When Rayleigh returned to Phobos's residence, he discovered that the goddess had already woken up and left her room.
Through Reiraku, he observed that she was currently speaking with several highly agitated people.
By touching those spirit ribbons, he could also hear the contents of their conversation.
He had to admit, ever since coming to Rakia Kingdom, his eavesdropping skills had grown increasingly refined.
Now, doing all of this felt almost natural.
"Lady Phobos, how long do you intend to make us wait?!"
"The revival of our family is clearly right before our eyes!"
"The opportunity is already here!"
"Why are you still delaying?!"
The goddess looked at the excited man in front of her, then glanced at the little boy sitting at the end of the table with an ugly expression.
Welf Crozzo.
Phobos sighed inwardly and could only say, "I am not deliberately delaying anything. You should care more about Welf's feelings. He is not ready yet—"
"No need!"
The man, who was the head of the Crozzo family, roared and cut off the goddess's words.
Even though it was disrespectful.
After all, the Crozzo family had never truly respected this goddess, a "loser" in their eyes.
"Welf is my son. He isn't that weak! For the revival of the Crozzo family!"
"Look!"
The man excitedly took out an object wrapped in cloth.
He untied the cloth.
What appeared inside was a crimson shortsword.
Phobos's expression changed.
"That is—!"
"That's right!"
The man held the sword in both hands, raised it high, and laughed wildly.
"A Crozzo Magic Sword!"
"As long as we show this to the Father of the Nation, he will surely accept our family once more. We will reclaim everything we once possessed as nobles of the forge!"
"NO!"
Phobos instinctively spoke up to stop him.
But that only provoked the man further.
"So you really are deliberately obstructing our family!"
"I will report this to the Father of the Nation!"
"You wretched goddess, you truly cannot be trusted! I understand now! You intend to keep Crozzo's power for yourself so you can take revenge on the war god, don't you?!"
"Give up! Our family is loyal only to His Majesty Ares!"
Listening in up to this point, the corner of Rayleigh's eye twitched slightly.
The Crozzo family were nobles of the kingdom, weren't they?
Shouldn't they be loyal to the king?
Why were they calling Ares "His Majesty" instead?
"Enough!"
Finally, someone could no longer endure it.
The deranged man turned his head and looked at his son.
That's right.
The one who shouted was not the goddess.
It was Welf Crozzo.
The red-haired boy clutched his chest and shouted, "Are Magic Swords really that important?! Grandfather, didn't you say that the most important thing about a weapon is that it stays by its wielder's side?!"
"Didn't you say that even if we couldn't forge Magic Swords, we should rely on our technique to create weapons stronger than Magic Swords?!"
"Magic Swords don't only abandon their masters. They abandoned our family too, didn't they?!"
Welf swore with all his heart, "I promise, I'll definitely forge weapons even greater than Magic Swords, so—"
Smack!
Before Welf could finish speaking, his father's slap had already fallen.
The heavy blow knocked Welf off balance and cut off his impassioned declaration.
Stunned from the slap, Welf touched the area under his nose and found that blood was flowing out.
"Welf!"
Phobos stood up, wanting to step forward and help the boy up.
But the moment she rose, an old man blocked her way.
"Lady Goddess, forgive me, but please stop bewitching Welf. From now on, please don't meet with him again."
After saying that, the old man turned back, grabbed Welf by the arm, and prepared to drag him away regardless of his resistance.
At the same time, the other members of the Crozzo family all stood, intending to leave with them.
Phobos grew anxious.
This was bad.
The Crozzo family had already fallen into madness.
Obsessed with past glory and the achievements of their ancestors, they had forgotten the true pride of nobles of the forge.
No.
She had to stop the Crozzo family from leaving.
But at that moment, Cleiston, who had been watching everything from the side, blocked her path.
"Lady Goddess."
"Cleiston! Move aside!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."
Phobos became increasingly anxious.
She could see the wariness Cleiston held toward her.
This man was a member of Ares Familia. In a sense, calling him her enemy would not be an exaggeration.
"The situation has already begun to spiral out of control. It seems it would be better to leave before things enter the next stage, wouldn't you agree, Lady Goddess?"
Rayleigh's voice suddenly rang out.
Cleiston and Phobos reacted in completely different ways.
A trace of relief finally appeared on the goddess's face.
"You're back!"
"Mm. Just now. I happened to witness the entire thing."
"Then I don't need to explain, do I?"
"Mm. Don't worry."
Rayleigh ignored Cleiston and began speaking with the goddess as though no one else were present.
Their attitude immediately enraged the man.
"Who are you?!"
Cleiston drew his sword.
The Crozzo family, whose path had been blocked, also barked angrily, "Whoever you are, get out of the way!"
"Lord Crozzo, please calm yourself. Leave this person to me."
Cleiston did not run.
Instead, he walked toward Rayleigh step by step, as though trying to increase the pressure brought by his own presence.
Seeing his posturing, Rayleigh blinked.
Then he released his Reiatsu onto the man all at once.
Boom!
In that instant, Cleiston learned what "pressure" truly meant.
An invisible sense of oppression seeped into every cell of his body, making him feel as though he had been completely exposed before an enormous threat.
That pressure made his body impossibly heavy!
Thud!
Cleiston dropped to both knees.
Sweat poured down his body like rain.
His eyes widened to their limit.
His breathing grew more and more rapid, while the air inside his body failed to keep up with what he needed. Symptoms of suffocation began to appear.
"Hah..."
"Hah..."
"Hah—"
Suddenly, Cleiston stopped moving.
He no longer struggled. His breathing completely ceased, and his pupils began to lose focus.
"W-what did you do?"
Seeing this incomprehensible scene, the members of the Crozzo family could only question him in fear.
Rayleigh casually replied, "I merely let him understand the difference in strength."
In the face of Head Captain Yamamoto's Reiatsu, Nanao had not even been able to breathe and had even been taught the lesson, 'I don't have time to teach you how to breathe.'
When Reiatsu grew strong enough, even the air would solidify because of it.
It became like being underwater, unable to draw breath, only able to exhale the air inside one's body without taking any in.
And if the Reiatsu reached the level of someone like Aizen, it could crush people outright, or even break down weak existences into atoms.
"Bakudō #62: Hyapporankan."
Rayleigh casually threw out more than a dozen blue rods of light.
The light rods pierced through the bodies of the Crozzo family members, binding them in place and leaving them unable to move.
The rods were so fast that they had no time to react at all!
Only Welf was deliberately left untouched.
Welf stared in shock at everything happening before his eyes, completely unsure how to respond.
-------
I'll make a new original zanpakuto that have a power over dream and the wielder is cassandra, what do you think? do you have an idea of original zanpakuto and their future wielder ? share it here!