"Are you certain you wish to proceed?"
Yhwach stood with composed authority, his gaze fixed forward, his voice calm yet layered with quiet amusement.
Before him, Sōsuke Aizen answered without hesitation.
"When one pledges allegiance to Your Majesty's empire, it is only natural to offer something of value. Besides… you have yet to fully reclaim your power."
Aizen's tone remained soft, analytical.
"In your current state, defeating Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto would not be guaranteed."
Yhwach did not deny it.
After his long slumber, the restoration of his power followed a precise cycle nine hundred years to regain his pulse, ninety years to restore consciousness, and nine years to recover his strength. Though he had already initiated Auswählen, purging impure Quincy and reclaiming power, his true peak remained just beyond reach.
There were still days left.
In the established flow of events, his complete awakening would coincide with his ascent to the Soul King Palace where his power, and more importantly, The Almighty, would fully manifest upon the opening of his eyes.
Until then, restraint was necessary.
According to Jugram Haschwalth, prematurely activating The Almighty risked destabilization an uncontrollable reabsorption of power from the Sternritter. Such an outcome would cripple his army before the decisive war even began.
Thus, even incomplete, Yhwach remained a being whose raw spiritual pressure surpassed nearly all Shinigami.
Aizen's words amused him.
"Very well," Yhwach said, a faint smile forming. "Entertain me."
His gaze shifted toward Yamamoto.
"Let your loyalty be proven… with his corpse."
Aizen stepped forward, Kyōka Suigetsu resting loosely in his grip.
"I will kill you first," he said calmly, "and then your emperor."
The air ignited.
Without further exchange, Yamamoto moved.
"Bankai Zanka no Tachi. East: Kyokujitsujin."
In an instant, all flames compressed into the edge of his blade. There was no eruption, no blaze only absolute, condensed annihilation. Anything touched would be erased from existence.
The strike came faster than perception.
Clang.
Aizen intercepted it.
The collision produced no explosion only a violent distortion of the surrounding spiritual field.
Aizen smiled faintly.
"You are wounded… and it shows. The output of your Bankai has declined. Should you not recover first?"
Yamamoto's eyes sharpened.
"Silence."
He struck again relentless, precise.
Each swing carried absolute lethality, yet each was met and deflected.
Aizen observed, calculating in real time.
"You refrain from releasing your flames," he continued. "Not out of inability but restraint."
His voice sharpened slightly.
"This is the Seireitei. If you unleash Zanka no Tachi without limit, you will incinerate everything including your own subordinates."
It was the truth.
Yamamoto's Bankai did not merely burn it eradicated moisture itself, reducing all existence to ash. Unchecked, it would annihilate the Soul Society.
Yamamoto did not deny it.
Instead, his reiatsu surged.
"Do you believe that alone is enough to stop me?"
"West: Zanjitsu Gokui."
Flames did not erupt outward instead, they condensed around his body, cloaking him in heat rivaling the core of the sun. Fifteen million degrees, compressed into a thin layer of spiritual armor.
The ground beneath him vaporized instantly.
Even the reishi composing nearby structures began to break apart.
"Die."
He advanced.
Aizen felt it the oppressive, absolute heat. Even approaching Yamamoto now meant destruction.
He stepped back.
Then again.
And again.
Yamamoto pursued, each step carving devastation into the battlefield.
"Running?" Yamamoto roared.
Aizen's expression remained composed.
"Your wounds will worsen the longer this continues. I need only wait."
Yamamoto stopped.
"Then I will end it now."
He drove his blade into the ground.
"South: Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin."
The earth split open.
From the depths, charred skeletons clawed their way upward countless corpses, resurrected from those Yamamoto himself had slain over a thousand years.
They surged toward Aizen.
Each one carried immense physical force, their numbers overwhelming, their forms endlessly regenerating.
Even a captain-class combatant would be buried instantly.
Aizen was engulfed.
Blades flashed.
Skeletons shattered only to reform.
"Endless," Aizen murmured. "Irritating."
With a burst of reiatsu, he broke free and ascended into the air
Only to meet Yamamoto descending from above.
The blade fell.
Boom.
Aizen's body split cleanly in two.
Silence followed.
The flames around Yamamoto faded as he exhaled heavily. Blood dripped steadily from the wound at his side, his body beginning to falter under accumulated strain.
He turned toward Yhwach.
"You're next."
Yhwach smiled.
"Is that so?"
A voice echoed behind Yamamoto.
"You've already forgotten?"
Aizen stood there unharmed.
"Without your flames… you cannot kill me."
His tone was almost mocking now.
"So choose, Captain-Commander. Will you destroy the Seireitei to ensure my death… or allow me to walk away?"
Yamamoto's expression darkened.
Yhwach observed the exchange with clear satisfaction.
"Magnificent," he murmured. "To witness such power firsthand…"
Even without The Almighty, he understood the weight of what stood before him. Neither man was an opponent he could dismiss lightly not yet.
Elsewhere
Soi Fon arrived within the Seireitei, carrying a device prepared by Kurotsuki Renya.
The air burned with residual heat, thick with the aftermath of Yamamoto's Bankai.
Behind her, six segmented, lightning-infused constructs formed radiating volatile energy.
Without hesitation, she advanced toward the battlefield's center.
Far beyond, within Hueco Mundo
Kurotsuki Renya concluded his clash with Pernida Parnkgjas.
The battlefield lay in ruin.
Without pause, he turned his attention toward his next target
Gerard Valkyrie.
And in the shadows of the Seireitei…
Kisuke Urahara had already arrived.
Watching.
Waiting.
Preparing.
The war had not yet begun.
But its outcome was already being decided.
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