While Aizen was fleeing in a sorry state, the other captains watching the battle, including Rosse, had long since had the sense to retreat to over a kilometer away to observe, terrified of being swept up by those horrifying aftershocks.
Among all the captains, Kyoraku Shunsui's expression was the worst, dark as the bottom of a pot.
Although Rosse had been moving toward the Twelfth Division earlier, because Kurosaki Ichigo intercepted him along the way, the battlefield had not shifted very far.
Which meant… The place being indiscriminately carpet-bombed by that sky-filling rain of arrows was his Eighth Division's headquarters.
Watching the buildings turn to dust in the explosions, Kyoraku Shunsui felt his heart bleeding.
The only thing worth being thankful for was that the division members had already been fully evacuated. Otherwise, after today, the Eighth Division's roster might have been wiped straight out of the Gotei 13.
"Didn't you keep saying you wanted to test my strength? What, now all you can do is scurry around like a rat with its head tucked down?"
Kurosaki Masaki's voice, cold yet carrying suppressed irritation, echoed clearly through the center of the battlefield.
It was not loud, yet it pierced through the endless explosions like a heavy hammer smashing into everyone's chest.
That mocking question plunged all the observing captains into deathly silence.
No one thought Aizen was being humiliated.
Seriously, facing such an unreasonable monster, what else could you do but run? Stand there and wait to die?
Everyone present was a battle-hardened Shinigami, their eyes sharp to the extreme.
They could see clearly that Kurosaki Masaki's attacks were not just simply "fast" and "dense." Every single spirit particle arrow she fired contained individual destructive power so terrifying it made one's scalp go numb.
If they absolutely had to quantify it. The ultimate Bankai technique Byakuya Kuchiki had just used, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi's final form, Hakuteiken, probably only barely matched the power of one casual arrow fired by Kurosaki Masaki.
One Hakuteiken might require Byakuya to build momentum for a long time.
But this woman only needed to move her fingers, and in a single second she could pour out more than ten attacks of equal power.
How was this a fight? This was clearly a one-sided slaughter.
Some captains even felt that Kyoraku Shunsui getting taken down by a single arrow was not really embarrassing at all anymore.
Still, whenever they saw Aizen's figure continuing to maneuver, they wisely stopped thinking about Kyoraku Shunsui.
Comparing people to people, the gap really was huge.
Either Kyoraku Shunsui had been acting, or the gap between him and Aizen was sky-high.
Obviously, in all the captains' minds, the former sounded far more believable.
"Hm?", Just as the captains were sighing with emotion, Kurosaki Masaki, who had been suppressing the entire field, suddenly let out a sound of surprise, that storm-like offensive actually stalled for a brief instant.
Immediately after, a low, rapid yet crystal-clear chanting voice abruptly rang out amid the explosive roar, "Seeping crest of turbidity. Arrogant vessel of lunacy. Boil forth and deny. Grow numb and flicker. Disrupt sleep. Crawling queen of iron. Eternally self-destructing doll of mud. Unite. Repulse. Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!!"
'That is… Hado number ninety?'
And at that speed, finishing the chant in just two seconds was insanely fast.
Everyone stared in shock, eyes wide open.
Just moments ago, Aizen had clearly still been dodging, yet no one knew when it happened. At his original position, only a captain's haori was left behind, while his figure had completely vanished.
But along with the shock, an even bigger question surged up.
Under that airtight suppression of arrow fire, how did Aizen manage to secure two whole seconds to chant Kido?
Even if he had used Shunpo Utsusemi to get close to Kurosaki Masaki, there should not have been a two-second opening for him to chant.
As the smoke cleared at the edge, the others could not see the trick at all. Only Rosse, standing closest, had an unmistakable flash of praise pass through his eyes.
Only he saw it clearly.
It was just that Aizen's current state looked truly brutal.
Aizen's once neat and refined Shihakusho was now completely torn apart. Several shocking bloody holes gaped open in his abdomen, so deep that one could even see the charred ground behind him through the wounds.
Those were marks left by Quincy arrows piercing him at close range. Blood dripped steadily from his hands onto the ground, staining the ruins beneath his feet red.
Even so, Aizen did not retreat.
His hands were locked tightly around the arm holding Kurosaki Masaki's bow, using his already mangled, flesh-and-blood body to forcibly buy himself the chance to chant.
It had to be said, this man who usually looked gentle and refined never lacked the madness and courage to gamble his life at critical moments.
It was just a pity that in the face of absolute power, that courage looked a bit pale.
"Hado 90! Kurohitsugi! (Black Coffin)"
As the final incantation fell, a suffocating gravitational wave erupted instantly.
Under everyone's gaze, countless pitch-black shadow blades burst out of the ground, instantly weaving together into a black spiritual pressure coffin tens of meters tall, completely swallowing and sealing Kurosaki Masaki's small body inside.
That pure darkness seemed capable of devouring even light itself.
Using the brief opening created by the formation of the Kido, Aizen did not linger in battle at all. His entire body pulled back at high speed like a kite with its string cut.
Only then did everyone clearly see how severe his injuries were.
They were absolutely not just superficial wounds. The destructive energy carried by the spirit particle arrows had even eroded his internal organs. Such injuries, even for Shinigami known for their tough vitality, were enough to be fatal.
By comparison, Kyoraku Shunsui collapsing earlier could almost be considered a light injury.
Only then did everyone suddenly understand.
So Aizen had bought that time by tanking it with his body.
But that was only the surface.
As the only one who knew the truth, Rosse was very clear that relying on his body alone could never have held out for those two seconds.
Even a captain-level body was as fragile as thin paper in front of Kurosaki Masaki.
What truly allowed Aizen to seize that instant of opportunity was his Kyoka Suigetsu.
In that very moment just now, Aizen had definitely activated Bankai.
Only Kyoka Suigetsu at the Bankai level could, within that tiny millisecond gap, briefly blind Kurosaki Masaki's senses, sharp to the extreme, causing her to freeze for a single instant.
And that was what allowed Aizen to close in and unleash this life-or-death strike.
But it really was only an instant.
Against spiritual pressure at Kurosaki Masaki's level, illusions could only ever be the simplest and briefest form of interference.
Aizen clearly understood this as well.
So even while gravely injured, as he retreated, the chanting from his mouth never stopped.
"Hado 99! Goryutenmetsu!"
That's right. Even the immensely powerful Hado number ninety, Black Coffin, in his original tactical plan, had only been treated as a high-level binding technique meant to stall for time.
He had never once hoped that Black Coffin could cause any real damage to that monster.
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