Twenty years ago, in the white deserts of Hueco Mundo, two Arrancars shared stories. One was a blue-haired youth, and the other was a long-faced man with black-braided hair, and among those stories told was one that was passed down from generation to generation.

"A long time ago...in an age before the world came into its current form.'

'There was a Beast who deemed himself the king of a jungle though there many lords greater than him'

'That is until one day, the tribesman who suffered unable tyranny by the lords of the jungle decided to wage war against them'

'And the Beast, seeing an opportunity to rise in power, went into hiding while devouring the power of his wounded and defeated rivals one by one'

'Till eventually, he became the last and strongest entity within the Jungle'

'But instead of ruling over the tribesmen, they all rallied together to hunt him down'

The Beast, in retaliation, sought to devour them for defying him'

'Yet despite how many The Beast killed, the tribesmen continued to fight against him'

'And with each clash, The Beast receives one permanent wound after another, weakening him bit by bit'

'Until finally, after a long struggle, the tribesman captured the Beast and slayed him when his strength was all but spent'

'So in the end, despite the Beast's pursuit of becoming The King of the Jungle by feeding on those he deemed weak and unworthy...'

'All he was, he was worthy of...was death.'

The man finished his story to the Arrancar, who turned out to be Grimmjow, who looked at his ally in annoyance.

'Is that tall tell supposed to teach a lesson or something, Shawlong?' blue-haired Hollow said in dismissal, and the older man perked up.

'The lesson is that regardless of how great one's power is alone, it can always be overcome by many who worked together, and in the end, because of the Beast's arrogance in his power and discarding lives of his rivals. He ended up being slain just like them.'

'Grimmjow then scowled. 'The reason that guy got killed was that he was weak enough to be overwhelmed by a group of weaklings!'

Shawlong then shrugged. 'Weaklings that were nonetheless strong enough to injure him still, wear him down, and ultimately render him powerless by working together.' He then stared sternly into Grimmjaw's eyes. 'And such a tactic can easily be used against us.'

The younger Arrancar then snorted. 'As I said, anyone who is weak enough to get overwhelmed by those less strong than them is still weak, and I refuse to allow some cheap tactics to do me in when I become King of this entire realm!'

Shawlong then stayed silent for a bit and then sighed. 'I suppose if you managed to achieve the power of a god or if your enemies are so insignificant that they can't even harm you, then you may be right.' He then closed his eyes briefly and stared back at Grimmjow with a lowered tone. 'But until you reach that strength, my King, it would be best to take the lesson of this story to heart; otherwise...' he then focused his gaze on the younger Arrancar, which made him uneasy. 'You could meet your end before achieving that ambition.'

Later in the present.

Grimmijow, once the strongest of the Espada and one of the greatest enemies the Holy Kingdom faced, lay bleeding on the ground. His strength drained, his body broken, and all his enemies, even those knocked out, were alive and fully healed while standing above him. He defeated him by using their superior numbers to attack him until he was gradually reduced to nothing.

Like the Beast in the story Shawlong told him all those years ago.

'...Damn,' Grimmjow cursed out in a whisper before passing away as the light faded from his eyes.

Uryu then stood silent for a moment as he looked over the fallen Espada, and then, upon seeing that, he finally died. He sighed in relief and deactivated his divine form upon seeing the rejuvenated Fullbringers and Quincy.

'So it would seem that wearing him down at half strength was just enough for my Antithese to take him out a single hit in its divine form.' He then looked over the ruins of the Silver City. 'And with his death, the last Espada are defeated, and hopefully, the battle for the city is finally over.' he then took another deep breath and looked out to the sky. 'Which means I can only hope that you will defeat Barragan. We can also put this fifty-year-long war to an end...Ichigo'

Meanwhile, within Las Noches, the Battle between The Shinigami and the hollow King raged with no end.

Ichigo fired holy arrows and moon piercers to strike down his foe while Barragan used his resperia to age them away into nothingness. Eventually, all that was left of the courtyard and most of the palace was reduced to barren, burnt, and dust-covered wasteland, seeing that he was evenly matched. Barragan then backed away and decided to use a new tactic.

'It would seem that you are indeed just as powerful as Cein expected you to be...but tell me, why exactly would a stranger like you want to protect the soul of society?'

Ichigo then looked at Barragan and huffed. 'Isn't it obvious?' He said while pointing his more enormous sword at the undead King. 'It is because it is who I am! He stated while the Hollow King eyed curiously. 'Whenever someone needs help, regardless of whether they are strangers, I will do it without hesitation!'

The Hollow King looked at Kurosaki's intrigue and walked around him. '...really?' Even when said people would just as likely turn against you and seek to harm and kill those who you care for...just like they did for your counterpart?'

He remained silent for a moment, but his resolve was firm. 'Even if that were to happen, the rest of the world doesn't need to suffer for the actions of few, and I will bear their hatred and prevent my loved ones from suffering from it!'

Barragan then frowns. 'Even when you have never experienced such hate?'

'It is not a matter of me experiencing it or not; it is a matter of having the resolve to push forward despite it!' Ichigo retorted, and the Hollow couldn't help but chuckle.

'Hmph...resolve,' He said sarcastically. 'And people say I'm arrogant,' retorted in mockery, which made Ichigo bare his teeth in anger.

'And you think you aren't!?' The Shingmai challenged. 'You who are willing to wage a fifty-year-long war against the Quincy and get billions...literal billions of people killed all just because you got your ass kicked by Yhwach!'

Barragan then raised an eyebrow at Ichigo for a moment...before bursting out laughing, much to the Shinigmai's confusion.

'You honestly believe that this entire war that I have been waging for over the past half-century is about something as petty and wasteful as the vengeance!?' He laughed once more, which made Ichigo look at him uneasy.

'Foolish boy...' Barragan spat. 'This war between the Soul Society and the World of The Living is nothing more than a means to an end for me in my quest to become a god!'

Ichigo then winded his eyes at a loss. 'But don't you already see yourself as'

'Once Kurosaki, once...' The King snapped bitterly. 'But I learned long ago that a simple measure of power is not enough, nowhere near ever enough to be classified as a god and killing, and that old fool Yhwach would get me no closer to achieving that than a mere man stepping on an ant' He then aims his axe at Ichigo. 'Just in the same way, you delude yourself into thinking you can bear the hatred of the world, even though you have never once experienced it'

Barragan then unleashed a burst of red Spiritual power from his body that shook the entire remains of Las Noches, making the night sky darker and the red moon brighter. 'But unlike you, I am willing to accept reality and gather the means to ascend it!

The hollow black eyes of his white bone skull then shine a bright crimson.

(Soundtrack of Choice: Hundred Years War)

'Segunda Etapa'

The Hollow King was then engulfed in a mountain size pillar of Spiritual pressure that radiated brightly in a dark crimson and purple glow and with such intensity that it far eclipsed even Ichigo's own in a way not since his battle with Ulquiorra in his world.

But far worse.

Then, when the spiritual subsided, Barragan emerged in his new form. His crowd enlarged into a substantial golden-red jeweled headdress; metal armor was replaced with an open fur cloak that exposed his glowing red skeletal chest, and his axe grew large. At the same time, its center was incrusted with golden markings, and a red jewel was encrusted in the center, while the lower half of Barragan's body was covered in a fur rope aligned with golden spikes and chains.

Seeing the shocked expression on Ichigo's face, the empowered hollow King waved his hand. A massive wave of Respira erupted from the ground, which seemed to take the form of dark crimson purple-like flames that rose into the air while happening so fast that only Kurosaki's last-minute instinct prevented it from being instantly reduced to dust. Then, to his dread, he immediately senses Barragan is already on his left side and unleashes another wave of the empowered Respira with a simple gesture.

Thinking fast, Ichigo unleashed a full-power arteries enchanted Gestua tenshou to counter the aging wave, yet its power was so intense that it took all of Ichigo's combined strength to divert the blast away, To where it then proceeded to age everything it touched dust while leaving a trail of crimson fire throughout Las Noches and an entire country worth of land beyond it.

'You may be a powerful child, but it is clear that you are far beneath my full power!' Barragan mentally summoned a wall of red-purple flaming Respira, shouted out of the ground, and surrounded Ichigo. 'If you had absorbed the power of the Reio beforehand. Then you might have stood a chance.' He then pointed his black golden axe at his seemingly helpless foe. 'But of course, due to your delusion of reality, it is to be expected'

Ichigo then stayed silent for a second...and then smirked. 'You think I would be so deluded to face you alone if I didn't have the power to bring you down myself!?' Barragan then looked at him bemused while the Shinigami raised both swords. 'Yhwach knew...that you had the potential to rival him in power...but if this is the best you can do...' his eye flashed yellow,w, and his larger blade became white.

'Then I have nothing else to worry about!'

Soundtrack of Choice: Bleach HOLLOWED /BREAKTHROUGH EVEN Epic Rock Cover

To Barragan's shock, Ichigo was engulfed in a massive explosion of spiritual power that didn't just seem to shake the entire realm but threatened to crack it open as fissures began to spread throughout the ruins of Las Noches, the white desert beyond, and even the menoes forest below. After it had subsided, the teen was utterly transformed.

His skin was bleached white, while his orange hair spiked over his head and on the right side of his face. A single curved horn grew over the right side of his skull, and a black marking came down over his right eye, in which its irises became a primal yellow and the sclera pitch black.

And then, before Barragan could do or say anything, Ichigo immediately sliced the battle-axe in half with his shorter blade. He did not even notice it was damaged until the very second after that happened. Then, just when the King was about to react, the Shinigami, without warning, launched a massive Gestuga Tenshou that pushed the King back and sent him flying into the air. As he traveled, Ichigo suddenly appeared right beside him.

'You said I should have taken the Reio's power before facing you.' He then tightened his larger blade with a Gestugua Tenshou. 'Well, you should have surpassed Yhwach before facing me!' He then launched the attack right in front of Barragan, shattering his headdress and cracking his bones beneath his cloak as it slammed into the other Gestugua. Tenshou pushed him before sending the Hollow King crashing down into the barren land below and indenting a huge creator within the ruined ground.

But right when Barragan was about to get up, Ichigo grabbed hold of his spin within his blazing aur. Yet even when The Hollow King tried to use the aging power of Serneria and Respira, it was entirely negated by the sheer power of Ichigo's Spiritual pressure, which was far beyond the boundaries of Human, Hollow, Shinigami, or Quincy...

And into the realm of the Transcendent.

'You said that beating me or Yhwach wouldn't matter in proving yourself as a god,' Ichigo taunted while drawing blood from his right palm and then mixing with a charging Cero on the tip of his right horn that then glowed purple. 'But let's see if you can still do that when I reduce your entire body to dust!'

The Doom Blast was then fully charged.

'Grand Ray Cero'

And then, after Ichigo spoke, a gigantic purple blast of Spiritual energy shot out from his horns that was hundreds of times bigger than Las Noches and shone so brightly that it even overcame the dark glow of the red moon while every inch of the Hollow King's body was vaporized.