The blue reishi in Harry's palm gradually condensed into an iced latte. Inside the transparent cup, the brown liquid gleamed faintly, and tiny beads of condensation even clung to its surface, creating a stark contrast against Hueco Mundo's barren white desert.
The Head Captain stared at the drink from the World of the Living, his pupils contracting sharply. For the first time, all authority vanished from his aged face, leaving behind nothing but utter disbelief. Even the hand gripping Zanka no Tachi began to tremble slightly.
"Disassemble... everything... and convert it into reishi?" His voice was no longer deep and steady. Instead, it carried a faint rasp, as though he could not comprehend the meaning behind those few simple words.
The searing sword pressure was still locked against Harry's green slash, but it had clearly fallen into a disadvantage. The green light seemed almost alive as it relentlessly eroded the fiery attack, consuming little by little the power that the Head Captain had always believed could reduce anything to ashes.
Yet the Head Captain no longer had the attention to spare for the battle. His entire focus had been seized by the iced latte and Harry's explanation.
"Impossible!" The Head Captain abruptly raised his voice, his tone bordering on an uncharacteristic loss of composure. "How could anyone possess such complete control over reishi?
"Even Yhwach, the pinnacle of the Quincy, can only manipulate the form of reishi within certain limits.
"Disassembling anything and reconstructing it from nothing is not the power of a Soul Reaper. That is the power of creation possessed only by the Soul King!"
He had lived for over a thousand years. From the day he awakened his Bankai, he had considered himself the strongest being in Soul Society.
He had witnessed countless bizarre Zanpakutō abilities, but he had never heard of anyone capable of manipulating reishi so completely. Harry could break matter down to its most fundamental state and reconstruct anything according to his will. This had already transcended the boundaries of a Zanpakutō. It was closer to the authority of a legendary creator god.
Faced with the Head Captain's doubts, Harry replied casually, "Head Captain, just because you've never seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The world is a remarkable place filled with countless possibilities."
The Head Captain shifted his gaze from the iced latte to Harry. His expression churned with complicated emotions, shock, suspicion, and the bewilderment of someone whose entire understanding of the world had just been overturned.
"What you displayed before was merely the tip of the iceberg? You deliberately concealed your true abilities. Just who are you?"
He suddenly realized that he had underestimated this young man from the beginning.
What Harry had previously called control over reishi had only been a superficial demonstration. His ability to disassemble and reconstruct matter was the true trump card, one terrifying enough to overturn the entire power system of Soul Society.
The green slash advanced once more. The searing sword pressure hissed and crackled as though announcing the Head Captain's imminent defeat.
Yet he no longer had any desire to resist. He merely stared blankly at the iced latte in Harry's palm as a thousand years of pride and confidence collapsed around him.
At last, he understood that the being before him existed far beyond the limits of his comprehension. The outcome of this battle had already been decided the moment Harry revealed his true power.
Even the wind carrying sand across Hueco Mundo seemed to fall still. Harry looked at the Head Captain's stunned face with an indifferent expression. The situation had already been decided, so he no longer needed to conceal the truth.
"My name truly is Harry Potter, but I am not a being from your world. I come from an entirely different world, one without Soul Reapers or Zanpakutō. There are only magic, wizards, and many other things."
The Head Captain tightened his grip around Zanka no Tachi. The black flames surrounding its blade surged violently, seemingly echoing the turmoil in his heart.
"Another world?" he repeated, his aged voice filled with disbelief. "A traveler who crossed between worlds? How could that be possible? Aside from the cracks within the Dangai, no living being has ever crossed the barriers separating worlds!"
He had lived for a thousand years and witnessed both the desolation of Hueco Mundo and the transformation of Soul Society, yet he had never heard of the existence of other universes. The very idea went far beyond his understanding of the laws governing reality.
Harry nodded slightly, glanced toward Sōsuke Aizen, who had been silently observing from a distance, and continued, "Then your knowledge is far more limited than you realize. Across the countless worlds of the multiverse, there are certainly not many powerful beings capable of traveling between universes, but there are far more than you would imagine.
"I possess the ability to cross between worlds. I came here simply because your world is already on the verge of destruction, which made it easier for me to bring under control."
The Head Captain shouted angrily, "Then your true objective is still to bring harm to our world! You are nothing more than an interdimensional demon!"
Harry shook his head, his expression remaining perfectly calm.
"That isn't a fair way of describing it. Even if I had never come here and everything continued along its predetermined course, your world would still be destroyed several decades from now following the fall of the Soul King. My arrival has merely given all of you a new possibility."
"I disagree."
Aizen, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly spoke.
"We are capable of saving our world ourselves. Someone from our world can become the new Soul King and replace the old one, supporting the Three Realms in his place."
Harry glanced at Aizen and said with certainty, "You intend to use the Hōgyoku to ascend to the throne of heaven?
"Unfortunately for you, that will never happen.
"Even without my interference, Ichigo Kurosaki will defeat you in the near future. He will rely on his own strength to overcome you, even after you merge with the Hōgyoku."
"Ichigo Kurosaki?"
Despite Harry's absolute denial of his ambitions, Aizen did not show the slightest trace of anger. He merely murmured the name to himself.
"If it is him, then I admit that such an outcome is possible.
"Even so, I will not abandon the Hōgyoku.
"Now that I know the cause of my future defeat, I can simply avoid making the same mistakes.
"Come, Harry. Fight me. Let us determine who will emerge as the final victor."
Harry shook his head and stated as though reciting an undeniable fact, "No. You have no possibility of winning."
The Head Captain offered no argument. He genuinely could not imagine any path to victory.
In the past, he had always relied on his overwhelming power to crush his enemies. Now that Harry possessed greater power than him, he had no other methods left.
Aizen, however, was different. The corner of his mouth curved upward as he deliberately adopted a questioning tone.
"Is that truly the case?
"Do we really have no possibility of winning?
"Then try examining your current condition. After the Hōgyoku repeatedly increased your Reiatsu, have you not noticed something slightly out of place?"
Harry carefully examined his condition and was surprised to discover a noticeable delay in his otherwise flawless control over his Reiatsu.
No matter how powerful the Hōgyoku was, the Reiatsu it had temporarily granted him did not belong to Harry. It belonged to the Hōgyoku.
Harry could control the portion of Reiatsu that had originally been his, but he could not exercise perfect control over the additional power.
Having apparently anticipated everything, Aizen said confidently, "It seems you have finally noticed. You require time to absorb the excess Reiatsu inside your body. Until that process is complete, your actual combat ability is even lower than it was before you absorbed the Hōgyoku.
"More importantly, the three of us are not the only ones present."
The moment Aizen finished speaking, deafening roars erupted from behind the distant dunes.
Hundreds, thousands, and then tens of thousands of Menos emerged from the clouds of sand. Their white masks seemed to cover the entire gray sky.
Countless sharp bone claws reflected a cold light, while innumerable pairs of crimson eyes locked firmly onto Harry.
They had clearly been placed under Aizen's control. The vast army surged forward like a tidal wave and completely surrounded Harry.
The first to attack was a gigantic Gillian. It opened its enormous mouth as a black Cero gathered in its throat, then fired the blast toward Harry with a tremendous surge of Reiatsu.
At the same time, the Head Captain and Sōsuke Aizen attacked together, unleashing powerful waves of sword pressure at Harry.
Faced with their devastating combined assault, Harry did not move from his position. He merely raised his left hand.
The reishi surrounding him instantly transformed into dozens of green blades of light, which accurately cut through the charging army of Hollows.
The blades made no sound as they crossed the air, but each possessed absolute cutting power.
The Gillian's Cero had only traveled halfway when a blade of light severed it down the middle. The enormous Hollow was then caught between several intersecting blades and instantly disassembled into a cloud of blue reishi before it could even scream.
When Aizen and the Head Captain's attacks reached Harry, his figure abruptly became translucent. Through spatial reishi transfer, he vanished from his original position in an instant.
The two powerful slashes struck nothing but empty air before continuing forward and killing dozens of Menos.
More Hollows arrived immediately afterward.
Some spread their wings and dove from the sky, while others burrowed through the sand with their bone claws and attacked from underground. They attempted to surround Harry from every possible direction.
Aizen stood in the distance and silently watched everything unfold. From time to time, he coordinated with the Head Captain, unleashing waves of sword pressure to interfere with Harry's movements.
He understood that even if Harry could suppress both him and the Head Captain, the young wizard would eventually exhaust his Reiatsu while facing an endless tide of Hollows.
Harry's response, however, exceeded all of Aizen's expectations.
Harry loosely closed his right hand, forming a reishi core in the center of his palm. As the core rotated, the reishi left behind by the disassembled Hollows was forcibly pulled toward it and transformed into a spiraling reishi storm.
Every Hollow caught within the storm was like a fallen leaf swept into a violent whirlpool. The moment their bodies touched it, they began to disintegrate.
Their black outer shells, sharp bone claws, and crimson eyes were all reduced to blue reishi. The particles merged with the storm, becoming fuel that increased its strength.
"This is impossible..." the Head Captain murmured in shock once again.
Never had he witnessed anyone convert the reishi of Hollows into their own power with such ease.
Rather than having his strength depleted by the Hollow army, Harry was continuously absorbing their reishi. The glow of his Reiatsu became brighter with every passing moment.
As the reishi storm expanded, it even began to pull in Hollows from farther away.
The previously ferocious creatures were utterly powerless against its attraction. All they could do was watch helplessly as their bodies were dragged toward the storm, disassembled, and assimilated.
The faint smile finally vanished from Aizen's face.
He had never imagined that his carefully prepared strategy would become a source of nourishment for Harry.
The army of Hollows continued to charge forward, but they were no longer a threat. Instead, they had become nothing more than a backdrop against which Harry could display his power.
Harry stood at the center of the reishi storm, his captain's haori snapping violently in the wind. He did not even need to attack personally. By controlling the storm, he could reduce every approaching Hollow to reishi.
The massive army that had once covered the desert of Hueco Mundo rapidly diminished. Soon, the only sound remaining was the deep hum of the rotating storm.
Standing at the edge of the dunes, Aizen completely lost his usual composure.
He stared at Harry's figure in the center of the storm, his robes whipping around him, and finally failed to suppress the tension hidden within his voice.
"Harry Potter, how are you doing this? With the Hōgyoku continuously increasing your power, how can you still control your Reiatsu so precisely?"
Harry slowly raised his eyes. His gaze passed through the rotating reishi storm and settled upon Aizen.
With a slight movement of his right hand, the storm slowed marginally, though its attraction remained overwhelmingly powerful.
Several Menos that had attempted to flee in the distance were caught by the pull. They were instantly dragged back, reduced to reishi, and absorbed into the storm.
"Precise control?" Harry's voice remained calm. "Even in my own world, I was accustomed to controlling power far beyond my natural limits. Almost every serious battle forced me to find a balance while standing at the very edge of what I could endure."
It was true. As someone who possessed the power of the Chaos Origin, Harry was more experienced than anyone when it came to dealing with power he could not completely control.
Harry paused before continuing, "Compared to those forces, what does this small amount of Reiatsu matter?
"What you consider the ultimate limit is nothing more than the starting point of my daily training."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Harry pressed his left hand downward.
Several narrow streams of reishi split away from the larger storm and accurately wrapped themselves around several Hollows attempting to ambush him from the side. The streams devoured the creatures at an even faster rate.
Aizen's expression darkened completely. He stared intently at Harry, searching for even the slightest weakness in the young man's eyes, but found only perfect calm.
At last, Aizen realized that he had not merely underestimated Harry's ability to control reishi. He had also underestimated the level of mastery Harry possessed over power itself.
The plan to exhaust him with an army of Hollows had been futile from the very beginning.
Despite the interference from Aizen and the Head Captain, Harry quickly eliminated the remaining Hollows.
Finally, he drew his Zanpakutō, which transformed into a blade of reishi light, and pointed it toward the waiting Head Captain and Aizen.
"It is time to end this, Head Captain, Aizen. Once I complete the final step, this world will no longer face destruction.
"At the same time, I will be able to use this world as an anchor to stabilize the power within my true body. That is the real outcome in which both sides benefit."
Harry lightly swung his arm.
A wave of green sword pressure tore across the battlefield like a line of light splitting heaven and earth, racing directly toward the Head Captain and Aizen.
The space along its path rippled faintly. Even the distant outline of Las Noches seemed to tremble beneath its power. The roars of the weaker Hollows had long since disappeared, leaving behind only the deep hum of the sword pressure tearing through the air.
The Head Captain's pupils contracted sharply. The power contained within this attack was far beyond anything Harry had used earlier.
Harry Potter had finally begun drawing upon his true strength.
The Head Captain did not dare underestimate it. He gripped Zanka no Tachi tightly with both hands as the black flames surrounding its blade erupted with all their remaining power.
"Zanka no Tachi, Sun-Devouring Slash!"
He poured the entirety of his thousand years of Reiatsu into the weapon. The blade transformed into a miniature black sun as he attempted to use its ultimate heat to block Harry's attack.
The instant the green sword pressure collided with the flames, the black sun began to rapidly recede like snow beneath the summer sun.
Harry's sword pressure did not slow in the slightest. It continued forward and crashed directly against the Head Captain's blade.
The Head Captain barely managed to catch the impossibly fast attack. His arms began trembling violently, and veins bulged across his aged face.
The overwhelming force drove him backward. With every retreating step, cracks spread like spiderwebs across the vitrified desert beneath his feet.
At the same moment, Aizen moved to block the other wave of sword pressure aimed at him. The force he faced was no weaker than the pressure bearing down upon the Head Captain, yet Aizen himself was less powerful than Yamamoto.
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