"You like making holes in my chest so much then why are you running now?!"
Raizen Kō repeatedly kicked against the empty air, maintaining his Sonido at full speed as he closed the distance between himself and Ulquiorra.
Without hesitation, he gripped his Zanpakutō with both hands and unleashed a relentless barrage of slashes, forcing Ulquiorra to dodge continuously.
At this point in time, Ulquiorra had not yet become an Arrancar.
Although a Vasto Lorde was the highest form of Menos Grande and closest to a human in shape and intellect, it was still fundamentally a Hollow a creature that relied primarily on instinct and raw power.
Raizen, however, was different.
Though he was also a Hollow, he had first obtained the Asauchi left behind by Itō Kai. Afterward, he arranged for his Soul Society clone to enroll in the Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy, where he studied Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Kidō, and Shunpo.
While techniques like Kidō and Shunpo could not be used directly by Raizen in his Hollow body, the fundamentals of Zanjutsu and Hakuda were perfectly transferable.
This was why, despite his spiritual pressure being slightly inferior to Ulquiorra's, Raizen showed no fear at all.
Having "tools" and knowing how to use them meant he naturally held the advantage over a purely instinct-driven opponent.
Under the storm of sword strikes, Ulquiorra was steadily forced backward.
Suddenly, the enormous bat wings behind him spread wide in an instant. With a wingspan exceeding two meters, they cut through the air like twin steel blades, slashing toward Raizen with blinding speed.
Caught off guard, Raizen failed to dodge in time and received deep cuts on both arms.
Immediately afterward, Ulquiorra seized the opportunity and delivered a brutal kick that sent Raizen flying.
Bang!
With a deafening crash, Raizen slammed into a massive tree trunk, the impact collapsing dozens of surrounding trees and raising a thick cloud of dust.
But Ulquiorra did not stop there.
He pointed his right index finger forward, condensing a sphere of deep green Reiatsu at its tip before firing it outward.
A Cero.
At the same moment, Raizen burst out from the dust cloud, gripping his Zanpakutō in his right hand and aiming it forward. A swirl of black-red Reiatsu gathered at the blade's tip, forming his own Cero.
The two beams collided head-on.
BOOM!
The clash resembled the end of the world itself, triggering a devastating explosion that sent shockwaves tearing through the forest.
A massive mushroom cloud rose between them.
As the dust gradually settled, Raizen's figure emerged once more.
"Cough… cough… so my Reiatsu really is still a bit weaker than a true Vasto Lorde's," Raizen muttered to himself. "No helping it… after all, I'm technically still just a Gillian."
The result of the Cero clash was clear
Raizen had been slightly overpowered and injured by Ulquiorra's attack.
From afar, Ulquiorra watched in silence as the wounds on Raizen's body twisted and wriggled, healing completely within seconds.
"You… how is this possible…?"
Seeing that this unfamiliar Hollow possessed Speed Regeneration on par with his own, Ulquiorra's emerald eyes widened slightly in disbelief.
"What's there to be surprised about?" Raizen replied with a smirk beneath his mask. "These days, who doesn't have Speed Regeneration?"
Dusting off his body casually, Raizen once again gripped his Zanpakutō and charged forward.
"You should be capable of more than this! Show me your true power!"
With a fierce laugh, Raizen coated his blade in crackling strands of dark-golden lightning Reiatsu.
Not to be outdone, Ulquiorra gathered energy between his palms, forming a long spear constructed entirely from dense green Reiatsu.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The lightning-wreathed Asauchi and the spiritual pressure spear clashed repeatedly, sparks flying with every impact. After several exchanges, both combatants withdrew simultaneously, creating distance between them.
"Gran Rey Cero!"
This time, neither held back.
Raizen gripped his Zanpakutō tightly with both hands, gathering a Cero infused with black-red and dark-golden Reiatsu.
Across from him, Ulquiorra formed a pitch-black and emerald-green Cero of his own.
The two ultimate blasts erupted at the same instant.
BOOOOM!
An explosion far more violent than the previous one tore through the Black Night Jungle. Waves of destructive force spread outward, leveling vast stretches of the forest.
Beyond the jungle's borders, Rojo Capra and Giwa Barnes trembled in terror as they felt the overwhelming aftermath of the battle.
"So this… is a battle between Vasto Lorde…"
While Ulquiorra remained locked in the Cero confrontation, Raizen abruptly changed tactics.
Using his Flash Lightning technique, he pierced into the ground and vanished beneath the surface.
Moments later, he erupted from behind Ulquiorra without warning and slashed downward with his Zanpakutō.
Pffft!
The lightning-charged blade carved a deep, bone-exposing wound across Ulquiorra's back, nearly severing one of his bat wings.
Yet almost instantly, the torn flesh began to writhe and knit itself back together.
Raizen, of course, had no intention of letting him recover so easily.
He lashed out with a massive whip of lightning Reiatsu, striking directly into the open wound.
"Gah!"
Ulquiorra cried out in pain, but even so, he turned around without hesitation, using his hand like a blade and thrusting straight toward Raizen's chest.
"Damn it he really is obsessed with this!"
Fortunately, Raizen knew Ulquiorra's tendencies well from the original timeline.
At his current stage, Raizen's Speed Regeneration was not advanced enough to restore destroyed internal organs. If his heart were torn out now, the consequences would be disastrous.
Clang!
Just as Ulquiorra's pale hand was about to pierce Raizen's chest
The centipede-like armor that had formed along Raizen's back suddenly extended forward, transforming into dense white bone plating that shielded his heart.
Ulquiorra's attack was completely blocked.
In that instant, Raizen grabbed Ulquiorra's exposed arm and slashed sideways, carving a massive wound from his cheek down to his waist.
Moments later, Ulquiorra collapsed to the ground, drained and barely able to move.
His injuries rapidly healed, but a fragment of his mask had been cut away, leaving a visible gap.
The moment that crack appeared, Ulquiorra's Reiatsu did not weaken.
Instead, it deepened and grew even more profound like a qualitative transformation was beginning.
"Is this… Arrancarization?"
Raizen bent down and picked up the broken shard of Ulquiorra's mask, glancing at the fallen Vasto Lorde before him.
"Ulquiorra Cifer… you've lost."
"Accept the new power I have granted you the power that surpasses the limits of
Hollows!"
"From today onward, I am your King! Your only King!"
"This Arrancar power… is a gift from your King!"
After delivering his dramatic proclamation, Raizen immediately turned and walked away.
Yes he was leaving in a hurry.
Because if he didn't leave now, his secret would soon be exposed.
Ulquiorra was exhausted from the battle, but Raizen's own Reiatsu was also nearly depleted.
His objective breaking off a portion of Ulquiorra's mask had already been accomplished.
To have fought a true Vasto Lorde to a standstill while still technically a Gillian was more than enough.
If he stayed any longer and Ulquiorra fully adapted to his incomplete Arrancar state, escaping would become impossible.
Unlike ordinary Adjuchas, a Vasto Lorde would not regress after losing part of its mask.
Instead, it would naturally begin evolving toward Arrancarization.
In the original timeline, Ulquiorra had first become an incomplete Arrancar on his own before Aizen later perfected the transformation using the Hōgyoku, ultimately making him Espada No. 4.
Raizen had never imagined that he himself would become the catalyst for Ulquiorra's early evolution.
By a twist of fate, he had inadvertently accelerated Ulquiorra's transformation.
At this moment, Ulquiorra crouched on the ground, touching the exposed pale skin beneath his cracked mask.
The Reiatsu surrounding him had already risen to an entirely new level.
Rojo Capra and Giwa Barnes hurried toward Raizen as he emerged from the jungle alone.
"My King… how was the battle?"
"Hmph. Enough questions move faster!"
Without further explanation, the three Hollows immediately used Sonido and vanished into the distance.
Not long afterward, Ulquiorra now partially accustomed to his incomplete Arrancar form and strengthened considerably appeared outside the Black Night Jungle.
Staring silently in the direction Raizen Kō had disappeared, he murmured softly to himself:
"…King?"