Clang!
Claws collided with the silk shield, erupting in a thunderous crash like metal striking metal.
The battle erupted once more.
Compared to the relaxed ease from before, this time Shutara Senjumaru was, at long last, feeling pressure again.
Earlier, in order to quickly defeat Ulquiorra, she had already expended quite a bit of spiritual pressure.
Facing seven opponents who were only a thin line below her, yet all close to the peak of captain level, even she could not avoid feeling strained.
What was more, behind these Espada, there was still a Hollow King who had yet to appear.
Even so, Shutara Senjumaru had not a single thought of fear.
Even if she were defeated, it would be nothing more than death.
For this body of hers, reforged by the Oken, death was not the end.
As long as someone from the Soul King Palace called her name again, she would be able to return once more.
Another hour and a half was crushed beneath violent spiritual pressure and the wailing shriek of clashing metal.
"Looks like dealing with this so-called Squad Zero," Lilynette, after releasing her blade, knelt on one knee, her breathing rapid and scorching hot, yet her voice still sharp like a poison-coated blade, "doesn't really require all of us going at once."
Her spiritual power was nearly exhausted, and every breath pulled at the pain throughout her body.
Yet her gaze was locked firmly on that figure ahead, who looked as if she were on the verge of collapse, yet still stood unyielding.
Shutara Senjumaru's condition was indeed far from "good."
The magnificent haori on her body still appeared spotless and white, but that was only because at every instant of battle, countless spirit-particle threads too fine to be seen by the naked eye moved like living things, instantly stitching shut every wound on it.
But this perfect disguise could not conceal the more fundamental damage.
The golden crown atop her high hair bun, the symbol of her status, had already shattered completely.
Of the six elegant yet deadly skeletal arms behind her, only two remained now. The rest lay scattered across the sand like broken statues.
"Hehe! Is that so?"
Shutara Senjumaru let out a soft laugh. There was no trace of exhaustion in it, only a playful appreciation of her opponent.
"Then shall we try again, to see whether you run out of your last breath first, or whether I exhaust all my spiritual pressure first?"
She acknowledged that the other side's strength was not weak.
That special Arrancar release state had indeed greatly boosted her opponent's power, forcing her to expend an enormous amount of spiritual pressure.
But that was all.
Up until now, she was still only in Shikai.
And for a Shinigami, Shikai was merely the prelude before slaughter.
Bankai, that was the true funeral rite.
This time, to deal with the troubles of Hueco Mundo, her blood pact had been deliberately undone, allowing her to use Bankai.
"Come on. Will that No.1 step out first, or will your king take action personally!"
Shutara Senjumaru's words were filled with an arrogance that looked down upon all living beings. She stood atop the ruins, yet her gaze had already pierced through the surface of this space.
She knew that there was a pair of eyes, watching everything from behind the scenes. Whether it was the Espada's wheel of battles or her current victory, it was all just a game laid out by that chess player for amusement.
They were nothing more than pieces under that person's hand, while he was the lofty one moving the board.
Using Squad Zero for entertainment?
A Hollow crouched in Hueco Mundo, daring to dream of standing shoulder to shoulder with the heavens.
But that thought lingered in her mind for only a single second before being instantly replaced by an incomprehensible terror.
"What kind of joke is this?"
Shutara Senjumaru's eyes flew wide open in shock as she stared fixedly at the sky.
Buzz!
At this moment, it was as if the world itself was gazing at her.
A pair of enormous deep-blue eyes opened in the heavens. They had no pupils, only a pure abyss that seemed capable of swallowing all light.
Godlike pressure overflowed from those eyes.
Space groaned. Time froze.
The fundamental laws that made up the world all began to tremble and submit under the gaze of those eyes.
'Such terrifying spiritual pressure... no, this isn't just spiritual pressure. There's also energy I can't understand. But how is this possible...'
For the first time, Shutara Senjumaru found herself at a loss for words.
Her prideful spiritual pressure was instantly forced back into her body, and even breathing became incredibly difficult.
She felt as though she was not fighting an enemy, but opposing the malice of the entire world.
An urge to fall flat, to prostrate herself on the ground, eroded her will like a virus.
That was not fear.
It was the most primal instinctive reaction of a lower lifeform when facing an incomprehensible, absolute superior being.
'This is impossible.'
'How can a Hollow evolve to this extent?'
'What kind of joke is this?'
'It is clearly just a Hollow. Why can it be this strong?'
The opponent's power absolutely surpassed that monk, almost enough to be called another Soul King.
"Since you have seen a god, why do you not kneel?", That was not a voice, but a divine decree branded directly onto the soul.
Vast, majestic, devoid of any emotion, as if it were the question posed by the entire world.
The instant the words fell, boundless weight crashed down.
This was pressure formed by the fusion of four forces: Conqueror's Haki, spiritual pressure oppression, the world's blessing, and Kyoka Suigetsu.
Rosse could say with certainty that even the pressure of the Soul King at his peak was only about this level.
BOOM!
Shutara Senjumaru felt as though she was no longer standing in the desert, but had been instantly hurled into the pitch-black depths of a sea ten thousand fathoms below.
Pressing in from all directions was a horrifying force capable of grinding steel into powder.
She could even clearly hear the unbearable wail coming from her own bones, formed from the Oken, as they strained under the load.
This level of pressure was already beyond what she could endure.
Even as reason resisted and pride boiled over, her body, under this irresistible might, was forced to bend inch by inch.
'Make me kneel? To a Hollow?'
'What kind of joke is that!'
Her knees had never bent to any existence.
Not even before the Soul King had she ever knelt.
"Bankai! Shatatsu Karagara Shigarami no Tsuji!"
Shutara Senjumaru dared not hold anything back, instantly reciting her Bankai chant in full.
Surging spiritual pressure bloomed from her body. Her Bankai space began to erode this special domain controlled by the opponent, attempting to contend against it.
"Forbidden."
In the sky, a single, simple sound rang out.
But the very next second, under Shutara Senjumaru's disbelieving gaze, her Bankai, powerful enough to shake the three realms, collapsed and disintegrated in an instant.
As if a god had decreed that Bankai was not permitted in this space, and thus Bankai simply could not exist here.
'But... how is that possible?'
This power, this might, had already exceeded the bounds of Shutara Senjumaru's understanding.
She could not even imagine how she was supposed to stand as an enemy against such a being.
'This time, can I really win?'
'And after death, can I truly be reborn again?'
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