"Grind! —"
"Pray! —"
"Pantera!!!"
"Santa Teresa!!!"
The air around the Quinto and Sexta Espadas burst, thickening and surrounding the two fighters as their zanpaktous were unsealed. Orihime watched the two releasing Espadas, who stood before her like the first and third basemen of a baseball game, with Ulquiorra dead ahead of her, facing in her direction from 'second base'. The dense air around the two fighters began to disperse, and Ulquiorra caught his first glimpse of his subordinate Espadas' Resurreccións. Grimmjow's Pantera had transformed him into a feline beast, his skin covered in armor; hands turned to claws, feet to paws, teeth to fangs — his arms and legs (his legs now like those of a cat's) had blades on them; his hair had also grown several times longer and a tail was hanging out of his back — visible through the Hollow hole in his stomach.
Nnoitora's Santa Teresa was even more ferocious! The eye patch that covered his left eye was gone, replaced by the fang-shaped (but eyepatch-like) remnants of his former mask, which surrounded the Hollow hole that carved through his skull. His head was crowned with horns stemming from his temples that took the shape of a tilted crescent moon. Bones rising from his waist flanked his abdomen, and he had become considerably more muscular, but perhaps the most eye-catching features were the four clawed skeletal arms that each carried an enormous ebony scythe.
Ulquiorra felt the weight of the two Espadas' combined reiatsu crash down upon his shoulders, pressing him down. The weight was considerable, but manageable. He looked past the two Espadas at Orihime, who was trembling under the proximity of the immense power of the Fifth and Sixth Espadas. Ulquiorra grasped the hilt of his zanpaktou with two hands, readying himself for the two fighters to attack.
"Attack. . . " Ulquiorra released his own reiatsu to spill across the arena, surrounding him in a whirlwind of green. The two Espadas kindly obliged, charging him, screaming at the top of their lungs. Grimmjow reached him first, leaping into the air and somersaulting once before landing onto Ulquiorra with his extended leg. The attack pushed down on Ulquiorra's zanpaktou with colossal force, distracting him and preventing him from seeing Nnoitora's kick to his chin. Ulquiorra was sent upwards, darting away from the two Espadas standing on the tower's roof. Nnoitora appeared in front of Ulquiorra, stabbing with all four scythes into one point, but missing as Ulquiorra stepped back with Sonido only to run into Grimmjow, who slammed Ulquiorra's head down with his right fist, flinging him into the sandy ground below.
Ulquiorra flipped dozens of times through the air before stomping down onto the sand with his feet. He snapped his head upwards to see Nnoitora spinning towards him, 4 scythes held to spin like two opposing rotor blades of a helicopter. Ulquiorra swung his sword upwards to counterattack, colliding with two of Nnoitora's scythes, followed by the other pair of scythes. The scythes dug into the flat side of Ulquiorra's zanpaktou and began to crack it. Ulquiorra let his sword drop, and in doing so, caused Nnoitora's scythes to fly down into the sand. Grimmjow appeared at Ulquiorra's right flank, right elbow blade aimed at his face then deflected by Ulquiorra's zanpaktou. Grimmjow wailed on Ulquiorra with every limb of his body, Nnoitora strolling forward behind the Sexta. Ulquiorra deflected Grimmjow's attack, but with nowhere near as much ease as he did before. Nnoitora materialized beside Grimmjow with Sonido and swiped mercilessly with his quartet of scythes, further impairing Ulquiorra's ability to defend himself.
The Cuarto Espada was being pushed back on his heels, taking a cut every few seconds or so from either Grimmjow's claws or Nnoitora's scythes. Ulquiorra disappeared, using Sonido to amplify his attack speed, reappearing every other moment to land a hit, but the other Espadas followed. Orihime walked to the edge of the scarlet tower, watching as Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, and Nnoitora ceaselessly disappeared and reappeared with Sonido all across the sand-ridden floor of Las Noches, their onslaughts causing the sand to erupt over the entirety of the fighters' arena. Nnoitora finally managed to break through Ulquiorra's guard, slashing him with a scythe across the chest, grinning all the while as the Cuarto was flung into the air. Grimmjow appeared next to Ulquiorra and landed a punch that sent him flying through another crimson spire and crashing into the ground. The red spire crumbled, toppling to the ground in pieces. Grimmjow hovered, looking down intently upon the carnage he had wreaked. The dust cloud below suddenly opened up, clearing the path for an emerald-green Cero to blast forward at him. Grimmjow blocked with his right arm and swiped the Cero away, revealing Ulquiorra, who was racing towards him with his zanpaktou at the ready. Ulquiorra took the swing, but met twin scythes that intercepted his sword. Nnoitora twisted around, and stabbed the bottom ends of the remaining two scythes into Ulquiorra's gut, making him double over for a split second before being kicked upwards, ever closer to Las Noches's ceiling. Grimmjow sped in, catching Ulquiorra by the throat with his right hand and squeezing. Ulquiorra swung at Grimmjow neck only to clash with Grimmjow's upraised forearm, which pushed the zanpaktou away and thrust itself forward into Ulquiorra's face. The blow sent jets of pressurized air shooting away from the area of the impact one after another as Grimmjow constantly blocked Ulquiorra's zanpaktou and landed punches to his face.
Nnoitora scoffed as he watched the Sexta pummel the Cuarto, and yelled to Grimmjow out of vexation,
"Oi, Grimmjow! Don't you kill him just yet. I'm not done!" Grimmjow grinned, dragging Ulquiorra and hurling him to Nnoitora, roaring,
"Take him!!" Ulquiorra, face bloodied by Grimmjow's punches, found himself plummeting towards Nnoitora, who readied his scythes for slaughter. Ulquiorra raised his sword, and aimed the point forward, turning himself into a lethal missile. Nnoitora stabbed all four of his scythes in an X-shaped fashion into Ulquiorra, stopping his descent by impaling him — through the stomach — upon the blades. Orihime gasped, turning away from the gore of the scene, then turning back slowly to see that Ulquiorra had also stabbed Nnoitora dead-center through the chest, Ulquiorra's zanpaktou dripping with blood behind Nnoitora. The fourth and fifth Espadas' faces were no more than an inch away from each other, and Ulquiorra, glaring into Nnoitora's eyes, taunted him,
"It seems all your boasting is for nothing — your Hierro is as frail as a Fracción's." Nnoitora's eyes narrowed in annoyance as he tore the scythes out of his target before groaning,
"So God-damn annoying!" and completing that comment with a head-butt into Ulquiorra's forehead that carried enough force to propel the Arrancar and his zanpaktou yards away from Nnoitora. Ulquiorra pulled himself together, blood flowing from his abdomen as pain surged through the multitude of nerves that resided there. Ulquiorra breathed deeply, doing his best to seem unfazed by the ferocious beating he had just endured. Grimmjow floated down to the ground next to Nnoitora, watching, almost pityingly, as Ulquiorra raised his sword in front of him. Grimmjow's face changed from near pity to irked confusion,
"Why, Ulquiorra? Just what the hell are you fighting for?"
"You've no need to know," Ulquiorra replied, swallowing down the blood that had gathered in his mouth. Grimmjow fumed, aggravated by Ulquiorra's pertinacious withholding of information,
"Argh! All you ever manage to do is piss me off!" Grimmjow appeared to Ulquiorra's right with a kick to the side of his head. The resulting impact sent Ulquiorra flying high above and past Orihime, finally crashing down on the roof of the tower. Ulquiorra, still bringing himself up from his prone state, was alerted to the presence of the two Espadas in front of him by the duo of Echoing Movements he heard. Nnoitora was the one to speak this time,
"You know, Ulquiorra," stated the Quinto matter-of-factly as he walked towards Ulquiorra, "Aizen doesn't really care about this girl. She's all part of some larger plan. Or so he told us before he sent us to beat the living crap out of you," Nnoitora was now kneeling besides Ulquiorra, "To be honest, if that woman works as the distraction she's meant to be, she'll be worth nothing. And just so you know," Nnoitora now toned down his voice, "Three of her friends are already here. Aizen showed us at the meeting you so conveniently chose to miss. Chances are the Shinigami know, and they'll be on their way, all according to Aizen-sama's graaaand plan." Grimmjow was standing back, arms crossed as he watched the Quinto Espada stand and walk past the Cuarto. Nnoitora stabbed the base of the scythes into the roof as he yelled to Orihime,
"Hey, woman! Time to die!" The Quinto stuck out his marked tongue, spreading his arms out as a golden Cero manifested at the tongue's tip. Ulquiorra panicked. NO!
The golden Cero erupted, blasting forward to Orihime, who was defenseless in the face of such monstrous power. Orihime was frozen, stricken with fear. Kurosaki-kun! . . .
However, it wasn't Ichigo who intercepted the blast, but Ulquiorra. The Cero shook as it tried to engulf both Ulquiorra and Orihime, but Ulquiorra wouldn't let it, pushing against it with two hands held on his upturned zanpaktou — one at the hilt, the other at the blade. The edges of the Cero started to seep past Ulquiorra's guard, searing his arms. The Cero pushed unremittingly, and Ulquiorra's defense was failing. The Cero inevitably engulfed Ulquiorra and exploded, shaking the entirety of the tower they were on. As the smoke cleared, Nnoitora was irritated to see his murder attempt had failed. Ulquiorra still stood, more battered than ever, with scorch marks and innumerable cuts across his body to show for it. The entire front of his shirt had been burnt away, revealing both the rank imprinted on his chest and the Hollow hole beneath his neck. Nnoitora yelled at the Cuarto Espada,
"Now why the hell did you—"
"BECAUSE I LOVE HER!!"
Nnoitora was struck silent, and Grimmjow's eyes widened in disbelief at Ulquiorra's sudden outburst. Orihime was simply flabbergasted! Her jaw had already gone slack. The fact that he had yelled such a thing out to his enemies without any thought to his own humiliation had only served to astonish her even more. At that point, a sharp pain tore at Ulquiorra's insides, specifically on the interior of the hole which ran through his chest. Ulquiorra grasped at the outside of the hole, willing the pain to stop, but it only increased. Emerald-greeen reiatsu spilled wildly from his body as he began to yell from the torturous pain that ran through him. The mask fragment on his head glowed with a white light that began to increase in intensity. The zanpaktou in his right hand glowed purple, seemingly fighting against the seal that was placed upon it. Ulquiorra began to float upwards, screaming as he rose, the zanpaktou falling out of his hand and clattering on the floor. Ulquiorra's back arched as his eyes turned from slits to regular pupils. The tears that lined his cheeks faded away, and the gray tint of his Hierro started to bleed like paint, revealing normal human skin. The gray shrunk all around the Hollow hole until it finally reached its edges, at which point the hole collapsed in on itself and vanished. The flow of reiatsu immediately ceased, and Ulquiorra fell to the ground on his knees, clutching his chest as he panted. The mask fragment that was on his head no longer glowed, but was covered in cracks, and fell apart, piece by tiny piece until there was no mask left to speak of.
The Cuarto Espada was no more. Ulquiorra Schiffer's heart had returned.