Five quincy masters of the Sternritters stood at the edge of the shattered dunes of Hueco Mundo, facing five warriors from the Las Noches.
The air was distorted by pressure alone. Every step each of them took warped the desert floor into black glass. The spiritual density was so thick that even the air screamed.
Cang Du, bearer of the The Iron—his body gleaming with metallic luster—faced Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez head-on.
Grimmjow's roars echoed across the pale horizon as he slashed again and again, claws wreathed in blue energy. Yet every strike, every furious blow, was reduced to a meaningless clang.
*Clang!Crack!Skrrrch!*
Each strike rebounded off Cang Du's body as if he were made of pure iron. Grimmjow's Desgarrón (Spanish for "Laceration/Great Tear", Japanese for "Panther/Leopard King's Claw"), a weapon that once shredded Espada and Vasto Lorde alike, failed to draw even a scratch.
"Tch… damn you, you walking hunk of armor!" Grimmjow spat, panting through clenched teeth.
Cang Du didn't bother replying. His eyes, cold and expressionless, betrayed no emotion.Even his counterattacks, though slower than Grimmjow's relentless flurries, were deliberate, methodical. Under his impenetrable defense, Grimmjow's ferocity was meaningless.
The difference between fury and control began to show.
Within moments, Grimmjow's movements dulled. His breathing became ragged, sweat mixing with sand. The battle was turning one-sided.
He knew it. The quincy didn't even need to move fast — his sheer presence alone dominated the space around them. Grimmjow was being cornered.
Not far away, a blazing orange flame erupted.
The duel between Bazz-B and Harribel had already reached its end. Harribel, the former Cuatro (4th) Espada, was on her knees, her blade half-broken and her skin charred by fire.
If not for Mazuru intervening at the last second—ripping the space open to drag her out—she would have been reduced to ash beneath Bazz-B's scorching Burning Finger.
The smell of ozone and smoke filled the battlefield.
Elsewhere, Quilge Opie crossed swords with Kariya Jin, the ancient Bount.
From the outset, Quilge had not activated his Schrift. Instead, he relied on the base techniques of a quincy — bow, arrow, reishi manipulation. His precision was clinical.
For a time, the battle seemed even. Jin's mastery over wind and spirit energy allowed him to cut through Quilge's reishi bolts and retaliate with slicing gusts.
To the uninformed eye, it appeared balanced. But Quilge was observing.
He catalogued every movement, every fluctuation in the Bount's power.Even amidst the roaring wind, his analytical mind remained steady.
'So that's it… monotony. Simple repetition masked as chaos. But that's all.' he thought coldly.
The corner of his mouth curved slightly.
Then, his veins lit up with eerie blue light. Spiritual particles rushed through his bloodstream, veins bulging beneath his pale skin.
Blut Arterie.
The quincy's blood technique, achieved by injecting reishi into the arteries, enhancing strength, speed, and attack potency.
At the same time, there existed its counterpart—Blut Vene, the defensive state, infusing reishi into the veins for unparalleled protection. But both could never coexist.One demanded motion, the other stability.
And Quilge Opie was not a man of defense.
He raised his western blade, its edge shimmering with dense spiritual light.
*Whoosh!*
A streak of pure reishi condensed at its tip before bursting outward.
Heilig Pfeil—the quincy light arrow—launched like a comet.
Jin reacted instantly. The puppet Messer in his hand twisted midair, releasing violent gales. Walls of wind rose before him, layer after layer, forming a spinning fortress of pressure.
But this time—
*Crack!*
The reishi arrow tore straight through the wind barrier.
Jin's eyes widened. "His attack… it's stronger than before!"
He didn't stop. Using the air itself as footholds, he soared upward, carried by the raging winds. He evaded the arrows with graceful sweeps, circling around to flank Quilge from above.
Wind gathered at his fingertips, condensing into sharp, invisible blades.
Quilge merely looked up, unfazed.
"Do you think I'm the same as before?" he said, his voice calm, almost pitying.
Quincies, by nature, could not fly in places with high reishi density—like Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. But even that had loopholes.
The first was to invoke the Vollständig, the holy form of a quincy, which created wings of condensed reishi. Yet it came at a severe cost to the body's stamina. No sane soldier would activate it so early in battle.
The second way, however, was simpler—and far more elegant.
Hirenkyaku.The "Pure Flying Step".
By condensing reishi beneath one's feet, a quincy could glide or even "fly", achieving speed surpassing the shinigami's Shunpo.
Jin's pupils shrank. Quilge had vanished.
A flash of light streaked past him—whoosh!—and the next instant, Quilge was above him, blade aimed downward.
Jin twisted violently, but too late.
The light arrow that erupted from Quilge's sword tip pierced straight through his forehead.
Blood sprayed in a crimson arc across the air.
*Splat!*
Jin's body spun midair, then crashed into the dunes below, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Bazz-B, watching from the distance, crossed his arms and smirked. "Heh. Figures. Even without his Schrift, that guy's a killing machine."
He glanced at Harribel's fainted form and scoffed.
"Las Noches, huh? So weak it's almost insulting. And Jugo actually thought about allying with these fools? Tch… I'll never understand that guy."
He turned his head toward the massive black barrier in the distance—the one Tousen Kaname had raised when he unleashed his Bankai. The barrier was absolute; no sight or sound escaped from it.
Bazz-B made no move to assist. "If that idiot Mask needs help, he's already lost."
He kicked off the sand, his flames flickering brighter. "I'll go see how Askin's doing. That smug bastard's one of his majesty's personal guards—should be interesting."
Bazz-B's smile thinned. Despite being a quincy, he felt no reverence toward their Emperor.His goal wasn't worship. It was vengeance.
Joining the Sternritter had one purpose—to rise close enough to Yhwach to strike him down himself.
'Let's see what kind of monsters guard your throne, old man.'
Just as he began to move, a piercing scream broke the battlefield.
"Mask!!!"
It was James—the ever-boisterous cheerleader and supporter of Mask "The Superstar". His voice cracked in panic.
Bazz-B froze and turned sharply. Even the low-ranking quincies observing from the rear gasped in confusion.
James, usually overflowing with bravado, was now pale, trembling, clutching his chest. His voice cracked again—"S-Superhero… down?! Mask…?!"
The words hit like a thunderclap.
At that moment, the massive black Bankai barrier around Kaname began to dissolve into smoke.
As it vanished, a silhouette emerged from the haze—Tousen Kaname himself. His blade hung loosely at his side, the faint shimmer of released reiatsu fading.
His blind eyes had returned to their sightless state, but his expression was calm, unbothered. Years of solitude had made him indifferent to light and darkness alike.
Before him lay a corpse.
Mask De Masculine, the "Superhero", sprawled across the sand, blood pouring from seven orifices. His body was torn, his chest punctured, his limbs shredded. His eyes were wide open, disbelief frozen upon his face.
Death had come not swiftly—but painfully.
Kaname exhaled slowly, lowering his blade.
"There is no justice in arrogance." he murmured. "Only the silence that follows."
The battlefield grew still.
And in that silence, Hueco Mundo itself seemed to shudder.
*****
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✓ Killed For 100 Years in Hueco Mundo, Aizen Invited Me To Soul Society!
✓ Naruto: Senmei Asahi
✓ Naruto: Uchiha's Intelligence Dealer
✓ Naruto: The Fifth Hokage Is Naruto's Uncle
✓ Naruto: Who Made Him a Ninja?
✓ Bleach: In My Second Reincarnation, I Became The Ninth Kenpachi
✓ To Love-Ru: Spoiler Route [R-18]
✓ Naruto: The Accidental Incubus [R-18]
✓ The Academy's Saint Is Too Popular, But He's Not the Protagonist [R-18]