The white dome of Keigo's master art then dissipated, revealing the injured young man who undid his wind blades and kneeled towards the ground next to his fallen bisected enemy. While his friends Tatsuki and Mizuiro rushed toward him.
'Geez you knucklehead, you actually managed to pull it off' Tatsuki said while gently patting Asano on the back. 'And to think we doubted you'
Keigo then strains a smile before clutching his chest wound in pain. 'Yeah, but it was still a close call as that woman nearly splitting me in two while I was going all out on her. Makes me wonder what the other seven Espada are like'
Mizuiro then smiled. 'Well given how much trouble she gave us; I doubt her ranking did her justice' He joked and then he notices that BG9 was standing over Roka's body and Keigo in concern quickly walked over to Quincy.
'She is alive...barely' The scientist answered Asano without even bothering to turn his head. 'Apparently by disabling your Master Art. Her regenerative abilities have return...though given her spiritual energy is at a critical low, they are incapable of giving her a full recovery'
The teen then looked at his enemy in pity. 'You are not going to kill her...are you?'
BG9 shook his head. 'I see no reason to, given that she is no longer a threat and could provide vital information to us...' he then smiled. 'And as a vulnerable test subject' Keigo then frown and the Sternritter gave him an annoyed huff. 'Within what is considered human of course' He then looked over to Keigo's bleeding chest wound and his worn friends. 'Either way, we all need to go back to my lab and recover, before enemy renouncements arrive' The Sternritter then used his Schrift to create a medical stretcher benath Roka's body. Which then hovered above the ground and the teen sighed in relief.
'Well, that is good' Asano muttered reassuringly. 'I mean from what I had sense. At least three of the Espada have been defeated meaning that almost a quarter of their main fighting power is gone and if we manage to fully recover and join the rest of the Sternritters and Directors in battle. We should be able to turn the tide of this war in no time'
Tatsuki then snorted with a smirk. 'Three of the weakest Espada mind you, but yeah, if all of us manage to recover and the rest hold on long enough, we might win this' she then looked over to BG9. 'Right?
The scientist was then lost in thought, Before snapping himself back to reality and looking towards the woman. 'In a technical sense yes' he responded almost dismissively. Which made Tatsuki and Mizuno look at him weirdly before shrugging it off and heading back to the lab. However, as they did so, BG9 scan over Roka's body with his red cybernetic eye.
Only to find to his confusion and concern that her tattooed Espada number was gone.
Meanwhile, During Luppi's fight with Candice and Liltotto, the battle quickly became a losing one as the two Sternrriters tried in vain to fight and fend off the Espada's numerous serpents. With Candice lighting attacks even from her holy form being barely able to do any damage to the monsters before quickly healing away and Liltotto getting stomach aces just by eating a few of them. Only for a dozen more serpent to grow back in their place and as the conflict dragged on it was made obvious that the only reason the two knights were still alive right now, had less to do with their perseverance and more with the Séptima toying with them.
'Liltotto...' Candice spat lowly as she breathed heavily in exhaustion. 'We can't continue like this otherwise this guy is just going to keep messing with us until we're finished' she pulled out something from her pocket. 'As much as I hate to use this on someone so annoying, we got no choice'
Lamperd then looked at the object in her friend's hands, a silver nail, and her face immediately turn into a scowl. 'Are you serious, we promise that we should only use those things when facing the top four Espada not mid-tier trash like him!'
The Sternritter of the Thunder then sighed heavily. 'That was back then when we thought only Grimmjow pose a threat to us after he beaten Bambi with that second form of his' She then looked over the hundreds of hissing fire-breath serpents and then to the smug grinning Luppi who sat on his makeshift thrown resting his chin, before closing her eyes. 'But it is obvious that pretty much any of the Espada could have done that to her given the power they all have now'
She then implanted the Nail inside her arm. 'And it is about time to time to level the playingfield'
Then all of a sudden, the injected object began to spread across Candice's arm and throughout her entire body. Making her scream in unimaginable agony, as she began to pulse, spark, and glow as her spiritual power began to increase to untold levels of power. Which didn't go unnoticed by Luppi, however, due to a combination of pride and longing for a real challenge The Séptima allowed Quincy to transform. Convince that he was more than powerful enough to crush her last trump card.
Then as the energy inside the woman reached its apex, Candice exploded in a blinding flash of lighting to the point that there wasn't even a trace of her body left.
Meanwhile, at the BG9's lab, Tatsuki felt a sudden spike of spiritual pressure that she recognized as Candice, and upon looking in the direction of where the signature came from she noticed that clouds began to form all over the Silver-City before darkening into pitch black.
Later back on the battlefield, Luppi laughs out in hysteria.
'Unbelievable!' he howled with tears in his eyes. 'Here was I giving that poor girl a chance and then she just blew herself up and right at the moment I thought she would become even a sliver of a challenge' he then calmed down as he smiled sadistically at Liltotto 'Still even I cannot deny that finding the whole irony in her death was much more enjoyable!'
Liltotto then stared stoically at the Espada. 'What makes you think she is dead you idiot?' she insulted which caused Luppi to chuckle at her in false pity.
'Oh, don't be so delusional Sternritter you saw it yourself; she exploded right when she was about to power up' He then bared her a toothy grin. 'Though I find it understandable given your comrade just senselessly wasted your last hope in beating me'
The small blond Quincy then narrowed her eyes and turn her head away from Luppi. If you don't believe me, then why don't feel her spiritual power yourself?'
The feminine man then snorted in annoyance 'How is sensing a few traces of residual spiritual pressure is going to cha-!?' and then he felt it. For just as Liltotto said to him, Candice was still alive somehow even without a body, and what was even more unbelievable, said spiritual power was continuing to increase at a rapid pace'
(Soundtrack of Choice: Esper Battle)
'Sense you are properly going to die anyway I might as well tell you' Liltotto announce as she continued to stare off into the distance. 'When a Quincy uses their spiritual powers, they are limited to the free reshi in the air and the physical limits of our bodies, and to overcome those limits, two methods were formed' Electricity then began to spark with the air and the entire sky began to darken.
'The first method was developed a thousand years ago when fighting against the Shinigami which back then was known as Letzt Stil which was later perfected into the Vollständig and the second method which was just invented a few days ago is the Göttliche Bilden' She then looked up to skies which were now roaring with thunder and lighting though this time sounding much deeper with the lighting illuminating the entire clouds in flashes of blue and yellow.
Liltotto then let out a deep breath. 'The Divine form...in which a Quincy upon injecting themselves with a Nail of Judgment will have their bodies transform from Reishi into pure Reiryoku. Completely bypassing their physical limits and achieving power that rivals the gods themselves'
Luppi then began to sweat himself in fear as he then stared up at the clouds while the Sternritter continued.
'And now that the converting stage has been completed...all she needs to do now is assemble her form'
Then at that very moment, Liltotto announced that. Candice emerged from clouds fully transformed, her skin having been turn blue with lighting while her eyes glowed with a fiery sparkling white. Her clothing consisted of a white tunic made of cloud vapor that covered her chest and lower body along with a wing helmet that laid on top of her head and in her left hand was a majestic spear that seems to be made out of pure electricity while her entire body towered over all the clouds in the sky.
However, Luppi managed to force himself to smirk.
'Ha, you think that summoning a storm again will change anything just because you have gotten a little bit stronger!?' he shouted before mentally commanding all of the hundreds of serpents to aim their breathing mounts at the gigantic sized Quincy along with two enlarged pink fireballs in his hands. 'Well, I will show that it won't change a damn thing!'
Luppi then launched his two fireballs at the goddess and hundreds of fire breaths at Candanice...but after a long while of waiting for his attacks to hit. The Espada saw to his horror, that when his blows impact not only did none of them phased even phase the goddess in the sky. But the explosions of them were so small in compason to her massive size, that one had to squirt their eyes just to make out even a flicker of the light from them.
This also made Espada fully realize to his dread just how big the Sternritter has gotten and upon looking over the horizon he also realized that the thunderclouds now cover the entire Silberstadt and possibly even beyond it and in a moment of panic Luppi made one desperate move to save himself.
Foso De La Serpiente! (Snake Pit!)
He cried out and soon all of his serpent heads multiplied from the hundreds to the thousands and eventually millions. Before rapidly spreading themselves for miles in all directions, forcing Liltotto to quickly get herself up in the air to avoid them, while Luppi then began to laugh hysterical in victory.
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!' ITS OVER!' The Seventh Espada declared loudly as he raised both his hands. 'Foso De La Serpiente enables me to enable to entangle the entire Silberstadt within my coils and everyone else within the city!' He explains as his eyes bulge in madness and fright. 'If you try to kill me all of my serpents will detonate in a gigantic explosion of fire that will reduce everything to ash! So unless you are willing to sacrifice all of your comrades and the innocent you will deactivate that form of yours and-!?'
Before Luppi could even finish his threat a literal ring of lighting bolts suddenly struck down from the sky and surrounded the spreading serpents and vaporized those that came in contact, before fusing into a humorous field of electricity that both completely surrounded him.
Leaving the Espada both speechless and helpless.
Then without a moment of hesitation, Candice raised her lighting spear, while a pair of bright blinding feathery wings of cloud vapor and charged Reishi sprang from her back, and then in a graceful nose dive, the Goddess of the Heavens descended to earth to strike the final blow.
But even then Luppi continued to defy his inevitable fate.
With a mighty roar, The Séptima then used all of his remaining power and fused all of the countless serpent heads he spreads for miles into eight enormous dragon ones that were the size of literal mountains in hopes of ensnaring, biting, or burning alive the divine being coming down before them.
However, even with the Serpent's massive size they at best only come up to the woman's legs and before they could even pierce or burn her form, the lighting spear struck down on Luppi's body first. Making the once proud man scream in unimaginable terror and agony as the electricity fried his skin and flesh off, blacked his bones to cinders before vaporizing him into dust. Then upon the death of their master, the giant serpents collapsed on the ground and broke apart before crumbling away.
With the battle over Candice disengage her divine form and fell to the ground unconscious before getting caught by Liltotto. While back at the lab Tatsuki looked at the sky in concern for her rival and while she wouldn't admit it, her friend.
