Dryness.
Sharp pain.
Scorching heat.
Numbness.
These were the four sensations Yhwach first felt.
Beyond that, only darkness remained.
He felt bodily stiffness, felt Reiatsu sealed, also felt distant sounds like wind.
But couldn't sense his own state.
Standing or sitting, or... bound?
All unclear.
After Segawa Shigure spoke those words, that blade in his hand emitted rainbow-colored light, swallowing the entire world.
Just that instant, Yhwach lost consciousness and basic judgment.
Then, unknown how long passed.
Yhwach suddenly realized consciousness appeared, then thought emerged.
Dryness and scorching heat—because of flames' existence...?
Sharp pain and numbness—because of wounds...?
Then, distant howling wind—what was that...?
While Yhwach rapidly thought, suddenly—a calm, clear voice transmitted, breaking this silence.
"Open your eyes, Yhwach."
?!
Yhwach's heart violently moved, immediately reacting.
This was... Segawa Shigure's voice?!
With faint strength, moments later, Yhwach finally opened his eyes.
However, unexpectedly, after opening his eyes, what entered his vision wasn't black night sky, nor the Ice Palace's pure white earth.
But flames.
Blazing flames covering his entire body.
?!
Yhwach's pupils violently constricted. This moment, thoughts completely interrupted.
He suddenly understood—
That howling sound wasn't wind at all, but... flames burning!
Next moment, when he lowered his gaze toward his entire body, once again felt ice-cold throughout!
He lay on the ground, entire body already burned black!
Entire left arm completely severed from shoulder, abdomen directly penetrated by some attack, both legs completely burned off, left face and throat also completely ruined...
Seeing this, Yhwach's head buzzed. Gaze completely blank.
This moment, surrounding flames extinguished, revealing Segawa Shigure's figure.
He stood in place, head lowered, neither joyful nor sorrowful, looking down, softly saying:
"This scene familiar?"
The instant his words fell, immediately pulled Yhwach's thoughts back.
Within his heart, only immense shock remained!
This scene—he couldn't possibly be unfamiliar!
This was... his defeated appearance a thousand years ago!
In that blood war back then, finally, Yamamoto Shigekuni used that unmatched powerful Bankai, killing him to this degree!
Now—he was exactly the same as that time!
Yhwach's expression became terrified. He wanted to make sound, but throat was already destroyed, unable to make any sound.
He wanted to understand this as illusion.
But he knew—this couldn't possibly be illusion.
No one could make illusion reach this degree. Even Aizen with Hogyoku couldn't.
In other words...
Just now, Segawa Shigure used Beyond Bankai... making his body return to that time point a thousand years ago!
Thinking this, Yhwach immediately raised his gaze, shocked, looking toward Shigure above.
However, Shigure's expression remained unchanged, only gripping that unadorned blade.
Blade tip directly pointing downward.
After silent moments, Shigure slowly spoke:
"Yhwach, how does returning to a thousand years ago feel?"
"Afraid?"
"Well, doesn't matter."
"Now, let me answer that question—"
"'Why did I only reverse your body and power, yet ignore consciousness and memory?'"
Speaking here, Yhwach's gaze immediately covered with shadow.
However, Shigure paid no mind, still only gazing at Yhwach, calmly speaking:
"Before coming here, I spoke with the Captain-Commander—"
"He told me—regarding the previous surprise attack, for the deceased Chojiro Sasakibe and numerous Seireitei soldiers, the Captain-Commander... felt very sorry."
"Because he didn't completely end you a thousand years ago, leading to a thousand years later, this blood war's eruption."
"So he believes he bears the sin of causing soldiers' deaths."
"He will repent for this lifelong."
Speaking here, Shigure stopped, neither joyful nor sorrowful, watching Yhwach, saying flatly:
"So, Yhwach..."
"You, bearing sins deeper than the Captain-Commander, shouldn't die so ignorantly."
"This is why I preserved your memory."
"..."
Hearing this, Yhwach's pupils constricted again, immediately wanting to move.
Because he understood Shigure's intent.
But no matter how he tried, he could no longer move at all.
Bones and muscle nerves throughout his body had already been completely severed by Zanka no Tachi. Plus Shigure's Reiatsu seal—he had no possibility of movement.
"Huff—"
Moments later, Shigure suddenly raised his head, lightly exhaling, then lowered his head again.
He gazed at Yhwach, expression calm, softly saying:
"Then, farewell forever, Quincy Progenitor."
"May you find peace."
As his words fell, Shigure didn't watch Yhwach's reaction. Instead lowered his eyes. That blade in hand lightly descended.
Seemed merely slowly falling. However—
BOOM!!
Deafening explosive sound violently erupted. Brilliant sword light instantly emitted from the blade, splitting in two!
One rushed toward Yhwach and ground beneath him. One directly surged toward the split night sky!
BANG!!!!!
Natural disaster-like massive sound resounded throughout every part of this heaven and earth!
This instant, the Wandenreich's constructed shadow domain completely collapsed!!
White barriers gradually peeled away. Black passages rapidly contracted and closed. From outside, Seireitei's familiar land clearly appeared.
Golden sunlight descended, illuminating every piece of merged land.
However, the Ice Palace center where Shigure and Yhwach were located had already begun constantly exploding!
This moment, the other side.
Numerous Captains returned to Seireitei. Reacting instantly, immediately felt immense joy!
Because the instant the Wandenreich collapsed, they clearly sensed—Yhwach's Reiatsu began rapidly weakening and dissipating!
That was death's characteristic!
This meant Segawa Shigure won the battle!
But just as they wanted to begin searching for Segawa Shigure, suddenly all froze simultaneously.
Because as Yhwach's Reiatsu scattered, Shigure's Reiatsu also suddenly began rapidly vanishing...!!
That wasn't deliberately contracting Reiatsu release...
Similarly—death's characteristic.
Sensing this, everyone completely froze in place.
Soi Fon and several others—reacting this moment—already couldn't suppress inner pressure and sorrow. Eyes instantly moistened.
"Why... why is this..."
"Segawa clearly promised victory... how... how could this be...?!!"
"Segawa..."
Seeing this, distant Shunsui Kyoraku, Byakuya Kuchiki and others couldn't help but simultaneously lower their eyes.
This was a result no one expected.
Original victory's joy—this moment completely replaced by sorrow.
However, just then—
Suddenly—distant white light suddenly appeared!
Within it, familiar Reiatsu emitted again!
Soi Fon and others' hearts immediately tightened. Immediately looked up. Within blurred vision, a familiar figure emerged.
Wide white haori, black long hair lightly swaying, long blade at waist, face carrying polite, gentle smile, eyes brilliant as stars.
"...Shigure?!"
Almost instantly, Soi Fon and Unohana Retsu immediately reacted. Immediately, faces simultaneously showed immensely joyful smiles.
"Segawa?!"
Distant Captains also immediately widened their eyes.
Joy came so suddenly, even made them forget happiness.
However, just this moment—what no one knew—distant Shigure's smile suddenly froze.
Because just then, within his mind, that once familiar yet strange notification sound transmitted again—
"Ding! Congratulations Host for completing your mission. New system check-in task now released!"
"No time limit. Please Host open the System Gate, proceed to..."
"Check in!"
END.
Ah, temporarily concluded.
Writing here, this book's Bleach final chapter—Thousand-Year Blood War Arc—officially ends.
Conclusion somewhat rushed.
Originally Thousand-Year Blood War Arc shouldn't be this short. I had too much content I wanted to write—like Yhwach's Royal Guard's individual battles, and several Captains' Bankai.
But writing halfway, suddenly news came of Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War anime adaptation! (Waited so long, finally came...)
So I temporarily decided—abandoned describing those side battle segments, changed to directly completing the main storyline.
Perhaps when Thousand-Year Blood War anime airs, I'll write another different Bleach, different Thousand-Year Blood War. Who knows haha...
Well, writing here actually means all Bleach Arc chapters of this book are completely written.
Though currently don't know if I'll write new world Shigure's story, still can't help but feel emotional at this chapter's end.
Shigure's story certainly hasn't ended.
But this journey truly wasn't easy.
After all, this is Feilu. Books that can smoothly complete plots properly are truly rare.
Later period manuscript fees were almost nothing. I could still persist alone to completion—truly admire my ability to generate electricity for love (though this electricity generation was intermittent hahahaha).
Well, won't say more. More words would waste readers' money.
In short, thank you to every friend who read this far.
Thank you all.
Please quietly await this book's new world chapter opening, or new book opening hahahaha...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
END