Dragging the Soul King down to the depths of Hell was a massive gamble, even for me.
The falling of the Soul King Palace and the Daireiri was fine. I had sent Urahara ahead to minimize the fallout of that particular disaster.
And I had even managed to relocate every single soul in Hell—including the Ten Kings and the sinners—to another location, save for one person.
Where did I move the sinners of Hell? Where else? To Hueco Mundo.
—Are you telling me to take charge of monitoring the sinners?
—Yeah. Suffer through it for a few days. You can do this much for me, right?
There happens to be an exceptionally talented jailer named Azashiro Soya who entered Hueco Mundo of his own volition, after all.
So, right now, Hell is empty—save for the one most troublesome bastard of them all.
That troublesome bastard is none other than the former Royal Guard of Squad 0, the True Name Caller, Ichibe Hyosube.
The reason I called falling into Hell with the Soul King a 'gamble' was precisely because of this guy.
Because the place where Ichibe Hyosube is currently imprisoned is the Hell of Black Darkness.
The same Hell where Jomon was once locked away.
For a monk who manipulates all the 'Black' in existence, the Hell of Black Darkness—overflowing with shadows—was the optimal space to recover his power.
I heard plenty from the Ten Kings questioning why I bothered throwing him into the Hell of Black Darkness when he could have been tossed into any of the Eight Hot or Eight Cold Hells.
Their concern was natural; it was like tossing a smoldering log into a powder keg.
But even knowing that, I pushed forward with the certainty that Ichibe Hyosube would not overturn Hell yet.
With that monk's personality, rather than wasting energy on useless endeavors, he would be conserving his strength, waiting for me to return to Hell.
The moment I let my guard down, he will surely descend to stab me in the back. And that moment... would be today.
Thud... crumble...
'The Daireiri didn't get dragged all the way down, then.'
I was worried because the Soul King Palace and the Daireiri were bound together, but it seemed like they couldn't withstand the impact of passing through the rift between worlds. Only fragments of what used to be the Daireiri and the Soul King Palace had plummeted into Hell.
Emerging from the colossal crater left by the falling palace, I took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling the toxic miasma of Hell I hadn't smelled in quite some time. I surveyed my surroundings.
The space that was usually filled with the wails and screams of sinners was now quieter than ever before.
It felt as though I had returned to the distant past, back when Hell was first created.
The presence that had briefly flickered felt sharp again. I turned my head to see the Soul King, who had fallen with me, already stepping out of the crater.
"This place is..."
"The final destination for all life, and the starting point for all life."
Ugh, saying it like that gives me goosebumps.
I really wasn't cut out for this kind of dialogue.
"Well, that's just a fancy way of putting it. It's just Hell. So, how does a world you've never known look to you?"
I spoke with a smile—half wanting to show off, half wanting to take one last look at the Hell that would soon vanish.
The Soul King slowly scanned the surroundings in silence.
I wondered how my Hell appeared in the Soul King's eyes.
Well... I doubted it left a particularly good impression.
A place where the evil karma stained into one's soul is beaten out of them through death, much like filth is beaten out of laundry with a club.
A place where a sinner dies and dies, experiencing thousands of deaths until their flesh scatters as a handful of dust.
That's what it was like when Hell was in full operation, but now, it is merely a space filled with the density of death.
It is silent because everything is dead.
"Quiet, and dead."
Sure enough, the words from the Soul King's mouth did not stray far from my expectations.
I gave a short laugh and shrugged at those words.
"It's usually a very noisy place. Not noisy in a good way, but well, it doesn't matter now. As of today, the redevelopment of the entirety of Hell has been confirmed."
"Is that so."
I looked around, leaving the nodding Soul King behind me.
"That should be enough for nostalgia."
I flinched slightly at the Soul King's words and looked back.
Though the Soul King had been surveying the area mechanically, he had been watching me from the very start.
"Ha, yeah. I guess the one who needed preparation wasn't you, but me."
I scratched the back of my head and took one final look at Hell.
'SimCity Season 3, huh...'
Well, I'd have to finish this job first before I could start prepping that.
Letting out a bitter chuckle, I prepared for the final duel.
"Let's go all out."
Because in this place, I could go as wild as I wanted.
As I exhaled, a halo of flames began to burn fiercely behind my head.
Unlike the Shinigami's Bankai, this was the manifestation of one's true self from within.
Thus, it had no name. It was simply the revelation of my existence.
The Soul King, who was watching me, closed his eyes and then slowly opened them again.
Simultaneously, the Soul King's form shifted back into the appearance I had seen in the past.
Even though the purple toxins of Hell were clouding the area, his unique presence made him stand out with vivid clarity.
There was no signal. The moment our eyes met, we charged and collided with full power, aiming to kill.
―――!!
The moment my fist struck the Soul King's barrier, the ground behind him exploded in a fan shape, unable to withstand the shock.
A terrifying mass of spirit particles gathered in the Soul King's palm after he blocked the punch. Instead of firing it, he squeezed it tight in his hand.
Light leaked through the gaps between his fingers.
The moment I swallowed hard at the chilling sensation, the Soul King opened his hand.
The surrounding air was sucked into his palm.
A technique to pull air? No. It wasn't something so simple.
■■■■―――!!
The apocalyptic light that signaled the end of the Second World War erupted from the Soul King's palm.
The only difference from an atomic bomb was the lack of radiation; everything else was overwhelmingly more powerful.
Even though my eyes were closed, the intense light pierced through my eyelids and struck my retinas. The sound followed a split second later, hammering my eardrums.
The surrounding landscape melted completely, and the shockwave was enough to blast me from the center of Hell almost to its very edge.
Beeeeeeep—....
'To trigger a nuclear explosion just by clenching and opening his fist...'
I tapped my temples a few times with my palm, and my blurred vision returned to normal as the sound synchronized again.
He said he was watching the Three Worlds... did he even watch the nuclear tests in the World of the Living?
Or perhaps he was just imitating what he saw in the future.
"What an utterly ridiculous bastard."
I chuckled, but my expression hardened as I stood up, sensing the 'black' creeping toward us.
'He's faster than I thought.'
Clicking my tongue, I sprinted toward the Soul King.
With a brute-force acceleration that required no special ability, the ground shattered beneath me, and the surrounding scenery stretched like rubber bands.
Once the Soul King was in sight, I leaped into the air and extended my leg toward him.
A Rider Kick launched at a speed nearing the speed of light.
It was a playful-looking strike, but its power tore through the barrier surrounding the Soul King like tissue paper and struck his body directly.
The following shockwave hammered into him an instant later, but the Soul King unfurled six wings from his back and ascended into the sky.
"You think that's gonna help you get away?!"
I kicked off the ground, soaring vertically toward the Soul King as he spiraled upward.
The endless expanse of Hell stretching beyond the horizon would have filled an ordinary human with sheer awe just by looking at it.
Of course, for the Soul King, who held the entire world in the palm of his hand, it was probably just a somewhat spacious field.
"Fall."
He chanted as he held his palm out toward me, but Hell remained silent.
"Too bad for you!! This is my turf!!"
Even the Soul King seemed surprised by this, his brow furrowing as he belatedly began to gather spirit particles in his palm.
But in that split second, I reached him first and seized him by the throat.
"Go down and wait for me!!"
Twisting my body mid-air, I hurled the Soul King downward.
Whirrrrrrrr!!
A sound that shouldn't come from throwing something human-shaped echoed as the Soul King plummeted toward the ground.
With dozens of sonic booms, the Soul King slammed into the floor, creating another massive crater.
Before the dust could even settle, a pillar of blue light—reminiscent of the one I'd seen a million years ago—shot up through the clouds of earth.
I crossed my arms to block the pillar, but my skin scorched under the sheer, concentrated power within the light.
"Haha! You crazy bastard, that hurts like hell!!"
But I didn't back down.
I kicked off the empty air and pushed against the pillar of light from the front.
Faster, even faster. Stronger. Harder.
With everything I had.
I became a falling meteor cutting through the light, dropping right over the Soul King's head.
Just as I spun mid-air to deliver a heel drop—
The Soul King's body flickered, turning into light and vanishing from right in front of me.
BOOOOOOM―――!!!
The ground rippled around me as the earth, unable to withstand the force, surged toward the sky.
It was a blow that literally turned heaven and earth upside down.
"You acted like you were going to block it, but you dodged."
Scared?
As I grinned at the Soul King, his expression hardened.
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