[On the Other Side, Grimmjow's Battlefield]
This was the last battlefield where fighting was still ongoing.
Swish!
The situation on Grimmjow's battlefield, the moment Ulquiorra intervened, became as irreversible as a collapsing skyscraper.
"Pfft!"
Ulquiorra's arm pierced straight through Tsukabishi Tessai's chest. This former Chief of the Kido Corps didn't even manage to finish his final incantation before his massive body went limp and fell.
His glasses shattered off to the side. His eyes were wide open, fixed stubbornly on that pitch-black sky, as if even at the moment of death he couldn't believe he would end like this.
Blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the apron he always kept so meticulously neat.
"TESSAI!"
Ukitake Jushiro let out a desperate shout. Dragging along his body that had already reached its limit, he tried to rush forward to reclaim his companion's corpse, but it was nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"Your opponent is me!"
Grimmjow let out a savage grin. A blue Cero condensed at his fingertips and blasted mercilessly into Ukitake's back.
BOOM!
Ukitake was blown away entirely, crashing heavily into a pile of rubble.
His body was already weakened from losing the Soul King's right arm. Kurosaki Masaki had only ensured he wouldn't die immediately, not that his condition would improve.
At this moment, he was like shattered porcelain. Blood poured out of his mouth in large amounts. He struggled to grab Sogyo no Kotowari, but those pale hands could only weakly claw a few bloody marks into the sand.
On the other side, the silent and eerie Pernida also didn't escape.
Although his compulsory execution ability was extremely strange, in the face of absolute power, all rules were futile.
Grimmjow seized the gap in his ability activation. That sharp panther claw, like the scythe of death, pierced straight through his cloak and crushed the heart core completely.
At this point, there was no longer any resistance left on this battlefield.
———
On the main battlefield, the wind and sand gradually settled.
Tap!
Like tossing away two ragged sacks, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow returned to the field one after the other, casually throwing two barely-breathing bodies onto the sand.
Ukitake Jushiro was already completely unconscious, his breath faint as a thread.
As for Kyoraku Shunsui, although he was still conscious, he was clearly at the end of his strength.
Looking at his close friend lying beside him, in a state several times more miserable than his own, a bitter curve tugged at Kyoraku's lips.
This was an outcome he had expected. But seeing his friend like this, his heart still faltered.
He trembled as he reached out, wanting to confirm whether Ukitake could still be saved, but the intense pain throughout his body made even this simple motion impossible.
The two of them were like lonely souls abandoned by fate, stumbling together in a wretched heap, even supporting each other had become a luxury.
"Why?"
Kyoraku's voice was hoarse like sand scraping against stone, "Why not kill him?"
He knew he wouldn't die.
But for Ukitake, death might be a kind of release.
Yet it seemed Rosse had no intention of granting that release.
Ulquiorra looked down at them from above. Those green eyes held no trace of emotion, only a chilling sense of mechanical calm.
"Because this is His Majesty's order."
He spoke indifferently, his tone cold, "Ukitake Jushiro is not on His Majesty's death list."
That short sentence was more cruel than any mockery.
It meant, their life and death, even their suffering, were nothing more than a line of annotation already written in that man's script.
They couldn't control their lives, nor their deaths.
This was the sorrow of the weak.
"Heh!"
Kyoraku tugged at the corner of his mouth with difficulty, forcing out a smile uglier than crying.
The pain seeping from his bones made it almost impossible for him to stand. He could only press most of his weight onto Hirako Shinji's shoulder beside him, barely propping himself up in the sand.
Shinji silently bore that weight, his gaze dim and unreadable.
This former leader of the Visored, who used to always wear a flippant fake smile, now looked at the corpses of his companions scattered across the ground, completely devoid of his former lively chatter.
They had lost. Lost badly.
If not for the enemy's mercy, all of them would already be corpses.
However, in the next second, something happened that no one expected.
With Shinji's support, Kyoraku's hand, which had only just managed to lift and had been trembling, suddenly became unusually steady.
His index finger pointed straight ahead. There, Ukitake, covered in blood and barely clinging to life, was being carefully supported by Sarugaki Hiyori.
"Hado No. 4: Byakurai!"
Without any chant, white light exploded from his fingertip in an instant.
This sudden turn of events made Shinji's pupils shrink sharply.
"Are you insane?"
He cursed out instinctively, his body moving on reflex to reach out and interrupt the spell.
Even if Kyoraku was heavily injured, this strike would definitely be a death sentence for Ukitake, who was already on the brink of death.
'Killing his own friend? Has he finally lost his mind?'
But at the very moment his hand was about to touch the Byakurai, Shinji's movement suddenly froze in midair.
He was a smart man.
Too smart, sometimes, was a burden.
In that split second, he understood the meaning in Kyoraku's ashen eyes.
It was complete weariness with the world, a resistance against Rosse treating people like puppets.
If they couldn't control their lives, if even the time of their death depended on that man's mood, then if Ukitake died here, wouldn't that instead be the greatest mercy for him?
Wouldn't it be the only way to step outside that man's script?
And more importantly, that was Ukitake Jushiro.
A friend Kyoraku had known for a thousand years, closer than even a blood brother.
If he hadn't been pushed into absolute despair, if his heart hadn't already gone completely mad, how could he possibly attack that man?
This painful choice, one that could tear even the soul apart, made Shinji unable to take that final step to stop him.
Not only did he not act, he even slightly turned his head, giving Hiyori in the distance a complicated look, signaling her not to interfere.
'So be it.'
'If this is your choice, even if it is wrong, I can only respect it.'
The white lightning tore through the air, carrying Kyoraku's twisted sense of release, shooting straight toward Ukitake's heart.
Crack!
A crisp explosive sound rang out.
There was no spray of blood, no sound of a heart stopping.
Just one moment before the fatal Byakurai could touch Ukitake's chest, a small foot in wooden sandals kicked in violently, smashing the lightning apart like kicking a ball.
"If you want to die, don't drag others with you, baldy!"
Sarugaki Hiyori's face was full of fury. With a backhand swing, she smashed the sole of her sandal straight into Hirako Shinji's face, producing a dull, teeth-aching thud.
"And you! Kyoraku! What the hell are you two bastards trying to do?"
She didn't care that they were both seriously injured. She pointed at them and started cursing, while tears unwillingly welled up in her eyes, "At a time like this, who are you trying to impress by dying? You think dying is some kind of release? How is that any different from being a coward?"
"If you've got the guts, go find that bastard Rosse and settle the score! If you don't... if you don't, then as long as you're not dead, crawl forward with your blade in hand! Even if you have to use your teeth, bite a chunk off the Hollow King Palace!"
"Look around you! Huh? Look!"
Hiyori's voice trembled as she pointed at the companions who would never stand up again.
Love Aikawa had been torn into pieces. Rojuro Otoribashi's body wasn't even intact. Hachigen Ushoda… The entire Visored group now only had her, Hirako Shinji, Kuna Mashiro, and Muguruma Kensei buried in the sand, his life or death unknown.
Everyone else, dead. All dead on this white-sand land of Hueco Mundo.
How could she not hate it?
She hated every grain of sand here. Hated those emotionless Hollows. Hated Rosse for treating them like toys. And even more, she hated her own helplessness.
But even so, she never chose to turn her blade on her own allies.
Death was the easiest escape. Living on to seek revenge, that was the most painful trial.
Amid her beast-like furious shouting, Hirako Shinji covered his swollen cheek and slowly lowered his head. In the dead gray ashes of his eyes, a faint spark seemed to reignite.
As for Kyoraku Shunsui, he simply listened quietly, his blood-stained face showing no change in expression.
Hiyori's anger, her unwillingness, all felt so distant to him.
This level of passion and encouragement, to someone who had been crushed completely by Rosse countless times, whose very soul had been toyed with until it was riddled with holes, was far too light.
So light it was like a breeze passing over a barren wasteland, unable to stir even the slightest ripple of life.
In fact, watching Hiyori desperately trying to wake them up, a strange sense of absurd amusement rose in his heart.
'Resistance?'
'Crawl forward?'
'How many more times do we need to say it before they understand?'
'In this grand play already arranged by Rosse, even biting off a piece of flesh is just a small climax deliberately set up by that man for the audience to laugh at.'
"Heh!"
He let out another soft laugh. This time, even the bitterness was gone, leaving only a hollow emptiness after seeing through the ending.
'Rosse… is even my failure to kill Jushiro this time part of your plan?'
Kyoraku's empty gaze looked up at the night sky. In the depths of that darkness, it seemed Rosse's face appeared, wearing that smile he hated so much.
"Wow, what a wonderful little side show."
Meninas lazily rolled over, her pink hair covered in sand.
Tilting her head, those pretty eyes watched the absurd infighting among the Shinigami in the distance. A playful curve lifted at her lips, "They're just stray dogs kept alive by mercy, yet they still have the mood to put on a show of killing each other? Is this what you call Shinigami pride? How ridiculous."
The battle was already over. What remained was just garbage time.
Watching that scene of internal conflict among the Shinigami, Meninas instinctively showed a schadenfreude smile.
But as she smiled, it gradually stiffened, and finally turned into a silent stillness.
What right did she have now to laugh at the Shinigami?
Her gaze unconsciously shifted toward the shadow behind Ishida Uryu.
At some point, the figure that had been watching coldly from the sidelines had already disappeared like a real shadow, without a sound.
Not even a single word of retreat had been left behind.
"Heh…"
Meninas closed her eyes bitterly.
'Lose, and you have no rights. Lose, and you become a disposable pawn. Lose, and the blame gets pushed onto subordinates.'
That was the fine tradition engraved into the bones of their Quincy Emperor.
Just because they hadn't turned on each other in front of the enemy didn't mean nothing would happen once they returned.
They might have survived the battlefield, but they were no different from the dead.
Why was it so hard just to stay alive?
This world really was rotten to the core.
"Why so quiet now?"
A voice full of mocking amusement came from behind.
Candice was still lying on the sand, pinned down and used as a mount by Lilynette, but there was no sense of humiliation in her tone. Instead, there was a strange kind of superiority, "Already imagining yourself crawling back to the Wandenreich like a dog, only to be publicly executed by the other knights? Sounds like a lovely scene, doesn't it?"
Compared to taking revenge on the damn wolf brat on her back, she was enjoying this feeling of being an outsider, watching her former comrades slide step by step into the abyss.
Having escaped the well of the Wandenreich too early allowed her to see the true nature of this world sooner than any other Quincy.
Following Yhwach's broken ship would only lead to the grave.
If that was the case, why not follow the real captain instead?
Sure, he was insane, but at least he promised to burn the entire world for their amusement, didn't he?
"Heh! Candice, do you really think saying that is meaningful?"
Not far away, Bambietta struggled to prop up her upper body with her broken blade. The once proud face now held only a dead, numb expression, "Meninas and I are finished. Do you think your end will be any better? Unless you also go serve the Hollows, His Majesty will never accept failures."
Starting infighting at a moment like this was simply foolish.
"It is meaningful," Candice suddenly smiled. The smile was bright and bold, completely unlike that of a prisoner, "Of course it is! Because I'm not the same as you."
"As for whether I'll be fine or not, hard to say, but at least…"
She shrugged slightly, then very casually reached out and lightly pushed Lilynette off her back, as if moving a cushion.
"Hey! Wolf brat, had enough fun? It's my turn now."
Under Bambietta's utterly shocked gaze, Lilynette, who had just been effortlessly toying with them, was actually pushed away obediently. She even pouted, looking bored, and hopped aside.
And Candice just dusted off her legs and stood up as if nothing had happened.
"Th-This… how is this possible?"
Bambietta felt her mind trembling, "How could you have enough strength to push that monster away? And why didn't she retaliate?"
"I knew it!"
Meninas clenched a handful of sand tightly, her voice filled with bitter resentment, "That damned bitch! She really defected long ago!"
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