"He certainly made an entrance," Uryū Ishida observed as he adjusted his glasses. Standing upon his platform of Reishi with Aaron-Chad while Orihime did the same with her Shun Shun Rikka, Nelliel had opted to just float beside with them. The hole within space was enormous, erasing the refraction of a peaceful Karakura Town behind it. With a near fifty meter width, their friend had erupted forth and left a path open for those behind. "And from what I can tell, his Reiatsu has gone up against Aizen's."
"We should help him," Nelliel declared, her eyes furrowing intensely as the grip on her Zanpakutō tightened audibly. "I don't like just standing back watching."
"There are other Espada still fighting, each of them even stronger than Ulquiorra," Orihime intoned, turning her worried expression to face them. "Shouldn't we help them?"
"Do what you will, I'm going to protect him," The Ex-Tres Espada said her, dropping to a crouch and zooming off the skyline towards where she felt Ichigo's presence. Thrown in the middle of a cold shower of rain, she didn't expect the just introduced vision of Kisuke Urahara appearing in a whiz before her. Skidding to a halt, the cane armed man looked at her with anything but a smile. Swinging her sword aggressively, she shouted at him with urgency in her voice. "OUT OF MY WAY!"
"I can't allow you to hinder Ichigo's fight with Aizen," Kisuke spoke bluntly.
"What?!" She cried out incredulously, a look of indignant rage flashing across her bared teeth and widened eyes.
"I mean just that," The shop owner spoke levelly among the downpour, his eyes never wavering. "As of this moment, Ichigo Kurosaki is the only one who hasn't seen Kyouka Suigetsu who is a threat to him. If any one of us get near him, we're liable to become Aizen's puppets and be hypnotized in order to inhibit Ichigo's ability to stop him."
She had known that she had seen Lord Aizen's Shikai, even explained by him personally what it is. However, even knowing the power didn't mean she could counter it. It was why she bothered to warn the strawberry haired man about never looking at the Shinigami's sword release. But, at this moment, she still wanted to be of assistance to him.
"I-"
"If you really want to help him, keep outside of Aizen's Reiatsu. The less likely he's aware you're nearby, the more likely you won't become affected should he try using that power," Kisuke advised her, pulling out an umbrella from his coat and unfolding it. Placing it over his and Nelliel's head, he smiled comfortingly to her. "Try to have faith in him. He didn't get this far without having an insane amount of luck and great help from you guys. Leave this to him, okay?"
She weakly nodded, affirming with a reluctantly dropping of her head and lowering of her sword. As she noticed the rapid approaches of various other people, moving in multiple directions she turned her gaze once more to the distant presence of her heart's longing. Inhaling deeply, she turned on her heel, rushing off into the horizon while containing a single thought, an unspoken cry to him.
"Win, Ichigo! Defeat Lord Aizen and come back to me!"
Chapter 17 - Dance with the Devil
Ichigo Kurosaki, age fifteen, a high school student and big brother of two sisters while also being a Substitute Shinigami. But as of this moment, he was more than that. Landing upon the soaked alleyway between empty replica buildings, he stared down the one who caused his friends and family the most pain, threatening to bring even more harm with the construction of the Ōken. So, while in this newly evolved form of Tensa Zangetsu, he raised his sword menacingly toward the silent leader of Hollows and traitors to fight for their future.
And also, payback for what happened on Sōkyoku Hill all those months ago.
"'I won't dodge the next attack', you say," Sōsuke Aizen bemused, his countenance restored as his initial surprise wore off. Turning to face him as rain slid down his face and drenched his uniform. A soft smile spread across his confident expression as he stared down the angry Ryōka he nearly killed their last encounter. "You certainly have gained a staggering amount of bravado, for someone I felt get killed by Ulquiorra. How did you escape his clutches when Rana Zolinder failed to finish the job?"
"I didn't escape, I left," He answered forthright, a flash of lightning overcasting his visage threateningly. "Ulquiorra died facing me. He was loyal to you in the very end, even staving off death for one last attack."
"I see," The White General thinned his smile with narrowed eyes. "Then if he lost to you, Ichigo Kurosaki, then he was of no worth to me. Just like the Vanguard, their usefulness has come to an end."
Any restraint Ichigo had vanished in that moment. Hearing such callous words speaking to individuals who had pride in their way of life, whether they hated him or not, didn't deserve this. Rana's hatred felt justified of Shinigami when facing this man; Ulquiorra's loyalty felt betrayed.
A thunderous eruption of his black Reiatsu came in the eclipsing speed of his approach. Swinging his sword he'd meet Aizen's in a timely unsheathing parry. The force his attack that was skillfully redirected blasted apart the structure next to them, sending it awry in an eradicating pressurized wind. Bending down to thrust towards the white worn opponent he'd watch the man leap in a forward flip, evading him at the last moment.
"Raikōhō," Aizen uttered with a turn of his body and a left handed thrust towards Ichigo's back. In that moment an explosive wave of lightning Kidō encroached the earth and arched into the sky. The rain ceased in the wake of the traitor Captain's attack, yellow light swathing over his target. Only when the sight of fiery black outlined with red wiped away his spell did his expression form a look of surprise.
"Getsuga Tenshō!" Ichigo let out a daunting roar, sending an equally as large counterattack towards his enemy.
Crashing point blank, it'd surge forth, pushing the enemy past streets and through entire structures. The black abysmal force kept his sword arm up, putting it at bay as his power poured into his sword. With his left hand enraptured with azure Reishi, he fired it towards the darkness. A chant followed the surging pillar of Kidō that blasted into the Bankai offensive of his enemy.
"Hadō #88, Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!"
An opposing explosion of orange-golden flames as the two attacks cancelled each other out. He didn't bother flinching at the burns his knuckles received with being so close to such a volatile mass of Reishi. Instead, he focused on a sound among the flames. There he witnessed a black sword parting the tongues at high speed. Smiling with confidence he muttered simply, "Predictable," as he raised his sword to parry it.
But in doing so, he saw that the user wasn't there.
Looking to his left he was unable to stop a glove wrapped right fist, crashing straight into his jaw. Being sent off his feet, he'd crash into a nearby building as the offender grabbed his Zanpakutō with his free hand, tossing it back to his right. Swinging to his side, he yelled at him from the distance, "How did that feel, asshole?!"
An explosion of whirling spirit energy blasting the rubble apart. With his clothes dirtied and a bruise formed over his left cheek, blood oozing down his stoic jawline. Any sign of a smile was whiped away as he stared towards his enemy from the distance between them. Even as the transparent flow of overwhelming power came from him, Ichigo raised his own Reiatsu to produce a black-red mask effigy behind him.
"I won't simply destroy you, Ichigo Kurosaki," Aizen announced, suddenly in front of him. With a swing of his sword colliding into the younger man's, his enemy's knees buckled and the earth dipped into a sinking crater. Grimacing with disbelief at the overwhelming pressure that was pushing him down, the auburn haired Shinigami smiled decadently down upon him. "I will break you."
"Los Nueve Aspectos!" A whisper came within the emerald roar of sonic waves of destructive force. Rupturing the chest plate of Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō Komamura regurgitated blood and bile as he collapsed on his back. With his Bankai disappearing, he barely got a sight to see Kaname's new form as his vision darkened.
A Resurrección, showcasing his merger with Hollow and Shinigami powers to bear the resemblance of an Arrancar's sword release. Hunched over, his stature was that of over three meters in height, black furred substance covering the majority of his large body. With four clawed arms his hunched back possess two long, spiraling horns, each adorned near the points with two rings with chains hanging from them. A white cricket shaped mask dominated the majority of his head, only his jawline with sharp teeth were visible as his bulbous opened eyes gave the once blind man vision. With a quad of thin veined wings and a long furred tail, the angular legged Hollowfied Shinigami strode towards him with a pair of Cero being primed on either side of his narrowed eyes.
"We didn't stand a chance," Sajin realized, unable to see the bloodied and nearly unconscious Shūhei lying strewn among some debris nearby. The Kidō Captain as well lied still, her staff lying out of reach as she bore multiple lacerations from the fearsome enemy. Rasping breaths the beast-man looked on with sadness as his once friend prepared to finish him off. Closing his eyes to shut out the lime colored outline cast over him, he somberly accepted his fate. "I'm sorry, Tōsen. I failed you..."
What brought him back from the brink of consciousness was a sudden sound of finger snaps. As the considerably destructive blast of Reishi washed over his person he noticed an opaque orange barrier had formed around him. In addition, it didn't even budge against the weight of the Hollowfied might. Blinking almost deliriously, he turned his head to see that Shūhei and Tanrei Kakushi were also wrapped in protective shells of shimmering light.
"What?!" Kaname cried out, his insect eyes homing in on a particularly rotund shaped older man. What he lacked in familiar apparel, bearing a pea green suit and a dark tie with a collared white shirt he made up for by bearing a memorable complexion of upraised pudgy fingers. That and the voodoo designed Hollow mask that had formed over a Shinigami nearly a hundred years ago. "You-NGH!"
Unable to complete his speech, he felt a mighty collision from a force he didn't sense. Not through his newly acquired Hollowfied senses or the eyesight he had previously lacked. Departing in flight he crashed onto his crooked legs with a snarl, feeling with his clawed digits a bruise formed over his Shinigami skin and cracks over his durable hollow cranium.
"You felt that, didn't you?" Kensei Muguruma inquired rhetorically, his military cargo pants, black boots, orange finger-less gloves and sleeveless muscle shirt bore the look of someone who wasn't a Captain but a human of the World of the Living. Thanks to the specialized Gigai that masked his presence both from surveillance equipment of Soul Society and other spiritual beings entirely, one could mistake that with no outward sensation of Reiatsu. Lowering his fist down, he gave a stoic glare to his former subordinate. "Kaname Tōsen, Fifth Seat of the Ninth Division. You're one I could never forget the feeling of being stabbed through the back after I saw you cut down your own comrades."
"I thought I recognized that haggard, worn look, Captain Muguruma," Kaname chuckled as he allowed his Hollowfication to mend the superficial damage to his mask and his tender flesh. Smiling broadly, he brandished his teeth while scraping his clawed fingers together, akin to razors being sharpened against a whetstone. "I can only assume you Visoreds finally came out of hiding. Are you ready to meet your men in oblivion? If so, I can oblige by making you my first meal as a transcendent be-NGH!?"
Surprised once again as he felt a fist into his face, sending him into a building side. With its infrastructure falling apart soon after, the right hand of Aizen gripped his face, shock painting his expression that he was desperate to hide.
"What's going on? Why can't I follow his movements? Have I yet to adapt to my new form's powers yet, or is there something going on with Muguruma's body that I don't know about?" He queried to himself, eyeing Kensei warily.
"It's...you," Shūhei managed to rasp aloud, his scarred face stricken with surprise at the sight of the familiar Captain's backside. The person who inspired him to become a Shinigami, tattooing the mark he saw on his chest upon his own left c heek as a sign of respect. He was alive and came to save him just like he did over a hundred years ago. "K-Kensei Muguruma. H-How are you alive? W-Where have you-?"
"Please be still," Hachigen insisted calmly, already pouring healing energies through his defensive barrier after unmasking his face. The kind pink haired man looked at his compatriot from afar with certainty. "This battle won't take long, now that Kensei's here."
"So, what is this really about?" The Hollowfied Shinigami inquired as he lumbered back towards his old superior. A sick smile spread across his face incredulously as he guessed what his old mentor's intentions were. "Have you come to bring me back to my senses? Are you going to lecture me what I did was wrong? Or are you here because I'm allied with Aizen?"
"None of the above," The Visored answered dryly.
"Oh?" The cricket hollow angled his head to the side with perplexity. "Then, is this for revenge?"
"You're damn right it is," The grey haired hollow hybrid snarled, using his forefinger to spin his trench knife up into the air before reverse gripping it. A serious glint entered the glare of his blue eyes staring with his weapon held parallel to his lower jaw. "I'm here to kill you, Kaname. For my men, my Lieutenant and me. There's nothing else to it than that."
"Bankai," He breathed out, his body becoming a wellspring of cyan Spirit Energy. Unleashed in a spherical blast of incredible pressure, his arms were wrapped in dark bands of metal, all the way to his fingertips from up his shoulders. With a metal harness arching above his head, he bore only a pair of knuckle-blades in each hand, the ground beneath him hissing with spiritual vapor as the ground quaked about him. "Tekken Tachikaze!"
"HA! You're as naive as the others!" He proclaimed, spreading his arms out as his Reiatsu buckled the landscape around him. "I'm far above that of any Shinigami's Bankai! No matter what power you unveil, I'll obtain my vengeance!"
Leaping forward, the insect Hollowfied Shinigami thrust all of his razor sharp claws to impale his enemy. With daunting power that easily crushed the brawn of the Gotei 13 in the form of Sajin's Bankai, he felt assured none could challenge his martial might. His eyes homed in on the sneering expression of his old superior, watching his one arm raise to guard his face; then drop in an instant of dark mantled Reiatsu.
The multiplication of power was felt as a gut wrenching punch crashed straight into his abdomen just beneath his hollow hole. With gaping insect eyes staring down at the six diagonal lines across a pale Hollow mask adorned across Kensei's visage, he felt the magnanimous gap of power stretch between them in that moment. A surge of explosive power ripped through his chest and detonated his backside, tearing apart his body in a simultaneous barrage of volatile continuous power. His horns evaporated, his mask shattered and the furred skin burned away along with his additional limbs. Blood spewed out of his mouth as his lavender eyes widened with horror.
The surrounding land buckled with an upward twister of Reishi clawing towards the sky. With a crater dipped beneath their feet, it'd be here that their battle would come to a startling and complete end.
"I'm not kind like your friends you tossed aside and awaited execution by your hands," Kensei stated as he withdrew from the abhorrent wound made on the barely alive man that flopped limply upon his back. Undoing his Hollowfication with a gesture while sealing his Bankai back into the knife, he pocketed it while looking solemnly down at his old subordinate. "But you chose your fate the moment you were willing to betray your allies. I don't give a damn why you did it, only scum turn their backs on their comrades. Your mistake was making an enemy with a man you didn't finish off a century ago."
Unable to speak, Kaname simply closed his eyes as tears flowed over his face. It wouldn't be but seconds later that a gruesome explosion of guts, innards and flesh discharged from his remains. His Captain didn't even bother to watch as he stepped away with a grim expression upon his face.
Shūhei was mortified by the horrid end his once dear mentor had undergone. Even knowing that he was about to meet such a terrible fate had he not been rescued by these once seemingly dead men, he couldn't help but feel sorrow. Leaning his head back he ground his teeth together and balled his fists together with self loathing for his own weakness.
"Tōsen," Sajin whispered, his own word unheard by his saviors as he sighed sadly. "I'm sorry. I wish you reached out to us before it came to this. But for whatever it is worth...I am glad I was able to call you friend even to the end."
"So, Aizen's right hand got taken down?" Shunsui asked no one in particular, tipping his hat upwards as he felt an old sensation. Not only did he feel the Substitute Shinigami's power but an additional host of presences that he hadn't felt in a long time. One of which was his Lieutenant, and her predecessor side by side. "Lisa? If that's you, I'm a little scared about having a little reunion..."
"What are you talking about?" Rokuō asked with a confused tilt of her head.
"Oh, it's nothing darling," He chuckled with a goofy grin.
"Ugh, you're insufferable," She groaned with a roll of her eyes much to his delight.
Their casual disposition would be shaken when a particular Reiatsu bore upon the host of Shinigami and its Captain with tremendous constriction. Before them tread the white uniformed Gin Ichimaru, a thin smile spread across his face as he approached them slowly. Like a predator he stalked his quarry with certainty and subdued glee.
"HEY! STOP RIGHT THERE!" Third Seat Enjōji swiftly rushed his enemy, drawing his sword in a whirling arc to cut the Left hand of Aizen down.
Shunsui didn't even have time to stop him. Between the time he unsheathed and silently released Katen Kyōkotsu he already felt a sudden fire of pain slide across his waist. His eyes widened and his mouth gaped, slowly looked down to see his abdomen spewing blood. Similarly Rokuō, the Kidō Officers and other Shinigami present were falling in bifuricated pieces. Just as the straw-hat adorned Captain fell forward, detached from his still standing lower half the tower behind him careened backwards, shattering in thousands of pieces with an explosive crash.
"Sorry bout that, Cap'n Shunsui," Gin apologized, holding his now compressed sword with its edge just beneath his constant smiling expression. "Now that Aizen is free I can't afford to sit on my hands any longer. Just so ya know, I never sealed my Bankai; that's how serious I took ya compared to the other Captains and Gotei pals around here."
Coughing, Shunsui looked up with a strained sight, his vision dimming as his swords slipped out of his grip. With Gin walking away he'd watch him disappear in a flicker of movement; leaving his prey lying in a pool of his own blood among the ruins of the slowly unraveling dimension cornerstone.
"Damn," He laughed sardonically, his final breaths rasping out along with his words. "I let my guard down...sorry Lisa...Nanao...I guess I won't be having a reunion with either of you after all..."
As he breathed his last a single figure, draped in sparkling white was the form of Rukia used by Aaroniero. She breathed with slight exasperation, having done all she could to ensure she slipped away from the Gotei forces coming to reinforce their brethren. The sight of such slaughter inflicted by a technical ally made her smile with glee.
"I'm glad everything was in chaos when Ichigo took off on his own. Such an opportunity to acquire more Aspects and power is always welcome," She thought with a bared grin. From both arms came writhing mass of purple flesh, swiping over the scene, not leaving one body left. Retracting her limbs back to their original likeness, she couldn't help but shudder with ecstasy at the sudden sensation of power and consciousness flooding into her form. Her eyes practically rolled back as drool slid down her cheek, a dumb grin with a flushed expression adorned her visage. "Amazing! Such power, such strength of will and spirit. Once I've acquired enough I'll evolve into the perfect being! And then...and...and then...I'll..."
It only occurred to her now, among the pools of blood surrounding her as the dimensional fabric continued to unravel to reveal the real Karakura Town that she had no idea what she'd do next after evolving to her peak. What was the endgame? Where will it end? What was her resolution?
She blinked, suddenly assailed with a voice that echoed with a number of them. Yammy Llargo, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, and Rana Zolinder all vied for dominance to establish destruction and make her into an apex warrior. Others just vied for acknowledgement, to be known and not forgotten. Each voice overlapped by the other, struggling to assault her senses.
"Who am I?" She queried for a moment, forgetting who she was. Where did she come from? What was her life's purpose? As she held her head she almost believed that she was a Shinigami who had spent her days in the Rukon District, befriending a red-haired man she became good friends with and was adopted by her solemn brother-in-law.
When she graduated the Shinō Academy she met him, Kaien Shiba. And...
"No!" She cried aloud, her eyes darkening to a violet hue as her body bubbled with controlled wave of purple Reishi. Sliding her hands off her head she silenced the voices with a snarl, shaking her head fiercely. "I am...I am Aaroniero Arruruerie! I am the master of these Aspects, they do not control me! I am not THEM; I am not Rukia Kuchiki!"
A hitch in her voice happened as she realized the wording of her denial. What compelled her to say that last phrase?
With widened eyes she felt through her Pesquisa the arrival of Kidō Corps along with Onmitsukidō members dispatched to stabilize the scene. A silent muttering of Kidō herself cloaked her so she'd ghost across the battlefield, awaiting her next opportunity to strike. Though she knew, in due time, she will reveal herself to the world.
She'd take center stage and the charade will end. A smile encroached on her face at the feeling of all eyes turning at her; and their looks before they became a part of her.
"So," Barragan Louisenbairn whispered, his empty eye sockets turning to look at the distance separating him from the landscape not far from the hazardous thunderstorm. "Commander Tōsen has been slain, by someone with Reiatsu akin to an Arrancar. I don't suppose you know anything about that," He turned, inquiring his opponent from the distance. "Would you, Captain Ukitake?"
Jushirō was too distracted to hear properly what his opponent said. Because of his Shikai, Sogyō no Kotowari, he was able to keep their fight at an even stalemate with neither gaining ground. But just recently, a series of familiar signatures and some long since forgotten had come to the battle.
Following Aizen's clash with Ichigo Kurosaki was the feeling of Kisuke Urahara and his band of allies with the Substitute Shinigami's comrades; the one that the Segunda pointed out was one Kensei Muguruma, one that he had heard vanished into the ether many years ago after a sudden masked intruder helped them and Kisuke along with Tessai escape. Missing for over a hundred years to the point they were presumed dead, only now did he realize Kisuke's machinations enabled their survival.
But that didn't hold his attention compared to what transpired seconds later.
Captain Shunsui's depletion of Reiryoku was felt as the far-off sight and sound of another tower plummeting to the earth in the south corner of the mock town. Along with his third and fourth seats with a complement of Kidō officers, lives were snuffed out in an instant. By who else, but Aizen's left hand, Gin Ichimaru.
"No, I'm as surprised as you are," Jushirō somberly replied, doing his best to hide his grief he felt for the death of his best friend and partner.
"Oh," The Segunda caught the sight of the plummeting tower in the horizon. "It seems our dear Commander Ichimaru has took it upon himself to dispatch the Shinigami guarding the southern tower. I do hope none of them were close friends of yours," He sarcastically spread his bone-clad teeth in a mocking grin. "That would be terrible."
Releasing a solemn sigh, the white-haired Captain closed his eyes. He reached out with his senses to check on the state of the southern front. Despite the casualties he felt remnants of the Onmitsukidō lurking in the shadows already underway with placing the Kidō tools over the elapsing dimension fabric. Knowing that things were still held at bay, delaying his fight with the Espada couldn't stand any longer.
"Lieutenant Omaeda, Third Seat Sayuri," He gravely called out, knowing they were hiding not far away at a pile of rubble. Looking up with trepidation and uncertainty they'd hear his words with curiosity. "Please, go reinforce the South Tower. With its collapse the barrier reinforcements will need people of your strength guarding it."
"But...what about you?!" Omaeda cried out with a rapid set of sweat complemented blinks.
"I shall deal with this one," The Captain assured with swords crossed into an X formation. Eyes opened with a fearsome glare aimed at the Espada. Reiatsu rose up in an azure pool that rippled the fabric of space around him. The air swam around him, kicking up into a torrential whirlwind of liquid Reishi. With the sky howling with the power being generated that shook the earth and billowed wildly over the two Shinigami officers below, five words shouted with the luminous shining blast of power. "Bankai, Junzen Sogyō no Kotowari!"
The appearance of the Shinigami would surprise the likes of the God King of Hueco Mundo. Before his hollow eyes he saw his talisman-roped dual swords replaced by a pair of blunt iron poles. Chords of crimson linked like tassles from the pommels up to a floating ring mounted so its center was behind Jushirō's head. In it were a pair of fish composed of Reishi, swimming in opposing directions while colored of blue a moonlit aura of water shimmered over his body from surface's refraction of light.
"Your Bankai? Your Kidō-type Zanpakutō certainly alludes to you being defenseless by not baring teeth of a sword's edge," Barragan chuckled at the sight, swinging his keratin arm in front of his face before tossing it to the side. From his regal sleeve came an enormous double-bladed black ax, its ebony pole handle endowed with golden chains to the skeletal head. between both blades of the weapon. "Gran Caída will be sufficient in dealing with a Shinigami's Bankai such as that."
"GO! NOW!" Jushirō shouted, crossing his poles defensively in front of him.
Without much deliberation, Omaeda grabbed Sayuri by the arm and pulled her along. While she didn't resist as much before, her eyes couldn't help but gravitate towards the pair battling in the sky. The sight of the Arrancar's ax raised above his head and then slashing the air, unleashing an infinitely swifter wave of decomposing Reishi towards him. But no sound would come from its contact.
Instead, the entirety of its substance vanished.
"What just happened?" The Segunda thought with perplexity. "His Shikai ordinarily adjusted and fired back the same attack. Does his Bankai not do the same?"
"Why do you hesitate?" His enemy asked with a deadly glare. "I'm right here, Arrancar."
If he had the ability to twitch, he would've done so. Angrily.
"Do not patronize me, Shinigami," He sneered, entombing his black weapon with an eerie aura of Respira. Pulling it back to his side, he'd unleashing a cleaving motion that'd sweep over the skyline entirely, snuffing out the light itself. Amidst the darkness a sudden pair of sweeping motions immediately wiped away the ebbing shadows of deterioration. There it was replaced by an enchanting glow of lunar sea light, painting a majestic visage for the solemnly glaring Jushirō Ukitake. The sight of it made the Espada livid with realization. "You're, absorbing Respira's power?!"
"My Zanpakutō has the ability to absorb and resend the Reishi of an enemy's attacks against them. My Bankai is an evolution of that concept," The Captain explained, crossing his blunt instruments against each other. Rivulets of liquid spirit energy coalesced upon it, growing brighter by the second. When it took the appearance of glowing staves of light he ground the weapons against each other, unleashing a monstrous wave of towering liquid Reishi towards the Espada. "All power becomes a burden to my enemies. Taiin Minami!"
What ordinary water could do on such a scale was pitiful compared to what a large body of Reishi could inflict. With such immense power aimed towards him, Barragan focused Respira through his weapon and cut the wave in half. As the rest of it collided into the earth beneath him with an explosive pressure, engulfing the land in flames, he was surprised to see the normally defensive Shinigami rushing towards him.
Deflecting a thrust from one of his poles with a swing of his ax, he grasped another aiming to hit his head. A sudden draining sensation made him aware of his folly, forcing him to unleashing a Respira from his mouth towards the Shinigami. Pulling back, he'd swing his free handed rod to absorb the essence of the breath of death sent his way. Maintaining a focused glare he crossed his weapons again in what seemed to be a signature stance.
"Without those tools of his he can't absorb Reishi. If I can maneuver around to his blind spot I'm sure to land a deathblow with ease," Barragan planned with an unseen scowl.
With a raise of Gran Caída he performed a surprisingly powerful throw towards the Captain. During its rotation, Barragan spewed several whipping tendrils of Respira, sinuously moving around the weapon but never brushing up contact with it. Watching Jushirō use one of his weapons to deflect the mighty ax, a maneuver that him reel back with the physical force of its attack and the other to absorb his Respira he'd make his move.
Using a cunning employment of Sonido, he appeared directly next to Jushirō's right flank. His skeletal digits painted black of intantly assimilated Reiatsu, forming into a ball of dark Reishi. The resulting was a purple outlined thuum of Reishi, sent with titanic width and destructive power.
"Cero Oscuras," He whispered out, watching his Cero tear through the cityscape straight across the center. Like an inferno it cut deep into the urban earth, leaving nothing but ash in its wake for kilometers on end. The deformed path of his attack would leave no survivors if it collided into any being stupid enough to not evade it. Having seen the white coat of his opponent become dust in the fading blackness he felt confident he had dispatched him.
That was, till he heard the whoosh of a Shunpo sound behind him. Gran Caída in hand, he twisted around to lay a blur of cutting black, missing all by a hair's breadth as his opponent ducked below. Shikhakushō clad Jushirō remorselessly jabbed both of his iron rods into his enemy's midsection.
"Like that'll do you any-!" Barragan began to shout, his weapon raised to cut him down. The sensation of pain following the eruption of his backside of Respira, however, caused him to f all short. "-B-Bastard!"
"During our exchange before, I had noticed that no matter how many times I struck you with your own attack you brushed it off with ease. I purposefully avoided using your own attack against you so you'd let your guard down at the moment of triumph," Jushirō explained, doing well to look up as the insides eroded as quickly as the outsides. "Your power of Age is absolute, but that never made you exempt. Thanks to it, I was able to defend against your last attack by wrapping it within my Reiatsu as well as finish you off. My sincerest apologies for the deception, oh King of Hueco Mundo."
"UNFORGIVABLE!" The Segunda shouted in rabid anger. Even as his lower body disappeared his weapon swung down to cut his enemy in two. Watching him evade with a swift Shunpo, he snarled with his weapon shaking in his grip. "Damn you, Shinigami! I hope Aizen and the rest of you kill each other. None of you were fit to best me! HOLLOW KIND SUCH AS ME WILL NEVER BE LESSER OF YOU!"
"I never claimed to be stronger than you, Espada. Your own power became your own undoing. Perhaps you should ponder your own hubris in the next life," Jushirō stated solemnly, closing his eyes as his two poles clasped together into a single sealed blade. As he sheathed it, his eyes reopened to watch the last of the Segunda disappear in an abysmal wave of ash, his crown falling to become one with the void it sentenced all others to.
"Shunsui, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," He apologized silently, eyes closed and head bowed. "I will do all I can to protect those you cherished. Count on me, my old friend."
Coyote Starrk was no stranger to the concept of loss. He had felt it for countless years since before he had split apart, unknowingly becoming an Arrancar just as his other half did. Even then their friends still died that were in awe of his strength and rallied by him. His own power became a burden, something no one could ever truly understand.
That was, until he met him; Sōsuke Aizen. From him he felt power even greater than himself and an ambition to soar higher than the heavens. He had gathered the best that Hueco Mundo had to offer, building an army of strong Shinigamified Hollows. It was the perfect medication for the lonliness he felt. While he felt comfortable with the Espada he had felt still wary of approaching any Arrancar beneath his level of strength, fear that he'd kill them by simply being next to them.
Still, he was respected and even worth bragging about by those he encountered. It gave him comfort that he could treat others as equals even if they were less so.
But, assurredly, they were snuffed out. One by one they fell in battle, wiped out by the Shinigami. The pack he yearned to run with was becoming less populated. Among the ranks were simply himself and the most elite soldiers under Aizen. Now even Commander Tōsen and Segunda Barragan fell to enemy blades.
Crashing his blade against Unohana's, he couldn't help but bear a look of melancholy. They had nearly been claimed by the aforementioned Espada's last attack before his depleting Reiatsu vanished. Now, he almost wish he had been caught in the crossfire.
"What's with that look, Espada?" The Fourth Division Captain asked as her Reishi blade ground against his. "You can't be, sad, by your comrades' defeat?"
"Maybe I am," The Primera retorted dryly, releasing a gesture-less blast of his Cero from his chest. While deflected it with her sword he jumped up to perform a downward stroke of his weapon. Watching her casually backhand the flat of his sword away, he watched his mark erupt the earth and create an intense blast wave. Feeling a kick land into his stomach making him flinch, but managed to twist around to parry a follow-up slash against his aerial sprawling frame. Flipping back onto his feet, he grimaced as he watched a handful of daggers thrown his way.
"Dammit," He bemoaned inwardly, quickly flourishing his sword to deflect the projectiles. Realizing it was a distraction, he performed Sonido to avoid a powerful slash sent by his enemy. With the arc of light carrying on for several dozen meters emphasizing her lethal ability, he glowered as he raised his sword to once again fend off a flurry of sword strikes by her. "Why do I have to fight somebody so strong?"
"To think Zaraki was beaten by someone with such low self-esteem," Unohana sighed with disappointment. She had felt the disappearance of Shunsui not long ago but masked her feelings about an age-old associate of hers. She had known him since he was but a child, back when she was a young woman. Now he and Captain Sui-Feng added to the casualties that she couldn't save. "But I guess I shouldn't talk, given I wasn't able to save my own comrades. My body truly is only fitted for the art of killing in the end."
Saying that, Starrk was greeted with the sight of the one-eyed manta ray creature soaring over the sky. Performing a nosedive, it'd spiral till it contorted into a narrow shape. In a shearing of organic tissue into a mantle of Reiatsu, it'd form the nodachi he remembered her carrying. In her grip, she smiled with a blissful expression, her free hand untying the knots in her braided hair.
"Regardless, it's good that I can wield my sword against an enemy," She announced, her hair unfurled to reveal a scar above her cleavage at the top of her kosode's opening. Once again her incredible Reiatsu filled the air, smothering the Primera in its lethal intent. With a look between apprehension and sorrow, he raised his sword up in a defensive stance.
"KICK HER ASS, STARRK!" They'd hear a sprite voice, youthful and feisty, from the distance. From a still standing structure she stood upon the roof, arms raised and hands cupped over her mouth. Lilynette brazenly decided to tell her partner and friend to shape up. "YOU'RE THE PRIMERA! SHOW HER WHAT THAT MEANS!"
"Lilynette," He replied, while Unohana looked on with confusion. Turning to look away with a look of stricken fear, he shuddered visibly. "I'm...I couldn't save anyone...I'll be alone-"
"HEY! WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!" She cried out, kicking off the rooftop with a landing run. She huffed and puffed as she continued to shout to him. "YOU'RE NUMBER ONE! YOU WON'T LOSE TO THIS HAG! YOU CAN'T LOSE TO ANYBODY! AFTER ALL," Skidding to a halt, she'd catch her breath with her hands on her knees, finishing her sentence as Starrk looked at her with surprise. "You got me, so you'll never be alone. Right, Starrk?"
For a long while, he felt he lost the ability to speak. He couldn't help but remember the day they met, two halves of the same whole. The longing for the friendship became too great of a burden to bear so their original split them in two. With barely rags to call clothes, they huddled close and called each other friends under the light of Hueco Mundo's moon.
"What's your name?"
"Starrk. Coyote Starrk. And you?"
"Lilynette Gingerbuck. What are we going to do, Starrk?"
"Anything we want."
"Then, where are we going to go?"
"Anywhere. We'll go together. No matter where."
A dawning of remembrance from that pledge he gave to her was like a punch to the gut. Aizen's promise never counted on them being separated. Even if their friends withered away to dust, they still had each other. Till the end of time, they'd never be alone.
"Who's this kid, Arrancar? Your Fracción?" Unohana asked with an annoyed expression; like a predator whose meal is interrupted, she was eager to be rid of distractions.
"Yeah," Starrk replied, his face and voice becoming more stoic than it had been before. Turning to look at her, Lilynette looked at her angrily, sticking a tongue out at her. Her antics were silenced when the Espada's hand touched her mask covered head. "But it's a little more than that. Ordinarily our Zanpakutō seal our Hollowfied power. You see, we are one being and we gain our true form when we combine."
"Fusion? What kind of technique is this?" Unohana furrowed her brows with further misunderstanding. She had never seen or let alone heard of such an unorthodox method of releasing their powers. In a halo of light spiraling around Lilynette, the smaller Arrancar disappeared entirely...
...and her Reiatsu merged that with the other's.
"Kick About," Coyote Starrk declared in a rare shout. "Los Lobos!"
An azure-white flame of Reiatsu surged upward, shooting high up into the sky while burning intensely around the earth. What Unohana find strange as there was no heat coming from the Reiatsu. In fact, she could barely feel anything emitting off the maelstrom of projected power. Her eyes widened as the last tongue disappeared, a cloud of smoke parting to reveal a crouched Coyote Starrk.
His appearance changed in mere aesthetics. A white buttoned-up leather uniform with grey furred sleeves, leggings, around his waist and up around his neck in a collar. With a black lens hollow eye piece to symbolize his mask fragment, both hands wielded what looked like silver ringed triggers on embroidered silver sided black pistols. Standing up with a huffing sigh, he looked forward with renewed vigor, cocking one pistol right next to his head to his right visible eye.
"Let's go, Lilynette," He murmured lowly.
Tōshirō couldn't have described an uphill battle more apropos than he had now. The Tres Espada she may be, but Tier Harribel was a monster compared to him. She shrugged off attacks virtually unfazed and continued to incur exhaustion to damage on his body. He bled profusely from two deep gashes over his chest while bruises collected over his ice and Shikhakushō covered body. With a battered Haori still clinging to him, the raging storm around him only furthered the conflict's decaying status quos.
"It looks like you're running out of time, Captain Hitsugaya," The Espada belittled him as her eyes observed his deteriorating ice petals. What was once half was now only a third intact. "Your Bankai is about to disappear, isn't it? When the last of those ice petals dissipate, your time has run out."
He could only grimace as he looked at the slow decay of the purple hued frozen water floating behind him. With sweat beading down his face, he looked on with a determined expression.
"Not going to confirm or deny it? That's fine," Tier sighed, her body propelling itself faster than the wounded Shinigami could perceive. With a swing of her enormous weapon, she intended to cut him down with a mantle of water wrapped around it. "I'll kill you while you still have some dignity left."
Before both of their eyes a flash of gold intercepted the enormous weapon. As moisture splashed with the concussive wave of her powerful stroke she witnessed a buzzing arrow of light emerge from the shield as well. Evading with a swift Sonido, she felt an equally fast signature appear to her upper right. A swipe of her Reiatsu wrapped pata deflected a horde of Reishi arrows while making her enemy backpedal to avoid the kickback of her counter. The final attack was a thrust from behind, causing her to twist around and catch the weapon, halting it from reaching her barely covered bosom.
"So," Tier spoke with cool realization, her hand wrapped around the upper point of the double-headed lance, eyes staring down at the centauress using one hand to direct it up at her successor. "The traitor shows her face. Didn't think you'd have the guts to do so."
"The only traitor is the one who serves that monster," She snapped back, forming a Cero at the tip of the weapon.
With a sigh, the Tres Espada turned the weapon away so the beam of scarlet light would punch a hole in the stormy heavens. Pulling her in close, she'd land a kick to the centauress Arrancar's abdomen, sending her crashing into the earth below. Tossing her lance up into the air she threw it down with prejudice, her target narily avoiding a deadly mark when Nelliel performed a dexterous somersault away from her weapon's crash.
Her attention returned with icy focus, her eyes picked up several dozen ice pillars rise up from the water filled earth below. Pivoting around her in a ring formation, she turned to glare at the injured and exhausted Tōshirō point his blade towards her. With a counter-clockwise turn, he proclaimed with a fierce shout.
"Sennen Hyōrō!"
Colliding into the Tres Espada, an icy prison was formed, giving them a moment's respite from her ferocity.
"You people need to leave...now," Captain Hitsugaya declared between heavy pants. The rainfall did little to hide the sweat crawling down his scalp and face, the injuries he sustained and endured through wearing on him. Even still he was determined to finish his fight, despite the aid of the former invaders. "I don't know how long that'll hold her."
"Of course a Shinigami would wave off help, even when he was about to be cut in half," Uryū replied bitterly with an adjustment of his glasses. Orihime, while using his platform for balance simply concentrated her barrier to surround the Captain. She focused on his injuries first, finding it difficult to work on his abnormally rising Reiatsu.
"It'll take me a few minutes to heal you. The Reiatsu clogging your wounds will need to be rejected first before I can restore your body back to its peak," She declared with a firm tone of concentration.
"Oi! Did you not hear anything I said?!"
"We did," Nelliel answered with a buzzing arrival of Sonido, her staunch figure gallantly standing before the three as she saw the ice prison crack. "We just don't like listening to authority figures."
In an expulsion of torrential water, the super heated wall of vapor swirled around the Arrancar as her immense Reiatsu weighed upon them all. As they steeled themselves a handful of new arrivals landed in front of them. A surprised gasp let loose from Nelliel at the sight of them, let alone her remembrance of the trio.
"Leave it to us, baldy," Hiyori declared as the high altitude moist air flapped her jacket across her soaked body. Grinning toothily, she held her unsheathed Zanpakutō out, just as Lisa did. Momo somehow wound up ditching her sword between scenes. "We'll take care of this Espada whose giving you so much trouble."
"Three against one? A suitable handicap," Tier smiled lightly. "Unfortunate for you that you're in my domain."
Lisa surprised the fiery spirited Visored by being the first one to charge. With a sword drawn, she attempted to slash towards her, blocked by the Arrancar's bare hand. Tossed aside Hiyori came in with a thrust, to which the Espada kicked away and pulled her leg back to heel kick her jaw across the skyline. During the exchange she witnessed the green haired jumpsuit clad Shinigami bull rush towards her.
"To take me on with your bare hands takes guts," She proclaimed, pulling her pata back and swinging it towards her body with remorseless strength. "But ultimately foolish!"
The instantaneous rise of Reiatsu of Hollow power overlapping the girl's own transpired as her figure disappeared from where her weapon originally presided. Instead she'd find her gloved fist crashing into her waist, bowing her forward. Gaping aloud she felt the wind knocked out of her with saliva spewing out of her mouth.
"Mashirooooooo," Mashiro proclaimed in a Hollowfied tone, propelling the Espada across the sky. "PUNCH!"
Skidding across the sky, she grimaced as she clutched her abdomen. While her Hierro buffeted the majority of the damage, she did feel that attack. The sudden ignition of other Hollowfied powers alerted her, making her Pesquisa percieve them like spontaneous combustions.
"Smash! Haguro Tonbo!" Lisa announced as she slammed the pommel of her Zanpakutō into the mouth of the sheathe, spinning it to form a elongated pole handled monk spade edged spear. Twirling it around her body like it was a simple baton, she swerved like an axe to cut as much as smash her opponent with its sheer weight. The Espada casually used a wave of Cascada to deter her, but the rapid motions of her Hollow empowered Shikai slashed the moisture apart with ease.
Somersaulting over the Visored's assault, the Arrancar felt the other partner appear behind her vertically inverted frame with her own released sword.
"Chop Cleanly, Kubikiri Orochi!" The twin-tailed Hollowfied Shinigami snarled out with a downward chop towards her target. Making contact with a well timed spin parry of the pata, she sent the Espada rocketing down to the earth with a visible explosion of disheveled earth. Chuckling she tilted the mask partially upright so her blackened eyes and cocky grin was exposed. "How did ya like that, bitch?!"
"Wow," Orihime remarked with an owlish set of blinks. "Those three are really strong."
"To put an Espada on the defense like that is an accomplishment in of itself," Uryū remarked as he straightened his moist spectacles.
"It won't be enough," Tōshirō told them as he visibly grimaced at the sight of the Arrancar no longer at the crash site. Even through the Shun Shun Rikka barrier he could tell she had already recovered. "That only slowed her down a little."
"Dientes del Tiburón!"
The sudden sound of static triggered alertness in the pint-sized powerhouse. Twisting around while pulling her mask fully on again, her cleaver barely staved off what looked like an enormous water-formed jaw of a shark. Opening her mask she released a Cero to destroy the water construct, left open to a follow-up La Gota spear. Crashing into her with explosive power, her clothes were shredded and blood spewed from a partially lower jawed mask.
"Be careful!" Mashiro placated her with a timely catch.
"I'm fine," Hiyori grimaced as she wrenched herself from her comrade's grip.
"You don't look it," Lisa commented.
"SHUT UP!"
"Wait, what is she-?" Mashiro inquired with a startled squeak. The other two also gawked as a yellow outlined sphere of blackness gathered at the tip of the shark tooth shaped weapon in the Espada's hand. Swathing over the whole of her weapon she formed a blade of darkness, tinged with golden tongues.
"Cero Oscuras," She whispered with a slash, unleashing an arc of abysmal Reishi towards the trio.
Replying with their own rapidly formed Cero, the trio's blended together into a singular beam of destructive force. Despite its formidable pressure the blade's shape cut through it with ease, the darkness erroding the light towards the three. But in a moment of hesitation, Nelliel placed a palm into the swathing shadow and inhaled deeply. Swallowing the black Reishi like soup, her gloved palm burned at the contact of such dangerous power but endured regardless of her own safety.
When Tier stared wide-eyed, her face became guarded as Nelliel screamed a Cero Doble of Cero Oscuras back at her.
"Impressive," She murmured, coalescing a torrent of rainfall over her body, generating a mantle of protective Reiatsu over her skin. With her pata crashing into the ball of volatile energy, she ripped it upwards, releasing a golden arc of Reishi filled water to split the attack in half. With both halves departing into the distance to explode in two independent fireballs, Nelliel and the Visoreds stared aghast at Tier's unharmed state. "But, in this constant fall of water, I am never without a weapon or a shield to call my own. Your powers are considerable and had this been a clearer day, I'd be having a tougher time, but," She finished with a stoic glare, her eyes glowing yellow as a flash of lightning opaqued her intimidating frame in a darkened silhouette. "I have not sacrificed enough to deserve to be pressured by the likes of you."
"Dammit," Uryū swore under his breath, priming Ginrei Kojaku up. "Looks like I'll have to get involved too-"
"That won't be necessary."
Orihime looked on in awe as her Quincy friend turned to look surprised. Eventually the Visoreds and Arrancars also looked on with surprise. Among a cloud of cold vapor emitting off the Captain's body, wounds healed and arm restored, the last petal of Daiguren Hyōrinmaru disappeared. His body no longer looked that of a child but a full grown man. The voice that came out deeply and composed, spewed cold air from his mouth as the rain surrounding them instantly turned into snowfall.
"Ordinarily, I've never reached the point where I needed to use my Bankai's full potential. But if that happens, the last petal disappears to show Daiguren Hyōrinmaru's matured power. My young body doesn't exactly have control over it," Tōshirō announced as he stood up, now clad with greaves of ice on his knees down to his feet, similarly with branished arm guards leading up to wrists and pauldrons over his shoulders. Gone were the wings and stood a white-haired man armed with renewed confidence as he stared down the Espada. "So my Zanpakutō came up with a solution by aging my body temporarily while I'm in this state. From this point on, Tier Harribel, this is my domain."
When the 11th Division's elite soldiers showed up, the Tres Bestias were up to the fight of their lives. Ikkaku's surprising dexterous three-part pole spear pushed Apacci back considerably, even matching her strength with his own. Yumichika's evasive skills and own ferocity put Sun-Sung back, using her own counters to keep him from getting too close. Franceska on the other was unable to pin down the disappearing and reappearing Maki whose unique Zanpakutō kept him from facing her at a direct confrontation.
Not to mention, Rangiku's ash cloud continued to harass them anytime they made headway.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Apacci cursed violently, swinging her hands and legs in tandem, the pole colliding handily to block her attacks. When his spear edge came around to stab her in the eye, she leaned her head to the right, earning a nick across her cheek. Hissing she released a Cero from her antlers, forcing him to evade as it exploded distantly. With balled up fists she fumed at Ikkaku when he formed it back into a red-tassled spear. "You think you're so great, don't ya?!"
"Nah, just lucky," The 3rd Seat replied with a candid grin.
"FU-!"
"Apacci, chill," Franceska chastised her coolly, her sword blocking the barely visible Nijigasumi her enemy wielded. "These aren't enemies to be trifled with. Unlike milk jugs who relied on parlor tricks, these guys are real fighters."
"Indeed," Sun-Sung swam in the air, swiping her tail to nearly crash into Yumichika only to see him vanish with a well-timed Shunpo. Her sleeve popped open to send several snakes towards his reappearing frame, their mouths opening to shoot out blades. His Shikai guarded against them and then twisted around their frames to leap towards her. Uncovering her mouth she spewed a Cero towards him, forcing him back with minor damage and smoke trailing off his body. "We should use that and end this little scuffle."
"Right," The Amazon warrior Arrancar concurred, turning to look at Apacci for confirmation. With a grimace she too reached for her left arm.
"What are they doing?" Maki questioned aloud.
Before either of his fellow officers could respond, a scene of grotesque mutilation transpired. All three Arrancars tore off their left appendages, all three of them seeming to gravitate towards each other. Bubbling blood and flesh merged, forming a fusing growth of abominable proportions. Swelling upward it'd cast a dark shadow over everyone as a colossal being was born from it. Possessing a snake headed tail, deer hooves for feet and antlers over its nasal region, its fur covering most of its body and the muscular definition from the latter most of the trio.
"Say hello to Ayon!" Apacci cried out with a feral grin, despite the blood dripping stump where her arm used to be. "Using our three left arms, it's a powerhouse of monstrous power. He'll crush you under his feet, isn't that right?!"
Despite her verbal tirade, the monster didn't seem keen on doing anything. In fact it seemed to be turning its head with curiosity at its surroundings. Raising a hand up to feel the water, it craned its neck up to look at the sky. A low rumble sound came from its throat as if it was basking in the rainfall.
"What is it...doing?" The deer Arrancar asked exasperatedly.
"I think it's never seen rain before," Sun-Sung noted, looking up at the sky as well. "It probably is just enjoying the sensation."
"Typical, Ayon doesn't do anything unless it feels like it," Franceska palms her face with her remaining arm.
The Shinigami observing it could feel an emptiness from just looking at it. Darkness incarnate, its monstrous Reiatsu swirled into an abyss that had no end. Rangiku shuddered at the sensation while Ikkaku cracked a grin along with Yumichika. Maki steeled himself, raising his nigh invisible blade upwards in a presenting manner.
"Be careful!" Yachiru called out from the distant building top. "That thing is stronger than Kenny, so watch out!"
"Are you ser-?" Rangiku began to ask, only to watch its looming form instantly in front of her. Gasping she raised her Shikai hilt in readiness to block, only to see a blinding ray of light shimmer around her. In the aftermath she felt herself jolted from her position, now in the arms of Fifth Seat Maki, barreling her to a building top. In the wake of that moment, a thunderous crash uplifting the city block erupted as the full weight of Ayon's punch halted where Rangiku was seconds ago. "...just with a single movement, it caused that much destruction?!"
"I'm getting goosebumps," The debris stained Ikkaku stated with a grin, twisting his Zanpakutō in an arc with readiness. "I wasn't going to reveal this out in the open. But now, after hearing what our Lieutenant said and confirming what I felt, it seems like I got no choice. BAN-!"
A fist larger than he was bouldered into his frame, shattering his Shikai in hand. Let loose in a a catapulting air pocket, the 3rd Seat was seen reeling through a number of structures, ending with a fifth as it'd collapse on top of him. Ayon himself didn't even look in his direction, as if he had swatted a fly in his vicinity.
"HA! Serves that bastard right!" Apacci gleefully shrieked with carnal delight.
"No one can stand up to Ayon," Franceska boasted with a toothy smile that Sun-Sung nodded with affirmation.
"I wonder what they'll do, now they saw how quickly they can be beaten?" The naga Arrancar asked with a dubious turn of her head, watching the effeminate Shinigami freeze in place at the horrifying spectacle that transpired.
"In one blow, he took out Ikkaku," Yumichika spoke under his breath with kindled alarm. Rearing back, he performed Shunpo to move away from the now motionless eerie giant. Grimacing he landed near the Lieutenant and Fifth Seat. "This is beyond any of us. But I don't think it'll just let us run away."
"I've got a move that might stop him, but I need time," Maki muttered under his breath.
"I'll buy you that time," The effeminate Officer nodded with agreement. With an exchange of looks with Rangiku the two determined to work with each other. In a split motion of Shunpo, rapidly disappearing from the spot Ayon's next urban wrecking fist rocketed towards. The wake of the shattering shockwave, a storm of wreckage rose up into the air.
"Dance ye fragments of society. Soar by the puppet strings of fate's guiding hand," Yumichika chanted, alight in his lime green Reiatsu as he raised his left hand in front of his face. With his orbs glowing the spinning debris was sent hurtling like meteorites towards the standing giant, crashing with artillery momentum. "Hadō #57, Daichi Tenyō!"
In the cloud of dust circling the stationary abomination, Rangiku manipulated her ash into a tornado that swirled up from his hooves to his head. Then she chanted under her breath while holding her hilt, transferring a translucent halo of yellow over its handle. In turn, it transformed the twister into a cloud of sparkling gold dust.
"Ropes of enlightenment, twine those of ignorance. Offenses be shackled and the unlawful be bound into stillness. Bakudō #63, Sajō Sabaku!"
With the finished incantation of the Mid-Level Kidō a high line of chains enraptured the enormous hybrid being. A low rumbling snarl could be heard but it didn't move an inch. Eerie silence followed as rays of luminous rainbow light shuttered in sheets, cast like paper in the air. Conforming around the being in a incredible proportioned sphere, the Tres Bestias winced at the brightness of the luminous orb cast by the Shinigami.
"D-Damn! What the Hell is that?!" Apacci growled out with her sole arm shielding her eyes from the shining prison holding their best captive.
"Saigyoku Nijigasumi," Maki explained, side-glancing the trio from afar with a serious glint in his eyes. "My Zanpakutō bends, refracts and manipulates light. With my Reiatsu I can even cage somebody in an unbreakable prison that slowly crushes the life out of anyone caught within it. Your pet will die where even shadows cannot be cast."
For a moment, the deer Arrancar felt inclined to leap with feral rage at the Shinigami. He dared to use such an underhanded technique on their creation? She felt inclined to make him pay in full for such impudence.
But then, she heard Sun-Sung chuckle behind her raised sleeve.
"You really think highly of yourself, Shinigami," The serpent Hollow sang out, her eyes narrowing at him. "For someone who isn't a Captain, you have a surprising amount of power. But, to someone like Ayon..."
As she spoke, the shrinking orb began to crack and shake. With surprise of his own, Maki Ichinose gaped as the luminous prison was ripped apart like glass. The explosion of Reiatsu blew back the environment as a thunderous ear-rattling roar from the abominable creation roared with arms splayed out. With a crater beneath the feet of his enemy he looked on with sheer terror, as flames of blood ebbed off the drab hued skin of the entity that stared at him with unseen eyes.
"...you might as well be a paper tiger in front of a storm," She finished, watching Maki's body get squashed between two enormous palms. While the crater edged street was split apart with a buffering wind that generated across the wrecked battlefield, only blood splattered the grounds of asphalt and mingled sewer water soil. Ayon inspected its ichor stained palms while the deceased Shinigami's comrades looked on with shock.
"Maki!" Yumichika shouted out loud. To his chagrin the monster noticed him, its hand swinging its back towards him. With his Shikai raised to defend, the Reiatsu that enveloped him send him shrieking down like a burning projectile. Crashing against the earth with his back, he spat out blood and bile, his body feeling wrecked.
"Hadou #34, Shakkahō!" Rangiku shouted out, releasing a substantial cannonball of Reishi towards the monster's head. The explosion produced revealed only smoke with no superficial damage even to bear. A hideous eye opened where she struck, purple rings around the pupil with a yellow sclera that had red veins running across it. A sphere of crimson primed before the ocular region, releasing a Cero to consume her body entirely.
"Lieutenant Matsumuto!" The 5th Seat thought with fright, feeling her Reiatsu and her visage disappear once the energy wave struck the ground. As the fire painted a dreadful overcast of orange and red he looked up to see Ayon's left hoof raised over his body, casting a shadow over him. Bracing himself for impact a lurch was felt as tiny hands grappled his uniform, yanking him out of the way of a titanic crash. Seeing the pink haired superior made his heart jolt with relief and alarm in equal measure. "L-Lieutenant Kusajishi!"
"If you died, Kenny would be sad. I don't want Kenny to be sad," She declared with a smile.
Saying this in her rapid leap, a pale scaled serpent smashed bodily into the pair, sending Yumichika crashing into a building pile. Before he could get his bearings he saw with horror that the sentient tail of Ayon had constricted around the childish Shinigami. Even as she struggled at the pressure, she wasn't prepared for the drops of drool that cast over her face; and the following moist maw that closed over her head to her upper body. Amidst the flames the macabre scene transpired before the paralyzed 5th Seat, watching the Lieutenant get swallowed whole and squirm beneath bulging scales down its throat up into the beast's gullet.
"This...this isn't happening...this can't be real!" The bloodied and broken officer thought as tears welled up in his eyes. When Ayon turned its bulging eyes towards him a fist was reared back. Cocked back it let loose like a bullet, aiming to completely smash him into paste.
But it didn't happen. Instead he felt his body blown back by a dramatic wind that sent countlets fragments of the building pile with him. Looking in his place was the sight of the Ryōka warrior, Aaron-Chad.
"You-!" He croaked as he landed on all fours, still too ragged to fully stand.
"Impressive," Sado Yasutora's effigy spoke lowly, lowering his right arm that had been broken and bloodied from the staving of the blow. "To think you'd have so much power for a Fracción creation. You really are the Tres Espada's right hands to make such a monster. But," He paused, leaping up with a left arm transformed into a white-red limb with a spike jutting out of his shoulder. "It doesn't mean I'm going to let you rampage! LA MUERTE!"
In response, a crimson dye cloak of Reiatsu swam around the monster's right arm. Cocking it back in time for Aaron-Chad's assault, both enormous and diminutive fist collided. The resulting connecting became a crack that split the earth between them, forming half a kilometer of split distended soil. With a vertical ring of Reishi silencing the rain for seconds afterwards, the smoke lapsing between the two revealed much to the Calavera's surprise that their attacks were nullified with no damage to the latter.
"What monstrous strength! I put Nnoitra, and Tesra's strength combined with Rudbornn along Zommari's to its fullest extent!" Aaroniero thought through the duplicated body of Chad. "Even the power of two Espada, a Fracción plus a Privaron and this considerable human's isn't enough. Just what IS this creature?!"
Distracted for a second too long, Aaron-Chad's body was grasped by the other arm of Ayon. The crushing vice caused him to yell out in pain. Pulled towards its face a saliva webbed mouth opened, revealing rows of teeth caging a gate into the abyss. Pulled into the shadow the defeated body could only leave out a single gasp of resigned disappointment.
"What a waste."
A dramatic clasp of teeth over the body produced a shower of gore over the fiery wasteland. Yumichika twitched with apprehension and disbelief. In a matter of seconds Aaron-Chad's body was ground up into chunks and swallowed. Blood soaked drool leaked off the rain sliding off his thick muscular form. The beast of the Tres Bestias seemed unstoppable to all.
"Well-Well-Well," Yumichika heard a voice along with a trio of feet hit the ground. Looking over he was speechless, remembering precisely who these men were. Long ago they were Captains but had been deemed disposed of by illegal Hollowfication experiments. But now they stood in human garbs, one being an english gentleman's another a green track suit and the last was a dress shirt with a tie with beige slacks and an impressive grey collared trench coat. The latter most of which had a unsheathed sword casually tapping on his right shoulder, a crooked smile spread as he looked through the rain at the monster before them. "Looks like in the short talk I had with Captain Commander, his combat specialists couldn't cut it out here. It's alright though, I'm happy to show that old geezer up."
A/N: This Chapter ended up being a LOT longer than I intended. Gomen! GOMEN! I know some of you appreciate my shorter chapters but I didn't want to cut anything out here. I shortened what I could and extended what I wanted to. I hope you understand!
But in any case, I had a lot of fun. With Ichigo's battle kicking off, the Visoreds showing up to help multiple "True Forms" being revealed, the Epic conclusion of this War seems to be underway. With the body count increasing, who knows what could happen from this point on?!
Find out on the next chapter of A Predator Among Us!