Reality unfolded exactly as Aizen had pessimistically predicted.
Crack!
Before Aizen could even pull back to a safe enough distance, the Black Coffin, one of the peaks of Shinigami Kido, was already covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
The very next second, the black coffin exploded apart.
Amid the black spirit particle fragments flying everywhere, Kurosaki Masaki hovered in midair, completely unharmed.
Her clothes did not even have a single wrinkle. That icy expression on her face was unchanged, as if what had just trapped her was not some ultimate Hado at all, but a fragile soap bubble.
But Aizen's objective had been achieved.
Even if it was only delayed by this brief instant, it was enough for this Kido master to complete the strongest strike he could currently unleash.
Rumble!
The entire Seireitei shook violently.
As Aizen pressed one hand downward, the ground split apart in an instant.
Five gigantic blue dragons, formed from ultra-high-density spirit particles, roared as they shot straight into the sky.
Each spirit dragon stretched for hundreds of meters, its massive body like a mountain, wrapped in terrifying lightning and raging winds.
They coiled and intertwined, carrying a momentum meant to destroy everything, opening their enormous maws as they lunged viciously toward Kurosaki Masaki in midair.
Hado number ninety-nine. This was the absolute pinnacle of Kido a Shinigami could wield.
For this strike, Aizen had poured in most of the spiritual pressure he had left.
The sheer scale of it made the captains watching from over a kilometer away feel their scalps go numb.
And yet, facing these five colossal dragons blotting out the sky, enough to wipe out an entire division, not a single ripple appeared on Kurosaki Masaki's delicate face.
It did not matter.
Even if she died, she would not feel a shred of emotional fluctuation.
If this attack could kill her, perhaps she would even be freed.
Under that man's bullying, she did not dare to kill herself. But if she were to die accidentally while carrying out a mission, that would be another matter entirely.
Still… This attack was too weak.
Just what was it about the Aizen before her that made him worthy of Rosse's favor?
Kurosaki Masaki's expression remained cold. At the moment the dragons closed in, she simply raised her left hand in an extremely casual manner, her pale palm held flat and facing outward.
That motion was so light and effortless, like refusing a flyer being handed to her by a street promoter.
BOOM!
A heaven-shaking collision thundered through the skies.
The first dragon, the second… all five dragons, carrying world-destroying kinetic force, slammed solidly into that seemingly soft and boneless palm of Kurosaki Masaki.
Blinding spirit particle light instantly swallowed all vision.
But when the light and smoke finally dispersed, the people who had been bracing themselves for the shockwave saw a scene that shattered their entire understanding of the world.
Kurosaki Masaki was still hovering right where she was.
She was not blown away. She was not injured.
She did not even retreat half a step under that terrifying impact.
All the energy of the overwhelming Goryutenmetsu vanished without a trace the instant it touched her palm, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.
"Not a bad attack. Whether it's your timing or your control over spiritual pressure, both are basically flawless."
Kurosaki Masaki slowly withdrew her hand, her tone calm, as if she were commenting on a student's homework rather than standing in a life-or-death battle.
"But that's all there is."
She lifted her eyes. Reflected in them was Aizen's fervent expression, one she could not understand.
He was so weak, with no chance of winning at all. So why did he still look so happy?
"My passive ability is called 'spirit particle nullification.' Simply put, any attack made of spirit particles has no effect on me in this world," Kurosaki Masaki stated her ability plainly.
After all, Rosse had never told her she could not reveal it.
If someone could break her ability, then maybe she could finally welcome death.
Strictly speaking, the full name of her ability should be… Spirit Particle Dominion.
This was the miracle born from the perfect fusion of Quincy, Hollow, and Shinigami powers.
As long as an attack was composed of spirit particles, she only needed to look at it once to instantly analyze its structure and reproduce it.
At the same time, any energy attack based on a spirit particle framework would be forcibly broken down and reverted the instant it touched her.
This was the near-omniscient, near-omnipotent divine domain she possessed while in the "Sacred Release" state.
Against such an unreasonable ability, aside from Kyoka Suigetsu briefly blinding her for a single second when she was not paying attention, Aizen had no other means of harming her at all.
Faced with this absolute counter on a mechanical level, combined with total numerical suppression, any tactic became a joke.
To defeat the current Kurosaki Masaki, there was actually only one method.
That was to use the purest, most primitive physical attacks, containing no spirit particle attributes whatsoever, and smash her physical body apart by brute force.
And obviously, as a mage-type Shinigami, Aizen did not possess that kind of star-shattering physical power.
Watching Aizen's expression grow increasingly grim, Kurosaki Masaki felt very little joy from victory.
Instead, she let out a deep sigh in her heart, a trace of self-loathing flashing through her eyes.
'So what if I possess such seemingly invincible power?'
She truly hated this ability of hers.
Because this move, "spirit particle invalidation," was completely useless against that man alone.
Rosse. That monster from another world.
His true strength had never been spiritual pressure, nor any Kido or ability of this world.
It was that terrifying body which, relying on physical strength alone, was enough to shatter everything.
Even now, Kurosaki Masaki clearly remembered that when she had first obtained this fused power, the illusion brought about by her explosive growth had made her swell with arrogance.
The very first thing she did was go find Rosse to provoke him, trying to wash away the humiliation she carried.
She believed that with her omniscient, omnipotent Spirit Particle Dominion, she could stomp that man underfoot.
Reality, however, was cruel.
The final outcome could not even be described as defeat. It could only be called miserable. Utterly miserable.
Rosse did not use any spiritual pressure at all. Using nothing but his fists, punch after punch, he brutally shattered her pride, shattered her resistance, and made her once again understand what fear that cut straight into the soul truly meant.
At the end of that battle, that humiliating and despair-filled memory surged up in an instant, making Kurosaki Masaki shiver uncontrollably.
As punishment for her ignorance of the immensity of heaven and earth, her fate had been truly miserable, so wretched that even now she remembered it vividly.
That fists could be shoved directly into one's mouth was something she only learned back then.
It was as if Rosse were using this method to tell her: So-called "omniscience and omnipotence," in the face of absolute violent physical force, was nothing more than a finely crafted joke.
No. He was telling her that any resistance on her part was meaningless, that her future life was destined to be dominated, just like the spirit particles she herself dominated.
From that day on, her spine was completely broken, and she could no longer summon even the slightest thought of resisting that man.
That was why, even now, despite possessing invincible power that crushed everything, when facing Rosse, she could only behave like a meek slave.
Because the body remembers.
Every single cell remembers that fear which cannot be defied.
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