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"Everyone…"
"Just wait and see! Now that I've become a messenger of God, I'll stomp that ugly demon Kenpachi Zaraki flat under my foot!"
…
Arrogant laughter echoed through every corner of Silbern.
Gerard Valkyrie's confidence was overflowing. With the "Scale of God" in his hands, he believed himself invincible.
Bankai?
So what?
How could a mere Shinigami's Bankai possibly defeat a divine emissary like him?
And it wouldn't stop with Kenpachi Zaraki.
There were also Byakuya Kuchiki and Tōshirō Hitsugaya, the two who had flashed past the screen earlier.
He would crush those two ants as well.
"I'm not so sure…"
Lille Barro frowned. As one of the Schutzstaffel, he wasn't blindly confident at all. His voice carried a clear note of unease.
"Kenpachi Zaraki feels like he's stockpiling endless power inside his body. He's obviously more than ten times stronger than he was in the previous fight."
Something was very wrong.
Yes, Kenpachi had been classified as a Special War Potential.
But this state he was in now wasn't recorded anywhere in the intel.
That near-demonic form…
Even through the projection, it was terrifying to behold. Could he really be killed so easily?
Lille Barro had his doubts.
At that moment—
On the screen, Demon Kenpachi moved.
"Uoooaaargh!"
He lowered his head, coughing up blood.
Thin, chilling streaks of crimson seeped through Kenpachi's bloodstained teeth. With his mouth full of blood, he raised his head in a feral snarl.
His gaze locked onto Valkyrie.
A gaze that devoured.
As if he wanted to drain every last drop of blood from this so-called god's messenger.
The scene was spine-chilling.
Even Byakuya and Hitsugaya, who were present on the battlefield, felt their scalps tingle.
Byakuya's expression changed sharply. "To think we must fight alongside a monster like this… I feel ashamed of the title 'Shinigami.'"
"Seriously, Kuchiki Byakuya," Hitsugaya snapped, rolling his eyes. "At a time like this, you're still stuck on your 'noble pride' routine? Could you maybe tone it down?"
His eyes never left Kenpachi.
No denying it.
After activating Bankai, Kenpachi Zaraki had completely turned into a demon.
But Hitsugaya could clearly sense it. Deep down, Demon Kenpachi still retained a sliver of reason. He wouldn't slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.
Just as that thought crossed his mind—
The very next second.
Slash!!!
There was no visible movement from Demon Kenpachi.
The shattered rubble exploded upward as he instantly appeared above Valkyrie's head. His Zanpakutō, glowing with a bloody red light, was raised high. The speed was so fast it was practically teleportation.
"What terrifying burst power! My spiritual pressure sensing completely failed!"
Byakuya's face went pale.
It wasn't until Demon Kenpachi reappeared that he blankly looked up from the ground, utterly unable to react in time.
In other words—
If Demon Kenpachi's target hadn't been Valkyrie, but himself…
Then in that single instant, his head would already have been rolling on the ground.
And it wasn't just the stoic noble who felt this way.
Outside the projection, the spectators shared the same shock.
"In terms of presence, speed, and explosive power, Kenpachi Zaraki has broken through the limits of what a Shinigami can be. What kind of Bankai is this?!"
Chōjirō Sasakibe was shaken to his core.
Normally, even for a captain-level Shinigami, Bankai amplified power by roughly five times compared to Shikai.
But someone like Kenpachi, whose body shattered multiple limits in a single leap?
That was unheard of.
"Kenpachi Zaraki…"
Beneath the drooping white eyebrows, the Commander-General's clouded eyes shone brightly.
As one of the oldest Shinigami in Soul Society, even he was seeing a Bankai this bizarre for the first time.
Nameless though it was.
Demonic in form though it was.
The terrifying power Demon Kenpachi displayed was enough to make even the old man who bore the title of "strongest" feel humbled.
Eleventh Division.
"C-Captain… your Bankai form is way too scary!" Ikkaku's teeth were chattering, every word trembling with fear.
Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa stared at the projection, their eyes filled with horror.
From the days they first met in Rukongai, fighting side by side all the way into the Gotei 13, they were comrades who could entrust each other with their backs and their lives.
And yet, even they were scared out of their minds.
Demon Kenpachi felt frighteningly unfamiliar.
It was as if…
The one about to slaughter a god's messenger was no longer the Kenpachi Zaraki they knew.
"Ah, Ikkaku and Yachiru are right. Kenny's gotten really scary," Yachiru huddled into a ball, timidly hiding in Kenpachi's arms.
Even though the source of the Bankai's power was her herself.
At this moment, Yachiru didn't realize that at all. She was almost in tears from fear.
"Just be patient a little longer," Kenpachi said solemnly, rare seriousness etched across his face. "I think the fight's about to end."
He stared unblinkingly at the projection.
Even he was shaken by what he had become.
The shock in his heart was no less than anyone else's.
But—
Just as Kenpachi said.
The oppressive atmosphere of fear quickly vanished with Demon Kenpachi's swing.
Slash!!!
The blood-red blade came down in a single strike.
A massive crimson line, as if slicing the sky itself apart, cleaved straight down from Valkyrie's head!
Same style.
Same fighting method.
Even as a demon, Kenpachi Zaraki still relied on simple, brutal swings.
"So strong!!!"
At that moment—
In the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, and even the Shadow Realm.
Every place where the projection could be seen erupted with gasps of astonishment.
With the body of a demon—
He stood above the gods.
Kenpachi Zaraki's back as he swung his blade, paired with the thundering background music, created an overwhelmingly powerful visual impact.
Inside Silbern.
The vast hall fell into deathly silence.
It was so empty that Valkyrie's earlier grand declarations still echoed faintly in the corners.
"Everyone…"
"Just wait and see! I'll tear Kenpachi Zaraki to pieces! A mere Shinigami… what right does he have to oppose a messenger of God like me?!"
…
As those lingering echoes drifted through the hall, the atmosphere grew increasingly strange.
They say you shouldn't slap someone in the face.
Let alone slap them instantly.
In that moment, the Sternritter vaguely sensed that it wasn't just Valkyrie's expression that had turned ugly.
Even deep within Silbern—
Yhwach's coffin lid couldn't stay down anymore.
"..."
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