As expected, the chances of persuading Alfia based on the fragile bond of just two brief meetings were practically zero.
If there was one guaranteed method to make Alfia choose to live, the key to unlocking her hardened heart could only be the lingering connection she shared with her late younger sister.
It was the living proof that her sister had existed in this world.
Her only son. Bell Cranel.
For that child's sake, Alfia would undoubtedly choose to live and raise the boy herself. In another timeline, Alfia, stepping in as Bell's aunt, seamlessly filled the role of the mother he lacked, while Zald became his strict mentor.
Under the rigorous tutelage of the two strongest people in the world, that version of Bell received the highest level of elite education.
As a result, his inner resolve far surpassed that of the timid Bell raised in the countryside by Zeus.
Rayleigh offered a bitter smile.
Although he held the perfect solution to this crisis right in the palm of his hands, he couldn't actually use it as his answer.
It was simply a fatal, unspoken boundary.
Bell was Alfia's only true soft spot, and at the exact same time, he was her absolute reverse scale—a vital weakness that could not be touched by an outsider.
Due to her sister's tragic death, all of Alfia's deep love and heavy guilt had been entirely transferred to the young boy.
If a stranger like him were to casually mention Bell's name right here and now, his severed head would hit the ground before he could blink.
"Stand down, boy."
With her eyes remaining perfectly closed, the woman's cold voice echoed ominously through the dark alley.
Rayleigh frowned in deep helplessness.
Yet, he refused to step back.
Seeing his defiance, the woman spoke again.
"As long as I'm standing here, you will not take his life."
Erebus watched the interaction with mild surprise. Through this simple exchange, he realized that Alfia had actually made prior contact with this boy who kept interfering with his grand plans.
However, judging by the hostility, this contact seemed quite limited. After a moment of careful thought, Erebus felt a wave of relief.
Since this boy somehow knew the intricate details of his plan, he had likely also seen through the hidden trump cards resting in the his hand.
'So the boy had taken the initiative to contact Alfia? That was the most logical conclusion.'
'But for a shallow bond of that level, Alfia was actually speaking somewhat patiently with the boy instead of executing him on the spot.'
'Did she not want to harm him?'
This gentle hesitation was incredibly different from the ruthless "Silence" he knew.
The myriad of surprises this mortal boy brought him were truly piling up high.
Rayleigh took a deep, steadying breath.
He extended an open palm toward the distant Babel Tower, closing his eyes to focus his spiritual energy.
'Hm?' Both Erebus and Alfia watched his strange actions with clear confusion, completely failing to understand what a stance aimed at empty air was supposed to accomplish.
But a moment later, Alfia tilted her head, her sharp senses picking up on an anomaly!
...
Swoosh!
A sharp, whistling sound caused the panicked crowds gathered in the Central Plaza to look up at the sky in unison.
Among the sea of faces were Finn and the now-awakened Airmid.
The clear sky reflected brightly in their wide pupils.
A solitary sword streaked like a comet across the horizon, tearing through the air as it flew rapidly into the distance.
Finn watched the glowing Tenseiga fly away, entirely lost in deep thought.
...
Whoosh!
The piercing sound of an object tearing through the atmosphere finally reached the alleyway.
The commotion was so noticeable that even Erebus could now clearly track what was happening.
A sword was flying across the city at breakneck speed!
And it was heading straight toward Rayleigh.
The hilt then slapped perfectly into the boy's waiting, open palm.
Watching a sword fly several kilometers completely on its own volition just to land in a mortal's hand left Erebus with a look of pure amazement.
As an immortal God, he was always most interested in the chaotic and the unexpected.
This was the very first time he had ever witnessed such a bizarre, magical technique.
Amused, he clapped his hands together, looking exactly as if he were applauding a talented street acrobat.
This was the advanced technique known as Blade Chain.
It utilized a tether of invisible Reiatsu to forcefully pull a Zanpakuto's hilt directly into the wielder's hand.
Normally, this skill could only be used on a weapon resting nearby. However, as its original creator, Rayleigh possessed the unique authority to summon it from across the entire city.
He was going to take this healing blade and drive it straight into Alfia's failing body!
"You can keep living Alfia. With my next move, I will prove everything to you," Rayleigh declared, his burning gaze locked intensely onto Alfia's cloaked figure.
Seeing that the boy actually intended to fight her, Alfia could only let out a tired sigh.
"Reckless and ignorant."
A fraction of a second later, she materialized right in front of Rayleigh as if she had bypassed physical space altogether.
Her pale palm formed a rigid knife-hand as she struck downward in a fluid, sweeping motion.
Seeing this seemingly simple, almost playful attack approach, Rayleigh felt his soul nearly flee his physical body in sheer terror!
It was true, it looked like a basic martial arts chop.
But this was Alfia's knife-hand!
Years ago, a prime Level 5 Ottar had been effortlessly defeated by this exact same blow.
Let alone a newly ascended Level 3 like himself. If that hand made physical contact with his body, his life would be snuffed out before he could even register the pain.
Swish!
Alfia's knife-hand fell like a guillotine.
Boom!
Even though her hand had only cleaved through empty air, the sheer physical force produced the devastating effect of a massive explosive charge.
The terrifying blast of localized wind pressure caused the solid ground to violently collapse into a deep crater.
The spreading kinetic shockwaves sent massive, jagged cracks running up the brick walls on both sides of the narrow alley.
What made the display even more terrifying was the fact that she hadn't even bothered to open her eyes.
That impossibly precise high-speed movement and the devastating strike were all flawlessly accomplished while completely blinding herself to the world.
The woman was now holding a piece of torn fabric in her striking hand.
It was Rayleigh's jacket.
She 'looked' toward the retreating boy standing a safe five meters away and commented, "Impressive speed. No, wait. Is that some kind of special technique?"
Fighting hard to suppress his racing heart, Rayleigh answered, "It's a Hohō technique called Utsusemi."
"I... see. But will you be able to dodge it a second time?" Alfia casually dropped the shredded jacket onto the dirt.
With just one brief exchange, the monstrous genius had already seen right through the core secret of Utsusemi.
It relied on leaving a piece of clothing behind as a momentary substitute to draw the enemy's focus, allowing the user to evade at blinding speeds while the attack was safely diverted.
For a mere Level 3 to successfully evade a lethal strike from a Level 7 was already an incredibly remarkable feat.
After all, the mighty Boarman currently hailed as the strongest warrior in the entire city hadn't been able to last even a single moment against that exact same attack in his youth.
Rayleigh mentally psyched himself up for the fight of his life.
He pulled his arms free from his wide sleeves, raised them over his head, and forcefully pulled the top half of his black Shihakushō down to his waist in one fluid motion.
This left only a tight-fitting black tank top covering his upper body. The form-fitting fabric clearly highlighted the lean, dense shape of his pectoral and abdominal muscles, earned through endless hours at the forge.
The compact powerful muscles wrapping his arms were just as defined.
Unfathomable Reiatsu surged outward, taking the physical crackling form of white lightning.
Rayleigh fully activated his Shunkō, channeling the volatile energy into his limbs before triggering his ultimate release!
"Bankai. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
He released the Zanpakuto from his grip.
The blade sank seamlessly into the solid earth as if dropping into a pool of deep water. A heartbeat later, two massive, endless rows of giant blades rose up from the ground on either side of him.
The sheer size of the spectral swords completely obliterated the alley walls that had already been heavily damaged by Alfia's earlier strike.
"Ohhhhh!" Erebus watched this magnificent scene unfold with a highly delighted smile.
It was yet another fascinating, rule-breaking phenomenon he had never witnessed before.
And right at that moment, the distinct, resonant chime of a bell echoed through the air.
The God was momentarily stunned by the sound.
"A Limit Off?"
Alfia couldn't help but tilt her head up slightly.
Despite her usual stoicism, she seemed just as surprised by the dense, suffocating aura radiating from the boy.
Rayleigh paid their shock no mind.
He exerted total control over his Bankai, and the giant blades shattered all at once, transforming into a breathtaking sky full of razor-sharp cherry blossoms.
"Go!"
Whoosh!
The pink sea of glowing blossoms roared forward like a tidal wave, easily reaching a towering height of several dozen meters.
Faced with this incredibly exaggerated, wide-area attack, even Erebus felt a primal twinge of fear creep up his spine.
The sheer scale of the deadly swarm was simply too immense for a mortal to produce!
"Gospel," Alfia chanted softly.
Hum!
A terrifying, highly concentrated bomb of sound magic plunged directly into the incoming sea of blossoms.
The dense acoustic pressure blasted a massive, gaping hole right through the center of the floral tide.
But a fraction of a second later, the fluid swarm of countless cherry blossom petals seamlessly rushed in to fill the gap, directly engulfing the two targets in a swirling dome of pink blades.
The sea of blossoms violently converged into a swirling, inescapable pillar, continuously gathering mass and momentum.
Rayleigh clenched his raised palm into a tight fist, commanding the millions of petals to frantically close in and shred the targets trapped inside.
"How beautiful," Erebus's calm and entirely nonchalant voice echoed from deep within Senbonzakura's deadly siege.
Rayleigh's pupils shrank in alarm.
Before he could react, a rapid, deafening series of sonic booms rang out from the center of the swarm.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! BOOM!
The suffocating sky full of razor blossoms was blasted to absolute smithereens.
The shockwaves violently scattered the petals in every direction. It was an advanced, highly lethal application of Gospel.
Instead of launching a single focused burst of sound, Alfia had rapidly thrown a continuous chain of acoustic magic, triggering a devastating chain reaction of overlapping sonic booms.
Bang!
Rayleigh was launched violently backward by the immense pressure of the aftershock.
His body shot across the ruined street, his boots heavily plowing two long, deep trenches right into the dirt.
"Bakudō Four: Hainawa!" He threw out a glowing cord of yellow spiritual energy, wrapping it around a sturdy piece of nearby rubble to anchor himself.
The makeshift buffer barely managed to halt his forced retreat.
He couldn't afford to stop.
He couldn't afford to hesitate for even a single second against a monster of this caliber.
He had to prepare his next move immediately!
"Gōkei!"
Whoosh!
The violently scattered swarm—now numbering in the hundreds of millions of microscopic blades—rapidly reconverged on the targets.
Senbonzakura's Bankai possessed several distinct forms: Kageyoshi, Senkei, Gōkei, and Shūkei.
And Gōkei was the ultimate trapping form, a technique designed to gather every single blade into an inescapable omnidirectional sphere, primed to close in and utterly shred the enemy from every possible angle.
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Limit Off (限界解除リミット・オフ Rimitto Ofu): A temporary state in which surrounding conditions combine with emotions to overload the falna, exponentially increasing an attack's power.