōgi: Ikka Senjinka!"
A torrential rain of steel shot forward.
One gleaming sword after another launched toward the Greatest Evil at supersonic speeds.
Each propelled blade carried the kinetic yield of a 20mm anti-materiel artillery round.
When the high-speed katana struck the Greatest Evil, they did not merely pierce the outer scales—they punched straight through the dense muscle and out the other side.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!!
Surpassing the ferocity of a storm of ten thousand swords, the display left Riveria staring with wide eyes and parted lips.
Pinned within the endless rain of blades, the Greatest Evil's body was shredded and pulverized repeatedly.
Ultimately, its regenerative factor failed to outpace the sheer rate of destruction.
The beast's core Magic Stone was exposed to the volley.
Any monster whose Magic Stone shatters will die.
That remained an absolute law of the Dungeon.
As the final blade pierced the crystal, the Greatest Evil dissolved into ash.
The dark atmosphere suffocating the 18th Floor rapidly dispersed.
However, one secondary battle remained undecided.
...
"Cough!"
In the middle of the skirmish, Alfia suddenly lurched forward, coughing up blood with a deeply pained expression twisting her face.
Seeing the sudden collapse, Rayleigh moved to step forward and intervene—until he caught Alfia subtly winking at him.
…???
'She was faking it!'
Offering a helpless smile, Rayleigh halted his advance.
Instead, he casually strolled over to the Astraea vanguard, standing in solidarity behind the girls.
"It is over, Alfia. You've lost!" Alise declared.
"..."
What Rayleigh witnessed next could only be described as a masterclass in theatrical acting.
'As expected of the woman who embodied absolute talent—her acting skills came effortlessly!'
'She's delivering a performance so convincing that it blurred reality.'
Pretending to grudgingly accept her defeat, Alfia stumbled toward the massive chasm blasted open by the Greatest Evil and threw herself into the abyss.
Even knowing her power guaranteed her survival, Rayleigh felt his brow twitch at the dramatic exit.
Thud. Thud.
With their hard-fought victory finally secured, the Astraea girls collapsed one by one under the crushing weight of their adrenaline crash.
They leaned heavily against one another, sitting limply in the ash, refusing to move a single muscle.
At that exact moment—the battle raging on the surface streets of Orario reached its own conclusion.