Zanka no Tachi's tip barely grazed the ground, bouncing slightly from the rebound of contact. At first glance, the earth seemed unchanged.
However, in the next instant, the surface split open with a serpentine crack stretching endlessly into the distance. A blinding white cone of light erupted, expanding rapidly with thunderous force-the sound lagging behind as shockwaves tore across the terrain.
When the light faded, the ground had split apart completely. A vast crevasse several meters wide and extending deep beyond visibility yawned open before them. Fragments of shattered stone launched skyward, scattering across the ruins of the Seireitei. Dust and debris filled the air as the area surrounding Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni and Yhwach vanished under clouds of ash and fractured rubble.
Yhwach soared into the air, eyes narrowing. "What?"
Yamamoto's form blurred upward through the storm. "Clear!"
Yhwach kicked aside two massive slabs of rubble midair, each larger than his own frame. Yamamoto's sword slashed through the debris, melting the fragments instantly before he burst through the flames toward Yhwach with blinding speed. The Zanpakutō cut upward, forcing Yhwach to retreat quickly. Yhwach evaded the blow but retaliated with a powerful kick to Yamamoto's abdomen, sending both warriors skimming apart through the heat haze.
Landing on the roof, Yamamoto held his blade horizontally. "Zanka no Tachi: Higashi-Jin, Kyokujitsujin."
"All the heat of my flames is focused on the blade's tip. It will neither burn nor explode... it simply reduces everything it touches to ashes."
He leapt and swung toward the opposite end of the rooftop where Yhwach now stood.
BOOM!
Even the air trembled from the force of the strike. The ground beneath shattered several meters deep, leaving behind a crater dozens of meters wide. The sheer destruction made it clear that if this cut had connected with flesh, there would be nothing left but blood and dust.
Yhwach moved again, kicking off the air to avoid the attack. "How tedious… so, as long as I don't allow your Zanpakutō to touch me, I win."
In midair, he swung his blade horizontally from lower left to upper right-a motion too fast to track. By the time the beginning of the swing was visible, the arc had already completed high above him.
Yet Yamamoto stood unscathed.
Impossible.
Yhwach could sense it-his strike had been long enough to connect. It should have cut through. He resisted the urge to turn his head, knowing that any lapse before someone like Yamamoto could prove fatal. Only his eyes shifted upward-and what he saw tore through his composure.
"What...?"
His weapon was gone. The blade had vanished halfway above the guard, leaving only its lower section intact.
Even his sword's guard-a formation resembling Quincy wings formed of reishi-wavered as it disintegrated into fragments of light.
Both combatants dropped back to the ground amid the heat-distorted air.
Yamamoto's gaze was cold and unwavering. "You died a thousand years ago."
Memories surfaced unbidden-the battlefield of that time, bodies of Quincy lying scorched under the red and blue flames that had consumed them. Yhwach himself had fallen among them, defeated under Yamamoto's fire.
"Today, I will remind you," Yamamoto continued, his tone heavy and final. "You are nothing but the corpse I left to burn."
Flames erupted from beneath his feet, swallowing the air around him. The blaze detonated outward, flooding the vicinity in roaring waves of spiritual pressure. Buildings of the Seireitei disintegrated under its spread until the world itself seemed to drown in fire.
Yhwach shielded his face with his arm as the inferno washed over him. "T-this flame...?"
"Did I not tell you?" Yamamoto's deep, resonant tone came through the fire. "Where there is east… there is west."
"Zanka no Tachi: Nishi, Zanjitsu Gokui."
"The heat reaches fifteen million degrees."
With every step the Captain Commander took, the ground beneath him liquefied. The stone melted into magma and hissed with vapor, leaving molten pits in his wake. The devastation spread-behind him trailed rivers of red heat and plumes of evaporated moisture. The atmosphere itself cracked under the temperature.
Yhwach's pupils reflected the approaching inferno. What stood before him was not merely Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, head of the Gotei 13, but the incarnation of fire itself-the very force that had consumed his army centuries ago.
"At this temperature," Yamamoto said with measured calm, "you cannot even approach me."
His presence blazed across the field, every particle around him trembling at the overwhelming density of his reiatsu. "Think of it as my body and blade being cloaked by the sun itself."
From afar, Haschwalth's crystalline blue eyes narrowed as he observed the scene. The reflection of Yamamoto's flames burned across his irises-the silhouette of the old man standing immersed in heat beyond perception.
Fifteen million degrees. A flame that could no longer be called fire, invisible to normal sight, existing as pure reiryoku given form by spiritual domination alone. The vision of flame seen now could only be its manifestation forced into physical appearance by Yamamoto's impossible power.
Yamamoto raised his blade again. "Now... it ends here, Yhwach."
"If we continue, both the Seireitei and I will burn alongside you."
Every breath came harsh in the dry, scorching air. Yhwach's eyes narrowed against the waves of heat. The moisture in his throat evaporated almost instantly; even the protective layers of Blut Vene wavered under the assault.
Without that barrier, he would already have been reduced to ash.
Yamamoto's tone cut through the roaring atmosphere. "What's wrong? Will you just stand there and watch?"
"No..." Yhwach's teeth clenched. "Your sword is broken, and you think I've lost?"
"Being unable to move is expected," Yamamoto said steadily, his reiatsu flaring higher. "You may run if you wish... but I will find you-and kill you where you stand."
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