Aizen was continuously suppressed by Son Goku.
The figures of the two fighters darted all over the palace as they clashed, leaving cracks everywhere from the force of their impacts.
Aizen's body had already shattered and regenerated an unknown number of times. If not for the Hōgyoku continuously restoring his body, he might truly have fallen under that relentless barrage of attacks.
He had no idea what sort of brain Sawada Tsunayoshi possessed to imagine a character whose Hakuda was this powerful.
Forget Kidō. Aizen did not even have room to use Zanjutsu. He could only force himself to meet the opponent with Hakuda.
Perhaps because he had restored his body using too much Hollow power, Aizen's body had already begun to show an abnormal white coloration. It gave off a cold, pale sheen, somewhat similar to Ulquiorra's skin.
A Shinigami's Hollowfication. A Hollow's Shinigamification.
This had always been Aizen's research. He knew that his body had already absorbed a small portion of Hollow power.
Although he had been suppressed by that golden-haired opponent from beginning to end, the benefits were real. As he used more and more Hollow power, the degree of his fusion with the Hōgyoku was gradually deepening.
After Aizen was once again hammered into the ground in a mixture of pain and exhilaration, Son Goku's continuous assault finally paused.
"What's wrong? You can't be out of strength already, can you?"
Aizen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his tone still arrogant. If one ignored his battered appearance, it would almost seem as though he were the victor of this exchange.
"That was a really satisfying fight. Let's stop here for now."
Son Goku stretched his body and smiled. The Reiatsu inside him had already been completely exhausted. This was not the world of Dragon Ball. There was no one here who could lend him energy to use one final attack in actual combat.
"In that case, you have no reason to continue existing!"
Aizen drew his Zanpakutō, his gaze fierce.
He was already impatient to hurry up and move on to the next tool.
Son Goku showed no intention of resisting Aizen's drawn blade. He merely smiled calmly and said,
"I'll leave it to you."
Under Aizen's regretful gaze, Son Goku's figure turned into smoke and vanished.
What a pity.
A powerful fighter like that could not be cut down beneath his blade.
But Aizen's regret did not last long.
A cloud of mist condensed before him. A short-haired silver-white youth rushed into his arms, and a light, drifting punch landed against Aizen's lower abdomen.
A trace of disgust appeared on Aizen's face.
Compared to Son Goku's fists, this punch could only be described as weak.
Aizen immediately punched back, sending the person in his arms flying.
However, the silver-haired youth showed no surprise at being struck away. There was even a faint smile on his face as he softly said,
"Bloom, Higanbana!"
Black Moon Knights, October.
Aizen suddenly sensed something wrong with his body.
An unbearable heat surged from deep within him. His vision was covered by a fiery red filter. Not only that, every part of his body began turning crimson.
This was the power of flames.
Aizen judged the condition of his body immediately.
But unlike the previous Fire Dragon's Roar, this power had been directly injected into his body. He had no way to seal it with his flame-sealing power.
Or rather, there was no longer enough time to seal this power.
The instant the youth's voice fell, the blazing heat inside him had already become unstoppable.
Bowl-sized spots of light appeared all over Aizen's body. Immediately afterward, pillars of flame erupted from those spots.
From a distance, Aizen looked like a red spider lily covered in fiery petals, blooming violently with his body as the root.
A grave injury.
An unprecedented grave injury.
His entire body was covered in bowl-sized wounds. Blood poured from within him as though it cost nothing. Aizen had no doubt that, had he still been in his Shinigami state, he might truly have died from this move.
An attack that erupted from the inside out could not be defended against at all.
The true difficulty of this move lay in landing the fist on his body.
And Sawada Tsunayoshi had accomplished that through the illusion of mist.
There was no time for Aizen to analyze the technique any further. The growing coldness was a dangerous warning issued by his body.
The only thing he could rely on now was Hollow power.
Hōgyoku, evolve me!
A mass of white sludge sprayed from Aizen's seven orifices and immediately wrapped him into a white cocoon.
The Hollow power of High-Speed Regeneration surged wildly, helping Aizen recover from his injuries at great speed.
Seeing this, Tsunayoshi also stopped his offensive. He did not continue conjuring other characters and allowed Aizen to immerse himself in the Hōgyoku's evolution.
"Is it coming? Aizen's evolution?"
Urahara's eyes lit up. He had long since tossed aside his melon and was now continuously operating his recording equipment.
This moment was highly worth documenting.
"It's still too early. This is only the second stage of evolution. However, after this, I'll be able to apply even greater pressure."
Tsunayoshi said.
Once Aizen began fusing with more Hollow power, his survivability would undoubtedly become even stronger.
In other words, Tsunayoshi would be able to act even more recklessly.
It did not last very long.
The twisted white mass stopped expanding and gradually shrank into a human shape.
Aizen appeared, his entire body wrapped in white Hierro, with only his eyes and the Hōgyoku on his chest exposed.
"Well done, Sawada Tsunayoshi."
That familiar voice allowed them to vaguely recognize that this masked-looking figure was Aizen.
"The real show has only just begun."
Aizen could not hear Tsunayoshi's words, but Urahara and Gin Ichimaru beside Tsunayoshi clearly saw three eyes on Tsunayoshi's body open at the same time.
"Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
A boy whose entire body shone with golden light, and whose face bore fox-like whisker marks, appeared on Aizen's right side. He hurled a massive shuriken formed from Reiatsu at Aizen.
Aizen was just about to turn and engage when a strange man with an equally powerful aura appeared in front of him.
His upper body had swollen like a balloon, and his limbs shone with a metallic red luster. One of his fists compressed into his arm like a spring as he loudly shouted the name of his technique.
"Gum-Gum Kong Gun!"
Aizen absolutely could not ignore it.
His instincts told him that this compressed fist was even harder and stronger than the golden-haired opponent's.
He had to deal with the attack in front of him first.
But if he did that, his rear flank would be left entirely open to the spinning shuriken.
The situation was already extremely bad.
Yet there was something even worse.
A voice appeared from the opening on Aizen's left side.
A voice he was incomparably familiar with.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
The third eye Tsunayoshi opened had summoned none other than the familiar Ichigo.
However, this Ichigo was still somewhat different from usual. There were several small protrusions on the back of Tensa Zangetsu's blade. This was Ichigo from after the Fullbring Arc.
Kisuke Urahara's gaze turned somewhat puzzled.
He did not understand what Tsunayoshi was thinking by conjuring Ichigo. If he truly wanted Ichigo to take part in the battle, the real Ichigo was already in Las Noches.
Tsunayoshi's thoughts were not complicated.
He simply wanted the protagonists of the three great shōnen manga to beat Aizen up together.
He had originally wanted to use Mugetsu Ichigo, but he was afraid Mugetsu would be too overbearing and accidentally kill Aizen in one shot. That was why he had switched to Bankai Ichigo.
Aizen was facing an unprecedented crisis.
All three directions had been sealed off. He had no choice but to take these attacks head-on.
The four-sided Dankū had only just risen before it shattered into pieces.
These attacks were not something ordinary Kidō could withstand. He could only answer them with attacks of equal power.
White power coiled around his Zanpakutō.
In this extremely brief moment, the only things Aizen could place his hopes in were his Zanjutsu and the Hierro covering his body.
A flash deeper than Gran Rey Cero appeared on his Zanpakutō.
As Aizen scattered ice-crystal-like fragments with his other hand, he used his most familiar swordsmanship to swing the blade wrapped in Gran Rey Cero.
Gran Rey Kyōka Flash!
A fierce white light spread throughout the palace.
The aftershock of the attacks tore apart the already fragile walls. Even Tsunayoshi had no choice but to raise a shield in front of himself.
The main hall of Las Noches finally collapsed under Aizen's devastation.
The broken walls and ruins were covered with traces of Cero and sword slashes.
It was still the same point as before: Tsunayoshi's techniques were, in essence, only Reiatsu impacts.
The problem was that Aizen was genuinely cutting things down.
Without walls blocking their view, even though Sora Inoue had organized things well, the Arrancar inside Las Noches still could not help but look in this direction.
There was no way for them not to be curious.
Ever since that powerful Reiatsu had appeared, Lord Aizen's Reiatsu had erupted again and again. Anyone would want to see what was happening inside.
However, no one dared to gossip.
The two Reiatsu signatures inside were both existences they could not afford to provoke.
The Espada ranked near the top, such as Starrk, widened their eyes even more.
Was that power the direction they should pursue?
After the palace was blown apart by Aizen, Tsunayoshi's gaze shifted into midair.
There, a white humanoid creature was constantly panting. However, the left half of his body had already vanished, replaced by a mass of white liquid that was slowly writhing.
Tsunayoshi was slightly disappointed.
It seemed that even someone as powerful as Aizen could not withstand the combined assault of the three great protagonists.
See? Half his body was gone.
Just a little more, and Aizen truly would have been annihilated by those three ultimate moves.
In the end, his slash had only barely managed to block Luffy and Naruto's attacks. Meanwhile, the left side where he had no sword was exploited by Getsuga Tenshō.
Fortunately, Aizen had prepared in advance.
He could not dodge all three simultaneous attacks, but he could deceive them once.
After his body was struck by Getsuga Tenshō, the life-saving ability Aizen had buried within himself was triggered.
His entire body transformed into a mirror-like crystalline figure. No longer resisting the three attacks, he was directly swallowed by them.
Mirror Phantom.
It worked in a similar way to Tōshirō Hitsugaya's Ice Clone. The difference was that Mirror Phantom deceived the flesh, turning the body into crystal to avoid a fatal blow.
After learning that Tōshirō possessed the Ice Clone ability, Aizen had begun developing a similar technique.
This move had always been buried deep within his body and would only trigger at a critical moment.
Likewise, because the ability was too heaven-defying, Aizen could not use it a second time in a short period.
But because his physical body had still taken Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō, even though the life-saving technique had activated, Aizen had still lost half his body.
Fortunately, he possessed Hollow power.
After High-Speed Regeneration activated, a complete human form appeared once more.
He still had the same appearance, with his entire face covered.
Tsunayoshi frowned slightly.
He was somewhat dissatisfied. Aizen had clearly had half his body blown away, yet in the end he had still chosen to return to his original state. He showed no intention of breaking through his Hierro and entering the next stage.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi!"
Aizen's dissatisfaction was equally intense.
If not for his life-saving measure, Tsunayoshi really would have played him to death.
It was precisely because of Aizen's intense will to survive that he had subconsciously restored himself to his Hierro-covered form, rather than choosing to evolve to the next stage.
The powerful pressure had already cracked open the cocoon enveloping him.
Yet Aizen had wrapped the cocoon back around himself like pulling up a blanket.
"If forceful methods won't work, then I'll just have to tear it open little by little."
A ding sounded in Tsunayoshi's mind.
He had thought of a new method of torture—
Cough.
A new method to help Aizen evolve.
This method would definitely be much gentler than a three-on-one assault.
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