Just as Kurosaki Masaki was about to compromise,
suddenly,
the sky seemed to tear open, and a familiar figure descended from above.
"Whoosh!"
A flash of a blade, Kurosaki ichigo's Zangetsu cut through the air, heading straight for Gremmy with a fierce momentum.
Gremmy frowned slightly, quickly retreated a few steps, avoiding the attack.
"Who are you! What are you doing to my mom!?"
Kurosaki ichigo landed steadily on the ground.
He gripped Zangetsu tightly, protecting Kurosaki Masaki behind him, and shouted loudly towards the front:
"Did you cause the chaos in this city?"
Kurosaki ichigo's voice carried an unsuppressable anger; the Quincy attack had shattered his peaceful life.
He was attending school normally, but then suddenly, everything turned into a sea of fire.
He, Sado Yasutora, Ishida Uryū, and Inoue Orihime had tried their best, barely managing to rescue their classmates from danger.
However, before he could even catch his breath, he felt his mother's reishi.
He rushed over without hesitation, only to witness Gremmy attempting to abduct his mother.
Kurosaki ichigo's mind completely snapped.
His intuition told Kurosaki ichigo that the golden-haired young man in front of him was the instigator of all this chaos.
He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on Zangetsu.
Directly opposite him,
Gremmy raised a hand to wipe his forehead, as if wiping away non-existent blood.
He looked at Kurosaki ichigo, his tone carrying a hint of mockery: "It's you, lucky kid."
"What am I doing to your mom? Isn't it obvious? I need her."
"The fact that you can appear here means that all the Quincy near the school have been dealt with by you, right?"
"Not bad, your strength has increased much faster than I imagined, but unfortunately, it's far from enough."
Gremmy shook his head, sensing Kurosaki ichigo's reishi fluctuations, his voice growing colder:
"Kid, scram, this isn't a game of make-believe."
"If you dare to waste my time again, be careful, I might really kill you."
Kurosaki Masaki's heart sank.
She knew that Gremmy's power was something Bankai could not contend with.
She had witnessed with her own eyes that middle-aged man being tortured to death in outer space.
—Dehydration, suffocation, radiation, the pain and despair were visible to the naked eye.
She dared not gamble, nor could she.
"Kurosaki-kun…"
She called out softly, wanting her son to leave and not risk himself for her anymore.
However, she had barely uttered two words.
Kurosaki-kun looked as if to say, "What are you talking about?" His eyes wide, he shouted:
"Kill me? Then come on! I won't back down!"
He raised Zangetsu high, the blade pointing directly at Gremmy:
"Zangetsu! Lend me your power!"
"Dad isn't here, we can only rely on the two of us to protect Mom!"
Zangetsu trembled slightly, as if responding to his call.
Seeing this, Gremmy's smile grew wider.
However, his eyes remained cold and merciless.
He softly uttered a few words, seemingly mocking Kurosaki ichigo's overestimation of his own abilities.
"Stubborn, then go die."
As soon as these words left his mouth, Kurosaki ichigo's face instantly turned ashen.
He felt as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping his throat, making it extremely difficult to breathe.
His feet lifted off the ground, his body floating uncontrollably, as if he had been thrown into the endless abyss of space.
He tried to use Shunpo to escape, but found that the surrounding reishi could not coalesce at all.
One second… his eyes bulged, as if about to burst.
Two seconds… his skin began to crack, and his blood boiled within him, seemingly about to burst through his veins.
Kurosaki Masaki could no longer stand idly by.
She raised her trembling finger, and an X-cution arrow shot towards Gremmy.
However, before the arrow could reach Gremmy, it was swallowed by an invisible force, disappearing without a trace.
Three seconds… Kurosaki ichigo's body was already on the verge of collapse.
Just at this critical moment, a look of determination flashed in Kurosaki Masaki's eyes.
Unfortunately, before she could act, Kurosaki ichigo's body was suddenly thrown out of the cosmic space like a rag doll.
Seeing her son fall heavily to the ground, motionless, Kurosaki Masaki's heart instantly sank to the bottom.
"Ah! Kurosaki-kun!"
Just then, Inoue Orihime's anxious voice came from behind.
Inoue Orihime looked at the motionless "corpse" lying on the ground in front of her, and her heart immediately panicked.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wanted to rush forward, but Ishida Uryū stopped her.
"Wait!"
Ishida Uryū held her shoulder, his gaze wary,
"Something's not right, I know that person, a member of the Sternritter…"
He stared at Gremmy, "Why would someone like him appear here?"
"Is it Yhwach's doing? Did he kill Kurosaki-kun…"
"What exactly do they want?"
Inoue Orihime couldn't care less about any of that.
She just wanted to rush to Kurosaki ichigo's side and heal him.
However, Ishida Uryū's hand was like an iron clamp, gripping her tightly.
"Let go of me, Ishida-kun!"
Inoue Orihime shouted, her voice laced with a sob.
Her body struggled desperately, trying to break free from Ishida Uryū's grasp, her emotions almost out of control.
Gremmy glanced at them coldly, but didn't pay them any mind.
They were just humans.
The priority was to take Kurosaki Masaki to Soul Society.
To avoid wasting any more time, he immediately intended to kill all these humans to eliminate future troubles.
However, as soon as the thought crossed his mind,
Ishida Uryū seemed to sense something, and immediately disappeared from the spot with Inoue Orihime and Sado Yasutora.
Seeing this, Gremmy's imagination was interrupted, and he snorted coldly.
"They know their place, so be it."
Since they had run away, he was too lazy to chase them. Anyway, Kurosaki ichigo's death was enough.
It also showed Kurosaki Masaki the consequences of defying him.
Kurosaki Masaki was utterly disheartened, her body bound by imagination, losing all will to resist.
Just like that, the two disappeared from the Human World and returned to Soul Society.
It wasn't until a minute later that the Human World trio returned.
Inoue Orihime immediately ran forward to heal Kurosaki ichigo.
Her movements were anxious, her face pale, and even her lips trembled.
Fortunately, Soten Kishun possessed the power to reject all.
Theoretically, even a skeleton could reject its death and revive under her influence.
"Soten Kishun!"
With her call, a golden light, like warm sunlight, enveloped Kurosaki ichigo's body.
His radiation-burned skin began to recover at a visible rate, his heart began to beat, and his breathing gradually stabilized.
Kurosaki ichigo slowly opened his eyes, and what met his gaze was Inoue Orihime's tear-stained face.
"Kurosaki-kun, you're finally awake!" Inoue Orihime hugged him tightly, weeping with joy, her tears soaking his clothes.
Kurosaki ichigo's mind was in a mess.
He only remembered being in endless space, and then losing consciousness.
He looked up around him and found that his mother was gone.
"Where's Mom?" He sat up abruptly, his voice anxious.
Ishida Uryū stepped forward, his tone grave:
"She was taken by the Quincy. She should be in Soul Society now, Kurosaki-kun, you can't be impulsive right now."
However, Kurosaki ichigo seemed not to hear him and immediately intended to enter Soul Society to rescue his mother.
At this moment, Ishida Uryū's cold voice sounded again, stopping him:
"Kurosaki-kun, dying once isn't enough, do you want to die a second time?"
"The reason you could be revived this time is because that guy didn't know Inoue's ability."
"And, he seemed to have important matters to attend to and didn't dispose of your corpse."
"If you appear before him again and die a second time,"
"What do you think he'll do?"
"I don't think he'll make a second mistake. It's better to plan properly."
"Where is your father?"
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
Just as Kurosaki ichigo was about to look for his father,
Shiba Isshin appeared at the doorstep, holding his two daughters.
Those Quincy were truly insidious, daring to attack his daughters amidst the chaos.
Fortunately, he discovered them first, otherwise Karin and Yuzu would have surely died.
Putting his daughters down, Shiba Isshin originally intended for his son to take the two daughters and leave with Kurosaki Masaki.
Suddenly, he learned from Uryū that Kurosaki Masaki had been captured, and his face immediately darkened.
A feint… Damn it!
Taking a deep breath, his gaze fixed on Ishida Uryū, Shiba Isshin asked in a deep voice:
"I already know what happened."
"Uryū, do you have any good ideas?"
"It's my fault that Masaki was captured. If I had been faster…"
"Isshin-san, you don't need to blame yourself." Ishida Uryū raised his hand to interrupt,
"Speed is meaningless. This time, it was because of Kurosaki-kun's sudden appearance that the time was delayed by dozens of seconds."
"If he hadn't come, at the moment Aunt Masaki was captured, it would have been precisely when your two daughters were attacked."
"Feinting and drawing the tiger out of the mountain, even I would find it difficult to find an effective solution."
"The most urgent matter is to go to Soul Society first and figure out what those Quincy want to do."
"They definitely didn't capture Aunt Masaki out of mere interest."
He almost forgot about that. Shiba Isshin immediately used his Zanpakuto to open the Shiba Clan's Senkaimon.
Time was pressing; they would have to come up with a plan on the way.
He hoped the situation wouldn't escalate to the worst-case scenario.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to face his two daughters.
…
Inside Seireitei, the battle between Haschwalth, Kisuke Urahara, and Bazz-B was nearing its end.
Although he was strengthened by Seeleschneider, he was completely unafraid of fighting two against one, and even managed to gain the upper hand.
But Kisuke Urahara's Zanpakuto was simply too troublesome.
Even if he fed back all his injuries to him, he could quickly heal them using his modifications.
Bazz-B was even more so.
Unclear what he had encountered, his reishi absorption speed was more than twice as fast as before.
The misfortune he bestowed upon him was instantly balanced out.
Haschwalth felt like he had encountered two porcupines, and his former boasts had become empty words.
Slightly panting, Haschwalth stared at the two, his voice cold:
"As expected of the Twelfth Division Captain, Bazz-B, your body must have been modified by him."
"You, who once saw yourself as a genius, after being modified by a Shinigami, now possess impure bloodline and strength. Don't you find it laughable?"
"What's so funny, Hugo!"
Bazz-B's four fingers ignited simultaneously, drawing a dazzling red arc in mid-air.
His sharp gaze fixed on him:
"I have never forgotten that the genius of yesteryear was bestowed upon me by you. That is the shame of my life."
"As long as I can kill Yhwach, I am willing to give everything!"
"I should be the one laughing! You, who once valued your comrades, why did you so readily accept the power of Seeleschneider?"
"Didn't you hear their wails in hell?"
"You've fallen, Hugo!"
"Even if I shatter every bone in your body, I will make you come to your senses!"
Haschwalth scoffed.
He had to admit, this was the funniest joke he had ever heard in his life.
Although he didn't know where Bazz-B got his confidence, as long as reishi still existed in the air.
As long as… he didn't suffer a fatal injury that caused him to lose consciousness.
He, like Yhwach, was nearly invincible.
Thoughts swirling, Haschwalth slowly exhaled:
"A meaningless provocation."
He didn't seem angered by Bazz-B's words; instead, he slowly raised his sword again, his gaze gradually calming.
"If you can do it—"
"Then come."
"I will show you what true despair is."
With that, to end the battle quickly and decisively, he slowly reached for the Sternritter on his waist.
He hadn't originally intended to use this Sternritter; in his view, it was a desecration of his battle with Bazz-B.
He wanted to use his own strength to make Bazz-B willingly submit, and then deeply reflect and repent for his actions.
But now…
Bazz-B had been completely brainwashed by the Shinigami, and any more words would be like talking to a brick wall, utterly meaningless.
Killing them as quickly as possible and completing the task given by His Majesty was the top priority.
Thinking of this, Haschwalth raised his eyes, a look of determination flashing in them, and began to chant the incantation:
"Dissolve. Sea into cloud, cloud into rain, rain into mist…"
The incantation was short and powerful, only a few dozen characters.
Kisuke Urahara didn't even have time to react before the Benihime behind him was instantly stripped away by a mysterious force.
Haschwalth was full of vigor.
He was about to use Benihime to eliminate Kisuke Urahara, and then resolve Bazz-B with his own abilities.
However, fate is always unpredictable.
No sooner had these thoughts settled than Haschwalth felt a metallic sweetness in his throat.
Then, he frowned and violently spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the ground red.
"!"
Immediately after, dizziness surged like a tide.
Haschwalth seemed to lose control of his muscles, his legs buckled, and he dropped to one knee with a thud, one hand barely supporting his body.
His eyes were filled with confusion.
"This is…"
He knew he had been tricked by the Shinigami, but how exactly had he been tricked?
There was no sign.
Haschwalth slowly raised his eyes, seeing double, his vision becoming blurry.
Just then.
"Thump, thump…"
A steady sound of footsteps echoed as Kisuke Urahara slowly walked forward.
He came before Haschwalth, looked at his miserable state, and couldn't help but click his tongue:
"How pathetic, the taste of Hollow poison isn't pleasant, is it?"
"I told you to be careful a long time ago, because I would use any means, but I didn't expect you to still fall for it."
"That thing is called a Sternritter, isn't it? A name with no distinguishing features."
"However, it's surprisingly practical."
Kisuke Urahara nodded, a look of having gained new insight on his face.
Seeing this, Haschwalth, kneeling on the ground, coughed up another mouthful of blood.
His weakened eyes looked at Kisuke Urahara, his lips trembling slightly, and he said:
"So that's it, a Hollow, is it?"
"When did it happen?"
At this moment, he finally understood what had happened to him, and it was no wonder Kisuke Urahara had been so fearless before.
This Hollow poison was probably specially formulated; its potency was so strong that it had penetrated his soul, and even his Sternritter was severely contaminated.
Haschwalth calculated that, in his current condition, it would take at least three minutes to clear this Hollow poison.
And in such a tense situation, let alone three minutes, he couldn't even afford thirty seconds.
Kisuke Urahara smiled, a hint of triumph in his eyes, but said nothing.
He gently waved his hand, beckoning Bazz-B over, and pointed at Haschwalth, who had barely managed to crawl up from the ground with all his might.
He said with a smile:
"Go defeat him. You have less than two minutes to break all his bones."
"His combat power is less than one-tenth of what it was, and he can't even use his Sternritter."
"As a man, you must keep your word."
"Don't make me look down on you, Bazz-B."
At these words, cold sweat broke out on Bazz-B.
No…
I was just saying that, you actually took it seriously?
This…
Although breaking all of a friend's bones sounded a bit cruel, for the sake of the Hugo of the past, Bazz-B took a deep breath.
Finally, he made up his mind.
He stepped forward.
"Sorry, Hugo, it won't hurt much. To be honest, I didn't expect the Wandenreich to develop a technique to steal Shinigami Bankai."
"It seems Yhwach really made thorough preparations for this war today."
Haschwalth raised his eyes, and even though he knew the pain he was about to endure, his expression remained calm:
"There's still a lot you don't know."
"Bazz-B, even if you kill me, things won't get better."
"This world ultimately belongs to His Majesty."
"You rebels…"
"Alright, stop talking," Bazz-B interrupted him.
"What rebel or not, I only know that he is my enemy."
"All the effort I've put in my life has been to get revenge on him."
"Anyone who stands in my way, I will kill them."
"Including you, Hugo."
Speaking of this, facing Haschwalth's indifferent yet slightly flickering gaze.
Bazz-B exhaled, lowering his eyes.
"Fortunately—"
"You 'lost'."
"Being captured like this with all your bones broken, I presume even if Yhwach finds out, he won't blame you."
"If he wins, you can still be your captain, high and mighty."
"If he loses, Hugo…"
"Do you need to serve a dead man?"
Haschwalth's pale lips were tightly sealed; he did not answer the question.
At this moment, Bazz-B had already arrived in front of him.
In an instant, he raised his hand and shattered all of Haschwalth's bones except his head.
Immediately, Haschwalth collapsed like a rag doll.
Kisuke Urahara stepped forward, smiling as he pulled out a syringe from his sleeve and injected it into his muscle.
As if to make Haschwalth aware of his situation, Kisuke Urahara, while the other party was still conscious, added a few explanations:
"This is a Superhuman Drug developed by Mayuri. As the name suggests, it can turn a person into a superhuman, allowing them to think thousands of times in a very short period."
"I injected you with about an hour's worth."
"You'll probably spend a long thousand years in your mental world."
"Although this doesn't fit my fighting style, everything must prioritize the safety of the Seireitei."
"Sorry, Haschwalth, see you in a thousand years."
Saying that, he gently closed Haschwalth's eyelids with his hand, and injected another dose of pain inhibitor.
Behind him, hearing the number one thousand years, Bazz-B was instantly stunned.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but then sighed, his shoulders drooping, swallowing the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
It had already been injected; what good would regretting it do now?
He hoped that this thousand years would allow Haschwalth to change a little.
…
Soul King Palace.
Yhwach was unaware of everything happening in the lower realm; at this moment, he was fully concentrating on peering into the future.
His The Almighty could only function by "seeing."
And so, when he peered into the Soul King Palace, countless future scenes surged into his mind like a tide.
He observed them like sifting sand from a great wave.
At first, he paid no mind.
Until later, his expression gradually changed.
Only because, in the future scenes, when Yoriichi Tsugikuni drew his Zanpakuto.
All futures abruptly ceased, like a film suddenly losing power, plunging into darkness.
"…"
A wave of doubt surged in Yhwach's heart.
He had seen these scenes before, but for them to appear on a Shinigami, was that logical?
Intervention from the Soul King? No, that was absolutely impossible.
The Soul King was already dead.
He could bestow power upon Yoriichi Tsugikuni, but it would require modification.
Normally, there wouldn't be this much time.
He lowered his eyes slightly; although he didn't know the specific reason, Yhwach still kept it in mind.
He made a decisive decision: Yoriichi Tsugikuni absolutely must not draw his Zanpakuto.
This was an anomaly, an unprecedented anomaly.
With these thoughts, Yhwach entered the Soul King Palace.
At this moment, Yoriichi Tsugikuni stood before the Soul King, and the atmosphere instantly became as heavy as lead.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni was about to draw his sword and release it.
Suddenly—
"Ring of Suffering!"
Yhwach stretched out his hand, and countless reishi, under his control, transformed into blue halos, tightly enveloping Yoriichi Tsugikuni's right hand, sealing it and stopping him from drawing his sword.
Yoriichi frowned at the sight.
He stomped his foot and flashed, all his strength being used at once, directly breaking free from the Ring of Suffering.
Yhwach snorted coldly; he had already seen this scene through The Almighty, so he appeared directly behind Yoriichi.
Without hesitation—
"Multiple Holy Arrows!"
A large number of arrows instantly shot from his fingertips, like dense raindrops, aiming directly at Yoriichi Tsugikuni's upper body.
The battle thus erupted without warning.
Violent energy fluctuations swept out like a hurricane, encompassing even the Soul King.
For a time, buildings crumbled, smoke and dust dispersed, and the entire Soul King Palace plunged into chaos.
…
Seireitei.
The sky grew overcast, and dense raindrops fell.
"Hey, hey, you're kidding, right!"
Askin Nakk Le Vaar, the Sternritter D, couldn't help but widen his eyes as he looked at the dark-skinned youth in front of him, whose every movement was perfectly executed.
He felt like he was hallucinating because every lethal dose he inflicted was resolved by Yushiro Shihouin with the smallest cost.
It was as if he had fought countless battles against himself.
He was gaining experience from self-harm.
He couldn't understand it.
But Askin knew it was time to change opponents.
However, tragically, when he changed opponents, he found that seemingly everyone was like Yushiro Shihouin.
No choice, he could only throw out poison balls, enhancing the effect of the lethal dose.
This time, no one could resist.
After poisoning everyone, he prepared to break into the Noble District to destroy all the legacies left by the Five Great Noble Families back then.
But just as he entered, he encountered two uninvited guests.
A dark-skinned girl, and a red-haired girl with two swords on her back.