"Raidō Kyūten!"
Kazuma's roar rang across the seireitei.
In the sky above, the once-calm clouds instantly began churning, as if an invisible hand had stirred them into a raging sea.
Heavy thunderclouds surged and rolled, letting out deep, rumbling thunder that rolled like a stampede.
Beneath that storm, Kazuma stood tall.
Around him circled nine brilliant thunder dragons.
Their long bodies twisted through the air, scales flashing with dazzling lightning as if they were truly alive, weaving and coiling around one another in the sky.
Nine was the highest of numbers, and one the beginning of all things.
In that instant, an astonishing scene unfolded. The nine great thunder dragons suddenly roared as one, then merged at an unbelievable speed.
In the blink of an eye, the nine became one, forming a single enormous thunder dragon.
The newborn thunder dragon stretched hundreds of meters long, its whole body giving off a terrifying aura that seemed able to destroy the world.
It bared its claws and charged into the thunderclouds, tearing black cracks through space wherever it passed, as if the whole world trembled and bowed before it.
The moment the thunder dragon plunged into the thunderclouds, it began to feed. It opened its massive jaws and devoured the violent lightning inside without restraint.
With every bit of thunder it swallowed, its body grew, and its power turned more terrifying still.
Bit by bit, it became larger and larger, like a moving mountain stretched across the sky.
"That thing..... is way too terrifying."
Even with the Hōgyoku strengthening him, Aizen broke out in a cold sweat beneath the violent might of that thunder.
If that thing hit him head-on, it was probably going to hurt.... a lot.
"Captains of the Gotei 13, form a barrier together!"
Captain-Commander Yamamoto reacted lightning-fast and roared out his order at once.
If Kazuma's attack truly came down, the entire Seireitei would be reduced to nothing!
"Madman! He's really a madman! Isn't he afraid of destroying the Seireitei?!"
Suì-Fēng gnashed her teeth as she stared at the thunder dragon in the sky.
For the first time, she realized that this man, who usually laughed, joked, and slacked off all day, actually held such terrifying power.
Unhappy as she was inside, she still obediently released all of her reiatsu.
If they messed this up, people really would die.
"Oh my, oh my. I don't want to die yet. I still haven't had enough good wine, and life is far too beautiful. Guess I'll have to put in some effort."
Kyōraku Shunsui used every bit of strength he had. He hadn't lived enough yet, and had no wish to die this young!
"Cough! Cough!"
Ukitake Jūshirō had always been in poor health, but he didn't want to die this early either, so he too poured out his reiatsu with everything he had.
"Hmph. After hiding for so long, I'm actually being forced to go all out. I still have so many experiments unfinished. If I die here, it's all over."
Kurotsuchi Mayuri could no longer worry about hiding himself and burst out with reiatsu.
Komamura, big dog that he was, didn't complain at all.
He simply and honestly poured in his strength.
In an instant, the captains endured the mountain-heavy weight of thunder and used every method they had, releasing their reiatsu with all their might.
Those waves of reiatsu surged like roaring floods, gathering together and merging with the vast power Captain-Commander Yamamoto released.
Under their combined effort, an enormous, sturdy barrier slowly took shape. It stood like a towering mountain, tightly covering the entire Seireitei.
Even so, with the barrier formed, everyone could still clearly feel the endless thunder pressure bearing down from the nine heavens.
That pressure weighed on every heart like an immense stone, suffocating and heavy.
Even the battle-hardened captains had grim faces now, cold sweat forming on their brows.
"Not enough! It's nowhere near enough!"
Captain-Commander Yamamoto roared, his dignified voice shaking the clouds.
Then he quickly turned to Sasakibe Chōjirō beside him.
"Chōjirō, use Tenteikūra immediately. Tell every Shinigami seated officer and above to pour reiatsu into the barrier!"
Sasakibe Chōjirō didn't dare delay a moment.
He took the order at once, his hands quickly forming seals as he began to chant under his breath.
With a strange wave of energy, the Tenteikūra message spread across the entire Seireitei in an instant.
After getting the message, every Shinigami of seated-officer rank and above hesitated for barely a second before pouring their reiatsu into the finished barrier.
With so many Shinigami behind it, the barrier grew even more stable. The pressure leaking through dropped to a level that could almost be ignored.
"Haa…"
Everyone let out a long breath.
Now there should be no problem.
With that done, the Shinigami raised their heads and looked to the sky.
Above them, the thunder dragon was still churning through the sea of lightning, and no one knew when it would come down.
Kazuma glanced at the barrier that had formed.
With that, he had no more worries.
He swung Hokushin Raitei in his hand, and the enormous thunder dragon dove out of the sea of lightning straight toward Aizen.
Aizen watched the thunder dragon rush closer. He wanted to dodge, but there was nowhere to go.
A thunder dragon that size would hit him no matter where he ran.
His mind raced as he worked out ways to save himself, countless ideas flashing up and vanishing in his head.
"There's no choice. I can only try this."
At that life-or-death moment, with the thunder dragon about to strike, Aizen calmly raised the long blade in his hand and pointed it at the sky.
In that instant, a shocking scene appeared.
A massive crack suddenly tore open in Soul Society's once-calm sky, as if the heavens had been ripped apart by force.
Deep within that crack, a group of enormous, hideous Menos Grande clawed and struggled their way out.
They roared from the darkness, their voices chilling enough to make one's hair stand on end.
At the same time, one of the Menos Grande opened its huge mouth and released a strange beam of light, like a guiding pillar, straight down over Aizen's body.
"Negación?"
Kazuma watched Aizen's move and couldn't help sneering.
He knew very well that this so-called Negación was a technique Menos Grande used to rescue their own.
Once one of them fell into danger, the others could use this move.
The inside and outside of that beam were like two completely sealed-off worlds.
Once the target was fully wrapped in that light, it was as if they had entered a separate space.
Because of that, enemies outside the Negación couldn't touch the one inside it, no matter how powerful they were.
But in the blink of an eye, the ferocious thunder dragon had already slammed into the Negación.
Boom!
A deafening explosion rang out, along with a burst of dazzling light.
The whole sky and earth trembled with it.
Yet, to everyone's disbelief, the supposedly unbreakable Negación — a barrier no one was meant to cross — shattered instantly under that earth-shaking collision.... like a fragile glass.