At the same time, the main battlefield on the outer edge of Hueco Mundo.
Boom!
Deafening explosions rose and fell one after another. Every roar sounded like the tolling of a death knell.
Hirako Shinji and Jugram had faces so dark they looked like they could drip water, while Harribel, standing not far away, still had that cold and beautiful face as calm as still water. Even her arms-crossed posture hadn't changed in the slightest.
This was a silent humiliation.
"Hey, are we just going to stand here and watch?"
Ishida Uryu frowned, pushing up his glasses as his anxious gaze swept around.
"The situation… doesn't look good at all."
Even as a newcomer to the battlefield, he could smell that strong scent of defeat in the air.
Aside from their side, which had fallen into a stalemate because Harribel hadn't made a move, the other four battlefields, only one held the advantage. The rest were almost completely one-sided massacres.
The nearest sand dune had already been flattened.
That little girl Lilynette, who looked harmless to humans and animals alike, had now turned into a berserk werewolf, beating down Bambietta and Meninas, two Quincy who had activated Vollstandig, all by herself.
As for the two Shinigami who had originally gone to support them, Muguruma Kensei and Kurosaki Isshin had already been buried under the white sand, their fate unknown.
If it weren't for Kuna Mashiro desperately holding back the aftershocks over there, those two unlucky guys would probably have died on the spot just from being brushed by the shockwaves.
Even Ishida Uryu could foresee the outcome of this battlefield.
It was only a matter of time before those two Quincy were defeated. The only question was how long they could hold out.
A bit farther away, in the chaotic stone forest, was the only place that still looked somewhat advantageous for them.
Ukitake Jushiro, Tsukabishi Tessai, along with Giselle and Pernida, were working together to surround and attack Grimmjow.
Under Pernida's almost rule-like, bizarre ability, that Hollow named Grimmjow did look somewhat battered.
But only somewhat.
Even Uryu could tell that the four of them taking him down still seemed a long way off.
However, what truly made people feel despair were the other two battlefields.
Slash!
A burst of vivid blood suddenly bloomed in midair. Scalding blood splattered out, reflected in Kyoraku Shunsui's suddenly contracting pupils. A few drops of that warm liquid even splashed onto his cheek.
But he couldn't even bring himself to wipe it away.
He stared blankly ahead.
Yadomaru Lisa, who always wore glasses and had a somewhat awkward personality but was reliable, and Hachigen Ushoda, who specialized in Kido, their bodies had been torn apart like building blocks casually pulled apart by a child, split cleanly into four pieces, falling helplessly onto the pale sand and staining a large area red in an instant.
"There are too many of you."
Nelliel's figure appeared not far away as if she had teleported. The pair of antler-shaped blades in her hands slowly dripped with bright red blood.
Behind her were two bodies that had completely lost all signs of life.
"So I got a little… serious."
"Cough!"
Kyoraku Shunsui suddenly coughed up a large mouthful of blood, clutching the massive cross-shaped wound on his chest that was still bleeding. A bitter smile appeared on his face, uglier than crying.
"When you get serious, the pressure you give off is way stronger than that Kurosaki Masaki."
Too fast. It was really too fast.
Just a moment ago, all five of them had been attacking together, but now, Candice was covered in blood, barely managing to stay standing, but she had already lost the ability to fight.
Askin was lying on the ground, only exhaling without inhaling, clearly on the brink of death.
Five seconds.
Just five seconds.
Two dead, one dying, two heavily injured.
'Is this the strength of the 3rd Espada of the Royal Palace?'
It was absurdly overwhelming.
"After all, I am No. 3."
Nelliel lightly flicked the blood off her blades. Her smile was gentle, like a girl-next-door big sister, but in Kyoraku's eyes, that smile was more terrifying than the god of death.
"To live up to His Majesty's trust, I have to show some real ability."
She didn't like killing.
But if they were enemies standing in the way of the Royal Palace, if they were obstacles to His Majesty's grand ambition, the twin blades in her hands would not hesitate for even a moment.
She had witnessed the transformation of this world with her own eyes. From a lawless land where the strong preyed on the weak, it had become the orderly nation it was today.
That person had promised.
When the old world reached its end, Hueco Mundo would not disappear.
They, the Hollows of the Royal Palace, would be relocated as a whole to that brand-new world, becoming the underworld of His Majesty's domain.
In return, she had sworn an oath. To act as His Majesty's blade and cut down all enemies.
Until the end of her life, or until she was cast aside.
"Rosse, that cold-blooded man who stops at nothing for his goals, even slaughtering innocents, does someone like that really deserve your loyalty?"
Kyoraku Shunsui gave a bleak smile, his gaze fixed on Nelliel.
"I can tell… your nature isn't evil."
Even now, in this situation, he still wanted to try.
If he could persuade her to turn back, then even if they suffered heavy losses today, it would still count as a win.
"Don't use your Shinigami's hypocritical and narrow view of good and evil to measure Hueco Mundo."
Nelliel's voice turned a little cold as her blades came down again.
Slash!
Askin, who had still been struggling at the brink of death, stiffened instantly.
His head rolled to the ground, the last glimmer in his eyes extinguishing completely.
This time, he was truly dead.
With a few drops of blood on her face, Nelliel calmly turned her head. Her dark green hair swayed gently in the wind thick with the smell of blood.
"Before he came, Hueco Mundo was hell. You Shinigami clearly had the power to bring order here, yet you let it remain barren for a thousand years. Just because we were a different race, you treated us as evil that had to be eradicated."
"But!"
Her gaze pierced straight into Kyoraku Shunsui's soul.
"Who in this world is born a Hollow? Before becoming Hollows or Shinigami, weren't we all once humans with joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness? Just because of obsession, because of desire, we became like this, does that mean we deserve to be treated like trash and cleaned up by you?"
Those words struck like a heavy hammer, crashing into Kyoraku's heart.
He fell silent.
The truth always cuts the deepest.
Even now, even at this dead end, he would rather cooperate with the Quincy, who might destroy the world, than consider joining forces with Hollows.
Deep down, Hollows were enemies, outsiders, things that had to be purified.
This kind of arrogance… might be exactly the root of the Shinigami's decline.
"I admit, we were enemies before. But the Quincy are also our enemies. And besides, you probably don't know this."
Kyoraku Shunsui took a deep breath, making one last struggle, one final attempt to shake her resolve.
"Your so-called His Majesty only treats you as tools. Once he devours the Soul King, the entire world will reach its end. When that happens, whether it's the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, he'll abandon them all without hesitation."
"He won't."
Nelliel cut him off, her tone firm without the slightest room for doubt.
Whoosh!
In the next instant, her figure appeared right in front of Kyoraku Shunsui, so close they could hear each other's breathing.
"His Majesty isn't as heartless as you think."
"That cruel side of him is only directed at stubborn pests like you."
Rip!
The antler-shaped twin blades pierced straight through Kyoraku Shunsui's abdomen without the slightest hesitation, pinning him to the rock wall behind him.
"His Majesty specifically said you're not to die, but that doesn't mean I can't teach you a lesson."
Nelliel pulled out her blades, watching the blood spray out. That was the punishment for Kyoraku questioning Rosse.
Kyoraku Shunsui slid down weakly, collapsing flat onto the ground.
Not just because of the physical injury, but because of the shock in his heart.
Nelliel's reaction didn't seem fake.
If she had truly been deceived, hearing such a shocking conspiracy should have shaken her, even if only for a moment. But it didn't.
Her calmness… it was more like someone who had long since been told the truth and accepted it.
'Could it be that these Hollows really know? And even accept that ending?'
'But how is that possible?'
'If the world ends, what would be left of Hueco Mundo?'
'Why are these Hollows going to such extremes?'
"You Shinigami… just think too much."
Nelliel shook her head lightly and sheathed her blades.
"So much that it annoys His Majesty, to the point that he's arranged death as the ending for most of you."
"Hueco Mundo won't be destroyed. We'll follow His Majesty to the next world and begin a new journey."
After saying that, she didn't even spare another glance at the defeated opponent on the ground.
The targets on the kill list had been cleared.
What remained were those who needed to be kept alive… as future spectators.
"Heh! Spared again, huh?"
Kyoraku Shunsui looked at her departing figure, a deeply self-mocking smile tugging at his lips.
He couldn't understand Nelliel's thinking, but he knew he wouldn't die.
Just like last time in the Soul Society.
'That bastard Rosse, with his twisted sense of humor, will keep me alive until I finish playing my part.'
'Honestly, being toyed with like this… I would rather just die cleanly.'
'But, I can't die anymore.'
'The old man is dead. Little Nanao is dead. Lisa is gone…'
The people he knew were falling one by one.
'If I don't see that final ending with my own eyes, if I don't witness what that arrogant Rosse will turn this world into—'
'Even if I turn to ashes, I will never accept it!'
———
At the same time, at the far edge of the battlefield—
This place was no longer a desert, but a hellscape filled with blood and chunks of flesh.
"Hahahaha!! This feels great! Damn, this feels amazing!"
Gerard let out a thunderous roar of laughter.
At this moment, his body had expanded into a colossal giant over a hundred meters tall, radiating golden divine light.
Every muscle on his body looked like a fortress cast from gold.
And beneath his massive shadow, a pale figure was locked in close combat with him.
Ulquiorra's expression was emotionless, his black demonic wings flapping in the wind.
His size hadn't changed, but every claw strike he threw could easily tear apart Gerard's so-called invincible miracle body.
Slash!
A massive arm was torn off, blood gushing like a waterfall.
Boom!
A pale chest was pierced through by a giant sword, organs shattered into dust.
But in the very next instant, flesh wriggled wildly, bones reconnected.
Their bodies seemed to rewind time, recovering at a speed that made one's scalp crawl, before crashing into each other again.
This wasn't a battle.
It was an endless cycle of suicide and resurrection.
And at the edge of the battlefield, two stiff corpses lay quietly in a pool of blood.
Former Seventh Division captain Aikawa Love, and former Third Division captain Otoribashi Rojuro.
These two members of the Visored, who had once been famous a hundred years ago, now looked like broken rag dolls, torn apart by some terrifying force, with not a single piece of intact skin left.
They didn't have infinite regeneration.
On a battlefield of this level, they had just stepped in, used a round of Bankai and Hollowfication, and were crushed to death like trash by Ulquiorra.
With their strength, they didn't even qualify to watch the fight. Yet they still charged into the battlefield.
So Ulquiorra didn't hold back.
Even at the cost of having half his body blown apart by Gerard and Lille, he tore those two into pieces.
To recover from those injuries, it cost him a full second.
"Two complete monsters."
On a nearby cliff, Lille held his severed right arm tightly, gasping for breath. In those eyes that were once said to pierce through all things, there was now nothing but speechless frustration.
As the captain of the Schutzstaffel, second only to Jugram in the Wandenreich, and possessing the ability to pierce all things, he had once believed his power was unbeatable.
No matter what kind of defense, what kind of barrier, it meant nothing before his ability.
But now, looking at those two monsters tearing each other apart in front of him, he felt like a rookie holding a water gun.
At first, he had aimed carefully, afraid of hitting Gerard by mistake.
But as the fight went on, he discovered a miserable truth.
His ability was indeed monstrous. It could ignore defenses and pierce through enemies.
But the problem was, no matter how many times he blew out Ulquiorra's heart, no matter how many times he shattered Gerard's head, in the next second, those two would just grow back like nothing happened, then continue fighting even with their guts spilling everywhere.
"Pierce all things? Heh!"
Lille curled his lips into a self-mocking smile.
'When your opponent is immortal, no matter how strong your attack power is, it's just a meaningless numbers game.'
On this battlefield, Lille Barro was nothing but useless.
Aside from barely keeping himself alive from the aftershocks, he didn't even have the chance to interfere.
"Forget it…"
Lille sighed and withdrew his gaze, taking one last look at those two blood-crazed monsters. With one hand, he lifted his long spirit rifle, turning its barrel toward the distant battlefields where spiritual pressure was still surging.
"Since I'm just extra baggage here, I might as well go check out another battlefield."
"Maybe over there, there are still a few normal people who can actually be killed."
[T/N: I think, I read this buddhist quote somewhere which relates a lot of inherent sense of morality of humans, as neliel said earlier. The quote goes, "In the sky there is no distinction of east and west; people create the distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true."]
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