The scattered Reishi was caught by an invisible force and poured into Muten Natsu's body as he finished drawing his Katana. A strange, smoke-black whirlwind coiled at his side, twisting together with the white mist that rose from his sweat as it evaporated, then condensed again. The two braided into an eerie spiral that refused to fade.
With the Hell's Eye locking onto every enemy, and Myōki mapping out his path, he pushed his Reiatsu to its absolute limit through long, sustained buildup. Then, using the explosive speed of the draw and the repeated acceleration of the Ink Fortress Flash, he landed multiple cuts in the instant his enemies couldn't react.
The moment he drew his Katana, the world in front of Muten Natsu lost its normal shape, smearing into blurred lines. Only a tiny point of focus remained sharp.
Without the Hell's Eye to mark targets and Myōki to chart a route, each slash would force him to slow down, check where the enemies were, confirm his own position, and choose the right angle to break in. The efficiency drop would be massive.
But with both supporting him, once the route was set, Muten Natsu could throw himself into slash after slash without distraction.
He didn't need to account for enemies shifting around. At that speed, Hollows at this level couldn't respond at all. They might as well have been standing still.
Ichigo Kurosaki could barely believe what he was seeing. Not long ago, he'd thought he had the same kind of power as Muten Natsu. Only now did he understand, with painful clarity, that even when it was "the same power," the gap between people could still be this enormous.
Uryū Ishida's hand trembled slightly around his Reishi bow.
So this was a Shinigami's power?
Even if the Hollows weren't individually strong, there were so many of them. And yet Muten Natsu had wiped them out in the blink of an eye. It was terrifying.
Rukia Kuchiki's lips curved up in quiet pride. Uryū Ishida hadn't said a word, but his face had already given him away.
Out of everyone there, she understood the drawbacks of that move best. That brief instant just now had only been possible because Muten Natsu had stockpiled an overwhelming amount of Reishi from killing so many Hollows, and because he'd been charging for a long time.
In a real fight, both of those conditions were extremely hard to meet.
Well… no need to tell the others that.
As long as it looked cool, that was enough.
Orihime Inoue kept her eyes on Muten Natsu. Only after the strange spiral around him finally dispersed, and she was sure he was really okay, did she relax a little. "Is it over?"
"Not even close," Muten Natsu said, staring up at the sky. "The real trouble is only just starting."
Rukia Kuchiki followed his gaze and sucked in a breath. "The distortion… it's contracting!"
The Hollows stopped rushing them. Almost as if they'd agreed beforehand, they ceased their attacks and began gathering toward the unnatural black twist hanging in the clear sky.
The huge, warped patch continued to shrink, its once-hazy outline gradually sharpening.
The Hollows that could fly rose into the air. The rest remained on the ground, looking up, arms lifted high, voices spilling out in dense, tangled murmurs.
Uryū Ishida frowned at their strange behavior. "Are they… praying?"
"Something…" Orihime Inoue felt a level of Reiatsu she'd never encountered before, cold and crushing. "Something up there is coming out!"
Something sharp punched through the sky. Six long, narrow black holes dotted it, each about the same size as the Hollows hovering nearby.
Then more sharp points tore at the black crack, ripping it wider. Eight white shapes, slightly curved, spread outward to either side, forcing the black opening to expand even further.
And then everyone saw it.
From within the black fissure, a face so huge it made their skin crawl slowly emerged.
A long, pointed nose jutted from a pallid mask. Beneath it, exposed teeth were lined up with unsettling neatness, forming a grin that chilled the blood. Red eyes looked down on everything below, as if it were inspecting a table set for dinner.
Those Hollows, each far larger than any human, clustered around that face. And next to it, they looked no bigger than sparrows.
"Wh-what is that?" Ichigo Kurosaki clutched his sister tightly. "It's way too big! Is that a Hollow?"
"That's a Menos formed from the fusion of hundreds of Hollows—Gillian," Rukia Kuchiki said, her voice trembling. "Their gathering and prayers come from longing for their own future and revering it. It's their end, but also their rebirth, and…"
"A nightmare for souls," Muten Natsu finished. This was exactly what he had been worried about. If too many Hollows gathered, it was very likely to draw a Menos Gillian in to hunt.
The black fissure in the sky was casually brushed aside by the Menos. The eight enormous shapes that had appeared earlier were actually its fingers.
Its head still hung high in the sky, but its feet stepped out of the pitch-black void and planted themselves on the ground.
Wrapped in a black cloak, its massive body advanced like a moving mountain. The surrounding skyscrapers looked like scattered building blocks at a child's feet.
The mask on the Menos's face cracked open. A long crimson tongue lashed out, piercing several Hollows that were still praying.
The tongue withdrew and its teeth snapped shut. Amid the sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh, spurting blood dyed the Menos's mask red.
"It… it ate the other Hollows…" Cold sweat poured down Uryū Ishida's forehead. "What a terrifying thing… How are we even supposed to fight that…?"
"That's not something you need to worry about," Muten Natsu said as he tore off his Shihakushō. Veins spread from the Hell's Eye across his body, crawling over his skin. The writhing blood vessels visibly turned jet-black, pulsing beneath the surface. "Rukia, take them and run."
"O-okay…" Rukia Kuchiki answered instinctively, but the moment she noticed the changes in his body, she grabbed his hand. "What are you planning to do?!"
"Obviously, I'm dealing with that thing. It's not like I haven't killed one before."
"But your power hasn't recovered yet!" Rukia Kuchiki gripped his arm tightly. "Muten, let's escape together…"
"Rukia…" Muten Natsu felt a brief wave of disorientation. The Rukia in his memories overlapped with the one standing before him. Time had passed, yet her feelings were exactly the same as ever.
"You still trust me that much… I won't lie to you again." Muten Natsu opened his arms and pulled Rukia Kuchiki into a tight embrace. "I'll be back soon. Wait here and take care of the children for me."
He let go of Rukia Kuchiki, turned around, and charged straight toward the enormous, despair-inducing Gillian.
The Gillian opened its mouth wide. An ominous red light gathered between its teeth, a beam formed by highly compressed Reiatsu—the charging motion for a Cero.
One blast would be enough to flatten everything here.
Muten Natsu let out a low roar. Hellfire surged through his veins, wrapping his body like burning beast hide. Pale matter spilled from his seven orifices, solidifying over his face into a ghastly white skull mask, as violent Reiatsu shot straight into the sky.