By now, Baraggan's ability had been revealed. Killing Ulquiorra outright would be difficult, so instead...
"Surrender, boy. Apologize, and crawl out of my Las Noches!"
He spoke as though granting mercy. If it weren't for the two figures standing nearby exerting pressure, he would have demanded Ulquiorra kneel and kowtow before perhaps sparing his life.
In Baraggan's eyes, offering simple apology as a way out was already a great boon.
Ulquiorra, however, merely clenched his newly regenerated left hand. He clearly had no intention of apologizing or yielding.
Watching from the sidelines, Natsuro and Stark both felt some surprise at Baraggan's ability.
"This power… it's troublesome. Ulquiorra might be in danger," Stark said grimly.
Natsuro nodded. His eyes studied the black aura coiling around Baraggan's body, deep in thought.
Unlike Stark or Ulquiorra, he had far more knowledge.
He could tell immediately that Ulquiorra's left arm had withered because it had been forced into rapid aging.
The fact that his severed arm crumbled to ash afterward made it clear, this aging didn't stop partway. Anything touched was aged straight to its limit, until it disintegrated into dust.
And earlier, Ulquiorra's moonlight spears had dissolved before even reaching Baraggan, showing that the black aura also applied to reiryoku itself.
It wasn't limited to flesh. It could erode spiritual power as well.
This meant one conclusion: Baraggan's ability to induce aging applied to all things.
"…That's practically a bug," Natsuro muttered. Yet something felt off.
If it were truly that overpowered, why didn't Baraggan leave a deep impression in the original history?
The fact that he remembered nothing significant about him could only mean this ability had limitations not yet apparent.
Still, for now, it meant Ulquiorra's chances of victory were slim.
Ulquiorra stared at Baraggan, and for the first time, his hollow heart filled with one driving thought: the desire to win.
He refused to lose here. He needed to prove his worth.
But the situation was stacked against him. He knew it.
His reiatsu was weaker, making his Ceros useless.
Close combat was even riskier. If the black aura touched him again, it could mean instant death.
Distance or melee, both paths were blocked.
Under such conditions, surrender might have been the logical choice.
But Ulquiorra could not accept defeat.
That left only one path.
He drew a deep breath. The only way forward… is to break past my current limits.
Devouring Hollows to evolve further wasn't possible here, there weren't enough powerful ones around. Which left only one choice: the method Natsuro had described, becoming an Arrancar.
He remembered Natsuro's words: Hollowfication for Shinigami, and Arrancarization for Hollows, both could shatter boundaries and push their wielders into a higher realm.
He had tried several times on their journey. Each attempt had failed.
But failure wasn't frightening. Each time, he had felt progress. Success was close.
Now, though, he had no time to wait. The battle demanded it. He had to succeed, now.
Ulquiorra inhaled again, then conjured more moonlight spears, hurling them toward Baraggan.
Predictably, Baraggan simply cloaked himself in black aura, and the spears dissolved on contact.
"Useless, boy!" Baraggan roared. As the aura faded, he saw Ulquiorra had changed. The mask on his face was gone, and in his hand appeared an unstable, Zanpakutō-like weapon.
Baraggan didn't know what Ulquiorra was attempting, but just the sight angered him.
"Hmph! So you'd abandon being a Hollow, and play at being a Shinigami instead?!" he growled, unleashing his reiatsu and firing a black Cero at Ulquiorra.
Stark's eyes widened. He was about to intervene, but Natsuro's hand pressed him down.
Natsuro smiled faintly, sensing Ulquiorra's changing aura. Yes… pressure breeds growth.
Ulquiorra had been close to success already. Now, under this trial, he stepped across the threshold.
He opened his eyes. The Zanpakutō in his hands solidified, stabilizing completely.
His appearance shifted, clad now in a white, high-collared long-sleeved coat with black trim, paired with white hakama bound at the waist by a dark sash. His face retained its cold, familiar features, but now the left side of his head bore a helmet-like Hollow mask with a single horn protruding.
Before the black Cero, Ulquiorra looked weaker than before, almost fragile.
And in truth, he was. This state was not yet stronger than his Hollow form.
But Ulquiorra knew, he had succeeded.
Part of his power had been bound into the Zanpakutō in his hands.
He didn't expect the blade to resist Baraggan's black aura. After all, it was part of his body, and if his flesh could wither, so too could the sword.
But he hadn't intended to fight with the blade anyway.
First, he had to stop the incoming Cero.
He gripped the weapon with both hands. Reiryoku flared across the blade, and he swung down into the onrushing black beam.
BOOM!
The clash detonated in an explosion that shook the palace.
When the dust cleared, Ulquiorra had been blasted back, his landing kicking up clouds of smoke.
"Hmph. Boy, your power has weakened. Cast aside that ugly Shinigami guise, and return to being a Hollow!" Baraggan sneered.
"I told you before, you talk too much."
From within the smoke, Ulquiorra's voice rang out. Calm, unhurt.
And then, within Las Noches, rain began to fall, black droplets of reiatsu, cascading like a storm.
"Enclose… Murciélago."
The smoke split apart, and Ulquiorra's new form emerged before their eyes.
"…This is—?"
At this moment, a pair of massive black wings unfurled behind Ulquiorra, large enough to blot out the sky. He wore a white full-length robe, a helmet with twin horns on his head, and his black fingernails had elongated into claws.
The wave of reiatsu radiating from him made Baraggan's eye flames flare wide in shock.
"Impossible?!"
Because Ulquiorra's reiatsu now exceeded Baraggan's, and not just slightly, but by a wide margin!
Without wasting words, Ulquiorra formed another emerald spear of moonlight. This one brimmed with more energy than before, sharper and deadlier.
He hurled it. Its power and speed had both leapt to new heights.
"I told you, it's useless!" Baraggan sneered, letting his black aura of decay surge once again to intercept the weapon.
The spear lasted longer than before, but still dissipated in the end.
But before Baraggan could gloat, several more spears were already upon him, two aimed directly at his eyes.
Earlier, he had used the black aura to create despair. Now, he had no choice but to rely on it for defense. Otherwise, he would have no time to counter with a Cero.
Thus, once again, his vision was blocked.
Ulquiorra seized the moment. With a glowing blade in hand, he launched forward, sonido cracking under his feet.
One property of sonido was its ability to confuse an enemy's sensory tracking.
Baraggan stiffened. His vision was obstructed. And now Ulquiorra's reiatsu vanished from his perception entirely.
He had to choose: remove the aura blocking his sight, or keep it up?
Even though decay was his power, it couldn't be maintained indefinitely.
Finally, Baraggan dispelled a section of the aura to clear his vision.
Yet what he saw was still black, like nothing had changed.
Then, suddenly, a green light erupted in his sight, Ulquiorra's blade!
Ulquiorra had slipped through the gap in the fading aura, thrusting his glowing sword straight at him.
But a surge of dread seized him.
"Respira!"
Baraggan roared, reiatsu exploding outward. Black miasma burst from him in a suffocating wave, sweeping toward Ulquiorra.
Yet before it could engulf him, Ulquiorra had already sonido'd out of range.
When the haze cleared, Baraggan's form was visible once more.
A crack marred the corner of his eye socket, the wound from Ulquiorra's strike.
Ulquiorra looked down at the sword in his hand, which was already dissolving into fragments of light. He frowned. As expected, that troublesome power still eroded anything it touched.
But he could feel it: his reiatsu, his speed, his strength, all had surged upward.
So even if he couldn't directly counter Baraggan's decay, as long as he avoided contact, he could win.
Before, he hadn't been capable of that. Now, he was.
In the next instant, he conjured another blade of light and charged once more.
Baraggan, shaken with fury, he had been only a hair's breadth away from losing an eye!
Snarling, he swung his massive axe down to meet the oncoming blow.
BOOM!
Blade and axe collided. This time, Ulquiorra pressed the advantage.
It wasn't just strength, it was reiatsu.
And now, Ulquiorra's reiatsu was greater than Baraggan's. Thus, his force overwhelmed the axe.
Baraggan was stunned, but he still had his trump card.
The black aura slithered along his axe once again, wrapping around Ulquiorra's blade.
The emerald sword shattered. But before he could celebrate, a brand-new one materialized in Ulquiorra's hands, parrying the axe.
The clash threw Baraggan's weapon aside. Another glowing blade came slashing down toward him.
"Damn you!" Baraggan bellowed, unleashing his decay ability again to repel the strike.
He told himself, no matter how strong his foe became, they wouldn't dare touch his power. But then… how could he actually secure victory?
He thought of Ulquiorra's transformation. Could he achieve such a change himself?
The thought burned, but without guidance, without someone like Natsuro or Stark, it was impossible. Ulquiorra had only succeeded so quickly because of their help and his own prior foundation.
Baraggan had neither.
Meanwhile, Ulquiorra retreated once again, but this time, he wasn't in a hurry.
Because in a war of attrition, victory would eventually belong to him.
Suspended in the air, he looked down upon Baraggan.
"The words you spoke before, I can return them now. You cannot defeat me."
His voice rang out, flat and emotionless, carrying no trace of feeling.
And that very flatness made it sting all the more like mockery.
"So… surrender."
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Currently on Chapter 502 - The Three Worlds