As I Walk Through The Valley

Of Shadow and Death,

I Shall Fear No Evil

A Predator Among Us

White Deicide IX

Bury The Light

Ouetsu Nimaiya.

At the dawn of Soul Society, wrest from the annals of the old world, he was an imaginative boy. His father forged swords just as his father and father's father before him. But where they made weapons for armies, he fashioned blades with names.

Their names were Asauchi, which became Zanpakutō.

These weapons were unlike anything seen before, able to take the essence of a Soul and form a symbiotic connection with them. The longer the bond is fostered, the greater the growth. And after a time, a name is received upon awakening to their master.

Nimaiya crafted many blades, spent time with those not used by the warriors he bestowed to. Many never flourished beyond simple awakening, their evolved states allowing them to communicate and form bonds with one another as well as Nimaiya himself.

But there had been one blade that he cherished most, one who loved him before she even called out to him. The Zanpakutō whose power is rivaled by her adoration for the original Sword Smith of all Asauchi; Aisubeki Gādian.

They became intimate, much to the chagrin of his many other blades. From mundane things such as going to see the Sun rise, to the serious matter of slaying Hollows and other enemies before them. The two seemed inseparable, that is until he learned of a secret.

A terrible one.

Ouetsu Nimaiya knew upon learning of her Bankai from Ichibei, that there existed a terrible cost. One that would forever haunt him as one who loves Zanpakutō. If he ever is to use it, then…

It is for this reason he distanced himself from her. It's in her nature to one to be of the utmost use for him, and fight on his behalf. There had been even a time that the Royal Palace was nearly torn asunder when he left her side for awhile, leading to him sealing her away into her most basic state of a blade.

But fondness only grew stronger with time. While Nimaiya never carried a blade on him, he'd always come back to her, every time he felt the need arise. It didn't matter if centuries passed, they always picked up right where they left off.

And now, using the Bankai he so feared to wield, he could tell something is amiss. He didn't know what, but if this battle lasted much longer, then he feared an even worst outcome.

One that would end the line of his making of Asauchi, forevermore.

Ein no Koibito stared at the new form the Primera Espada underwent with confusion and newfound caution. The energy released from the being truly is transcendent, to vaporize an entire ocean on reiatsu discharge alone.

How can someone like him exist? I thought the last Hollow to give us trouble has been sealed away, yet, this one slipped under the radar?

"Yo," She spoke, rising up from Gin's side, turning to face the fused Zanpakutō Shinigami. "I'm ready to finish this when you are. Just say the word and I'll end it."

Ein no Koibito grinned.

"You're a brash one, that's for sure," Their voice emanated humored intrigue, standing up on top of the cloud. Stepping off of it, their feet floated gently to the ground, her tall body walking towards Starrk.

In turn, Starrk walked ahead, approaching the incoming Bankai being. A stoic fearlessness ebbing off him as much as wisps of bluish reishi trailed behind her furred, long green haired back.

"I'm impressed you've pushed me this far, Hollow," They spoke with flashing red and purple ringed eyes. "It's no wonder Aizen chose you to be the Primera. I wonder if I needed this Bankai if you never came here?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't use it," Lilia said, stopping a mere meter away, the Bankai doing the same.

Both locked eyes with each other. The tall long-maned wolf Arrancar stared red eyes up, while red and purple ringed eyes stared down. Each of them bore their own reiatsu to the surface, with the Primera's being a gentle calm flame of bluish white and a golden amber shine coming off the purplish skinned Bankai.

A fan of golden limbs waves behind Ein no Koibito-

CRACK!

-right as a massive golden fist smashed into a black gloved fist. The earth distended, warping down and inward, exploding outward in a massive eruption of dried earth that spread across the expanse in a blast of vaporizing soil that turned into a dust storm. Gin leaped out of the way, high above ground and witnessed an incredible thing.

With bare hands, Starrk began to unleash a dizzying flurry of blows, each one connecting with the previously imperceptible phantom limbs. Blackish gray struck golden white, a concert of rumbling shocks quakes and vibrates the air between the two.

The Bankai Shinigami Fusion glared, finding herself taking one of the praying hands to cock back and curl it into a fist.

"Hands of Enlightenment, Banishment Fist!" They roared out, sending a funnel of golden-amber energy straight at Starrk's front, obliterating everything in a forward twister of destructive force. Waving away like a mirage, Ein widened as they felt a blow strike their back, throttling them forward.

"G-Gah!" She spat out, driving a heel into the ground and turning to face a suddenly appearing silhouette. One that grasped the top of her head, and slammed her face into the ground with an explosive crash. Dragging her through the earth, the Arrancar kicked off the dried soil, lifting the Bankai up into the sky and threw them down into a far ahead distance they smashed and tumbled across.

Righting herself up, a pair of boots crashed into her face, throttling them even further across the barren sea. Rolling over their shoulders, they palmed the ground and skid on their toes till they stopped. Pushing herself upright, she snarled out and threw both fists forward at an appearing Starrk.

Who ducked below, throwing a fist into her jaw with a vicious uppercut.

THUUM!

Thrown into the vast blue sky, Starrk watched as she ascended higher and higher till she became a blinking speck. Several seconds later, she descended, now a wrathful comet of golden-amber with a storm of fists all poised to hit the Primera.

"Hands of Enlightenment, One Thousand God Fists!" They roared out bare seconds from making a touchdown.

The Primera raised a fist, matching all of the blows without changing her erect stance. Cracks spread out, buckling and quaking, a succession of blasts of reishi distributed along the mass of dried up seabed. Red eyes met ringed orbs, the latter widening as they saw Starrk poise a fist back in readiness to throw a punch.

A sudden fist hitting her into the third eye caused her whole visage to stretch in pain. A flicker of light flashed from the fist, followed by a sudden eruption of energy. One that punched a hole through the Bankai's head, shrieking high into the sky till it disappeared.

That is, it appeared so, before flickering away in a series of splitting flecks of golden light. Lilia lowered her arms, turning expectantly to the left, seeing a visibly sweating visage of the female formed Bankai.

"You moved pretty fast, just now," Lilia stated, asking with a tilt of the head. "Was that your Shunpo?"

"Astute of you to pick that up in a single glance," Ein no Koibito replied solemnly, narrowing the lower two eyes while keeping the upper third one wide. "You're strong, way stronger than any Hollow we've fought. The last time we guard crossed paths with a powerful Hollow like you, Oshou had to seal it away. To think we might need to do the same with you, if this battle goes any longer."

"Does that mean you're running out of steam?" She asked.

"On the contrary, we're simply not at luxury to waste anymore time," Ein no Koibito replied with a smile.

Echoes of her arms trailed as she raised them upwards, almost appearing as if she blossomed petals of peerless white petals in the air. Grasping the flowing arms from behind, all of them split off into each hand, streaking in an arc and revealing a pair of weapons.

"Raijin-Ken!" She said, showing off what looked like a pair of hook edged blades that thrummed with immense power in the air.

Starrk smiled, digging fingers into her upper torso right above her cleavage. Blue flames ignited as fingers sank past the flesh, digging deeply till the last knuckles were inside.

"If you're showing your blades, I might as well show you mine," She retorted, gripping a coiled handle and pulled out in a bluish flash of white light. A long saber with a curved edge is seen in hand, a rectangular guard wrapped around it and a red-white horn lied at its pommel; leaving behind a hole about six inches in diameter that peered to her back.

"Coyote," Lilia said with proclamation. "Let's go."

Ein no Koibito wasted no time, closing the distance in a flash of light. A violet arm swung the hooked blade, watching it parried with a swirl of steel, both weapons cracking in the air. The other blade of Ein's slashed his way, seeing her duck beneath and swivel on the balls of her feet.

Slashing around in a full circle, Ein leaped up above, avoiding the severing gale that was released in his sword swing. Coming down with both weapons arching her way, she backpedaled away, avoiding the ground uprooting in a massive explosion of earth and reishi.

Shhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiing!

"...!" Starrk's eyes widened, seeing a pair of blades seeking her out like ribbons of light. The hooked ends widened, looking like rows of teeth attached to a pair of snake heads.

Lilia twirled her blade, another bristling flare of bluish white energy overtaking the weapon into a smaller and concentrated form. As soon as either blade sought out to latch onto her sides, a flurry of discharges released, bright white Cero shooting the heads of the snakes away and sent the blades whipping away.

"Gingerbuck," Lilia intoned, a smooth intricate pistol of silver embroidery and black base with a singular ring for a trigger held in hand. It was reminiscent of the old Primera's released weapon, though this one shot far more concentrated Cero than he ever did.

"Is there," Ein no Koibito asked aloud, her blades recalled to her hands, their edges broken and burned from the Cero that hit them, "No stopping her?"

"I don't think I'd normally say this," Lilia said, her frame touched down suddenly beside the wide-eyed form of the Bankai. "But I'm going to end this fight."

Grinding their teeth, they turned about, blades swinging; only to be cut off by a pistol pointed at her head.

"Bala," Starrk said simply, releasing a streaking bullet that pierced the head of Ein no Koibito through the third eye. Spinning the smoking gun, she placed it back into the hole in her chest, it sealing away in a gentle flame of blue-white.

She'd watch the body of the Bankai fall back from her, landing on the ground in a heap of gleaming energy. Unraveling in curtains of glittering sparks, the Primera Espada witnessed Ouetsu Nimaiya, curled up in a fetal position, tears in his eyes as he clutched a broken blade in his grip.

"So, you're still alive?" Lilia asked curiously.

"My Aisu…she's gone…" He wept out.

"I guess you're done then," She sighed, turning to walk away.

"You're not going to kill me?" Nimaiya asked.

Starrk stopped.

"I probably should, but you survived that last blow. I don't really feel like doing an unarmed man in, ya know?" Lilia said, scratching the back of her deep emerald hair. "I know Aaroniero would like you dead, but I just wanted you out of the way. That's all there is to it."

"I don't have that luxury," Nimaiya said, slowly pushing himself off the ground. The broken blade enveloped by a seamless white light from his fingers. Creating Kiriken out of the hilt of Aisubeki Gādian, he raised his blade in both hands in readiness. "I can't allow either of you to get out of here. That's my obligation as a Captain of the Zero Division."

Sighing, Lilia turned to look his way.

"Shame," She said, narrowing red eyes. "I was starting to like you too."

Nimaiya lunged in a dash, a blade of light streaming behind him. Clenching the handle of Aisubeki, he slashed his sword at Starrk's middle-

SPLRT!

"GULK!" Ouetsu Nimaiya choked out, blood expelling from his throat out of his mouth. His chest impaled by an arm, a heart held out of his gaping back, with strings of gore oozing from the wound. Ripping it out in a single motion, Lilia crushed the organ in a single squeeze, watching it burst red all over Ouetsu's face.

"D-Damn," He wheezes out, falling to his knees and then onto his face. Lying still in a growing pool of blood, Starrk looks impassive at the man's still body.

The Royal Guard, Ouetsu Nimaiya, is now dead.

Walking away from him, she approached Gin Ichimaru, the latter of which looked to be closer to his normal self now the battle is over.

"Well done, Starrk," He congratulated, his smile present as he looked at her once over. "I never thought you would have a second release state beyond Resurrecion. What do you call it?"

"It's not a Resurreccion," She dismissed, looking down at her blood soaked arm. A blue flame emerged from her fur and glove, burning the ichor away into drifting ash, speaking as she does. "This is our original state. I've merged both Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck into what they once were. Or at least, that's how I've presumed it to be."

"You mean you don't know?" Gin asked with a frown.

"It's likely this is as close as I'll ever get to finding out the truth," She surmised, looking up at him with a smile. "And I don't feel empty, like I feared. Instead I feel whole. Both of them, their lives up till now, are still a part of me. I'll never forget that, and their growth till now will always be a part of me."

"Well, I'm just glad you came to my rescue," He admitted, scratching at the spot where he had been stabbed earlier. "Not going to pretend that I was on death's door there. I appreciate the help."

"No problem," She responded with a smile.

Their peace became interrupted by a massive shockwave. Lilia turned, eyes wide, and Gin turned himself to see what happened.

Earlier

Ichibei couldn't believe how powerful Aaroniero has become. Every time she swung Ryuujin Jakka, he was reminded just how powerful the flames off it were. Great gouts of golden-red and orange howl across the platform, the mere motions of the blade great enough to use his full strength in bracing against its substantial heat.

Ichimonji crashed mightily, sheer blackness rippling out and raining all around them. But every time the fire touched it, blackness burned away, leaving no residual trace.

He said nothing, nor gave any ground. Black arcs continued to sweep the air, dousing the flames as much as the ignited reiatsu burned it before it could stain anything in its path. The pair seemed stuck in a deadlock, fire and inky darkness both seemingly cancelling each other out.

Then a thrusting blade shifted into a trident, slashing his left arm with a torrent of fire. He winced, backhanding the weapon and sweeping his Zanpakutō at her disarmed side. She replied with a massive halberd produced from the wrist, its crescent head deflecting his spear-like weapon in a shower of raining black.

"What's the matter, Ichibei?" She crowed mockingly, the halberd swinging down towards him while his spear slashed the other way, aiming to pincer him in half. "Is this too much for you?!"

Ichibei grinned, his foot kicking her front, bowling her back before either weapon could make contact. Knocking her halberd off the platform with a clang of Ichimonji's handle, he swung to hit her, only to meet her Ryuujin Jakka at the last second in a roaring counter of fire.

"You think you're winning, Aaroniero?" Ichibei asked incredulously with a chuckle. "Foolish! Even now you don't realize you're walking into your own demise!"

"Is that so?" She asked, eyes scowling at him.

In a swift crack, four limbs shoot out of Aaroniero's black cloaked body, white armored limbs surging out to impale him with clawed fingers. Taking a step back, he tossed Ichimonji into the air, both hands clapping over all thrusting limbs.

Crushing them into bloodied powder.

"Tch!" Aaroniero sneered, dashing forward to impale his weaponless form. A sudden massive spectral hand struck her left, shooting her off the platform at breakneck speed; only for seven others to descend upon him with fiery blades in their grips.

Ichibei grinned, spinning around, a spectral leg sweeping the air and smashing all of the Sonído Clones into puffing erasure. Catching Ichimonji as it fell to his grip, he turned in time to slash over at her approach, a surge of waving ichor pressing against her plume of flames.

Both sides grinded their weapons against one another, not relenting for an inch. Aaroniero's left eye widened, a purple glow escaping it and the pupil swelling instantly.

Hitting the broad head of Ichibei in a eye-shaped blotch of black over his face and scalp. His eyes wide, his mouth agape, she grinned victorious.

Until his eyes looked straight at her, blinking curiously at her.

"Sorry," He sneered with his teeth, "Was that supposed to do something?"

Aaroniero's eyes widened, her body immediately backpedaling in alarm. Her left eye had left the mark, she has been successful in using Amor. Yet, for some reason, it was having no effect?

"My my, you Hollows and your sneaky tricks," The Eyeball Monk sighed, scratching his head over where the mark landed. "You may be wondering, why that move of yours, didn't work, yes?"

She scowled, remaining silent as he left eye twitched with effort to control him.

"You see," He proclaimed with a single finger erect. "Your technique is colored black. My power dominates all things black in this world."

"Black?" She furrowed her brows. "Is that the ability of your Zanpakutō?"

"I'm getting to that-"

"That's stupid!" She exclaimed, her reiatsu erupting as she raised her sword up with a tight grip. "I didn't want to risk using this, in case my power would destroy the Soul Palace. But right now, I just want you out of my way!"

"You may want to hold off on that," Ichibei advised with a raised hand.

"Shut up, and watch," She sneered, swinging her sword forward in a brandishing stroke. "Bankai…!"

And then, nothing. Her eyes stretched, a nagging feeling crept up her spine. Looking over at her blade, she saw a sight that brought a feeling of dread in her.

"Bankai what? I'm waiting for you to say it," He jeered, following with a pat of his Zanpakutō. "That is, you can't say it, because it doesn't exist anymore."

"What?" She rasped out, her face paling.

"Ichimonji has the ability to erase names of anything it blackens," He explains, his eyes looking at the charred black that had bubbling ooze over the katana in her hand. "You were so fixated on burning away the ink, that you didn't think to question if the blade itself blackens whatever it cuts. You were unwittingly putting yourself into my clutches, and walked right into your undoing."

Aaroniero tried to shift the blade's shape, and found out she couldn't. Searching through her numerous powers, she couldn't find or remember any of them. Worse, she looked over her black uniform, seeing splotches that she didn't see before; and at some point or another, her left hand had been smothered in oozing black, even over where the gem used to be.

"N-No!" She croaked out. "All my powers…gone!"

"Yes, gone," Ichibei said, his tone becoming filled with spite as he spoke to her. "Everything you stole, Hollow and Shinigami alike, is erased. You are now just Aaroniero Arrururerie; but I won't spare you even that."

As he raised his weapon into the air, an ominous surge of power spread across the whole heavens. Blackness surged from far below, across the Royal Palace and beyond, a maelstrom of darkness rising up in a liquid state to gather over his weapon. Even the mark of Amor dissolved off his skin, rising over his head into a massive cloud of blackness.

One that he brought down in a single stroke that blotched over Aaroniero's face, head and every inch of her body. The majority of her skin is covered, only her right eye remains opened and filled with terror. Everything that comprised her entire being, every struggle, and every achievement is stolen from her.

Gritting her teeth, she began to scream out.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Her voice shrieked, one foot stepping in front of the other, her blade trembling in one hand and her left hand raised up towards him. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE TAKEN FROM ME?! DO YOU?! ALL MY STRUGGLING, ALL THIS HARDSHIP, AND EVERY SACRIFICE MADE TO GET THIS FAR-!"

"Yes, this is as far as you go," Ichibei interrupted, a bright white sheen erupting from the blade. Changing to a brush once more, a ring of white spirited into the sky and slurried into the edge of the haired tip. "Shin'uchi: Shirafude Ichimonji. Or I think the current vernacular is Bankai, as long before the first evolved Zanpakutō was born, Ichimonji is the first. For while Ichimonji can erase names by blackening it, Shirafune Ichimonji bestows a new name on those I've erased their name."

A series of swift strokes sent serpentine strikes over Aaroniero's weakened form. It felt even weaker, more fragile, as a brand emblazoned over her chest, taking the kanji characters of something far more insignificant than she.

"Black Ant, is now your name," He said, smiling at her distraught visage. "How do you feel, Ant? You have all the qualities of a weak insect on the ground. A far cry from your original place as a Transcendent Being, wouldn't you say?"

A tear escaped Aaroniero's eyes. Weeping aloud, she lowered her blade and looked on with a retching cough. As she continues to cry, she couldn't help but wonder, if she truly is evil. What has been done to her, is more than monstrous; it was cruel.

This is what the Shinigami are like, at the top? Are they all simply this way? Aizen, Yamamoto, Ichibei…they all seek to undo Hollows, control us and then claim we're the monsters?

What world is this, that I suddenly feel regret, for treating Ichigo and those who thought of me as friends, this way? Your colleagues, your peers, your overseers…they'd discard you without hesitation. They're truly evil…and I…am different.

As these thoughts crossed her mind, Ichibei sighed with a shake of his head.

"Crying for forgiveness gets you nowhere, Hollow," He said, walking towards her with an assured gait. "For all the lives you've stolen, the debauchery you've wrecked in a Shinigami's trappings and the thousands upon thousands of human lives you've consumed…you, lowly insect, are about to be stomped out."

As if to put emphasis on this, he raised his clog wearing left foot, a massive leg forming overhead in the sky. Slamming it down, it crashed into Aaroniero, brutally crushing bones and spiriting blood out of her mouth. Brittle fragments rained down with her blackened, unrecognizable form, a hand reaching upwards in vain struggle.

Give it back! Give it back!

"I bid you, farewell, ant," Ichibei sneered, raising both hands up in front of his downward looking face; forming two enormous spectral hands at either side of her descending form.

As two mighty hands swooped towards her, she let out a loud scream.

"LET ME FINISH WHAT I STARTED, SO I MAY RID THIS UNJUST WOR-!"

Two hands crushed the speck that is her form. Blood splattered, bits of cloth unraveling, and a small, broken and gnarled shape once resembling Rukia Kuchiki's body fell from the two ghostly hands.

Ichibei hoisted his brush over his back resting over his coat, eyeing the dropping form with a bitter taste in his mouth. Treading away with audible clacks of his shoes, he took the time to use his Reikaku to sense his fellow guards. His eyes widened with surprise.

"Nimaiya is dead?" He gasped out. He felt compelled to investigate, but he wondered about Kirio. Peering his senses her way, he felt a peculiar fog of something blocking his senses. He could feel her life force is still there, yet, something else lurked there.

What's going on?

A bright, all encompassing light shot upwards. Filling the sky like the Sun, it beamed intensely and filled an unsettling pressure of energy over his pores. Turning around with his Zanpakutō in hand, he suddenly felt a white hot surge of light pierce his chest out of his back. Coughing out blood, he clutched at the wound, and staggered back, his eyes peering into the glare to make out what it was.

"It's…you!" He gawked, his mouth open wide with his eyes as the flare lessened enough to show a beautiful halo over a small, slender woman.

One that had six wings of peerless white skin flourishing around her. Blackness stripped along with the name, the fabric turned into a stark alabaster hue and became more like a billowing coat with traces of black trailing to a skirt below that had slid the blackness away into a wreath around her waist down just above her bare feet. Her hair flowers back in thick wisps of bright white with it shining over her face. Her eyes in particular had pupils that turned a shimmering pair of white slits within an amethyst backdrop, glistening with radiant hues.

Moreover, both arms were encased in a secondary skin of of purplish glass, glittering like precious gems, but all but incomparable to the gem that rested over the back of her left hand.

A single hand, responsible for the instantaneous attack on Ichibei, lowered back to her side as she smiled at him.

"How do you still draw breath?!" Ichibei questioned with ghastly confusion. "You should be dead! I crushed the life out of you, and you had no power to save you!"

"You underestimated the power of my Will, and the Hōgyoku," She said, raising her left arm in demonstration and emphasis to the confused Monk. "Erasing its name doesn't take away power from it. It simply, is. And when it heard my cries, pure and pleading, it granted me all of the power I wanted and erased your blackness off of me."

The Hōgyoku did all of this?! Ichibei thought with horror. Looking at the gem, he could hear the pounding in his head, like a distant yet constant heartbeat. The object seemed more alive than he ever thought it possible.

I didn't know this thing is sentient! I feel as if I could be erased by simply peering too closely at it, he thought, sweating in pain and anxiety at this new situation unfolding. And I sense a feeling. Is this…spite? This presence is too alive, too formidable. It feels like I'm staring at the Reio!

"I want to thank you, Ichibei," Aaroniero said, breaking him out of his panic induced daze. Her smile seemed sincere, gesturing her left arm aside and aiming it to him. "I had initially came here, simply to fill the hunger inside of me, to obtain more power. Now I see how vile and corrupt this world truly is, from top to bottom, I see that it is up to me to be what everyone needs.

"For if you are the darkness that's haunted me, and every Hollow that has sought to seek it in hiding, and the shadow that's existed over Soul Society with all of its bloodshed, lies and dictating control over them. I will be the Light, shining as a beacon for all to galvanize under and bring about change for a new age. All can feel the Sun and warmth in the same way as I have."

"You, a Hollow? The Light? Ha!" Ichibei snarked, his brush becoming a blade once more, swathing the air with a thick syrup of darkness around him. "I don't know if the power went to your head, or if you were always this mad. I won't allow you to step foot further into the palace, and I'll use all the darkness of Soul Society to do so!"

If the previous wave of blackness had been daunting, this became an insurmountable ocean of bleak dim force. Rising into the sky and swirling into the platform, contorting around his Zanpakutō, the Monk beginning an odd ritual before the angelic being hovering not far away from her.

"You still have plenty of darkness on you, and with everything I control being black, this will be the end of you," He said, a dripping backdrop of black oozed around behind him, as he began to speak what sounds like an incantation.

"O' Twilight, O' Everlasting Darkness, Come to my Aid," He began to say, producing a dish for which a ring of black dripped into it like syrup.

"Drink up," He said, sipping the dish, continuing to speak. "As you drink up, your life will soar away. Flowers will bloom, even on the road to death."

Taking the dish he sipped from, he swung it around, his weapon in hand jiggling and also discharging inky darkness around in torrents, casting it about the floor as he spoke further.

"Where there are appetizers, dye them also pitch black. Split them into pieces of eight, and with black flames, let them burn black," He said, casting the ink all into a pair of black circles around him, each spaced a foot apart from each other, one larger than the last. "And let us consume them, down to the last morsel."

He paused, dropping the dish at his feet, his eyes looking down as his words grow colder and the air around them starts becoming dimmer.

"What is leftover is pure, white bones. Let us erect a grave and mourn," Ichibei said, his eyes glaring at Aaroniero's radiant figure. "Such as you will never be born into this world again."

Stabbing Ichimonji's blade into the ground, its pommel erect in front of him. His hands folded into one another, forming a prayer stance, the beads around his neck slowly rising upward as a swirling mass of darkness began to unfold from the circles around him.

"Such that you will not become our sacrifice."

Forming into something along with his final words said for this technique. A massive black shape formed beneath, around and behind Ichibei. A series of pitch black stairs along with a roped set of poles, lined up to a pagoda looking structure, ominously erect on the platform behind the Shinigami. The massive pressure in of itself expanded space around it, crafting a horizon of pitch black as if resting on a field in the night with faint traces of white on the windows at the structure's closed doors.

"Futen Daisatsu Ryou!" Ichibei proclaimed mightily, his hands firmly held together, his coat rippling with animated movement and the beads rose up under the presence of this immensely powerful ability.

As Aaroniero looked on, Ichibei made a proclamation of what is to happen next.

"I stole one hundred nights from one hundred years of Soul Society's future to make this. The grave markers that will mourn for you," He said, brows furrowing as he eyed the traces of black in parts of Aaroniero's current appearance. "The very black clinging to you will be siphoned away. Your blood, your flesh, your bones and everything in between will be grounded down by a murky darkness and return to nothing. There won't even be a chance for a rebirth."

Eyes half lidded in stare came with a deadly promise as he graveled out in a snarl, "Enjoy Your Descent Into a Pitch Black Hell!"

White.

That's all that shined in Ichibei's eyes. He recoiled, shutting his eyelids and turning his head away. An overwhelming shear of light tore through the blackness around him, cleaving through the inky darkness and obliterated the mausoleum structure behind him.

"You think too small, Ichibei," Aaroniero said, gliding across the ground without ever setting foot on it, watching the blackness wisp away and the blue canvas returned around them. Her six wings retracted, looking like ribbons of fabric entwined with light that flourished gracefully around her. "One hundred nights of black is nothing compared to my transcendent power. Perhaps if you used a thousand years worth of darkness, I might have been swallowed up into this Pitch Black Hell you spoke of."

"D-Damn you!" Ichibei snarled, his eyes blinking, barely able to make out her approaching splendor. Swinging Ichimonji, the blade arching over to be rebounded by a white wing, knocking it aside.

"I recall promising something earlier," Aaroniero said, a blur of white cutting across his neck. Eyes bulged out, mouth agape, and his body fell undignified onto his back. Catching the bald head, she smiled, looking at his dazed expression, eyes looking around in wild horror. "There. I removed your head."

"Y-You-!"

A burst of fiery reishi and his skull combusted. Erased in her grip, she watched the ashes drift to the ground, stoically looking at his fallen corpse. Eyeing it for a few more seconds she floated over it, leaving it where it fell. Approaching a hovering set of letters presided in the middle of space where the kanji letters "Seal" is inscribed, she raised a single hand and touched it.

Erasing it away in a gleam of light, unveiling the floating obelisk hovering high above her head.

"Finally," She breathed out, her body raising up and flying straight towards the highest balcony of the structure. Arriving there, she saw a pair of blindfolded attendants, both of which held pike weapons in hand.

They tried to stab at her, only for a pair of blurring strands of white sweeping through and slashing them into a bloody mist. Floating across the tiled floor, she approached a veiled shrine, glowing a deep luminous blue hue.

She could feel it.

The gravity of the Soul King's power. The Ouken inside of her, the Hōgyoku, and her transcended senses all confirmed it. The silhouette floating within a crystal, still and silent, with eyes fixated forward with a thin lipped expression with short black hair and pale skin.

Drawing closer, she narrowed her eyes, feeling disgust at what she saw.

This God is mutilated. Arms, legs, ears and various parts all seemed to have been surgically removed from his person.

"I can feel your pain, Reio," Aaroniero murmured, her wings slowly snaking out, grasping the crystal housing his form and lifting it off the ground. "But fear not. You won't disappear from this world. You'll just serve a better part of a being who seeks to change this wretched status quos."

Her left arm split open, the Hōgyoku lifting up on a tendril as a cavernous mouth of slick tissue and teeth bloomed like a flower. Surging out to encompass the entirety of the Reio and the crystal encasing him, a bulge is seen being ingested, swallowing him into herself.

And immediately, Aaroniero's eyes widened. An enormous wellspring of reiryoku flooded into her veins, her body bursting from the seams, a thick viscous ooze of darkness venting from her being. Flowing out from the top of the obelisk it poured down from the obelisk, falling down in a huge wave to the ground far below. A bright incandescent light luminously shined from it as well, overtaking the blue canopy in a pure white horizon as her reiatsu encapsulated the whole of the infinite expanse.

Just as the torrent of darkness poured out, it hauled back up, as if siphoned back against its accord. Shrieks of insidious jittering and chitters, eyes bulging form the darkness howling angrily as it is hauled back where it has burst from. The light lessened, but didn't disperse, even as the last drop of darkness was swallowed up.

Lilia Starrk and Gin Ichimaru stare up at the obelisk, their eyes wide and mouths agape. They felt a stirring in their cores, knowing something happened.

Gin leaped up first, using Shunpo with Lilia following afterwards to the throne of the Soul King. Arriving at the tallest balcony, the pair dropped to the ground, and stopped.

Seeing someone standing with a bright shine of luminous reiatsu surrounding them.

"Ah, just in time," Aaroniero Arrururerie said, turning to look at the pair. Gin took a step back and Lilia just gasped. The Arrancar's eyes had changed, a pair of white lines shining within a black backdrop, as if being two crosses of intersecting lines of majestic hue. Long white hair undulated like water behind her, swirling about while the cloak she wore had changed; white fabric now had black with swirling stars and galaxies, with white outlines that held a skirt of sparkling starlight that glimmered in winking shine over her legs. Despite her short stature, everything about her appearance gave off a regal and majestic visage that brought awe to the pair.

"I am Aaroniero Arrururerie, the new Soul King," She said calmly, a smile playing on her lips. "It's time to change things, in this world."

A/N: Hōgyoku. That is all.