As Kisuke Urahara's incantation came to an end, dozens of searing pink beams shot into the sky, streaking across the night sky of Fuyuki City like meteors.
At this moment, both the Soul Reapers on the bridge and the constantly roaring mutated Hollows were blinded by the dazzling light.
A deafening boom echoed as the violent explosion kicked up a visible Reishi storm in the air.
Above the clouds, the profound, slowly rotating magic circle radiating an ominous aura was struck dead center in its core, immediately trembling violently.
Crack—
After enduring such a terrifying impact of Spiritual Pressure, the heavy dark clouds finally parted, revealing the true form of the magic circle.
It was a massive geometric pattern, composed of countless twisted runes and pipes flowing with bright red liquid.
Those gold and purple runes emitted the sound of shattering inch by inch under the violent dismantling of Senju Koten Taiho. Countless blinding cracks, like wildly growing vines, instantly crawled across the entire surface of the magic circle.
"Highly effective," Kisuke Urahara said with a slight pant, shaking his somewhat numb hand, though his gaze did not relax in the slightest.
Buzz—!!
The high-frequency vibrations caused the air to boil, and the steel cables on the bridge groaned and creaked.
"Roar—!!"
"Gah—!!"
Meanwhile, an even more horrifying scene unfolded on the battlefield below.
The mutated Hollows, which could previously regenerate endlessly even when sliced apart, all froze in unison, wailing incessantly.
"What's wrong with these guys!" the Soul Reaper squad members gripped their swords vigilantly, none daring to carelessly approach the screaming Hollows.
However, in Asuka's transparent vision, the faint red threads connected to their backs—which were previously just barely visible—were now gradually manifesting into solid chains flashing with a profane light due to the magic circle's tremors.
An unrivaled, massive suction force cascaded down from the heavens along these chains!
Dozens, hundreds of mutated Hollows were swept up all at once.
Their bodies began to be forcibly stretched, some even torn straight apart, like dust being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.
Whoosh—!
Countless black silhouettes screamed as they shot into the sky, forcefully dragged into the trembling, bursting gap of the magic circle above.
No matter how massive their bodies were, or how frantically they dug their claws into the ground to resist, they appeared fragile and powerless before this suction force from the void.
The moment they touched the violent energy overflowing from the magic circle, these monsters—which had just forced the Soul Reapers into a bitter struggle—could not hold on for even a single second. They directly disintegrated into the most primal Reishi fragments, becoming nourishment to mend the magic circle's cracks.
"Is this... a reclamation?" Urahara's pupils shrank slightly.
In just a few breaths, the previously overcrowded bridge battlefield had been swept completely clean.
"Is... is it over?"
A Soul Reaper squad member slumped to the ground, his face full of bewilderment.
"No, not yet."
Rangiku Matsumoto said, clutching her still-bleeding arm as she stared at the sky.
Although the magic circle up there had devoured all the Hollows, the tremors had not stopped.
Instead, having absorbed a massive amount of Reiryoku, it became even more unstable.
The dark red light pulsated like a heart, and every expansion caused large swaths of cracks to appear in the surrounding space, with more black mud falling from the sky!
"Don't tell me this thing is going to explode!" a squad member shouted.
"Everyone! Find cover!" a Seated Officer of the combat squad cried out.
Asuka shielded Shinobu Kocho behind him, the Nugata in his hand still trembling slightly.
Looking at the magic circle on the verge of collapse, he suddenly felt a violent palpitation in his chest.
'Still watching the show! Run!' the black-haired young man's voice exploded in his mind.
His tone carried an unprecedented anxiety, even sterner than when they crossed the Dangai. 'This isn't an ordinary Spiritual Disaster! They might not know, but shouldn't you?'
Asuka froze, asking in his mind, 'What do you mean?'
'That is the malice born from the collision of two different dimensional worlds, crossing through space and time!'
'It's trying to repair itself right now, even directly mending the spacetime distortion caused by the intersection with the other world—it will forcibly drag all life, matter, and Reishi currently located in Fuyuki City into the rift of another dimension!'
'If you don't leave the perimeter of Fuyuki City immediately, once you're swept into it, you'll never be able to return!'
Cold sweat instantly soaked Asuka's back.
'Is it really that serious?'
He whipped his head around, looking at the Soul Reapers organizing their defenses ahead, at Shinobu Kocho gazing at him with concern by his side, and at the solemn-faced man holding Benihime not far away.
He had only just confirmed Shinobu's safety; was he supposed to watch helplessly as she was swallowed into the void?
He absolutely could not let that happen!
"Manager!!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Asuka used all the strength in his body to roar in Urahara's direction.
Kisuke Urahara snapped his head back, clearly seeing the absolute resolve in Asuka's eyes across the distance of several meters.
"Retreat immediately!!"
"Forget about the defenses! Forget about that magic circle!"
"That thing is undergoing a convergence of worldlines! It's going to drag the entirety of Fuyuki City into another dimension!"
"If we don't leave, everyone will disappear into the rift of spacetime! Not even ashes will remain!"
Kisuke Urahara's pupils instantly shrank.
Convergence of worldlines? Dragged into another dimension?
If anyone else had said these words, Urahara might have dismissed them as the ravings of a madman.
But these words came from Asuka, someone he had personally witnessed making contact with another world's dimension. How could he not believe him!
Moreover, his intuition as a top-tier scientist was frantically blaring warning alarms in his head.
He glanced at the magic circle in the sky, which was beginning to distort light like a black hole, and instantly made his decision.
"Understood!"
Kisuke Urahara wasted no words. With a backhand swing of Benihime, a red Spiritual Pressure slash shot into the sky like a signal flare.
"Everyone! Hear my orders!"
Urahara's voice, amplified by his Spiritual Pressure, echoed clearly across the entire battlefield.
"All personnel, abandon your positions! Evacuate outside Fuyuki City at maximum speed!!"
"I repeat! This is a mass exodus! Use the fastest Shunpo you can muster and run!"
Rangiku Matsumoto froze for a moment, but seeing Asuka's extremely tense state and watching the fox-masked man's anxiety as he repeatedly barked orders, she immediately realized the severity of the situation was beyond imagination.
"Did you hear him?! Start running!!" Rangiku kicked the backside of a dazed squad member. "Anyone who wants to die can stay behind and watch the fireworks!"
"Hurry! Support the wounded! Don't fall behind!"
The Soul Reaper squads, who had just been looking for cover, instantly sprang into action. Their survival instincts pushed them to erupt with astonishing speed.
Streaks of black silhouettes darted madly toward the edge of the city like a flock of startled birds.
"Shinobu! You need to go too!"
Asuka rushed to Shinobu Kocho's side, shoving her toward Rangiku's direction.
"Asuka?" Shinobu Kocho stumbled, turning her head back, her purple eyes filled with panic. "What about you?"
"I'll cover your retreat!" Asuka replied firmly. "That thing is far from ordinary. I have to make sure your escape route is safe!"
"Stop joking around!" Shinobu Kocho grabbed Asuka's hand in return, her fingers gripping so tightly they trembled slightly. "If we leave, we leave together! I will never leave you behind alone again!"
Asuka looked at her, his heart softening, and he wanted to say something more.
But right at that moment, the magic circle in the sky let out a deafening roar that tore through the heavens.