To be honest, Yoshio didn't really feel that soul reconstitution sensation when he broke through. He just naturally advanced, and then his soul shed its skin. Others' souls transform first and then they break through, but because Yoshio doesn't have that limit to begin with, he doesn't need that hassle.
Which is why, at this moment, Angra is technically the first to properly break through to the Transcendent tier.
In that instant, he felt a sense of sublimation—as if a two-dimensional being were upshifting into three dimensions—a joy welling from the depths of the soul. Strange light radiated from the hollow hole in his chest; the once pitch-black cavity now released a gorgeous, mysterious blend of violet and blue. The glow surged out of the hole, swiftly blanketing his body, and then gradually merged into him.
The mask on his face began to peel again. It had already been reduced to just the area around his eyes; now it seemed condensed to a single point—and that point shifted to his brow. If someone looked at him and ignored the strangely luminous hollow hole, they'd never think he was a Hollow.
As the light faded with time, Angra discovered that the hollow hole on his chest had extended outward with four fissures. The hole itself had shrunk; combined with the four lines, it resembled a cross with a circle in the middle.
At that moment, his soul successfully completed reconstitution, and all the spiritual power in his body began to change—not in quantity, but in quality.
Hollows grow stronger by improving both quality and quantity. From Gillian to Adjuchas to Vasto Lorde, their bodies shrink because they compress their spiritual pressure. Angra's body didn't get smaller, but the quality of his reiatsu kept rising.
That soul-reconstitution feeling was truly profound—it's no wonder Aizen lost his mind after his own reconstitution; he probably got drunk on it.
Seeing Angra about to finish evolving, Yoruichi and Tessai both exhaled in relief, but Kisuke remained cautious. He knew the moment of near-success is when people relax—and that's when danger strikes.
Sure enough, in almost an instant, the sky turned black!
Kisuke's pupils dilated. He slammed a button, but he was still a step too slow.
Tessai had already set a kidō barrier over this area. As the Great Kidō Chief, his kidō mastery was beyond question. His warding should have taken a captain-level Shinigami considerable effort to break—anyone except Kurosaki Ichigo.
Yet now, the golden lattice of the rectangular prism was effortlessly pierced by a sheet of ghastly white!
It was too fast—so fast they couldn't react, not even Yoruichi, the Flash Goddess.
Kisuke's button press made the barrier blaze brighter, green crystalline facets layering over its surface—but it was still too late.
That ghastly white substance descended over Angra in a blink. The strange colors around him faded just then; as he was about to open his eyes, the pallid mass engulfed and wrapped him.
"Roar!"
Angra bellowed as the white substance—like a pool of milky clay—rapidly seeped into him. His reiatsu spiked violently. If the previous change was purely qualitative, now both quality and quantity leaped forward again. A colossal force shot skyward like a tornado; a fierce hurricane blasted out, and billions of tons of reishi sand were swept up into a doomsday tableau.
Boom!
It was like an explosion. Terrifying reiatsu thundered; the world itself seemed to groan under the strain, on the brink of destruction.
Black reiatsu churned with white reishi sand; space twisted from the overwhelming force. At the center of this calamity, Angra rose on the wind as if lifted by the storm gods. He spread his arms as if cradling the world.
"Ha!"
Angra laughed amid the gathered tempest. "So there's someone else trying to surpass Vasto Lorde besides me. Too bad you were one step late."
"Now, become my nourishment."
He swept his right hand like a blade—and the kidō barrier Kisuke and Tessai had painstakingly crafted tore like tissue, ripping into chunks of reiatsu that were sucked into the raging storm.
Seeing such power, Kisuke's expression shifted. He grabbed Yoruichi and Tessai and withdrew immediately. Faced with such a monstrous foe, he had no intention of fighting. When the gap in strength is too great, cleverness won't bridge it. Worse, he knew nothing about this guy. Without intel, smarts are useless.
So—run!
Angra didn't pursue. He had no need to target Urahara. His goal was to attack Soul Society and draw the Royal Guard down from the Soul King Palace, giving Yoshio and Aizen room to slip through.
But not yet.
First, Angra had only just begun fusing with the left hand of the Hollow King; their powers hadn't fully merged. Second, Aizen hadn't yet produced a device like the Kakaku Taihō.
Still, it wouldn't take long.
The phenomena around him gradually calmed; the catastrophic storm ebbed, but his aura grew more terrifying by the moment.
Rumble…
As the two powers merged—Angra Mainyu, already a Transcendent, and the high-essence Hollow King's Left Hand—the resulting waves of power dwarfed even the Left Hand's prior fusion with Yoshio.
The gloomy sky tore; the earth heaved; Hueco Mundo was smothered under a sweeping reiatsu. The pressure they'd felt three years ago returned—stronger. Every Hollow could feel it: the King had grown more powerful.
This time, Hueco Mundo's upheaval could no longer be hidden. Angra's reiatsu was so potent it threatened the balance of the Three Realms. Merely releasing his reiatsu made Hueco Mundo quake like an earthquake, and the tremors soon radiated into all three realms.
Under Angra's power, all three realms shuddered slightly—terrible and beautiful in its might.
In the World of the Living:
Kisuke and the others, just back from Hueco Mundo, were drenched in cold sweat. He looked up: the sky rippled with spreading black, like some mighty hand repainting day into dark. Of course, this was a reishi world—non-spirit-sensitive humans couldn't perceive it.
"Keisuke…"
Yoruichi said, "Angra, he…"
"I suspected a Hollow surpassed Vasto Lorde," Kisuke said gravely, "but I didn't expect our carefully prepared barrier wouldn't last a second. And Angra couldn't react at all. I'd planned to pull him back to the Living World right after his soul reconstitution, but it seems upper-tier Hollows may exert control over those below. Maybe that's why he was devoured by that greater Hollow without resisting."
"What now…" Yoruichi fretted. Angra might be a Hollow, but after decades together they saw him as a partner—and he was their carefully cultivated anti-Quincy weapon. And now another Hollow had devoured him?!
Kisuke said nothing, mind racing. Hard to cook without rice. He'd hoped to glean something about that realm after Angra's breakthrough; now the gap had widened and he had no immediate plan. Still, he always planned contingencies.
"Let's see how this develops first," he said. "Within a week, there's still a chance to save Angra."
"A week…? How?"
Yoruichi asked.
"Wait."
"Wait?"
"When his power peaks, we can't do anything. We move when he weakens."
"Weaken? Will he?"
"A Hollow's nature will drive him to act immediately. Whatever he does… there will be war."
...
By now, the tremors had thrown the Three Realms into panic.
Isshin looked out at the shaking world and bolted outside. "Ichigo! Yuzu! Karin!"
Karakura Middle School.
Believing the tremors to be an earthquake, the school was evacuating students. Outside the classroom, Ichigo's pupils dilated. Though he wasn't a Shinigami now, he could see the reishi world—and he saw the darkness blanketing the sky, spreading as if some monster had pierced the atmosphere to stain the heavens black, threatening to swallow the world.
"What… is that?" he gasped.
"Run, Ichigo!" Tatsuki Arisawa smacked him. "Don't gawk, get to an open area!"
"But… the sky's so dark, I can't see the way…"
"What are you babbling about? It's broad daylight—are you scared stupid?" Tatsuki snapped.
"?!" Ichigo's eyes widened. Broad daylight? Then what was he seeing? The spirit world only he could see? A world-ending vengeful spirit?!
Tatsuki dragged him to an open area. By chance he spotted Nezuko in the crowd—she was looking up too! He rushed over. "Nezuko! You can see the black sky too, right?!"
Nezuko had reached the assembly area. The ground shook; people panicked. Hearing Ichigo, she feigned confusion. "What? What sky?"
"Don't pretend. I saw you looking at that black sky!" Ichigo had long suspected Nezuko could see spirits. They weren't even in the same middle school class now, but they'd been classmates for six years in elementary school. More importantly, on the night his mother died… he thought he'd heard Nezuko's voice—faint, but unmistakable. Why had she been there?
He'd asked many times if she could see spirits, and she always said no. Realizing only he could see the darkness, he checked Nezuko—and indeed she'd been gazing at the sky.
"…I think you're scared silly," Nezuko said, making a face. "What black sky? I'm looking at earthquake clouds."
"Earthquake clouds?" Ichigo blinked.
"Haven't you heard?" Arms folded, she pressed her pale palms forward. "Earthquakes come with special clouds. I'm a science-first person, so I'm skeptical—it's mostly conjecture. But since we finally had a quake here, I wanted to see them."
"…" Ichigo stared. "Really?"
"Of course not." She grinned. "I didn't see any."
No, I wasn't asking whether quake clouds exist…
Ichigo deflated. Had he misread her?
Tatsuki came over. "You're showing off your 'I see ghosts' thing again. You've asked both of us a bunch. But you can't make people see what they can't."
In elementary school, Ichigo often talked about ghosts—and sometimes even talked to them. After his mother died, he rarely mentioned it. Now in junior high, he was at it again. Well, maybe it was about that age for chuuni…
"Don't you think it's weird?" Tatsuki added. "The quake was sudden, but it's stayed at a mild tremor. Gave me a scare."
"The epicenter isn't here. Wonder where got unlucky."
As Nezuko and Tatsuki chatted, Ichigo brooded. He thought he'd caught Nezuko's slip, but maybe he'd been wrong?
The tremors gradually stopped, but the darkness in the sky lingered. Students exhaled in relief—just a scare. A true big one would kill who knows how many.
Even though the shaking stopped, the teachers kept the students on the field for a while—too abnormal.
As panic ebbed, cheers rose. No class time!
Nezuko glanced at the black sky, curious. What happened? From the reiatsu, it seemed like Hueco Mundo was in trouble. She'd been there many times, but never felt reiatsu so terrifying—it was like the entire realm came alive and squirmed before her. Horrifying. Damn it, she wanted to go see what was going on!
...
Even slow-to-react Soul Society finally moved. Darkness covered their sky too, and the tremors almost knocked Shinigami off their feet. Being reishi beings, they felt the quake more sharply. How strong must one be to cause this?
Soul Society mobilized. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto immediately summoned all captains for a meeting. Captains came without panic, but with heavy faces, hurrying to learn what happened and how to respond.
...
"Your Majesty…"
In the Wandenreich, Yhwach also summoned the Sternritter—well, not all. The Schutzstaffel didn't appear. Baelz and three other guards were deeper in the palace. Haschwalth stood before the assembled Sternritter.
"The Sternritter are all here."
Yhwach looked at them, but didn't order an attack on Hueco Mundo. Instead: "No need to rush. Wait a moment longer, and the war we desire will come."
The Sternritter craved war—only through it could they advance. They glanced at each other; their realm shook too, but they didn't panic. They had been sent to find the newly born Hollow King—but now that his reiatsu could be located, Yhwach called them back.
Puzzling.
Yhwach explained: "His existence already threatens the balance of the Three Realms. Even if we don't act, the Shinigami will fight him. Let the two sides fight to the death."
He knew the Shinigami would never allow a threat to the balance. If the Gotei failed, the Royal Guard wouldn't sit idle—just as before. A thousand years ago, Ichibē Hyōsube came to parley on behalf of the Shinigami. Talks broke down, but Ichibē was prepared—he sealed Yhwach's Almighty with the Soul King's left hand. Ichibē intervened because he judged the Gotei insufficient. Now this Hollow King's threat had likewise reached the threshold that would trigger the Royal Guard.
If the Hollow King had been weaker, Yhwach would've let the Quincy handle it. Now that he's so strong, they need not act at all. Whoever wins, they profit.
...
Soul King Palace.
"Monk, we can't sit this out, right?" Kirio Hikifune chewed a stem, annoyed. "That guy's endangering the Three Realms. Even if we can't kill him, we should seal him."
Ōetsu Nimaiya added, "Yeah."
"Hmm…" Ichibē rubbed his chin, his big eyes empty, as if he already saw Angra in Hueco Mundo. "Even so, our duty is to guard the Palace. Let's see what the guys below do. Unless the Seireitei takes catastrophic damage, we just guard the Palace."
"Plenty of Shinigami will die," Kirio said—once 12th Division captain, promoted from the Gotei.
"Not our concern," Ōetsu shrugged. "Blame their incompetence. Gotei Thirteen—at a critical moment do they need us to guard the Court?"
...
"I thought I could test my new power on the Sternritter," Angra said in Hueco Mundo, raising a hand. The vast power retracted; the tremors ceased; his control grew steadier. The quaking had only been poor control. With his strength, a sleeve flick could shake the Three Realms—but only the unskilled cause phenomena like that. The Royal Guard was like that: they'd exceeded Shinigami, but with borrowed, constrained power—the Ōken, the Soul King's power remaking their bones, hair, and souls. Such power is strong but limited; they cannot truly master it, thus they sealed themselves with the Blood Pact, only released when three of them die. Ichibē wasn't bound because he can control his power. Aizen too: though he used the Hōgyoku to surpass limits, his control was precise enough not to disturb the realms.
Angra's initial disturbance came right after his breakthrough and sudden fusion with the Left Hand—it was a lot, fast. Once adapted, he could control it.
He settled onto the desert. The sky above was pitch black, lightless, like the world had fallen into an abyss. He raised a hand to the sky; the darkness twisted, the heavens above seemed to funnel toward him; the viscous black poured down and into his right hand. Hueco Mundo regained a faint light.
He smiled, pointed upward. Black light gathered at his fingertip like oil, condensing into a sphere.
"Cero Oscuras."
He fired. The force pierced the firmament, broke Hueco Mundo's ceiling, and shot higher, as if it exited the world and reached the vast, remote cosmos.
Boom!
All of Hueco Mundo heard a deafening bang. Every Hollow stared up at the moon—now marred by a black spot.
"Wh-what?!"
Even the Espada were shocked. Such power that it damaged the moon that had stood above Hueco Mundo for a million years?!
"Not bad." Testing complete, Angra retracted his hand. His body vapor-traced and vanished. His evolution hadn't ended—he could grow stronger.
...
"According to Captain Kurotsuchi's report, the source of the tremors is Hueco Mundo."
In 1st Division, the captains assembled for another captains' meeting. They didn't know what had happened, but they all sensed a Three Realms crisis.
Even Genryūsai's speech quickened. "Analysis suggests a being beyond Vasto Lorde has likely been born in Hueco Mundo."
At beyond Vasto Lorde, faces hardened. In Soul Society doctrine: Gillian require seated officer; Adjuchas have captain-class power; Vasto Lorde exceed captains. And now… something beyond Vasto Lorde?
"Is Urahara involved?" Aizen asked. "He's been consorting with Hollows, performing vile Arrancar experiments. Did he use Arrancarization to help a Vasto Lorde break through?"
To be fair, he wasn't wrong. Urahara had been working with a Hollow and had found a method to push him beyond Vasto Lorde.
"Situation's unclear, but that's the most likely," Genryūsai nodded.
"This power is too much," Kyōraku said, uncharacteristically serious. "It could break the Three Realms balance."
"So we subjugate him?" Zaraki Kenpachi grinned. He didn't care about balance—only that such a foe must be fun.
"Unfortunately, he's in Hueco Mundo. We can't pinpoint him," Genryūsai said. Soul Society rarely intervened in Hueco Mundo; missions there were rare in history. If you don't prepare in peacetime, it's too late in crisis. They knew Hueco Mundo was abnormal but had no coordinates. They couldn't dig the whole desert. It would take years aimlessly, and Genryūsai suspected this Hollow would come to them anyway—just like a past event he'd survived as a youth, before Zanpakutō were common. A super Hollow had invaded to devour the Soul King. This one would be no different. So if they couldn't find him, they would prepare for defense when he found them.
"Level One Defensive Readiness. Recall all Shinigami to the Seireitei. Prepare for war."
The captains nodded. A battle for the Seireitei's future loomed.
…
After the meeting, Yoshio left with a heavy face alongside Kyōraku Shunsui, Hitsugaya Tōshirō, and Aizen Sōsuke.
"This is trouble," Yoshio said. "Who knows what kind of war is coming."
Kyōraku nodded. "If he brings those Arrancar from before, we're in for it."
They knew how nasty Arrancar were. A Hollow King alone was bad enough; if he led others, Seireitei could face annihilation.
"Whatever the case, we must be ready to fight to the death," Hitsugaya said. "I'll go fetch Kuchiki from the Living World." K
arakura had to have at least a lieutenant present; Rukia's turn.
"I'm off too; my Nanao's in the Living World."
She'd been investigating anomalies in the West Isles.
Yoshio and Aizen nodded and watched them go.
Afterward, Aizen said, surprised, "I didn't expect you'd hand over the Hollow King's Left Hand just to get to the Soul King Palace."
He didn't know Angra was Yoshio's avatar—so to him, giving up such a treasure was shocking.
"Can't catch a wolf without risking the lamb," Yoshio smiled. "And you know I've never been fixated on power."
True enough—Aizen had never seen him covet strength.
"In three days at most, the Ten Pillars will be ready," Aizen said.
In three days, the plan could start.
Yoshio returned to 10th Division to handle business.
"What happened?!" Rangiku hadn't been at the captains' meeting and didn't know.
Yoshio summarized it and said, "Get the squad ready. The Seireitei may face a hard battle."
Even Rangiku dropped the jokes and got to work.
…
Meanwhile, the Living World went mad—the quake was global. Not just Karakura—everywhere shook. The tremor wasn't long or strong; there were few casualties. Still, the uncanny phenomenon terrified people.
For now, primary and middle schools closed; only high schoolers had class.
Nezuko returned home and dropped her bag. "Hela, what was that quake?!"
Hela had just come back, coffee in one hand, newspaper in the other. "Don't know. Probably not our concern."
"What? The whole world shook!"
"Not just the world—Hueco Mundo and Soul Society too. But your father messaged: we're not to get involved."
"What a shame," Nezuko pouted. "The Karakura Shinigami seem to have withdrawn. Big things are coming. Will Dad be okay?"
"Trust your father's strength," Hela said coolly. "Yoshio is the strongest person I've seen. He'll be fine."