"What's wrong? Not coming at me? Waiting until my comrades are too far away to back me up before you strike?"
Soma flicked the blood from his blade, eyes sharp and steady.
"No."
Kess #2—his doglike head and vaguely humanoid body giving him the look of some Egyptian death god if you stuck a staff in his hand—regarded Soma with unnerving calm.
Appearance aside, it was the intelligence etched deep by long years that mattered most.
"I was wondering… whether you're a fool or a wise man."
"Oh? How so?"
"You clearly understood my strength. You gathered your comrades, left yourself behind to stall me. That, I can respect. But your words just now—those, I can't abide."
"You mean, when I said, 'I'll just finish before the others do'?"
"Exactly."
"I don't see how that makes me a fool."
Soma's expression didn't waver.
Kess #2 let out a twisted laugh, Reiatsu boiling off him until it wrapped around his form like something solid. His skin darkened from bone white to ashen black.
"—It means you've stopped thinking. You've chosen to be a fool!"
In the next instant, he lunged, crashing through the air like a meteor. Claws fused into a blade-hand, aiming to drive straight into Soma's skull, rip out his brain, study it like a specimen.
Soma backstepped, evading—but the shockwave flung his light frame back through the air. He twisted, planting footholds midair, flipping until he steadied himself.
Kess was already on him again.
"Do you see it now? Feel it? The moment you muttered about my defenses improving—you'd already made a fatal mistake! You don't understand my limits, my greatness!"
Each word was a blade buried inside his relentless assault. And he wasn't even at full strength.
Soma met it with the flawless technique drilled into him at the Academy, parrying and maneuvering.
Clang!
Steel slammed against steel. Soma held his ground, blade braced against Kess's hammering arm.
Kess barked out something between mockery and praise: "But to match me in raw strength—yes, that's something to boast about."
Soma didn't react. His voice stayed cold. "So this body… is the result of your ability to devour metal?"
"Oh? So you overheard my talk with that Shinigami? Then I really can't let you leave."
"Before worrying about that, maybe reflect on yourself first."
"Hah?"
Kess blinked, confused.
"I mean…"
Soma's blade vanished from its line. He spun and whipped a kick straight into Kess's gut, driving him down into the dirt.
Looking down at the Hollow through the dust, Soma spoke evenly:
"You gained this form by devouring metal, boosting your defenses. Then you went further—devouring Zanpakutō to transcend defense, to gain vitality beyond reason. To die and split into multiple, equally strong bodies. It looks flawless."
"But because of that, when Ōmaeda rejected you, you grew careless. At that range, with a real risk of being countered—you didn't bother to enter this form."
"That's the only reason I could stab you through the back."
"So from where I stand—you're not that wise."
"You dare—"
Kess's fury burned, but Soma cut him off, voice sharp as his blade.
"And the biggest thing? I can feel it. You've lived long, but you're not even a Vasto Lorde. Yet you claim you'll be king of Hueco Mundo. Tell me—does Baraggan know you're running your mouth like that?"
"A brat like you knows Baraggan? That fraud? The true king was another. I am his heir!"
The ferocity of the response caught Soma off guard.
"The true king…?"
"Yes! The noble one who left Soul Society helpless! Far more radiant than that rotting Baraggan! I came here to claim his legacy, to inherit his will! Vasto Lorde mean nothing to me! Seireitei means nothing to me!"
"…Doesn't sound like my teacher. In that case, who cares."
"What did you say?"
The look on Soma's face—satisfaction at having pulled vital information—made Kess realize too late that he'd been tricked into spilling secrets.
Enraged, he moved—but Soma raised his Zanpakutō, pointing its tip skyward, straight at the moon.
"—Let me correct you on one thing."
"I haven't stopped thinking."
"I didn't leave my comrades behind because I needed them—I did it because unlike you, I don't underestimate my enemies. And unlike you… I'm not that weak."
"The ability you're so proud of, the power you never shut up about—your one crutch, your one boast. To me, it's nothing. Now I'll show you what real power is. The kind of power a ruler should possess."
Soma's Reiatsu condensed, withdrawing deep into his Saketsu. His entire body felt hollow, except for one blazing point—a core like a star, seething with infinite light.
At his quiet chant, that light exploded.
"Manifest the Eightfold Aspect… Sendaya." (Weapon Name)
Boom!
The compressed Reiatsu erupted like a supernova, flooding his body. The torrent of Reishi didn't spill—his frame, slight though it seemed, locked it in.
Inside, high-density spiritual energy ignited, pressure building, until Soma shone like a human sun. Even his hair caught the glow, strands gleaming like crystal glass.
In the night sky, a second sun rose beside the moon.
Kess's body trembled.
No—not trembled. Everything did.
The air, the ground—everything woven of Reishi groaned under the weight of this newborn star.
Every particle in Soma's body was splitting, splitting, splitting again—endless chain reactions magnifying outward until the numbers were astronomical.
The result? His Reiatsu spiked a hundredfold in seconds.
Just standing there, his Hakudō would snuff out nearby souls. Even Hollows couldn't withstand that weight.
If just standing killed—what about attacking?
Kess barely saw it. A blinding slash of light cut down from the heavens. Then his body, from the chest down, was simply gone. Not blasted away—erased.
His famed defense hadn't mattered at all.
The earth where he stood was carved open, a canyon hundreds of meters long, edges smooth as if sliced by a blade.
The aftershock rippled out like waves on water, shredding whole swaths of forest to splinters. Nothing larger than a finger remained intact.
"What… is this?"
Regeneration was useless. His Reishi was dissolving outright. His very Soul was melting.
"Just a normal sword strike," Soma said lightly, drifting down in a cloud of dust. His body still glowed, but his Reiatsu was nearly drained.
"A monster… no wonder those two brats hated you," Kess laughed bitterly, despair leaking into the sound.
"But they were fools. Thinking they could surpass you with… that thing."
Those two students hadn't gone missing for no reason. They'd been drawn here. By Kess.
Soma wanted to ask what thing?
But Kess was already gone.
So he filed the question away, for later.
"…Hurts," Soma muttered, flexing his fist. "That bastard wasn't wrong. You need more than guts to handle this power."
Sendaya.
—His Zanpakutō's true name.
Its ability: trigger fission within every Reishi particle in his body for eight seconds. Multiplying his Reiatsu tens, even hundreds of times over.
Reishi Fission.
It put a massive burden on his body. Even risked soul-suicide. But for those eight seconds, the power was monstrous.
A strike backed by a hundred times vice-captain Reiatsu? Enough to erase an Adjuchas in one blow.
Past eight seconds, it forcibly ended, leaving him drained. Not immobile, but hollowed out, powerless until his energy rebuilt—hours, at least. Longer, as his strength grew.
And its destructive scope made it too dangerous to unleash near allies.
That such extreme force manifested at Shikai level… even Soma found it hard to understand. Was he really that extreme at heart?
Whatever the case, the job was done.
"—The rest is up to you."
He sat down cross-legged, gaze drifting to the distance, where Reiatsu still clashed fiercely. The fight had reached its climax.
But with only one life left, would Kess #3 fight to the end?
…Or would he retreat, strategically?