Everyone froze at Cole's words.
Even Aizen couldn't quite believe it. He stopped in his tracks, looked back at Cole, and frowned.
"Human, what are you trying to do now?"
He couldn't make any sense of Cole's train of thought.
Just moments ago, the guy hadn't made a move against him—yet now he was suddenly calling out to him.
And at this point, he already knew the truth about the Soul King and Hell.
He had completely abandoned the idea of striking at the Soul King for the time being.
So for Cole to stop him now… was he planning to pick a fight?
Everyone else also failed to understand what Cole was thinking.
He hadn't fought Aizen just now.
So what was he trying to do now?
Ichibe, however, perked up, gripping his giant brush in his hand as he looked straight at Aizen.
"Human boy, do you intend to kill this man?"
Compared to Cole, he still felt Aizen was the more dangerous one. After all, Aizen's goal was to kill the Soul King.
As for Cole, while he had indeed done things that couldn't be forgiven…
He at least half-counted as an ally.
Unfortunately for him, Cole didn't even spare him a glance. Instead, he extended his right hand and pointed at the garganta Aizen had just torn open.
"You can leave… but you're not going back to Hueco Mundo."
Aizen's frown deepened.
"What do you mean?"
Cole spoke calmly.
"It's very simple. From now on, Hueco Mundo is my turf. I won't allow you to go back there."
Soul Society wasn't bad, but it wasn't his domain.
Every time he absorbed some spiritual power here, he had to do it on the sly.
Hueco Mundo was different.
That place was a completely lawless wild land.
Right now, Las Noches had already been completely wrecked by him.
There was no ruler.
No one who could even nominally call themselves 'king of Hueco Mundo.'
If he brought that place under his banner and absorbed spiritual power from it every day, his strength would absolutely skyrocket.
Hearing this, Aizen's face went so dark it was almost purple. Killing intent surged in his eyes as he stared at Cole.
"You want to steal my Las Noches?"
He truly hadn't expected that this human would have such wild ambitions.
He actually wanted to replace Aizen as king of Hueco Mundo.
Cole chuckled.
"Forget Las Noches. That so-called Las Noches of yours is nothing but a heap of rubble now."
Aizen's mouth twitched hard.
He hadn't expected Las Noches to have been trashed to that extent.
His precious laboratories…
The few Arrancar nearby all reacted differently as they listened to Cole and Aizen argue.
Starrk lazily scratched his hair, clearly not interested at all.
Ulquiorra remained expressionless.
Tia Harribel, however, couldn't help biting down on her teeth, gripping her zanpakuto as she glared coldly at the two of them.
"Damn human… damn Soul Reaper…"
A human and a Soul Reaper were actually fighting over control of Hueco Mundo—here, in Soul Society.
That place was the homeland of the Hollows.
And now…
Outsiders were treating it like their personal throne.
Hollows might not feel that much attachment to Hueco Mundo most of the time, but in this moment, Harribel felt a deep sense of humiliation.
If only she were stronger, she wouldn't have to suffer such disgrace.
Just then, little Nel, with her small white skull mask, happily waved her hand from beside Yachiru and shouted,
"Cole! Nel supports you, you know!"
Harribel ground her teeth even harder, glaring at her.
"Nelliel, that place is our homeland."
Seeing Harribel look her way, little Nel scratched her head in confusion.
"Eh? Are you talking to me?"
Harribel took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and refused to look at her again.
The former Tres Espada of Las Noches, Nelliel—
Now basically no different from a goofy child.
"Impossible. There's no way I'm leaving Hueco Mundo to you!"
Aizen flatly refused Cole's demand.
He had cultivated Hueco Mundo for hundreds of years.
Almost everything there belonged to him, and it was also the place he valued most.
What's more…
After learning the truth of the world, he still needed Hueco Mundo as his experiment ground.
To study Togabito from Hell.
To study the power of the Soul King.
He absolutely could not afford to lose Hueco Mundo.
"In that case, it can't be helped…"
Cole licked his lips, gripped the golden staff in his hand, stepped forward—
And shot toward Aizen like a streak of golden light.
Aizen's expression changed drastically.
He hadn't expected Cole to attack so suddenly.
"You damned lunatic…"
Aizen cursed in fury.
He really couldn't understand the thoughts of this foolish human—
They were completely off the rails, impossible to predict.
Still in his white moth-like form, Aizen aimed his right hand at Cole and shouted,
"Danku!"
An invisible barrier appeared in front of him.
Cole burst into loud laughter, swinging the golden staff.
"Didn't I already tell you this trick doesn't work?"
Boom!!!
The invisible barrier shattered like glass.
The violent shockwave spread outward.
Everyone present wasn't blown away, but their hair was all blasted straight up.
Oetsu stared in disbelief at the two of them.
"Weren't those two on the same side? Why are they suddenly fighting? They didn't even throw a punch earlier."
Ichibe was also a little dazed, unconsciously glancing over at Shunsui and the other Soul Reapers.
"Just what is with this human, anyway?"
Back when they were inside the Soul King's inner palace, if Cole had chosen to join forces with him, Aizen would absolutely have been cut down.
Yet Cole hadn't made a move then.
Now that Aizen no longer wanted to attack the Soul King…
This human decided it was time to fight.
His logic—
Was enough to drive someone insane.
Shunsui gave a bitter smile.
"Don't look at me. I don't understand him either. Cole has always been like this—totally unpredictable."
So everyone turned their eyes to Rukia and Sode no Shirayuki instead.
You're his girlfriend. Surely you know what he's thinking, right?
Rukia flushed bright red under their stares, stomped her foot, and snapped,
"Stop looking at me! I have no idea what's going on in Cole's head. He never tells me anything."
While everyone was talking, Cole had already reached Aizen and engaged him at close range.
"Cole!!!"
Aizen roared in fury.
The white wings on his back, with their skeletal ridges, unleashed spiritual pressure all at once.
Purple light flared out, almost completely engulfing Cole.
But before that purple light could truly erupt, a dazzling golden radiance surged forth, smothering its glow entirely.
There was a thunderous boom.
Aizen's body was smashed down like a falling meteorite, plummeting from the sky of the fourth level of the Soul King's inner palace.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deafening impacts rang out one after another.
Aizen's body smashed through the ground of all four levels of the inner palace in succession, until he finally broke through and fell into the Reishi underground beneath it.
His white wings flapped wildly, only barely managing to halt his fall in midair.
But before he could stabilize himself—
Blinding golden light once again streaked down from the sky, slamming into him a second time.
His white body fell like a meteor.
Boom!!!
Another earth-shaking crash.
The ground beneath the Soul King's palace split open, a massive crater several hundred meters across yawning into existence.
Right at its center lay Aizen.
Under the heavy pounding of those two strikes, the hollow-white matter covering his body was on the verge of shattering, riddled with countless cracks.
A bare arm was even exposed to the air.
Aizen's teeth were clenched so hard it seemed they might crack, his gaze burning with rage as he glared up at Cole.
He had only just started to reevaluate that human.
Now he took it all back.
This was nothing but a madman.
There was no way to understand his thought process.
Up in the sky, everyone was completely stunned.
They hadn't expected Cole to beat Aizen around that casually.
Kisuke swallowed hard and gently jabbed Shunsui in the arm.
"I get the feeling Cole's even stronger than he was back in Karakura Town. Is it because he's absorbed more spiritual power again?"
He had also guessed that Cole could absorb reiryoku to grow stronger.
But wasn't this effect a little too ridiculous?
Was he using spiritual power as a performance enhancer or something!?
Shunsui scratched his head.
"I don't really feel much difference. Even if he has gotten stronger, it's only a little bit…"
Just then, Cole stepped through the air, looking down at Aizen with great interest.
"What's wrong, Aizen? Your power seems to have weakened quite a bit. You running out of gas from overusing your strength?"
Before actually fighting Aizen again, he hadn't expected it to be this easy.
Aizen's power—
Had dropped drastically compared to before.
Previously, he had been able to stand on equal footing with Ichibe.
Now, he was at about the same level as Shunsui.
A vein throbbed on Aizen's forehead as his complete regeneration kicked in, rapidly restoring the damage to his body.
"Don't get cocky, human!"
He roared, but inside he couldn't stifle his unease.
Just as Cole had said—
Because of his repeated evolutions, added to the battles he had fought against the Zero Division, his body was severely overtaxed.
Even his evolved form was starting to struggle to hold together.
Should I retreat and recover first…?
As Aizen hesitated, Cole's figure dropped from high above at great speed.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions boomed across the sky.
Under everybody's shocked gazes, Aizen was treated like a sandbag, getting pounded and sent flying over and over again by Cole.
White and gold light streaked back and forth like two colliding beams.
Fragments of hollow-white material rained down from the sky now and then—pieces of Aizen's evolved body.
His situation was downright miserable.
Everyone could clearly see the twisted expression on his face.
Boom!
With another heavy strike, one of Aizen's arms exploded, only to regrow a second later.
But anyone with eyes could see that his consumption was massive; the strength he had left for actual movement was shrinking fast.
Once that conclusion sank in—
The eyes of the Soul Reapers in the sky all lit up.
If Aizen kept burning himself out like this…
Didn't that mean they might really be able to kill him?
Of them all, Gin was the most excited.
He even grabbed Kamishini no Yari and rushed forward.
"Cole, I'll help you take down Captain Aizen!"
Aizen's face went completely black.
"Gin… you really are something."
Backstabbing him once apparently hadn't been enough.
Now the guy was coming back for a second round.
Even as he spoke, however, Aizen felt more and more uneasy, his three eyes darting about as he searched for an escape route.
In his current state—
If he got surrounded and dogpiled…
He really might get ground down to death.
Thinking that far, Aizen glared angrily at Cole.
That damned brat's resistance to Kyoka Suigetsu was way too high.
A complete hypnosis that even Ichibe couldn't fully resist—
And this kid could just shrug it off.
While those thoughts flashed through his mind—
Aizen was sent flying once again by another swing of Cole's staff.
"Human!!!"
He roared in fury, pouring everything he had into another blast of his ultimate technique.
Purple light surged outward in all directions.
But this time—
Cole merely tapped it lightly with his staff, and the blast collapsed with a pop.
Seeing this, more Soul Reapers rushed in.
Kisuke, in particular, activated the kido he had planted in Aizen's body earlier, shouting in excitement,
"Bakudo #79: Kuyō Shibari (Nine Luminaries Binding)!!!"
In an instant, the kido sealed inside Aizen detonated.
High in the sky, multiple blackish-purple orbs appeared out of thin air—
Forcibly pinning Aizen in midair.
(End of Chapter)
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