Three hours before the Tenth Division arrived in the World of the Living.
Fuyuki City Mansion District.
Asuka sat cross-legged on the floor tiles of the mansion.
A cold, unusually resilient material aura was spreading up his body.
A translucent membrane began to surface on Asuka's skin.
That was the black-robed old man's Fullbring, [Colorless].
Beneath the giant tree in the inner world, the black-haired young man looked up.
Although his eyes were closed, he looked toward the falling fragments in the sky, which resembled transparent cicada wings.
These fragments were slowly covering the giant tree, as well as the world he had created.
He said nothing, merely reaching out his hand, allowing the fragments to fall into his palm.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Asuka furrowed his brow, letting sweat roll down his chiseled cheeks.
Asuka felt his five senses being stretched infinitely.
He could hear insects crawling in the cracks of the walls, feel the flow of the crisscrossing water veins beneath Fuyuki City, and even sense every minute tremor of Reishi in the air.
His Spiritual Pressure was being peeled away layer by layer by this power, as if his very existence as Asuka was rapidly fading.
"Guard your mind, young man," the old man spoke up at the right moment. "Remember, it is only your presence being concealed. Do not let that power spread into your soul."
The old man frowned, tossing aside a dimmed [Sekkiseki]. "However, I didn't expect concealing your presence to be this troublesome. Truly an abnormal soul..."
Kisuke Urahara remained silent, quietly watching everything unfold in the room.
At the same time, he extended his perception outside the mansion.
The sky out there was churning.
'What in the world is going on...' he felt a sense of unease, placing his hand on Benihime, which had taken the form of a cane.
At this moment, without any warning, Asuka felt the ground beneath him violently tremble.
It wasn't an earthquake or a landslide; rather, it felt as if the entire ley line network of Fuyuki City suddenly shuddered from an incredibly massive 'malice'.
The colorless fluctuations originally circulating around Asuka suddenly turned from transparent to a murky, deathly ash gray the moment this malice appeared.
"What is happening?!" the old man's exclamation shattered the silence.
He felt as if his brain had been struck by a massive hammer.
In his perception, a thick, dark malice, carrying extreme despair and resentment, was churning in the surrounding air like a bursting dam.
'My Fullbring lost control?! That's impossible!'
Bang!!
Kisuke Urahara immediately kicked open the mansion's front doors. Holding onto his bucket hat flapping in the fierce wind, he looked up at the sky with a livid expression.
The originally grayish-yellow clouds were spinning madly, forming a massive funnel cloud.
The Spiritual Pressure environment of the entire Fuyuki City completely went berserk at this moment.
"...Impeccable timing," he spat quietly, smoothly drawing the sword from his cane with a backhand grip.
Riiip—!
The next second, the space above the mansion was forcibly torn apart.
Accompanied by agonizing roars, countless pitch-black fissures began to bloom in the sky.
Several Hollows appeared simultaneously.
"Sing, Benihime!"
As the release command echoed, crimson Spiritual Pressure instantly formed a barrier in front of Kisuke Urahara.
Clang—!!
A massive hexagonal red light shield expanded in the air, firmly blocking a diving Hollow against its surface!
However, Kisuke Urahara's brow twitched slightly.
'These Hollows are different from normal ones...'
Their masks were covered in blackish-red vascular patterns, and an evil black slime flowed within their Hollow holes.
The moment they collided with the Blood Mist Shield, the bursting black slime displayed intense corrosiveness, actually causing cracks to appear on the Blood Mist Shield.
"They aren't even Gillian... How is this possible..." Urahara muttered in confusion. He slashed his blade through the air, red Reishi threads wrapping around his fingertips.
"—Juzutsunagi!"
Benihime erupted with a burst of red light, and a massive Reishi net instantly spread open, enveloping the horde of Hollows before him.
Within the Reishi net, dozens of crimson Reishi spheres began to heat up, followed by an earth-shattering explosion!
Boom, boom—!!
The sound of explosions was endless.
But what Urahara found troublesome was that even when these Hollows were blown to pieces, their fragments would gather back together, attempting to reconstruct their forms.
"Hado #33・Sokatsui!"
A pillar of blue fire pierced the sky, engulfing the puddle of fragments trying to reform—fragments that he wasn't sure could even be called a Hollow anymore.
Boom—!!
The twice-incinerated Hollow corpse convulsed before turning into ashes.
"So ordinary physical attacks are completely useless? How troublesome..."
Urahara looked at the several puddles of fragments that had yet to reform, and the Garganta still churning in the sky, his expression grave.
"Good grief, is there a riot in Hueco Mundo? Every single one of them is so energetic..."
At this moment, Asuka was experiencing a challenge on the level of his very soul.
That power from deep within the ley lines spread all the way to his mental center along the path of the Fullbring, further amplifying his Spiritual Sight.
Through a sense that transcended vision, Asuka's sight pierced through the mansion's roof, through the Garganta in the sky, extending all the way to the high altitude tens of thousands of meters above.
There, he saw the true face of this world.
It was a grandiose existence that covered the entirety of Fuyuki City, and even a vaster territory beyond.
Beyond the firmament, a massive magic circle shimmering with dark gold light floated silently.
It was incredibly complex, formed by countless slowly rotating rings, triangles, and unknown runes. The intersection of every line flowed with a pressure that made the soul tremble.
At the center of the magic circle was a bottomless—well.
At this very moment, all the air, all the Reishi, all the malice in Fuyuki City... were constantly being filtered and extracted through this magic circle, ultimately converging into that well.
'What is that...' Asuka murmured in his consciousness.
He suddenly felt that those mutated Hollows were deeply connected to this magic circle.
The magic circle was devouring the city's spirituality, and the Hollows drawn in by Fuyuki City's peculiar Spiritual Pressure field were transformed into these twisted monsters by the filth it excreted.
It was as if they were the 'dregs' excreted by this massive magic circle.
The next instant, the magic circle seemed to detect Asuka's prying.
The moment a certain dial turned, a destructive wave devoid of any impurities blasted toward him along his line of sight!
"Don't look! Close your eyes!"
The black-haired young man's furious roar exploded in Asuka's mind.
In his sea of consciousness, the black-haired young man half-opened his eyes for the first time.
They were pitch-black eyes without pupils.
In the blink of an eye, the blackness in his eyes split apart, forming two black pupils.
He gently raised his hand, and an insurmountable barrier appeared between Asuka and the destructive wave.
Boom!
After a violent crashing sound, he pulled Asuka, whose consciousness had nearly been shattered, back beneath the giant tree.
He gripped Asuka's shoulders, complex emotions revealing themselves in his dual pupils.
"That is the 'Law', the karma of this city after it was twisted..."
"Asuka, as you are now, you do not have the right to look directly at it!"
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