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"If there is an East, then there is a West!"
"To make you relive the pain Chōjirō endured… today, I will awaken the deepest terror carved into your souls, even if it costs the entire Soul Society!"
"You wretched bones of sin will once again taste the despair of waiting to be reduced to ash by fire!"
Gripping his blade with one hand,the old body seemed to be reborn in flames, like a phoenix rising from its ashes.
Those flames that had once vanished surged back, their temperature climbing violently past ten thousand degrees, approaching the unimaginable heat of the sun's core.
Fire wrapped around his hands, his feet, every part of the Captain-Commander's body.
Scorching. Shifting. Condensing.
Blinding crimson flames boiled like molten lava, forming a radiant tide that transformed into a blazing red mantle, draping itself over his aged frame.
From afar, it looked as though a living, breathing humanoid sun had bloomed within the future Soul Society itself, releasing a destructive heat of fifteen million degrees.
"SSSS—!!!"
Watching this horrifying scene, fear spread instantly, whether in the future or the present. No one could swallow, no one could even move their throat.
Because—
Every drop of moisture in the world evaporated in that instant.
"This is insane!"
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never believe a Zanpakutō could become an actual sun!"As the Captain-Commander's pale eyebrows, hair, and beard were dyed by explosive flames, everyone watching felt their souls being shaken.
The sun in the sky, hellfire on the ground.
Old man Yamamoto had truly become a god of fire.
And among everyone present—
The one suffering the most was Yhwach, standing directly before that "sun."
Even though he wrapped his entire body in Blut Vene, the spirit particles in the air were being incinerated nonstop, causing its strength to weaken visibly.
As the crimson veins faded from his skin, Yhwach's arm and the tattered remains of his blood-red cloak ignited instantly.
"You should be feeling the pain of burning by now," Yamamoto said coldly.
"Yhwach!!!"
Each syllable he spoke carried heat worthy of the sun itself.
"Zanka no Tachi: West."
"Remnants of the Sun's Prison Garment."
The fire-wreathed wooden sandals stepped lightly onto the scorched ground, and the Seireitei split apart as black fissures spread, filled with hellish crimson flames.
Every step the Captain-Commander took was like a blazing sun moving along a galactic orbit.
The light was so intense it became nearly transparent, illuminating the skies of the Seireitei more brilliantly than ever before.
"Fifteen million degrees. A real, absolute temperature…"
"You can't touch it. You can't counter it. Anything that comes near melts instantly."
"So how do you plan to deal with this?"
It was a question and a taunt at the same time.
The way Yamamoto looked at Yhwach now was the gaze of a man staring at someone already dead.
All sin. All resistance.
Would perish beneath the truth of the sun.
"…!"
Yhwach's eyes flickered wildly.
As the sun-god Captain-Commander advanced toward him, he instinctively lifted his foot, trying to retreat and create distance.
But then he realized something that filled him with terror.
In this brief span of time, the air itself had been ravaged by flame, and the spirit particles flowing through it had become fuel for the fire instead.
The moment Yhwach tried to move back, his legs, his entire body, were met with overwhelming resistance.
It felt as if an invisible wall of fire stood behind him.
A barrier that completely sealed off any path of retreat for the Quincy King.
Now—
He could only stand there in despair, watching as the world around him was swallowed by crimson flames, everything growing redder by the second.
"Fire…"
"Fifteen million degrees of it? That's terrifying…"
Deep beneath the Fifth Division barracks, inside a hidden underground chamber, Ichimaru Gin's shaken voice echoed from behind a towering Dangai barrier.
Yes.
To block the solar flames spilling from the screen and to protect the chamber from destruction, Aizen had calmly cast Hadō #81 without incantation, standing behind the transparent wall as he watched the scene unfold.
"Gin," Aizen said lightly, "are you questioning the temperature of those flames?"
The momentary "ally" with his own agenda immediately caught the implication and shot back.
"Well… if it really is that extreme, shouldn't the flames be invisible to the naked eye?"
"Right, Captain Aizen?"
"No," Aizen replied, slowly shaking his head, his tone certain."What you're seeing isn't flame. It's spiritual pressure."
"Everything that looks like 'fire' right now is the overwhelming reiatsu released by Zanka no Tachi's Bankai."
"Yamamoto Genryūsai's spiritual pressure has grown so immense that it has taken physical form."
"That's how we ended up witnessing this scene of total destruction!"
The moment those words left his mouth, something ignited deep within Aizen's eyes.
A blazing, scalding battle intent surged and boiled over.
The spiritual pressure of Ryūjin Jakka had already surpassed the limits of a normal Soul Reaper. Even without crossing into some higher dimensional state, its sheer power was still far beyond what an ordinary Shinigami body could endure.
And that power was exactly what Aizen had long yearned for.
"So that's how it is…"
Ichimaru Gin nodded thoughtfully, then continued in his usual mocking tone."From the looks of it, under the overwhelming pressure of the Captain-Commander, Yhwach's Sternritter insignia and that blood-red cloak of his have already been burned to ashes."
"Stripped of all that flashy decoration, the once all-powerful Quincy King really does look like a stray dog now."
"Not necessarily."
Aizen shook his head, calmly rejecting the conclusion."It doesn't seem like the Quincy King has given up completely. He looks like he's standing still, but in reality, he's preparing some kind of special incantation."
Aizen could tell at a glance.
The spiritual pressure inside Yhwach, suppressed by Zanka no Tachi's lingering heat, was also building at a frantic pace.
This was not the reaction of someone surrendering.
Rather…
It was a desperate, all-or-nothing strike born from the edge of annihilation.
Sure enough.
On the battlefield, Yhwach seemed to hear Aizen's thoughts across time and space.
Facing the Captain-Commander's invincible figure that loomed larger and larger in his vision, like a sovereign sun descending upon the world, a ruthless gleam flashed through Yhwach's crimson eyes.
Then he leapt straight into the air.
At the same time, Quincy incantations rang out from his lips.
"Holy Chant!"
"Hymn of the Sacred Domain!"
…
He raised his hand and roared.
Vast, deep-blue crosses of reishi burst from the ground in neat rows, like gravestones raised to summon the dead. They scattered the crimson glow of the surrounding flames and forced it back.
In that instant, they carved out a narrow chance of survival for Yhwach.
"Hymn of the Sacred Domain…"
"That's a powerful barrier technique unique to pure-blooded Quincies, combining offense and defense. Anyone who steps inside it will be cut down and destroyed by divine light itself."
However.
In the face of what Yhwach believed to be his counterattack and hope.
The Captain-Commander's expression, hidden beneath his blazing sun-like mantle, remained cold and unfathomable.
Without the slightest hint of emotion, he spoke.
"Futile."
"If you still don't understand what despair truly is, then let the souls that were once slain by Zanka no Tachi explain it to you."
"Clang!"
The rusted katana plunged downward from an angle, piercing deep into the ground.
The Captain-Commander bent forward, drawing his bow-like stance low. Behind him, the solar mantle detonated and roared, mercilessly baking the entirety of Seireitei.
And amid it all, his low, murmured invocation echoed like a curse.
"Souls of the dead…"
"Ashes of those who were scattered by my flames…"
"Lend me your strength. Come, and savor the pleasure of this battlefield alongside me, if only for a moment."
"..."
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