The explosion from the getsuga tensho fired by Rukia shakes nearly the entire espada palace as she begins her escape from this prison designed by Aizen. Pieces of rubble sliding against the ice as dust envelops the hallway. Releasing some of her spiritual pressure, she sends out a pressure wave from her mind that travels seamlessly through the entire prison. A moment later it returns back to her giving her a mental map of the entire facility. However the strange thing that she learns as she feels through her pesquisa is that she's alone. She can sense Ichigo and Orihime a fair distance away from her as well as Renji but his spiritual pressure feels hollowfied like any of the vizards would. She also feels the familiar and comforting power of her brother's reiatsu as well but she doesn't sense any of the other arrancar or espada aside from the two members of the exequias guarding the entrance to the palace.
Zangetsu's shikai blade is as tall as Rukia's entire body and twice as heavy. The nearly 160lb weapon however is near weightless in her hands thanks to her enhanced strength. Aizen may have turned her into an espada, but she is still her own woman, and she will be the one to kill him. Wrapping an arm ingo the long sash of Zangetsu's sword tail, she tightens her grip around the handle of the massive weapon, her fingers unable to connect from the girth of the weapon's grip. Flaring her spiritual pressure, she sends a message with it to Ichigo, Renji and Byakuya letting them know that she is free. The increase of her power pushes all the dust in the room flat to the floor with enough force to shatter the ice collected over everything in the room. Remembering where Aizen had said her swords were, she shifts her weight forwards and bolts down the hallway using her sonido to span the near mile long corridor in less than a second. Getting to the exit, she bursts through the sealed door with enough force to shatter the entire wall it's connected to causing the falling debris to crush the two exequias guards beneath her.
With Renji
Uryu has always been disgusted by the very idea of hollow powers, ever since they brought him to the seireitei and he was told of it, it disgusted him. However, seeing just how powerful it can make someone, he can't help but feel both nervous and impressed by the power. Renji's hollowfication applied even to his Bankai, and so does Ichigo's own powers. During the fight with Byakuya, Tensa Zangetsu's getsuga tensho was originally white but that changed when he hollowfied for the first time. Though that could be an exception since Zangetsu is a hollow blade to begin with. With Hihio Zabimaru's appearance shifting it leads Uryu to an assumption regarding these powers. Hollowfication affects every part of the person's soul, and in the case of soul reapers it affects their blades as well. Seeing the giant living serpent form of Renji's bankai is proof enough.
The espada stands with an open posture waiting expectantly for Renji to begin the attack, the wide tentacles across the espada's back lay a variable minefield of strange bulbous lobes attached to each strand. Knowing his opponent won't make the first move, Renji tilts his head forwards prompting the massive basilisk to hiss at his opponent. Flexing its mouth, the six fangs within it point forwards and spray venom towards the espada. Part of it being mist and the other streams coming out like fire hoses coating the air and floor in black venom. Instinctively, Szayel jumps backwards away from the venom before looking up confused at the shinigami across the hall. The giant serpent slithers its entire body towards the espada, glaring into him with its twin glowing amber eyes getting closer and closer.
"You think this snake intimidates me?" Szayel asks as he pulls one of his tentacles over in front of the beast, trying to ensnare it with one of the hanging bulbs. "I've studied all manner of serpents, poisons, venoms and everything lethal underneath the sun."
"What about fiction?" Renji asks which confuses the espada.
"Why would I waste such time on nonsense like that?!" Szayel shouts as he dodges a strike from the massive serpent. The creature had bitten towards him but missed as the espada uses a sonido to get out of its strike range.
"Then you'd know more about what you're fighting." Renji says as his basilisk recovers then turns to face Szayel again. This time however, its eyes turn a bright red and when Szayel stares back at the beast, he finds himself paralyzed by its sight. "Normally, if you looked at one you'd die but I don't have that much power, instead since you're stuck looking at it you're now petrified."
"Why do you soul reapers talk constantly when fighting? Just have the big snake eat this bastard already." Uryu scoffs as he dissipates the spirit bow in his hands. "We need to find Rukia and get the hell out of here."
Renji doesn't need to be told twice about killing the espada, willing the serpent to slither forwards and devour the espada. Szayel can only look on in horror as the massive serpent slithers towards him then rears back and strikes. Its fangs sink into the espada's flesh injecting him with its venom as it lifts him up then swallows him whole. "Some espada he was." Uryu says as he watches Szayel's legs disappear into the serpent's mouth. "Why are all the researchers I know completely insane? Kisuke, Mayuri and now that guy?" he asks but Renji still stares at the basilisk across the hall. Suddenly Uryu senses whatever it is that has Renji's attention before turning to face the serpent. The mass within its throat writhes and fights back even against the beast's venom. Abruptly the purple tentacles of Szayel explode out through the serpent's neck causing it to his in pain as it begins to vomit out blood. The beast writhes back and forth trying to spit out the thing attacking it from the inside. Szayel shifts his body and forces more and more tentacles through the flesh of the serpent before finally decapitating it. He drops to the floor, drenched in saliva and bile with venom leaking from the puncture wounds on his belly.
"You… you insolent wretch!" Szayel hisses as he purges the venom from his system. "I should have known a vizard would be so troublesome." He says as the wounds over his stomach begin to close. "Thankfully, I can siphon the spirit energy of this beast to heal myself. So much for your bankai. Renji Abarai." Szayel laughs before using a sonido to teleport behind Renji. "Die." He says before consuming the lieutenant within one of the bulbous strands protruding from the tentacles on his back.
Renji tried to cut through the strange sack now covering his entire body but it's no use, the fanged blade can't catch against the slick flesh cocooning him. Uryu creates his bow once more and attempts to shoot the sack containing Renji but the spirit arrow merely bounces off of the esapda's hierro. Szayelapporo laughs maniacally as the sack suddenly flexes and expels Renji from within it, having stolen a portion of his spiritual pressure. The espada draws in the fruit of this technique, lifting a hand underneath the bulb catching what looks like a matryoshka doll that looks identical to Renji. "Fornicaras has a special ability, anyone that I ensnare within my tentacles I can create a doll of them. Since you want to go into fiction with that silly little pet of yours then so will I. Think of this as a voodoo doll." The espada says as he lifts a hand and flicks Renji's voodoo doll in the forehead, this causes Renji to react to being struck in the forehead, his head rocks back under the force of the blow.
"Now that you're under my control, let's have some fun shall we?" Szayel asks rhetorically as he takes his clawed fingers and opens the top of the Renji matryoshka doll. Inside it are dozens of little ceramic versions of his organs. Picking up a small green one labeled kidney, Szayel smiles as he locks eyes with Renji before crushing it in his fingers. A pain unlike anything Renji has ever experienced before radiates through his body, he immediately vomits up blood and doubles over in pain causing the espada to laugh uproariously. "It's a shame you forced me this far, dissecting you will be quite messy now." Szayel grins before lifting up a small heart shaped bead from within the doll. "Don't you think about intervening now, all I have to do is crush this one and your friend will die." the espada says, stopping Uryu from igniting the blade of his sword. Szayel slowly grabs another green organ shaped piece before crushing it as well causing Renji to vomit up even more blood.
"Where's all that bravado now Vizard?!" Szayel declares as he shatters piece after piece within the Renji doll. Reveling in his pain and agony, he doesn't notice the basilisk's headless body suddenly rise up with the severed wound beginning to bubble and spasm.
Beneath him on the ground, Renji suddenly laughs to himself before standing upright on slightly shaky legs for a moment. Szayel looks confused by this before grabbing one of the lung pieces in the doll and crushing it. Renji does cough up blood when this happens but he manages to get to his feet before facing the espada. The espada looks on in confusion before grabbing the heart shaped bead and smashing it. However nothing happens, Szayel is left staring at the shinigami as he pulls his robes to the side revealing the hollow hole through his chest. Right where his heart should be. "Surprised? From what I figured out, you arrancar lose your ability to use hyper regeneration. Well, that sucks for you then, cause I can and I'm the only one of the vizards aside from ichigo who can regenerate like this but mine's a bit more potent than that strawberry… and it also applies to my zanpakuto." Renji's mouth forms into a triumphant smile as Szayel notices a looming shadow over top of him, he slowly turns around to see the basilisk has not only regenerated its head, but has grown a second one. As he stares up at the two headed serpent, he vomits up blood as the venom he tried to purge from his system takes hold.
"The venom of a basilisk is lethal to everything, even if you purge it from your system you'd have to replace every cell, every particle of spiritual pressure from your system to purge it completely." Renji says as the twin heads hiss in unison at the arrancar between them. "Who's the fool now?" He asks, prompting the two headed basilisk to tear the espada apart and devour him.
With Byakuya:
The reserved captain walks slowly away from the mangled corpse of Zommari, having subjected the seventh espada to the full power of his bankai. The Arrancar's strange ability to be able to control parts of his body was a nuisance at best, he had to sever his own achilleas tendon to stop the espada from controlling his leg. The espada didn't force him to use his mask however, he chose to dawn the petrified wooden mask on his own accord, if only so that his body can regenerate itself after the fight. As his wound heals, he suddenly senses a wave of familiar spiritual pressure coming from Rukia. Her spirit energy feels free, relieved and calm and that is all that he needs to know. Bringing a hand to his face he removes the petrified wood hollow mask from over his flesh then takes a step forwards, vanishing and leaving the espada to dissipate into the aether with the unsaid wish that he will reincarnate in soul society. "Good, now that you're free from whatever prison Aizen was holding you in, I can join the battle in the real world." Byakuya narrates to himself as he recalls every last flower petal back into his sealed blade. He slowly inserts the blade back to its scabbard before raising an eyebrow seeing the bright light of the fake day of Las Noches. "Fascinating." He says as he studies the fake daylight world. Though a moment later he raises an eyebrow sending someone behind him. "I take it you're another member of Aizen's Arrancar?" Byakuya asks before turning to face this new challenger. The man behind him is near to his same height wearing the same Arrancar robes as the rest of Aizen's army. However the main difference is the mask that sits over his face, appearing like that of a long horned bull with wide lateral horns on the top of the full face helm. "What is your name, Arrancar?" Byakuya asks before turning to face his opponent entirely.
"Rudbornn Chelute." The Arrancar answers, "I am the leader of the Exequias. The defense force of Las Noches and Lord Aizen." The Arrancar answers. At his waist is a simple Tachi sword, with a white featureless hilt and basic handguard beneath the blade. "What about you, Intruder?" He asks.
"I am Captain Kuchiki Byakuya of the sixth squad of the Gotei 13." Byakuya answers, now resting a hand on the hilt of his sword. "You are here to face me?"
"Yes." Rudbornn responds as he moves his right hand towards the handle of the blade at his hip. "Trespassing on Aizen's kingdom is punished by death."
"So be it." Byakuya responds as he shoves his thumb forwards and dislodges the blade from its sheath. "I am sorry you chose to follow such a ruler who lead you to your own defeat."
"It is not I who will be defeated, Kuchiki Byakuya. I am the Exequias, I am the funeral attack force." Rudbornn responds as he draws his sword, lifting it so that it is perpendicular with his pectoral muscles he speaks it's release command. "Grow... Árbol." He declared calmly. The Arrancar 's body doesn't put off the massive energy discharge that the others do when they resurrect themselves, his is more tame. Large branches grow from the right side of his body sprouting tree limbs from his back with strange skull shaped fruits hanging from the limbs. The strange mass of hollowfied wood extends downwards sinking into the frozen desert sands as he increases in height. Byakuya notes that his spiritual presence doesn't feel nearly as strong as a normal lieutenant but when he watches the strange fruits suddenly grow into soldiers he realizes what he's up against. "We are legion." The army of Rudbornn declares as hundreds of not thousands of Arrancar clones march towards the vizard captain.
Byakuya looks at the army of clones Rudbornn has seemingly created from nowhere with confusion. Each of them has enough reiatsu to be considered a 3rd seat shinigami. However from what he can gather is that the clones don't have additional resurrections of their own, possibly making this battle easier for him. With the arrancar continuously creating the cloned army from its branches his only choice is to deal with Rudbornn himself and not the army of exequias he has created. From beneath Rudbornn, Byakuya notices that the strands that protrude from the espada's torso stick into the ground like roots, piercing through the stone of the outer precipice of the espada's gathering hall. 'There's no ice on this building and he seems to be pulling the spirit energy he needs to create his fruit from the structure." Byakuya thinks to himself as the arrancar raises his arm and points in Byakuya's direction. Immediately dozens of members of the exequias sonido towards him at blistering speeds.
The sixth squad captain is forced to backpedal away from the arrancar, as he parries dozens of sword strikes from the clones that flash step in front of him. Despite their numbers, their sword strikes don't have nearly enough force behind them to wind him easily but their numbers sure do. Byakuya barely dodges a sword swipe that cuts away a portion of his perfect hair before he flash steps away from the group that is attacking him. Appearing a kilometer away from the sentient tree, Byakuya takes in a deep breath trying to regain his composure from the surprise onslaught. In the distance he can hear the clone army laughing at his predicament, but he doesn't let it get to him. His shikai should be more than enough to deal with these fools, he raises his blade into a kendo stance and grabs it with both hands before lifting it in front of his face. "Scatter." He says causing the blade to turn a bright pink before falling apart like falling flower petals. "Senbonzakura." He declares the name of his sword allowing the pink petals that form from the blade to orbit him. As the army advances towards him, he remains stationary. Even as exequias clones appear and try to swipe at his flesh, however the moment they do appear a telepathically controlled petal slices straight through the clone's weapon and body faster than any of them could react.
"Hado number four. Byakurai." He says calmly, as he raises his left hand and points two fingers directly towards the main body of Rudbornn. A bolt of blue electricity manifests off his fingers arcing into some of the nearby exequias and electrocuting them. With the crack of thunder, the lightning bolt created by this kido screams through the air at the speed of light slamming hard into Rudbornn's shoulder. As the light dissipates, he sees that not only did his attack land, it also struck one of the clones that the arrancar tried to use to protect itself but it wasn't nearly fast enough to stop a bolt of lightning. "Whatever I throw at this thing, he will use his clones to defend himself but if they're not fast enough I can land a strike." He internally monologues before flash stepping back to the point where the two had begun their battle.
"I don't think such a technique will work twice, Lord Kuchiki. He's probably smart enough to realize that you can create an attack that fast and will continuously use his clones to protect himself." The voice of his inner hollow that has come to call itself Kuraiyoake Kareki speaks up within his master's inner world. "You're gonna have to deal with those clones now." While Byakuya doesn't answer the inner hollow, he does give off the feeling that he accepts his hollow's advice on the fight.
Surrounded on all sides by the exequias, Byakuya scans the ones in front of him for a moment before looking up at Rudbornn. He watches the arrancar pull spirit energy from ground and use it to repair himself as well as create more clones to replace the ones the captain had defeated. All around him, the exequias begin raising their hands charging hundreds of red ceros all directed towards him. Knowing that his Shikai alone isn't strong enough to deal with over a hundred simultaneous ceros, he waits for the moment the clones fire. Though he doesn't get what he planned for. The exequias clones fire intermittently rather than all at once causing the captain to have to dodge and weave between the attacks. Taking a page from Ichigo's book, he pours as much spirit energy into his legs to move faster and faster. Flash stepping into the air he vanishes then reappears milliseconds later in a different spot creating a vague shadow where he originally was. Pressing this further and further he pulls more of his spirit energy into himself channeling this power into his legs to further his speed. Then, out of the corner of his eye as he appears from a flash step he sees a cero completely miss him and aim for the spot he originally was.
Trying this again, he flash steps out of the way of another cero then appears a few dozen meters away from his original spot. From the corner of his eye he sees another version of himself that the exequias fire at before it fades. Through his usually stoic outward expression he smirks to himself, proud of the fact that even as a captain in the Gotei 13 he still has room to grow. Deciding he's had enough of this light show, he lifts a hand and presses it flat to the air itself. "Bakudo number 81, Danku." He chants creating an impenetrable barrier of kido out in front of him. The ceros slam into the reiatsu barrier and explode into smoke and flames, beam after beam slams into the barrier and explodes but the wall stays strong. The barrier creates a perfectly flat wall of smoke on the side that is getting impacted by the ceros. Rudbornn stops his army from firing at the shinigami captain, expecting there to just be a smoking cloud of ash in the sky but that isn't the case. What he does see is the flower petals created by Senbonzakura get pulled towards the captain. The color has shifted, turning from the vibrant pink to a reddish brown as they're pulled back towards their master.
Rudbornn senses a dramatic shift in Byakuya's spiritual pressure, feeling it become empty and decayed though it's still very much alive. As the smoke clears Rudbornn is greeted by the petrified wooden hollow mask on the face of the captain. The white bark of the mask is only accented by strands of reddish brown that arc outwards in two long strands under his right eye. Something moving catches the eye of the arrancar, causing him to look down at what had fallen. He watches slightly confused at the fact that this captain just dropped his sword, however it suddenly disappears creating ripples in the air as if it had fallen into water. "Bankai." The hollowfied echoing twisted voice of Byakuya echoes outwards over the battlefield. "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi… Kuchite." He says as hundreds of massive swords erect out of the ground and stand as tall as skyscrapers over the battlefield. As they rise to their maximum height, the blades suddenly turn black, and glow with a pink hollowfied reiatsu before decaying into billions of dead flower petals.
"Vibrant Scape of a thousand cherry blossoms?" Rudbornn questions the name of Byakuya's Bankai. "Such arrogance, all I see are disgusting wilted petals." the arrancar says as Byakuya uses the petals to orbit himself and prepare his next attack.
"Normally yes, they are quite beautiful, however my hollow powers cause them to wilt and their abilities to change. I will warn you only once, every petal is a blade as sharp as a razor and as small as a single coin. You will not be able to defend against this and it would be wise if you submit. I will make your death painless, and ensure you reincarnate in soul society. That is the only mercy I can offer you." Byakuya says calmly as the petals continue to orbit his body.
"Don't make me laugh, it is impossible for you to defeat us." Rudbornn and his army declare in unison, but it does nothing to shake Byakuya's resolve.
"So be it. I won't make you suffer, but I apologize for what you are about to experience. It isn't a fate a wayward soul should fall to." Byakuya says apologetically before lifting a hand and firing a single brown petal at the lead soldier created by Rudbornn.
With the entire army being expendable and replaceable in moments, Rudbornn makes zero effort to have this individual soldier evade the attack from the captain. The petal slices through the neck of the clone, the brown petal nearly decapitating the soldier as it slices straight through him. Rudbornn merely creates a new soldier to replace the one that died but he stops when the body doesn't disappear and the spirit energy doesn't return to him through his roots. Instead a searing pain screams through his body, forcing him to sever the telepathic link he has with the affected clone. Not wanting the other clones to suffer the same fate, Rudbornn moves some of them away, but even through the hive mind he has over the clones, Byakuya can see that they're terrified of what happened. The affected clone spasms and seizes on the floor before its stomach bursts open revealing tree roots that reach upwards before stabbing into the ground. The body is hoisted up by the roots growing from its stomach before being flipped and pulled towards the ground. From its arms and upper body, branches explode from its skin and reach high into the sky creating an abhorrent mockery of nature. The exequias soldier is no more, and the only semblance of its former identity is its mask, slightly encapsulated within the bark of the unnatural tree. Its limbs producing the same brown petals that orbit the hollowfied captain, the terrifying transformation of his own clone shakes Rudbornn with fear.
"Impossible… this… this has to be an illusion!" Rudbornn shouts as he commands his army to attack Byakuya once again.
"I'm sorry that it's come to this. Know that I don't take pleasure in doing this Rudbornn Chelute. I pray that you'll forgive me in the next life." Byakuya apologies before lifting his hand, expanding his fingers outwards prompting the billions of wilted petals to gust forwards. The motion commands the petals created by the tree that absorbed the clone to wilt from their branches and take flight just the same as the others.
"Kill him! Kill him! Die!" Rudbornn screams as petals tear through clone after clone causing them all to seize before going through the same viscous metamorphosis. With each clone that dies, a tree grows and blooms before wilting and shedding its petals. Quickly growing an orchard of suffering takes place of the army created by the legion arrancar. Thousands of petrified trees with pained faces that were once masks worn by Rudbornn Chelute. The arrancar reverts his resurrection in order to escape from the pain of every single clone he created being ripped apart by the petrified trees growing through their bodies and blossoming into the air. There sadly is no escape for the arrancar, the last thing he sees is Byakuya's hollow mask before he's split vertically from the sword swipe. He sees Byakuya's form from the follow through of the sword swing before his eyes start sending two different messages, from one he is still eye level with the captain, but from the other his vision is now focused on his chest as the two halves of his body slide then split apart. "Please forgive me, Rudbornn Chelute. Be born again, in Soul Society." Byakuya says the prayer aloud as the arrancar disintegrates into spirit particles blowing away in the wind. The captain solemnly removes his mask before gazing upon the orchard of suffering he created to slay this arrancar. The frigid winds of the frozen desert shaking the leafless limbs in the petrified orchard.