The heavy, solemn doors swung inward without a sound, opening just a crack at first.
Through that narrow gap, Cole and Rukia could see into the supposedly sacred, imposing inner sanctum of the Spirit King—yet the light inside was strangely dim.
This was the Spirit King's palace.
And yet there wasn't a single sound.
To Cole and Rukia, it felt less like a royal residence and more like an empty, abandoned house.
But that was impossible.
This was the Spirit King's inner palace, the residence of the most exalted being in all three worlds.
At the very least, there should have been attendants, servants—something.
As the palace doors fully opened, Cole and Rukia stepped up to the threshold and finally saw the interior clearly.
The two of them couldn't help but glance at one another.
They had imagined a hall resplendent with luxury, gilded and magnificent.
What they saw instead was… nothing.
A vast, empty hall.
Pure white floor tiles. Pure white walls and columns, faintly glowing as if they themselves were a source of light.
It looked decent at a glance—clean, pristine, almost sacred.
But aside from the architecture itself, there wasn't a single piece of furniture.
No throne. No banners. No decorations.
The entire palace was unnaturally quiet, so quiet it bordered on eerie. The silence had a dead, suffocating weight to it, making one feel as if they'd stepped into a haunted house rather than the inner palace of the Spirit King.
"Is this… really the Spirit King's inner palace?"
Rukia looked around in disbelief at the pure white chamber.
The architecture itself was beautiful, but no matter how she looked at it, nothing about this place felt like somewhere people actually lived.
It didn't even resemble a place where people worked.
Thinking back over this entire trip to the Spirit King's Palace, Rukia could feel her heartbeat speeding up. Her throat went dry as she blurted out,
"Where is the Spirit King!?"
"What about the royal family!?"
"Why can't we see anyone at all!?"
According to the stories passed down in Seireitei, the Spirit King's Palace was supposed to be a great complex of palaces.
The Spirit King and the royal family lived within.
The Zero Division—no, the Royal Guard—were supposed to be nothing more than a special operations force that guarded the Spirit King and those royal bloodlines.
Yet until now, they had seen only the members of the Royal Guard.
Forget the Spirit King and the royal family—they hadn't even seen so much as an ant wandering around this "most sacred" palace.
Rukia's voice echoed again and again through the empty inner sanctum, the sound bouncing back from the white walls without end.
The lingering echoes, combined with the oppressive atmosphere, made the newly promoted Captain Rukia—and even her zanpakuto spirit, Sode no Shirayuki—feel their nerves fraying.
Both women instinctively latched on to the hem of Cole's clothes.
Sode no Shirayuki swallowed hard, her voice tight with tension.
"Cole, do you think it's possible that the Royal Guard betrayed the Spirit King, killed off all the royals, and took the palace for themselves…?"
She had seen this sort of plot in storybooks before.
A samurai kills the lord who hired him, then disguises himself as the master, seizing his wife and his fortune for his own.
And it wasn't as if such things were impossible.
The more she thought about it, the more it made a twisted kind of sense.
Come to think of it…
They had never once seen the Spirit King with their own eyes.
Every bit of news about the Spirit King, the royal family, or even the Spirit King's Palace itself had always come from the mouths of the Royal Guard.
If the Royal Guard really had taken over the Spirit King's Palace…
Then Seireitei would never have received any genuine information at all.
Rukia was getting spooked by her own imagination now, tugging nervously at Cole's clothes.
"H-Hey, Cole, don't tell me Senjumaru-sama, Oetsu, Kirio and the others…"
"You two are really letting your imaginations run wild."
Cole cut them off, a line of exasperated veins threatening to pop on his forehead as he looked at the pair.
He'd never realized these two women were this good at filling in the blanks with sheer speculation.
Other people might not understand what kind of existence the so-called Spirit King really was.
But he did.
The so-called exalted Spirit King…
Was nothing more than a human torso hacked to pieces and pickled in an unknown solution. A living corpse, a "person" in only the loosest sense.
What truly shocked him wasn't that the inner palace was empty—he'd long since known that the Spirit King's Palace was a hollow shell.
What really stunned him…
Was how downright shabby the Spirit King's inner palace looked.
This place was supposed to be the Spirit King's inner sanctum.
The Spirit King's situation was already miserable enough as it was, and yet those bastards in the Royal Guard couldn't even be bothered to give him a decent view or a bit of luxury?
As he thought this, Cole exhaled softly, then stepped forward toward the depths of the inner palace.
"Alright, you two. Since we've come this far, no matter what, we have to go and see the Spirit King."
During the time of the Thousand-Year Blood War, the Spirit King had already been on the verge of collapsing. They had even reached the point of needing to manufacture a new Spirit King.
Which meant…
Right now was the last chance to see the original Spirit King.
Cole wanted to see with his own eyes whether this so-called "Spirit King" was really as powerful as the intelligence said.
Rukia and Sode no Shirayuki swallowed again, then hurried to follow, their legs shaking.
"Cole, slow down a little, my legs are going soft."
"Master, my legs are soft too—carry me~."
Hearing the two women behind him, Cole couldn't help but laugh.
He didn't mock them, though—he simply slowed his pace.
To him, this was just a new environment.
But to Rukia, someone born and raised in Seireitei…
The Spirit King's inner palace was the very image of a sacred sanctuary in her heart.
It was like those all-powerful ministers in ancient times finally being summoned to the capital and granted an audience in the imperial palace by the emperor himself.
For them, setting foot here was a once-in-a-lifetime honor.
On the other side—
The moment Cole stepped into the Spirit King's Palace, Ichibe's expression changed drastically.
"The Spirit King's inner palace… the Spirit King…"
The Spirit King's inner palace had been created jointly by Ichibe and the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Clans.
Its sole purpose was to seal and bind the Spirit King so he could never revive.
Because of that, any disturbance within the Spirit King's inner palace would be transmitted to him instantly.
"Damn it, it's that human named Cole."
Rage flickered in Ichibe's eyes. He began furiously swinging the giant brush in his hand, glaring murderously at the "Aizen" before him.
"Damn it, how dare you try to meddle with the Spirit King!!"
His zanpakuto, Ichimonji, was an evolved zanpakuto that had existed since before the concept of bankai ever appeared in the world.
Because of that, even the one who created zanpakuto—Oetsu—could not affect Ichibe's zanpakuto with his own powers.
Ichimonji's ability was called Futen Taisatsuryō (Non-Turning Great Killing Mausoleum).
It could dye everything within its range pitch black.
After cutting out some of that black ink and splattering it—
By continuously chanting and drawing a formation on the ground, he could create within the darkness a world of black graves and mausoleums.
At that point…
The darkness would begin to contract like a black hole, drawing out every trace of "black" attached to the enemy—
Their flesh, their blood, their bones, their very being—
All would rot away as time passed.
In other words…
This move was essentially a sure-kill technique.
However!!!
Ichibe's eyes bulged.
For some reason, the "Aizen" standing in front of him still hadn't been completely dyed black, even after things had progressed this far.
Thinking of this, a ruthless light flashed in Ichibe's gaze. He raised the giant brush high and roared,
"Bankai!!!"
"Shirafude Ichimonji (White Brush, One Stroke)!!"
As his shout rang out, Ichibe's pupils turned pure white, and his beard and hair whipped wildly in the wind. He looked like a wrathful god of war.
In that state, his spiritual pressure skyrocketed.
The pure darkness around them surged toward the tip of his giant brush like a torrent of black water.
In the blink of an eye—
The sky and earth around them returned to their original colors.
But the black staining Aizen's body still didn't disappear. It clung to him like maggots on a corpse, continuously corroding his flesh.
Yet all of this—
Was invisible to Ichibe.
Seeing the darkness vanish, Shunsui and Yoruichi, who had been watching from far away, both tensed and looked over at once.
"Who won? Did he manage to take Aizen down?"
"What about Cole? Is he alright?"
"Someone like Ichibe should have finished it by now, right?"
"What's going on? Why does it look like nothing's changed?"
"Even Ichibe couldn't finish the enemy?"
Shunsui and the others were bitterly disappointed.
From their perspective, Ichibe was still standing there, squaring off against Aizen.
Although Aizen looked to be in miserable condition, if they looked carefully, they could see he wasn't actually in any real danger.
Kirio, however, smiled and said,
"It's fine. Since Ichibe has gone this far, Aizen now has only one way out—death."
Even if Aizen's entire body hadn't been completely dyed black,
Just staining part of him was enough for Ichibe to activate his ability.
But while she and Shunsui were talking, Oetsu suddenly widened his eyes in shock, staring straight ahead.
"What the hell are you all talking about?"
What he saw was completely different from what they were seeing.
In his field of view, Ichibe was plainly talking to thin air.
Aizen, on the other hand, had spread white wings from his back the moment the pure darkness vanished and was now fluttering away like a white moth, heading straight toward the Spirit King's inner palace.
Hearing him, Kirio turned to look at Oetsu, utterly confused.
"Oetsu, I was just about to ask what you were talking about. Isn't Ichibe already about to win?"
"I'm telling you, what you're saying is nonsense!"
Oetsu was on the verge of blowing his top.
Aizen was almost at the Spirit King's inner palace already—
How could anyone be talking about "victory" right now?
They should have been rushing to rescue the Spirit King.
Ichigo was losing his patience as well.
He dashed forward while pointing at Aizen's back in the distance and yelling,
"What are you guys even talking about!? Aizen's right there, he's about to reach that spiky building!"
The moment they heard Ichigo shout that, Shunsui and the others finally understood.
They all turned, stunned, to look in the direction Ichigo was pointing.
"Is it Kyouka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon) again!?"
They had all seen Aizen release his zanpakuto before.
Because of that, they effectively had no resistance to his kanzen saimin (complete hypnosis).
Only people like Cole and Ichigo, who had never witnessed Kyouka Suigetsu's release, could avoid being caught in the illusion.
"Hypnosis…!?"
Kirio's heart shook as the realization hit her.
"I… was completely hypnotized too?"
As far as she remembered, she'd never actually seen Aizen's Kyouka Suigetsu directly. She had no idea when she'd even been caught.
On their side, things were getting noisy, everyone shouting over one another.
But Ichibe, who stood at the center of it all, paid them no mind.
Compared to others' words, he trusted his own judgment far more.
So he fixed his gaze firmly on the "Aizen" before him, raised his brush, and barked,
"Aizen, become a black ant!!"
As he spoke, he swung his massive brush down.
Two enormous characters for "Black Ant" were written in mid-air in inky strokes.
Those characters streaked out like rays of black light—
And stamped themselves onto "Aizen's" body.
Seeing this, Ichibe finally let out a breath, though he was still anxious. He immediately followed it up with a powerful slash.
"Feel the despair of becoming a black ant!"
The bankai Shirafude Ichimonji allowed him to "inscribe a new name" onto anything whose original name had been wiped away by the shikai, Ichimonji.
If he inscribed the name "Black Ant" on his target—
Then that target would become as frail and helpless as an ant.
No matter how powerful "Aizen" had been before,
Now he should be as weak as an insect.
Yet when his blade came down—
"Aizen" still blocked it.
The sheer force behind the clash made Ichibe's arm go numb. He stared at "Aizen" in utter disbelief.
"How is that possible!?"
His bankai's ability had already activated.
The two characters for "Black Ant" had clearly stamped themselves on "Aizen's" body.
So how could the latter still possess this kind of strength?
At that moment, Ichigo, who had been sprinting toward the Spirit King's inner palace, suddenly skidded to a stop.
He spun around, glaring at Ichibe and shouting,
"Hey, you big monk, what the hell are you doing!? Swinging at thin air like that—do you think it's funny!? Do you not understand human language or what!?"
He was really about to lose it.
Because he could see perfectly clearly that Ichibe was wrestling with nothing but his own delusions.
He was waving his blade around like an idiot—
And the spot where he'd written "Black Ant" with such flourish was just some huge boulder on the ground.
To be fair, those words really were something else.
After the boulder got branded with "Black Ant," a gust of wind blew past, and the massive rock went tumbling dozens of meters as if it weighed nothing at all.
Ichibe was completely stunned by the scolding, staring blankly at the "Aizen" in front of him.
"Th-This… was fake?"
He found it hard to accept.
He was Ichibe, the man who had been born alongside the Spirit King himself, whose lifespan was tied to heaven and earth.
And Aizen?
At most, he'd lived less than five hundred years.
How could such a young Shinigami possibly toy with him in the palm of his hand?
Just as Ichibe stood there, caught between doubt and denial—
The "Aizen" before him began to fade, as if distance had finally weakened the illusion.
With a light gust of wind,
The figure scattered like mist, vanishing without a trace.
Ichibe's expression exploded in fury. He immediately whipped his head toward the Spirit King's inner palace.
At the entrance—
He could clearly see Aizen's silhouette.
Aizen stepped across the threshold into the Spirit King's inner palace.
"Aizen!!!"
Ichibe's face flushed a deep red. His beard and hair flared out like flames as he hefted his giant brush like a massive guandao, charging forward.
"Stop right there! I will not allow you to harm even a single hair on the Spirit King's head!!!"
The Shinigami present were collectively at a loss for words.
Just moments ago, the old man's confidence had been off the charts.
They had all assumed that once the darkness receded, Ichibe would have captured Aizen with ease.
Instead, in the end—
He'd been toyed with like a dog.
But there was no time to dwell on that now.
They all rushed toward the Spirit King's inner palace.
Ichibe, face still burning red, ignored them completely as he sprinted straight into the main hall.
"Absolutely not… I absolutely cannot let the Spirit King be harmed!"
…
At the same time—
Cole, Rukia, and Sode no Shirayuki finished climbing yet another flight of stairs and arrived at the fourth level of the Spirit King's inner palace.
There—
They finally saw the one called the Spirit King.
Rukia and Sode no Shirayuki stared at the Spirit King, their pupils dilating to the limit.
Their legs went weak, and both of them collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
Rukia clutched a hand over her mouth, eyes brimming with tears as she whispered, her voice trembling on the verge of a sob,
"So this… is the Spirit King…?"
(End of Chapter)
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