The Royal Palace.
Ichibē Hyōsube sat cross-legged on the Ōmotesandō, eyes snapping open with sudden alertness. His stern face broke into a broad, easy grin as he bowed his head and gazed down through the thick blanket of clouds far below.
"As expected — my seal has been broken ahead of schedule."
The instant Pernida Parnkgjas was devoured by Sōsuke Aizen, Ichibē had felt the connection between himself and the seal severed by brute force.
The power that should have been capable of binding Yhwach for a full thousand years — gone without a trace.
Who could it have been?
Even if this outcome didn't surprise him, Ichibē Hyōsube had never thought to ask the Soul King for more details back then. After all, when you've lived for over a million years, knowing every answer in advance would make existence far too dull.
Soifon?
No — that didn't fit. She wasn't the impulsive type. And if Soifon wanted to kill Yhwach, there was no reason to go through the trouble of breaking the seal. She'd simply act.
Pernida Parnkgjas — the Soul King's left hand. Her very existence carried a portion of the Soul King's essence, corresponding to the power of [Advancement].
A thousand years ago, Ichibē Hyōsube had exploited the unique nature of the Soul King's severed limb to slip past Yhwach's [The Almighty], sealing his power at the negotiating table — and costing the Quincy the war.
That seal, sustained through Pernida, should have gradually loosened and failed on its own over time, as Yhwach slowly reclaimed the scattered fragments of his power.
Yet no one had foreseen this — that it would be ripped away so violently, in a manner like this. Perhaps even Ichibē himself couldn't have guessed that the Soul King's left arm would be defeated by a Hollow power of such overwhelming magnitude.
After all, the last Hollow of that caliber had long since been sealed away by his own hands.
Yhwach could feel it clearly — power flooding back into his body. It had not yet reached the peak of his complete form, but it was no longer so depleted that a single use of [The Almighty] would leave him dangerously spent.
By the time the Sternritter arrived at the scene, everything was already over. The room was empty.
No sign of Pernida. No trace of Aizen.
The walls, the floor, even the ceiling — all of it was crawling with dark-red, vein-like patterns, cracked and crumbling like wood rotted for a thousand years. The air reeked heavily of iron and something else — a faint, indescribable stench of decay.
A few scraps of blood-soaked white cloth lay scattered across the ground, clearly identifiable as the tattered remnants of a Quincy uniform.
"This is... Pernida's ability?"
Meninas pressed a hand over her mouth.
"Not just Pernida's." Haschwalth lifted one of the cloth scraps with the tip of his knight's sword. "There are other Spiritual Pressures mixed into this — something that smells like Hollow..."
"A Hollow infiltrated the Empire?" Lijibaro raised his sniper rifle and swept it in a slow arc around the room. "Impossible!"
A moment later, the jet-black muzzle hovered in front of Soifon for exactly 0.01 seconds — then, as the memory of being pinned face-down against the floor by her Reiatsu resurfaced, bringing a fresh wave of dread and humiliation, Lijibaro swung the barrel away, toward Liltotto, Meninas, and the others:
"When you brought Meninas back — did you let an Arrancar slip through?!"
"Start talking, and think carefully!"
Faced with Lijibaro's accusation, Meninas actually did begin racking her memory in earnest — then shook her head.
"Hmm... I even glanced back when we went through the Senkaimon. It was just the few of us."
She tapped her chin, turned it over for a moment, and delivered her answer.
"Tch——"
Gerard Valkyrie, who had been standing off to the side with his arms folded, curled his lip in contempt. Using his towering frame to its full advantage, he looked down at Soifon and her group — quite literally through his nostrils.
"I don't buy it. Sounds like dereliction of duty to me."
"Or maybe you're just so pathetically weak that an Arrancar tailed you all the way into the Empire and you didn't even notice?"
"Face it — you're useless. Schrift A? Not even close to the great miracle — Lord Gerard..."
Gerard's mockery drew visible irritation across the faces of the female Sternritter.
Infuriating. If this man weren't one of His Majesty Yhwach's personally appointed royal guard, the lot of them would have jumped him without a second thought — honor among peers be damned.
In the heavy silence, Soifon's gaze slowly drifted upward — until it settled on Gerard and his nose-in-the-air posturing.
Hmmm——!
The terrifying Spiritual Pressure that had given Lijibaro something resembling PTSD erupted once more from Soifon's slight frame — and she made no effort whatsoever to refine or restrain it, letting it "accidentally" crash down on the Sternritter members watching from the sidelines.
The arrogance on Gerard's face twisted in an instant.
His knees buckled. That massive body crashed to the ground as if struck by an invisible sledgehammer.
The impact rang out with a dull, heavy thud. Spider-web cracks radiated outward from where his knees met the floor.
He tried to push himself up with both arms, but all he could manage was to hold that humiliating kneeling posture — straining to lift his head and look up at Soifon standing before him.
Around him, the Sternritter members were all breaking into cold sweats, fighting desperately against the pressure bearing down on them.
Soifon tilted her head slightly downward, looking down at Gerard kneeling at her feet:
"So this is... the great miracle?"
"A miracle on its knees?"
Gerard could see his own reflection in Soifon's eyes — staring back at him from within her cold, indifferent gaze.
"You——!!!"
The unbearable combination of humiliation and rage shattered what remained of Gerard's reason in an instant!
He, the living embodiment of [The Miracle] — when had he ever been subjected to such degradation?!
A blinding column of crimson light erupted from him as its epicenter, and a pair of enormous crimson wings — formed entirely of pure spirit particles — burst open behind his back!
Vollständig — activate!
The surrounding Sternritter members all stumbled back half a step in unison.
Not out of fear — their bodies were simply instinctively recoiling from the resonance of another's Vollständig.
Everyone knew: activating Vollständig inside the Empire without His Majesty's permission was a punishable offense.
"Gerard! Stand down!" Haschwalth's voice cracked like a whip. "Private combat is strictly forbidden within the Empire! Do you intend to defy His Majesty's laws?!"
But Gerard was far past listening. The power of his Vollständig had barely allowed him to wrench himself free from the crushing weight of Soifon's Spiritual Pressure — shifting from a full kneel to a half-crouch.
With a furious roar, he ripped the longsword from his hip and drove it straight at Soifon's heart!
Then — the blade stopped cold, pinched between two of Soifon's fingers.
The next second.
Shunk——!
No one saw how Soifon moved. No one even caught a glimpse of her drawing her blade.
From both front and back simultaneously, scalding blood erupted from Gerard's towering body like twin geysers, drenching him head to toe in red.
Releasing the blade, Soifon glanced at Haschwalth's deeply displeased expression and said simply: "He struck first."
——
Somewhere in a secluded corner of the Wandenreich, Sōsuke Aizen had wandered into an unoccupied side chamber — chosen at random.
The Spiritual Pressure of Kyōka Suigetsu blanketed the entire space. To any passing soldier or Sternritter who might sense it, this room was nothing more than an ordinary wall, or an unremarkable storage closet.
Sōsuke Aizen stood before a full-length mirror in the room and tore open the front of his robes, studying the violet Hōgyoku embedded in his chest.
"Worthy of the name [Soul King's Left Hand] — combat ability aside, it has driven my Hōgyoku one step further along its evolution."
At a speed visible to the naked eye, the area around the Hōgyoku embedded in Aizen's chest was slowly giving birth to a transparent void — similar in appearance to a Hollow hole.
Unlike a Hollow hole, however, this void was not an empty black. It was like a night sky dense with stars — flecked with points of violet light.
Power was undergoing a metamorphosis.
Aizen could feel it clearly — an unprecedented "rule," unlike anything before it, flowing out of the Hōgyoku and into his spirit body.
"The Soul King's left hand..." The corner of Aizen's mouth curved upward. "So this is how the concept of [Advancement] takes physical form."
[My gratitude for the gift, Yhwach.]
The Hōgyoku, now imbued with the power of [Advancement], was elevating Sōsuke Aizen's Spiritual Pressure at a terrifying rate.
——
At the same time, deep within the Empire, upon his throne.
Yhwach slowly raised his arm, fingers drifting lightly across his own eye socket.
The chains of restraint had snapped. The sealed eye opened completely.
Three crimson pupils materialized within his eye sockets.
Yhwach could feel it — [The Almighty], long sealed away, restoring itself at a breathtaking pace.
The corners of his mouth curved slowly upward:
"Sōsuke... Aizen."
"To think you'd infiltrate the Empire deliberately, and break this final shackle for me ahead of schedule... how interesting."
He murmured the name aloud, his voice echoing through the vast emptiness of the throne room — carrying not a trace of anger over Pernida's death.
A gesture of goodwill? Seeking a partnership?
Yhwach settled back against the throne, his three pupils turning toward the direction of the palace entrance.
Because Aizen had absorbed Pernida's power, and with Kyōka Suigetsu interfering on top of that, pinpointing Aizen's precise location at this moment was beyond him — but that was of no consequence.
No matter how far Aizen evolved, before [The Almighty] he was nothing more than an ant to be kneaded and crushed at will — and it was worth remembering that even Yhwach himself was not yet at his peak.
He swept his ability across the assembled Sternritter members, and his gaze lingered on Soifon for exactly one second. Yhwach felt confident once more.
So many reserve energy sources — come the time of [Auswählen], it would be another abundant harvest.
[Sōsuke Aizen — what could you possibly pit against me?]
With that thought, Yhwach slowly closed his eyes again, and waited in silence for Sōsuke Aizen to reveal himself.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: JJK: Naoya Zenin Reborn as a Woman
Let's achieve our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 extra chapter for everybody