Byakuya's grip tightened fiercely around his sword.
His breathing was ragged and uneven. It felt like he was facing a sheer, impenetrable wall—an immovable obstacle he simply could not beat, no matter how much effort or Reiatsu he put into it.
He was of noble blood, dammit.
He was no useless peasant; he had royal blood flowing through his veins. Though, even if that noble lineage gave him a boost, at best it only made him equivalent to a slightly stronger foot soldier in Gabriel's vast army.
Speaking of the man himself, Gabriel was closely gathering data from this exhibition. By the end of this year, he wished to push his Hollow army to terrifying new heights.
Gabriel smiled from his throne, his Eyes of the End glowing brightly, as if the perfect, unyielding future he envisioned was finally falling into place before him.
Byakuya gritted his teeth. He had spent a hundred years honing his swordsmanship, achieving his Bankai at an unbelievably young age and mastering the technique to an entirely new level.
He refused to be looked down on—especially not by the creature connected to the man who had slain his grandfather and mentor. Even if this hybrid bastard was vastly stronger, he would not retreat. Byakuya Kuchiki was no coward.
"Do not underestimate me."
Lucius blinked slowly. "I have not."
Lucius's voice remained utterly calm. "There is nothing to underestimate; you are simply weak. The sooner you accept your fate, the better."
The hybrid stared coldly down at Byakuya. "Now... give me your all, Shinigami."
Byakuya instantly vanished. Using Shunpo at maximum velocity, he began appearing all around Lucius in a flurry of motion.
Up in the stands, Rukia recognized this instantly—this was her brother at his absolute peak.
His mastery had reached such an incredible height that he could create literal physical clones of himself using his Bankai. It was somewhat similar to Shisui's Body Flicker technique, but with a lethal twist: if an opponent guessed the wrong clone, they would be shredded by the surrounding petals—assuming Byakuya didn't just make the fake explode right in their face.
"THOUSAND-YEAR WHITE EMPEROR!"
Byakuya poured everything he had into the strike. His space-piercing technique was ready to slice everything down into oblivion.
Capable of cutting space itself, this attack far surpassed his usual Senkei in terms of raw power and speed. This was his maximum limit; every single ounce of spiritual energy left in his body was poured entirely into this one final thrust.
Lucius glanced upward casually at the descending Byakuya. He raised just two fingers.
Clang.
The entire area went dead silent. The staggering, mountain-shaking amount of power that had been building up for god knows how long vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed at all.
Right there in the middle of the arena, Lucius stood completely unfazed, having stopped Byakuya's so-called maximum attack with just two fingers.
"Is that it?" Lucius sounded genuinely disappointed at Byakuya's ultimate showcase of power.
"If that is all the strength you can muster..."
Crack.
The sound of shattering echoed right in Lucius's hand. Byakuya could only watch in sheer disbelief as his Zanpakutō fractured.
CRACK! CRACK!
The spiderweb cracks spread rapidly across the weapon before the entire blade shattered into a cloud of glowing spiritual particles.
His Zanpakutō.
Broken.
Byakuya landed a couple of meters away, while Lucius looked back at him with an expression of pure boredom.
It couldn't be.
His Zanpakutō had accompanied him for centuries. It had survived countless battles, countless adversaries, and countless enemies. Yet this man... this fucking man had destroyed it with just a single finger.
"Brother!"
Rukia bolted up from her seat, her voice trembling with panic. "Enough! You don't have to continue!"
Byakuya didn't respond.
He couldn't.
His eyes remained locked dead on Lucius, completely blank with shock.
The hybrid tilted his head lazily. "You should feel proud of yourself. You managed to make me use one finger. That's not a feat many can achieve."
The worst part about praise like that was knowing you were being heavily mocked, yet being completely powerless to do a single thing about it.
Meanwhile, up in the stands, the Sin of Wrath was laughing his absolute ass off.
"HAHAHAHA! THIS IS FUCKING EMBARRASSING!"
The heavy hitter who represented the Sin of Gluttony scoffed nearby. "Pathetic." Mind you, Lucius would probably beat Gluttony without using a single finger either, but oh well.
Harribel remained completely silent, though her golden eyes briefly shifted toward the cluster of Shinigami delegates.
They were forced to watch their proudest Captain get thoroughly dismantled in front of everyone. And there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.
Was this Gabriel's underlying goal all along? To brutally showcase their utter helplessness in this new world order?
They could do nothing but sit and watch—sort of like the protagonist in a cursed NTR doujinshi who has to sit in the corner and just watch their girl get wrecked, where the best-case scenario is that you end up crying yourself to sleep afterward. We do not speak of the worst-case scenario.
Lucius casually returned his hand to his pocket.
"Two attacks remain."
Byakuya slowly forced himself back to his feet.
His body was screaming in agony. His Reiatsu was entirely unstable. His sword was completely gone.
Yet, he still had something left. Something he had stubbornly carried for centuries.
His pride.
And perhaps, that was the greatest weakness he possessed.
"YOU!"
His furious voice echoed throughout the vast arena.
Lucius looked at him. Lucius looked bored out of his mind.
"Your anger is meaningless," Lucius said, sliding both hands back into his pockets. "I am sure you have noticed it by now... You have reached your absolute limit."
Byakuya gritted his teeth until his gums bled. He refused to accept this.
He still had hand-to-hand combat.
Vanishing instantly from sight, he appeared directly in front of Lucius, unleashing a frantic blur of punches and kicks—every single one of which was effortlessly dodged or ignored.
"You cannot force it past your boundaries. It's simply your biology."
Looking down, Lucius's fist suddenly snapped forward, planted precisely over where Byakuya's saketsu chain was supposed to be.
Bam.
Byakuya crashed hard onto the stone floor, gasping desperately for air with blood spilling over his lips. He looked utterly beaten, battered, and bloodied.
As he tried to push himself back up, a heavy boot stepped firmly onto the back of his head.
"You cannot get any stronger. This is your peak power as a Shinigami... accept your fate."
Lucius pressed his foot down, forcing the proud noble's face further into the dirt.
"If you wish to blame someone, blame yourself for being born so weak."
/
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The arena, which had been filled with the deafening cheers of thousands only moments ago, had fallen into an almost unnatural silence.
The spectators had witnessed powerful techniques, monstrous displays of Reiatsu, and enough destruction to level entire cities.
But this?
This was something else entirely.
A Captain of the Gotei 13 was being held face-down against the arena floor by someone's boot.
Not a foot soldier. Not some insignificant officer.
Byakuya Kuchiki.
Head of one of the Four Great Noble Houses. A man whose name carried centuries of prestige, whose swordsmanship was respected throughout Soul Society, and whose Bankai was feared by countless enemies.
And now, he couldn't even get back on his feet.
"That bastard..." one of the Shinigami delegates muttered.
His hands were trembling.
He wanted to stand up. He wanted to draw his own Zanpakutō and rush down there, even if it meant dying in the process.
But his body wouldn't move.
Not because Lucius was actively suppressing him, either.
It was the simple realization that he would suffer the exact same fate.
Across the delegation, Rukia had already left her seat.
"LET HIM GO!"
Her voice cracked as she rushed toward the arena's edge.
A hand suddenly caught her shoulder.
"Rukia."
Shunsui's voice was quiet.
She turned toward him, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"Captain Commander, he's—"
"I know."
Shunsui wasn't smiling anymore.
His usual relaxed expression had disappeared, replaced by something considerably more serious.
He had seen Byakuya lose before. He had seen captains pushed to their limits, injured, and forced to retreat.
But he had never seen someone dismantled so thoroughly.
And the frightening part?
Lucius wasn't even trying.
"Please..." Rukia whispered, looking back toward the arena. "He's had enough."
Shunsui didn't answer immediately.
His gaze shifted toward Gabriel.
The King of Hueco Mundo remained comfortably seated upon his throne, one leg crossed over the other. His expression was almost pleasant, as though he were watching a particularly interesting experiment.
And perhaps, in a way, that was exactly what this was.
"Interesting," Hrólf Stormbearer finally muttered.
The Northern Branch leader leaned forward, his massive arms resting on his knees. His expression had lost its earlier excitement.
"I have seen warriors break beneath the weight of a stronger opponent. I have seen kings dragged through the mud."
He glanced toward Byakuya.
"But this is not a battle."
The Viking's fingers tightened around the handle of his hammer.
"It is a slaughter."
Beside him, Ixbalanqué Ajaw-Tezcat remained unusually quiet.
The Southern Branch leader's eyes narrowed as he studied Lucius.
There was something deeply unsettling about the hybrid.
Not simply his strength, but the complete absence of urgency. He wasn't breathing heavily. His posture hadn't changed. His Reiatsu hadn't fluctuated in any meaningful way.
It was as if Byakuya's entire existence was simply an inconvenience.
"That man..." Ixbalanqué murmured. "He does not see an opponent before him."
His gaze shifted toward Gabriel.
"He sees an insect."
Meanwhile, the Hollow spectators were having a considerably different reaction.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Grimmjow threw his head back, laughing.
"LOOK AT HIM! THE GREAT NOBLE HOUSE OF KUCHIKI!"
He slapped his knee.
"All that fancy talk about honor and pride, and now he's eating fucking dirt!"
A few Adjuchas nearby joined in, their laughter spreading through the stands.
Even some of the more composed Hollows couldn't help but smirk.
The Sin of Wrath was practically enjoying himself.
"COME ON, NOBLE BOY! GET UP!" Grimmjow shouted. "YOU STILL HAVE TWO ATTACKS LEFT!"
"Shut up," Harribel said calmly.
Grimmjow glanced toward her.
"What?"
"You're making a spectacle of yourself."
"Tch."
He leaned back in his seat, still grinning.
A little farther away, Starrk merely sighed.
He had seen Lucius fight before. He knew how ridiculous the man's strength could be, and he knew that Byakuya had never stood a chance.
Still, there was something particularly unpleasant about watching someone get humiliated when they had already lost.
"He's going to kill his spirit before he kills his body," Starrk muttered.
Starrk took another sip of his drink.
"Just saying, this is getting boring."
A/N So yall didnt get shafted again, I have weekly vote to decide which story i release batch chapters for, usually ten shadow story win.
But hey, this story won this time....i had stock up 15 chapters, and frankly for my own laziness and make shit more efficient for me, i will be fusing chapters, so word count per chapter will be around 1.5k words.
Its was 50/50 wheter he got pissed on by the way.