Rayleigh's eyes turned a brilliant ice-blue, and his whitened hair stirred without wind under the force of his overwhelming Reiatsu.
A vast pressure poured out of him and covered the battlefield.
In an instant, nearly a thousand people were crushed beneath that pressure, unable to remain standing as they collapsed one after another!
Some were forced flat against the ground.
Others dropped to their knees, drenched in sweat.
A deadly panic began spreading through the crowd.
Rayleigh drew the blade from its sheath, and an astonishing chill radiated from the snow-bright edge.
Cold air swept outward, instantly coating the ground in a layer of frost.
At the same time, a pair of dragon wings and a dragon tail rapidly formed behind Rayleigh.
His limbs were covered in ice crystals as well, transforming into dragon claws.
Three cross-shaped ice flowers hovered behind his head.
"Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!"
Seeing his transformation, Ares showed a look of curiosity.
Marius, however, covered his mouth and nose with one arm to avoid breathing in the freezing air.
Because he was standing the closest, tiny ice crystals had even formed on his eyelashes, white mist appeared with every breath.
'So cold.'
That same thought surfaced in the minds of many people at once.
They rubbed their frost-reddened skin, teeth chattering as they looked at the one responsible for all of this.
Their hearts were shaken beyond words.
Welf's grandfather had heard Rayleigh's words.
Naturally, he connected this bone-piercing cold to the sword in Rayleigh's hand.
But that was not enough.
In terms of destructive power, Crozzo Magic Swords were still more—
Just as the old man was about to reach that conclusion, Rayleigh suddenly beat the pair of wings behind him.
In the blink of an eye, he arrived in the sky above the royal capital.
Seeing him actually fly, the members of Ares Familia below were left staring in disbelief.
"He's flying!"
"Unbelievable!"
"Those wings are clearly made of ice! How can they carry someone into the sky? And how is he that fast?!"
Because the sight was too shocking, even with the truth right in front of them, they could not stop questioning it.
Rayleigh raised Hyōrinmaru in his hand and pointed it toward the sky.
"This Hyōrinmaru is the strongest ice-and-snow-type Zanpakutō," he murmured. "Its power can even command the weather!"
His voice carried clearly to the ground and it entered everyone's ears.
Zanpakutō?
Hyōrinmaru?
Strongest ice-and-snow type?
All of those were unfamiliar words to them.
Even so, they could understand what "command the weather" meant.
Welf's grandfather stared wide-eyed, his throat dry.
He desperately wanted to shout, 'That's impossible!', but what was happening in the sky left him speechless.
Suddenly, the ground was swallowed by shadow.
Clouds.
The sky, which had been clear and sunny moments ago, was now covered in rolling storm clouds and the temperature plunged.
"Tensō Jūrin."
This was Hyōrinmaru's fundamental ability.
Just as its name implied, it could alter the weather according to the wielder's will, bringing everything in the sky under its control.
It was also one of Hyōrinmaru's most powerful abilities.
Even Hitsugaya Tōshirō, after training to the level of a captain, could not use this power with complete ease.
And after actually using it himself, Rayleigh understood why.
...
A layer of white spread across the sky.
When that whiteness descended and fell onto the people below, they finally realized in shock what it truly was.
Marius reached out and caught one of the falling white specks.
His eyes widened.
"Snow?"
He instantly lifted his face and looked at the figure in the sky.
'He did this?'
'He really can control the weather!'
Welf's grandfather stared up at the sky as snowflakes landed on his aged face, cooling even the fire burning in his heart.
'How is this possible?'
'How can a sword change the weather?'
'Something like this...'
'How could this happen?'
'Zanpakutō...'
Wait.
He seemed to have heard of that before.
Someone who had fled from Orario once claimed that a smith from Hephaestus Familia in the Labyrinth City had created swords with souls and those swords possessed special powers.
They could control flames, release waves, and even summon giants.
Because the contents had sounded far too absurd, he, an old smith with eighty years of experience, had never taken it seriously.
But now...
He was personally witnessing a sword he had believed could not possibly exist!
"I don't believe it. How could I possibly believe this? This isn't real!"
"Damn it, shoot him down!"
"We can't! He's flying too high... Neither arrows nor magic can reach him up there!"
Rayleigh stood in the air, looking down over the royal capital.
If he were alone, he could simply leave gracefully like this.
But below him, three people were still waiting and Bankai could not be kept active forever.
Rayleigh gathered enough Reiatsu and gripped Hyōrinmaru with both hands.
This was the true meaning of "sit upon the frozen heavens."
He would use this to bid farewell to Rakia Kingdom!
"Hyōten Hyakkasō!"
Boom!
The storm clouds churned as a white tide slid down from above the clouds.
Like an avalanche.
A white waterfall poured from the heavens, yet it did not fall with the force to crush everything beneath it.
Instead, after descending a certain distance, it scattered into the air.
"Snow?"
Marius looked up at the pure white flakes drifting down from the sky.
A snowflake landed on his fingertip.
In the next instant, an ice flower suddenly bloomed from that fingertip, sealing his finger inside.
Marius's eyes widened, and his expression changed sharply.
He felt a bone-deep chill invade his flesh and blood through that finger, freezing all the way down to the bone.
"Damn it!"
Marius immediately drew the sword at his waist and struck the ice flower with the hilt.
After two blows, it had only cracked slightly.
But he could no longer feel his finger!
Marius anxiously used all his strength to smash it.
After seven or eight strikes, he finally shattered the ice flower.
Along with it, half of his finger broke apart as well.
His mangled finger seemed to have already died from the freezing temperature. Marius looked directly at his own injury, yet felt nothing.
Then he suddenly realized something.
With fear written all over his face, he looked toward the heavy snow covering the entire city.
'So cold.'
'...'
'It's like the dead of winter.'
The rearguard healer saw the terrible state of Marius's finger and immediately panicked.
"Your Majesty! Please allow me to heal you!"
The woman covered entirely in armor stepped forward and began using healing magic, helping Marius restore the finger whose flesh had been torn open and killed by frostbite.
Marius, meanwhile, hurriedly lifted the cloak on his body and draped it over Ares.
"Hey, what are you doing, Marius? I can't see the snow anymore!"
"Shut up, you idiot god! These snowflakes are deadly! Pass down my order! Have everyone take shelter immediately! Indoors, now!"
Marius shouted.
However, by the time he noticed, it was already too late.
And his order had come too late as well.
Among the army of several thousand, the casualties had already reached triple digits.
The sudden bitter cold and the blooming ice flowers were continuously stealing away those frail lives.