AN:I write to music, and a few works ago(on AO3) I started the habit of sharing certain songs that go with the chapters. And out of the many songs I listen, I've chosen "Not today" by BTS, which is also their theme song in my head, and "The Purge Remix and Dyne Halloween intro mashup".
"What do you know about the Ragnarok?" She asks them one random evening, knees hugged to her chest.
"Isn't that the end of the world in Norse mythology?" Urahara responds. Ichigo is vaguely familiar with the phrase, but he never really looked into it.
"Yes. When the monsters and the dead will rally against the gods and the fallen warriors will be summoned together by Heimdall's horn in order to keep on fighting for their world."
"What brought this up?"
"A gut feeling. Soon, I'll need to release my Bankai, and I want you two to be prepared when all of my armies come to turn tides."
"Lucifer..." He breathes out when he first sees her in Soul Society. She growls at him, golden eyes shining with blood lust from the pale kitsune mask on her face. Her hands are coated in blood and there are nine fiery tails moving behind her, with Asagiri is at her hip, sealed and useless.
"You can't use him?" Her growl is almost desperate, tilting her head to the side like a cat. Ichigo reaches out to run his hand through her hair, also scratching behind a white ear. "We'll fix it, okay? Just try to hold out."
Her clothes are torn where she took a fatal blow meant for Unohana just so they could keep their best medic and where an arrow pierced through her stomach, the black cloth hanging loose over freshly healed skin, and even parts of her booths are missing, the material burnt. From what he picked up from Hiyori's curses, Lilly lost her connection with Asagiri and decided to hollowify herself in order to survive.
At first, he thinks nothing of one of the many Reiatsu signature's disappearing. Another casualty lost to the war, and besides, he's more focused on beating the Quincy that had trapped them in a bubble of poison. Then, armoured men appear around him out of flickers of flames, placing their shields protectively around him. Another two hold back Grimmjow, while yet another two force Askin to his knees, a third pushing a blade against his neck. They don't have pupils, from what he can see, and they are clothed in ancient armour, growling when one of them tries to move from the position they were pushed into.
The air pressure changes and a ball of flames materializes between them, a vague figure appearing in the flames. The blaze then disperses, destroying the Gift Bereich.
Urahara sees the wings first. They are gigantic, covered in dark blue, purple and black feathers, and golden armour, dwarfing over the person they're attached too. The soldiers around him bend their knee to the new arrival, while the others only lower their head. Their footsteps are heavy from their armour as they approach Askin, the soldier holding the blade to the Quincies neck pulling his head back by his hair. A golden spear glints in the sunlight, shape familiar.
"When the monsters and the dead will rally against the gods and the fallen warriors will be summoned together by Heimdall's horn in order to keep on fighting for their world." Rings through his head just as Lilly starts talking. He can't feel her Reiatsu anymore, but there's still a heavy feeling in the air like he should be glowering at her feet.
"You thought you'd be able to endanger someone dear to us and get away unscathed?" There's a male voice talking alongside hers, and he's frozen in place. Askin opens his mouth to speak, only to get the blade showed in between his teeth. "You wanted to see what a fake god would make of your world? I know just the place for you." With a flash, her spear disappeared, and her voice became even more hollow. "I call upon you, Osiris, Lord of the Dead, beloved of Isis and father of Horus. I call upon you, judge of the damned, punisher of sins and giver of peace. Your son asks for you, to give you a soul, to take what is right and give what is due. An arm for an arm, an eye for an eye, a life for a life."
She places a hand onto his face, the Quincy beginning to scream in pain just as Kisuke felt his scars burn, the stitches disappearing and skin knitting together. For a moment, he was blind again. He heard the wind ruffle her feathers, Askin screaming, chains rattling and someone being dragged away.
Yhwach is stopped by a shield appearing out of a burst of flame.
"Sorry we're late," Lilly tells him, hidden behind a mountain of feathers he thinks are wings. "We needed to show some idiots what divine wrath really looked like." Kisuke is also with her, looking slightly beat-up and pink around his face.
"Doesn't matter, you're here now." He grunts, letting her Reiatsu wash over him and heal him. There are others too, dead soldiers holding off the living, all clad in the same dark blue and gold of her armour. "Shall we finish him together?"
"I was dying to try my Burning Hirashin." He can't help the snort and Lilly snaps to glare at him. "Not like that. Horus is a sky god, he has other attributes than burning with the strength of the Sun. Kisuke?"
"I think this humble shopkeeper would also like to show his complaints to the esteemed leader of the Quincy."
"Great." She pulls apart her spear, turning the halves into the two khopeshes she favoured. "Let's kill this bitch."
"Are those...titans?"
"Yep."
"Mythological, Greek titans?"
"Exactly." They were standing near the ruins of the Palace, Yhwach's corpse at their feet. Gigantic bodies were appearing in the distance, their skin glowing in bright colours and heads growing different elements of nature instead of hair.
"Can we take them on?"
"Most likely. Back home I killed one of them by brute force alone, and we have that in spades." She shrugged, giving the corpse a kick. "And besides, we could stick one to the throne and forget about this megalomaniac conqueror and his daddy issues."
"It wouldn't endanger us? Someone needs to be connected to all three realms to sit on the throne."
"They are partially divine. Although we could still make a compromise and pin this ass to it. And no, don't even think about it, Bakaoni. If you dare to even look at that throne for too long, every single soldier of mine will be on your ass." He raised his hands defensively when she pointed a khopesh at him, while Urahara raised a sleeve to his face to hide his laughter.
"I won't even dream about it, love. I promise. I'm not leaving you anytime soon." She nodded, then turned towards the still snickering Urahara, one of the swords still raised
"You too, mister. You just started opening up to us, and we're not going to lose all of this progress just because you were reckless."
"Understood. Which one do we target?"
"The one who looks like he has galaxies on his head. Cronos."
"Didn't he eat his own children?"
"Never said we needed him alive."
Shinji is the first to find them after the titans are defeated. They're laying in the rubble, surrounded by gigantic mutilated or charred corpses, Lilly working on reattaching one of Ichigo's legs.
"I knew that you," he points at Urahara, who waves back in response, "could be a terrifying opponent, but all of you combined are...straight out of my worst nightmares. With the mad scientist over there, the pyromaniac mass murderer and..."
"Stab-happy powerhouse?" She offers, and Ichigo pats her arm, too exhausted to really hit her. The titans had brought around their siblings as a second wave.
"That. If you ever attack Soul Society, I'm either joining you or saving my ass."
"We'll make sure to notify you in advance, Hirako-san," Urahara tells him, testing his freshly healed wrist.
"Yeah, yeah. By the way, Yoruichi is going to have your head when she finds out you ran off to get into more fights."
"He was in good hands," Ichigo responded first, inspecting his reattached leg. Lilly sat back with a sway, then fell onto Kisuke's stomach.
"And Yoruichi-san will have to wait for us if she doesn't want to come here personally. We're not getting up anytime soon." The other two groaned in agreement and Shinji chuckled at the exhausted mess they made. These were the saviours of the worlds.
AN: The prayer is made up, and for those curious, her Bankai is called "Divine wrath of the Morning mist"(Asagiri no Kaminoikari). I based the blade's powers on Horus' eyes. To quote Britannica, his "right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing." His theme is "Inferno" by B3RROR, and his form is based on the second picture: post/175802133689/egyptian-pharaoh-horus-ares
And yes, Ichigo knows about 'Naruto', because let's be real, he's a huge nerd.