Chapter 51: All the World's Evils


"No wonder you were in such a hurry to blow yourself up."

It was strange, Ichigo thought, how that all-consuming, burning-hot rage from earlier had been tempered into something colder and far deadlier once the actual object of his fury had returned from the dead. "Better to go out on your terms and take us down with you than risk a Quincy putting you down for good."

"Indeed." Samael raised his new hand up to eye-height, watching with something like wonder as he flexed each finger individually. "You see, I became quite aware of my own mortality when my younger brothers were slain, back during our first uprising against the Shinigami. Before then, I had always thought the five of us invincible." He met Ichigo's gaze; eyes narrowing even as his lips stretched into a sneer. "Their deaths came as quite a shock, though I do believe I came up with an appropriate countermeasure to ensure I would not share their fate."

"Appropriate if you're batshit insane maybe," Grimmjow grumbled under his breath.

"God, it weirds me out me out when we agree on things," Katsumi muttered blankly in response.

"So what's the catch?" Ichigo barreled right on through, refusing to let himself be distracted. "If all you had to do to take full control of Angra was kill yourself, then you would have done it ages ago. You wouldn't have even hesitated." His eyes bored into Samael's, and Ichigo didn't miss how that black-toothed smirk of his lost some of its definition. "You're fond of human sayings, aren't you? Here's one you might have heard before: I can smell your fear, you damned lizard. You've got something breathing down your neck. What is it?"

Ichigo felt the atmosphere change the moment he spoke those words. Samael's bravado disappeared all at once, as if that small handful of words had held enough power to strip the man of his armor, and lay bare all the bitter hate and desperation bordering on mania that lay hidden underneath.

Grimmjow and Katsumi couldn't sense Samael's emotions like Ichigo could, but even they grew tense, and cast uncertain glances first at Ichigo himself, and then at each other. All the while, Samael's features steadily contorted further and further into a grimace, before abruptly smoothing back out into a neutral expression.

"…That newfound insight of yours is fast becoming a thorn in my side, Kurosaki Ichigo," Samael spoke calmly, even though Ichigo could tell that his self-control had been stretched to its breaking point. "But very well. I suppose it is in both our best interests to move this along."

Samael held out one hand, and both Grimmjow and Katsumi tensed up whereas Ichigo only watched on, knowing that there was no attack coming just yet. "You see, not even I will be able maintain my sense of self forever amidst the maddened howling of over two million corrupted souls," Samael explained. "Within a matter of hours at best, I too shall be fully assimilated into my master's hivemind, just like all others before me. Before it comes to that, I shall have to construct a new body for myself to inhabit."

Black-and-white energy sparked between his fingers, and for a moment Ichigo worried it was a Cero Sagrado in the making, but the unstable orb in Samael's hand held nowhere near the required power for one, even if it did possess a similar, otherworldly quality.

"However, to do so I shall require a power that not even my master possesses, as of yet." Though not as exuberant as before, Samael's smirk nevertheless found its way back onto his face. "An absolute form of authority over all souls; all things spiritual—a Divine authority, one might even say."

Ichigo inhaled sharply as realization struck, and Samael pointed the chaotic sphere in his palm skyward. "…There is but one place where I might obtain such a power."

The sphere was launched up into the air, climbing higher and higher while leaving a growing trail of energy behind in its wake. And then, it struck home.

"What the fuck?!"

Grimmjow wasn't at all shy about showing his confusion when the orb actually hit something in mid-air, and promptly erupted into a pitch-black shockwave that blew away all the clouds for miles around. Cracks spread out from the point of impact and across seemingly-empty air, as if the sky itself was breaking apart, and then shattered into a hundred titanic pieces, leaving behind a gaping hole half the size of Seireitei.

"…And there you are at last," Samael spoke, his expression almost jubilant as he gazed up at the rift in space.

"What is that?!" Grimmjow demanded, looking to Ichigo for answers. "I've seen a lot of weird fucking shit today, Kurosaki, but he just blew a hole in the goddamned sky!"

Ichigo swallowed. "…That's gotta be the Royal Realm," he muttered. "The Soul King's palace must be up there."

"It is," Katsumi spoke up. His face had gone white as a sheet. "There's seventy-two barriers between us and the Palace, and he just broke through three of them." He locked eyes with Samael. "But how? No matter how much firepower you've got with Angra under your control, there's no way to affect the Soul King's dimension without an Ōken! Unless-!"

Katsumi cut himself off mid-sentence and stared down at the ground. Or rather, at the sand that had been spreading all throughout Soul Society ever since Angra Mainyu had first arrived here. "…Fuck," he muttered, in the blandest tone of voice Ichigo had ever heard from him. "I'm an idiot."

"And the realization comes at last," Samael mocked. "Indeed, I have no need for an Ōken—not when I can simply bend this entire dimension to my will, instead." He threw a glance Grimmjow's way. "For all his intelligence, your former master was a shortsighted fool, Espada ."

Grimmjow scoffed. "That might just be the first thing to come out of your mouth that ain't total horsecrap."

"By now, Hueco Mundo's sands already cover most of the Seireitei," Samael went on, baring his teeth once more. "This is my world, now."

Ichigo had heard enough.

"Even if it is…" He planted one armored foot in the sand, an eruption of Spirit Energy gushing from every pore on his body as he did, and it swept across the desert landscape like a surging tide of crimson. Grimmjow turned to look at him in shock at the immense, almost nonchalant display of power, and eyed him with something close to awe, whereas Katsumi gaped as if he was only truly seeing Ichigo for the first time.

A haze of liquid shadow ran down Tensa Zangetsu's length, and Ichigo whipped the blade out as if he was simply flicking away that spillover energy, yet carved a deep, perfectly smooth gouge a meter wide into the sand by Samael's feet in doing so. A gouge that stretched far out into the distance, and one that Hueco Mundo's sands did not, could not, fill back in.

A scar that would never fade from Samael's new world.

"…You won't be keeping it for long. We'll make sure of that."


Coyote's hands gripped the watchtower's railing so tightly that the wood was starting to creak beneath his fingers.

He had known the old dragon wouldn't go down easily. But not even in his darkest nightmares had he imagined Samael would cling to life this desperately. No—not even that. His body was destroyed, his very Soul trapped within Angra Mainyu's black core, and his mind would surely break down under the strain of it all sooner rather than later. Such an ephemeral, pitiful state could hardly be considered living.

It was his machinations alone—his two-thousand year-long obsession—that was driving him ever onward even now. Coyote knew: so long as even a trace of him remained in this world, Samael would never stop. Not until he had what he wanted.

"The fifth barrier just went down," Urahara informed them. He was gazing up at the hole in the sky above Seireitei, holding on to his hat to keep the heavy winds from snatching it right off the top of his head. "At this rate it will take less than six hours for Samael to reach the Soul King's Palace."

"Then what about the Royal Guard?" Uryu asked. He still had the Arrow in hand, but from the way things were going, there wouldn't be a chance to fire it anytime soon. "Squad Zero—they are the King's personal guard, are they not? Why aren't they helping us?!"

"As you said, they are Soul King's personal guard, and his alone," Urahara replied. "They will not leave the Palace while it is under attack. Until the final barrier is breached and their hand is forced, they shall remain where they are."

Coyote couldn't see him, transfixed on the far-away battle as he was, but he heard Urahara's tense exhale loud and clear. "…Regardless of which, we do not want the Royal Guard involved. Believe me on that account."

"How's that?" Coyote finally managed to tear his eye away and met Urahara's gaze. "Aizen told us they were some of the strongest Shinigami in all of history. Right up there with the old man. You'd still reject their help, even when things are this bad?"

Uncharacteristically, Urahara hesitated for a moment, his eyes flitting between Coyote and Uryu. "…They are evil," he stated in a deep and even voice; one that held none of the shopkeeper's usual levity. "A necessary one perhaps, but evil nonetheless. I would not trust them to be around our three strongest allies; Kurosaki-san least of all."

"…Sounds like we've got ourselves a time limit then," Coyote said. He brushed his fingers over the blackened jawbone adorning his neck, even as the shockwave from yet another distant explosion had the entire watchtower groaning under the force of it. He swallowed thickly.

He had to do it. It was the only way.

"Urahara-san," he spoke up, turning around to meet the man's gaze. "Please use the strongest Bakudō you have to restrain me."

Uryu's eyes widened. "What are you planning to do?" he demanded, his entire body gone rigid. Coyote couldn't help but smile. The kid already knew him far too well.

"Something really stupid," he admitted wryly, shooting Uryu an apologetic look. "If it goes wrong, put an arrow through my skull. I'd rather be completely annihilated than become yet another part of Angra Mainyu."

Uryu grimaced. "You… you promised to live on!" he snapped. "Swore it to your other half moments before she died! And now, after everything we've gone through just to get to this point, you would throw your life away in spite of it all?!"

"If Angra wins, I'll be breaking that promise anyway," Coyote replied, lowering himself to the ground with a weary sigh. "I'm the last remaining Warlord—even if I barely ever qualified as one. The final shackle keeping Angra bound. If he assimilates Samael, then he'll be coming after me next. If, on the other hand, Samael manages to hold on long enough to construct himself a new body, then he'll turn me into a mindless puppet. If those are my two options, I'd rather just be dead."

"…And should you succeed?" Urahara asked, breaking the silence that had followed in the wake of Coyote's words.

Slowly, the corners of Coyote's mouth curled upwards. "Then I'll be hitting Angra in the one place where it actually hurts him," he almost growled, lips stretching out into a wolflike grin.

"…Very well then." Not wasting another moment, Urahara began chanting an incantation, and Coyote grunted in discomfort when his forearms were seized by the Bakudō and roughly twisted behind his back.

Uryu stepped forward even as additional bindings began pinning Coyote to the ground, and the boy kneeled before him, glaring right into his remaining eye. "If you make me kill you now, after everything we've been through, then I will never forgive you for it."

Coyote huffed out a breath. "Guess I'll just have to make sure it doesn't come to that." After a moment's hesitation, Uryu nodded, and Coyote closed his eye, letting darkness envelop him.

Lilynette had told him, after all. Told him of Samael's greatest mistake.

In binding Coyote to the Hollow god, not only had he endowed him with all the terrible powers of a Warlord, but he had also—without even knowing it himself—allowed Lilynette to learn of the source of Angra Mainyu's power, and at the same time, his greatest weakness:

El Corazón. The heart of Hueco Mundo. The very thing that had made Angra into a god in the first place.

Lilynette had already proven that Angra's connection to it could be disrupted, even if it was for just an instant. Maybe, just maybe , Coyote would be able to take it one step further, and strip Angra Mainyu of his status as Hueco Mundo's patron deity altogether.

However, there was only one way he might be able to pull off such a thing. And only one place where he might learn how: from Angra's very own memories.

Wry amusement welled up in him at the thought. This was, without a doubt, the single most idiotic thing Coyote had done in his entire life, and that included his joining up with Aizen. At this point however, with all three worlds very nearly at the mercy of either a dark god or the madman holding his leash, there was nothing else for it.

Coyote took a deep breath and focused on the gaping hole within his soul where, until recently, Gomorrah had resided. It felt like an open wound even now; one with ragged, torn edges from the less-than-delicate manner in which Lilynette had extracted the artificial personality.

However, even if Gomorrah was gone… his link to Angra Mainyu still remained. Still supplied Coyote with a nigh-limitless supply of Spirit Energy even now. All he had to do was follow that connection… and dive in head-first.

It felt like dunking his face into a torrent of freezing-cold water. Even though his physical body remained where it was, surrounded by fresh air, Coyote still struggled to continue breathing as his consciousness travelled along the invisible, intangible pathway Samael's magic had created. One that led straight down into the Demon's core. The unceasing deluge of malevolent energy that assaulted him steadily thickened as he dove deeper, gaining the consistency of tar as he trudged onward.

It clung to him, seeped into his very soul with Gomorrah no longer there to act as a buffer against Angra's corrupting influence, but he had to endure. From what little fragments of Angra's memories Coyote had glimpsed in his dreams, he could tell that it had taken centuries for the five siblings to be corrupted into the monsters Coyote knew them as today. Surely, he could manage to hold on for just a few minutes?

Then again, he highly doubted any of them had been foolish enough to dive straight into the dark depths as he had…

No sooner had he thought of his five predecessors, or images of them began to appear within his mind's eye, one after the other, supplied by the boundless library made up by Angra Mainyu's memories.

Images in which he saw Lilith, the proud Queen of Hueco Mundo, be consumed by her feelings of jealousy and inferiority toward her older, more powerful siblings. Saw that resentment fester until she began to turn her frustrations on not just the innocent, but even on the very subjects she had once sworn to protect.

By the end, the only time when she could feel powerful was when she had others at her mercy.

Kali, for all her indomitable will, nevertheless felt her inner flame begin to sputter as the centuries went by. Her desire to do her duty as Hueco Mundo's protector; her desire to rid the realm of the Demon her eldest brother had created fell to the wayside, buried beneath waxing tides of apathy and feelings of futility.

Perhaps one day, one stronger than she would appear before her, and do what she could not.

And Samael… Samael knew exactly what he had wrought. He saw more clearly than anyone how his newfound 'siblings' became cruel caricatures of themselves as Angra's poison seeped into their hearts, yet he could only watch on, powerless. He still had need of them if he was to have any hope of undoing his mistakes, and right the world's wrongs.

Even the love he felt for his new family could not change that.

It was only by looking in on it all from the outside that Coyote managed to glean the truth: namely that the Demon was far more clever than anyone had given it credit for.

Samael had been more paranoid than anyone. He had prepared mental defenses both magical and psychological in nature; set up countless backup plans and fail-safes should those fail him, and all the while worked tirelessly to decipher the true nature of the Hollow Lord's power. All in the hopes of one day claiming it for himself, and in doing so freeing himself and his siblings from the curse he had laid upon them all.

And that was how exactly Angra got to him.

By the end, Samael had grown so confident in his own intelligence, so self-assured that he was the only one who could set things right—that he had a duty to live on, no matter what the cost—that he never even noticed how he himself was already far beyond saving.

Even now, Coyote could feel the same thing happening to him. Every slight ever committed against him filled him with irrational anger; every mistake he'd ever made threatened to cast him down into a bottomless pit of despair. The pain of losing Lilynette felt more acute than ever, like a horrible, weeping fault line etched into his heart; one threatened to split his soul in half all over again.

But he couldn't give up. Not now; not when he was this close to the answer he sought.

He dove even deeper into the whirling maelstrom of corrupted souls; allowed the black tar to wash over him as he reached out to the prize awaiting him at the bottom of that blackest abyss:

Angra Mainyu's first memory. The truth of how and why he had become a god, long before Samael had cast him down to become a Demon. And what it revealed to Coyote was a tableau of utter, primordial chaos.

Coyote took in a deep, wheezing breath as he suddenly found himself corporeal again. He was floating in mid-air, high above a constantly-shifting landscape of sandy dunes and gale-force winds. It seemed he would be reliving this particular memory in person, rather than through a mental slideshow.

It was a scene of Hueco Mundo, yet at the same time it was not. Not yet, at least. What Coyote saw was raw, unstable and had not had time to fully form yet. The nascent beginnings of a brand-new world. And there, high up in the sky above, floated a pitch-black sphere pulsating with otherworldly energy.

The Black Moon. And nestled deep within that protective shell, the beating heart of what was about to become Hueco Mundo: El Corazón. A pitch-black shockwave emanated from the Moon, one that resonated with some primal aspect of Coyote's psyche, and despite the lack of words or even sounds, its meaning was crystal clear:

COME

Almost immediately, countless tears in space opened up on the ground below, and one by one, a veritable army of Menos Grande came shambling out of the many portals. The very first Hollows to ever set foot within Hueco Mundo.

There were hundreds of them in all, and every one of them remained standing in place, lightly swaying from side to side as they gazed up at the Moon, as if transfixed. Once the last of them had arrived, the Moon released another pulse of energy, and in spite of the pounding headache it left Coyote with, he could once again the decipher the intent behind it clearly enough:

THE HEART MUST HAVE A HOST

As if they had been waiting for that signal, the Gillian below descended upon each other like a pack of rabid animals, forgoing Ceros altogether in favor of tearing each other apart with nothing but their teeth. Coyote reeled at the sight of hundreds of black bodies falling on and over each other in their desperate frenzy to consume; the entire mass roiling and writhing like a nest of oil-slick serpents.

Then, something changed. Rather than the violent thrashing from before, the mass of Gillian began to undulate in a synchronous, almost hypnotic pattern. Their bodies lost definition, appearing to dissolve and then intermingle into a sea of black tar. And what rose up from those dark depths was a different sort of creature altogether.

Coyote found he lacked the words to describe it, other than that it was positively gigantic, like a living mountain of flesh; and that it possessed just a single, intently glowing yellow eye.

NO

A high-pitched ringing began to resound within Coyote's head.

THERE CAN BE BUT ONE HEART

His headache worsened, the pain becoming almost unbearable as Coyote clutched at his skull.

Below him, the creature born from the fusion of all those Gillian began to let out a pained, echoing wail. Its Mask, a heavy and oddly-shaped thing that covered its entire amorphous head, let out a bone-splintering cracking noise.

CAST IT ASIDE

The creature screeched horribly, a sound born of pure, indescribable agony, and Coyote knew for a fact that he would never forget it for as long as he lived. When the Mask of the creature that would become Angra Mainyu finally shattered with one last, ear-rending crack, it almost seemed like a mercy.

When it was finally over, Coyote ran a shaking hand through his greasy locks, panting all the while. Blood dripped from his nose, leaving a hot trail across his lips, and Coyote could already tell he would find the damage mirrored onto his physical body once he returned to it.

He was feeling so overwhelmed that it took him a moment to even process what he'd just learned. When he did, his eye widened. Of course. That was it! He had to return and let Urahara know right away!

Right as he made to leave the memory behind however, a flutter of movement drew his eye. The newly-enthroned Hollow Lord settled down, its giant, yellow eye drooping halfway closed as if it was slipping into a trance-like state.

All around it, the raging winds were calmed, while the very ground beneath its feet began to remake itself. Entire dunes shifted, and the white sands spread out further than the eye could see. Monumental trees sprouted and reached maturity in a matter of moments.

Before Coyote's very eyes, Hueco Mundo began to take shape. Except, this wasn't the Hueco Mundo he knew. This Hueco Mundo was different: it had vegetation, it had oases, it had life! It was… it was-!

For a moment, Coyote forgot about everything else.

It was… beautiful. And in an instant, it was all stripped away, as two burning green eyes took up Coyote's entire field of vision.

"Ah, Coyote Starrk," Samael spoke. "I was wondering where you'd run off to."


Sweat poured down Ichigo's brow as he struggled to catch his breath, one knee firmly planted in the sand. Beside him, Grimmjow and Katsumi skidded to a stop after getting sent flying just as he had not two seconds earlier.

"How in the hell is he still getting stronger?!" Grimmjow complained, the muzzle of his Bankai weapon still smoking after his latest—sadly ineffectual—shot to Samael's face.

"He's getting used to having Angra's powers," Ichigo replied, shakily getting back to his feet. "If we don't find a way to put him down for good soon, he's gonna wear us down."

"It's kinda hard to kill something… that just Regenerates endlessly from whatever we can throw at it," Katsumi gasped out, chest heaving like he was struggling to get enough air into his lungs. "Also… is it just me… or is he growing horns?!"

It was not just him. Ichigo could clearly see the two black nubs that were jutting out of Samael's bald head, and growing larger even as he watched. Samael noticed them watching, and chuckled.

"I believe I am finally getting the hang of this," he explained, lips curving into a grin that was just the wrong side of deranged. "It is no small wonder I struggled so in attempting to master my Gift. Young Sado's powers offered a valuable workaround, but it seems that the body of a deity is simply far more malleable than my own ever was."

Letting out a soft grunt, Samael bent forward, and two spots on his upper back bulged up, seconds before two draconic wings burst out from beneath his skin and extended to their full span. When he returned to an upright position, his horns had already fully grown in, as had a mane of bristly black hair, and Ichigo didn't miss how his nails and teeth had been replaced by claws and fangs, either.

"Much better." Ichigo did not like the glint in Samael's eyes one bit. "It is hard to feel at home in a body so very different from one's own."

"Oh, now he's a fucking shapeshifter, too?!" Grimmjow complained.

"He always was," Ichigo shot back tersely. "But he couldn't control it—that was why he needed Chad in the first place." He swallowed. "Doesn't look like he's got that problem anymore, though."

Chuckling under his breath, Samael held out both his arms, and Ichigo didn't even find himself surprised to see Angra's tar-like blood erupt from the veins and swirl around his wrists. "Now then. Shall we test just how potent Blood Magic becomes when utilized alongside a deity's black Ichor?

"Grimm, shoot him!" Ichigo snarled out, already leaping into motion before his companions could even react, but still too slow to prevent the spell from being cast. He was just microseconds away from blurring into Sonido when Samael's blood wove itself into a sprawling, arcane sigil, and the next thing Ichigo knew the air itself compacted around him, locking him firmly in place with the sheer pressure of several atmospheres. He didn't even have to look to know that the same thing had happened to Grimmjow and Katsumi.

"Quite potent indeed," Samael openly gloated, drinking in the sight of his three final opponents utterly helpless. "Do hold still for a moment—I have a traitor to deal with, first."

Ichigo's mind blanked out for a second. A traitor? Who was he talking about? No, he… he couldn't mean-!

"I suppose I should have known better than to invite a mongrel into our ranks," Samael sneered, confirming Ichigo's fears.

Starrk! Ichigo redoubled his struggles immediately, but all he managed to achieve was to have Samael heighten the air pressure even further, to the point where his companions behind him began to cry out in pain.

"Kurosaki-san!" Urahara's voice cut through the haze of panic enveloping Ichigo. He'd been getting so worked up that he never even noticed the Tenteikura spell's telepathic link being established. "You have to do something! Starrk-san is-!"

"Kurosaki, he's killing him!" That was Uryu's voice, sounding more worked up than Ichigo had ever heard it. "Stop him!"

"Ishida Uryu and Urahara Kisuke," Samael interjected, and Ichigo was dumbstruck when he realized the man had somehow managed to hijack Urahara's spell. "I assume you two are responsible for erasing the 'Gomorrah'-personality. But no matter—I am the one who endowed him with the powers of a Warlord. I can take them away just as easily."

"Stop it!" Ichigo pleaded, cursing himself for lacking the strength to break free. "I thought you still needed him to keep Angra under control?! Isn't that why you gave him those powers in the first place?!"

"You will find that there is very little I cannot do as I am now, Kurosaki Ichigo," Samael replied. Ichigo startled when he noticed wisps of shadow beginning to leak from the corners of his mouth as he spoke. "I am on the cusp of having every one of my ambitions realized at long last. I have no further need for Shinigami half-breeds."

This was wrong. Samael had never been that reckless—he wasn't thinking straight anymore, at all. Ichigo gritted his teeth. Angra must have been eating away at what little remained of his sanity this whole time. So this was what that damned thing meant when he said he could wait a few hours more. It wouldn't even take that long, by the looks of it.

Ichigo had to do something, but what could he possibly-?!"

"Hadō 32: Ōkasen!"

A flash of bright yellow flames shot him by and cleaved through Samael's Blood Sigil, burning a straight line right through the center of it. The crushing air pressure keeping Ichigo in place dissipated all at once, and in the next instant a massive bullet travelling at hypersonic velocity fragmented itself against Samael's armored chest before Ichigo even had the time to catch his bearings. "How did…?"

"Should have stopped me from talking, too, asshole!" Katsumi jeered, as if in answer to Ichigo's question.

"I wish I could fucking stop you from talking," Grimmjow grumbled, dismissing his Bankai in favor of entering Resurrección. "Kurosaki, get him!"

He didn't need to be told twice.

Bellowing a warcry at the top of his lungs, Ichigo charged forward and used a Getsuga to tear apart Samael's next attempt at weaving a spell. The old Wyrm grunted in frustration, forgoing magic altogether for the moment and swiping his claws at Ichigo instead, all while moving at far greater speeds than anything he'd ever managed while in his own body.

Ichigo searched for an opening as he weaved between the attacks, finally getting one when Katsumi launched Grimmjow himself at Samael like a big, wildcat-shaped bullet by aiming a Shō spell at his back. Grimmjow latched onto the man's hair, jerking his head backwards, and then clung to him while he used the claws on his feet to scratch Samael's back raw and bloody.

Understandably distracted, Samael was helpless to defend himself when Ichigo brought his sword down, and he carved enough flesh from Samael's bones with Tensa Zangetsu to lay bare several ribs and even a hint of spine.

A scream of pure, maddened rage followed, and Grimmjow backflipped off of Samael's head just in time to join Ichigo outside of the danger zone when Samael conjured up enough Black Flames to atomize everything within a hundred meters of him.

"Why aren't you using Segunda Etapa?" Ichigo panted out, holding up a hand to shield his eyes from flying debris.

"After those shots, I don't have the energy for Segunda," Grimmjow admitted. His skin had gone almost as pale as the plates of bone shielding his body.

"InsOLent CHiLd!" Samael's voice echoed across the burning sands, growing more distorted by the minute. "I do not have tIMe to deal with your petty TanTRumS!" He looked down at his hand, which had startled trembling uncontrollably even as more and more black smog spilled forth from his mouth. "No… it's not too late yet! So long as I reach the Soul King I can still-!"

He froze up, standing utterly still for a moment or two, and then all the anxiety just melted right out of him as his entire face lit up with demented joy. "Ah. But of course. Why am I still limiting myself even now? I have the full range of abilities of over TWo miLLIon souls at my beck and call!"

He turned to face Ichigo and Grimmjow, the gaping hole in his ribcage sealing shut all on its own. "My only remaining option is to wipe you out all at once with sheer, overwhelming force," he informed them, sounding practically giddy about the prospect. "And what better way to end the lives of their murderers than with my sisters' very own powers?"

Black smoke erupted from every square inch of Samael's skin, the pale flesh beginning to bubble and warp as an all-new set of arms sprouted from his torso, and Grimmjow's complexion turned positively ashen when he saw the transformation occur. "You've gotta be shitting me," he uttered, hands shaking at his sides.

Ichigo gently bumped his knuckles against the back of Grimmjow's hand to draw his attention. He startled, turning to meet Ichigo's eyes, and Ichigo hurriedly slid his fingers through the long hair at the back of Grimmjow's neck, pulling him closer until their foreheads touched. "Keep it together," he ordered, voice gentle yet firm. "Whatever he throws at us, we can take it."

Grimmjow swallowed audibly, but then his features hardened and blocked out any uncertainty he might have still felt. "Fuck if I know why, but whenever you spout off shit like that I can't help but believe it."

Ichigo grinned. It might not have showed from behind his Mask, but Grimmjow seemed to get the intent clearly enough. They broke apart again, and turned to face the monster awaiting them.

Cackling, Samael spread out all four of his arms, each of which ended not in humanoid fingernails or even dragonclaws, but in Lilith's signature, forearm-length talons. Kali's ribcage-patterned armor adorned his chest, yet had its color inverted to obsidian, in stark contrast to Kali's pure white.

"YeSSS," Samael hissed, the sound even more distorted by the awkward placement of his newly-grown, multiple rows of dagger-like teeth too large for his mouth. "THiS WilL dO." He moved his fingers, the talons producing a whistling sound when they sliced through the air with impossible sharpness. "I would have liked to aDD Alastor's power as well, but a tHOUsand years as a part of my master seem to have dEGRADed his soul too much already."

He pulled back his lips as far as they would go, exposing the horrid mess of teeth for all to see while spreading his draconic wings wide. "Ah well. I suppose I'll have to FiX that, too."

"Holy shit," Grimmjow muttered under his breath. "Bastard's finally lost it."

"No. He just stopped pretending he ever had it in the first place," Ichigo corrected him. Angra's poison had already sunk deep into his soul long, long before any of them had even been born.

"Cease your prattling, child," Samael sneered. "You may have pushed me farther than I ever thought possible, but in the end, everything is still proceeding according to my designs. In a matter of minutes, you shall all be DEAd, my sIBLings shall be by my side once more, and I shall finally rESTore this world to what it was always meant to be!"

Currents of multicolored energy accumulated within his four open palms, and Samael laughed, ever louder and more deranged, as some unholy amalgamation of his own, Lilith's and Kali's abilities began to take shape.

"Oh my god," Katsumi spoke up as he walked up to Grimmjow and Ichigo, sounding more bewildered than in any way intimidated. "He's crazier than I am."

"What the fuck?!"

Both Ichigo and Katsumi startled when Grimmjow suddenly swore at the top of his lungs.

He glared furiously at Katsumi, an accusatory claw pointed right at Samael. "You made this piece of shit lizard out to be some sort of evil, goddamned genius!" he ranted. "But look at this crap! He's just fucking stupid!"

Ichigo could only watch, stupefied, as Grimmjow marched right up to Samael, eyes spitting fire the whole way there. " Restore the world?! Have you fucking looked at it?!" He swept his arm out to gesture at the crumbling buildings and sand-strewn streets so violently that a gaping Katsumi's hair fluttered in the resulting breeze.

"Hueco Mundo is a fucking wasteland because of you assholes!" Grimmjow continued. "And now, Soul Society ain't far behind it, either! You're not restoring anything! You're just wrecking what little we had left, and you're so far up your own ass you never even realized you're doing exactly what that damn monster wants you to!"

"FoOLish, impuDEnT HAlFBreED!" Samael smashed all four of his hands together; all the energy he'd accumulated getting mashed together into a roiling, unstable sphere. "Take solace in the fact that you won't live to your companions perish!"

He raised the chaotic sphere up high; red, green, blue and black-colored Reiatsu escaping from the maelstrom and lashing out at everything around them, then made to bring the whole thing down upon Grimmjow's head.

Both crying out in alarm, Ichigo and Katsumi shot forward, their blades covering themselves in frothing darkness and erupting with a burning light, respectively. Grimmjow staunchly remained where he was, the blue energy trails of a Desgarrón cleaving through the air as he prepared to meet Samael's attack head-on.

Ichigo already knew the outcome. If all their most powerful techniques were to clash like this, then the best they could hope for was that all four of them would be annihilated in the resulting blast. It might just have been the only way to save the world, even.

But still they had to try. Had to somehow overpower Samael and bring this battle to a close without sacrificing their own lives. They couldn't die—not now! Not after everything they had gone through to get to this point. Ichigo wouldn't allow it!

He roared at the top of his lungs, putting absolutely everything he had into a single Getsuga Tenshou and made to aim the attack right at the heart of that cataclysmic sphere, when suddenly, a giant of a man plummeted from the sky and interspersed himself between the two parties.

Ichigo and the others just managed to halt their attacks in time.

"Escudo del Gigante," Chad spoke, and caught the massive orb of destruction intended for Grimmjow with his shield. Instantly it cracked beneath the force; the sphere producing an inhuman wail upon being denied its goal of tearing apart everything before it. "…Final."

Not just the shield itself, but Chad's entire arm shattered like glass, and Ichigo's heart leapt straight up into his throat when he thought he was about to see his best friend get shredded to pieces right in front of his eyes. However… that was not at all what happened.

Instead, the howling of the destructive forces increased in pitch, the entire sphere slowly shrinking down to next to nothing, before it disappeared altogether with a rather anticlimactic little 'pop'.

With arterial blood spurting from his mangled shoulder, Chad righted himself and nonchalantly wound up for a punch with his remaining fist. "…You never learn, do you?" his heavy voice rumbled. Samael could only stare, wide-eyed with shock and disbelief, right up to the moment where Chad slugged him in the face and sent his entire, monstrous body skidding and rolling over the sand.

Total silence reigned.

"Am… Am I having a stroke?" Katsumi stuttered into the quiet. "Does anyone smell toast?"

Ichigo was sort of wondering the same thing, himself. Then, he picked up two familiar Reiatsu signatures coming from directly above, and he glanced up just in time to see Orihime's triangular, yellow shield disappear as two figures jumped off its edge, one carrying the other in her arms.

"Shiten Daitoppa!"

"Hadō 58: Tenran!"

Just as Samael was scrambling to get back to his feet, four of Orihime's fairies united in mid-air to form a dark orange, spinning drill that bored itself into his back and knocked him right back down.

At the same time, a downward gale of wind blasted away the sand a short distance from the group, acting as an air cushion to slow the landing of the two girls who had just jumped.

"I can't leave you alone for five minutes, can I?"

Ichigo's knees just about gave out. Rukia smirked at him, putting Orihime down on her feet before she hurried over to Chad and stopped the ragged wound on his shoulder from bleeding with a simple touch.

"Rukia…" Ichigo began to say, only to realize just how thick with emotion his voice sounded, and he hurried to clear his throat. "Wh—where are your bracers?" he asked instead, noting their absence.

"I don't need them anymore," Rukia stated, a brand-new sort of confidence backing her words. "Those crystals I embedded in them were catalysts for Sode no Shirayuki's power. I was using them as a crutch, if I'm being honest."

She approached Ichigo and bade him to hold out his arms. He did as asked, and only then did he notice the many scratches covering them, put there by Samael's claws. The flesh around the wounds had already turned black and necrotic by now.

It didn't stay that way however, as Rukia ran a glowing palm along the length of each arm and purged the taint left there by Angra Mainyu's Reiatsu in one smooth movement, leaving Ichigo's Regeneration to deal with the rest. "But after that last fight, I've outgrown them," she went on. "Instead, I gave them to someone who can put them to better use right now."

Ichigo meant to ask for details, but was interrupted before he could.

"Why the hell are you here?" Grimmjow's voice boomed as he marched up to Orihime. Ichigo and Rukia both turned to watch. "The one fucking person we have that can raise the dead, and you're walking right into that lizard's open maw?!"

"I know what I'm doing," Orihime replied, not so much as flinching when the two-heads-taller Grimmjow loomed over her. "Urahara-san told us everything that happened. We're here to end this fight."

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes. "…And you think you can do that?" he questioned dubiously.

"I know I can," she shot back without any hesitation.

Ichigo boggled, not just at the way Orihime was fearlessly standing up to Grimmjow, but mostly at the wordless understanding that seemed to pass between the two of them in that moment. "…What do you need us to do?" Grimmjow asked, and Ichigo just about choked on thin air at the blatant display of trust.

Orihime swallowed, throwing a quick glance Ichigo's way. "…I need you to stay back, no matter what happens."

Grimmjow stared hard. "This ain't gonna be kinda some suicide attack, is it?"

"No," she denied, shaking her head. "I promise it won't be like that."

"…I'll hold you to that, Princess," Grimmjow grunted after a short pause, and Orihime smiled.

Having obtained Grimmjow's agreement, she drew closer to Samael with rapid strides. She paused only to take a deep, steadying breath as she passed Ichigo by, and shot him an encouraging smile before marching onward. "I'll be fine. I promise."

Ichigo sputtered in protest, reaching out to stop her, only for Rukia to hold him back with a meaningful glare.

"Stop treating her like a fucking girl, Kurosaki," Grimmjow admonished him as he watched Orihime go. "She's a fighter—have some goddamn faith in her for once."

Before Ichigo could make up his mind on how he felt about that, the choice was taken away from him. With a furious roar, Samael righted himself again, smashing Orihime's drill-shaped construct into a million pieces with one of his four fists. His shoulders heaved, and black smog poured from his mouth in an unceasing stream, his maddened eyes searching for a target to enact his fury on.

When he noticed Orihime coming toward him however, all alone and clad in nothing sturdier than jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, his anger gave way to outright mocking. "This is to be my opponent?!" he jeered, in between bouts of maddened, bellowing laughter. "After all your empty bravado, you would cower behind the skirts of a human girl, Kurosaki Ichigo?!"

"Very well then!" Blood like tar welled up from gashes in both his wrists. "You can have a front-row seat as you watch your paper shield breathe her lASt, agONized breath!"

The blood-whip lashed out, Rukia having to physically hold Ichigo back when it did, and Ichigo watched on, mystified, as Orihime blurred out of sight, leaving only a fog of orange Reiatsu behind. The whip struck nothing but sand, and Orihime reappeared nary a meter removed from her original position, not even having broken her stride.

Samael's face fell. "Ah. So it was your little trick that hid Kurosaki Ichigo from my senses earlier. Allow me to repay you for that." He held out two of his hands, Black Flames surging to life within the open palms, and lobbed the first of the midnight conflagrations straight at Orihime.

Again, she blurred out of the danger zone, the explosion doing little more than ruffling her clothes when she reappeared scant moments later, then repeated the process when the second fireball came streaking her way.

This time, she used the force of the explosion to launch herself up into the air when she rematerialized, then went incorporeal one final time as she shot straight towards Samael—

And cried out in pain when he snatched her out of the air with one giant hand, heedless of her supposed invulnerability.

"Foolish girl," he sneered, eyes narrowing with cruel satisfaction as Orihime screamed. "Thinking you could hide from the Dark God's eyes within the VOId." Her entire upper body fit within the palm of his hand, and Samael squeezed, drawing blood when his overlong talons sliced into her flesh. "The same trick will not fool me twice."

Samael tossed her into the air like a ragdoll, Orihime's hair and limbs flailing around as she desperately scrambled for purchase, and Ichigo wrenched his arm loose of Rukia's grip as he rushed to her aid.

Only to have the sight of Orihime's chest and abdomen being sliced to ribbons by Samael's talons etched into his mind.

A horrible, broken exhale resounded across the sandy plains, even as blood and entrails came raining down in a shower of gore, and it sounded like Ichigo's entire world coming down around his ears.

And then, just as Ichigo was about to sink to his knees and scream; just as Samael was about to erupt in deranged, victorious laughter; Orihime's savaged body dissipated into countless motes of orange light.

"Souten Kisshun."

Two fairies came rocketing out from behind Samael's back, forming an oval-shaped, glowing forcefield around his head. Samael whirled around, and Ichigo too desperately stumbled forward to verify with his eyes what his ears had just told him.

And indeed: there Orihime stood; alive and unharmed, wreathed in a billowing shroud of her own Reiatsu. "…I reject."

"That… That cannot be!" Samael snarled, eyes practically bugging out of his head. "That was no illusion! I sensed your Reiatsu dwindle away to nothing as your life's blood rained down upon the sands! How is it that you stand before me, still?!"

"…You're not the only one who took precautions," Orihime spoke softly. "There's no one who can bring my friends back but me, when people like you try to take them away. That means I'm not allowed to die just yet."

"…I see," Samael murmured, regaining some semblance of control over himself. "This… 'resurrection', was just a one-off thing. A cheap parlor trick; nothing more," he rambled, more to himself than anyone else. "Tell me, child; what will those few extra seconds of life gain you?" He gestured at the two fairies circling him. "Do you truly believe your meager powers can erase a God? That dying a sECOnd dEAtH will make any difference whatsoever?!"

"No," Orihime denied, shaking her head. "I'm not erasing anything. That was never how my powers were meant to be used." She swallowed visibly, clenching her hands into fists. "…What I'm doing is far crueler than that."

She met Samael's eyes. "…I'm giving him back what he lost."

Samael's pupils narrowed into pinpricks; sheer, indescribable horror welling up from the very core of his being, right at the moment where the final piece of a perfectly blank, featureless Hollow Mask attached itself to his face.

For an instant that seemed to last entire lifetimes, the entire world just… stopped.

"Ah…" Samael let out a single, low gasp as he staggered back. One that soon swelled to an agonized crescendo as the very power that Samael had tried so hard to obtain now began to tear him apart from within.

To the backdrop of Samael's increasingly deranged screams, Ichigo finally rushed over to Orihime's side. "Are you alright?!" he demanded, frantically checking her over for injuries. "What the hell was that?! I thought you were-!"

"I was." Ichigo faltered at her easy admission. "And now I'm not, because I used my powers to make it so." It took her a little while to meet his eyes, and when she did, her own were wavering. "Do you think that makes me a monster?"

She was afraid. Afraid that he'd push her away, just as she'd done to him upon learning of his Hollow powers.

Ichigo just huffed out a laugh, his heart rate finally beginning to settle down again. "Have you looked at me lately?" He ran a finger along the length of a very sharp and pointy horn. "I don't think I'm in any position to judge."

She chuckled weakly, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. "Then… maybe it's not so bad, being a monster."

They both flinched as Samael let out a high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek that went straight down into the marrow of Ichigo's bones. He was clawing at his own Mask; dark smog spewing from his mouth even as splotches of black spread out across the surface of the Mask like rot.

"…Time to go," Ichigo muttered urgently, scooping Orihime up into his arms before dashing back over to the rest of the group with Sonido.

"What the fuck did she do?!" Grimmjow demanded once Ichigo returned to his side. Samael's skin was starting to split open; liquid shadow pouring from the cracks. "Bastard looks like he's gonna blow any second!"

"He is," Rukia confirmed. "Starrk said that restoring Angra's Mask would cause him to… short-circuit, for lack of a better term. And Samael's so-called fail-safe got him inexorably tied up in the whole mess."

"Meaning his own magic is now tearing his soul to shreds," Katsumi finished bitterly. "Idiot. He should have known better than to try and put a leash on a rabid dog, let alone two million of them." His wings spread wide as he prepared to take off. "Let's get the hell out of here, fast!"

The rest of them didn't need telling twice.

Orihime called forth her floating shield once again, and Ichigo and Grimmjow wasted no time in getting on. Soon, the three of them were rocketing straight up into the sky, Katsumi and his own two passengers not far behind them.

"God dammit!" he complained, out of breath and flapping his wings madly. Rukia and Chad were each dangling from one of his legs. "Do I look like a fucking cargo plane to you assholes?!"

"Bitch about it later!" Grimmjow yelled back. "Just get the hell away from-!"

A shockwave of pitch-black, malevolent energy slammed into the six of them from below; the impact nearly sending them all hurtling right back down, but luckily both Orihime and Katsumi managed to steady themselves again.

Ichigo grimaced to himself. With one final, wordless cry of agony and bottomless despair, everything that Samael was unraveled completely, his very essence torn apart and scattered to the four winds, never to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation.

The old dragon had been slain at long last, and it had been a princess who dealt the final blow. Ichigo could appreciate the irony, at least.

"Did… did you just blow up the Hollow God?" Grimmjow stammered out, looking at Orihime with disbelief written all over his face.

Orihime looked back at him with much the same expression. "I—I guess so?"

"…Is it over, then?" Chad asked, looking very much unperturbed by the fact that he was dangling hundreds of meters above the ground, with only one hand to hold on to Katsumi's right leg.

"When is it ever that easy," Rukia muttered bitterly. "Just take a look at that."

Far below them, Ichigo could see a tidal wave of black tar erupt from the spot Samael had occupied, the tide sweeping across the white desert sands and eating straight through any buildings that were left in its path, dissolving them into nothing.

A feeling of dread sprouted within Ichigo's chest, and from the sudden silence that enveloped the group, he wasn't the only one to feel it.

Then, it started. Quietly at first, but soon, countless voices joined together into a maddening chorus of raucous laughter—one that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

The same black shadows that had escaped from Samael's body were now whirling through the airspace above Seireitei; hundreds, if not thousands of them, all coming together as a mass of roiling storm clouds that blotted out the stars.

Then, all at once, the deranged laughter was cut off, and in thousands of voices at once, Angra Mainyu spoke the three words that would come to haunt Ichigo for the rest of his days:

WE

ARE

FREE!


A/N: I swear I had like, entire pages worth of story notes ready for these last few chapters alone. Strangely enough however, when I go to look at them now they just seem to spell out 'FUCK YOU' at me in giant letters.

Speaking of giant "Fuck you's": we have here The Return of the Cliffhanger. WITH A VENGEANCE. Blame Shapooda for this one; she enabled my sadism.

We're almost at the end now, so here's my current outline for the rest of the fic: there's three more regular chapters still to come. After those, there'll a two-part epilogue to wrap things up, and this story should finally, at long last, be complete. Just keep in mind that nothing in this story has ever gone the way I planned and that this is all very, very tentative.

As always, huge thanks to my beta Shane for helping me make sense of my madness.

'Till next time!