Ulquiorra's voice echoed across the sky.
Every Arrancar who heard it felt their scalp prickle, staring at him in utter disbelief.
Wait.
What?
Third-Stage Resurrección?
You've got to be kidding!!
They had just barely wrapped their heads around the concept of a Second-Stage Resurrección—
and now he was talking about a third?
Starrk, Tier, and Barraggan were all stunned to the core, eyes fixed on Ulquiorra as his reiatsu continued to surge.
"Third-Stage Resurrección!?"
"There's something above a Second-Stage Resurrección!?"
"So this is the path for us Hollows to break through our limits!?"
As members of the top three Espada in Las Noches, even they couldn't help but pin all their attention on the one ranked fourth.
Under their astonished gazes—
Ulquiorra's black-winged demon form began to transform again.
His black hair turned white.
His eyes took on a golden hue, and above his head, a dark green halo appeared like an angel's ring.
The great black demon wings that once blotted out the sky suddenly split apart, becoming four black feathered wings.
At the tip of his tail, dark green flames ignited and burned steadily.
But what drew the most attention was the hollow hole in his chest.
There, floating in that empty space—
was a blue orb.
Catching sight of this form out of nowhere, even Gin couldn't hide his surprise.
"Isn't that the Hōgyoku…?"
He had been in close contact with the Hōgyoku before, and there was no mistaking it.
The blue orb floating at Ulquiorra's chest was undoubtedly the same kind of thing—
the stone that allowed beings to evolve.
And Ulquiorra's new form was clearly tied to the Hōgyoku embedded in him.
"Aizen…"
Gin couldn't help glancing at Aizen.
That was the Hōgyoku.
The artifact that let one break past their limits.
Why would Aizen hand it over to Ulquiorra?
To sew wedding robes for someone else, only to stand aside and watch?
As he turned that over in his mind, Gin's pupils suddenly shrank.
He had noticed the Hōgyoku at Aizen's chest as well, and his gaze grew extremely grave.
"That's… a second Hōgyoku?"
There was a Hōgyoku in Aizen's chest.
And another one in Ulquiorra's.
That was obviously not normal.
If things like the Hōgyoku could be mass-produced…
Just thinking about that possibility made Gin feel like he couldn't breathe.
A single Hōgyoku was already terrifying enough.
If several more appeared—
who knew if the entire world might not be destroyed because of them?
Aizen seemed to see straight through Gin's thoughts.
He smiled lightly and said:
"No need to worry. That one is just a defective byproduct that came out while I was creating the Hōgyoku. I simply transplanted it into Ulquiorra. I didn't expect it to work so well that it actually let him evolve again."
Hearing this, Gin finally let out a slow breath.
Thankfully, it was only a defective product, not some fully mass-producible Hōgyoku.
As for where all those rejects had come from, he immediately thought of the scene back when Aizen had tried to fuse the two Hōgyoku.
That entire laboratory had been filled with Hōgyoku of all sizes.
Most of those were probably failed versions as well.
"…So strong…"
Tier stared solemnly at Ulquiorra.
Even in his Second-Stage Resurrección, Ulquiorra's reiatsu had already surpassed hers by a margin.
Now, in his Third-Stage Resurrección, his spiritual pressure had soared again—
to the point where it almost completely crushed her own.
Starrk and Barraggan said nothing, but their eyes were just as serious as they watched him.
This current Fourth Espada—
In terms of reiatsu alone, he had already far exceeded the two of them.
"Second-Stage Resurrección, Third-Stage Resurrección… in front of this old man, what use are they?"
Genryūsai's voice rolled over from the distance.
The strongest Shinigami of the last thousand years flashed through the air, zanpakuto blazing with fire as he cut down at Ulquiorra.
"Taimatsu (Blazing Torch)!!!"
The storm of fire roared forth.
Ulquiorra, however, did not retreat.
He simply clenched his right hand in the air, and an emerald spear appeared in his grip—
"Rai no Yari (Thunder Spear)!"
He thrust the spear straight into the raging flames.
The moment they collided—
The dark green spear of lightning blew a massive hole straight through the sea of fire.
The flames shattered into a storm of sparks that scattered across the sky.
Shunsui and Jūshirō were stunned speechless, rubbing their eyes as if doubting what they had just seen.
They had never imagined the old man's blade would be blocked so easily.
Genryūsai himself was taken aback for a heartbeat.
But he recovered quickly and swung his sword again.
This time—
It became a close-quarters clash.
The aged yet still indomitable Head Captain met Ulquiorra head-on, Ryūjin Jakka's searing edge colliding over and over with the Thunder Spear in his hand.
The metallic clangs rang out in rapid succession,
sparks spraying with every impact between blade and spear.
Shunsui and Jūshirō were left staring slack-jawed yet again, rubbing their eyes and looking toward the center of the battle.
"No way…!?"
"He's fighting the old man to a standstill!?"
In pure close combat, Ulquiorra in his Third-Stage Resurrección was actually trading evenly with Genryūsai.
Neither side could easily gain the upper hand.
At times, Ulquiorra even managed to push Genryūsai back.
"So this is Third-Stage Resurrección…?"
Barraggan stared at Ulquiorra's figure, eyes almost burning with fervor.
A mere Fourth Espada, and yet after two consecutive Resurrección forms,
the power he displayed eclipsed even that of Barraggan, former king of Hueco Mundo.
If he himself could attain Third-Stage Resurrección—
He was certain he could kill Aizen and take Las Noches back.
He would once again be the uncrowned king of Hueco Mundo.
As all of them were lost in these thoughts, Ulquiorra said coldly in the midst of battle:
"Don't forget Aizen-sama's orders."
Only then did Starrk and the others snap out of it, recalling that Aizen had told them to finish off the heavily injured Shinigami.
"They're just a bunch of useless trash. Why do we even need to dirty our own hands?"
Irritation flashed in Barraggan's eyes.
He couldn't help but feel this was Aizen's way of humiliating him,
deliberately pressing down the dignity of the former king of Hueco Mundo.
But even so—
As Barraggan stared at the Hōgyoku embedded in Ulquiorra's chest, he still raised his double-bladed axe.
Given the current situation,
Second-Stage Resurrección might be something one could reach on their own.
But Third-Stage Resurrección almost certainly required the Hōgyoku's power.
And right now, in this world,
only Aizen possessed the Hōgyoku.
This was not the time to offend him.
Seeing Barraggan move, the other Arrancar—
All turned their feverish gazes toward the wounded Shinigami as well.
The pressure on the remaining Shinigami spiked in an instant.
Two seconds later, the frenzied Arrancar finally reached the helpless captains and lieutenants.
"Die!!!"
Chinobo, having transformed into a giant whale-man, threw a savage punch down at the unconscious Ikkaku.
"Cero!"
Apacci, Mila Rose, and Sung-Sun all gathered their energy,
their Cero aimed squarely at the gravely wounded Tōshirō.
Barraggan walked toward Sajin and Renji,
each step turning the stone underfoot into withered dust.
In a single moment, the entire situation swung sharply toward disaster.
Several captains faced yet another life-or-death crisis.
Shunsui and Jūshirō had intended to rush in and help,
but the instant they moved, a thousand blue beams shot toward them.
Starrk stood there with his gun, sighing.
"Look, I get why you're in such a hurry… but as long as I'm here, you're not getting through."
Shunsui and Jūshirō both furrowed their brows.
Chinobo's fist came crashing down, and was just about to smash into Ikkaku—
When a razor-sharp slash flew in from the edge of the battlefield.
"Ah!"
The air itself screamed as the strike passed.
The moment the sound faded,
A sheet of blood blossomed across Chinobo's torso.
Half of his body was almost cleaved away by that one blow.
The Arrancar, who had thought the outcome was already decided, tensed up all over again,
all looking toward the direction the slash had come from.
One glance—
and they all froze.
In the sky, at some unknown point,
six figures had appeared, each of them posing in their own peculiar style, looking down coldly at the gathered Hollows.
Shunsui stared at them in delighted surprise.
"Shinji!"
He hadn't seen Shinji since the latter had defected from the Soul Society.
Over a hundred years had passed since then.
"And us too!"
Kensei laughed as he stepped forward.
Love, Hachi, Lisa, and Hiyori all called out greetings to the Shinigami they knew.
Looking over the devastated battlefield, Lisa couldn't help shaking her head.
"Did it really get this bad already…?"
They had fully understood just how terrifying Aizen was
and had deliberately overestimated Hueco Mundo's combat strength.
Even so, they had still underestimated it in the end.
Aizen had yet to make a single serious move.
Just a handful of Arrancar had almost wiped out the high-end forces of the Seireitei.
Within the blazing inferno,
Aizen looked at the newcomers with his usual gentle expression and smiled faintly.
"Captain Shinji, it's been a long time."
Shinji's eyes were cold as he looked back, answering without the slightest politeness:
"Aizen, at a time like this you're still calling me 'captain'? You'd better be ready. Next, I'm going to kill you myself."
Kensei's fist shot out suddenly,
the force of his punch so great that even Barraggan paused mid-step.
He drew his fist back,
his voice icy.
"Aizen, don't be so full of yourself. Did you really think we didn't improve at all in these hundred years?"
As he spoke—
He swept his right hand across his face.
A Hollow mask of interwoven black and red appeared.
The moment he entered this form, Kensei's reiatsu surged again.
He sneered, clenching his fist.
"You probably never expected this, huh? The very thing you used to frame us… has become part of us now."
In his hollowfied state,
his combat power increased by at least twenty percent.
Even so, Aizen's expression hardly changed.
He stepped forward through the flames with a slight smile.
"Kensei, I gave you a hundred years."
"And all you managed to learn… was hollowfication?"
"That's honestly disappointing."
As his foot came down within the blaze,
the roaring flames around him were crushed flat by his overwhelming reiatsu and snuffed out.
Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen simply walked casually out of the sea of fire.
When enemies meet,
their eyes burn red.
"Aizen!!!"
Shinji roared, drawing his zanpakuto and charging straight at him.
"Taore, Sakanade (Fall, Counter Stroke)!"
The instant his blade released,
a faint fragrance spread in all directions.
Everyone who smelled it felt the world spin.
Up, down, left, right, front, and back all twisted around and swapped places.
The warped sense of direction was enough to drive a person insane.
On the other side, the six members of the Visored Corps each rushed to engage one of the Arrancar,
and the battle instantly erupted again, hotter than ever.
Shunsui and Jūshirō finally let out the breath they'd been holding and wiped the cold sweat from their brows.
They had really thought they were done for just now.
Luckily, the Visored Corps had arrived in time to save the day.
With four captains, three lieutenants,
and one former vice-head of the Kidō Corps—
They now had just enough strength to cope with the dire battlefield.
"But in the end… everything still comes down to Aizen."
Kensei punched an Arrancar flying and looked gravely toward Shinji.
This fight wasn't child's play.
It wasn't a matter of who had more people.
On this battlefield,
a single high-end combatant was enough to sway everything.
Under the eyes of everyone present, Shinji, who had already released his zanpakuto,
kept swinging again and again, slashing wildly at Aizen.
The silver light of his blade almost resembled refracted beams of sunlight.
His strikes were so fast that they dazzled anyone watching.
Yet Aizen blocked every slash with effortless stability,
smiling softly as he said:
"Captain Shinji, is this your true strength? I have to admit, I'm a bit disappointed. I thought you'd grown far more than this."
Shinji clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked,
eyes ice-cold as he glared at Aizen.
"Why aren't you affected!?"
His zanpakuto, Sakanade, inverted a person's sense of space.
Up became down, left became right, front became back—
Under such conditions, normal combat was impossible.
Most people would struggle just to stay on their feet.
Yet Aizen moved with ease, as if nothing were wrong at all.
Aizen gave Kyōka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon) a light flick and smiled.
"Captain Shinji, did you forget my zanpakuto's ability?"
"For something like this, did you really think I wouldn't have a way around it?"
Sakanade could only invert a person's perception of direction.
Kyōka Suigetsu, however, was complete hypnosis—
It was, in every sense, the superior version of Sakanade.
Shinji took a deep breath, gearing up to launch another fierce assault.
But at that moment, Aizen suddenly chuckled and said:
"Captain Shinji, why not use your bankai here?"
Shinji frowned, not understanding what Aizen was getting at.
Then, all of a sudden—
His expression changed.
He grabbed tightly onto his trembling zanpakuto,
staring at Aizen in fury.
"This is that cursed sword's ability!"
To invade a person's inner world and sway their zanpakuto—
That was something only the demon blade Muramasa could do.
Aizen smiled.
"That's right."
"Bankai— Sakashima Yokoshima Happōfusagari (Inverted Evil Eight-Way Blockade)!!!"
(End of Chapter)
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