That voice echoed directly within the souls of every Quincy.
No matter where they stood within the castle, all of them heard it clearly.
The moment Bazz-B heard the voice, his expression darkened immediately.
Even after nearly a thousand years, he would never forget it.
It was the voice of Yhwach.
Long ago, Yhwach had destroyed the place Bazz-B once called home, reducing everything to ash and ruin. Since then, Bazz-B had carried only one purpose:
To gain enough power to one day kill Yhwach himself.
That hatred was the very reason he joined the Sternritter.
And yet now
Before he could ever challenge Yhwach, his own power was being taken away.
Bazz-B clenched his teeth in fury.
Centuries ago, while Yhwach slept, portions of the Quincy's power had already been drawn away to sustain him. Even during the incident when several powerful Shinigami invaded the hidden Quincy territory, Bazz-B had not been at full strength because of that constant drain.
Now, after Yhwach's awakening, it was happening again.
The power he had cultivated through endless effort…
Was being reclaimed as though it had never belonged to him.
To Bazz-B, that was intolerable.
However, not all Quincy reacted as he did.
Many within the Wandenreich were ecstatic.
To them, Yhwach's awakening signaled the long-awaited return of the Quincy King. As long as His Majesty awakened fully, the Quincy would finally be able to challenge Soul Society again and exact vengeance upon the Shinigami.
Compared to that dream, sacrificing some power seemed insignificant.
Others, however, fell into fear.
Most of those terrified were Quincy who had joined the Wandenreich in the centuries following the destruction of the Quincy by Soul Society two hundred years earlier.
After the Quincy extermination campaign, surviving Quincy were secretly gathered by the Sternritter and brought into the Wandenreich.
Those Quincy did not necessarily revere Yhwach.
Many joined only for survival.
Others sought revenge.
As for the title of "Emperor," they accepted it merely because Yhwach represented the possibility of striking back against the Shinigami.
But none of them expected that the first thing Yhwach would do upon awakening…
Would be to absorb their power.
The Quincy possessed the ability to manipulate Reishi from the environment, but no technique could prevent the source of their own power from being forcefully extracted.
"Am I… dying?"
More than one Quincy felt despair rise within them.
Fortunately for them, the extraction suddenly ceased.
Deep within the castle, inside the Emperor's chamber, Jugram Haschwalth stood calmly before the awakened Yhwach.
Even his own power had been partially drawn away, yet his expression never changed.
"Your Majesty," Haschwalth asked quietly, "is this sufficient?"
Yhwach looked down at his hand slowly.
Though he had slept for centuries, his eyes remained calm and absolute.
"Not yet," he replied.
"But these are my precious children."
"They are willing to offer themselves for my sake."
"How could I carelessly strip them of everything and leave them to perish?"
His words sounded compassionate.
Merciful, even.
Yet anyone who truly understood Yhwach knew the truth.
His kindness was merely another expression of ownership.
To him, all Quincy existed as extensions of himself.
Nothing more.
Then his gaze shifted slightly.
"However," Yhwach continued coldly, "those who diluted Quincy blood through indiscriminate union with ordinary humans are different."
"Even among my descendants… distinctions exist."
The mixed-blood Quincy were still connected to him by blood.
But in Yhwach's eyes, they were inferior to pure-blood Quincy.
And therefore
Expendable.
After recovering a portion of his strength from the Quincy gathered within the Wandenreich, Yhwach activated another ability.
Auswählen.
The Quincy technique through which he reclaimed power and life from those connected to his soul.
All Quincy carried fragments of Yhwach within them. Through the distribution of his blood and soul, he granted power to his descendants, awakening abilities and shaping their futures.
And because that power originated from him
He could take it back.
Instantly, an invisible wave spread outward from Yhwach.
It swept across the western world and expanded toward the east at terrifying speed.
No ordinary being could perceive it.
Because this was not a physical phenomenon.
It was an assault enacted upon the soul itself.
Naruki City.
Within the Ishida household, Ishida Sōken and Ishida Ryūken both felt an ominous disturbance simultaneously.
For a fleeting instant, it felt as though something ancient and overwhelming had awakened somewhere far away.
Then the sensation vanished.
Before either of them could fully process it
Katagiri Kanae suddenly staggered.
Without warning, the power within her body began to disappear.
Her spiritual pressure collapsed rapidly, her complexion turned pale, and her body weakened as though life itself were being stripped away.
"Kanae!"
Ryūken's expression changed completely.
He rushed forward immediately, attempting to stabilize her condition, but nothing worked.
No Quincy technique could stop it.
No medical knowledge could reverse it.
Because the power being taken was returning to its source.
And before Ryūken's eyes
Kanae collapsed.
Her life fading away beyond his ability to save.
Elsewhere, in Karakura Town
Kurosaki Masaki lived peacefully with her family.
After marrying Kurosaki Isshin, she had built the life she once thought impossible.
Their eldest son, Ichigo, had grown into a lively and sharp-minded child. After him came Yuzu and Karin, filling the Kurosaki household with even more warmth and noise.
Of the three children, Ichigo remained the one Masaki worried about and adored the most.
He had inherited her orange hair, yet in personality and expression he increasingly resembled Isshin.
Every time she looked at him, she could not help but smile.
At that moment, Ichigo was laughing loudly somewhere inside the house, while Yuzu and Karin argued nearby over something trivial.
It was ordinary.
Peaceful.
The kind of happiness Masaki once believed she would never have.
And then
Without warning
A strange pain pierced through her soul.