Some people's mere presence, their steps forward, embody the essence of oppression.
Neither the clanging of multiple captains' Zanpakutō drawn from their scabbards, nor the roars directed at him, nor the gazes boiling with killing intent...
None of it could halt his advance.
Yhwach, clutching his reishi sword, kept his eyes fixed on the heart of the First Division barracks behind the group, lost in some distant thought.
Only when Saito shouted his name did his gaze finally shift to the figures before him.
"Just you few?"
"Yamamoto is truly heartless."
His words dripped with disdain as he continued forward, as if these peak Soul Society warriors were mere insects to be brushed aside.
"I told you-" Saito's voice cut through the air, sharp as the whistling wind. A piercing blade of light slashed across dozens of meters, stopping just short of Yhwach.
Her deep purple twin tails whipped into straight lines in the gust, her single eye gleaming like a honed edge, her voice crisp.
"Stop!"
Her blade struck down.
A trench carved the ground for dozens of meters, white shockwaves rippling outward, silencing the air before erupting in a deafening boom.
Yhwach paused before the chasm.
Saito straightened, lifting her Zanpakutō from the sunken earth, casually shaking off dirt and resting it on her shoulder.
Despite her delicate, charming face, her words were as brash as a bandit's: "From now on, this path is closed."
"You wretch," Yhwach said, standing still, looking down at her.
His gaze slowly shifted to the others, who had silently encircled him.
"Mere ants," he sneered. "Must you be crushed underfoot to feel you've lived?"
"Such meaningless deaths."
"Not necessarily," Nobutsuna Shigyō retorted, a scornful smirk on his sickly, wrinkled face. "Even a good death pales compared to clinging to life."
"And at this point... you don't think we'd face you one-on-one, do you?"
Yhwach's calm gaze turned to him. "Ants. One or two, what's the difference?"
As his words landed, Furuoki Ōtogawa and Uhin Zenjōji, positioned behind and to his side, swung their blades in unison.
Silent.
Yet, Yhwach seemed to see through their every intent in an instant.
He twisted, slashing.
A fluid motion.
The immense force of his reishi sword parried both powerful founding captains, pushing them back step by step. Reishi flared around him like a fiery cloak, blazing fiercely.
Clang!
The rapid clash of blades sparked a cascade of brilliant flashes. The massive cross-shaped blade moved in Yhwach's hands with the finesse of a needle, effortlessly sweeping and slicing, forcing Uhin Zenjōji, at the forefront, back several steps.
Though it was their first time fighting together, Saito and the others synced their battle rhythm with precision, seizing the moment Yhwach's strength wavered to strike.
But Yhwach's steps suddenly rooted to the ground, his left hand releasing the hilt and lifting upward as if eyes grew on his back.
Thwack!
Saito's blade hilt slammed into his palm as if delivered, its force instantly nullified.
Her single eye's pupil contracted sharply.
Before she could twist the hilt, a heavy foot spun upward, borrowing the momentum of his swing.
It smashed into the leaping girl's abdomen with a Bang! sending her flying faster than she'd come.
The sequence, though seemingly slow, unfolded in a single instant, from Furuoki and Zenjōji's ambush to Saito's ejection.
To an ordinary onlooker, it would've been a blur.
But that brief moment bought enough time.
"The heavens hold five calamities and man bears five afflictions..."
"Wail in chaos! Yakunan Shura!"
A dark purple hue flowed along Nobutsuna Shigyō's thin blade, his sickly pale face growing even more gaunt.
Yet, his Reiatsu surged, fiercer than before.
Purple miasma spread like fog from Nobutsuna, billowing outward with his low, steady breaths.
Yhwach's brow furrowed slightly.
Nobutsuna's gaze gleamed with malice.
"Blue Plague!"
As his words fell, his lanky form skimmed the ground, charging straight at Yhwach, his face taking on a dark cyan hue.
Yhwach's eyes flickered with disdain as Nobutsuna's blade descended.
Child's play.
But as he raised his reishi sword, a flash of shock crossed his eyes.
Clang!
The blades clashed, Nobutsuna's strike carrying astonishing force.
Yhwach stood firm, his feet sinking deep into the solid ground.
"What a monstrous foe," Nobutsuna remarked.
"Blue Plague too weak for you?"
Despite his words, a sinister grin spread across his face.
Blue, red, yellow, white, black, five plagues.
The unique power of his Zanpakutō.
Inhaling the faint mist around him inflicted his "Yakunan" plague.
Each color added a new debilitating effect.
Until all five plagues struck...
"Hm?"
As Nobutsuna pressed harder, his malicious grin froze.
Slowly, their clashing blades began tilting toward him.
This strength...?
Before Nobutsuna could react, the force from the reishi sword surged again.
Boom!
A gust blasted forth, dust scattering.
The figure cloaked in darkness shot forward, blade aimed at Nobutsuna's chest.
At the critical moment, a black, whip-like stream of water lashed out, striking the extended blade with a howl.
"Raging Surge, Jūsui Mai!"
Furuoki Ōtogawa tossed aside his conical hat, revealing dark hair beneath and eyes usually half-asleep now wide with a chilling, wintery killing intent.
Yhwach shifted his blade, effortlessly slicing through the torrent of black water.
But before he could advance, invisible ripples spread, enveloping a radius of hundreds of meters around their battlefield.
Uhin Zenjōji's blade dissolved like dandelion seeds, shifting from tangible to intangible.
"All shall serve me, Jinmaku Yokozuna."
As his voice fell, his stout, carrot-like hand thrust forward, slamming toward Yhwach.
Though nothing visible appeared, Yhwach's form was flung backward as if by an unseen giant hand, soaring through a piercing sonic Boom! carving a white shockwave path.
Finally, a hoarse, brazen female voice rang out: "Devour and annihilate! Shuketsukyū!"
Saito's tachi traced a deep crimson arc, heavy with the scent of blood, curving like a crescent moon.
Its edge aimed straight for Yhwach's neck.
"Hand over your head, old hag!"
"Wretch!"
Facing the blade at his throat, Yhwach's gaze remained as calm as ever.
As if he'd foreseen it all.
...
While Saito and the others clashed with Yhwach...
Outside the gate of the Seireitei, blazing flames illuminated the earth, their unbearable heat scorching the ground into a deep, charred black.
At the heart of the inferno stood a robust skeletal frame, its clothing burned to ashes. The remnants of fabric on the ground faintly bore the Schrift 'B'.
Yamamoto sheathed his Zanpakutō, Ryūjin Jakka, passing the fallen Quincy, whether brave or reckless, as if he were invisible.
Having slain Bambara, the Sternritter's second-in-command, marked with Schrift B, this middle-aged Shinigami at the peak of his power remained unscathed.
"Genryūsai-sama," Sasakibe's voice emerged from nowhere as he appeared beside Yamamoto.
Yamamoto didn't respond, his gaze fixed on the heart of the Seireitei, sensing something. He murmured, "It's begun."
Assuming Yamamoto was concerned about the battle, Chōjirō reassured him softly, "Please rest assured, Genryūsai-sama. The First Division barracks are guarded by four captains."
"Even the Quincy leader will surely fall to their blades."
But his words failed to comfort, or perhaps... he'd misunderstood.
Yamamoto spoke calmly, "They cannot win."
"Hm?" Chōjirō, unprepared for this, froze, eyes wide.
Yamamoto continued, unflinching, "No matter how fiercely they fight, even to their last breath, they cannot defeat him."
"Then... why...?" Chōjirō began, understanding yet driven by instinct to ask.
Even unspoken, his question was clear: If they can't win, why send them to their deaths?
"Because if they fight with their lives and fall to Yhwach's hand..." Yamamoto's voice remained steady, but his words chilled the spine. "I can defeat him."
The implication was clear: without their sacrifice, even Yamamoto lacked confidence in victory.
Mercy does not command soldiers.
Sasakibe had never grasped this truth so profoundly.
"But... Makoto, he..." Chōjirō tried to argue.
Yamamoto merely gazed at him, silent.
When Chōjirō fell quiet, Yamamoto said evenly, "That is his will."
As his words fell, a crimson Reishi pillar erupted from the First Division barracks, piercing the clouds with divine might.
Yamamoto and Chōjirō said no more.
...
Smoke hung heavy in the air, the acrid tang of rust and blood stinging the nostrils, making it hard to breathe.
The grounds of the First Division barracks were now a wasteland, littered with craters of varying sizes, scarred by corrosion and explosions.
Crisscrossing blade marks marred the earth, jagged and uneven, like festering scars.
"Thud."
Nobutsuna Shigyō's lanky frame collapsed, a gaping hole through his chest. Black blood trickled from his features, nearly congealing on his face.
Through the cavity, his organs were a scorched ruin.
And not just him.
Furuoki Ōtogawa's body was cleaved in two, his hollow eyes staring skyward. Half his face and torso were pulverized into dust, scattered to one side. His hand still gripped his broken blade.
Uhin Zenjōji's massive body stood rigid in death, his severed head lying nearby, his mountainous frame upright.
The ground beneath him bore a massive bite-like crater radiating outward.
No one could fathom the battle they'd endured.
"Pfft..."
Saito leaned on her tachi, her tongue flicking over the blood at her lips. Her single eye lifted to Yhwach, who stood serene, gazing down like a god upon ants.
She knew he was a monster on par with that bastard Yamamoto.
But to be this absurdly strong...
Though her mind reeled, a gleeful grin spread across her face, her petite frame trembling with exhilaration.
"No matter."
To die in the most glorious battle was her lifelong wish.
Saito struggled to raise her blade.
If there was any regret, perhaps it was just a small one.
For some reason, as she charged toward her life's desire, Makoto's face flashed unbidden in her mind.
"...That idiot."
A smile crept onto her face.
But then, her grin vanished, her single eye sharpening with lethal intent.
"Can you still stand?" Yhwach's cold gaze met hers. "To reach this point without using Bankai... surprising."
"You're the weakest of them, aren't you?"
"Tch."
"My Bankai isn't suited for crowded places," Saito said, raising her head. She slashed her left wrist, letting crimson blood spill onto her blade.
"And I'm the strongest!"
As her words fell, a scarlet domain spread from her grounded tachi, engulfing Yhwach and Saito's vision, blanketing a kilometer radius.
A crimson marsh.
Saito's voice echoed, "Bankai!"
"Clinging to life, clinging to death..."
"Shukyakukyōgi Ketsurasai!"
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
If you want to read up to 50 chapters ahead, don't hesitate to visit our patron: pat reon . com / XElenea (removespace)