Taking advantage of the moment when the vast majority of the Wandenreich's members lay deep in slumber, Aizen cloaked his body in the Spiritual Pressure of Kyōka Suigetsu and brazenly slipped past the elaborate spirit-particle early-warning network that Haschwalth had so carefully laid — stepping through the heavy doors at the very top of the palace.
The thick doors swung open with a creak.
Sōsuke Aizen made no attempt to muffle his footsteps. He walked across the polished floor without a hint of concealment, coming to a stop at the base of the towering throne.
Upon the throne, Yhwach opened his eyes.
The crimson triple-iris glow flickered through Yhwach's eyes for just an instant, then subsided, returning to the calm of a single pupil.
His gaze swept across the vast empty hall and locked instantly onto the figure below — the one emanating a faint violet radiance.
At the center of Sōsuke Aizen's chest, within the translucent star-field where the Hōgyoku floated, three new crystals had formed. They orbited the Hōgyoku in a slow, steady rotation, radiating the intertwined powers of Hollow, Shinigami, and Soul King fragment — stable, harmonious, complete.
"So this is the form you have evolved into after devouring the Soul King's left arm... Sōsuke Aizen."
Yhwach's voice descended from the heights above, carrying not a trace of surprise at Aizen's transformation.
Aizen was equally unsurprised. From the moment he had parted ways with Soifon, he had never intended to hide from Yhwach's [The Almighty].
"As expected of Yhwach, who possesses the eyes of [The Almighty]," Aizen said.
"It seems nothing escapes your sight."
The words dripped with sarcasm — not even thinly veiled.
Yhwach's brow furrowed with distinct displeasure. He was not a man who enjoyed this brand of implied provocation, nor was he some magnanimous, benevolent sovereign — even if Aizen was the very "benefactor" who had freed him from his seal.
"Do not think that merely devouring the Soul King's left arm — stealing a sliver of the power of [Progression] — makes my [The Almighty] ineffective against you, Sōsuke Aizen."
"At this moment, you have already reached the absolute peak of your own evolution. My power, on the other hand, has only just begun to return. This is merely the beginning."
He leaned slightly forward, his eyes shifting in an instant to the triple-iris as they looked down upon Aizen below — his gaze carrying the condescending magnanimity of a man granting alms:
"I thank you for going to such lengths to break my seal ahead of schedule."
"Once I ascend to the throne of the Soul King... name your reward. Ask for whatever you wish."
With that, Yhwach returned to a single pupil and lifted his chin slightly, his bearing imperious and lofty: "I have always been most generous to those who serve beneath me."
The remark was his counterstrike against Aizen's earlier sarcasm — and a show of contempt in equal measure.
As the words settled, the smile on Aizen's face slowly faded. He shook his head with a faint, almost weary air.
"It seems you've misunderstood something, Yhwach. I did not break the seal in order to help you."
"I came here, and I stand before you now, for one reason alone——"
"To observe and analyze, at closer range, the [Truth] of this world — and one of the most fundamental specimens that compose that [Truth]."
With that, Aizen raised his gaze, eyes boring into Yhwach with an undisguised, burning hunger for knowledge — the look of a researcher studying a specimen arranged in his laboratory.
That gaze filled Yhwach with a wave of intense displeasure.
"It appears," Yhwach's voice cooled, "that devouring the Soul King's left arm has given you a distorted understanding of your own power, Sōsuke Aizen."
Yhwach turned his right palm upward. A cluster of ghostly blue spirit-particle flame kindled in his hand — then he clenched his fist violently, snuffing it out.
"Very well..."
"In consideration of your genuine contributions to the Empire, I shall extend my patience and forbearance to you one final time."
"Put away that insolent gaze and those impertinent words. Kneel. Pledge your loyalty. This is your last chance..."
The instant the words fell — everything changed.
Shlick——
Without any warning whatsoever, a blood-slicked blade tip punched through the front of Yhwach's chest.
The blood dripping from its point scattered across the pale floor of the throne room, blooming into a vivid red flower.
Yhwach looked down at the blade tip protruding from his chest. Then he slowly turned his head — toward the figure standing behind the throne.
"I see... Kyōka Suigetsu, is it..."
He extended his right hand and gripped the blood-wet blade tip that jutted from his own chest. Then his five fingers snapped shut with brutal force.
Crack.
A crisp, clean snap — and the blade tip was broken off bare-handed.
In the same motion, Yhwach's left arm lashed backward in a blur, the terrifying force of the strike shattering the solid throne behind him into rubble.
Amid the spray of shattered stone, his left hand shot out like an iron vice and seized — in an instant — the wrist of Aizen, who had appeared behind him at some unknown moment and was now attempting to pull back and retreat.
"Sōsuke Aizen!" The first clear note of fury entered Yhwach's voice. "I have already been more than lenient with you."
The hand gripping Aizen's wrist — innumerable ghostly blue vein-like patterns erupted across its skin, spreading upward along Aizen's arm like creeping roots...
"Since you refuse to submit..." Yhwach activated his power to steal the abilities of others. "Then offer up your power to me!"
The erosion began.
But at the very instant the ghostly blue patterns were about to reach Aizen's shoulder — another force, long dormant within Aizen's body, stirred awake and rose to resist the encroaching erosion.
Pale violet vein-patterns and Yhwach's erosion-patterns clashed head-on, using Sōsuke Aizen's right arm as their battlefield, intertwining and warring against one another.
Tsss—— Tsss——
The two forces repelled each other like opposite poles of a magnet — two irreconcilable absolutes. The advance of the blue patterns was halted dead, and was even pushed back several degrees by the violet patterns pressing against it.
After several seconds of deadlock, the two men separated by unspoken mutual agreement.
Yhwach examined his own palm — the hand that had just seized Aizen's right arm — where traces of violet Reiatsu still clung like a bone-burrowing parasite.
"I see... so the power of [Progression] can now be wielded to its full extent?"
In the next instant, the Blut Vene in his palm flared to life, utterly purging the residual violet Reiatsu.
In stark contrast, Sōsuke Aizen's face had broken into an expression of near-euphoric excitement. In the clash just now, he had experienced the pure essence of Quincy power at close range — and had even managed to siphon away a measure of Yhwach's Reiatsu.
Given just a little more opportunity, he would be able to fully master the Quincy power that resided in Yhwach's body...
And when that moment came, Sōsuke Aizen would ascend to the vacant throne of heaven — empty for a million years.
"Remarkable. Truly worthy of the one designated [The Next Soul King] and [Progenitor of the Quincy] by the Royal Palace..."
Suppressing the excitement on his face, Sōsuke Aizen continued his needling, trying to goad Yhwach into drawing close again.
"Hmph. Silver tongue." Yhwach stood where he was and did not move. "I already know the limits of your power. You are nothing more than this..."
With that, he instinctively glanced toward the palace entrance.
The commotion of battle had already rung out — yet still no one had detected the anomaly here?
"Waiting for your Sternritter to ride to your rescue, my Lord Next-Soul-King?"
"I'm afraid that won't be possible. My Kyōka Suigetsu has already encircled your entire palace..."
In Sōsuke Aizen's hand, the Kyōka Suigetsu that Yhwach had snapped apart was whole once more.
"Is that so..." Yhwach's voice dropped low and flat. "Then... this palace no longer needs to exist!"
——Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger!
In an instant, several colossal blue Star-Cross pillars of light erupted from the air around Yhwach's body, sealing Sōsuke Aizen entirely outside their boundary.
The magnificent palace, caught within the towering blue Star-Cross pillars blazing up around Yhwach, crumbled apart like a sandcastle — fragile, absolute, total.
Members of the Sternritter and the remaining soldiers of the Empire flickered into view through the smoke and surging spirit-particle turbulence, converging on the ruins of the palace at maximum speed.
In the midst of the chaos — explosion and billowing dust — a white figure came hurtling through the air, dozens of vivid red blossoms of blood erupting across his body. With a heavy thud, he crashed to the ground not far from where Soifon had just arrived.
Candice, Liltotto, Bambietta, and Meninas came rushing up close behind Soifon. At the sight of the blood-soaked figure on the ground — white robes in tatters — all four pairs of eyes went wide at the same time.
——Wasn't that Aizen, King of Hueco Mundo?
Soifon looked down at Aizen lying at her feet — his aura slightly disrupted, but apparently in no danger of dying — and delivered a perfectly deadpan remark:
"Captain Aizen — you've become a doormat too?"
Though he wasn't entirely sure what "doormat" meant in precise terms, Aizen clearly understood the jab buried in Soifon's words.
He let out a low, short laugh, wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and pushed himself up off the ground.
"Heh... as expected of Yhwach."
The words had barely left his mouth when several razor-sharp killing intents locked onto him simultaneously.
Haschwalth's eyes blazed with fury. He drew his blade and leveled it at Aizen: "The one who invaded the Empire and killed Pernida... it was you — Sōsuke Aizen!"
Holding his knight's sword, Haschwalth formed a triangle with Lille Barro — who had just arrived, rifle already raised and aimed — and Gerard, who was covered in wounds yet still radiating fury, surrounding Aizen at the center.
At that very moment, the all-powerful Kyōka Suigetsu activated once more.
Every Quincy in the vicinity seemed to hit an invisible pause button, leaving only Aizen and Soifon with clear, unaffected minds.
"Truly worthy of the Progenitor of the Quincy — Yhwach..." Aizen murmured. "Even now, having evolved this far, I still cannot cut him down."
The Hōgyoku at Aizen's chest flickered faintly, the wounds across his body sealing shut at a visible pace.
Soifon raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Giving up?"
Aizen turned his gaze to her:
"No. Captain Soifon — quite the opposite."
"I have simply placed my hope for killing Yhwach... in your hands, Captain Soifon."
"From you, I sense a threat I never clearly perceived from Yhwach himself."
Soifon's eyes narrowed slightly. She shook her head and shifted her gaze toward the direction of the Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger:
"Yhwach is the next Soul King. I won't kill him now."
"Unless, Captain Aizen, you can prove that you too have what it takes to become the Soul King."
As her words faded, Aizen raised his right hand. In his open palm, a Holy Arrow — a Heilig Pfeil of pure and absolute light blue spiritual energy — slowly coalesced, forming like a sacred flame.
"Captain Soifon, take a look. After fusing with the [Soul King's Left Hand], I have already begun to decode the fundamental nature of Quincy power."
"My Hōgyoku is in the process of evolving to manifest Quincy power."
He displayed the miniature Heilig Pfeil to Soifon, deftly spinning it between his fingertips.
"If Captain Soifon would deliver Yhwach's body to me..."
"I can take his place — ascend to the throne of heaven, and become the lynchpin that maintains the balance of the Three Worlds."
Sōsuke Aizen's words carried an almost pleading quality.
Soifon did not answer immediately. She stilled her thoughts and began to genuinely consider the possibility.
The Heilig Pfeil in Aizen's hand was unquestionably the real thing — genuine Quincy power — and combined with his absorption of Pernida and his existing Hollow and Shinigami power...
Hmm... it didn't seem entirely impossible?
At that thought, she turned her head. Her gaze pierced through the thinning smoke and dust, toward the Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger's pillars of light, where Yhwach's silhouette was slowly stepping out from within.
She looked back at Aizen, her expression calm but carrying a quiet edge of killing intent, searching his eyes for any crack or falsehood.
But Aizen only returned her gaze with perfect composure — not a flicker of retreat or hesitation in his eyes.
At last, Soifon exhaled softly.
She had no desire to endure two more years of Yhwach either.
"Captain Aizen..."
"Trade places. You handle the Sternritter."
"I'll go kill Yhwach."
She spoke quietly, then broke into a stride — walking straight past Aizen, passing his shoulder, heading directly toward Yhwach as he emerged from the ruins.
In that moment, the battlefield was divided.
Behind Soifon, pillars of Vollständig light in every color blazed up simultaneously — the Sternritter had already locked into battle with Sōsuke Aizen.
____
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