Countless golden threads wrapped themselves around the world reflected in Shimo's eyes.
Whether it was a human, a Shinigami, or an inanimate object, nothing could remain special beneath his gaze.
Those tangled golden threads stretched toward the ends of the world, endlessly entwining with one another.
"You seem different from before."
After enduring Shimo's earlier slash, Aizen no longer held even the slightest trace of contempt.
He had already begun to regard Shimo as an opponent who stood on the same level as himself, even though Shimo still had not used the Bankai Aizen had expected.
But now, Shimo's state was clearly abnormal.
Within those eyes marked by clock-like patterns, there was not the slightest emotional ripple.
It was as if, beneath that gaze, all things in existence were perfectly equal.
"It isn't just me that has changed, Aizen."
Maintaining the Eyes of Time, Shimo spoke calmly. "This world has changed as well."
He spread both arms, as though embracing the entire world.
And with that motion, Karakura Town itself began to change.
RUMBLE—!!
Ruined buildings collapsed more violently.
The ground continued to break apart.
The sky, the clouds, the spirit particles in the air—began to vanish continuously.
It was a scene like the end of the world.
Under Urahara's direction, the Shinigami withdrew from the city itself and moved toward the positions of the Transfer Boundary Pillars.
Those pillars were what sustained the existence of the fake Karakura Town.
If they were destroyed, then the real Karakura Town in the World of the Living would descend back into place.
And when that happened, the entire city would be exposed directly to the battlefield between Shimo and Aizen—without any protection.
With souls as fragile as those of ordinary humans, there was no possibility they could endure such overwhelming pressure.
That level of oppression would annihilate human souls in an instant.
Even lower-ranked Shinigami would be unable to withstand it.
"Everyone, you must stabilize the spiritual pressure state of the Transfer Boundary Pillars."
Urahara's expression turned serious, utterly devoid of his usual joking manner.
"I assume none of you want to witness the end of the Human World?"
At this point, the Shinigami could no longer participate in the battle directly, but they could still pour their spiritual pressure into the pillars.
Maintaining the stability of the Human World was the Shinigami's duty.
When he saw all of this, Aizen's pupils contracted to their smallest point. Against the black sclera, his Hollow-like eyes looked even more bizarre.
"How is something like this possible?!"
At the level he had now reached, he could clearly sense that the destruction before him was being caused by Shimo.
And yet, with no obvious fluctuation in spiritual pressure, how had he accomplished this?
"What kind of ability is this...?"
Even Aizen found himself unable to comprehend what Shimo had become.
He raised his Zanpakutō, pale violet spiritual pressure shimmering faintly around the blade.
"Aizen, has your conviction begun to waver?"
The corners of Shimo's lips lifted, his smile carrying a hint of mocking ridicule.
"Why ask such a question?"
"You, who proclaimed yourself to have transcended both Shinigami and Hollow—are there still things you cannot understand?"
"Or is it that you fear the defeat that is about to fall on you?"
At those words, Aizen's descending arm paused ever so slightly, and his gaze grew heavier.
"Do you want to know?"
Shimo continued, "Then try bringing down Kyōka Suigetsu."
"Perhaps while attacking, you might come to understand what my ability truly is."
In the state of his third Shikai, Shimo was clearly drawing upon the benefits of his previous states as well.
Not only did he possess those eyes that saw through the timelines of all—
He could now wield his other abilities with far greater perfection.
His swordsmanship, Hakuda, Hoho, and Kidō had all been upgraded to their extremes.
He possessed the complete Hollow system as well.
What would happen when a Shinigami's Shunpo and an Arrancar's Sonído were fused together?
And what if that were further enhanced with the power of space itself?
No one knew the answer.
Even for Shimo, this was the first time he had truly attempted it.
The moment he put that thought into action—
His figure crossed the limits of space in an instant and appeared directly before Aizen.
The blood-red blade rose.
And at the exact moment Kyōka Suigetsu descended, Shimo's strike met it head-on!
BOOM!!
A dazzling burst of light erupted at the instant the blades clashed.
It was like a volcano dormant for centuries, perhaps millennia—finally erupting, and the suffocating pressure spread across the entire city, reaching even farther beyond.
At the moment the blades met, spiritual pressure shattered and scattered, and the surging shockwaves roared terribly through the skies of Karakura Town!
The slit in Aizen's brow, like an eye—opened and closed, an eerie light appearing within it.
"So it's only reinforcement of yourself?"
"If this is the trump card you're relying on, then I can only say... how disappointing."
The powers of spatial suspension and spatial severing were both layered onto the edge of Shimo's blade.
With overwhelming weight and impossible sharpness existing together, Shimo's slashes had become terrifying.
And when his extreme swordsmanship erupted, it tore open a massive wound across the heavens!
Faced with such a fierce attack, Aizen simply lifted his left hand.
In that instant, the surrounding space began to tremble.
Shimo raised an eyebrow.
Everything in the nearby area was under his control.
The fact that Aizen could use his own spiritual pressure to affect the surrounding space at all was already outrageous enough.
Yet that still was not the result Aizen was seeking.
Within those bizarre inverted black-and-white eyes, a dazzling white light suddenly burst forth.
In an instant, an unimaginable super-high-density spiritual pressure barrier formed around Aizen's body!
Millions upon millions of compressed spiritual-pressure shields condensed around him, nullifying every effect of Shimo's slash.
A massive stream of spirit particles circulated around him, taking the form of a pale violet dragon that let out a roar toward Shimo.
In Aizen's searing white gaze, no trace of emotion could be detected.
Space itself trembled, and under that terrifying pressure, cracks began to spread through it.
A pale violet dragon thousands of meters long roared across the sky.
Its emotionless eyes fixed upon the figure before it, who seemed no more than an ant by comparison.
Aizen's voice dropped, carrying a thread of gravity.
"Hadō #99: Goryūtenmetsu."
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