A Call To Arms
From Those Who Mean Us Harm
A Cry For Action
From Those Who Desire Closure
In The Wake Of This Transaction Of Fire And Ice
Never Forget The Lives Lost In The Blur
Of This Battle of Crisis
Chapter 20 - White Deicide II Inferno In the Blizzard
It was him.
The strongest Shinigami of the Gotei 13 stood before her very gaze. For over a thousand years he was unrivaled by the standard he created and the society he formed in the afterlife destination of ferried souls. Despite his aged looks he had yet to wither or dim in power since his visual prime had ended; even now he radiated a transcendent heat that could be mistaken for a walking Sun in the body imitating a man.
Even now, in her illustrious display of majesty and power, felt a quiver of fear inside of her heart of hearts. The long bearded visage glared hotly at her from within a pillar of fire that exhumed from his very body. With sword in hand, the Reiatsu that had been temporarily stolen by Wonderweiss Margela had been restored after his inaction post-battle. Flesh exposed, scars alight in deep crimson lines over muscular tissue, the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13 now held his sword not with his usual, callous composure; but with a rattling grip of seam bursting rage.
"'I will be selfish and avenge my subordinate', you say?" Aaroniero finally replied, turning to fully face him with a bare footed step on the cracking earth. Her white Shikahushou, black red-inline cloak bristled behind her by the hot wind jettisoned by her enemy, her floral collar rustling with her long black hair along with her messy bangs. Even still, her eyes remained fully trained at him as she spoke back with bemusement in her words. "So you only have selfishness for your lieutenant? What about this body of Rukia Kuchiki? Or the other Shinigami I disposed of?
"Be honest with yourself, Captain Commander. Your Gotei 13 are nothing more than resources for your beneficial use and easily discarded at your whim. That's why you had no complaint when you were going to execute her then," She then spread a visage akin to a disturbed smile as her eyes thinned in a glare at him. "And why you have no qualms with killing me and the remains of their very being that preside within me!"
It was a bluff, in all fairness. She had used her words to cut people to their core and to great effect. This had aided her greatly in taking opponents off guard or even inciting them to act more recklessly, giving her an opening to take advantage of. Yes, this was going to be nothing short of what was before and then she'd-
"Are you done speaking, Hollow whelp?" The Captain Commander graveled out with his aged, guttural tone. Somehow the air quieted as he spoke, and an unsettled Aaroniero had all but forgotten the presence of all the other Shinigami, Visoreds, Arrancar and her own Calavera she had created but minutes ago.
Now she was standing at the doors of Hell, and its overseer loomed over her within an infernal wrath that belied his calm words he snarled out.
"If so, prepare to join your ilk in ash."
It was only in reflex that she activated Sode no Shirayuki's ability. Raising her sword up in a snow colored swing, with her immediate vicinity lowering temperatures at a frighteningly swift rate, his enormous volume of flame bore upon her with naught by a single sword stroke. In theory she thought this would be a simple energy dispersal and cause perhaps a large burst of steam-
-but she had underestimated the sheer weight of the Captain Commander's explosive Reiatsu.
The world around her detonated under the titanic pressure of two extremes of temperature impacting. Hot and cold blended together into a violently spinning maelstrom, tearing up the foundations of fake asphalt and concrete to the structures around them. The people nearby reacted in accordance but she couldn't see them, only hear the faintest of cries over the howling roar of their attacks colliding. With the roaring typhoon of their power splitting between them, she'd feel the white hot pain scorch up her arms and legs, even the front of her torso wasn't exempt; leaving a scalding layer of burns over her skin from beneath her nearly exposed bosom to her waist, exposed legs and what sleeves she had around her upper arms down to her knuckles.
Miraculously, she had remained rooted exactly where she stood, and saw that the terrain around her had become completely desolated. The ground had become a jumbled, uneven pile of charred earth, asphalt and wood chips with ash layering the air with frost interwoven within. Vapor swirled around as the wind churned heavily around them, forming a thick storm cloud above as Yamamoto appeared before her, his scarred skin flecked with naught but a slight frostbite around the hands and left cheek.
"What's the matter?" Yamamoto asked, breaking her out of a daze she didn't realize she was caught in. When those three words were spoken, she fathomed his presence as right in front of her, his blade of flames swinging over his head in a burning arc of yellow and crimson, crashing down with enormous weight. The blast was enough that she couldn't form a dance, but simply lowered the temperature in a hasty move that caused the flesh on her hands to crack and become immediately scalded in place. "Don't tell me this is the most heat you can handle?"
Sweat slid down her face, as any frost that would've manifested on her flesh was turning into a hissing steam that ebbed off her body. Her white-crimson cloak whipped behind her as the flames howled in acceleration, the ground cracking and the wind spiriting outward to reduce the standing debris into flattened charcoal. Without her own comprehension, her sword was barely holding back her enemy's with her secondary hand pressed against the flat of her Zanpakutō.
"Don't think," She began to utter, veins beginning to throb across her face, up her arms and over to red-white colored knuckles contrasting to red-outlined black knuckles on the other hand. "This is the best I have!"
A singular pulse of Reiatsu and physical force was all it took to push back the elderly Shinigami, his feet crossing the black slabs of charred earth making up the ruined asphalt and concrete that once existed. The aged relic of a bygone era looked on with narrowed eyes, seeing with recognition the appearance of the one Spirit-powered accomplice of the Ryoka, Ichigo Kurosaki. Except they were just his arms, now adorned to fit Aaron-Rukia's build as they were more slender in physique and had more definition to the tone of muscular flesh. Moreover, the rest of her body seemed to emanate a crimson glow, her eyes dilated and teeth bared as a fearsome rage was harnessed that was more Hollow in nature.
"This is the power of my Glotoneria re-imagined, old man," Aaroniero boasted, armed with a vein throbbing grin, her pupils nearly dots in the sea of red bloodshot whites. "I can tap into a myriad of abilities simultaneously, without losing an ounce of my power. A contest of Sode no Shirayuki against your Ryūjin Jakka, perhaps you are the stronger. But how about Ira and Sado Yasutora's formidable Hollow powers enhancing my own?!"
The Captain Commander didn't deign to answer her vocally. He slammed his right foot down to the side and lowered himself in a spread-legged squat. In an instant following this, his body became a conduit of flames, erupting upwards in a geyser of impossibly high altitude tongues of crimson-gold. Touching the sky, clouds evaporated and the atmosphere swirled with a potent crackling surge of scorching temperatures swirling like a maelstrom; a scraping pyre that'd swing down at a speed faster than the eye can track, leaving a blur of red-traced gold straight towards Aaroniero's person.
Gritting her teeth, Aaroniero spun her blade around, the handle extending and the edge becoming a pole-staff handle. With the edge transformed into a trident, the ice-layered spear spun around and formed what looked to be a tidal wave of frozen water straight up to meet the column of flames. While this all transpired under a second, her action was concise and calculated thanks to her current enhanced state.
The effect was instantaneous. Another explosion of two extremes of temperature was met, a howling vaporous wind cracked the ground and spiraled around the ruined battlefield. Though the kickback was lessened thanks to her aforementioned powers, she had felt her knees buckle from the stress from even using Kaien Shiba's Zanpakutō in conjunction with Rukia's.
A silent molten blade thrust straight towards her heart, her eyes barely catching the act with her weapon still raised above her head. Dilated pupils aimed at the razor tip, a surge of Reishi materialized in visible form as a tendril of frost covered psionic force stretched out from her her body to intercept the weapon. As it did, she realized her error too late, as the whole of the weapon feinted back, and a fist swung in pendulum to her undefended jaw to the right side.
She couldn't even scream as the whole of her head felt like a bomb detonated straight against her skull. The Aspects that strengthened her only kept the whole of her cranium from exploding or detaching from her shoulders. They didn't, however, decelerate the rest of her body as it lurched off the ground with the momentum of the punch that carried her across the ruined place her and the Captain Commander's powers collided. Now she could feel every structure, every rise of the land and every perfectly replicated piece of matter the 12th Division constructed to mimic Karakura Town's likeness.
It wasn't until the front of the old train station felt the last bit of her velocity did she feel herself slow down. Righting herself up from one side of the structure to the other, she slammed her spear into the rails held within the older hub of transportation and travel. In a vicious jerk, she pulled herself back with the bowing motion of her frost-covered trident and back to a stumbling planting of her feet on solid ground. Raising up a hand to feel her face, she grimaced as she felt bone and blood cover the majority of her jaw, while gruesome lacerations lined up and down her temple up the side of her hair; now burgundy with her own blood.
"The fact you live after a blow to the head from Ikkotsu is impressive, Little Hollow," The Captain Commander spoke to her from behind, startling her; as if he had been waiting for her to land here all along. Clutching her wounded face with one hand, she raised her spear vertically, grimacing angrily as veins sprouted across her flesh and her Reiatsu brimmed with a burning crimson around her flesh. "Of that you may boast your ability to persistently survive against me. Nothing that you stole, however, is worth bragging about."
"You think a wound like this will slow me down?" Aaroniero growled out indignantly at him.
"Tell me," He began to grate out, his eyes thinning with his sneering lips. "How much pain did Chōjirō endure as you devoured his body?"
A part of her knew that he was baiting her into confessing the murder outright. It was already plain enough based on the Calaveras that she spawned earlier. But now he wanted details? She didn't know his game, but past the chills running up and down her spine from facing such a daunting presence such as is, she couldn't help but curl her snarling lips into a wry smile.
"If you mean 'did I kill him clean and quickly or did I take my time with him?' by that, then I'll have to disappoint you. His death was quick," She admitted, adding with a bloodshot right eye contrasting the dilated amethyst left eye. "But if I knew his death would cause you so much agony I would have killed him a thousand times over to relish your despair!"
"Despair? No, I feel no such thing," Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto stated plainly. "But rage...yes...I feel a hate coursing through my veins the likes of which I haven't felt in over a thousand years."
As he spoke, Aaroniero's glee of inciting him came at the cost of her immediate environment feeling like the surface of the Sun. The Reiatsu that erupted from his pores did so with such magnitude that the tracks lit aflame and the bars melted around his sandal-covered feet. The untouched to ruined locomotives also began to drip and burn from mere proximity, the air a thick haze as all around him became entangled in his miasma of anger.
"You think I care?!" She pressured, uncovering her face and clenched her blood-soaked palm into an outstretched fist. Reishi crackled like lightning from her knuckles, snapping around at the heat and bending the air's space around it into a siphoning torrent of spiraling wind. When the whole of her fist had become a iridescent blue, she howled with her own Ira-fueled fury soaking straight into the epicenter of the spirit formed vortex, throwing it forward in a jab towards Yamamoto's burning form. "Grand Rey Cero!"
A shrieking bolt of cobalt spun like a razor towards its quarry. Zigzagging about in erratic directions in a confusing trajectory, dancing around to make it seem it was in multiple spots of space simultaneously. Not until it curved around and darted straight for his back did Yamamoto finally swerve around and completely vaporize the volatile wisp of blue in a single horizontal stroke.
Left open for a follow-up strike, Aaroniero capitalized on the single action the aging Shinigami took through a darting Sonído above his head. With the trident clenched in both hands, she coalesced another Aspect -one that coiled electricity up and down the haft straight towards the three-prong blades- with the others she poised on. Using Shunpo to add to her descent, she plunged a blurring blaze of amethyst colored lightning through her weapon's watery-frozen blast to maximize the lethal force on impact.
Clang!
Time stopped.
Aaroniero's eyes -both her blood seeping red right eye and her untouched left violet eye- widened as the whole of her momentum was absorbed and halted instantly. There, in the path of her crackling, frigid vapor-lined spear was Yamamoto's spare hand, catching the weapon with nary but a hissing heat coming from his aged, calloused skin that wrapped tightly around the steel of the trident. With fingers interlocked around the curves of the Zanpakutō, digits clung deep into the edge of the weapon and cracked the frame of the weapon in the fiery grip.
"I can't imagine that the power of my dearest friend, bolstered by all of the Reiatsu that you've covetously stole in all of your underhanded conquest," He muttered out, the flame maliciously burned around the Captain Commander as his eyes opened -pupils shrunk with the thuum of his voice- as he stared upward at the stunned, possessed Shinigami. "Would be this weak!"
An instant later, a flexing grip shattered the head of the trident in Aaroniero's hold. The sight of the weapon's fracture horrified, bewildered and perplexed the Arrancar. Shards of frosty covered metal melted in the air, the heat so intense she didn't even know that sleeves of her own Shikhakushō was catching aflame. She snapped out of her daze as she saw him pull back his sword, the sensation of heat exploding off his sword even more voluminously than previously.
Leaping back, she attempted to call upon her oldest and most useful Aspect, her body already dispersing into shadow as she sought to outmaneuver-
"You can't escape."
A simple three words breathed out like fact sealed her movements. Even as she was dematerializing she felt herself give pause and realize there was nowhere to run. His Reiatsu was everywhere. The flames had all but turned this replica of an old train station into a molten pile of burning sludge and slag wreathed in a halo of incinerating death. The light covered every angle and the state of her current self couldn't move fast enough to escape the ancient wraith of fire.
One plunge of the blade into the earth later, and she'd see that he didn't even need to take a single step. The earth itself erupted beneath her, and all around her became a pillar of scorching flame.
Aaroniero screamed.
Ichigo was completely blindsided by the Captain Commander's attack.
One moment, he was steeling himself for a confrontation against Aaroniero and a spawned legion of familiar foes of bolstered power. The next he was feeling the leader of the Shinigami unleash a hellish force from a single strike that could have sent them all flying into the hills from the shockwave alone. The site they were occupied was already a battlefield; but what it became next, was ground zero of a storm of raging temperatures and Reishi thrown about.
There was one valid accessory that kept any harm from befalling their side.
"I-Is everyone o-okay?!" A voice piped up from beyond the ringing in his ears, the near deafening blast straining his senses to home in on a white-dressed Orihime standing upright with arms stretched outwards.
Blinking away his exhaustion, he stared in awe as the Shun Shun Rikka that was originally restoring his vitality had become a dome that enveloped them all in a golden barrier that shielded them from the backlash. Just outside of the barrier he could see the vague silhouettes of the Captain Commander and their vile nemesis wearing Rukia's skin. At this point, he believed any confrontation against this kind of monster -one that not even his Hollowfied state could defeat- was beyond the abilities of any one person.
"The Old Man!" He raised his voice, causing some of those around him to look towards him. "Someone has to go help him! He's going to-!"
"No one can," Jūshirō Ukitake spoke solemnly. His eyes still fixed on the field of battle while Ichigo looked to the white-haired man, alarm still painted on the younger Substitute's features. He didn't waver, and kept his composure even as the shockwaves that followed the last one continued to rage out of their reach within the deadly torrent of heat and frost beyond the dome of Rejection. "Captain Commander is a force to be reckoned with. Even this new monster who wears the skin of my subordinate cannot overcome the thousand years of experience, skill and unrivaled power he's retained since founding the Soul Society. For all our worries, this battle is now in our favor, now that his wrath is boiling over."
As the confrontation raged onward, they'd see a faint haze of the two figures stand still and regard each other. Words were spoken but hardly understood, obviously tensions were high enough both had things to say. But when Yamamoto formed a massive tower of fire, Ichigo's eyes widened with incredulity at the sheer scale of power the Captain Commander controlled. In a single stroke that hardly any present could follow -save for the Substitute Shinigami- Aaroniero braced against it; only for an instant later being struck by a massive strike from his spare hand.
Once the shockwave blew away the fog of heat and vapor, they'd see that all of the bodies that Aaroniero had created weren't present. Did they get obliterated by the clash between the two?
A slow clap sounding from behind them caused them all to jump with a start. Turning around, they'd see the slant-eyed traitor himself, standing at the rearmost of their flanks within the dome. Even as they all readied themselves for battle, the silver haired serpent deepened his smile and opened his blue eyes to look at them all, "Did ya really think that we'd not react to such an imminent danger? That's real amusing how you all looked for us."
Instantly, the earth shook all around them, causing many to falter in their footing. The host of familiar Reiatsu was felt and they'd all realize where the Calavera of Aaroniero had disappeared to. The first to emerge was the largest and caused Orihime to stumble back, the dome barrier dispelling as the massive shape of the Calavera!Yammy Llargo appeared.
"That damn fire Captain! He almost wiped us out, just when we got our bodies back!" He bellowed out loud. His massive body covered in scorched marks and soot from the attack he couldn't avoid.
While he announced his presence, two figures rushed out of the massive hole that was tunneled beneath the fake earth of the modeled street. One with a whipping red trail of hair drew her sword and swung outward, followed by another with blue hair unsheathed his own blade to slash in near perfect unison. The duo's attacks launched straight towards Ichigo, who saw their movements long before the others', swinging his own weapon to catch theirs in the middle of their solid strokes.
"Gah!" Yammy gasped aloud, the blast of Reiatsu shooting out like a bomb from the point of the three's collision. Seeing the sight of the long-haired Strawberry, the resurrected brute sprouted veins across his face and he leaped upwards before dive-bombing straight towards him with a Bala-encircled fist primed.
"Sorry," Ichigo breathed out, his eyes a cool golden as his body erupted in a bright vibrant yellow aura that stunned the sword-locked two and popped the Bala on Yammy's incoming fist. Twisting his sword around to jerk their bodies aloft, he'd wheel a kick into Grimmjow's side to bowl into Rana's right flank, catapulting them away across the scorched battlefield. Then, with his sword raised, he twirled around parried the incoming trunk of an arm of Yammy's apart to smash into the ground; ignoring the shattering earth he'd thrust the heel of his unarmed palm into his torso and shatter through his Hierro, launching him back with a grotesque crunching sound as he'd smash through outcroppings of the ruined model city into dust.
"I don't have the patience to deal with you three," He admitted, a passive glare aimed towards the stunned three's forms. "If you come at me, I'll put you down again."
"Such confidence," A voice declared from not far from the barrier's original envelope. Casting a glance, the Substitute Shinigami saw the silhouette of rosy haired man with bone-like spectacles and a white cloak that covered the left side of his body, his black-lined sleeved uniform remained as others had known him before. Given the look of bland confusion whom he was, the man couldn't help but raise a gloved hand to his face and let out a decadent giggle. "Oh my, I don't think we've been properly introduced, have we? We should rectify that."
A familiar sensation of Reiatsu shot out, invisibly, from Arrancar's front straight towards Ichigo. Thankfully, having experienced it through his battle against the Vanguard, the Substitute had enough presence of mind to avoid it outright and disappear in a Shunpo as a lasso of space tore the earth he was standing upon. Appearing on the Arrancar's right flank, a Getsuga-wrapped blade swung around to bifurcate him across the midsection; resulting in a sparking clash against a visible Chad-like arm of black and red forming in the now visible strand of psionic Reishi that Angelle's Aspect created.
"Szayel Aporro Granz," He declared with a perverse grin stretched across his face, eyes narrowing at the outraged expression on Ichigo's visage from seeing the noteworthy features of his friend's right arm on a phantom limb suspended by his foe. "Be sure to remember that name before I eradicate you completely, Ichigo Kurosaki!"
Just as the Substitute Shinigami felt like pulling back from Szayel's grasp, a surge of momentum crossed the distance from one point diagonally behind him to the next. A streak of gold spiraled in a corkscrew straight into the space where Ichigo's blade was locked against the Arrancar's psychic appendage. Piercing it through, the look of confidence evaporated on the rosy haired man's face, his midsection eviscerated by the bullet of light that was sent towards him.
That was, until it shimmered in the form of a Sonido clone: blood, fabric, and even the trace of Reishi flowing from the wound all but vanishing into the air that he once stood.
"I should've known better," The Arrancar declared with loathing, reappearing to the left amidst the rest of the scattered smoke and debris. A look of disdain was shown directed solely at a white dressed Orihime, dirtied from the eruption caused by the other Calavera, but relatively unharmed. A steely glare was thrown back his way, her hazel eyes glimmering with yellow light as the rest of her body seemed to passively burn with the same hue. "The unaccountable variable, Orihime Inoue. You singlehandedly vanquished many Vanguard and transcended your own self imposed limitations. I can't imagine why Lord Aizen disregarded you as nothing more than bait for the rest of the Gotei 13; I can hardly blame why Aaroniero fears you.
"That being said," He intoned maliciously, his body shimmering once more with rapid movement, dilating the air and splitting apart into many silhouettes. The swift production of many physical replicas filled the space between himself and the two. Unsheathing swords, each one with a different pose than the last, they all began to chuckle with the same decadent voice. Mimicking each other in unison, Szayel Aporro Granz launched himself at the two in a dizzying series of spins, twirls and dives to make evasion next to impossible for the pair. "It's been far too long since I've relished a true battle! I hope you two can entertain me before I consume you both!"
Ichigo and Orihime traded only a single glance. For the first time, neither worried for the other. A look of equal understanding of the threat that passed between the two and that they must work as one to defeat this menace. A hint of a smile was seen on their faces; before an explosion of Reishi of yellow and black spun in a vortex between the pair.
"Koten Zanshun!"
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
Szayel's gaze absorbed the brilliant counteroffensive firsthand. Just as he lunged to strike at multiple angles, the human girl's Tsubaki spun in a twister form that shredded everything on the cusp of the barrier she instantly formed in a perfect cone around her using a silently employed Santen Kesshun. Simultaneously, Ichigo thrust his sword into the ground and unleashed the energy of Getsuga to offset the entire charge sent his way. Amidst the burning flames of black, the Substitute blindingly cut, stabbed and smashed each of the clones with absolute force.
Left alone, Szayel employed a series of finger shaped Bala, firing them from a distance from his fingertips as he tried to delay them-
-then found his eyes widening with horror, his chest suddenly ejecting a black blade from behind.
"Ulk-!" He hacked out, turning to look over his shoulder at a now horn-masked Ichigo, feeling the dread overwhelm him as he'd feel the entirety of a monstrous presence pour into his wound and out the other side of the sword. "N-No-!"
In an instant, Szayel Aporro Granz found himself completely encompassed by a wall of scarlet light. Clothing turned to dust, flesh skewed into bubbling mass and bones were set aflame. He barely had time to let out a pain-filled screech as the whole of his body was eradicated on a cellular level, leaving nothing -along with a stretch of Karakura Town straight into the distance where it'd eradicate a swathe of the falsely constructed landscape.
At once, they'd too also sense a distant increase of the Captain Commander's Reiatsu, along with a crimson-yellow blast of light painting the vista in its rich colors. Realizing Aaroniero must be still fighting brought Ichigo back into clarity of his current enemies on hand.
Considering releasing his hold of his Hollowfication, the Strawberry looked around to see a not too distant series of clashes made by his allies.
"You piss-ants!" Yammy exclaimed, his enormous bulk seemingly taking on a different quality than before. The Calavera's shape was likened to his previous form when he had confronted Aaroniero in life, seemingly dwarfing his first size he arrived in the World of the Living months ago. Covered in lacerations, burns and various other wounds he was flanked by Rose and Love, the pair seeming in no worse for wear compared to their earlier scuffle. Swinging his fist around, he'd suddenly feel the sting of Rose's Zanpakutō, whipping around his face and neck while Love deflected his trunk-sized appendage before getting in close to pommel thrust into his exposed gut.
Also nearby was Grimmjow clashing against Nelliel, the Centauress Arrancar fending off him in his own Released State and looking to struggle against the man's enhanced Reiryoku. His clawed hands slashed in feral abandon, keeping her from launching her dual-headed lance at him from a distance or use it conventionally, flashing sparks and grinding his claws against her weapon's shape. On the opposing angle, Rana herself had assumed her posture not far away, rearing her head to be poised straight towards Ichigo.
Against anyone's better judgement, she catapulted in a streak of velocity straight towards the horn-masked target. Even as she whipped by Nelliel's head, the prior could only watch in the split of a second that Ichigo raised his sword to meet hers. The second later was an explosion of scarlet light as the Calavera unleashed the bulk of her Reiryoku and entered her Resurrección, now clashing forcefully with both hands on her bone two-handed sword.
Orihime found herself the target of the brainwashed Renji, the Lieutenant swinging his Bankai around in a corkscrew of bone-linked mass and a massive head primed with Reiatsu along its entire length. Inoue turned on her heel in a graceful arc, aiming her left hand and focused her Shun Shun Rikka in such a way that the barrier formed a sharp angular barrier in front of herself. Smashing straight into the skull face, it'd crumple in on its own momentum, allowing her to send the aerial Tsubaki around to smash the manipulated Shinigami's weapon hilt.
From that point, it was a simple matter for a conveniently timed Yoruichi to swipe the space of his neck where it met his shoulder, incapacitating him in a loud snap. Eyes rolled over, and the feline-mannered Shinigami solemnly addressed him with a brief glance before turning out of the way of a now appearing Sverrie, whom had adopted her own True Form; the elegant angel-winged, feathery beauty whose power was quite considerably bolstered.
"Don't let her touch you!" Orihime warned her. "Her powers bewitch anyone she's holding into a spell that forces you to love her!"
"Well ain't that tactless-whoa!"
Yoruichi glibbed, moments away from being jabbed by the surprisingly swift Calavera. Just as she danced in and around the dangerous Arrancar's reach, a blur of black throttled straight into the Shihōin's left side. Looking around, she'd see the lower half of a spider body had unexpectedly locked onto her beyond what should be conventional speed. The upper half aimed a pair of crossbows mounted onto each of her arms, firing them at near point blank; deflected in a clever use of Yoruichi's still usable left armed Anti-Hierro gauntlet.
Angelle homed in on Orihime, unleashing a slew of psionic tendrils from her body straight towards the spiritually powered human. Before she'd have the chance to see the results, she'd see the white haired Shinigami Captain of the 13th Division intercept them. The sensation of the same force of psychic energy was felt striking her front, and the petite shaped Calavera howled with pain as she was sent throttling backwards from the might of her own mental attack.
Jūshirō teleported behind the staggered Calavera, startling the reborn Arrancar with his sudden speed. Reflexively, she released a circular wave of psychic Reishi in a distortive tear across space to catch him before he'd attack her.
Cling!
Her eyes fixed on the razor edge of an irregular bladed sword, attached to the other through a rope, easily halting the momentum of her psionic power. The talismans might as well have not even glowed as the other sword thrust into her side, unleashing an even greater force of her own styled attack. Her body folded in on itself like a pretzel, a bewildered expression crossing her face as the whole of her body crumples away with a blast of Reishi filled wind.
"Something isn't right," Byakuya spoke aloud, his body appearing nearby in a stoic erect posture. His eyes returned to being icy cold compared to the barely composed rage that was there; but the white-haired senior Shinigami could tell he still held it in place, if only barely. "Not all of that pretender's pawns are here."
"Indeed," Jūshirō agreed readily, his eyes returning to the chaotic battle, realizing enemies were moving in tandem with their allies. Everything was in flux, and even the distant fight with the Captain Commander was still unclear who was the victor. "It is likely some of them went to help their leader. Perhaps once we've dispatched our own fair share, we should join him?"
"Agreed," Byakuya nodded with acknowledgement.
The two wouldn't have their peace for long, a sudden presence of familiar Reiatsu joining their presence and filled them with a foreboding dread. Looking to their unseen flank, they'd see the grey haired left hand of Aizen himself, smiling with his tailored thin-lipped expression. Thin eyes squinted with an inconceivable emotion, but all they knew by the way he let loose his Reiatsu, that he wasn't there for a friendly chat.
"Captains Kuchiki and Ukitake," Gin spoke in a lighthearted voice that didn't match the intensity of his Reiryoku's output. "I can't allow you to interfere with my colleague's plans. So, if its all the same to you, I'd prefer if you'd stay put; killing another one of you would leave a bad taste in my mouth after all."
Every nerve felt like it was on fire.
It wasn't even a metaphorical kind of pain. The agony was legitimate due to how scalding hot the conforming pillar of heat struck her from all sides straight upwards. The only thing she could do was reflexively lower her core temperature to combat the suffocating flames, the mantle of fire nearly constricting her person into a spasming wreck. The dispersing flakes of shadow that she attempted to transform into reconfigured due to the heinous flashes of fire that continued to ebb past her defenses and incinerate everything attached to her person, eating away at her Hierro and the bulk of her Reiatsu that could be used as an additional layer of defense.
"Aaaaagh!" She let out a strangled cry, her body now hunched over on all fours with nary a piece of fabric to hide her burnt flesh. Coloration of burgundy and black enamored the right side of her bare skin, while red and white enamored the whole of the left side. It was only through a forced manipulation of Chad's Hollow-like abilities that she was able to reinforce her Hierro to keep the totality of her surface layer to expose her muscles and ligaments.
Craning her head up, she looked up with her right eye completely vacant from the socket, while the left was bloodshot around an amethyst iris. Teeth bared, saliva and blood leaking from the cracks over her lips down her chin. She was fed up with this lack of ability to destroy this aging fossil, and he looked down at her with nothing short of contempt.
"Why won't it work?!" She howled out, slamming her white-red fist onto the earth, the Hōgyoku still pulsing ominously but nothing more changed since she acquired it. "Damn you! Are you ignoring me?! Do you want me to beg?! What will it take for you to acknowledge me as master?!"
"Foolish Hollow-"
"SHUT UP!" Aaroniero snapped up at Yamamoto, the swirl of steam still flowing about with the molten pool formed by the Captain Commander's liberal use of his Zanpakutō. "I'm not done! Not by a long shot!"
"Accept defeat, Arrancar," The scarred inferno grizzled out, raising his fiery blade over his head in preparation for an execution. "Know your place!"
Click!
The Captain Commander's eyes widened at the sudden sound, the buzz of entry, and the palpable Reiatsu that exuded from a powerful entity. Turning in reflex, his flaming blade bifurcated a sudden cobalt wave of Reishi, splitting it down the middle and encompassing his field of vision by the familiar signature move of a Hollow's. What wasn't familiar to him was the sight of a gun barrel emerging in the path of his sword's flame, pressing straight into his thickly burning chest.
"Cero Metralleta!" A voice spoke from amidst the smoke, unleashing a cacophony of rapidly discharged Cero at point blank range. The result of so much firepower unleashed at a minuscule range was a line of fiery explosions colored azure, each one flowing outward with deafening shockwaves and pillars of burning smoke straight up into the air. The relentless blasts tore up the line of the train station, annihilating the falsely crafted earth and up-heaved the land in a column of flame dyed in the shade of the spirit particles that tore it asunder.
"Starrk," Aaroniero wheezed out, blinking with her good eye with astonishment as the Primera appeared from the vapor.
"If you can, please heal yourself," The eye-patch side of his face gestured in her direction. "A strong comrade of mine won't do me any good dead."
She blanched at his sudden sass to her. Since when did the aloof strongest of the Espada ever give lip to anyone of high command, let alone Aizen?
Bashing the gun to the side of his head, he let out a grunt of annoyance escape his nostrils, "Sorry, Lilynette made me say something rude."
"Well am I wrong?!" The adolescent female voice cried within his consciousness.
"Not the point," He retorted, his gaze returning to a sudden expulsion of fire in the distance. "He's coming!"
Without wasting time, Aaroniero dug deep into her recesses of strength to make do with what she had. Árbol had her curled waist sprout roots of bland yellow, embedding themselves into the earth while branches stretched from her back. Through conscious will she forced the blooming aspect of the bark to coil around her body, tendrils of Reishi infused wood nestling against her while also covering her head. Instead of creating puppets, she'd reconstitute her body with substitute flesh, organs and revitalize herself.
She'd be vulnerable, but now she was placing faith in the allies she's gathered to do what they were meant to do.
The Captain Commander wasn't delayed for long.
Leaping from the fiery depths that he was pummeled into, the sight of scorched marks across his scarred skin -still wreathed in a thick mantle of fiery Reiatsu- was a testament to how much he withstood in what could've been a killing shot by the Primera. He didn't breathe a word as he zoomed straight towards Starrk's standing post, an arc of molten steel swinging swiftly from left over to the right.
Bending his knees the flaming sword passed over him within fractions of seconds that it took to maneuver, leaning backwards as a result. Maintaining eye contact, he aimed his right pistol towards the Captain Commander's upper torso. Despite it connecting, he saw a flaming fist thrust through his Cero, ramming straight towards his chest. Evading with a timely Sonído, his body phased away as an afterimage was eradicated by a scalding crater of exploding physical force.
Twisting around, Yamamoto sent a fissure of twisting fire around where the Primera had just landed, forcing the Arrancar to leap away at the last moment to avoid another earth annihilating attack. In pursuit, he streaked across the air like a comet of flame, his body a shimmering silhouette within its epicenter. Starrk's eye widened as he caught a glance of his pursuer, alarmed at the tenacity and swiftness that outpaced even the female Captain he fought earlier.
"This guy's relentless!" Starrk grimaced, stopping with a skid, unleashing a line of Cero with one pistol while cocking the other for a more condensed charge. His grey iris contracted at the sight of his attacks being cut down by the molten sword, the wrathful and ancient Shinigami coming in for another attack faster than he wished.
Raising his pistol, he pulled the trigger as the sword came for a vicious fiery cut.
"Cero Oscuras!" He breathed out, unleashing a pitch black wave of smothering Reishi that eclipsed the horizon with its deep onyx shade of destructive power.
A razor edge of white followed by waves of crimson-gold slashed through it, cutting through his left hand's weapon centimeters away from the trigger itself.
"Shit!" He swore in sync with Lilynette, backing up too late to see a walking inferno rush forth with an angled thrust straight towards his face.
In his backward movement, Starrk witnessed firsthand how it veered away from his face with the hairs on his cheek singing through his Hierro. His single eye looked to see how Ryūjin Jakka moved to intercept a massive spear-shaped tower of water; one that manifested mere instants during his close encounter with the Captain Commander. When the two elements connected, the flame exploded in a plume of steam and force that sent the Primera rolling backwards in the close quarters collision he had to the attack.
Hissing in pain, he picked himself up, seeing the Calavera of Tier Harribel standing defiantly in the air. She was already in her Resurrección, brimming with an enhanced Reiryoku she didn't even possess in life thanks to the product of Aaroniero's earlier use of Árbol. Staring down with a chilling, quiet rage, she was met with a counterattack of the aging Shinigami with a straight-out pillar of fire racing straight towards her.
Seeing his chance, he followed up with his remaining gun, unleashing a slew of Cero where the Captain Commander was revealed to be standing. He'd see him turn to avoid the attacks, only using a Reiatsu embroiled fist to bat a few of them away while keeping his sword ready to counter a handful of La Gota fired his direction. Between himself, and Aaron!Tier, the two kept the vicious combatant at a distance where they held a better advantage, using each other's rapid discharges and changes in tact to keep him from charging at every second.
Then, a hail of azure arrows streamed from the horizon, swerving in and around the pair's attacks to impale them across each other's bodies. The entries were shallow thanks to the two's Hierro, but it still left them open long enough for the Captain Commander to leap up towards Aaron!Tier and thrust his flaming sword straight through her chest out of her back. Coughing up blood, she'd reach out to grasp his face-
-only to be overwhelmed by a massive pillar of fire that erupted from within her body, leaving her fingers to trace soot over his grizzled, scar ridden face.
"Pardon for the intrusion," A calm, calculated voice broached the air, bringing the Primera to look in the direction of the battle-worn Last Quincy. Uryu Ishida's raven locks blew across his bespectacled face -adjusting them with a free hand- while holding his bow of light in the other hand. "But I'm here to stop you, Espada."
"Another strong guy. What a pain," Starrk exhaled, looking up at Yamamoto's person rearing around to stare at him from on high. Hoisting his pistols upwards, he closed his eye, focusing on the pair of enemies bearing their aim towards him. Reopening his eye, his body bristled with a pristine cobalt, his Reiatsu becoming a horizon of force that Uryu perceived with narrowed eyes; it wasn't like an alien organism like Ulquiorra, but rather, a mountain peak that soared higher than he could see.
This time, the Captain Commander bowled towards him, wrapped in a dense ball of fire. Sword held in both hands the oldest Shinigami thrust it towards him while Uryu reinforced his position with a salvo of arrows.
"Gran Rey Cero."
As soon as the Primera spoke these words, the space warped between him and the powerful Shinigami. Unlike the time this was used by Aaroniero, this chaotic warping razor of bluish light unleashed a column of jagged lightning that shot straight up past him and pierced the barrier to the outside world. The thunderclap blew away Uryu's Heilig Pfeil, the rest being easily repulsed by Starrk's spare pistol that fired Cero into their face.
An instant later, a steaming frame of fire wreathed into Starrk's proximity, his hand reaching out to grasp his palpably wide face with a calloused palm.
Catapulting him straight through the debris ridden pile of melted framework that was once a dilapidated train station. Wincing with pain, the Arrancar felt his head spin, his face scalded from heat and his nose broken from the sheer force of the man's flesh. A grimace intact, he pulled himself into an upright posture, craning his neck to see the Captain Commander standing before him, bleeding from the chest and face, but looking nonplussed by his own injuries. Burns scorched across his body from the Cero's impact, but the most dangerous of the Espada's techniques was rendered inert before this mighty legend of Soul Society.
"Your resistance ends in futility, Arrancar," Yamamoto raised his blade, not even bothering to acknowledge Uryu's sudden intervention as the latter went over to deal with Aaroniero himself.
What the Quincy came across, unnerved him. In the span of time that he had been certain of reading Aaroniero's Reiatsu, the sign of a pale series of roots was gnarled and wrapped in a bundle in the last shape of the person resembling Rukia. Firing a few arrows into it, he'd see that there was no body inside and after a vicious stomp, he'd see there was a hole that buried itself underneath the earth.
"She's gone!" Uryu exclaimed, turning his head to the bearded man that halted his execution of Starrk long enough to hear his words. "Aaroniero escaped!"
"What?!" The aged reaper snarled aloud with indignation.
In their confusion, they tried to sense out their common enemy. It took little to amuse Uryu how readily he worked with the leader of a people he had no love for and had openly vied aggression towards. But petty grudges aside, they should pick up the true menace's location before long. A powerful presence such as hers couldn't have gone far-
A throbbing pulse was felt. Like a deranged mockery of a heartbeat, everyone within a boundless field of sensory was allowed the feeling of something echoing in the vast landscape.
Power began to fluctuate, ejecting from the modeled city like erecting trees of crackling light. Buildings crumbled, windows shattered, and streets cracked under the resonant pulses that came within every few seconds. The field of Reiatsu that they couldn't sense shook the foundation of the entire replicated superstructure of this Fake Karakura Town and brought it quaking by its roots.
And, the worst scenario came to pass.
Before Uryu's eyes he'd see a waving film of light lapse over the entirety of the city. What was once a ruined battlefield, torn by thousands of Hollows and Shinigami, was now back to its original form. The city was renewed and signs of people that were within homes or outside on the sidewalk or in cars on the street, unconscious, was visible. Even the melted train station was now occupied by people.
"How did this happen?!" Uryu cried out, turning around to look alarmed at an equally wide-eyed Captain Commander. "I thought we had more time! What happened?!"
"That Arrancar," Yamamoto croaked out, looking up at the sky with realization. "She's...no longer of this world..."
The Last Quincy felt an undulation pass through the underbelly of the city. Turning to look around, he'd see the unconscious forms of leak out Reishi, seeping up into the sky and spiraling into the skyline. Light shined from automobiles, buildings and landmarks all around the vista as far as he could see. Gritting his teeth, he'd see the whole of the neighboring surroundings become seethed in a tangible tug at his own Reiryoku; one he resisted if only because he was strong enough.
The light congealed into a single point, forming the shape of what looked like a jagged key of bronze color, taking an almost metallic look before everyone's observable gaze. Firing downwards in a single bolt into the train station where the pale branches Uryu once found and buried deep beneath the earth. The throbbing within the surrounding current ceased, and what emerged brought Uryu to take a step back of caution.
A pale flower of the purest white rose up from the hole, large in width as it was in height. The pale stem tethered its floral folds upwards till it was presented right above the roofing of the station. Unfurling its petals in a blossoming ordeal, he'd see something foreign to him but also recognizable.
There, standing was a sensual curvaceous form of a female frame wrapped in apparel less fabric and more organic. A keratin shell of amethyst endowed itself over exposed skin, gleaming like a sparkling crystal with a dense exterior. A collar of a blossomed white rose held a sleeveless cloak of white, with vein-like roots spreading from the cloak up into the flower's stem attached to the neck. Black hair was now knotted into a lily bun, the face exposed with familiar pale lips settled into a pleased yet sedate smile. Amethyst eyes gleamed and the sign of composure had realigned itself where madness had once taken over.
The Hogyoku, embedded into the back of her left hand, shined ominously as she reached out to point towards the now stoically glaring Yamamoto, declaring openly with confidence, "I've...finally tamed Aizen's little jewel. Thanks to that, I now have the Ouken in my possession. Once I'm done with your decrepit body, I'll take my allies and pierce the highest of heavens," She finished, her grin leering as she looked at Uryu's terrified expression and deepened her glare at him with a look of euphoria. "Won't that be fun?"
A/N: I finally found time to update this story. Blugh, it took forever! I hope everyone who was patient enough to wait on this long project to see a conclusion is getting psyched. We're finally getting close to finishing this segment of the story; and moving on to the final stretch!