CHAPTER 58: NEWFOUND RESOLVE

"Ikorose, Shinso!"

Ichimaru's blade extended itself at a frightening speed, headed right for Heryanna. Using his bare arm, Heryanna smirked and blocked his blade, not even shedding a single drop of blood. Ichimaru's eyebrows were raised in shock and he quickly retracted his blade, as Shinji leapt out from behind and aimed to slash Heryanna. Byakuya, determined not to be left out in such an important battle, continued to fire his usual series of Hado and Bakudo spells. White flashes, blue balls of energy and blinding yellow streaks of light continued to shoot forth from the tip of his finger. Heryanna yawned, expressing his rather obvious boredom in combat. He grasped Shinji's blade and flung it backwards, with Shinji flying along with it. Doing a flip in the air, Shinji landed against the ground, sliding backwards and crushing the earth under his feet, leaving behind a scar on the once smooth rock. He could feel the soles of his feet burning up, but it was not the time to bother about such trivial things. Dashing forward, he lunged at Heryanna and aimed for his legs, intending to immobilise him. Ichimaru dashed forward as well, hoping to catch Heryanna in the middle. All of a sudden, Heryanna disappeared. Both Ichimaru and Shinji stared at each other in bewilderment for a moment, before they felt something slash their backs at the exact same time. It can't be! How can there be two of him at the same time? Shinji felt the blood rush from his wounds and stick to the back of his orange shirt. Ichimaru looked up and opened his eyes wide for the first time in the entire battle. His heart took a shock as he saw two Heryannas standing side by side. It was impossible. It could not be. When they began the battle, there was only one of him. Why were there two of him now..?

"You're surprised, aren't you, Shinigami?" Both Heryannas smirked.

"Uhm. I'm not a Shinigami." Shinji huffed, before cringing, due to the pain caused by his injuries.

"Whatever." They waved their hands leisurely, as if they had all the time in the world. "Say hello to my twin! I secretly split myself into two during our battle. He's a spitting image of me, don't you think? Now this game will be more fun! Besides having to continue making your futile attempts to kill me, you'll have to figure out which one is the real me... Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Yeah." Shinji pouted. "As wonderful as having Hiyori slap me everyday, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week."

Byakuya remained as stoic as ever and simply watched as the two Heryannas split up. He chased one of them, while Ichimaru and Shinji hunted down the other. Unsheathing his Zanpakutou, he released Senbonzakura and let his blade split into tiny pink flower petals, which floated in the breeze and soared towards Heryanna. He watched as the flower petals sliced through his opponent's flesh. Smirking, Heryanna smiled as he watched Byakuya's attack merely give him a few scratches here and there. Byakuya gritted his teeth, not expecting Heryanna to have such a high durability. But then again, he was facing the 2nd New Espada after all. If he was not powerful at all, then that would mean that Aizen had gone mad and mixed up the order of the New Espada. According to the current updates he received, the time taken to defeat the 3rd, 4th and 5th New Espadas took close to a third of a day. Tayomi, Hitsugaya and Ichigo were the first to start their battle with the 1st New Espada, yet there had not been news of their opponent's defeat, nor any updates on the status of their battle. He expected that the battle would be a lot longer than his battle with Zonmari Leroux. Shinji contemplated using his Shikai for a moment, but decided against it. He wanted to use his Shikai only at the most crucial moment and it was probably too early in the battle for that. He glanced at Ichimaru, then at Byakuya. He wondered if Byakuya would be able to handle it. Having a one-on-one with Heryanna was particularly dangerous... Heryanna was already a threat when he had not released his Resurreccion.

Just then, two mysterious figures entered the area. One rushed to join Byakuya's side, while the other walked towards Shinji and Ichimaru, who were grinning.

"Onii-sama!"

"Rukia, why are you here?"

"I want to help you..." Rukia replied, nodding her head. "I've fought off the hollows in the area."

"There should be more roaming around."

"Tayomi Taicho instructed me to help you out after I was done with my area. I've been training with her for the past few months, training for this battle. She told me that I've improved a lot. So I will fight, and you can't stop me!"

Byakuya was slightly taken aback by Rukia's newfound resolve, but did not object and simply sighed.

"Ah...Tayomi-chan's best friend! You're here!" Ichimaru chuckled.

"Who's that?" Shinji questioned the brown-haired girl with a long loose braid tied to the side and pale green eyes.

"My name is Makoto Kiseida, 3rd seat of the 9th Squad."

"Long time no see, Kiseida-chan!" Ichimaru laughed.

"Yeah! When Tayomi explained to me about you, I was really shocked at first. But I'm glad you're not a bad guy... We'd rather have an ally than an enemy." Kiseida smiled. "Anyway, enough of this little chit chat. Let's take this guy down."

Kiseida unsheathed her Zanpakutou quickly and charged towards a grinning Heryanna.

Tayomi gripped the hilt of her Zanpakutou as she was blinded by a bright white light. She knew that at that exact moment, Viquierra was releasing his second Resurreccion. Just as she thought that her battle was nearing its end, it was so far from being over. When the lights died down, Tayomi slowly opened her eyes to face her newly-transformed opponent. Nothing much changed, just that his hair grew longer and his wings were spread wider. His green eyes turned into a stormy green shade and his fingernails were more than sharp enough to stab a hole through the toughest material. She noticed an extremely sharp increase in his reiatsu, to the point that it was most frightening. Looking down at her injury, she knew that using Bankai would definitely be a very last resort. She was not in shape to use her alternate Shikai either, as if would probably aggravate her injury. Deciding to stay in her current original Shikai, she glanced at Ichigo and Hitsugaya. Once the dust cleared, she rushed forward at top speed and quickly slashed Viquierra, only to hear the clashing sounds of their blades and notice herself fly past him. Turning behind, she realised that she had not inflicted a single scratch on him. In fact, not only was he left without injury, she could feel blood dripping from her left arm. Ichigo, with his hollow mask put on, sent a Getsuga Tenshou flying at Viquierra and distracted him, while Hitsugaya flew around the area, setting up Sennen Hyoro. Tayomi returned to the heart of the battle quickly, aiming from her current position.

"Datsu!"

A whole group of lightning darts soared through the air, with one of them successfully piercing Viquierra's left wing. The lightning ran throughout the veins in his wing, erupting into a furious lightning storm. Before anyone knew it, blood burst from the wounds in his wing, before it finally disintegrated and was blown away with the wind.

"Ropu!"

The center black blade transformed into a long rope, built up by lightning. Waving her arm, the lightning rope lashed out towards Viquierra, slashing him across his right wing. Viquierra simply watched both his wings disintegrate, without a single shred of emotion on his face. He used Sonido to dash around the room and Ichigo followed him, right on his tail. Tayomi watched out for them, making sure that they would not hinder Hitsugaya's preparations. She glanced at him for a moment and closed her eyes. It was about time now. He should be done in a couple of minutes and she hoped that the battle could come to a close though she doubted it would. Viquierra still seemed as energetic as he was at the start of their battle, while they were exhausted. But they had to keep it up and fight for the sake of Soul Society.

Tayomi glanced at Hitsugaya again. He nodded at her, before shouting out his command.

"SENNEN HYORO!"

The giant, tall pillars of ice towered over Viquierra, who appeared to be an ant compared to those large ice towers. The icy towers swivelled around Viquierra, before shutting itself tight around Viquierra, completely trapping and encasing him in the ice. Silence ensued for a few seconds as the three of them held their breath, wondering what would happen next. Unfortunately, a loud crash echoed throughout the vicinity and Viquierra emerged from the ice towers which he had shattered. He was bleeding all over, but still seemed to be able to continue their battle. He smirked, before producing a huge green lance, reinforced by pale green lightning. Raising the lance, he threw it effortlessly and watched as the lance sped towards his pitiful opponents. Hitsugaya, Ichigo and Tayomi quickly dodged the incoming lance. The huge lance suddenly turned and sped towards Tayomi.

Oh darn! That thing... It's a homing device!

"TAYOMI!"

"SAKURI-SAN!"

"I'm alright!" Tayomi quickly replied, dashing around in a haphazard manner using Shunpo. "You two go for Viquierra! I'll stop this thing somehow!"

Hitsugaya clenched his fist before nodding at Ichigo, both of them going on offense. They attempted to slash and injure Viquierra to the best of their abilities, launching attacks one after the other. Tayomi looked behind her and watched as the bright green lance closed in on her. She could feel her injuries affect her speed and stamina, while she began to slow down. On the other hand, the deadly weapon was slowly closing in on her. She had doubts... Many doubts. She did not think that she would be able to keep it up for long and she had to do something quick. There was no way she would allow herself to end her battle so quickly. Every weapon had a weakness. Surely, there was something that could stop Viquierra's weapon?

Something... Something that could block it...

Suddenly, a deafening crash was heard. The sound of lightning bolts rattled in the atmosphere. Hitsugaya and Ichigo turned behind, steering their attention away from their combat for a moment. Hitsugaya gasped.

"Tayomi..."

Author's Note:
Sorry for the late post, school just started T.T
I'm actually a senior now! *SHOCK* I can't believe time passed so quickly!
Anyways, we shall have Heryanna release his Ressurreccion next :D And find out what happened to Tayomi, so stay tuned!
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter :D Please review! Thanks! ^.^