The arena went completely quiet, devoid of all sound, as if the air had been sucked straight out of everyone's lungs.
Lucius didn't seem to care about any of that. He hovered in the air, barely an inch off the dirt so that his boots never actually brushed the floor.
To touch the ground would be to lower himself to the same level as his opponent. As the Lesser Sin of Pride, that was something he simply would not do.
His pride was unbounded; he had grown incredibly arrogant, especially ever since His Majesty had made him perfect.
Lucius was essentially what would happen if you combined every single race in the entire world into one vessel, removing all of their flaws while massively buffing their strengths.
He wasn't like Ichigo.
Ichigo was only a fusion of the races from the eastern side of the world, and even then, he wasn't everything—Ichigo wasn't part Hell Hollow or Lost Soul.
But Lucius was all of that and more. He was just better. Dragons, Hollows, Quincies, Soul Reapers, Evil Spirits, Shamans, Asgardians—his ass was all of them combined into one body.
His Majesty's perfect weapon.
His eyes had evolved too, now functioning as a heavily buffed version of the Six Eyes. His precise control over his Reikaku and Reiatsu was even greater than Satoru Gojo's control over Cursed Energy.
In fact, even if you gave Sukuna the Six Eyes, the King of Curses still wouldn't reach the level of absolute control Lucius possessed.
His power had reached such a peak that only His Majesty himself could defeat him.
Right now, Lucius's only remaining goal was to completely master this endless potential—fusing his Vollständig, Bankai, Resurrección, and every single ability he possessed into one definitive transformation that he could claim as his true form.
Lucius lazily glanced down at his opponent.
Byakuya Kuchiki.
He remembered him, mostly as that little boy from way back when.
Byakuya kept his hand tightly gripped on the hilt of his Zanpakutō.
He had a move specifically engineered for this arrogant bastard, and he was going to use it, so help him God.
Byakuya's eyes instinctively scanned his opponent, searching for any vulnerability.
As a master tactician, he looked for a lapse in posture, a shift in weight, or a leak in energy.
But there was absolutely nothing. Lucius's posture was completely open, utterly defenseless, yet so flawless that it offered no exploitable weakness. It was a perfect, infuriating wall of absolute security.
Lucius looked disappointed.
"I expected more from you."
Byakuya raised an eyebrow. The hell did this creature mean?
"Even after so many years, your power has only grown this much," Lucius added, his tone dripping with the condescension of a disappointed father.
"What do you know about my power? You are no Soul Reaper; you know nothing of our limits." Nobles, as always, clung to their heritage. But Lucius decided to be merciful.
"It seems you are quite shortsighted. Oh well." He lowered his hands casually to his sides, completely exposing his chest, confidently leaving himself wide open to a fatal strike.
Byakuya's eyes darted to the opening, but his instincts screamed that it wasn't a mistake—it was a trap born of pure, unadulterated strength.
"Since I do not want His Majesty to find this match boring, I shall allow you to land five free hits. I will not even attempt to block them."
Byakuya's eyes narrowed to sharp slits upon hearing that. "Are you underestimating me?"
"Underestimating would imply there was a threat to begin with."
Ouch.
Byakuya could feel the hybrid successfully getting under his skin.
Yet, through this entire exchange, what kept him frozen on the spot wasn't the insults—it was the terrifying fact that he couldn't sense a single drop of Lucius's power.
It was like staring into a bottomless void.
"Your arrogance," Byakuya said calmly, his voice steady despite the suffocating pressure building in the air, "will be the cause of your defeat."
"Oh, where have I heard those exact words before?" Lucius paused, appearing to think back.
"Ah, yes. Your master said the exact same thing... yet here we are."
Once more, he dug the knife right under Byakuya's skin, completely unfazed by the lethal tension in the arena.
Byakuya decided that was enough talk and finally drew his blade.
He could do this.
In an instant, he used Shunpo to flash forward at full speed. He wasn't even attempting to test his opponent's level first; he was going straight for the kill. Within a fraction of a second, he closed the distance between them, putting himself well within swinging range of Lucius. All he had to do was finish the motion.
Yet, the very second he entered that lethal range—just as he was about to swing—it hit him.
It was a vision, flashing violently in his mind's eye.
He saw his own head severed from his shoulders. He saw his hands and legs sliced clean off. It was a vision of absolute, instantaneous death. Every ancient instinct in his body screamed at him to stop. Mid-step, Byakuya's body jerked backward. He completely abandoned his swing and retreated, desperately choosing to shield himself instead of following through with the attack.
His boots skidded across the stone floor, kicking up dust. His hands trembled uncontrollably against his hilt.
He was breathing heavily, his heart hammering against his ribs as the sheer phantom horror of that simulated death settled deep into his chest.
He hadn't even been touched, yet the psychological weight of it felt as real as bleeding out on the pavement.
Lucius, noticing Byakuya's sudden retreat, let an annoyed look cross his face.
"....Did you get cold feet?"
Hearing his voice, Byakuya realized with a jolt of horror that Lucius's hands were still nowhere near his sword.
Meanwhile, up in the stands, Rukia watched the display with deep anxiety. This was terrifying to witness.
"Brother..." She didn't understand exactly why her brother had retreated so abruptly, but the fact that a proud warrior like him had fled backward spoke volumes.
Shunsui, watching from his vantage point, felt the chill in the air too.
It was putting him on edge, making him realize that this fight was nothing more than a farce—a deliberate show of force from Hueco Mundo.
Actually, it wasn't Hueco Mundo anymore; this place was Nocturna Vastoria now.
This kingdom fully belonged to Gabriel, and he had expanded it like no other. Shunsui had read the reports of Gabriel's rapid expansion, but he couldn't do a damn thing about it. The Soul Society was critically short-staffed as it was.
Even if they currently had three Kenpachis—though, yes, officially the title could only be held by one person at a time—the Soul Society couldn't afford to have two of them killed right now. Things were so bad that Shunsui had even resorted to making some under-the-table deals with certain Quincies. Yes, it was genuinely that bad.
Gabriel had expanded past Japan, pushing deep into Asia. He had already conquered mainland China and was currently reaching toward Europe.
This meant the other branches of the Soul Society were now actively being affected by the expansion, which was the exact reason they were here today. They were trying to gauge just how powerful this kingdom really was.
So far, the outlook was incredibly grim. The average strength level of a common citizen here was around Lieutenant level. In this kingdom, Lieutenant-level fighters were treated as mere foot soldiers.
Needless to say, things were profoundly fucked. Raw, indeed.
And now, Shunsui was realizing a terrifying truth: he couldn't sense Lucius's Reiatsu at all. There were only two options to explain why.
Option one: Lucius was actively repressing and hiding it perfectly.
Option two: Lucius was so unfathomably stronger than Shunsui that his power couldn't even be comprehended or sensed.
For the love of the Soul King, Shunsui desperately hoped it was option one. If only he knew that the current Lucius possessed enough raw strength to actually push canon, Soul King-absorbed Yhwach into a brutally difficult fight.
The Almighty was an annoying ability, to be sure, but as His Majesty's personal creation, Lucius carried the very essence of the end. Yhwach would eventually learn the hard way that a fight against him could only conclude one way.
Shunsui hoped for the sake of his own mental health that Lucius was holding back immensely.
God help them all, or the Soul Society would end up having to create a Vizard division just to survive.
They'd have Mayuri having a field day experimenting on Soul Reapers, though gathering Hollows for it would be nearly impossible; stealing even a single Hollow from Gabriel's kingdom would be viewed as an immediate declaration of war.
And while Hollows might not be known for their intellect, they possessed a massive sense of self-preservation.
Back in the arena.
Byakuya's jaw tightened. His pride flared violently against the sheer humiliation of his own fear.
Without another word—he moved again.
He was even faster this time, leaving an afterimage behind. His blade flashed from its sheath in a perfect, lethal arc aimed directly at Lucius's neck.
The blade moved with flawless precision. Yet, before it could reach its destination, the steel ground to an absolute halt.
It stopped a mere hair's breadth away from Lucius's throat.
Byakuya pushed with all his might, but the blade could not move forward at all.
Infinity was still active. A conceptual distance that could never be crossed by a sword.
Lucius didn't even blink as the lethal edge hovered near his skin. His eyes drifted lazily toward the halted blade.
"...How disappointing."
He looked utterly bored.
"One."
The number echoed ominously through the quiet arena.
Byakuya vanished instantly, using Shunpo to retreat several meters away. His hands were shaking openly now—subtly at first, but soon it was unmistakable.
Getting that close to Lucius, feeling the absolute, suffocating void of his presence, had awakened something ancient and primal deep within his instincts.
Pure, unadulterated fear. It felt as though he had stepped into the jaws of death itself and barely escaped.
Lucius watched him calmly, still floating lazily an inch off the ground.
He remained completely relaxed, keeping his hands casually in his pockets, silently waiting for the second attempt.
A/N Okay, so in my defense, i had to rewrite this shit multiple time.
Thought of multiple alternate ending but then remember how fucking op Gabriel is, so war might just never happen, as long as he is alive and in control, he can kill everything.
[Ps, on rewrite number 7}