As the dust settled, the scene at the heart of the explosion gradually came into view.
The pallid left hand of the Hollow King looked a little listless for a moment—only for its body to begin regenerating at a blistering speed.
Not even a full second—almost in an instant, it was as good as new!
The next moment, a Cero once again condensed at its core—this time the massive one from the very beginning, not a narrow focused beam.
No—this should be called the Cero of the Hollow King!
In any case, that Cero gathered once more. Yoshio was just about to dodge when, in the very next instant, he found the Cero already right before him!
So fast?!
Yoshio's pupils contracted. In the next heartbeat he triggered the ability "Captain's Aide."
The ability placed Yoshio right at Aizen's side—effectively a teleport with zero windup.
So, no matter how fast that Cero was, it still failed to hit him.
Except that the instant he appeared beside Aizen, the crimson beam was already upon them again!
This time it was even closer than before, leaving neither him nor Aizen any room to react. In a blink, the crimson torrent swallowed their bodies and kept roaring onward without pause!
Boom!
On the white sand of reishi, a massive trench appeared in an instant, extending forward for several kilometers—as if a riverbed had been carved out of nothing!
The searing heat evaporated the nearby reishi sand outright.
When the light faded, Yoshio lay at the bottom of the trench, a glassy mirror-plane shining before him.
Mirror Reflection!
Yoshio once again deployed Mirror Reflection and Ultimate Defense. With both layered together, he avoided serious injury.
He did look a bit bedraggled, though.
He glanced to the side.
That guy Aizen…
So unreliable—he bailed!
Yes, Aizen had actually chosen to run?!
In truth, Yoshio could have run too, but right now the Hollow King's left hand had his full attention.
"Heh, in that case… I'll just have to make you suffer a little."
Yoshio chuckled and covered his face with one hand.
In an instant, a sacred power welled from his body!
Radiance poured out of him—so brilliant it seemed to dispel Hueco Mundo's ageless darkness.
It was as if a sun had risen within Hueco Mundo. Yoshio's whole figure blurred; light cloaked him and then spread outward!
Soul Ability: Incarnation of Light!
Of the several personas he had split off with the Mind-Rending Blade, each possessed a formidable soul ability.
Hela's was Goddess of Death, Nezuko's was Great Mother of Time, Teresa's was Incarnation of Light, and Gabriel's was Power of God.
All of these belonged to the divine domain of power!
And now, Yoshio invoked Teresa's Incarnation of Light. He felt his body blaze, the world before him impossibly bright, as if all the light in existence had gathered at his eyes!
"Destructive Death Ray."
Yoshio extended his hand.
The Destructive Death Ray formed again—only this time it wasn't black. It shone with a golden, sacred light. Hardly a death ray—more like holy light!
Yet that holy light carried staggering destructive power—at least three times stronger than the usual Destructive Death Ray!
In a flash, the golden beam slammed into the Hollow King's left hand. It ignored all defense; even the Hollow King couldn't block it.
When the golden light passed, a gigantic circular hole gaped in the Hollow King's body!
It was as if everything beneath the Left Hand of the Spirit King had been hollowed out, only a few strands of structure desperately holding the body together!
But then Ultra-Speed Regeneration reappeared—no, this had already surpassed that. It should be called Extreme Regeneration!
The damage from the Holy Destruction Ray healed in an instant as well.
Yoshio frowned slightly—though wreathed in sacred light, no one could see his expression.
By now, he had a decent guess at the left hand's ability.
Judging from its display, and contrasting with the Right Hand of the Soul King—whose aspect was Stagnation—Yoshio concluded the Hollow King's left hand's ability was Acceleration!
Not the Soul King's left hand's Advance—whose essence was actually Evolution—but rather the speeding up of a designated process or anything occurring within a given space!
For example, the left hand designated its post-injury recovery to accelerate, so it healed completely the very next second.
It also accelerated its attacks, so its Cero arrived at Yoshio almost in the blink of an eye.
Except…
Just as the Soul King's left hand could be overloaded by Nemu's brain, Yoshio believed the Hollow King's left hand must also have limits!
"Sandstorm!"
"Blizzard!"
"Inferno Storm!"
In an instant, Yoshio unleashed all three. These weren't single-hit burst skills; they dealt sustained damage over an area.
He didn't believe a single Hollow King's left hand could overturn the heavens!
Once you understood an opponent's ability, countermeasures followed naturally.
Option one: exhaust its reiatsu.
Option two, well…
Yoshio's body dissolved into motes of light.
Behind the left hand, streaks of radiance converged and Yoshio reformed.
Photon Shift!
As an Incarnation of Light, Yoshio used a movement akin to Aizen's light-form displacement at Hogyoku Stage Four—far superior to Shunpo, Sonído, or Hirenkyaku, and closer to true teleportation!
Fireball!
A massive fireball bloomed in Yoshio's hand—larger than the entire Hollow King's left hand.
At this range, its mere appearance engulfed the left hand entirely!
Sizzle—!
Snow fell from above, sandstorm howled around, flames roared from below—now joined by the colossal fireball. For a moment, it was as though all forces converged to a single point.
Boom!
Another cataclysmic explosion. The fireball detonated, savaging the left hand's body.
And the left hand, in turn, repaired itself madly—destroyed a bit, restored a bit—like it were unharmed in aggregate!
Yoshio's brow creased. It seemed its acceleration could be designated to specific sub-processes.
At first he'd wondered if accelerating his own attack would somehow cancel with the accelerated healing—but clearly, it wouldn't.
Still…
No big deal.
Yoshio stepped into the sea of fire. The flames bent away from his light-body, and he reached the left hand with ease.
Seeing him, the left hand roared again. Countless tendrils extended from its maw.
Each tendril bore a mouth, and from those mouths sprouted more tendrils—within moments, thousands of them surged at Yoshio!
They were incredibly fast. Even though Yoshio, as Light Incarnate, lacked true physicality, this thing seemed poised to swallow even light itself!
Those gaping black maws were like dark holes, radiating a devouring pull!
"I'd planned to save this a while longer," Yoshio sighed. "But you've got such a robust vitality, you probably won't die. So…"
His face turned solemn.
With the tendrils practically upon him, Yoshio showed no fear. He spread his arms as though to embrace the world's darkness.
Softly, he said:
"Black Sun."
Boom!
In an instant, an impossible power burst from Yoshio's body!
From a body radiant with sanctity, a darkness unfurled.
It contracted, condensed, compressed—into a single flame.
Black fire rose around Yoshio—not plasma, but nearer a liquid, like thick black ink!
Thoom…
A heavy sound rolled from behind him. A vast black sun—like a black hole—appeared behind his sacred form!
It rotated slowly, exhaling immeasurable heat. The tendrils that had been about to bind him burned to ash in an instant!
And the black flames surged on—like hordes of demons from hell, who, after breaking through layer upon layer of barriers, finally crawled into the world and rushed madly outward!
In the blink of an eye, a radius of ten kilometers centered on Yoshio became a black sea of fire!
And it was spreading fast!
Hueco Mundo's white land was dyed pitch-black. Though the flames burned, they made no sound—perfectly fitting Hueco Mundo's silent darkness.
This was Black Sun!
He had stockpiled unused reiatsu indefinitely—and now unleashed it all at once. It was Yoshio's strongest attack to date!
Once released, even the Hollow King's left hand let out a cry that sounded like pure agony!
Its body kept melting, only to heal; and Yoshio, deified, walked this kingdom of deathly darkness like the only god.
Watching the left hand dissolve in the black blaze, he walked toward it. With each step, the flames rose higher; the black sun behind him grew denser, spinning like a singularity!
"…"
The left hand couldn't even make a sound now—as if even sound was consumed by the Black Sun. At the absolute center of this domain, Yoshio finally stood before it.
"Now then, can you behave yourself?"
He saw its regeneration slowing. Even a divine-domain entity could not stand against a Black Sun forged from decades of accumulation!
He slowly reached out and touched the left hand. In the next instant, the left hand vanished from this world!
Host!
Yoshio knew taming a mindlessly devouring Hollow was meaningless; even turning it into an Arrancar via the Hogyoku likely wouldn't work.
This great Hollow devoured everything—even Shinigami factors released by the Hogyoku would just be eaten. So use the simplest method.
After subduing the left hand, Yoshio activated "Host," forcing the Hollow King's left hand into his own soul!
In a heartbeat, he felt a colossal presence entering him.
The left hand's body blurred and abstracted, then poured into Yoshio's chest like a stream!
He felt a fullness at his chest. He shut his eyes and let the reiryoku surge.
!
Suddenly, Hollow reiatsu began to spill from Yoshio!
It was so wicked—not a trace of Shinigami left.
Pure Hollow reiatsu!
Black-red pressure spread from him; white matter crawled across his face, and he entered Hollowfication by instinct!
Roar!!
Hollowfied, Yoshio howled, and a Cero of the Hollow King condensed on his mask—then blasted skyward!
Hueco Mundo's firmament was dark; the black-red Cero stained it with an eldritch glow!
At that moment, the Vasto Lorde–class Hollows of Hueco Mundo raised their heads. Staring at the blood-tinged sky, they felt, instinctively—
A Hollow had surpassed Vasto Lorde!
"…No way," Starrk murmured. "Someone actually reached beyond Vasto Lorde? Is it… Angra?"
"No chance, right? I thought that guy was about your level." Lilynette stared, shaken, then added at Starrk's words:
"I'm about even with him in combat, but on the path of evolution he's further than me," said Starrk. "If he really reached a realm beyond Vasto Lorde, I wouldn't be surprised."
"Damn it…" Baraggan clenched his fists!
He was the king of Hueco Mundo!
So why were great Hollows popping up one after another?!
First a Starrk from who knows where; then Szayelaporro, who'd once worked under him; and an Angra Mainyu not in Las Noches…
All of them wielding power surpassing his own!
It shouldn't be!
He was the king of Hueco Mundo—the mightiest Hollow!
And now, someone had pushed beyond Vasto Lorde! Just gazing at that demonic sky, Baraggan felt a submissive urge rise in his heart!
No! For him, that was humiliation! He was the absolute strong—the king for tens of thousands of years!
No one would take his throne! Not Aizen! Not this ascended upstart either!
Baraggan howled inwardly, recalling what Szayelaporro had told him not long ago…
Bastard!
If it made him stronger, he didn't care the cost!
…
"…"
"Your Majesty?" In the Wandenreich, seeing Yhwach suddenly react, Haschwalth asked, "Has something happened?"
Not just Yhwach—even he felt… something. A sense of danger.
No, not just him. Every Quincy in the Wandenreich, Karakura Town, and Seireitei felt it!
Subtle, yet overwhelming—paradoxical, but unmistakable.
How to put it… Like someone holding a gun to the back of your head—you couldn't see it, but your body instinctively sensed the threat!
"Haschwalth…"
Yhwach opened his eyes. "Dispatch the Sternritter to Hueco Mundo immediately to investigate."
"Your Majesty?" Haschwalth was shocked. "If we move now, we may expose ourselves."
Yhwach looked at him—scarlet eyes making Haschwalth tense. He'd thought himself beyond fear after a thousand years, yet that old terror returned.
"Haschwalth…"
"My son… A Quincy—my nemesis—has appeared."
!
Haschwalth's pupils widened.
Nemesis?!
He knew who Yhwach was. Who else in this world could be called his nemesis?!
"Before he matures, he must be eliminated—at any cost!"
"Yes!" Haschwalth obeyed at once.
…
"What is it?"
In the World of the Living, at the Black Cat Bookstore.
Angra looked up from his book, gaze seeming to slip beyond the door, beyond the human world… toward Hueco Mundo.
Sensing the change, Yoruichi, dozing as a black cat, cracked an eye. "What's wrong?"
"Not sure," Angra said softly. "But I feel that something above me has appeared in Hueco Mundo."
"Above you?!" Yoruichi sprang up, shocked. "Did someone evolve beyond Vasto Lorde before you?!"
"Very possible," Angra said. "But… who would it be? I don't think Starrk could beat me to it…"
"Whoever it is, it's probably not good news," Kisuke Urahara walked out just then.
He didn't know what happened in Hueco Mundo, but it didn't take much to guess. That realm was Aizen's turf now. If a Hollow changed, could Aizen be uninvolved?
Could Aizen have created a Hollow beyond Vasto Lorde before him?
Angra Mainyu's soul had restructured to ninety percent—just ten percent short of transcendent evolution. Urahara didn't think another Hollow could be faster.
So what did Aizen… use?
"This feeling… is nasty," Angra murmured. "Like an extra weight in my bloodline—a command over all Hollows from that thing."
"…Should we go take a look?" Yoruichi glanced at Urahara.
"Let's not act rashly yet," Urahara said. "No one knows what's happened there. I'll send some floating probes into Hueco Mundo to scout. If it looks safe, we'll go ourselves."
In the span of a blink, everyone but Soul Society sensed Hueco Mundo's upheaval!
…
At the epicenter, Yoshio slowly opened his eyes.
"Heh. Feels pretty good."
He raised his hand. He had already dispelled the Incarnation of Light and canceled the Black Sun.
The damage from Black Sun, however, hadn't been undone—likely never would be.
This region would be wasteland forever. The black flames fed by reishi sand would burn eternally!
No Hollow could approach this area again. This was where a king was born; any Hollow except the king would be devoured by Black Sun if it dared draw near!
This land was Yoshio's place of attainment.
Ahem—maybe that's a bit grand. He'd simply left a lot of destruction; he was embellishing.
He'd taken the Hollow King's left hand into his soul—but its power polluted his own reiatsu for now, turning him effectively into a Hollow.
He pulled open his shihakushō at the chest. A pitch-black Hollow hole gaped there.
The mask on his face wouldn't disperse either—like a true Hollow.
Yoshio didn't panic. He was just adapting to the foreign body of the left hand within his soul. Once he completely suppressed and mastered it, there'd be no problem.
However…
He couldn't return to Soul Society for a while.
"Captain Aizen, what you did just now wasn't exactly chivalrous."
Yoshio looked into the distance. Aizen's figure stepped out there.
This time, Yoshio didn't find Aizen by his soul ability sense, but by brute-forcing through Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis with his overwhelming spiritual power.
Aizen regarded the Hollow-like Yoshio and said softly, "Just as I thought, Yoshio-kun—you've completed your evolution."
"Oh?" Yoshio smiled. "You knew I could devour the Hollow King's left hand?"
"Nothing is impossible. I once thought you were the Soul King's will and vessel. But now, it seems you will surpass him."
For the first time, Aizen spoke of Yoshio this way. "If I'm not mistaken, your essence lies above the Soul King."