Ulquiorra rushed towards Grimmjow with Sonido, right arm held across the waist, sword in hand. Grimmjow, who had yet to comprehend Ulquiorra's movements, instinctively drew his zanpaktou, catching Ulquiorra's sword strike with his own sword held upside down. Ulquiorra slid his sword across Grimmjow's, propelling him 20 feet back, sliding on his heels. Ulquiorra followed up with a small Bara blast to Grimmjow's chest from his left hand's index and middle fingers, knocking Grimmjow over just as Nnoitora came down with his gargantuan zanpaktou onto Ulquiorra's head. Unfortunately for Nnoitora, Ulquiorra had stopped the dual-crescent blade with his arm — snugly holding the staff at the notch in between the two blades. Nnoitora scoffed, maddened by the fact he hadn't cleaved his opponent in half with the first attack.
"Don't toy with me, Ulquiorra!" Nnoitora lifted his zanpaktou up and brought it down in the exact same spot, but collided with the floor as Ulquiorra side-stepped to the right. Two steps forward and Ulquiorra slashed upwards with his zanpaktou, slicing at Nnoitora's chest, but only slightly cutting him; Nnoitora had been fast enough to see through the attack and side-stepped himself. With his free left hand, Nnoitora tried to punch Ulquiorra in the face only to miss as Ulquiorra pulled back to slash Nnoitora's extended arm off. He would have succeeded if not for the fact that Nnoitora disappeared with a Sonido and reappeared fifteen feet away from him.
"Don't count me out just yet!" Grimmjow appeared to Ulquiorra's right, flaming blue sword raised above his head and headed straight for Ulquiorra's. The latter raised his sword to deflect one-handed, the blade bursting into green flames as soon as it connected with the other sword. The two Espadas exchanged a few extra sword blows, each one powerful enough to send reiatsu and bursts of wind blazing past them. Orihime was standing about thirty feet away from them, her Shun Shun Rikka shield raised in front of her. She watched as Nnoitora rushed towards Ulquiorra, swiping with his zanpaktou faster than Orihime thought was possible with that thin body. Ulquiorra managed to keep both of his opponents under control despite their combined movements. Orihime was quick to notice, however, a slow change in Ulquiorra's reiatsu. She gazed at the intense battle, thinking to herself:
His reiatsu. . . . Since the first time I had felt it, it was like staring into a freezing cold abyss. . . But now. . . it's starting to become warmer — like Kurosaki-kun's. . . She blinked at herself for the thought, but turned her attention back to the battle. Ulquiorra. . . What has changed?
Ulquiorra was now dueling at such a swift velocity, that every other strike went back and forth between his opponents — one parry to Grimmjow, then to Nnoitora and so forthuntil Ulquiorra turned to evade a downward swipe from Grimmjow's zanpaktou, and with his left hand, smacked Grimmjow across the face with the back side of his fist. The impact released pressurized air around Grimmjow's face and sent Grimmjow flying off the side of the tower, allowing Ulquiorra to focus all of his attention on the sadistic Espada who was swinging his whale of a zanpaktou straight at Ulquiorra's neck. To Nnoitora's chagrin, Ulquiorra had swooped down, the horn of his mask fragment lightly scraping against the blunt side of the zanpaktou's blade. Ulquiorra leaped over Nnoitora's head, spinning as to keep Nnoitora in his vision, deftly steering clear of Nnoitora's attempt to jab him with his zanpaktou. Ulquiorra finally faced Nnoitora's back and slashed down as he landed, shoving Nnoitora forward with the impetus of the attack. Blood splattered as Nnoitora stumbled forward, regaining his composure as he turned to Ulquiorra, whose blade dripped with the Quinto's blood.
Nnoitora glared with murderous eyes at the consistently indifferent face of Ulquiorra. That face infuriated Nnoitora. It was tolerable to a degree when Nnoitora had the opportunity to fling insults, but in the midst of this battle, it did nothing but antagonize him even more. Nnoitora ignored the pain in his back and swiped his zanpaktou over the ground, kicking up dust as he put himself into a ready position. Ulquiorra held his sword one-handed in front of him.
"You stood some infinitesimal chance against me with Grimmjow, but now that you're by yourself, you've lost any advantage you had, Nnoitora," Ulquiorra said succinctly. As if to contradict Ulquiorra's statement, a dull boom erupted from behind Nnoitora. Both fighters directed their attention upward as, a moment later, Grimmjow Jaguarjaques appeared, shooting high over the edge of the roof. His zanpaktou was partially sheathed and held inverted in his left hand. Slamming the blade down into its sheathe, Grimmjow cut the middle and index fingers of his right hand, flinging his hand upwards before bringing it straight down in front of him, a small trail of blood following the hand as his fingers arched and his palm aimed at Ulquiorra.
"I think you know exactly what this is, Ulquiorra!" Grimmjow called out, and he was right. Ulquiorra knew exactly what it was. A large blue orb began to form in Grimmjow's hand, a rigid spiral shape emerging from the sphere. It was ready.
"Gran Rey Cero!!!!"
The blue orb erupted as Grimmjow yelled, blasting towards its prey. Ulquiorra immediately used an Echoing Movement to intercept the Cero midway and caught the energy wave with his zanpaktou. With a few seconds' effort, Ulquiorra pushed through the Cero, halving it and causing it to disintegrate behind him, but Ulquiorra didn't stop there. He rushed forward towards the near-defenseless Grimmjow, and slashed him diagonally across the chest. Blood flew outwards, and Grimmjow's new scar-to-be was incentive enough to draw his sword again, but this time, Grimmjow went completely berserk. He swung faster than he had ever before, and to add to the difficulty Nnoitora appeared behind Ulquiorra with his own Echoing Movement to begin his own assault.
Orihime had trouble keeping up! The clash of the zanpaktous sounded like machine-gun fire at the speed that these 3 Espadas were fighting. Ulquiorra was now using two hands to hold his sword, and managing to get sizable hits against both of his opponents while keeping himself unharmed. Orihime had to strain her eyes to see, and even then, all she saw were blurs and glints of light. The impacts of each fighter's blade sent shudders down Orihime's spine from the sheer amount of reiatsu that was being pumped out in the fight. She concentrated on her Shun Shun Rikka shield, making sure it wouldn't give way — the reiatsu was stifling and heavy enough as it was.
The mid-air fight continued, sword strikes rapid-firing every which way until Ulquiorra kicked Nnoitora's zanpaktou upwards. Nnoitora had been trying to cleave his opponent apart at the abdomen, but his zanpaktou's forward-bearing path went haywire and veered over Ulquiorra's right shoulder. Before Nnoitora could do anything else, he received a brutal kick to the gut that sent him flying 100 feet before gravity took hold and dragged him to the sand-covered floor of Las Noches. In the interim, Ulquiorra turned full force onto Grimmjow, unleashing his speed and deadly swordsmanship upon the Sexta Espada. Grimmjow tried his best to keep up with Ulquiorra's breakneck speed — alas, it was not to be. Ulquiorra quickly overpowered him, his sword seemingly everywhere at once. For every strike Grimmjow managed to deflect, there was at least one more to compensate for it. All the while, Ulquiorra's expression was like that of a statue: cold and motionless. Finally, Ulquiorra slammed his zanpaktou down on Grimmjow's with enough force to drive him back down, plummeting to the roof where the battle started. Ulquiorra glided down in front of him, some ten feet away.
"I find it very strange that the two of you would come here," Ulquiorra stated observantly, walking closer to his opponent, "Did you really believe that your combined might would be able to defeat me? Even if the two of you released your zanpaktous, I would still be able to easily vanquish you with my own Resurrección. I'm not going to let you stop me from taking Inoue Orihime away from Las Noches. That is my mission... And you're not going to get in my way." Orihime's heart skipped a beat when she heard those words. She also detected a different tone when he said them. . . Ulquiorra. . . W-why?
The next moment, Nnoitora leapt above the lip of the roof and landed, walking calmly towards Ulquiorra — somewhat too calmly, Ulquiorra noted. Then Grimmjow replied,
"We're not going to get in your way? Is that what you think, Ulquiorra? Are you that stupid!!?!? You're not going ANYWHERE, Ulquiorra!!!" Quietly, Ulquiorra spoke back,
"Yes, I am. . . " A buzz sounded, announcing Ulquiorra's disappearance and upcoming assault. Grimmjow pulled something from under his coat using his left hand, and thrust it outwards to where Ulquiorra's sword was headed. Ulquiorra's zanpaktou collided with a small purple orb that was in Grimmjow's palm. A grin lit up on Grimmjow's face, and Ulquiorra was surprised to see the orb dissolve into purple mist and explode, tossing and spinning him violently through the air. Ulquiorra fell to the ground on his stomach, his zanpaktou being covered in the liquid-like purple mist. Ulquiorra stood briskly, trying to swipe off the mist engulfing his sword, but to no avail. The mist conformed to the sword's shaped, pulsed brightly and then faded away. Ulquiorra turned his eyes from his zanpaktou to Grimmjow, who was grinning his signature cocky grin.
"Esfera Negación. It's a little something Aizen cooked up," the Sexta explained.
"Aizen?!" Ulquiorra uttered with disbelief. Grimmjow grinned and nodded sinisterly,
"That's right, Ulquiorra. Aizen was expecting you to come up with something like this. Heh, Aizen 'expects' everything. That Esfera Negación. . . That just locked up your zanpaktou. Say goodbye to your Resurrección, Ulquiorra!"
Ulquiorra was shocked, though the only indicator was his widened eyes. He raised his zanpaktou and tried to draw power from it. What he got was nothing. He couldn't siphon any reiatsu from it. Ulquiorra looked to his two opponents, Grimmjow and Nnoitora, as the former put his sword hand across his torso while placing his left hand over the blade of the zanpaktou; the latter lifted his crescent-blade over his head, as the two spoke, one after the other. . .
"Grind! —"
"Pray! — "