"When...?!"
The green flames within Baraggan's empty eye sockets flickered violently.
His extraordinary senses had failed to perceive even the slightest trace of movement.
Without a ripple of Spiritual Pressure or the sound of disturbed air, Uchiha Tobirama appeared above the massive bone throne, both hands casually tucked into the pockets of his dark Hokage cloak.
Looking down upon the skeletal king, Tobirama's expression remained indifferent.
"Your reactions are far too slow, old king."
The ripple-patterned Rinnegan glowed with a chilling light.
"You possess only a fragment of the power of decay, yet you dare proclaim yourself the master of time."
"You know nothing of what true time really is."
"Silence!"
Baraggan roared.
His kingly pride had never suffered such humiliation.
Black mist erupted from his body as he swung his enormous battle axe.
"My Law of Aging is absolute!"
"Everything touched by Respira shall wither into dust!"
The black mist surged like a tidal wave, sealing every possible path of escape.
Yet Tobirama made no attempt to dodge.
He simply stood in place.
The darkness swallowed him whole.
Apache, Mila Rose, Sung-Sun, Harribel, and Nel watched in shock.
Then...
Everything stopped.
"...Time Control."
The calm words echoed across Hueco Mundo.
The entire battlefield froze.
The black mist hung motionless in the air.
Then, impossibly...
It began flowing backward.
"What?!"
Baraggan's eyes widened.
The decay he had unleashed rapidly retreated toward its source.
Tobirama's voice echoed once more.
"You trust your power over time."
"Then let time become your executioner."
His Rinnegan shone brilliantly.
"Time Reversal."
"Ten-Thousandfold Acceleration."
BOOM!
The flow of time surrounding Baraggan accelerated beyond comprehension.
One second became thousands upon thousands of years.
"No!"
"My body!"
"My power!"
Baraggan screamed.
The crown upon his head cracked first.
The symbol of his ancient kingship weathered away before dissolving into drifting dust.
His massive axe followed.
The weapon crumbled layer by layer before vanishing entirely.
Next came his skeletal body.
His arm shattered.
His ribs disintegrated.
Even the ghostly flames burning within his eyes rapidly dimmed.
Every trace of vitality was consumed by the unstoppable torrent of accelerated time.
"This... cannot..."
Baraggan struggled desperately.
"I am the King of Hueco Mundo!"
"I cannot fall like this!"
Tobirama remained completely unmoved.
"This is the limit of your existence."
"You couldn't even withstand the passage of a few hundred thousand years."
The final remnants of Baraggan's body dissolved into countless grains of dust.
A passing breeze scattered them across the endless desert.
The ancient ruler of Hueco Mundo had completely disappeared.
Nothing remained.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
Apache and the others stared blankly.
The legendary king who had ruled Hueco Mundo for countless centuries had vanished without leaving behind even a fragment of bone.
None of them could find words.
---
Suddenly—
RUMBLE!!
The entire world shook violently.
Massive cracks tore across the endless white desert.
The earth split open for hundreds of kilometers in every direction.
"What is happening?!"
Harribel rushed onto the palace balcony, staring at the collapsing landscape.
Nel's expression immediately changed.
"The Hollow Forest..."
"The seal has broken."
A terrifying black aura erupted from the endless abyss beneath the sands.
It was the accumulated resentment and Spiritual Pressure of countless Hollows that had remained buried beneath Hueco Mundo for ages.
Then came the roars.
One after another.
Countless Gillians emerged from the underground abyss.
Ten.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Their towering black bodies covered the horizon like a forest.
Between them rushed innumerable Adjuchas.
Spider-like Hollows.
Winged beasts.
Monstrous predators of every imaginable form.
The black tide stretched farther than the eye could see.
Millions.
Tens of millions.
Perhaps even hundreds of millions.
The entire desert transformed into an endless ocean of Hollows charging toward Tobirama's palace.
Sung-Sun's face turned pale.
"...There are too many."
"This is the accumulated strength of Hueco Mundo over countless centuries."
Then—
Thousands of crimson lights illuminated the darkness.
"Cero..."
Every Gillian began charging its signature attack simultaneously.
The sky itself turned red.
An overwhelming barrage capable of reducing mountains to nothing prepared to descend upon the palace.
Yet Tobirama remained perfectly calm.
He stood quietly above the palace, watching the approaching sea of monsters.
"Numbers alone do not determine strength."
"They merely determine how long the cleanup will take."
A faint smile appeared across his face.
Within his Perfect Sage Body, immense chakra surged like an awakening star.
The surrounding space trembled beneath the overwhelming pressure.
"If every insect has chosen to crawl out at once..."
His eyes slowly swept across the endless black tide.
"...then I shall erase every last one of them together."
An unimaginable power began gathering around him as the greatest battle Hueco Mundo had ever witnessed was about to begin.