"The gap is way too big, isn't it?"
Ever since the beginning of the second season, during the Arrancar Arc, Ichigo Kurosaki had already lost to Ulquiorra so many times that even the fans had stopped counting. But nothing could have prepared them for the sight of Ichigo facing him after his Second Resurrección.
In that state, Ichigo's body looked less like that of a warrior and more like a ball being slapped around in Ulquiorra's palm.
With a casual sweep of his hand, Ulquiorra sent him flying thousands of meters across the sky, smashing him violently into one of the towering pillars above Las Noches. Before Ichigo could even fall, Ulquiorra vanished with Sonído, reappeared beside him, grabbed him in midair, and hurled him in another direction as if tossing away garbage.
Ichigo could not even see what was happening. He was thrown back and forth like trash before a power that felt completely beyond reason.
[Brutal. This is way too brutal. At least Yamamoto managed to suppress Sosuke Aizen for half an episode.]
[I genuinely can't figure out how the protagonist is supposed to survive this.]
[Wait a second. Ulquiorra just said something terrifying, didn't he? Only Espada ranked fourth and above can perform a Second Resurrección. That means…]
[Holy crap! Doesn't that mean the three Espada currently beside Sosuke Aizen can also transform twice!?]
That comment immediately jolted a lot of viewers awake.
Until then, everyone had been so shocked by Ulquiorra's Second Resurrección that almost no one had properly registered what he said. But once they thought about it, the implication was horrifying. Ulquiorra was not the only one. The three Espada accompanying Sosuke Aizen in the battle for the real world should also possess that same power.
Yes. Alex had given the Arrancar faction an epic-level enhancement.
Otherwise, there would have been no way to make this war work.
After all, the Royal Guard had not even appeared yet.
Atop the heavenly pillar, Ulquiorra looked at Ichigo, who had been beaten to the edge of death again and again, yet still showed not the slightest trace of fear.
He could not understand it.
Why?
Why did he still dare to fight?
Did he truly believe he could win?
"I'm not fighting because I think I can win," Ichigo said, pushing himself up from the ground for the 873rd time. His body trembled, but he still steadied himself and raised the Zanpakutō in his hand. "I'm fighting because I have to win."
Ulquiorra fell silent for a brief moment.
Then his bat-like wings lifted slightly.
In the next instant, he was already in front of Ichigo. The tail behind him moved like a living shadow, wrapping tightly around Ichigo's throat and lifting him into the air.
At that same moment, Ishida Uryu and Orihime Inoue flew in through the massive hole torn open earlier by Ulquiorra's Cero Oscuras.
But when Orihime looked up, the scene beneath the pale moon made her eyes widen in absolute horror.
"You came… woman."
Ulquiorra only shifted his gaze toward her.
"Then watch closely. Witness the moment the life of the man you placed your hopes in is sealed shut."
His sharp black finger, covered in that bat-like monstrous skin, pressed against Ichigo's heart.
The Cero Oscuras, compressed to its absolute limit, pierced straight through its target.
"STOP!!!"
Orihime's scream tore through the air as the image froze on the bloody hole opened in Ichigo's chest.
End of episode.
"Next episode! Hurry up and click the next episode!"
It was exactly like last week, when Yamamoto had just revealed his Bankai and the episode ended at the most vicious possible moment.
The ending of the third episode had left the audience hanging over the edge, nerves stretched to the limit. Fortunately, there was still one more episode this week. Otherwise, none of them would have slept properly for the next seven days.
They all knew that Ichigo Kurosaki, as the protagonist, would not truly die there. But that only made the tension worse. What they wanted to know was how he would pull back the foot that had already stepped through death's gate.
Across the world, at least two hundred million people opened the second newly released episode of the week without a second of hesitation.
And under the attention of billions of eyes…
Ichigo Kurosaki was reborn.
But at that moment, there was no longer anything Shinigami-like about him.
A demonic, bull-like mask covered his entire head, marked by two long, twisted horns. His long hair streamed behind him in the wind, wild and inhuman. The Hollow hole in his chest was almost identical to that of the Espada.
The viewers in front of their screens widened their eyes.
Was this… an evolution?
Was it like when he had gone berserk during his fight with Biakuya in the Soul Society Arc?
No.
It was obvious at a glance that this was not on the same level.
Inside the screen, Orihime Inoue and Ishida Uryu, his own companions, stood frozen in place. Their faces showed not relief, but shock.
"You… who are you?"
For the first time, Ulquiorra's face revealed genuine confusion.
But the horned Hollow Ichigo did not answer.
He merely opened his hand.
As though his palm carried its own gravitational pull, the fallen Tensa Zangetsu flew back from the distance and returned to his grip.
The instant he held the sword again, his spiritual pressure erupted, cracking the ground beneath him.
"Can you not hear me?" Ulquiorra's voice suddenly rose. "I asked who you are!"
But if his opponent refused to answer, there was no reason to waste more time.
Ulquiorra raised his index finger again, gathering and releasing another Cero Oscuras.
Across from him, the horned Ichigo lowered his head. Between his two horns, a black-red Cero began to condense.
The next moment, the world seemed split into two colors: red and black.
A massive mushroom cloud exploded above Las Noches, as though the entire dome of the palace might collapse at any moment.
The battle that followed, shown through Ulquiorra's perspective, explained to the audience what had happened to the protagonist.
Ichigo Kurosaki had become completely Hollow.
The techniques he used, whether Cero or Sonído, were without question Hollow abilities.
And at the exact moment Ulquiorra was analyzing his enemy's power, the horned Ichigo appeared behind him with Sonído.
Before Ulquiorra could turn around, one of his arms had already been severed by the blade.
From that point onward, the horned Ichigo completely suppressed Ulquiorra in his Second Resurrección.
With one hand, he grabbed the side of Ulquiorra's head and drove him backward with brutal force, smashing his body into the pillars atop Las Noches. And he did not let go. Maintaining that same posture, he slammed Ulquiorra into the stone again and again until several of the towering pillars shattered one after another.
In that moment, the positions of the two fighters had completely reversed compared to the previous episode.
The wheel of fate really did turn.
[Isn't this cheat way too strong?]
[I know the protagonist needed a power-up to win, but isn't this a little excessive?]
[Is Sosuke Aizen going to get beaten like this too?]
For most of the audience, watching the protagonist finally crush the enemy who had suppressed him since the previous season was undeniably satisfying.
But a considerable number of viewers also began to raise objections.
Wasn't this power-up a bit too much?
Even Alex, who had been a fan of this story in his previous life, had felt that way when he watched this part back then.
The first time, of course, his blood had boiled. After all, who did not like seeing the protagonist dominate an impossible enemy? Everyone, to some degree, enjoyed placing themselves in the hero's position during a moment like that.
But on a second watch, the problem became obvious.
Wasn't this cheat a little too powerful?
Even if Ichigo had awakened some ridiculous power, fighting evenly with Ulquiorra's Second Resurrección would have been enough.
Instead, he crushed him outright.
No wonder, in Alex's previous life, fans had debated endlessly over who was stronger: Mugetsu Ichigo or horned Hollow Ichigo.
After all, this form really had been given far too much power.
So much so that perhaps even the original author had realized the issue. That was probably why horned Hollow Ichigo never appeared again. If he had, the entire power scale of the story might have collapsed.
When the horned Ichigo caught Ulquiorra's ultimate technique, Lanza del Relámpago, with his bare hand, Will, Mark's younger colleague, was stunned.
"Bro, Director Alex gave you way too insane of a cheat, didn't he?"
Mark smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"Don't rush. Keep watching."
Will blinked.
Was there still another twist?
From the look of things, the winner had already been decided.
In the next instant, the horned Ichigo crushed the lightning spear with his bare hand.
For the first time, Ulquiorra's face revealed terror. Instinctively, he tried to retreat and avoid the attack.
But Tensa Zangetsu had already descended.
The slash cut through Ulquiorra's body almost diagonally, nearly splitting him in two.
Dark green blood scattered through the air. One of the horns on his head snapped off, drawing an arc above the battlefield before falling into the dust.
Ulquiorra staggered and collapsed.
In the next second, a massive foot covered with a red mane stepped down on him, pinning him beneath it.
"ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!"
The horned Ichigo released a roar so thunderous it seemed to change the color of heaven and earth. He lowered his head, and another Cero began condensing between his horns.
At such close range, Ulquiorra had no chance of surviving.
"I never imagined that, to deal with a mere Hollowfied human… I would have to bring this out."
Yet at the final edge between life and death, the shock on Ulquiorra's face vanished without a trace.
In its place returned his signature coldness.
And something else.
Shame.
Shame toward himself.
BOOOOOOM!
A terrifying dark green spiritual pressure covered the entire dome of Las Noches.
No.
Not just the dome.
It spread through the entire palace, across the desert, throughout all of Hueco Mundo.
This time, Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure gathered like flames, continuously expanding outward. The surface of the dome began to crack with sharp, splintering sounds, spiderweb-like fractures spreading in every direction.
It would not have been strange if the entire structure collapsed at any moment.
Finally, the pillars atop Las Noches could no longer withstand it.
One after another, they began to fall.
"What… what is this spiritual pressure now!?"
Inside Las Noches, Shinigami like Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki, who had not yet fully reached captain level, were already bent under the weight of it, struggling even to stand upright.
Then, Bleach fans all over the world heard Ulquiorra's call.
"Third Resurrección."
For a moment, countless people swore at their screens.
These two were way too in sync.
One cheated, then the other cheated right back.
On the screen, inside a gigantic sphere of energy that resembled a black sun, the horned Ichigo was blasted backward by the overwhelming force, his ferocious gaze fixed on the figure ahead.
The black-green flames slowly dispersed.
Ulquiorra stepped out from within them, revealing his third form.
His hair and tail had turned white. The horns on his head now resembled burning flames. The bat-like wings on his back had transformed into two pairs of enormous black wings, like those of a fallen angel.
"Among the top four Espada capable of reaching Second Resurrección, I alone can reach the third."
Ulquiorra stared coldly at the horned Ichigo.
"I am the only Espada to whom Lord Aizen granted the true power of the Hōgyoku. Through it, I reached this form. Not even Lord Aizen has seen it before… I never imagined I would use it against a Hollowfied human."
His gaze sharpened.
"Now, Ichigo Kurosaki, the real battle begins."
And under the completely stunned eyes of viewers across the entire world, Ulquiorra, in his Third Resurrección, charged toward the horned Ichigo.
You cheated, didn't you?
Then so will I.
___________________________________________________________________________________
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