"Then we can only bring you down, restrain you, and force you to agree," A chilling calm flashed across the aged yet rigid face of Kuchiki Ginrei.
He slowly spoke and drew the Zanpakuto at his waist with a reverse grip.
There was no hesitation and no declaration before battle.
This former captain of the Sixth Division and previous head of the Kuchiki family took a decisive step, forcing out a Shunpo far beyond what his current body could handle. Like a moth flying into fire, he appeared before "Rosse."
"Careful!"
"Don't!"
"Grandfather, it's dangerous!"
"..."
Seeing Kuchiki Ginrei make such a reckless move, everyone behind him who understood how terrifying Rosse's strength was immediately changed expression.
Especially Kuchiki Byakuya, who had been hesitating and struggling internally this whole time. His face turned pale as he reached out, but he was far too late to stop him.
Unlike the current members of the Gotei Thirteen, Kuchiki Ginrei had not caught the wave of Rosse distributing Hogyoku fragments and breaking the limits of Shinigami.
His strength had long declined badly with age. The fact that he could barely maintain the captain-class minimum of Third-Class Reiatsu was already difficult enough.
And now he actually dared to charge at "Rosse" alone. This was simply suicide without any suspense.
Why did all of them dare surround the Tenth Division, yet still hesitate to rush in together?
Wasn't it all because Rosse was too terrifyingly strong?
Even a lower-ranked Espada had beaten them into collapse. It was obvious how powerful the Hollow King must be.
And naturally, the result did not surprise anyone.
Facing the aged blade cutting through the air toward him, Aizen did not even raise his eyelids.
At a speed most people present could not see clearly, he casually swung his sword.
Slash!
The dull sound of flesh being cut rang out.
Kuchiki Ginrei's body suddenly stiffened. Then, with aged eyes that strangely carried some relief, he fell heavily onto the cold stone ground with his back toward the crowd.
Blood quickly spread beneath him. His chest barely rose anymore. Only a final weak breath remained.
"Senior Kuchiki, are you using your own life to help certain people make up their minds?"
Aizen spoke with a smiling expression as he casually flicked the blood from his blade.
At the same time, his amused gaze passed over the body on the ground and met Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes, now filled with hatred and grief.
How could a family head like Kuchiki Ginrei, who had lived for over a thousand years, an experienced man with wisdom, not understand the gap in strength between them?
Forget Rosse himself, even if any Espada were standing here right now, Kuchiki Ginrei charging alone would still be the same as seeking death.
But he still did it anyways. There was naturally only one reason.
With Kuchiki Ginrei's current strength and age, he could not play any real role in a battle deciding the fate of the world.
Alive, he was far less valuable than dead.
Earlier, Kuchiki Byakuya still hesitated. Traditional Shinigami who respected the Kuchiki family still hesitated. Nobles and lower-ranked Shinigami who had once received favors from the Kuchiki family still hesitated.
But now, everything was different.
Once Kuchiki Ginrei died first, and tragically at Rosse's hands at that, all hesitation and fear inside everyone was completely burned away by a fire called revenge.
This was the hatred of killing family.
This was a blood debt demanding revenge.
"Come. Since you can't make your decision, then I'll help you make it. Today, I stand alone here. Any of you may charge at me. Let me properly see your ridiculous resolve and strength," Aizen's lips curved into an arrogant smile.
He stepped forward and directly walked over Kuchiki Ginrei's body without restraint, planting his foot on the back of the former family head. Under the furious stares of everyone opposite him, he stepped forward like a god looking down on insects.
"Hey, hey, you finally stopped acting all wishy-washy today. If you're gonna fight, then fight already. Why say so much useless crap? It's just cutting people down. Why make up so many disgusting reasons for it?", Just as the crowd's fury was about to explode, Zaraki Kenpachi let out an excited sneer.
He did not care about any of it. Carrying his battered Zanpakuto, he stepped forward and unleashed a heavy horizontal slash right away.
Screech!
A golden blade of light compressed to the extreme, powerful enough to tear space apart, burst from his sword without mercy and violently slashed toward the packed crowd of Shinigami.
"Bastard! Kenpachi! Don't slaughter the weak!"
Along with a thunderous roar, a huge figure crashed down before the crowd like a mountain.
Komamura Sajin tightly gripped the giant hilt of Kokujo Tengen Myo'o with both hands. His spiritual pressure exploded upward as he forcibly blocked Zaraki Kenpachi's deadly golden slash.
Then Komamura raised his head and released an enraged wolf howl that shook the sky.
"Awoooo!"
The next moment, his already enormous body underwent a violent transformation.
This was the Humanification Technique of the Komamura clan, abandoning the beast's body in exchange for supreme power.
After evolving through the Hogyoku, this state had become a power he could shift into at any time, though the strength remained unchanged.
The fur and helmet covering his body shattered piece by piece, revealing a resolute human face beneath.
At the same time, the spiritual pressure previously suppressed inside him erupted like a volcano.
The violent spiritual pressure even formed a visible storm. At this moment, Komamura's aura briefly touched a realm above captain level.
The instant the transformation completed, Komamura crushed the ground beneath his feet and shot straight toward Aizen like a burning meteor.
His eyes were bloodshot. No one else reflected within them.
He had no time to deal with the crazed Zaraki Kenpachi, nor time to settle matters with his former closest friend, Kaname Tosen.
Those were only personal grudges and matters of allegiance.
Defeating the man called Rosse before him, forcing him to return Hueco Mundo, and preventing Soul Society from collapsing, that was the true justice the Gotei Thirteen should uphold.
"Rosse! Return Hueco Mundo!"
Along with Komamura's roar that sounded almost torn from his throat, the other Shinigami captains and division members who had previously been intimidated were finally fully ignited with fighting spirit.
They drew their Zanpakuto one after another, unleashed Shunpo at full speed, and charged toward Rosse like a bursting flood.
Meanwhile, the people on Rosse's side also drew their Zanpakuto, but aside from Zaraki Kenpachi and the Eleventh Division battle maniacs trembling with excitement as they laughed wildly and charged into the crowd, Hitsugaya, Unohana, and the others remained in defensive stances without any intention of attacking first.
With "Rosse" standing at the front, there was no need for them to steal attention so early.
Although they all knew the person before them was Aizen in disguise, he was still the man Rosse personally acknowledged as his second-in-command, and the same man who had once manipulated them all with ease.
Everyone already acknowledged and feared his strength and abilities.
"You're shouting so loudly because you're full of fear inside, Captain Komamura," An extremely soft voice that made people's skin crawl suddenly sounded beside Komamura's ear without warning.
Komamura's pupils instantly shrank to needlepoints.
'Too fast!'
Aizen, who had been over a hundred meters away just now, had suddenly appeared before him like a ghost.
Because Komamura was a wolf-man, his body was already extremely large. But Aizen currently wore Rosse's form, making him slightly taller than Komamura.
Aizen looked down at Komamura from above. That suffocating pressure of someone standing at the top crushed down onto Komamura like a mountain.
What made Komamura despair even more was that the full-power slash he poured all his spiritual pressure into, enough to split mountains and crack stone, was now being casually held down by Aizen's left hand pressing against the back of the blade.
There were no dazzling sparks and no deafening clash. Aizen's fingers seemed stuck to the sword itself. No matter how madly Komamura pushed his spiritual pressure, the giant blade could not move downward even one more millimeter.
"How... is this... possible..."
Komamura bit down hard enough to crack his teeth and tried to forcibly pull back the sword to change moves.
But Aizen's free right hand had already lightly pressed against Komamura's unguarded abdomen like death itself sighing.
That smile impossible to read still remained on Aizen's face wearing Rosse's appearance.
Crackle!
BOOM!
Komamura suddenly felt unbearable pain explode from his abdomen.
A bolt of violent lightning thicker than a basketball, filled with destructive force, erupted from Aizen's fingertips.
The terrifying lightning instantly pierced through Komamura's proud, tough body, blasting a giant charred hole completely through his abdomen.
The violent electricity even carved a bottomless black trench into the ground behind him, killing and injuring at least several hundred ordinary Shinigami in the process.
"You keep saying I should return Hueco Mundo..."
Aizen spoke with a smile, casually pushing away Komamura's smoking body as if he disliked dirtying his hands.
The tall wolf-man captain collapsed into the dirt like a falling iron tower, most of his life instantly cut away, leaving only painful twitching and half a remaining breath.
"But have you self-righteous Shinigami ever spent even one second thinking about whether Hueco Mundo itself wants to come back? You slaughtered and purified them freely in the past, treating them as mindless beasts. Now that they finally have me, finally have a chance to stand up and build order for themselves, how do you think they feel?"
"What nonsense! Complete rubbish!"
Along with an angry shout, the spirit particles throughout heaven and earth suddenly froze.
A bald, heavily bearded, broad and overweight figure tore through the lightning with overwhelming presence.
Squad Zero Captain, "Monk Who Calls the Real Name," Hyosube Ichibe!
He held the giant brush named Ichimonji in his hand. Thick black ink rolled across the brush tip, carrying a law-like power capable of erasing all names in existence as it smashed down toward Aizen.
"The things in Hueco Mundo are beasts without self-awareness! Their only meaning is to serve as stepping stones in the cycle of the three worlds and die for the stability of the worlds!"
Ichibe shouted as the giant brush drew a long black streak through the air straight toward Aizen's throat.
"Heh! Look at that. What a superior attitude."
Aizen calmly slid backward. His right index and middle fingers came together as an extremely compressed light of spirit particles gathered instantly at his fingertips.
"Hado #90: Black Coffin!"
There was no chant and not even any preparation.
A deep purple gravity barrier instantly rose before Aizen and violently collided with Ichibe's ink.
RUMBLE!
The collision between ink and Kido caused a massive explosion. Dozens of nearby Shinigami who charged too close were erased by the shockwave on the spot.
Ichibe was not discouraged after missing.
His heavy body burst with unbelievable agility as he stepped repeatedly through the air, swinging Ichimonji wide open.
"Black! Dye everything black!"
As Ichibe swung his brush, endless black ink poured down like a storm.
Every drop carried the terrifying concept of erasing names and power. Once touched by it, whether sword or flesh, it would instantly lose its original function.
"So beasts don't deserve the right to live? If this is the heavenly law set by the Soul King Palace, then this rotten heaven should have been torn apart long ago," Aizen sneered.
Since he was pretending to be Rosse now, naturally he would not expose Kyoka Suigetsu.
But his own strength, combined with the Devil Fruit powers Rosse granted him, had already given him the confidence to ignore any rule.
"Thunder Roar!"
Aizen gripped the air with both hands. Purple lightning across the sky answered its king's summons and surged wildly from the void, compressing into a dazzling ten-meter lightning spear in his hands.
He swung it fiercely. The purple lightning became a roaring dragon and crashed directly into the endless black ink.
The extreme heat and violent destructive force of the lightning forcibly tore open a vacuum path through Ichibe's ink domain said to erase everything.
The two instantly crossed in midair as lightning and black ink collided.
In just a few short seconds, they had already exchanged more than a hundred direct clashes.
The sky above the Tenth Division turned into a strange scene split between pitch black and deep purple.
"Soul Society is heaven! The Soul King Palace is heaven! Maintaining the cycle, even through sacrifice, is an undeniable truth! You outsider madman, what do you know about sacrifice?"
Hyosube Ichibe glared furiously. Every swing of his brush carried crushing force heavy enough to flatten mountains.
"You people from Squad Zero have only learned how to wrap incompetence and arrogance in the name of truth."
Aizen moved easily through the airtight web of ink. Occasionally, a flick of lightning from his fingertips forced Ichibe to defend himself.
His tone always maintained that infuriating elegance and mockery, "If heaven is defined by insects like you, then all I can say is that your understanding of the world is pitifully shallow."
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