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The arrival of Russell and his companions didn't go unnoticed by the demons below.
However, as the attacking party, they seized the initiative first.
"Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō."
Fiery lightning mixed with an orange-yellow beam streaked across the sky, instantly striking a giant steel ship.
A violent explosion erupted. In an instant, it reached the ship's ammunition room.
BOOM!
The horrific detonation created massive fireworks on the calm sea. A sea of flames greedily devouring everything gradually spread across the entire vessel.
Earth-shaking screams rang out continuously. Countless low-level demons jumped into the water like dumplings.
They wanted to escape the fiery hell consuming their lives.
"Courting death!"
But there weren't only low-level demons present. Grath the Sword King's furious roar echoed from the flagship's captain's cabin.
It wasn't that Mikoto Misaka and Aizen didn't want to attack the flagship directly—but such a straightforward assault would definitely be blocked.
Better to pick off the weak ones first and reduce the enemy's numbers.
After their success, Russell's two cards naturally wanted to repeat the trick.
But...
A roaring sword-light arrived in an instant.
The howling blade-wind whipped the hair of three Gold-rank cardmakers suspended in midair.
"Bakudō #81: Dankū."
A transparent barrier instantly materialized before the three of them.
Crack, crack, crack.
A fine shattering sound. In just a breath, both sword-light and barrier vanished into thin air.
By now, Grath stood in the air not far from Russell's group, his expression dark. Beside him was the feminine-looking Townes.
"Very good." Grath's voice was like Antarctic ice—piercing and painful. "I didn't go looking for you, but you came to me instead."
"Do you really want to die?"
Russell didn't respond. He simply turned to look at Aizen beside him.
The brown-haired man wore a cold expression as he slowly drew the long sword at his waist.
"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."
That magnetic voice, devoid of emotion, surrounded Grath and Townes like whispers from hell.
Then came a sound like breaking glass.
Seeing this, Grath frowned slightly and tightened his grip on his sword.
Nothing happened.
"A trivial trick." The sword-wielding young man muttered this and slashed out a ray of sword-light.
The dazzling blade instantly passed through Russell's body—but only made him dissipate into the air like a bubble.
Seeing this, Grath frowned. "An illusion?"
By then, Russell and his companions had already relocated away from the battle site.
Russell calmly observed his two cards already engaging Grath, then casually instructed the two middle-aged men beside him. "Go clean up the demons below first. I'll hold these two here."
Zayne and Luther had already witnessed the horror of Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu. They naturally had no objections.
The two immediately summoned their cards and attacked the fleet of giant ships below.
Seeing the battle developing as expected, Russell couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Once they've dealt with the demons below, we can all work together against this pair. That'll achieve today's objective.
He didn't expect to defeat Grath with just Mikoto Misaka and Aizen. After all, when they'd fought Lannide before, these two cards had only been slightly superior.
The Grath before him was clearly a tier above Lannide—in both strength and combat awareness.
As ranks increased, Russell had increasingly noticed that demon combat effectiveness was gradually improving. The gap between demons and cardmakers was narrowing.
For example, at lower levels, he could fight demons several times his own number.
But despite this, cardmakers still held undeniable advantages in group combat.
Especially in suppression operations.
Just like now—Russell was restraining an entire demon fleet with only two cards. If the situation were reversed, Grath definitely couldn't do the same.
In truth, it wasn't that Russell couldn't beat Grath. The main issue was that his Society-identity cards couldn't be exposed.
It would be great if Kumoko and Frieren could join the battle.
If Kumoko and the white-haired old lady could act, defeating Grath would be more than enough.
With a slight sigh, Russell refocused on the battlefield.
As expected, there are more Gold-rank demons hiding.
Looking at Zayne and Luther already locked in fierce combat below, Russell frowned slightly.
Though he'd previously deduced from Kumoko's appraisal that this fleet had more than just two demons fighting his cards, when the full picture was revealed, Russell still couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
First Mate. Chief Engineer. Second Engineer.
If the positions on Grath's pirate fleet truly followed strict naval hierarchy, then these three would be at least as strong as Townes.
Russell carefully sensed the auras of the Gold-rank demons below. After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it's still manageable.
In his perception, the strength of these Gold-rank demons wasn't exaggerated. Zayne and Luther should be able to handle them with some time.
Provided they had time.
On the coast, Warren and Bianca watched the distant battle with their mouths hanging open.
Not because the battle was going poorly—it was going too smoothly.
Everything since the battle began had basically been under Vice President Russell's control.
And their earlier speculation had been completely wrong.
The strength Russell was displaying could be said to surpass most Gold-rank cardmakers. At minimum, he could be considered among the elite of Gold-rank.
"No wonder he didn't need us to replace him, Bianca." Warren swallowed and sighed from the bottom of his heart to his companion.
The two had been partners for years. Old acquaintances.
Bianca nodded in agreement, then asked doubtfully, "Do those two demons really not care about Director Zayne and Director Luther's fight?"
In their eyes, Grath and Townes were turning a blind eye to the battle beneath them—as if nothing was happening.
Warren hesitated before speaking uncertainly. "It should be the ability of Vice President Russell's card, right?"
"An illusion?"
Bianca was also uncertain. Though she suspected it was illusion, the distance was too great to confirm what kind of ability it was.
"He can make those monsters run around in circles." The corner of her eye twitched. She was secretly glad Russell wasn't a rogue cardmaker. Though this ability didn't seem to have much direct lethality, the damage it could cause if used maliciously might sometimes exceed even Emerald-rank.
Like the invasion arc in the original Bleach—had Aizen released any large-scale Kidō?
No.
With just Kyōka Suigetsu's illusion, he'd thrown all of Soul Society into chaos.
"Looks like we weren't needed after all—" Just as Warren was about to sigh that their presence didn't matter, an overwhelmingly powerful aura—deep as an abyss, dark as hell—suddenly descended over the sea.
Both of them widened their eyes and cried out in disbelief. "What is this?!"
"Emerald-rank?!"
"It was actually true?!"
But Warren, who'd weathered many storms, forced himself to calm down and made arrangements in an instant.
He spoke urgently to Bianca. "Bianca, hurry back to headquarters. Tell President Simon to evacuate the civilians in East-Haven. I'll go support Vice President Russell and the others."
Bianca's heart sank at his words. Of the two missions, Warren's was undoubtedly more dangerous—with a high probability of death.
But as an Association cardmaker, she'd long grown accustomed to separation and death. Warren wasn't her first partner.
Bianca suppressed her inner sorrow and didn't act melodramatic. "Alright. Be careful."
With that, she vanished along the coast.
Seeing he was now alone, Warren took a deep breath and loudly issued an order. "Everyone, alert!"
But upon realizing every cardmaker below Silver-rank had fainted, his heart went cold. The situation was worse than he'd thought.
The aura of that Emerald-rank demon upon appearing was definitely more than just pressure.
Fortunately, even if a cardmaker fell unconscious, summoned cards could still move freely until their mental energy was exhausted.
The situation wasn't yet irreversible.
Just as Warren was about to go retrieve Russell and the others, the Emerald-rank demon's aura suddenly vanished.
He couldn't help but be surprised. It left?
However, when he arrived where the aura had first descended, he found that of the three Gold-rank cardmakers present, only Zayne and Luther remained—both unconscious.
As for Russell...
Missing.
Time rewinds a few minutes.
Russell was silently watching the battle between his two cards and Grath-Townes.
At this moment, massive spiritual pressure was brazenly announcing its presence.
If Grath and Townes were unaffected, then the low-level demons below were suffering terribly.
Aizen had been rated as one of the top five special war potentials by Yhwach precisely because of his spiritual pressure.
His spiritual pressure was a large-scale lethal weapon against lower-ranked beings.
Unfortunately...
Blinded by the illusion, Grath and Townes didn't notice what was happening beneath them.
The massive black-sand giant fired a Railgun from its right hand that pierced through heaven and earth.
"Is that all you've got?" Grath readied himself with a bloodthirsty smile. "What can you possibly do?!"
The horrific slash instantly cut through everything before him.
Even the electrified orange-yellow beam couldn't escape being split in two.
A massive gully was carved into the surging sea—as if the scene of Moses parting the waters had actually manifested in the world.
Of course, Grath wasn't Moses. Nor did he possess the power of that divine messenger.
The separated sea surface was filled by rushing water in just a breath.
And Mikoto Misaka's attack had only been meant to buy time for Aizen.
"Hadō #99: Goryūtenmetsu."
The highest-level Hadō, released through complete incantation, displayed its power the moment it appeared.
The purple energy dragons were like Dragon Kings dominating the sea—tearing apart the water's surface and roaring toward Grath.
Seeing this, the pupils of the demon standing at Gold-rank's pinnacle contracted. "You were actually hiding something like this?!"
Taking a deep breath, he roared, "In all the myriad worlds, nothing escapes my blade!"
A terrifying blow far exceeding the previous ones suddenly collided with the purple dragons.
The terrifying energy fluctuations created massive ripples across the sea surface.
Russell, not far away, simply watched the devastating scene before him with a calm expression.
He was thinking about what kind of card would be best to make with Grath's dropped materials if they succeeded in killing him.
[Pirate Swordsman].
Just looking at Grath's performance, he was somewhat like Hawkeye from One Piece—the type of character who could use normal attacks as ultimate moves.
But Hawkeye was far superior to Grath.
According to Russell's speculation, the world's greatest swordsman during the Warlord era was at least Emerald-rank. Let alone after he later formed the Cross Guild with Buggy and Crocodile.
Of course, this was just his estimate based on early appearances. Whether Hawkeye had hidden strength, Russell didn't know—Oda-sensei hadn't finished drawing it before he'd transmigrated.
That reminds me—there's also Zoro.
Russell had created that young man with seaweed-green hair back at Bronze-rank. But since he'd been used under his Society identity, Zoro had few opportunities to appear later.
It just so happened he was planning to use the Society's cover to kill Simon. Upgrading Zoro to Gold-rank could provide an additional safety net.
While he was thinking, the two attacks on the battlefield reached their limit.
The purple energy dragons entangled with the dazzling sword-light. In a breath, they formed a terrifying energy black hole that swallowed everything around it.
Several giant ships below, along with the seawater, silently departed from this world.
After a moment, the energy black hole quietly vanished.
Grath caught his breath—but the next instant, he gripped his sword tightly. "Again!"
Russell frowned slightly at this. Relying solely on Aizen and Mikoto Misaka was indeed stretching things.
However, just as the brown-haired girl and brown-haired man were about to repeat the previous process, an overwhelmingly powerful aura suddenly descended on the scene.
Russell's face went pale.
The sudden impact left him dazed.
Fortunately, after a few breaths, his extraordinary mental strength allowed him to recover.
But he didn't have the luxury of worrying about details right now.
Russell murmured, his expression grim. "Emerald-rank..."
The worst had happened.
At that moment, a somewhat playful voice spread across the battlefield. "Grath, you actually let such a little trick fool you."
As soon as the voice finished, a muscular man with his upper body bare appeared beside Grath.
The moment the aura appeared, Grath had already sheathed his sword. "...What do you mean, Will?"
Will smiled at this. "See for yourself."
The next moment, Grath was struck as if by lightning. He stared blankly at the fleet that had lost most of its forces. "When...?"
Then, as if realizing something, he glared furiously at Aizen. "It was you?!"
As he spoke, Grath moved to draw his sheathed sword.
However, his action was stopped by the muscular man beside him.
Will looked at Russell in the distance with interest. "Interesting. You can actually withstand my pressure."
"How about it? Interested in being first mate on my ship?"
"I can spare your life."
Hearing this, Russell fell silent.
But he wasn't considering whether to accept the offer. He was checking the newest card that had just been generated in his mind.
[Aizen's Special Black Cloak (One-Time Use)]
Rank: Gold
Quality: ???
Category: Item
Trait:
[Complete Concealment]: When the holder wears this black cloak, their aura will be completely hidden. Beings at Emerald-rank and below cannot detect the holder's presence.
Aizen's [I Am an Inventor] had activated.
Russell glanced at Luther and Zayne, already unconscious below. They'd both fainted the moment Will appeared.
Fortunately, Chancellor Tortoise and Flying Zombie were still present. Their lives weren't in immediate danger.
Of course, that was only temporary.
Because now, all the demons present were focused on the young human floating in the air.
Seeing that his invitation hadn't received a response for some time, Will was starting to show a hint of impatience.
"So..."
"Want to escape?"
Russell thought to himself.