"Metsuka Hoto (Fire-Extinguishing Prince)…"
Genryusai narrowed his eyes, sizing up the Arrancar in front of him.
Even in his Resurrección form, this Hollow still looked utterly harmless—
like some clueless child who didn't even understand he'd been dragged onto a battlefield.
But that couldn't be the case.
In Hueco Mundo's brutal, survival-of-the-fittest environment, a Hollow without intelligence could never evolve to the Adjuchas stage.
With that thought, Genryusai swung Ryūjin Jakka again.
"Shakunetsu Jigoku (Scorching Hell)!"
A forest of divine pillars of flame roared up from the earth,
a blazing prison that seemed ready to seal Aizen inside.
But just like before—
The moment those flames rose,
they vanished again in a strangely short span of time,
as if something unseen had devoured them whole.
"Metsuka Hoto (Fire-Extinguishing Prince), huh…!?"
Genryusai's gaze shifted back to the Fire-Extinguishing Prince.
He stepped forward and brought Zanka no Tachi (Blade of Remaining Fire) down with all his strength,
a slash of pure inferno cutting through the air.
Facing such a blow, the Fire-Extinguishing Prince showed not a hint of fear.
He tilted his head, then instinctively raised his right hand—
and simply reached out to grab the blade of Zanka no Tachi.
Heat rivaling the heart of the sun—
Yet it didn't so much as scorch his palm.
The flames wrapped around the blade were swallowed in an instant,
vanishing into his hand as if they'd never existed.
Even so, Genryusai's terrifying raw strength sent the Fire-Extinguishing Prince flying.
"Boom! Boom! Boom…"
He smashed through building after building, finally skidding to a stop in the ruins of several high-rises.
A massive sword wound ran across his body, nearly slicing him in two.
But the injury healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He clearly possessed high-speed regeneration.
Just as he struggled to get back on his feet,
Genryusai's voice rang out from the distance.
"Zanka no Tachi, Higashi: Kyokujitsujin (Blade of Remaining Fire, East: Rising Sun Blade)!"
As the words fell—
A crisp metallic chime echoed.
Dozens of meters in front of the Fire-Extinguishing Prince,
everything in a straight line simply ceased to exist—
Buildings, air, rubble, all erased, leaving behind a strip of utterly empty space.
A long, deep fissure opened in the ground,
its walls strangely smooth, without the slightest sign of a crack or gouge.
Aizen's voice drifted over, light with amusement.
"Head Captain, I've already figured out your abilities. Did you really think I wouldn't come prepared?"
Among all the Arrancar roaming Hueco Mundo,
Wonderweiss Margela was the only one Aizen had personally modified.
From the start, the reason he'd created this Arrancar—
Was to counter the special properties of Zanka no Tachi,
the true form of Ryūjin Jakka.
To that end, he had stripped Wonderweiss of nearly everything.
Speech, consciousness, knowledge, reason…
all torn away.
In exchange, a monstrously powerful Arrancar had been reduced mentally to less than a child.
But the price had been worth it.
Concentrate everything on a single point,
and it would reach the peak.
Having sacrificed so many capabilities,
The Fire-Extinguishing Prince's power to extinguish flames had reached its absolute limit.
Even after Genryusai released Zanka no Tachi,
Metsuka Hoto (Fire-Extinguishing Prince) continued to function,
devouring every last trace of its fire.
With the Fire-Extinguishing Prince on the field—
It was as if Zanka no Tachi had been completely sealed.
"Kyōka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon), is it…?"
A grave look flashed in Genryusai's eyes as he tightened his grip on Zanka no Tachi.
That last slash had been meant to cut the Fire-Extinguishing Prince in half.
But his vision had been subtly tampered with,
causing his strike to deviate just slightly.
And in battle,
Even a deviation that small could be enough to cost someone their life.
With that in mind, Genryusai abandoned the idea of killing the Fire-Extinguishing Prince.
He stepped down hard and shot straight toward Aizen,
bringing his burning blade down in a fierce overhead strike.
"Clang!"
Metal rang as steel met steel.
Even though Genryusai clearly held the advantage in that direct clash,
his eyes widened in surprise.
"It's really you…"
The one he was clashing with head-on—
Was the real Aizen.
Aizen chuckled.
"Head Captain, without your flames, your strength isn't quite as far beyond my expectations as I'd imagined."
He had already evolved once in his fused state with the Hōgyoku,
his power skyrocketing far beyond what it had once been.
Now—
With the Head Captain's flames sealed,
This was the perfect whetstone.
"Head Captain, I wonder…"
"To what extent will you be able to push my evolution?"
Blade light flashed between them.
A wild gleam flickered in Aizen's eyes,
while the Hōgyoku embedded in his chest likewise reacted to the crisis of battle.
The evolution that had been interrupted before—
Began anew.
A flood of white Hollow matter poured over Aizen's body like liquid,
Dyeing him almost completely in pure white.
As it spread and hardened,
His reiatsu shifted from that of a Shinigami
to something between a Hollow and a Shinigami.
Half Hollow.
Half Shinigami.
When the white material finally settled,
Aizen couldn't suppress the laughter bubbling up from his chest.
"Hahaha… Head Captain, as expected of you. Even with Ryūjin Jakka's flames sealed, you still give me such an intense sense of crisis."
Without Genryusai,
He never would have felt danger this deep.
And without that sense of danger—
There would be no further evolution.
Genryusai snorted coldly.
He swung his blade down at the almost fully Hollowfied Aizen.
"Zanka no Tachi, Kita: Tenchi Kaijin (Blade of Remaining Fire, North: Heaven and Earth in Ashes)!"
A crimson arc of annihilation carved across the heavens,
Everything in its path erased into nothingness.
Even before it struck him directly,
Aizen felt a shudder of pure terror—
A chill at the level of his very cells.
The sheer heat of that slash—
Could incinerate his current body to ash in an instant.
Under that level of threat,
The freshly twice-evolved Aizen realized—
He was on the brink of yet another evolution.
At that critical moment,
He glanced toward the Fire-Extinguishing Prince.
That creature's power was still active.
It should be able to absorb even this terrifying flame.
And sure enough—
The crimson blade of fire began to wink out at a speed visible to the eye,
its power dwindling sharply.
With a casual swing,
Aizen shattered what remained and smiled at Genryusai.
"Head Captain, you're every bit as dangerous as they say."
For the sake of this war,
He had prepared for hundreds of years,
Even going so far as to create an Arrancar specifically tailored to counter Ryūjin Jakka.
The only thing he hadn't accounted for—
Was that Genryusai was simply too strong.
Even with the Fire-Extinguishing Prince,
it still wasn't enough.
Genryusai gave the bloated Arrancar a brief glance and spoke in a low voice.
"Aizen, my flames are not so easily swallowed."
Aizen looked over as well.
Compared to his earlier, slender Resurrección form,
The Fire-Extinguishing Prince's body was now grotesquely swollen.
He had taken in too much fire.
His whole form bulged round and heavy,
As if one more spark would make him burst.
In other words—
He was already half-ruined.
But Aizen didn't seem the least bit bothered.
Instead, he smiled at Genryusai and said:
"Head Captain, they call you the strongest Shinigami of the last thousand years. That means in all that time, you've been invincible—no one able to defeat you."
"In such an absurdly long span, your mind has long since decayed from that invincibility."
"You don't even notice the crisis right behind you."
"With that kind of blindness, how can you still be worthy of leading the Seireitei?"
Genryusai's brows furrowed deeply at that.
Crisis?
What crisis?
Just as he raised his blade, ready to unleash Zanka no Tachi, Higashi: Kyokujitsujin again—
A tidal wave of energy erupted from behind him.
Genryusai's face changed dramatically.
He suddenly recalled the detail he'd dismissed as trivial.
Despite the "extinguishing" in his name,
The Fire-Extinguishing Prince didn't truly extinguish flames.
He devoured them.
All of Ryūjin Jakka's prior attacks—
Now slumbered, compressed within his body.
If that energy detonated—
The entire street—
No.
All of Karakura Town might be leveled in an instant.
Whirling around, he saw the Fire-Extinguishing Prince's body covered in spiderweb cracks,
Raging flames leaking from them in jets.
He looked ready to explode at any moment.
Even the residual energy spilling out now
was enough to leave an ordinary captain trembling in fear.
In that instant, Genryusai didn't have time to think.
He flashed forward, appearing directly in front of the Fire-Extinguishing Prince and thrusting out his right arm.
"All of you—get out of here!!!"
Genryusai roared,
forcing his reiatsu to its absolute limit, preparing to take the full brunt of the coming blast himself.
Shunsui and Jūshirō both went pale.
"You stubborn old man!"
"Sensei!"
Just moments ago, Genryusai had been dominating the field.
Now he'd fallen into such a desperate situation in an instant.
How had it come to this—?
"Boom!!!"
A world-shattering explosion roared across the battlefield.
All of Karakura Town quaked.
Fortunately, earthquakes were nothing new here.
The people on the streets grumbled a few words and then went about their business as usual.
Within the false Karakura constructed by the barrier, however,
A crater hundreds of meters deep yawned where the blast had struck.
It looked as though someone had simply ripped a chunk out of the earth.
At the very bottom of that pit lay an old man,
his entire body charred black, one arm completely gone.
Genryusai.
The strongest Shinigami of the last thousand years now looked utterly wretched,
Like a toothless tiger waiting to die.
"How unsightly, Head Captain."
Aizen walked over, smiling lightly as he raised his right hand toward him.
"Allow me to send you on your way."
…
Time rewound to several hours earlier.
Hueco Mundo.
Inside Las Noches.
The moment Aizen left Hueco Mundo,
Cole's whole demeanor brightened.
"Form the barrier. Hurry up and set the barrier!!!"
If Aizen had already departed,
Then the battle in Karakura Town had definitely begun.
The time left to him was limited.
He had to devour as much spiritual energy as he could in that window—
Max out the attribute points for his zanpakuto.
Rukia couldn't help voicing her worry.
"Cole, I'm still a little uneasy. What if something happens to the others while we're here?"
She was already a proper captain now,
No longer needing so-called extra spiritual power.
What she cared about most was this:
If Cole focused on absorbing reiryoku,
What would happen if their comrades elsewhere came under threat?
She wasn't confident she could protect everyone on her own.
Realizing that was what troubled her,
Cole gave a helpless smile and ruffled Rukia's hair.
"Rukia, it's good to care about your comrades. But sometimes you've gotta trust in their strength too, you know?"
Rukia's face flushed red, and she muttered softly,
"It's not that I don't trust them… It's just that Hollows are really strong…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Cole answered readily, then turned to the woman at his side.
"Hana-nee, help me set up the barrier, okay?"
He needed to create a gigantic barrier space.
Only something on that scale could contain all the reiryoku he planned to siphon from Hueco Mundo.
Unohana smiled with half-lidded eyes and nodded.
She, too, was looking forward to Cole's growth—
Because it promised even greater joy for her.
Very soon, with everyone working together,
A towering structure designed to absorb spiritual energy took form in the middle of the Seireitei.
The moment the barrier space was completed,
The reiryoku in the sky began to churn like a storm.
All of Karakura Town's spiritual energy boiled at once.
Reiryoku swelled and twisted,
Becoming a howling vortex that poured straight into the barrier space.
In only a few seconds,
The reiryoku in the chamber had condensed into solid form.
It was so dense it resembled a sealed-off ocean of blue light.
Just looking at it was enough to make one feel how vast that power truly was.
Cole swallowed hard despite himself, eyes shining as he stared at the packed, shimmering reiryoku.
"How much reiryoku is this…?"
In the span of a heartbeat,
All of Karakura Town's spiritual energy had been shifted above his head.
Reiryoku so abundant it was on the verge of becoming a howling storm.
Licking his lips,
Cole fixed a burning gaze on the barrier space and strode in without hesitation.
"This time, it's a real all-you-can-eat buffet."
(End of Chapter)
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