CHAPTER 8: FINALLY!

As Ichigo dived deeper into his soul he felt some resistance, trying to keep him out but after a while instead of growing stronger the resistance just up and vanished. He had a vague feeling that this was Voice's doing somehow.

To think he would be able to affect someone else's soul remotely. It was a good thing that this person wasn't an enemy.

Anyways, whatever the case he needed to focus on his task first.

Soon, He saw a gentle green light appear in his vision.

"Impressive. That's your life source. Usually, humans barely have a life source bigger than a fingernail. And to think even without Divinity your life source is so huge. Impressive Indeed."

The voice conveyed a feeling of surprise. Ichigo however goggled at this because his life source was a green glowing ball... roughly the size of Ichigo himself.

'If a nail-sized life source is an average human life span meaning 100 years then a life source this size is how many years?' Ichigo felt his head spin from the massive number.

He now understood how big a change was happening to him. In the beginning, he thought it was just gaining the power of a god, that was something he didn't mind having after all one could choose how and when to use one's own power and for what purpose. But gods were basically Immortal as well, it meant that...

"Don't think useless things right now" Ichigo was shaken out his thought by the gentle rebuke of the voice "What you should be doing right now is awakening your partners and stabilizing your divinity."

*Inhale* *Exhale*

"Okay. What's next?"

"Now, just try and sense your life source and create a connection with it."

Usually, Ichigo wouldn't have been able to sense it. He just simply had too much reiatsu not to mention his terrible reiatsu control. But right now his situation was different, he barely had any Reiatsu left, which for the first time was a good thing for him and he had a mysterious helper as well.

Ichigo put his hand on the orb and closed his eyes trying to connect with it.

*Click*

Soon Ichigo felt something clicking in place like a puzzle that no one knew was incomplete was finally completed. A strange analogy but that was what Ichigo felt. Immediately after he felt a warm energy flowing inside him from the life source, the warm feeling of embrace was something Ichigo had almost forgotten, the same feeling his mother gave whenever she hugged him.

"...Mom..."

Unknowingly Ichigo's real and spiritual body both shed a tear from the corner of his eyes.

After a while when Ichigo came back to his senses the voice said: "Now that you have formed a connection with your life source, you can use your life energy however you wish but right now you need to pour your life force into the divinity".

Ichigo did as told and started pouring his life force slowly but surely into the area where his divine energy was. The sudden injection of a new aura into divinity, strangely enough, didn't cause any oddity.

"The life force represents you. If there is any foreign energy in there which wishes you harm, it will attack the life force and will in turn be destroyed by the divinity and absorbed. As for the blessings and other powers which are only helpful, they will be assimilated and become a part of your identity" The voice revealed a shocking fact.

This wasn't what Ichigo was expecting at all, he was immediately startled and was about to stop in the fear of rejection by his Quincy and Hollow powers but then he remembered meeting the personifications of his powers and how they sacrificed themselves so that both Zangetsus could awaken and decided to trust his powers once more.

His trust didn't disappoint him as everything progressed smoothly and none of his powers rebelled.

The first one to assimilate was the blessing Senna gave him before disappearing. Protection against Memory Alteration. This was what kept him from forgetting Senna and Why Tsukishima never targetted him with his FullBring. It wasn't that He didn't, he couldn't.

As it assimilated Ichigo felt as if Senna just caressed his face.

That feeling was short-lived as Hogyoku's latent and inactive energy was assimilated. It was a repulsive feeling as if seeing some sort of abomination.

"What the f*ck" Ichigo inadvertently cursed

"What a Repulsive thing."The voice commented in an emotionless tone for the first time.

They always had some sort of feeling in their voice whether it was cheerfulness or curiosity but this emotionless tone sent a chill down Ichigo's spine.

'I shouldn't ever anger them' Ichigo reaffirmed this decision in his mind.

Then there were traces of Oetsu Nimaiya and Ichibei's energy from the Zanpakuto. They were also inactive but instead of being assimilated they were destroyed and were absorbed in the form of pure attribute less energy.

'Huh, maybe the Zero Squad had some sort of counter in place in case someone tried to absorb their energy' Ichigo mused as he looked at the scene with curiosity.

Then Quincy, Hollow, and Shinigami Powers were assimilated into Ichigo their speed was at least 20 times faster than others. Even the Quincy Powers, which Ichigo was most worried about didn't cause the slightest problem.

'Maybe It's because Yhwach is dead or is it because it's another world or maybe both or did they..' Ichigo thought as he wondered why.

But he couldn't continue his train of thought as he felt a prickling sensation between his eyes.

"Hoh!Nice!" The voice sounded as if they had seen something exciting.

Ichigo looked to where his divinity was and saw Soul King's eyes being assimilated.

'Wait. wait. wait. Soul King's Eye?. Where did that come from!? Why is it inside me?!'

Ichigo scratched his head furiously as he wanted to shout at the top of his lungs but .. but.. he didn't want to make a fool out of himself in the presence of a super-powerful being. So he controlled himself.

After Soul King's Eye was assimilated the prickling between his eyes calmed down as well.

Then Power of Hell was easily assimilated as well.

Now all the energies from his past life had completely assimilated within him and even the divinity increased in quantity as well.

Now the turn came for energies in this world.

First was his Oni(Kishin) powers, their assimilation speed was far slower than expected but it was being assimilated as well. This Power, it felt just like the Sun. The Gentleness, the Harshness, the Life-giving, Life taking, and many other aspects of the Sun were transmitted into Ichigo's brain but the one which stood out the most to Ichigo was how the Sun lends its power to Moon for it to Light up the Darkness in the Night. He didn't know why but he felt gratefulness and respect to the Sun.

As the Oni powers were assimilated Ichigo's divinity increased by almost 10%.

Suddenly his divinity started bubbling dangerously and turning black in some places.

"Wha-! What's going on?" Ichigo asked aloud hoping the voice would tell him.

"A curse! A rather strong one at that. Someone seems to have placed a curse on you. No. It was with you ever since you were in your mother's womb."

"What?What kind of curse?" Ichigo asked with a frown on his face, even though he had regained his memories of past life, he didn't forget a single thing about this life. If he had a curse he would have experienced some sort of discomfort, right?

"It seems to be a curse for stealing your life force. From how much life force it is stealing, if not for your huge life source you would have likely died many times over."

'A curse stealing life force...from before birth' Suddenly Ichigo gasped as he remembered how his mother in this world didn't die to a hollow but some strange illness which continued to weaken her despite all the medication.

Ichigo gritted his teeth and asked the Voice "Were my mom and sisters affected by this curse as well?"

"Your mother, Yes but No to your sisters" Ichigo sighed in relief as the voice continued "When you were in your mother's womb you absorbed all the Energies present inside her, including the curse but unfortunately curses like these maintain themselves on the victim's life force."

*Inhale* *Exhale*

Ichigo took a deep breath and calmed himself down and looked at the blackening divinity although divinity was slowly getting the upper hand.

"Is there a way to find the caster?"Ichigo asked

"Yes, I can tell you the method but you must promise me you won't be reckless and seek this person without any plan."

"That- fine. I promise" Though Ichigo didn't understand why this being cared for his security he agreed but there was still a doubt in his mind.'Arent I becoming a God. What's the point of being worried'

"So what if you are becoming a God? You would still be a low-class God. And even if you defeat your enemies, being a newborn God comes with many problems and restrictions." The voice replied as if they read Ichigo's mind, maybe they did.

Then the Voice told him Ichigo the method of tracking any spell or curse caster, step by step.

While this was happening Ichigo's divinity managed in destroying the curse but it caused the divinity to shrink a little in size, it seemed to have consumed a significant amount of power destroying it.

Ichigo sighed as he saw the last bit of curse being destroyed.

Then came the turn for the last energy to be absorbed, Ichigo's Angelic powers.

Ichigo thought it would be as easily assimilated as the other powers but it was behaving strangely.

"What's going on?"Ichigo wondered looking at the divinity his angelic power was behaving strangely. It wasn't causing trouble like the curse but it wasn't being as cooperative as others as well.

No."One side wants to be assimilated and the other is rejecting assimilation?" What kind of phenomenon was that? Was the Energy having mood swings?

"Hoh. Interesting. Let's see what the outcome would be" From the sound of this, the voice didn't know what was going on as well.

The Angelic energy which was having mood swings suddenly changed shapes like a slime and split into two parts.

One part was then safely assimilated and the other was destroyed and had its energy absorbed.

"This can happen as well?" Ichigo asked with a strange look on his face

"Interesting" The voice seemed strangely excited.

The divinity which had grown the size of 2 story building then started shrinking and it seemed it no longer required life force either as it, itself stopped the supply.

Looking at the life source Ichigo bitterly chuckled as the green orb was now half the size it was before. But still incomparably large compared to human lifespan, the size of a fingernail.

The divinity continued being compressed as it took on a familiar shape. A human heart. A BEATING human heart. And as it took its form it shot towards Ichigo with lightning-fast speed and entered his body.

*Gasp*

Ichigo gasped as a strange sensation took over. He felt the energy inside his body create another set of Arteries and Veins. One that is made up of pure energy rather than flesh and blood and connected to the Divine Heart.

The Awakening process which had stopped because of lacking Reiatsu also restarted without Ichigo needing to do anything as the DHeart supplied Divine Energy to the Zanpakuto.

Under the effect of Divine Energy, the progress which was as slow as a turtle gained the speed of a cheetah. In the blink of an eye, the moment of Awakening had come.

Ichigo gulped and hesitated.

"Go On. I am sure they will accept new you as well. Now go on declare your Domain and Awaken your other selfs"

Ichigo was rather startled that the being knew the identity of Zanpakuto but chucked to himself.

'I should have guessed that the being seems Omniscient from how much they know. Well that doesn't seem that far fetched, considering there are actual gods in this world'

Ichigo nodded as he pulled Zangetsu out from where he had planted it.

Raising his sword up high Ichigo chanted as words appeared in his mind.

Outside

Azazel had composed himself and suppressed the heartache from having his gadgets destroyed and was now doing things the old-fashioned way. With Magic.

"His body seems stable now. It seems he will wake up after a while." Looking at the Kurosaki family Azazel told them.

"Really!?"

"Yay!"

"Thank God"

The Kurosaki family replied with happiness.

That was when the wind suddenly picked up inside the room as huge amounts of mana was released from Ichigo's body.

"What's happening now?!"

"I don't know"

"Then what do you know, you old fart?!"

"Karin! Language!"

"Sorry!"

When the wind calmed down there was a black-colored cocoon on Ichigo's bed. Then a Voice Resounded in the room.

IN MY LEFT HAND I HOLD REASON

"That's nii-san's voice"

"Ichigo"

"Hmmm"

IN MY RIGHT I HOLD MY INSTINCT

I WHO HAVE LIVED TWICE

"What?! two lives?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The room grew noisy once more but no one answered only Ichigo's chant continued

I WHO AM A BRIDGE BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

SHALL NOW DECLARE MY PRIDE AS A PROTECTOR

I WILL CHAIN THE HEAVEN IF NEED BE

AND SLAY ALL THOSE WHO SEEK TO BRING DESPAIR UPON THOSE WHOM I LOVE

I AM THE KING OF SOULS, WIELDER OF THE MOON

SHOOT! AND PIERCE THE HEAVENS

AWAKEN!

TENSA( Heaven Chaining)

ZANGETSU(Slaying Moon)

As the chant ended everyone in the room just goggled

'What was that supposed to be' that was the question in everyone's mind

*Crack*

Cracks started to appear on the Cocoon and then an energy wave passed through the room making Karin and Yuzu stumble.

Once the wind subsided, Ichigo's new form was revealed as he opened his eyes

Somewhere in Amazon Forest

*Kaching*

Two weapons collided in a demolished clearing in Amazon Forest, Scaring away all animals and birds.

The weapons in question were a crescent moon blade and an ornate spear with a dark blue rod.

"Your end has come Were-wolf" The young man wielding the spear said.

"Who even are you? I don't remember having caused any trouble" The black-furred werewolf shot back as it parried another blow.

"I am Cao Cao, the descendent of the famous Cao Cao, Cao Mengde, who was recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms" Cao Cao proudly stated as he dodged a blow to his head by squatting

"Huff Huff" The werewolf was getting tired while its pursuer wasn't even breaking a sweat

" Why are you after me? Are you some kind of monster hunter?" Werewolf asked as it blocked another half-hearted blow by Cao Cao

"Don't be ridiculous! I am just a Hero that wants to get rid of all the evil creatures in the world that may bring harm to humanity" Cao Cao stated

"Bullshit! All the races in the world have good and bad people. Being a certain race doesn't mean you are good or evil-ouch" the Werewolf winced as the spear stabbed it in the shoulder

"Well, whatever you may think. This world is for Humans, it doesn't need other races. It's time to end this, I have had enough fun playing with you. Say your prayers you vile beast" CaoCao stated as he prepared to deal the final blow.

Werewolf closed its eyes and muttered as the figure of a certain orange-haired teen's figure flashed across its mind.

"I am sorry Ichigo. I couldn't keep our promise. I-"

*Cough*

The anticipated Deathblow didn't come. instead, a mouthful of blood was spattered across the Werewolf's face.

Opening its eyes the werewolf saw the spear wielder kneeling with the spear in his hand trembling and coughing blood.

Not wasting any time the Werewolf fled as it knew even if the opponent was unexpectedly injured, it was in no condition to fight

After fleeing for a while it used its teleportation artifact to disappear.

In a certain room in Japan

In a common-looking room, there was a flash of white light as a wounded Werewolf appeared. As soon as it appeared it plopped down on the bed drained of all its strength as its transformation ended revealing that the werewolf was none other than one Tatsuki Arisawa, Ichigo's childhood friend. Closing her eyes she fell into a blissful sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED