Ulquiorra drove his knee into Ichigo's gut.
But Ichigo didn't flinch. Instead, he twisted, caught Ulquiorra's leg, and hurled him into the canopy.
KRAKADOOM!
The ceiling above ruptured, chunks of white stone raining down. Ulquiorra emerged from the debris, a green Cero already gathering at his fingertip.
ZNNNNNMMM!
He fired. Ichigo slashed upward.
BOOM!
Splitting the Cero in half. The resulting shockwave sent both combatants spiraling backward.
Ulquiorra's voice cut through the smoke. "You're holding back again. That arrogance... I'll erase it."
He dashed forward again, faster than before.
CLANG! CLANG! THRUST! SWEEP!
Their blades danced through the air. Ichigo blocked a vertical slash, spun around, and jabbed with the hilt.
BAM!
Ulquiorra reeled back. Ichigo followed up with a sweeping Getsuga, the wave exploding across Ulquiorra's side.
BOOOOOOM!
A green streak blurred through the air as Ulquiorra recovered, slashing through the smoke.
Ichigo dodged—barely.
A stream of blood traced his cheek.
They hovered now, circling, both panting, eyes locked. Neither said a word. Words meant nothing now.
Ulquiorra held out his hand.
"Lanza del Relámpago."
The energy spear crackled, vibrating with pure destruction.
FWHOOOOOM!
He hurled it. Ichigo raced forward, meeting the spear mid-flight.
KABOOM!
The explosion swallowing the sky in light and thunder. Smoke rolled across the dome like a thundercloud. Through it, Ulquiorra charged.
SLASH!, SWIPE!, STAB!
Ichigo deflected the first blow, caught the second with his palm—his hand smoking—and retaliated with a brutal uppercut. CRACK! Ulquiorra staggered, then flapped his wings and blasted Ichigo with another Cero point-blank.
BOOOOOOOM!
Ichigo smashed through a pillar in the sky, debris falling like rain. He emerged seconds later, tattered but unshaken. With a flash, he was behind Ulquiorra again
CLANG!
And the fight reignited. Every clash now created aftershocks. The fake sky rippled, the wind howled. Pillars in the distance cracked and collapsed from the sheer weight of their power.
BAM! Ichigo kneed Ulquiorra in the back.
BOOM!
Ulquiorra spun and blasted him with a Cero Oscuras. Ichigo blocked it with Zangetsu, the blast pushing him back through the sky like a comet. Ichigo emerged, his aura dark and steady. He vanished again.
SLASH! THRUST! CRASH!
Ulquiorra was forced on the defensive. Ichigo rained down strike after strike with terrifying rhythm, Tensa Zangetsu a blur of obsidian light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With every strike, Las Noches crumbled a little more. The canopy cracked overhead. Energy flared in wild arcs.
And still, they fought.
Miles away, Tier Harribel and her Fracción watched.
"Is this… still a fight?" Mila Rose asked, eyes wide.
"No," Sung-Sun replied. "This is survival. For both of them."
Tier narrowed her eyes, watching as Ulquiorra fired a second Lanza del Relámpago and Ichigo hurled a Getsuga right into its core.
KRA-KOOOOOM!!
The resulting detonation forming a burning rift in the sky. Ichigo appeared above it, descending like a god.
CRACK!
His sword collided with Ulquiorra's, slamming them both downward.
BOOM!
They hit the ground. A cloud of dust rose. Silence followed. From within the dust, Ulquiorra stumbled forward, panting. Bleeding.Ichigo emerged, still standing tall, cloak fluttering.
"You still want more?" he asked.
Ulquiorra gritted his teeth.
"I'll destroy everything you are."
His spiritual pressure exploded upward.
Ichigo's expression hardened. "Then I guess it's time I stopped pretending."
He raised Tensa Zangetsu. The blade began to hum.
Black energy wrapped around its edge. The air pulsed with pressure. The final stage was coming. And the sky itself would pay the price.
The air itself seemed to recoil.
Ichigo stood tall at the center of the shattered sky, his blade raised. Wind circled him like a cyclone, threads of black and crimson energy curling up from the hilt of Tensa Zangetsu like snakes of lightning.
The sky above trembled, warped by the sheer weight of the spiritual pressure spilling from him. It was like watching the beginning of a storm collapse into the end of the world.
Ulquiorra hovered nearby, barely upright. His wings were battered, his mask cracked, blood streaming down his arms. And still, his eyes burned with defiance.
"What... are you becoming?" he rasped.
Ichigo said nothing. The energy around him intensified.
The blade of Tensa Zangetsu began to disintegrate at the tip, but not from breaking—it was shifting. Compressing. A singularity of force. A core of darkness wrapped in crimson flares pulsed at the center. The reishi in the air was being devoured.
Then, Ichigo spoke.
"Final Eclipse."
Ulquiorra's eyes widened. The wind vanished.
And then the sky exploded.
A black sphere, shot through with blood-red lightning, burst outward from Ichigo. A shockwave rolled over the heavens like an earthquake through air. The energy ripped open the false canopy of Las Noches in jagged veins, and light poured down through the cracks like divine wrath. The sky above was swallowed by darkness.
Ichigo blurred forward. In a single motion, he was already in front of Ulquiorra.
SLASH!
The Getsuga Cero erupted from the edge of his blade like a solar flare. It wasn't a beam—it was a tidal wave of pure force, shaped like a crescent moon ablaze with death. It screamed across the sky, the roar of it deafening, shaking the very fabric of Hueco Mundo.
Ulquiorra raised his arm, desperate, Lanza forming again—but the moment he tried to hurl it—
BOOOOOM!
TO BE CONTINUED