'Damn...it' A weak voice came from the edge of the giant marble, much to Gremmy's surprise, and when he followed the voice, he was surprised to find Arturo, his body crushed, limbs broken, and skull nearly caved in, but by some miracle, was still alive.

'Well, you are definitely harder to kill than you look' Gremmy mumbled but then looked into Arturo's body further. 'But somehow I expected it has more to do than your durability.' He then analyzed the fallen General further and noticed a pulse from his spiritual energy.

'I see...' Germmy concluded. 'The sheer amount of souls you have consumed is so great that it has prevented you from being purified by my Quincy powers, leaving you with a broken but alive body' He then rubbed the back of his head. 'This is going to be a pain in the ass for me to deal with since I can't even kill you'

'Hehehe...' Arturo chuckled lowly much to Gremmy's agitation.

'Do you find something funny?' The imperial guard questioned, and Arturo continued to laugh.

'What is funny is that you think that false black prince stands a chance against his majesty,' Arturo concluded, much to Gremmy's concern. 'Because if he struggled so greatly against me at my weakest...'

He then stared into the distance of Las Noches where the shining crimson moon roses over it.

'Then he stands not even the slightest chance against his majesty at his strongest!'

Meanwhile, within the courtroom, Ichigo eyed Barragan consciously.

'From judging his spiritual pressure, he is at least as powerful as Yamamoto or Yhwach before he absorbed the soul king' Ichigo thought as he readied his blades. 'Which means I better be prepared to go all out at the start the very second he makes a move. So I won't be caught off guard'

Barragan stared at Ichigo momentarily while sitting on his throne and then rose from it.

But the very instant he took a single step, time immediately froze to a standstill preventing the Shingmai from moving, and a second later, the Hollow king was already in front of Ichigo with his black red eye axe raised above Ichigo's head to chop down on his skull.

Seeing that he was about to be killed if nothing was done fast. Ichigo unleashed all of his spiritual power to break out of his frozen state, which took on a solid-like form and upon regaining his movement quickly blocked the Hollow King's strike, who hummed in amusement.

'Well, despite being a false prince, you are at least able to move in my presence,' Barragan taunted while Ichigo glared at him with determination. 'Lets see if that is all you are capable of'

Then, in the blink of an eye, Barragan used Sondio to move behind Ichigo. Already in motion to slash at his neck at a speed nearing that of light, but the teen blocked it with an equal amount of speed, and soon both Hollow and Shinigami exchanged a rapid exchange of blows, which began cutting the entire courtyard apart.

'Your spiritual pressure is excellent, and your skills with the blade are exceptional despite being a mere child,' Barragan complemented while blocking a strike from Ichigo. 'But, is this the best you can do?'

Ichigo then growled in agitation. 'Not even close!' he then raised his larger zanpaktou high in the air as spiritual power was charged into it.

Getsuga Tenshou!' Ichigo shouted out and fired a crescent energy slash at Barragan.

But the Hollow king looked at it impassively and raised his hand at the incoming attack.

'Senescencia'

He muttered plainly, and then at the very moment when the Getsuga Tenshou was about to make contact with his hand, it flickered and dispersed, much to Ichigo's shock.

Barragan then stared amusingly at the baffled teenager. 'Why are you so surprised, Kurosaki?' he mockingly questioned. 'Surly, you already know of my power over time, and so it should have been expected that I would age your attack to nothingness.' He then narrowed his eyes. 'Or did you honestly think that something like that would be enough to overpower my abilities?'

Ichigo then snarled before using his flash step to appear at his enemy's left side and tried to strike him with both of his blades, each now engulfed with the power of a Getsuga Tenshou. But to the Shinigami's frustration, Barragan blocked both strikes with continued ease.

'A simple yet clever tactic keeping your Getsuga Tensho within your blades to enchant your strikes...but of course,' Ichigo suddenly realized that the energy around his two swords was rapidly fading. 'I can do the same with my Senescence'

Then, immediately sensing danger, Ichigo quickly flash-stepped away from Barragan just before the latter swung his axe, and from it, an invisible wave of time quickly aged away everything from the walls to the very floor of the courtyard into dust within seconds, much to Ichigo's uneasiness.

'I suggest you spend less time gawking...' Barragan said now suddenly behind Ichigo, who immediately turned to his right to face the Ruthless man only to find no one there. "And more on keeping your guard up' The old man criticized from Ichigo's left side, and just as the teen was about to turn around, the King already unleashed his wave of Senescence, and unlike last time, the Shinigami was far too close to dodge it.

With a bit of effort, Ichigo channeled all of his spiritual power into his blades and managed to fight off the aging time wave barely. Still, before he could blow it away with his spiritual power, he sensed that Barragan was already once again behind him.

'You know, when I learned you were picked as Yhwach's successor as the soul king, I expected that you would put up more of a challenge,' The King said in disappointment and then began to charge a cero within his right finger. 'But you are barely making me stretch out my limbs'

Ichigo stared out in dread as the crimson spiritual energy beam was fully charged.

'Cero...' Barragan uttered. Soon, a massive red blast of energy far bigger than even a Cero Oscuras came at Ichigo and hit him dead on while traveling up into the air and far away from Las Noches. While leaving behind a deep burnt trail on the tile floor and through the fortress itself.

Meanwhile, at the Marble Crash site

Gremmy then looked at Arturo for a moment and then smiled. 'Yeah I guess if Ichigo struggled that much against you he likely would not stand a chance' He then narrowed his eyes at Arturo, who looked at him in confusion. 'However, what you failed to take into consideration is that our Majesty has chosen Ichigo, not because he is strong enough to take his place...' He then looked back at Las Noches with a smile 'But rather because he has the means to surpass him'

Later, back in the Throne Court Room, the dust from the Cero attack finally began to settle down, but instead of finding a wounded Ichigo, the king saw that the teen was relatively unharmed save, taking in a few deep breaths and upon focusing his gaze he noticed a transparent shield that was in front of the Shinigami though now severely cracked.

'Man...' Ichigo spoke out in between breaths before the shield in front of him faded away. 'It's a good thing I managed to master that technique; otherwise, that attack might have seriously injured me.'

Barragan then glared at Ichigo's uninjured state, perplexed. 'You...you used bringer shield,' The King explained. 'A technique which involves manipulating the souls within the air molecules to create a barrier. But such an ability is only usable to fullbrings.' He then narrowed his eyes. 'Are you telling me you are also one, along with being a Shinigami and a Quincy?

Ichigo then chuckled. 'You bet your ass I am one, and its something that I have learned from training with Keigo in case I got myself cornered, along with a bunch of other abilities'

Barragan then huffed. 'And I have no doubt you do, but if you think that performing a few extra tricks is going to decide this fight in your favor, then you are overestimating yourself'

The Shinigami then smirked. 'You think so? Well, let me tell you something...that Binger barrier wasn't just reinforced with soul molecules' The king then widened his eyes for a bit. 'Nah, that alone wouldn't be enough to block a Cero that powerful, so I used my Quincy abilities to reinforce it with the reshi within the air to make it stronger.'

Barragan then looked for concern. 'You... combine too different techniques from two different types of souls?' he questioned.

'Yeah...'Ichigo admitted. 'It's actually kinda embarrassing. I am part of all these different types of souls, yet for the longest time, I mainly focused on my Shinigami powers, and even longer, I never put much thought into combining all of them into one at once...till now' Ichigo then rose his spiritual pressure once more, but instead of it being that of shinigami, it was also mixed in with that of Quincy and a Fullbringer. Making both far more potent. 'So let's put that to the test, shall we, Barragan!?'

Ichigo then rushed at the King with such speed that the hollow King could barely raise his axe to block a blow aimed at his heart, as the Shinigami combined his Flash step with the flying step of the Quincy and the Bringer light of the Fullbringer and then to the king's further shock, the teen then channeled Blut Arterie into his shorter blade which was then covered blue glowing vene like pattered, while being engulfed in blue Spiritual energy.

'Getsuga Tenshou!'

With Quick thinking, Barragan used Sonido to escape the range of the attack as the wave of energy soured thousands of feet into the air, but upon doing so, Ichigo was move in position above to the king's right side and having already fused his twin zanpakou into a bow and charging an arrow between their handles.

'Gestsuga Yajirushi!'(Moon fang Arrow) Ichigo shouted out and fired the projectile at Barragan who then raised up his right hand to age it away with Senescencia. But to his shock the arrow instantly went past through his age barrier shot off one of his fingers and pierce a hole through the right side of his waist. Severally wounding him.

'So Barragan...' Ichigo mocked as the Hollow King looked on with continued surprise. 'Do you still find me disappointing now?