Compared to the calculating schemer he had once been in Soul Society—
the Aizen before him now had clearly lost some of his composure.
The way he looked at Shimo held a trace of hysteria.
Such emotion should never have appeared on his face.
Shimo bore part of the blame for that—
but the greater cause was Aizen himself.
The power granted by the Hōgyoku had not only made him stronger; it had also fed his arrogance and self-importance.
Under the growth of those overlapping negative emotions, Aizen's mind had gradually begun to fracture.
And when he realized that power alone could not solve everything, he could no longer remain as calm as he had been before.
Shimo raised his eyes, his gaze empty and void-like as it settled on Aizen.
The moment Aizen met those eyes, eyes like a revolving clock of divinity—he froze in place.
A pale golden radiance bloomed within them.
An oppressive force, one that stood above all else, descended upon Aizen!
His body dipped slightly, and a faint cracking sound came from his shoulder bone.
"Aizen, this is the truth."
Shimo spoke calmly.
"The gap between us is not something you can overcome simply by merging with the Hōgyoku."
"The truth is right there before you. Whether you accept it or not will change nothing."
The instant those words fell, Aizen's face twisted into something almost feral.
The cracks spreading across his skin widened further.
"That's impossible!"
"I am the strongest!!"
His voice was little more than a growl.
Shimo remained unmoved.
He began walking toward Aizen, expression calm and unhurried.
At this moment, his state was clearly another way of using his third Shikai.
Altering the timeline.
This was the first time Shimo had used that ability.
Its power far exceeded even his expectations.
Severing a timeline came from the power of Shimo itself.
But altering a timeline clearly demanded a far greater force.
Because of that, Shimo and Shimo himself had entered a brief fusion!
And as a result, the spiritual pressure consumption had reached an astonishing level.
By Shimo's own estimate, if it were any other captain—
not even mentioning the others, just Kensei Muguruma alone—
he'd probably last a single second before being completely drained dry.
Only someone like Shimo, with the amplification of more than a hundred thousand layers of the Staircase of Time, could use such a power with ease.
Step by step, Shimo walked toward Aizen, his expression placid.
In his eyes, countless golden threads of time drifted and danced through the air.
To touch even one of them at random could bring about unimaginable consequences.
Aizen released his spiritual pressure. Behind him, those dozens of pillars of light fused together, staining the sky violet.
The pillars moved and crushed toward Shimo.
Under their pressure, the entire city began to show signs of collapse.
Aizen's spiritual pressure had already exceeded what Karakura Town could endure.
And yet—
Crack!
Amid the roar of the windstorm, that crisp breaking sound was unbearably sharp.
Shimo raised a hand and wiped away the timeline attached to one of the light pillars.
In the next instant, the pillar collapsed, scattering into spirit particles that flooded the city.
Aizen's pupils shrank. Gritting his teeth, he was about to launch another attack when—
suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his shoulder!
Crack, crack—
Like glass struck hard by a stone, the milky-white layer of condensed spiritual pressure covering his body began to fracture and fall away.
Crack!
The first thing to break off was the most conspicuous part—
those giant butterfly wings.
With a brittle snapping sound, the three pairs of white wings detached from Aizen's back.
The moment their spiritual pressure scattered, the white skin covering him began to peel away as well.
But at the same time, the Hōgyoku was still doing its work.
Its High-Speed Regeneration was constantly activating.
Each piece of white skin that fell away was immediately replaced.
Peel away. Restore.
Above the sky, it looked as though white snow were falling.
Yet within moments, the Hōgyoku's restoration speed could no longer keep up with the rate at which the white outer shell was shedding.
"That's impossible…"
Aizen had realized it by now.
"How could the Hōgyoku's power have a limit?!"
Shimo slowly lowered his hand and replied with perfect calm:
"You can't understand it, Aizen?"
"What a simple truth. Have you really become this stupid?"
"Just as Mayuri Kurotsuchi's creed states—there is no such thing as a perfect being."
"The Hōgyoku is no exception."
The moment he heard those words, Aizen's heartbeat seemed to stop.
His mind went completely blank.
Shimo's words struck him with unimaginable force.
But only for a moment.
Soon enough, he recovered.
Aizen clenched his teeth, a trace of unwillingness surfacing in his eyes.
"I can't accept that."
The moment those words fell, he launched himself at Shimo again!
Just as he said, he could not accept such a truth.
His pure white blade rose high and slashed down toward Shimo.
At this point, the two of them stood only a single step apart!
And yet, when the blade reached Shimo's chest—
it suddenly stopped.
A slight indentation appeared beneath the edge.
Aizen was shocked to discover that with all the strength he currently possessed, he still could not even break through Shimo's defense.
His full-power strike had achieved nothing more than a shallow dent in Shimo's skin.
The sight before him trampled all over the power he had taken such pride in.
Unwillingness and madness filled Aizen's heart.
At that moment, the violet light in his chest bloomed once more!
The Hōgyoku responded to Aizen's wishes and pushed him into another stage of evolution.
Feeling the sudden explosion in his spiritual pressure, Aizen's eyes shone.
After evolving again, the victor will still be me!!
And yet Shimo remained entirely unmoved.
Red-black light intertwined around his hand, an invisible oppressive force spreading from his body.
"There's no point in struggling anymore."
"Even another evolution cannot reverse a timeline that has already been altered."
A faint smile touched Shimo's lips. His fingers moved through the air as lightly as if plucking the strings of a harp.
Bzzzt—
A strange ripple spread from his fingertips!
Aizen's body suddenly froze in place, and even his expression began to stiffen.
Then, in the next moment—
rainbow-colored light burst from Aizen's soul!
Countless black chains emerged from within his spirit—
and swallowed him completely.
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