"All right. The rambling nonsense of people from Hueco Mundo is not something we need to concern ourselves with."
Rosse casually swept a glance at Kyoraku Shunsui lying on the ground, which could be considered leaving this Captain-Commander his last shred of dignity.
As for whether those words were true or false, or how many people would believe them, that had nothing to do with him.
Each captain would naturally have their own judgment.
"Hehehe! I'm taking my people and leaving now. Are you still planning to stop me?", Kurosaki Masaki glanced at Kurosaki Ichigo lying on the ground.
If this were a few years ago, she would have rushed over in pain, carefully lifting him up and checking his injuries.
But at this moment, just thinking about taking Ichigo away, and the inevitable physical contact that would involve, made an uncontrollable, instinctive revulsion rise from deep within her.
The current her hated men. She hated all men. It was a purely physiological disgust toward all of them.
As long as anyone came even a little too close, she felt extreme discomfort, accompanied by an impulse to kill.
After countless cycles of adaptation and forced compromise by her body, Rosse had become the only existence she could neither resist nor feel revulsion toward.
And precisely because of his unrestrained possession of her, she had developed an instinctive rejection and nausea toward all other males, including Kurosaki Isshin and Kurosaki Ichigo.
"If you're leaving, at least show some strength first."
Rosse's tone was calm as he took in the strange look in Kurosaki Masaki's eyes.
He had not actually done anything truly excessive to her. He had merely tested the limits of her body over and over again, while conveniently destroying all of her mental will.
The current Kurosaki Masaki, whether she admitted it in her heart or not, had already completely fallen in both body and mind, belonging to him alone.
As his words fell, the duplicate Ichigo lifted Zangetsu and charged toward Kurosaki Masaki.
This was a scene that had already been agreed upon in advance, its purpose being to display Kurosaki Masaki's strength.
As for Kyoraku Shunsui being instantly taken out, that could only be blamed on him being too careless.
If he had gone all out with Bankai from the very start, even if he still would have lost due to the gap in strength, he would not have lost so cleanly.
"Sigh! Shinigami… why must you be so overconfident?"
Kurosaki Masaki let out a soft sigh. There was a trace of pity in her voice, but far more indifference. She took a small step forward, and the moment her toe touched the ground, the air seemed to freeze.
Buzz!
Space let out a wail as if it could no longer bear the strain.
"Holy · Liberation."
As that frost-cold chant fell, an extremely condensed, terrifying spiritual pressure erupted violently from her slender body like a volcanic explosion.
The moment this spiritual pressure appeared, it instantly transformed into a tangible pressure that blanketed the entire Seireitei.
The heavens changed color, the atmosphere wailed. Everywhere it passed, all living beings seemed to be pressed down by an invisible giant hand, forced to lower their heads.
Immediately after, amid the tearing storm of spiritual pressure, a pair of enormous spirit-particle wings, one black and one white, unfurled behind Kurosaki Masaki in a shocking display.
The left wing was pitch-black as ink, radiating the savagery and corruption of a Hollow.
The right wing was pure and holy white, surging with the sanctity and coldness of a Quincy.
At this moment, she looked like a fallen angel. Light gathered in her hand, condensing into a small yet exquisitely shaped spirit-particle longbow.
"This spiritual pressure… isn't this a bit too ridiculous?"
Ichimaru Gin's foxlike eyes flew wide open, his pupils contracting violently. He could clearly hear the "creak" of his own spine under the crushing pressure, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
If that monster Rosse had done this, he would not have found it strange at all.
But the woman in front of him was merely the eighth Espada!
This abyssal, hell-like spiritual pressure had already faintly surpassed the intensity of Captain-Commander Yamamoto's Bankai eruption.
'Being only ranked eighth, does that make any sense at all?'
The overwhelming shock made Ichimaru Gin overlook the abnormality of the person beside him. He failed to notice that, in Aizen's eyes, which were usually calm, there was a fanatic gleam that could not be concealed even through his glasses.
'Yes. This is it. This power!'
Aizen stared fixedly at those black-and-white wings. That was the ultimate answer he had pursued for over a hundred years.
Quincy, Hollow, Shinigami. Three completely different powers perfectly fused within a single body. This was proof of breaking the boundaries, the only path leading to the realm of the Soul King.
In the next second, under everyone's stunned gazes, Aizen actually drew Kyoka Suigetsu first.
His usually gentle figure now looked incomparably resolute, standing without hesitation at the very front of all the captains, as if he were a hero stepping forward to protect Soul Society.
"Everyone, allow me to test the other side's true strength."
Aizen's voice was warm yet firm. Looking at that figure stepping forward, it was not only Kuchiki Byakuya and the others who showed looks of surprise. Even his confidants, Ichimaru Gin and Tosen Kaname, had their fingers hidden in the shadows tremble slightly.
'Is this part of the original plan too?'
'And also… Captain Aizen, isn't the level of spiritual pressure you're releasing a bit off?'
Buzz!
As if responding to everyone's doubts, the air around Aizen suddenly trembled. Without any buildup at all, the spiritual pressure within his body poured out completely in that instant.
Something bizarre happened.
Unlike Kurosaki Masaki's overwhelming dominance that seemed ready to crush all things, and unlike Rosse's suffocating, deep-sea-like despair.
The spiritual pressure Aizen released felt like a gentle breeze brushing across one's face.
Warm, peaceful, even carrying a hint of soothing power.
But that was only the surface.
Even the weakest person present, Kurotsuchi Nemu, had lieutenant-level strength. The rest were the top combat forces of Soul Society.
They could clearly sense just how terrifying the torrent surging beneath that seemingly peaceful breeze truly was.
It was an extremely dense spiritual pressure, one that could almost be said to be approaching another dimension.
The intensity of this power was absolutely no weaker than that of the rampaging Bull-Headed Hollow Ichigo from earlier.
"So Captain Aizen was this strong… amazing."
Hitsugaya Toshiro muttered absentmindedly. The same thought echoed in the hearts of Komamura Sajin and Kuchiki Byakuya beside him.
Because they did not understand Aizen's true nature, the emotions in their eyes were limited to simple shock.
After all, in their understanding, this gentle, kindly captain might simply have been hiding his sharpness due to rarely taking action.
No one ever said that gentle people could not possess the strongest power to protect Soul Society.
However, amid this chorus of admiration, only one person felt a bone-chilling cold.
"Something's wrong… very wrong…"
Kyoraku Shunsui lay in a pool of blood, unable to mobilize spiritual pressure, but that did not mean he had lost consciousness.
On the contrary, his injured state made his thoughts unusually clear.
By his logic, the situation had already completely spiraled out of control.
A monster on the level of Kurosaki Masaki had appeared. If the other side truly wanted to make a move against Rosse, they might even have a chance to take down all of Soul Society.
For Aizen, a prime suspect as the mastermind, the best choice right now should have been to continue hiding, or to sit back and watch Hueco Mundo weaken the Gotei 13's fighting strength.
Stepping out at this moment, forcibly taking the spotlight, and even exposing power of this level, made absolutely no sense!
'Is he gambling with his life just to act? Or does he have some other agenda?''
'Why?'
'Aizen, why are you making a move at this moment?'
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