Katori Batsu'unsai struggled up from the ruins, staring blankly at the two men who had broken free from Hell's control. She tilted her head, her delicate face full of confusion.
*What happened?*
*Why did her teammates surrender so quickly?*
*Before coming here, Hell never mentioned that the Soul Society could help them break free from its control.*
*What should she do next?*
*Is it still not too late to surrender?*
While she was dazed, Zenjōji Uhin finally understood what had happened, a flash of excitement immediately appearing in his eyes.
Although his expression wasn't as fiercely loyal as Ōtogawa Furūki's, it was exceptionally resolute.
Asking him to directly hack at Ichibē Hyōsube might be a bit difficult, but if it were to cut down Yamamoto, he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest.
"How do you two feel?"
Naraku Sora asked casually.
"Much weaker than when we were Sinners, but we still have about seventy or eighty percent of the strength we had when we were alive," Ōtogawa Furūki said solemnly after carefully sensing his condition.
"Our Zanpakutō are bound to our souls, so there are no changes in that regard."
Zenjōji Uhin nodded, stopping just short of adding, "Me too."
Naraku Sora understood clearly.
It was similar to the intelligence Saitō had provided. After becoming a Sinner, the Will of Hell would inject its power into them in order to manipulate their consciousness.
Therefore, there would be varying degrees of enhancement.
The specific extent depended on the upper limit of the Sinner's soul's endurance.
It truly was a golden opportunity.
If not for the fact that falling into Hell meant losing one's freedom, he would have even considered switching sides.
Just as he was thinking this, Takeda Goki, who had just been blown to pieces on the other side, had completed his reconstruction. Rain-like phosphoric gas dotted his skin, adding a touch of eeriness.
The change in his form caused his original Reiatsu to multiply and surge, continuously rising as if there were no upper limit.
This outrageous change immediately caught Naraku Sora's attention.
"Even elite mobs have a second phase?"
Takeda Goki widened his eyes. Feeling the continuously expanding power within his body, he took a deep breath and suddenly felt that Naraku Sora was nothing special after all.
Under Hell's generous gift, he had once again obtained the opportunity for revenge.
As someone who was already dead, returning from Hell this time had only one purpose: to wipe away his past humiliation.
His current reduction to such a state was all thanks to a certain someone.
Today, he would definitely make him pay in blood!
Boom!
From the moment of that change, without any warning, Takeda Goki's figure was already close at hand!
The five fingers of his right hand clenched tightly and blasted forward.
A crystal-like phantom light shrouded him, making his entire person look like a work of art carved from crystal.
A power more than ten times stronger than before surged turbulently. Just the aftershocks alone caused the ruins beneath his feet to tremble and roar.
The sound of shattering echoed endlessly.
At the same time, a touch of pitch-black was born in his pupils and continued to spread until it completely occupied and coated his eyeballs.
Pure distortion spewed from his body, and endless power poured out continuously.
Zenjōji Uhin happened to be on his path of advance, so he was the first to meet the attack.
Lord Naraku had given him his freedom, so it was time to show his own value.
Boom!!
The two burly figures collided, like two speeding dump trucks crashing fiercely into each other. A visible sound wave swept out.
In the blink of an eye, Zenjōji Uhin's hands, arms, and even the bones of his upper body completely shattered, his flesh and blood exploding.
Amidst the screaming gale, scarlet blood and shredded flesh continuously peeled off and flew from his cracked skeleton, like a flag flapping wildly in the wind.
Severe pain swallowed his soul. Zenjōji Uhin widened his eyes, his expression one of astonishment.
Although his strength had been weakened, he was still a genuine Captain-class combatant. Placed in the current Gotei 13, he could even be considered upper-tier.
But even so, he was defeated in a single blow.
He had absolutely no power to fight back.
"This is impossible!"
Zenjōji Uhin's face was filled with disbelief.
Takeda Goki grinned. His pitch-black eyeballs looked exceptionally eerie, and ink-like phosphoric gas lingered around his body, forming chains.
His mouth full of teeth became unusually sharp, as if he were beginning to transform into another creature.
Having crippled Zenjōji Uhin with a casual strike, he didn't choose to finish him off, but instead charged straight in front of Naraku Sora.
At this very moment, he only had eyes for one person.
*Die!*
Wearing a smile full of malice, Takeda Goki erupted with terrifying Reiatsu. A deep, pitch-black pillar of light shot into the sky as a crystal fist capable of directly crushing a mountain blasted forward.
Pure power and deafening explosions burst from between his five fingers, advancing with devastating force.
Zenjōji Uhin and Ōtogawa Furūki's expressions changed drastically.
It was obvious that after the Impure World Reincarnation just now, two consecutive captains had broken free from Hell's control, causing the Will of Hell to transfer all the power that had been bolstering them onto Takeda Goki.
This caused the strength of this obscure former Squad Ten captain to reach an extremely terrifying level.
He had even caught up to the Naraku Sora from just a moment ago.
*This is going to be bad!*
However, facing such a mighty attack, Naraku Sora did not retreat but advanced, stepping forward.
He raised his pitch-black blade, wrapped in blinding black-red arcs of lightning, and swung it fiercely, smashing it forward.
Ripple-like shockwaves surged, intertwining and tangling with the black-red lightning, crushing against each other. The two different powers painted the night sky, seemingly presenting a stance of equal rivalry.
His ink-like pupils seemed to have lost all human reason, turning into those of a pure beast.
Takeda Goki completely ignored his own condition, madly venting the power inside his body as if treating himself like a suicide truck.
But the difference in stats was not something that could be resolved simply by a sudden power-up.
No matter how much power Hell gave Takeda Goki, his soul still had boundaries that were difficult to break through.
Looking at the hideous face close at hand, Naraku Sora grinned, leaning his left arm back with a sinister smile and clenching his five fingers.
Bzzzt—
A strange noise erupted as traces of black-red arcs twisted and danced upon it, making the space become increasingly turbulent, as if it could collapse at any moment.
The moment he threw the punch, countless bolts of lightning surged from his fist, instantly extending for several kilometers and directly plowing a bottomless, profound trench through the ruins.
Crack!
The sound of shattering crystal followed. Takeda Goki's head was directly blown apart, turning into a countless mist of blood that filled the sky.
Extreme heat swept out, instantly incinerating the sky full of blood mist into nothingness.
This exaggerated display instantly plunged the massive ruins into dead silence. Dozens of gazes stared intently at the figure standing at the end of the trench, their eyes radiating uncontrollable horror.
*It's over just like that?!*
Even though they had just witnessed Naraku Sora's stunning performance and had a certain understanding of his strength...
It wasn't until now that they realized what he had just shown was merely the tip of the iceberg. This guy's true strength was far more terrifying than they had imagined.
The first-generation captains, who prided themselves as the world's great evils, only now realized that they, these so-called seniors, were now relics of the past.
Compared to the latecomers, they were simply too weak.
The two sides were fundamentally not in the same dimension.
Two Black Flashes had finished off the powered-up Takeda Goki, and a casual Impure World Reincarnation had directly scattered his ashes.
Naraku Sora hadn't prepared a Gigai for him at all.
Takeda Goki's ability to display such strength was entirely due to Hell's blessing.
Without Hell, whether he could even withstand a single slash from the first-generation captains was a question.
Moreover, he had cooperated with the Tsunayashiro clan when he was alive, making him a natural enemy. Forcibly resurrecting him would only cause trouble for himself, so he simply let him roll off into reincarnation.
Just as he finished dealing with Takeda Goki here, Katori Batsu'unsai over there showed abnormalities again.
Having just walked out of the ruins, her body suddenly stiffened.
Pure ink-black quietly climbed into Katori Batsu'unsai's pupils, and the aura around her body became increasingly terrifying.
Naraku Sora looked sideways, frowned, and stepped forward.
A crisp crack erupted.
His figure seemed to teleport, appearing directly in front of Katori Batsu'unsai. Before she could react, a large hand pressed directly onto her.
The speed was so fast that Katori Batsu'unsai couldn't react at all.
In an instant, her entire person was pushed back hundreds of meters and pinned directly to the ground.
To prevent her from suddenly going berserk like Takeda Goki, Naraku Sora straddled his right leg over her and sat directly on top, forcibly pinning her beneath him.
"Ugh..."
Katori Batsu'unsai was startled by this sudden change and instinctively struggled a few times.
But she quickly realized that no matter how she resisted, she couldn't push him away, as if she were fighting against a mountain.
"Senior Katori, doing this is for your own good."
Naraku Sora explained seriously, "You just need to endure for a moment, and I can save you from Hell's grasp."
Hearing these words, Katori Batsu'unsai finally remembered the changes that had occurred in Zenjōji Uhin and Ōtogawa Furūki just now.
Immediately, her heart couldn't help but pound.
*Could it be that I can also be freed from that endless torment?*
Although her will was extremely firm, allowing her to maintain her sense of self amidst endless torture...
She still constantly thought about complete liberation.
Now that the opportunity was right in front of her, she had to seize this future.
Therefore, even though the current posture was quite strange and somewhat uncomfortable, Katori Batsu'unsai quieted down. While resisting the Will of Hell within her soul, she quietly watched Naraku Sora operate.
She saw him pull out some unseen technology, followed by a series of dazzling hand seals, and finally, he clapped his hands together.
"Impure World Reincarnation!"
Incandescent light bloomed. The Sinner's body began to collapse, and countless gray-white dust particles stuck to the Gigai like pieces of paper.
When Katori Batsu'unsai opened her eyes again, the whole world had become different.
Her soul felt completely renewed. The shackles imposed upon it were gone, and her entire being instantly felt ten, a hundred times lighter.
Looking at the figure standing to the side, Katori Batsu'unsai didn't even have time to revel in the joy of regaining her freedom.
She directly lunged forward, crashing her entire body into Naraku Sora, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.
A sincere and pure voice sounded by his ear:
"Thank you..."
Right at that moment, the orange-haired girl who had just finished off a batch of Hell Sinners and was preparing to claim credit from a certain someone saw this scene.
*Grind!*
Her teeth made an unwilling grinding sound as she clenched them.