Aizen looked up at the sky, which had begun to crumble, and allowed a smile to graze his lips.
"At last, the time has come to topple the old world and establish a new order."
By now, it was impossible not to realize what they were trying to do.
They were attempting to slay the Soul King. This devastation was the result.
"Aizen Sousuke...! Are you truly committing... Deicide...!!"
"From here on, this is the world of humans. Thus, a God is no longer required."
"Look at the consequences! Can you not see the heavens? Slaying God will not bring about a world for humans!! The Soul King is the lynchpin that maintains this world...!! Cough...! Gasp, hack...!"
"Captain Ukitake!"
Ukitake, who had been delivering his impassioned plea, found his chronic illness rapidly worsening due to his intense emotions and the exhaustion of battle. He could not finish his sentence as he began vomiting blood.
Ichimaru, who had been assisting in the fight nearby, immediately rushed to support Ukitake as he stumbled.
It was an act one shouldn't perform in front of an enemy, and Ukitake was momentarily shocked. However, when he saw Aizen merely watching them with a smile rather than seizing the opening to attack, he realized the truth.
'Could it be... he was colluding with them from the start...!?'
Ukitake finally understood why Ichimaru had been hanging back, providing only minimal support, and the source of the inexplicable discomfort he had felt throughout the fight. He stared at Ichimaru in horror.
"Captain Ichimaru...!! Don't tell me, hack...! Why are you colluding with the enemy...!!"
Ukitake's deduction wasn't entirely wrong, but it wasn't the full truth either.
What Ichimaru knew was merely that the other side had no intention of destroying the world.
"...It's just that I knew that fella over there isn't the type to go 'round endin' the world, is all."
"What do you mean by that..."
Ukitake was plunged into confusion by Ichimaru's words.
While he debated whether he should release Mimihagi from within himself right now, Aizen, seeing his turmoil, smiled and spoke.
"Precisely what he said, Captain Ukitake. We—no, the Nether King—holds the key to flinging open the gates to a new world. That is why we follow him."
"Do you intend to set him up as the new God...? What would be the point? In the end, it is the same thing. How is it any different from replacing one master with another!"
"No, you are mistaken. We will not establish a God. The existing Divine Throne will be shattered, and in its place, a new seat will be born. And we shall be the masters of that seat."
"'We,' you say... Have you fallen so far, Aizen Sousuke!"
Aizen let out a soft chuckle as he looked at Ukitake.
"When I say 'we,' I mean everyone. It is not an individual like myself or the Nether King who will sit upon the new throne. It is humanity. A world where humans, not a God, save themselves. A world where I am my own master, and I am my own God. That is the world we seek to create."
"Turning humans into Gods...? What kind of foolishness is..."
Ukitake's concern was valid. To make humans Gods—creatures who are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, who cannot see the future, and who sway like reeds in the wind over the most trivial matters?
Such a path could only lead to catastrophe. How could they be so certain?
What exactly had they seen in the Nether King to make them carry out such a mad plan as the Apotheosis of Mankind?
"If you cannot understand, then watch with your own eyes. It has only just begun."
Having finished his explanation, Aizen lowered his sword and looked up at the sky.
Between the cracks in the crumbling firmament, the Royal Palace was falling.
*
At the same time, Unohana, who had been clashing blades with Kyoraku, stopped her sword as a familiar Spiritual Pressure began to weigh down on her.
Kyoraku, who had one eye closed due to the blood trickling from his forehead, looked up at the sky with cold sweat pouring down his face.
The sky was fragmenting and falling in shards, as if a colossal sheet of glass had been shattered.
The space that was revealed was a pitch-black cosmic background dotted with stars.
No, even that space itself appeared distorted.
Faced with power that transcended the bounds of comprehension, Kyoraku could only let out a hollow laugh.
"Wow.... Have you been dragging this out all this time for this? Without even using your Bankai, too."
"Yes. My role was merely to buy time."
"So you mean you never had any intention of killing me from the start. Sigh.... Had I known that, I might have taken it a bit easier..."
"If you had, your head might have actually been severed by now."
"Ahaha, that's a chilling joke."
Unohana stared at Kyoraku silently despite his lighthearted tone.
Under her heavy gaze, Kyoraku made a sharp sound through his teeth and tentatively scratched the back of his head.
"...It was a joke, right?"
"I wonder."
Kyoraku shook his head, lowered Katen Kyokotsu from his hands, and sat down heavily on the ground.
"Hup... there. Well then, I suppose I'll just relax and watch the end of the world."
"Are you not going to attack me?"
"I don't have a hobby of fighting enemies I have no chance against. Besides, fighting in a situation like this is something only a madman would do, wouldn't you say?"
"Perhaps..."
Unohana gave a similar answer as before and suddenly plunged her sword into the shadow behind her.
"For someone saying that, you seem to have a rather sharp edge to you."
She had lived through countless life-or-death struggles for hundreds of years before meeting the Nether King.
The mountain of corpses she had piled up was so vast that it remained encrusted at the bottom of her soul, even after a millennium of trying to wash it away.
Hiding one's bloodlust from her was virtually impossible.
Even for the man who was meant to be the next Captain-Commander.
"Oops, caught me. Hiding my feelings really doesn't suit me after all."
Kyoraku gave a bitter smile as he withdrew the hand he had tucked into the shadow, raising both arms in a gesture of surrender.
Kyoraku's palm was pierced through and drenched in blood.
'I tried to lure her into lowering her guard, but it ended like this.'
"It can't be helped. This time I truly surrender. If you don't believe me... shall we make a pinky swear?"
"Yes. Let's do that."
"Great. Then, since you've won, would you mind answering just one thing? I really have no intention of attacking this time, I'm just purely curious."
Unohana sensed something suspicious in Kyoraku's demeanor, but since she felt no killing intent, she nodded.
Kyoraku said, "Good," gave a satisfied smile, and lowered his arms from the surrender pose.
"Why does the Nether King want to kill the Soul King? And if he truly intended to do so, he wouldn't have needed to target the Seireitei in the first place. He possesses enough power for that. So why?"
"First, to liberate the Soul King. Second, to create a new world."
"Ho... a new world. I'm sure it'll be a world filled with lovely ladies, right? Hey, don't look at me like that. This is a man's romance we're talking about."
"My husband... intends to slay the Soul King to turn humans into Gods. Because in a world where humans are the masters, a God is no longer necessary."
Unohana spoke those words and adjusted her grip on her sword.
At that, Kyoraku's expression stiffened.
The fact that her fingers were shifting meant that Unohana's words were the absolute truth.
The Royal Palace fell. Closer and closer. Now, its form was clearly visible.
*
The Royal Palace was falling.
Yet, we did not stop our attempt to kill one another.
It was a clash of power against power—a level of force where words had lost all meaning. No, power itself was no longer relevant.
For us, power was willpower; the manifestation of will was the manifestation of power.
A human's will is infinite, and a God's will is absolute.
The collision of these two wills had long since transcended the realm of human expression, and the sky above the Royal Palace had already distorted into another world entirely.
That was why I said the sky was crumbling.
It wasn't a mere figure of speech; it was actually falling apart.
"...."
"...."
The impact of the Royal Palace falling wasn't the primary concern.
I had sent Urahara to Squad 1 specifically to minimize that shock.
The real issue was that our stage was moving to the surface.
The Soul King was still bound to the Royal Palace.
The aftershocks of us fighting in the heavens were already catastrophic for the world below; what would happen if the stage moved to the ground?
Both the Soul King and I sensed it.
If the Royal Palace crashed down like this, the unified world would not be able to endure the strain.
But it wasn't over yet. Neither I nor the Soul King had broken, and neither of us would yield.
If we crashed now, the world would meet its end before either of us did.
'...Then there's only one way.'
It would involve significant risk; I might even die. Yet, it had to be done.
Though it is said one must destroy the world to create a new one, if we continued, the world would truly be obliterated beyond repair.
"You know it too. If we stay like this, everyone down there dies."
"Indeed."
"But neither you nor I can give up. That's just who we are."
"True."
We do not bend our wills. We pursue our path until we are eventually impaled and slain by the very resolve we carry.
Therefore, we do not surrender.
However, neither of us has any intention of letting the world perish.
"Then there's only one solution."
A world completely isolated from the Three Worlds.
My own world, created by my own hands.
With my mind made up, I flashed a fierce grin and raised my fist high.
"Then let's go together. All the way to the bottom of Hell."
CRRRRAAAAACCCCCKKK----!!!
I swung my fist down, shattering the world itself.