Baraggan and Starrk had initially ventured outside Las Noches, but they received word mid-transit: the palace was under siege. Baraggan returned first. Surveying the "traitors"—Ulquiorra and Halibel—the former King of Hueco Mundo let out a contemptuous laugh.
"Hmph... Aizen isn't much after all. Even the fools he hypnotized turn their backs on him. It seems there is only one true Master of Las Noches: me. Today, I clean house. Regardless of who you are, if you dare destroy my domain, there is only one end... death!"
Baraggan roared, a void-like spiritual pressure erupting from his body.
"Rot, Arrogante."
The Resurrección was complete. He transformed into a giant skeleton draped in purple, a jagged axe in hand. Purple flames flickered—the manifestation of his power over death. Senescencia. Anything that touched this power, even the soul itself, would age and wither instantly.
Seeing him, Rosalyne turned to Ganyu. "Leave this one to me. You handle Starrk when he arrives."
"Understood. Be careful."
"Heh... this ego-maniac is actually the easiest to deal with."
Rosalyne didn't reach for her primary catalyst. Instead, she drew a curved blade from a spatial rift on her wrist—an item Su Han had specifically prepared for this encounter.
Lumine gasped. "Is that... the Mortal Blade?"
"Indeed. The Mortal Blade!"
Rosalyne drew the weapon. The blood-red blade pulsed with an ominous, dangerous aura. Even Ulquiorra frowned, sensing that his high-speed regeneration might not be able to withstand a strike from such an uncanny object. It wasn't a Zanpakuto, nor a Resurrección; it was an artifact designed to sever the immortal.
"Do you wish to challenge the majesty of a King? Foolish girl..." Baraggan sneered. "Your strength is decent. Kneel and beg for mercy, and I might make you the Tres Espada."
"Foolish? The only fool here is you, old man... played like a puppet by a hypnotic blade while still preening in your self-importance. Put away your arrogance. You're about to become another soul fragment in my collection."
Rosalyne stepped forward, hellfire erupting around her. Thousands of Blazing Butterflies swirled in the sky, turning the ground into a literal inferno. If Hueco Mundo was hell, she was its Queen.
When she was five hundred meters from Baraggan, her figure vanished. A crescent of fiery red sword-qi tore through the sky. Baraggan swung his axe, shattering the strike effortlessly.
"Hmph... weak slashes. A joke."
Baraggan's strength wasn't just in aging; his sheer spiritual pressure was enough to crush lesser Arrancars. Unfortunately for him, Rosalyne never intended to win with sword-qi alone. She was a Witch, a master of magic. Melee was merely a distraction.
As Baraggan shattered the slashes, massive meteors—each a hundred meters wide—began to rain from the sky.
"This trick works on useless Shinigami, but not on me!" Baraggan raised a finger, firing three flashes of light that pulverized the falling rocks.
When he turned to find Rosalyne, she was gone. Only a sea of fire remained. "Hiding? Such a childish tactic!" He expanded his purple field of Respira. The surrounding flames began to wither and die under the weight of his aging power.
Kujou Sara, watching from the distance, frowned. "Even hellfire can be extinguished by him? His power is terrifying."
"It's not being extinguished," Ganyu corrected. "It's the energy within the fire that is 'aging' and dissipating. A fascinating power."
Suddenly, a single flame flickered toward Baraggan. He swiped at it with a skeletal hand, crushing it instantly. "Tricks!"
"Are they?" Rosalyne's voice echoed.
The flames vanished like a dream. In that instant, a searing pain flared in Baraggan's chest. He looked down to see a deep, blood-red wound carved across his ribs. His power was leaking.
"Cough... how?"
The Immortal King was supposed to be untouchable.
"I told you, you have no brain," Rosalyne reappeared, holding the Mortal Blade. "I set up the illusion from the very start. I knew your power was troublesome, and I knew you were vulnerable to mental deception. I used the fire as a psychological anchor. In a duel between masters, one only needs a split second. And in that second, I struck."
The fire rose again, turning into chains that bound the dying Emperor. Within moments, the Skeleton King was extinguished. His vast soul energy was sucked into a gourd in Rosalyne's hand.
"Using one's brain is much more fun," she mused. Then, she glanced toward a rift in the distance. "You hiding there... care to come out?"
A shockwave of spiritual pressure blew away the remaining flames. Coyote Starrk stepped onto the battlefield. His opponent: Ganyu.
The Duel of the Solitary
"Kick about, Los Lobos."
Having witnessed Baraggan's demise, Starrk was extremely cautious. He released his form immediately, pointing his pistols at Ganyu. "Cero Metralleta."
A barrage of Ceros, as thick as machine-gun fire, erupted. The group watched in awe; the Primera's power was truly on another level. Ganyu, however, didn't seem to move. She drew her bow and fired a single arrow that split into thousands of icy needles, each one neutralizing a Cero in mid-air.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ganyu advanced steadily. As the distance closed, the exchange became more violent. After three minutes of continuous fire, Ganyu stood just fifty meters from him.
Starrk finally lowered his guns slightly. "What is your name? You aren't a Hollow... yet you're strong enough to earn my respect."
"Ganyu. I am an illuminated beast... an Adeptus. Your strength is impressive, but I know you are capable of more. Let us finish this. Bankai!"
Ice-blue energy surged from her feet, freezing the desert floor as it raced toward Starrk.
"Soul Separation."
Starrk summoned a pack of spirit wolves that lunged at Ganyu. He followed up with continuous fire. However, as the wolves neared her, the very air froze them solid. Starrk used a Cero to shatter the ice, allowing the wolves to push through—he had already calculated how to counter her frost.
But he made one mistake. Ganyu's domain wasn't just about the cold.
As her hair fluttered in the snow, a crystalline arrow shot out. Starrk realized the blizzard was just a cover; the real threat was this single, tracking arrow. He used Sonido to reposition, but the arrow turned in mid-air, chasing him. Three more arrows followed in a "Star-Chasing" formation.
"Damn it..."
Starrk fired a point-blank Cero, but the spiritual pressure of his blast was turned to ice before the arrow.
CRASH!
The arrow froze Starrk's shoulder, disabling one arm. He prepared to fire with his other hand, but Ganyu was already pulling her bow to full draw. A shimmering floral pattern appeared on her forehead—the mark of her Qilin Heritage. Seeking to give her opponent the respect he deserved, she prepared her strongest strike.
The air itself began to crack under the pressure. Starrk closed his eyes, prepared for the end. But the attack never came.
"Why?" he asked. "One more shot and I would be gone."
"I don't feel like fighting anymore," Ganyu said softly, lowering her bow. "Because you aren't fighting seriously either, are you? You're just... lonely."
The words hit Starrk like a physical blow. He was lonely—so lonely it was a physical ache. Seeing Baraggan die, he had simply been waiting for his turn to follow into the void. Seeing the hesitation in his eyes, Ganyu reached out a hand.
"If you're tired of being alone in this desert, come with us. There's a whole world out there waiting for someone like you."
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