Cracks snaked across Silas's weapon, revealing veins of molten white light pulsing within the fissures. With a final, ear-splitting crack, the blade shattered, his surroundings dissolving into a swirling vortex of white and red light. Aizen stood there, massive dust blowing past his garment while fluttering against the wind. Sweat dripped alongside his face at the amount of spiritual pressure being released.

From the maelstrom emerged Silas's hand to swipe forward, causing the light to subside. On and around him was not Ichigo's "Tensa Zangetsu". Though it was called the same, it by no means looked the same.

Gone was the black-woven uniform, replaced by a stark vision of celestial wrath. His clothes, once torn and stained with blood, now matched the moon's light, covering his body like ethereal silk. His hair, once orange, cascaded down his back in the purest white, each strand shimmering with an inner luminescence. His eyes were now windows to a chilling emptiness, irises and pupils consumed by a silver sclera that reflected the cold gaze of the moon.1

In his hand, Tensa Zangetsu was neither black nor a thin sword. It had grown in size and transformed into a pristine katana. At the tip of its hilt, a silver angel spread its wings, its celestial feathers mimicking the flow of Silas's aura. This was not a weapon of darkness but a sword of purity, ready to cleanse the cancerous corruption from this world.

"That's your Bankai?!" Aizen cried. Silas remained quiet. In all of his years of watching Bleach, he had never seen Aizen make such an amazed face. "No…! No mere man can have that much power!"

There was a loud clamor raging from Aizen's person. It was clear that his intellect couldn't comprehend what was in front of him, yet Silas couldn't hear!

Silas tried to form words but found that he could not. 'I understand now,' he thought to himself, staring out into space. The amount of spiritual pressure exerted on his body was weighing him down so much that he physically couldn't move his lips.

But something was even more peculiar. Though he couldn't talk, he could still move his sword. Wherever it moved, his body followed. Wherever it looked, his eyes could shift to. His sword was no longer an object to swing around; it was part of him, an extension of his will. And like a sword couldn't hear nor speak, neither could Silas.

Aizen lunged forward, his movements far slower and more predictable than before. In a split second, before his blade could take Silas's head off, it was suddenly parried. Aizen, frantic, went for another attack. Again, the blade parried away without him seeing Silas move. Aizen attempted a stab, but his blade creased across Silas's robes as if there was an invisible wall.

Backing up, he understood what was happening. There wasn't a barrier surrounding Silas or a trick to the naked eye; Silas was simply swinging his sword so fast that not even Aizen could see it!

"You excuse for a lowly hybrid! You dare mock me!"

'How strange,' Silas thought to himself. 'The same Soul Reaper who once said that in this world, only hard facts were worth knowing is now in denial of the truth.'

"Seeping crest of turbidity! Arrogant vessel of lunacy!" Aizen was performing a full incantation for a spell in the nineties. "Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker! Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron!" Black lightning erupted from the ground and pillared into the sky. "Eternally self-destructing doll of mud! Unite! Repulse!" The ground shook violently, Silas standing as calm as can be. "Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness! Hadō number n—huff!"

In the midst of Aizen's long chant, he came to an abrupt halt. Not only had the surges of lightning ceased, Silas was standing right behind him. He could physically feel his long, elegantly soft hair waving against him. Then silence.

There was only one technique that could have stopped him: "Hanki," a technique that nullifies an opponent's kidō by hitting it with a kidō of perfectly opposite speed and energy. Yet Silas hadn't cast any spell—his spiritual pressure alone was enough to stop it!

Aizen stood there, unable to move. The technique had also restricted his movements. No matter how much spiritual pressure he released, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't budge.

Silas slowly turned around, strolling past Aizen's side. When he sensed Aizen's finger twitch by a fraction, his weapon swiftly broke Kyōka Suigetsu into many pieces. Parts of Aizen's fingers went flying into the air!

The Soul Reaper couldn't scream; he couldn't even wield a Zanpakutō now. If he couldn't utter words, he couldn't produce a strong spell. And if he didn't have a Zanpakutō, he couldn't use his hypnosis.

Why was it that Aizen didn't use Kyōka Suigetsu's ability from the get-go? It's because he believed he didn't need to. Just like in the story, he never once used Kyōka Suigetsu against Ichigo, knowing the latter wouldn't fall for its prerequisite. And when Ichigo achieved one of his strongest forms, Aizen, at the time, became too arrogant with his new powers.

The way Silas is now, Kyōka Suigetsu would never work. There was too much of a massive difference in their spiritual pressures.

Silas gazed into Aizen's eyes. That surprised look he gave earlier gradually calmed itself. No words were spoken, and no sense of nervousness was felt. Only the empty quietness plagued the atmosphere. The two stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity.

• • •

Footsteps stormed the area like a stampede. The loud sound of soles stomping against concrete roared from every angle. In a split second, over five hundred Soul Reapers gathered in the destroyed governmental structure once known as Central 46. All for one man: Silas.

They all surrounded him in a radius that was far larger than intended. Though it was clear that they were trying to apprehend him, they hadn't wanted to get too close. A tumultuous fear prevented them from stepping into his vicinity. Whether it was Silas's appearance or his creeping spiritual pressure lingering around, no one had the courage to draw their swords.

"D… Don't move!" an unseated officer stuttered.

Silas merely stared at the dead body underneath his feet, his Bankai state still active. The many men saw the squad number on a captain's uniform, recognizing that body to be Sōsuke Aizen's!

1 A custom image of this can be seen in at Akito's Books. Navigate to "Hollow Moon" and click "48 Excerpt".