Bathed in Black

I Won't Turn Back

Sheathed In White

I Wield Fright

I Am The Hollow Death

Chapter 11

The Mounted King

Ichigo didn't know why but something felt off about this enemy of his. Unlike before, each Hanta beforehand had a distinct replication of powers akin to those he was familiar with in the past. His first opponent was modeled on an Arrancar, complete with his own Resurrección and displayed a prowess akin to that of a Shinigamified Hollow, even if it was subdued. The second was something mimicking a Soul Reaper, whose own Zanpakutō had a Shikai released state on top of that which was powerful enough to defeat Senna.

But this man had a power that wasn't a Hollow's or a Soul Reaper's. It was like its own breathing animosity that fed on the emotions animated by the being's own contempt and resentment he had towards his given targets. Past the broken and bloodied body he possessed, there was hardly anything left of him but it hardly mattered to his own capability. Ichigo's own powers were matched or nullified whenever he used his iconic shriek left by anything of his sword or fingers, to even his own voice.

"What's the matter, Ichigo Kurosaki?!" The deranged Hanta swung his sword at Ichigo's, the clash creating a howling thuum that pressured him backwards until his own sword swing's Ken'atsu canceled out the lacerating wind. Raising his spine-aligned blade, his vein-stretched teeth spread into a demented smile, pus and blood oozing from his lid-less left eye while the other barely kept open in the other as little was left holding him together; all the while his body ebbed a rotten mustard dyed light that left a ghastly effigy of wailing eye-less faces swirling and contorting around him like a burning gas. "I thought you were the hottest shit, what with my Master sending me and so many shitheads to come find you! Is this all you're good for?! Covering the asses of those dumbass losers?! What a joke!"

In a predictable fashion, an eruption of ebony-red Reiatsu blasted off the Substitute's body. Just before Malice could pull back his sword, his mangled left eye dilated at the sight of an enormous arc of Reishi thrusting towards him at an alarming velocity. Backpedaling in an air-pelting blast of soil, he let loose a stroke of his blade, his blaze of aura bled Spirit Energy into the current of invisible shrieking air towards the onyx-crimson spear.

As the black current was torn asunder, the nullifying wave failed to stop a black blur thrusting straight into his chest.

"HE-HE THREW IT?!" He ground out, feeling his heels bend back from the force of the butcher weapon piercing his chest out the other side. Spewing out blood and vile ichor, he saw a chain attached to the coil of links around the Reaper's right arm. Snarling, he let out a horrific scream of fury, the sound wave shaking the tether but not undoing it as Ichigo stepped away in a shimmer. Once that attempt was foiled, he felt himself pulled along the link, crashing against the forest floor and smashing through other trees as Ichigo pulled him along his speeding frame.

Sputtering out blood as flesh was further cut and torn, his sword swinging wildly to avoid the worst of it but was still bludgeoned into trunks and the dirt of the hillside he was pulled upon. The seething rage continued to build as a free hand grabbed the hilt, attempting to pull himself free. Succeeding in inches, he'd bounce head over heels and crash against the ground before he'd be hurled up and over into a distant pagoda in the distance. Smashing the construct, he'd growl, finally rid of the blade as it pulled out faux innards and blood with it, causing him to rasp and wheeze at his own organic weakness.

"D-Damn! Dammit! DAMN IT!" He howled, tearing the fabric of all that was around in his impotent rage as his body was reaching its limit. "DO YOU THINK THAT'S ENOUGH TO KILL ME! DO YOU?!"

A sudden swelling of darkness obscured the light of the damaged pagoda and the hill it rested upon. Looking up, he'd stare open with infuriation and building spite. He could see his target spiraling the chain around in a long circle, dragging currents of Spirit Energy to form a maelstrom till its discus of energy created a large orb of darkness that bled red around its circumference. Crackling ebony bolts of Reishi around the sky, the blood red hue was distorting from the malformation it had captured from Malice's own release of Reiatsu; now changing to a pure twilight of darkness personified.

"Disappear, Malice!" Ichigo snarled, swinging the length of chain in a wicked arch of sparking links, shearing the skyline downward towards Malice as a black wave of darkness howled towards its quarry. Even as Malice let loose his whole power, eroding the ground and breaking apart infrastructure his feral screams and furious sword strike only staved off the inevitable connection; leading to the absolute obliteration of the hill top.

"MANGETSU!"

Heaving with heavy breaths, Tatsuki felt like she was reaching her limit. The flames that had vibrantly flowed around her was starting to dim and her boosted stamina was beginning to diminish. While her experience and skill in martial arts allowed her to compensate the lack of prowess using her newfound powers, but the elongation of her battle against a skilled warrior such as the one facing her began to wane her effectiveness.

"I see your newfound powers are taking its toll on you," Kuroi noted aloud, his right hand still extended outright with his other one pocketed within his coat, his impassive stare unknowingly pissing off Tatsuki further, "It's only natural. No matter what your influence or crutch you humans use, you are after all, mortal. There is no way for a mere insect such as yourself to reach the heights that the Hanta can."

"That's funny coming from a guy who needs a human body to make this happen," Tatsuki spoke derisively, allowing herself to recharge what stamina she had while keeping the banter up. She was waiting for an opening to present itself, smirking in notation of her own comment. "I thought you guys were better than Hollows and Soul Reapers. All I see is a bunch of hacks who couldn't cut it be given a bunch of shiny toys, only to be taken out like amateurs. That's gotta sting!"

"Your verbal prodding won't shake my resolve so easily, human," Kuroi narrowed his eyes, his tone filled with disapproval. "You can not reach me with your close quarters attacks, and your flames are easily dampened by my shadows. Give up."

"LIKE HELL I WILL!" Tatsuki flared her aura once more, not charging yet, but showing her enemy that she still had strength left.

"I told you, your flames won't reach me-"

"EL DIRECTO!"

"-?!" Kuroi found his gaze lurch to his right periphery, suddenly seeing a large Hispanic man with a torn Hawaiian shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and a black-red shield-adorned hollow-like arm discharging a pillar of blue-white energy towards him. The explosion ripped apart concrete and burned through the air, further searing a path where the Hanta was, narrowly dashing from the blast wave's light that nearly overtook him.

Kuroi sweated from the proximity of how close he had been to being pulverized. He didn't realize there were other enemies capable of taking him off guard and had a lot of power to boot. He noted the shadow-webbed steel engulfing his proximity was cracked in several places, allowing small glimmers of light to be seen from outside.

"These damned humans are like cockroaches..." Kuroi muttered.

"Chad!" Tatsuki shouted with relief and shock of seeing the man come to her side so suddenly. She was alarmed at the ragged appearance, noting though from a glance up from his feet to his face that his injuries were all but gone from an earlier clash with their common enemy. "What took you?!"

"T-Tatsuki?!" Chad's visible left eye saw Tatsuki's shimmering aura and the spiritual plates of armor hugging her body, as well as the clear sign of red hair and eyes in contrast to her usual appearance. "W-What happened?!"

"There's no time for that, idiot!" Tatsuki waved her hand in emphasis at the shadow-covered dome that began to recede. "I need you do help me beat this guy! Think you can bust out your ultimate attack on him?!"

"You think I was holding back?" Chad blinked in perplexity, wondering how his last attack was considered less than his best. He always considered he fought with full power from the start.

"JUST KILL THIS BASTARD, OKAY?!" Tatsuki comically shouted, waving her arms at Kuroi in emphasis.

"Enough of your squabbling," Kuroi growled aloud, moving his right hand towards the two of them, sending a dozen tendrils of shadows rushing towards them, each of them with the edge of tempered steel while having the elasticity of rubber, "its time for you to die."

It was within this moment that Chad and Tatsuki moved together, as if they had done so time and again. It helped to play soccer with each other, and even spar upon occasion when supernatural disasters were present. But now, Tatsuki could use their partnership to her advantage.

Where several shadow tendrils discharged to strike Tatsuki, she would leap up into the air, where several more would converge upon her position.

Chad would use Bringer Light to put himself in between the corporeal-based shadows, using his right arm, Brazo Derecha de Gigante, to repel their strikes, causing a large array of sparks to rain down in emphasis of the hardened reinforcement placed within his transformed arm. Rearing back his left arm, a swift transmutation caused his skin to transmute into a red-white spike aligned limb filled with unimaginable power: Brazo Izquierda del Diablo .

Taking the hint, Tatsuki grappled onto the now protected arm and jettisoned herself high into the air, causing her to skyrocket high into the air. Upon the ascent, Tatsuki began gathering all of her bottled feelings and let them boil over the surface. Her body began to glow brighter and hotter, until she was nothing but a scorching flare ascending nearly twenty meters above Kuroi.

It was here that the Hanta realized that Tatsuki was above his reach, and the Fullbringer himself was deflecting the spears of shadows with ease. He tried in vain to throw projectiles of debris around, with flicks of his hands within command, trying to bring them down. But it would all be in vain.

"LET'S END THIS TOGETHER!" Tatsuki shouted out Letting her body descend, her fists outstretched as she aimed herself like a corkscrewing missile towards Kuroi's defenses.

But she wasn't alone.

Free-falling with her, Chad used his right arm to batter the shadows away, shattering them with incredible force as he reared his left arm back, as his fall was matching the same speed as Tatsuki's, thanks to his own Bringer Light momentum.

"T-They're too strong!" Kuroi un-pocketed his other hand, using all of his Spiritual Power to reinforce his Zanpakutō's control over his proximate shadows, layering one sheet of ethereal-steel after another, intending to repel them both.

Tatsuki grinned, as she corkscrewed her body around just bare meters above the growing shadow dome, intending on letting her drop engorge the whole of her enemy's dome.

With a mighty strike, and a powerful exuding projection of flames, Tatsuki shouted out with every fiber of her being, intending on giving everything she got. The flames licked, cracked, and began ebbing the defenses away.

But then came Chad's left fist...

"LA MUERTE!" Chad shouted out, as his left fist thrust into the top of the dome, his arm shuddering as it began to releasing its immense power. In effect it produced a terrifying screaming gale released by the electric-kinetic forces of a Hollow-emblazoned pressure to crack through the Zanpakutō dome and slam Kuroi into the ground, allowing the geyser of flames to engorge him as La Muerte struck him simultaneously.

"I see...so their strength...is stronger...together..." Kuroi realized, even as his body was smashed and scorched asunder, as a deafening explosion rocked the school parking lot, sending a pressurized gale of force that ripped up all of the remaining tarmac and dig deep into the earth itself.

Within the waking pause after they crushed their opponent, Chad sighed, realizing how deep the crater had become and the shape it took from his technique, "Damn...I guess we went a little overboard..."

"Hah...hah...hah," Tatsuki panted, her flames evaporating and her clothes, body, and hair resumed its normal appearance as she fell to her knees amidst the ashes of the force she unleashed. Smiling, she couldn't help but look up at Chad's giant form and grin cockily. "Nonsense. I think we worked perfectly in sync, don't you think?"

"I think we worked a little too well," Chad spoke glumly, even as he reached down and pulled Tatsuki up to her feet. "It seems like the school will be closed for a long time thanks to our combo."

"Stop being such a downer, Chad. We kicked ass!" Tatsuki emphasized with a swing of her free arm, even as they got to the top of the impact area.

"Well, regardless, I think you should take it easy, Tatsuki," Chad spoke while eyeing her with empathy. "I think you may have used a little too much spirit energy in your battle...if you fight any longer, you could put your life at risk-"

"If my city needs my help, I'm going to help! You can't talk me out of this one, Cha-"

What followed, would silence the both of them.

In the distance, the two of them saw a brilliant flash of light within their periphery vision, followed by a thunderous explosion. In the distance, the large lush forest that was just a few miles away from the local temple, detonated within a black-red sphere, sending a huge gale of force in excess that ripped trees out of the earth before shattering them, and its final distance sending a gale force wind that would cause the two of them to skid across the street.

But within the gale force winds, both Chad and Tatsuki could immediately tell what transpired. It lingered within the stinging air currents, latent crackling shocks of Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure, responsible for the distant explosion.

"I-Ichigo?!" Chad uttered aloud in disbelief, as the light he saw and the force that was revealed was entirely his doing. "What technique was that?!"

"Idiot! He's going to go nuclear on this town if he keeps this up!" Tatsuki snarled aloud, as she held her arms over her face. "Was the gym not enough?!"

"Good to see you're safe," A well known voice projected with relief. The two turned around, seeing Kisuke Urahara walking towards them with Benehime unsheathed, dry blood still ebbing off the weapon to indicate his own batch of unknown horrors he dispatched.

"Mr. Urahara!" Tatsuki immediately looked to Kisuke with a demanding stare, flailing her arms in heated emphasis of her frustration. "What the Hell has been going on?! Who are these guys and why are they attacking Karakura Town-?"

"They're after Ichigo."

"What?!" Tatsuki immediately reared back, now fathoming the display of might from earlier. "Who?! Why?!"

"I can't say I know all the details, but from what I've gathered, they're part of a cabal of damned souls that had been on the verge of death or have been sentenced to Hell. Creatures called Demons have contracted them to carry out missions, such as this one, beyond their reach in the World of the Living."

"D-Demons?!" Chad spoke out in amazement and fear.

"They've certainly sent quite the arrangement of freaks to deal with Ichigo, showing just how serious they're getting in acquiring him," He explained as he kept looking into the distance at the smoldering crater that had been produced by Ichigo. "With the way things are going, I doubt that whatever barrier to keep their activities unnoticed will hold. The Soul Society will be coming shortly to investigate the damage...and that's when things will get ugly."

Ichigo's descent was a slow, cautious one. If there was one thing he learned from his boundless experience over the years, and from this man's initial appearance, was that physical injuries didn't entirely determine the factor of victory in a fight. He was living proof of that, after all, more than he'd care to admit that. Tenacity and madness went hand in hand.

The effects of his attack was revealed when his feet touched the vapor ridden earth. No longer was this a beautiful hill covered by woodland that could see the distant horizon of Karakura Town. No, this was a flat piece of smoldering charcoal, with nary timber apart from the field of ash and the ripped timber that was part of the leveled acres their battlefield had spanned. In its epicenter was a festering pile of equally black flesh, pulsing organs thumping ominously, and charred bones still contained by the hideous energy holding itself together.

"Damn, you're still not dead?" Ichigo noted aloud in a dry tone, as his feet touched the ash-laden earth and saw the scorched Malice who had somehow survived his attack.

"D-D-Damn...you..." He wheezed out, as his tearing tendons clenched the bone-exposed digits together, causing audible crunches of calcium and muscle in a grisly display of unmitigated contempt. "This...isn't...over!"

"I don't know if you noticed, but I think you're going to die," Ichigo remarked with an annoyed sigh, arching his the flat of his sword onto a shoulder as he observed the sight with almost pity. No matter how much of a good fight he'd put up, the injuries he sustained from his previous battles wore on him beyond his own will and he was falling at the seams. The Substitute Soul Reaper perceived Malice wouldn't be enacting anymore heinous acts in the immediate future, at the very least. "if you got something to get off your chest, I'd suggest speaking now. I'd like to know why you guys are so interested in my soul-"

Before the words could escape his mouth, Ichigo felt that contempt begin to boil up further. The dull mustard seamed at every corner of his rotting body, the decay becoming more embroiled with this rotten light that was rising rapidly with every grotesque pulse of the organs beneath the surface of charred bones and muscle. A rasping laugh breached the air with the light, the sky itself swirling around and thundering with the quaking pressure of his power that was bursting to the surface.

"I'm afraid you underestimated me," Malice began to snarl, his eyes popping, replaced by orbs of gross yellow light as the rest of his body snapped with the pressure of his power exploding the shell of his body. "ICHIGO KUROSAKI!"

With an instinctive backpedaling motion, Ichigo narrowly avoided a sudden projection of dark violet, black spiritual power explode to the surface. It struck the skyline high above, visibly shattering an unknown substance that had been erected over the vast kilometers of airspace around Karakura Town.

A damning wail sent chills down Ichigo's spine as the color seemed to vanish from the environment's surroundings. Nothing but a putrid yellow bubbled up and burst forth like popping luminous cancer. With each new contorted burst came a new limb, a new appendage, and a change to the exterior. The laugh echoed in a raw symphony of dread as the screams let loose shook the sky and distended the ash that swirled around in an unholy baptism of the reborn being.

As the light faded, color returning to his surroundings, Ichigo saw something that made his stomach turn and his skin ebb cold sweat.

He possessed bulbous eyes, sunken within his pale skull, the blood vessels practically glowed with every beat of his heart, causing his iris to darken and brim with bloodlust. He lacked any hair or clothes, as his body was covered with a sheen layer of bone fragments that made a makeshift armor around its body, while showing every gnarled and withered muscle behind it. With two blood-rusted iron shackles on either hand, something insidious appeared to be prominent along his whole body. His palms, his midriff, and his entire jawline was filled with jaws retaining sharpened teeth, all hissing with a synchronized, depraved voice.

"You're going to die a slow, painful death, Ichigo Kurosaki! Prepare to face the power of my Jōkan!" His voice had gotten guttural, like glass cracked in between each syllable, and he's barely discernible from an animal or a sentient being.

"Ah hell-" Ichigo had barely any time to swear, before Malice reared his newly transformed body back before screaming with a ghastly tone. It sent a rippling shockwave that took the Substitute right off his feet and blinded him with the painful force that tore and vibrated his soaring body. As he howled with pain, his body would be sent across the immense crater, tumbling head over heels before smashing through a toppled trees in the thick wake of their destructive battle.

"I didn't! Even have time! To react!" Ichigo grimaced aloud to himself, struggling to get to his feet. Blood slipped from his eyes, nostrils and ears, the feeling of his head gonging along his writhing insides made him cough up ichor in addition. It wasn't even a sheer power difference, but his own ability surpassed his reflexes or his reaction timing.

But he wouldn't be able to fight back so easily.

The transformed monstrosity feigned teleportation before his eyes, whipping a fist into Ichigo's gut. Feeling the air push out of his bruised lungs, he'd suddenly feel another extraordinary explosion of agony as the wailing scream exploded blindingly at the point of contact. In the shockwave, he was thrown in a corkscrew spin, flying aimlessly through more downed timber and soil, kicking up huge clouds of earth and dust, ending in a crater of a hill visible to the town not far away.

Malice didn't let up, slamming onto Ichigo's proned back, causing the crater to deepen and shatter with the kinetic backlash. In his hurtle back, the Soul Reaper halted with the flat side of his blade from, grinding himself to a stop through sheer effort. Appearing before his halted prey, he'd lance out with a shrieking kick, gleaning out his deserved scream of pain from the Strawberry, continuing to strike him without giving him respite.

"THAT'S IT!" He howled gleefully with another punch.

"LET ME HEAR YOUR PAIN!" Another backhanded swipe.

"LET ME BATHE IN YOUR AGONY!" A shout that blasted the Shikhakushō and shredded part of his skin with layers of Reiatsu covering his body.

"LET ME REVEL IN YOUR SUFFERING!" Following a snap kick that forced a geyser of snot and blood out of a crunching stroke of his foot.

"LET ME FEEL ALIVE AS I KILL YOU-"

Just as the hole deepened into a near quarter the size of what was the force he employed for the Mangetsu, Ichigo swung his blade to meet the armored foot of Malice, sending him sprawling onto his backside.

"GETSUGA," Ichigo began as he stepped forth with a heavy step, cracking the ground beneath him as the swirls of black-red energies, as his eyes glared heatedly even as his mouth and skin was covered in bloody scrapes from the damage he withstood, "TENSHŌ!"

A wide curtain of black-red energy flowed from his Zangetsu, aiming to overcome his nemesis with a single blow. And at first, it appeared to push him back, as his feet scraped across the ground for a good six meters. But then, the deranged voice caused Ichigo's blood to go cold.

"This won't work anymore! Not anymore!" Malice cried out, his skin-splitting jaw stretching in a demented smile. To emphasize the value of his words, he had his hands claw at the Getsuga Tenshō's swiftly before it popped, sending a wave of wind in the wake of the explosive energy's destruction.

This was an uphill battle if Ichigo ever saw one. Before him stood a monster that had a direct counter to his techniques of discharging Spirit Energy, and had a power that dealt damage of incredible toll to his body. But the memory of his home, the words spoken to him by Uryu and Senna, pulsed in the back of his mind. Grounding his teeth, he roared out as ebony tongues of Reiatsu ignited once more along his body as he geared himself in preparation to continue fighting.

"I will survive! I will win...even if I have to crush my own body in the process...I WILL WIN!"

"Is this everyone?" Kisuke asked, looking to the gaggle of people of close worth and familiarity to Ichigo huddled up near his partially ruined house, right at the front drive way. While some had been directed and taken to his reinforced shop, where Ururu and Jinta were held up, Tessei departed to assist in the further deployment across Karakura Town's defense. Most of them have been routed or annihilated with only the sturdiest and strongest still in play. He had even felt an unexpected guest from Hueco Mundo arrive not long after the Hantas began their assault; but decided now wasn't the time to mention her.

"Yeah, feels about right," Isshin noted, looking on as Orihime was doing her best to use Shun Shun Rikka on as many people at once as possible. Among those that needed it the most were Uryu and Senna, having been severely wounded in their savage encounter with Malice. Tatsuki and Chad just needed to recover their strength, but beyond that they were the least scathed. Keigo was still in shock, regardless of his prior experience with Aizen, and Mizuiro was taking it in stride with the others present.

"That power seems to be problematic," The hat-adorned man grimly stated, tipping the now sealed weapon in its cane form at the brim of his hat. "Think we should step in?"

"Nah, he can handle it," He nodded with affirmation. "He needs this."

"You do realize he could die if this goes too far?"

"He hasn't regained his full spirit yet. All he needs is one push to the edge," He confirmed with a crossing of his arms, smiling wryly in an almost knowing way. "That boy's their target, but he's our Ace in the Hole. Always has been. I'm going to have faith in my son to see this through, like the last time."

"You know, for all its worth, you're not as terrible a father as you let on," Kisuke commented with a small smile.

"Don't let him know that," He intoned, chuckling a bit as he winked at his colleague in crime. "Otherwise, how can I keep my flawed image?"

Listening behind the barrier, Senna couldn't help but hear the distant and ever-present wails in the distance that cascaded haunting gales towards them. While it was harmless from the distance, it made the recovering girl shiver in trepidation. It was far more fierce and dangerous than it was before. If Ichigo was facing Malice at an even greater level of power, then he was truly alone in this ordeal.

No matter the faith her friends and family had, she slowly closed her eyes and folded her hands in a silent prayer.

"Please, come back to me, Ichigo!"

"HRAAAH!" Ichigo yelled out as he swung his Getsuga Tenshō in sync with a downward slash towards Malice. The black wave repelled his quarry across the earth, blasting debris around, enabling Flash Step at his opposing flank. Swinging his behemoth weapon he'd catch the Hanta in the shoulder, cutting it open through the bone-fragmented armor and spewing out dark ichor through his well aimed strike.

Malice howled in a retaliatory swing of his injured appendage towards Ichigo, discharging another stream of sonic energy that forced the swordsman to raise his blade defensively. The bludgeoning force careened him by the heels through the earth and allotted debris of bark or foliage, sending spewing in tidal waves in a haphazard fashion.

The toll of his continued fight wore on the Substitute Soul Reaper. His chained-arms had cuts and bruises between the seams the links didn't cover, his face was bruised and bleeding past his nostrils and ears, his chin and lips soaked in burgundy from what he had to hack up from his horrid internal damage. Shreds to his Shikhakushō was just an addition to the injuries his body gained from the physical batterings he took from the Hanta's fists, nails, and feet that stacked onto the dreadful wailing cries of his nemesis' grotesque mouths.

Malice himself had received a fresh series of wounds himself, but nothing apart from discomfort hindered the maddeningly durable brawler like him. If anything he was thriving off the pain of his current state, and furthered enhanced his performance. He actually seemed to be thrilled with every passing moment of his battle, even if the prospect of death hanging close.

"Seems you're reaching your limit, Soul Reaper! HA!" Malice cackled, as he flung his hands back in emphasis. On cue, his torso protruding teeth split apart to let loose another devastating shockwave towards his prey's body again.

Timing it to the last second, Ichigo used Flash Step, deftly avoiding the blast of wind-shredding force to move to his enemy's backside. Swinging with both hands, he aimed to cleave the Hanta's torso in half. Malice in turn grinned as his eyes caught sight of his maneuver, crouching down and backflipping over the Substitute's sword and the billowing force of cutting power that followed.

Slamming his wrists together, Malice opened his palm-maws widely, as he smiled in a deranged manner, shouting aloud, "HAAAAA!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Ichigo screamed within a searing, blinding wave of pain. He took the full brunt of the shredding wind at point blank, causing his weary body to receive a host of new injuries. His cheeks were cut open, his neck lacerated dangerously close to his jugular, his pectorals down to his abdomen spewing red, and the rest of his being from appendages to his insides agonized with radiating pain.

Too distracted by the stunning torment wracking his body, he didn't fathom movement until it was too late. A hay-maker slammed into his jaw, throwing him in a pinwheel spin before impacting a boulder at the base of the hill they were fighting upon. Groggily picking himself up from the blasted rock and soil, he picked himself up with sword in hand but unwilling to give up.

A sudden, ominous pulse echoed from the back of his mind, whispers that derided him as much as advised him. This silent passage of conversation slipped past the notice of his enemy, and his form grew silent.

Even then, Malice found himself enjoying the sight of Ichigo's torn, bruised, and bleeding body still standing after the punishment he put him through.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's such a delicious sight! Seeing you in such a sorry state, makes me want to gut you even more," Malice howled out with deranged laughter upon his feet crunching the ruined earth in his approach to his target. He enjoyed the sizzling heat his force had created upon the endless battleground of a once lively woodland. Getting closer proximity to his prey, he looked deathly still, with his hand hanging low and his expression blank. If not for the slow breathing motions his torso made, Malice would almost believe the Substitute died standing. "Had enough ye?! After all the crap you put me through, you better not be!"

"So, what do you say? Are we done fucking around?"

"Yeah," Ichigo began to say, the air warping as fragments of white began to swirl across his face as his irises adopted a golden hue in a sea of black. "I just wanted to test my upper limits. Guess this is as far as I'm able to go, without you."

"What's that?! Is that a threat?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Don't fucking kid with me!" Malice snarled out, briefly letting out a shrilling high pitched voice before lowering it to an annoyed growl. As he approached he flexed his fists and readied to hit his enemy again. "you're nothing but trash, pu-"

"Wrong!"

"-nNNNNGH?!" The Hanta lurched in an arc of white-over-black stroked over his malformed, mouth-protruding chest. In connection, he felt himself overtaken by a sudden whirlwind of pressure, his blood shooting out as he was propelled backwards like a rocket. The boom left behind split the sound barrier, hurling backwards without any sense of direction or control.

Malice tried to right himself, flailing his arms and shooting out a wailing cry from his body's own Spiritual Pressure. In this bubble of pressure, he'd suddenly feel a hand grasp his face. Beyond the splayed digits, he'd see with his wide bulbous eyes as his teeth bared with blood coating them. The mask possessed a pair of horns, protruding forward at an angle from the top with blood-lines of tears from the top over the slits above and below a set of razor teeth. Eyes of glowing gold narrowed at him, making the Hanta pulse with sudden realization of what happened to his enemy.

Before Malice could think straight, the Substitute slammed him into the ground while rushing pell mell across the ruined battlefield. The effect was similar to a missile brushing across the surface of the ocean, as soil was kicked up in a contorted wave of bark, ash and uprooted greenery with the Hanta billowing through all of it. After a kilometer of tearing the demented man through the earth, Ichigo throttled up into the air, taking Malice high into the sky while growling aloud with the distorted tone fitting his current state of mind. The Hanta could barely make it out, but he could see his enemy's skin sinewing together, erasing the sign of bruises and cuts or discolorations across his skin, all while pulsing a secondary Reiatsu over another that multiplied the Reaper's tremendous strength.

"Are these Hollow powers?! How is he doing this?!" Malice thought with sudden trepidation, fathoming the scope of his current predicament with horror just how much stronger his enemy is compared to even his Jōkan!

"I warned you, Malice," Ichigo spoke in a hollowed voice, as he held him by the face high in the air, keeping his sickly appearing jaw closed through sheer strength. "You should've stayed still and accept defeat! This is what happens when you push it too far!"

With a chilling yell, he hurtled Malice down with the current of a comet down towards the ground beneath his floating feet. In his wild spinning descent, the Hanta couldn't help but gape as Ichigo held his blade over his head, the blade absorbing his Reiatsu into a potent coat of Spirit Energy that ebbed a luminous body of white trailing of scarlet.

"Getsuga," Ichigo snarled out, swinging his blade down with incredible force, sending a blinding arc of crescent moon, red-white energy, "Tenshō!"

A howling mass of swift light raced blindingly towards the falling target, creating a sense of urgency within the damned creature for the first time in ages. As Malice began to slow down to the ground, the arcing blade of energy sped up. Rearing back his arms, he tried one last shout to render the blast inert. It was his only chance to keep himself from possibly being bisected again.

"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Opening every jaw upon his body, he discharged an immense force of sonic energy, distorting the air and deafening anything below the impending Getsuga Tenshō. The blinding, searing wind struck the oncoming force of energy, causing the two energies to have a standstill. Even as Malice's body rocketed down to the ground, he focused all of his attention upon the incendiary energy bearing upon him.

Mere seconds before striking the ground, the Getsuga Tenshō dispersed, popping and dispersing into thousands of sparks, allowing Malice to crash into the ground with relief with a resounding boom.

Amid the turmoil, above the shock-ridden city, a streak of lightning strung across the spacial fabric of the World of the Living in a straight, parallel line. Within a brief illumination of forming light, a pair of doors opened in the middle of space, gracing the appearance of the well known Senkaimon. Sliding back with an ominous reverberating sound, four Hell Butterflies flew out into the air with the sound of jingling bells. What followed was four silhouettes, each of them feeling a wave of nostalgia as they looked over the nearly forgotten city they all fought to protect two years ago.

In the distance, as a brilliant flash of light dispersed followed by an ominous boom, the shortest one spoke with a youthful, yet commanding tone, "It seems Kurosaki has decided to make a mess of things. Atypical of someone as brash as him..."

"He wouldn't be Ichigo if he wasn't," The tallest one of the group crossed his arms as he noted the damage and waste that had transpired in their absence. "What do you suppose caused all of this mess? Arrancars?"

"That may be unlikely," A stoic, cold voice emanating from the second shortest of the group spoke with a mature, feminine voice of astute observation. "The air is too thick for mere Arrancars to create. No, this is much more foul and heinous to be their doing."

"This is all rather dull...I feel like we're here for clean-up rather than back-up duty," The second tallest spoke in a sensuous, bored tone as a hand ran through her hair.

"It can't be helped," The shortest one spoke again, turning his head to look at all three of them, before nodding in affirmation. "Let's move! We have to contain the threat before it spreads!"

"Right!" The three spoke in acknowledgement, all four of them preforming Flash Step towards the Substitute, with an unknown mission and purpose as they set their sights for whatever had been causing the disturbance.

"Hah...hah...hah," Malice breathed aloud with a smile, as he wrenched his body free from the earthen crater that had formed from his body smashing into it. He had stopped it. Despite the enormous power that had been gained by the Substitute through unknown means, Malice could still breach and overcome the gap.

"You're going to pay for that humiliation, you little bitch!" Malice snarled out as he stood to his feet, scanning the skies and the landscape around himself for the area of which Ichigo could appear or disappear to. "I'm going to find you! And when I do, I'll-"

"You'll what, punk?" The Hollowified voice spoke from behind him, having just touched down onto the soft crushed earth with his left hand outstretched, pointing at him as if to mock him.

As Malice turned around to lunge at the source of the voice, Ichigo's finger began projecting a condensed sphere of spirit energy. It grew and grew, until it became the size of a basketball. Within this moment, Malice realized what it was, and only had time to swear aloud, "Oh shi-"

VLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

"-EYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUGH!" Malice screamed aloud in pain, not able to conjure the hyper-vibrations he uses to break apart the energy in time, as a wide silver-colored Cero enveloped his body and tore through the landscape, before exploding into a distant mountain, causing the second deafening explosion to occur that the town could witness.

"Ah...ah...ah..." Malice barely breathed beyond the mist, glaring heatedly at Ichigo's black-yellow eyes. He couldn't conjure anymore force, his body has reached its limit. He could try taking him, but the Substitute's newfound Hollow powers made it a problem. "I'm...going to kill you...Ichigo...Kurosaki..."

"So I keep being told," Ichigo spoke aloud in his Hollowified tone, but kept it more even and tempered. Tapping his Zanpakutō upon his shoulder, he examined the blackened flesh of Malice and noticed that his power was slowly, and surely, decreasing. With a brief exhale, Ichigo raised a hand up and dispersed his mask in a wave of light and bone, revealing a dry-bloodied but recovered face from the injuries he retained from before. "You're done, Malice. Return to your Master and tell them I'm not interested in dying or handing over my soul so easily," Turning around he waved back at him as he began walking away from the man with resignation. "See ya!"

"Ngggh!" Malice could barely control his fury as his target and enemy began walking away. His body bristled with black and violet energy, even as his skin began to peel off, showing his bone and muscle beneath. Left with no option, Malice reared back his arms while condensing his spirit energy solely into his vocal chords, he aimed to use what was left of his body to blast away Ichigo's backside. With one final lunge, Malice ran towards his prey haphazardly, stumbling to the ground as he held his tongue until the last possible second. Ichigo felt his enemy coming and gripped his sword's hilt in readiness as Malice reared back as he was but a mere ten meters behind him.

But Malice's shout would be cut off short.

SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK-BOOM!

As what appeared to be a blurring shape drop to the ground a good distance to Malice's left, an elongated series of hooked blades, connected by razor extendable wire, swung down on top of the Hanta's head before he could notice. The sound of crunching bone, tearing flesh, and a shrilling squeak was cut off by the loud crash created by the pressurized force of the razor-whip, sending a wide five meter fissure of upheaving soil from the bifurcated spot.

The sight of his enemy being annihilated so efficiently gave Ichigo pause, earning his attention to the one responsible. Seeing the length of the blade and its familiar craftsmanship, as well as the Spiritual Pressure it resonated, knew whom it belonged to before he saw its owner's smug grin, already grinning with a playful mockery at the Substitute.

"Yo, Ichigo!" Renji Abarai, Lieutenant of the 6th Division, shouted out as he retracted his Shikai blade to its compacted state. Wearing a black bandanna over his forehead instead of his goggles, he looked slightly taller and had a bit more visible ink tattooed onto his skin. Other than that, the red-pony-tailed Soul Reaper looked relatively the same since the Strawberry last saw him. "You should keep your guard up more often!"

"R-Renji!" Ichigo gasped aloud, but wouldn't stop being shocked by the new arrivals.

"It's a good thing we came when we did," Toshirō Hitsugaya, Captain of the 10th Division, landed to Renji's left, followed by his Lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, who landed just behind him. While Toshirō hadn't changed visibly much, his new addition to his uniform had been a scarf and slightly more angled bangs of his white hair. Rangiku herself hadn't seem to age or change her look, still wearing her cleavage-exposed uniform while adorning her orange hair with enough conditioning to make it appear as silky as when Ichigo had first encountered her. "I thought you would try and run away from the mess and blame it on the enemy, had we came too much later."

"Hey, there! How's it been going, handsome?" Rangiku greeted Ichigo flirtatiously, much to her superior's chagrin, expressed by the dry look encroaching upon his face.

"Rangiku! Toshirō! You guys came?!" Ichigo called out with relief and joy. Though he had been surprised by their sudden arrival, it wasn't something unexpected, given the nature of their relationship with him.

"They aren't the only ones, you know?" A teasing tone could be heard from behind Ichigo that nearly made his heart stop. Peering over his shoulder, his eyes widened with shock and joy as he saw the short, black haired girl he had first met when everything had changed. One of the few people to keep reappearing in his dreams as often, if not more-so, than Senna herself.

"Hello there, Ichigo," Rukia Kuchiki, Lieutenant of the 13th Division, smiled softly as her dazzling eyes met Ichigo's stunned ones.

A/N: So, you know that thing of me updating this sooner rather than later, and making this the Finale? Wellllllllllll, turns out I wasn't able to make good on that promise. Whoops! XP I changed the aesthetics and flow of the overall fight to make it more polished but, in the end, this is relatively the same with only some grammar readjustment and wording change. I had fun putting in some more effort beyond my more young, naive self XP But beyond that, I just have one more chapter to wrap things up and explain away the current engagements transpiring; given their strongest guy got beaten, I'll let you know they aren't all going to be beaten this time around.

Apart from that, this is the second to last update on this Redux and soon Horizon will be back on schedule! Whoo-hoo! Get ready for that everybody ;P