The Challenge – Chap. 27
(Originally posted 8/23/12.)
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The King leaped in a flash from the throne straight into the spirit fountain. Suddenly the spray of water turned a dark gray, but at the same time the body of the King began to glow with a brilliant white actinic light. Orihime had to shade her eyes from the blinding light. At the same time, jets of light shot forth from the King, connecting him to each of the members of the Royal Guard. At once each of them straightened and drew their sword.
As one, the Guard advanced on Aizen and his followers.
There was a clash of swords as fights broke out all around the fountain. Orihime darted back to defend Aizen. The Royal Guardsmen's motions were all mechanical as the jets of light from the fountain wove back and forth, endowing each of them with vastly powerful reiatsu. Orihime felt the power emanating from each of them and she shivered.
With a flare of intense energy, Ulquiorra shifted into his released form to fight with a Guardsman. He was barely holding his own. She felt the tremendous blasts as Ulquiorra's power attacked the Guard and was deflected, followed by colossal blows from the Guardsman's sword just barely parried by the Espada. Then she gasped as the Guard pressed forward and with a sudden sweeping blow got through Ulquiorra's guard and then with one arm reached around the Espada's slender torso and began to squeeze. To her surprise, Ulquiorra dropped his sword, and she saw to her horror that his entire body had been vaporized where he had been touched by the Guardsman. His disconnected upper chest and legs fell to the ground.
She cried out and wanted to run to him, but another fighter was in the way, blocking her. Her blood ran cold as she realized that the super-powered Guardsmen were defeating Aizen's army. All around the room, fragments of bodies lay on the ground.
"Hah!" shrieked the King. "Nothing can stand against my power, the power of the Spirit Realm!"
Two Guards were attacking Aizen, whose blade was flashing so rapidly Orihime couldn't even distinguish the strokes. But Aizen was tiring. After the long day of repeated battles, even with his godlike stamina, he was faltering. One arm dropped for a moment and one of the Guards almost reached him. But surely, Orihime thought, he was immortal; he could not be killed, right?
The King laughed again. "You will soon die, Aizen. Your failed rebellion ends here. I alone can defeat your immortality. That stone in your chest will be split from you with the power of the Royal Realm." With an abrupt gesture, he deflected a beam of light from the fountain to impact Aizen squarely in the chest.
Aizen shuddered under the blow. The beam of light from the fountain began drilling into the Hougyoku embedded in Aizen's chest, causing it to lose coherence. Aizen choked and fell to one knee, his sword drooping. The two Guardsmen pressed their advantage, coming closer.
Orihime's heart twisted in agony. He couldn't die! Not after everything he had done, not when he was finally going to do something to benefit the world… and a tiny voice whispered, and not when he had finally truly confessed that he loved her.
But what could she do with her own abilities? She could not reject the Hougyoku; that would not accomplish anything more than speeding up his demise. She wondered if she could reject the fountain or the King, but as she reached out she realized that the vastness of their power was beyond her abilities to defeat.
Or was it?
Eyes narrowed, she suddenly threw her hands out and called up her shield. "Santen Kisshun!" she shouted, and poured all the force of her intent into the energies she was releasing, her resolve powered by her emotion, her desire to save this man from death. Her fairies spun from her hairpins and she felt the colossal strength of her power… not to attack the King or the fountain but to sever the golden beams of light connecting the fountain to the Guardsmen attacking Aizen and to the Hougyoku.
Her shield sprung into existence, brighter and thicker and more powerful than she had ever seen it before. The beams of light struck it and splattered, spraying around, dissipating their energy.
And behind her shield, the two Guardsmen crumpled and fell like puppets with their strings cut. The Hougyoku, which had been blurring and fading, regained its sharp edges and once again glowed. She felt its healing energy regenerating Aizen's injured body. Abruptly he stood up, and with a single stroke cut off both of the Guardsmen's heads.
Then he shouted, "Orihime! Create a horizontal shield and lift me into the fountain."
Immediately, she complied. The glowing platform carried him forward and straight into the source of the water. It turned a brilliant white as Aizen entered the circular base of the fountain. He raised his sword and without a word, plunged it straight into the heart of the tiny man still cowering at the center of the fountain.
There was an abrupt tremor, as though a giant hand had grasped the entire palace like a toy and shaken it. All around the room, fights broke off as people fell to the floor. The beams of light animating the Guards suddenly cut off.
And a high-pitched squeal, almost beyond her range of hearing, began emanating from the small figure at the center of the fountain. It increased in intensity, feeling like two ice-cold needles drilling into both her ears, until they met in the center of her head. She clasped her hands to her ears, hoping to avoid the pain.
Aizen did not flinch, even as the fountain and palace around him shook and rumbled. He held his sword in place and it seemed like an electric current was running down his sword and ripping apart the body of the King, who was shaking, continuing to scream.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" the King was shrieking. "You can't end this! I'll live forever! All it takes is more souls! More power! Bring them to me!" he cried.
And then his voice began to fade, and he slowly crumpled to his knees. All around him, the water and light of the fountain splashed and inundated him, and as Orihime watched, he gradually became smaller, folding in on himself, imploding in slow motion, until with a last shriek he was gone.
The courtyard was suddenly quiet. In the pregnant silence, still bathed in the radiant light of the fountain that appeared to be water but that did not drench him, Aizen stepped off the glowing orange shield and onto the central platform of the fountain where the King had been standing. The glittering water spun and frothed all around him, its brilliant white glow increasing, increasing, until Orihime had to look away. When she peeked out again from behind her spread fingers, Aizen was standing erect, arms outstretched and head thrown back, immersed in the radiance of the fountain, blazing like a white star, every part of his body outlined in brilliance, the Hougyoku at the center of his chest sparkling like a blue diamond.
Tentatively, she extended her senses. The power flows were so immense that it was hard to understand what was happening. The entire courtyard was inundated with spirit particles, radiating from the fountain and permeating everyone present, especially Aizen who appeared to have become a gigantic magnet for spirit power. She could barely recognize him; he had gone from incredibly strong to beyond imagining. She could feel the universe readjusting itself around him, could feel his formidable will aligning the world to his desires.
She shivered. He had become all-powerful, almighty.
What would he do with absolute power? In her mind echoed the sayings she had heard about absolute power corrupting. But the sayings never mentioned what would happen to a soul that was already corrupt. Which path would Aizen take? Was the evil he had done merely in service of his own goals? Would he turn the universe into a dark plaything, the lives of everything in it mere baubles for his amusement? Or would he simply allow it to go down into destruction?
She could sense, now, the balance of the universe eroding, like the last few grains of sand in an hourglass… soon it would topple, fall, and the universe as she knew it would be over.
Would Aizen save it? Or would he let it go? He would surely live on no matter what, with the confluence of his own already formidable powers, the Hougyoku, and the vast forces emanating from the spirit realm.
As the time slipped away for the universe as she knew it, she wondered what was going on in Aizen's head. The world had never treated him well. He might choose to destroy it all and remake it in his own image; a god playing with his new toy. He had never cared much for the souls of others; would it matter to him if everyone died?
She watched him as he stood in the fountain of flame in those last few minutes.
As he stood within the shimmering waters, his eyes met hers, and he smiled. Would a god have use for a human woman, she wondered? Then in a moment, he had somehow reached out for her and levitated her to his side. She gasped as the stream of the spirit fountain struck her human body. But within Aizen's protection, rather than tearing apart her fragile human bones and muscles, instead it annealed her, protected her, changed her… she could feel her soul adapting, transforming, becoming something other than human, stronger, different.
She held still as the light flared all around her, warm in the circle of Aizen's arms.
And then she felt it. He was adjusting the balance of the worlds. She could feel him transferring the confluence of souls weighing down one part of the universe to another part, bringing all into balance… and she could feel the cracking and splitting she had begun to feel in the fabric of the universe mending itself.
Like a huge, grinding machine, it was ponderously moving back into a stable position. Aizen was guiding it back into place, his delicate, powerful touches moving everything back into stability.
As she felt everything right itself, a series of beams of light shot out from the fountain, touching all the dead and dismembered bodies there in the courtyard, healing them instantly. She watched, her eyes wide, as Ulquiorra sat up slowly, one hand to his belly. Then he stood, gazing up at Aizen still standing in the center of the fountain, and fell to one knee. All around them, the others, both from their army and the Royal Guard, were rising, looking around themselves in wonder.
The fountain blazed.
And then, slowly, each of the members of the Royal Guard turned to the center of the fountain where Aizen stood, and then they all dropped to their knees and bowed their heads to their new King.
Orihime looked up at the man she had fallen so hopelessly in love with, and saw his eyes flame with triumph and power.
He had won.
Aizen had become the Spirit King.