It's over!
No matter how you look at it, this guy's actually enjoying it?!
The realization struck Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck like a thunderbolt, her mind teetering on the edge of a subtle crash, her gaze glazing over.
No!
This can't be allowed!
Are Shinigami truly such terrifying beings?!
Had she known even Hollows could be coveted like this…
For a fleeting moment, the guileless antelope knight who'd fought through Hueco Mundo for centuries wished it were all a lie.
But alas, the crowd's cheers hammered her senses, searing this moment into her memory, as if to ensure she'd never forget it, not even in a thousand years.
"Move! Fuck him! What are you waiting for?!"
"I came here for this, a centaur girl crushing a sword slave! Hahaha!"
"Coward! If you won't do that sword slave, I will!"
"I wanna see centaur girl devour a big cock!"
"Fuck him! Fuck him!"
Though Nelliel knew it was all fake, a scripted farce, the spectators' frenzied expressions, their boiling shouts, and the hormone-charged air assaulted her innocent soul with trauma deeper than a truck's blow.
[What are you waiting for?]
The gremlin's tender, sickly-sweet voice whispered in her ear, a tiny devil tempting her fall.
[If this Shinigami drains all your reiatsu, you know what'll happen, right?]
[Now, you've got a chance!]
[If you ride this sword slave's cock like a true knight, you can strip his reiatsu just as he slashed yours!]
[Drain him dry, and you're the real victor!]
[Then, the script ends!]
Cold.
Shaking.
Nelliel felt her core waver with the gremlin's words, her stare locking onto the Shinigami mere steps away.
[Do you want to know victory's meaning?]
[Do you want out of this nightmare?!]
[YES|OK]
As the final prompt rang, the string of reason and faith in her heart snapped taut!
The righteous antelope knight rose abruptly, hooves stepping slowly toward Makoto.
From some unknown well, her depleted body squeezed out one last flicker of reiatsu. She bowed her head slightly.
Her antelope bone mask shadowed her delicate face, casting a veil of darkness.
"No! This is wrong!"
She thrust her lance high, eyes blazing red at the Shinigami, waging a final stand against the corruption gnawing within!
It was her defeat in this contest of moral depths.
The lower limit belonged to Makoto Fujimiya!!
Yet, knowing this...
Nelliel chose to honor her heart fully.
Even if it meant her reiatsu ran dry and her life faded, she a Vasto Lorde clung to an unshakable essence!
An antelope knight, a true knight!
Her gaze fixed on the number above Makoto's head.
[5]
This beyond the lewdness was the final escape from the Script!
Breaking rules was itself a rule!
"Sorry."
She murmured, driving her lance toward his chest.
Yet a sly, triumphant smirk curled Makoto's lips.
Shunk!
The bone lance pierced his chest in an instant.
Blood soaked the ground beneath the Shinigami, his limbs pinned by shackles.
The moment the lance struck...
The raving 'spectators' reverted to their initial stillness, as if an unseen force had drained their time.
Their cheers, roars, and cries froze on their faces and forms, turning them into pallid puppets.
Nelliel bit her lip, pouring every ounce of strength into the blow.
At the same time, a childish sigh disappointed at missing the show echoed in her ears.
[Role: Centaur Love Gladiator]
[Third Rule Violation]
As the voice fell, her body withered, and a colossal torrent of reiatsu ripped from her, scouring every last reishi until she was hollowed out.
Their numbers shifted.
[1] → [0]
[5] → [6]
The chains binding Makoto's limbs shattered.
The gremlin's gleeful voice chimed in both their ears.
[Violation Limit Reached!]
[Script Concluded!]
[World of Revelry: Ultra Clash Love Arena!]
[Winner: Host - Makoto Fujimiya]
As the proclamation landed...
Makoto rose against the knight's faltering lance, gripping its shaft with one hand, and forcing her back. A smug, grating laugh spilled from his lips.
"Hahahahaha…"
"That's right!"
'Did you think I was some scumbag desperate to ravage a centaur girl?!'
'What I wanted was your power!'
Victory in the script isn't a true victory.
The script, after all, must end.
Makoto's gaze settled on Nelliel, his tone flat.
"Don't blame me for playing dirty."
"Nell."
"This is the nature of Shinigami and their Zanpakutō."
With her reiatsu exhausted, Nelliel stumbled back several steps. Her grip on the lance slipped, and she crumpled to the ground.
Her vacant stare met the Shinigami before her.
For a moment, even her spiritual form flickered, unstable.
Watching this, a victor's quiet pride swelled in Makoto's chest.
Yet, inexplicably, he felt he'd won the script but lost at life.
An illusion… surely?
Then, the twin heart patterns in their eyes flared pink.
The vast arena encircling them faded with the script's end.
…
When the veil lifted...
Makoto and Nelliel stood once more on the barren plain.
Wind, sand, dust…
Nothing had changed.
As if the entire script hadn't lasted a second.
Nelliel collapsed, her gaze sweeping the scene in shock. Even Bucha, cleaved in two, lay nearby.
But realizing this, she froze.
"I-I'm not dead?!"
Only a profound weakness lingered in her reiatsu.
Feeling that emptiness, a thought struck her, and she glanced afar.
Vasto Lordes were anomalies.
Their reiatsu bloated from endless devouring, defied fine control. Passing by, they'd crush weaker beings to dust, isolating them from any they'd wish to approach.
That was for Vasto Lordes.
What of a weaker being suddenly wielding such power?
Nelliel peered into the distance, a faint hope flickering.
Rumble!
A fierce, boundless reiatsu erupted from the Shinigami nearby, piercing the sky.
It surged like a waterfall defying gravity.
Yet Nelliel saw clearly...
Makoto's already ravaged body buckled under this titanic reiatsu, fissures of ruin splitting his flesh.
Light danced in his eyes, every inch of him taut. Blood poured from wounds, healing under the massive reiatsu only to rupture anew in a brutal tug-of-war.
For an ordinary soul, such agony would shred all reason.
But Makoto stood firm.
[Wall of Sighs]
[Your will is eternally fixed at your strongest moment, until death.]
Only in life-or-death stakes did he grasp the 'will' Yamamoto had drilled into him from day one.
His body quivered.
Struggling to maintain his stance, he aimed his Zanpakuto at Nelliel.
In this crucible of survival, thoughts of canon characters, centaur girl, or riding antelope knights vanished.
His eyes bore into her.
The reiatsu stripped from her, he unleashed without restraint.
Shunpo, Zanjutsu, physique... all soared beyond their prior bounds under this monstrous power.
Amid the agony threatening to tear him apart, one goal burned.
Pierce her!
Unleash it all!
The moment his gaze locked on her, an overwhelming dread seized Nelliel.
Then, Makoto stepped forward.
Boom!
A heavy footprint cratered the earth, soil exploding into a mound behind him.
His form vanished.
Back in the 'real world,' Nelliel reclaimed the Vasto Lorde's terrifying might splitting reishi with a mere flex.
A bone lance reformed in one hand, a rare bone shield in the other, stacked before her.
But it wasn't enough.
Post-script, the antelope knight was too frail!
Even with his unique nature, Makoto felt his will brush this body's true limit.
Each sprinting step shredded his thigh muscles, only to mend, bones wailing, tendons snapping and reknitting.
All he could do was channel every shred of reiatsu into one strike!
To erupt onto the knight before him!
His will, reiatsu, and body hit their zenith.
[Third Form: Needle Star]
A star's glimmer, a streaking flare.
Radiant, ferocious reiatsu pierced space itself, unblockable.
Boom!
The sound swallowed itself, and the form transcended sight.
Pure white shockwaves radiated outward, leveling soil, earth, dust, and clouds.
Leaving only a vast, pristine sky.
His blade sundered the lance, and shattered the shield.
And plunged straight into the antelope knight's chest.
Blood gushed from Nelliel's mouth, her masked eyes meeting the Shinigami's hollow stare.
He'd lost consciousness mid-thrust.
Yet a familiar voice echoed in their minds.
[Condition: Until I plunge my blade into your chest, neither dies.]
[Pact Sealed]
As it faded, their pupils flickered with faint pink light.
A third heart is layered over the twin patterns.
Then sank silently into the depths of their eyes.
Gone.
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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