After settling things on Angra's side, Yoshio looked at the devastated Seireitei before him and couldn't help raising his right hand.
"Limit of the thousands hands, respectful hands, unable to touch the darkness. Shooting hands unable to reflect the blue sky. The road that basks in light, the wind that ignited the embers, time that gathers when both are together, there is no need to be hesitant, obey my orders. Light bullets, eight bodies, nine items, book of heaven, diseased treasure, great wheel, grey fortress tower. Aim far away, scatter brightly and cleanly when fired—Hadō #91. Senju Kōten Taihō!"
The instant he finished the incantation, the preparations for the #91 Hadō were complete. In a flash, dozens of crimson beams shot from his hand, roaring toward the three-headed dragon.
This was the last monster.
With that massive explosion, the three-headed demon dragon finally reached its limit and plummeted from the sky.
Boom!
The dragon's massive body crashed into the ground of the Seireitei, smashing out a huge crater. Under the combined effect of high temperature and Kidō, its body slowly dissolved, finally turning into a pool of black sludge, then into gas that dispersed before their eyes.
"Phew…"
Yoshio let out a breath, wiped the sweat from his face, and said, "Finally wrapped up."
Kyoraku Shunsui landed beside him at this moment. He looked tired as well, but now he was finally able to relax a little as he said, "What's left now is only the Shinigami who are still under control."
"Even a lot of the captains are controlled," Yoshio looked into the distance, where traces of battle could still be seen everywhere.
He couldn't help saying, "This is a real pain. My Zanpakutō's ability doesn't work on them at all."
"Yeah. Right now they're just mindless rampaging beasts," Shunsui said with feeling. "They can't feel loneliness in the slightest. It's rare to see your Zanpakutō fail so completely."
Before this, Yoshio's Zanpakutō ability had been extremely powerful; very few people didn't fear it, since it could send someone straight into hell.
But against these thoroughly berserk monsters, the Hell of Loneliness did nothing.
Of course, if Yoshio were willing to unleash his full power, then a fully expanded Hell of Loneliness would still be enough to engulf these monsters and cast them into a hellish world.
It's just that with the normal level of captain-class power, he couldn't do that.
And if he were going all-out, he wouldn't even need Hell of Loneliness against these guys—Kidō and tactics would be plenty.
If his spiritual pressure were any stronger, just sweeping his Super Reiatsu Wall across them would be enough to flatten his enemies into meat paste!
With the three-headed dragon gone, it wasn't long before most of the disturbance in the Seireitei had settled down. Yamamoto and the Division Zero members reappeared in front of them.
"The Monk is calling us," the sunglasses-wearing Ōetsu Nimaiya said. "We won't linger. The job of rebuilding the Seireitei, we'll leave to you. As for those who still haven't regained their senses, you can handle them yourselves."
"Let's go," the pompadoured Kirinji Tenjirō said. "The Monk really looks like he's in a hurry. We better get moving."
"Well then… next time we get the chance, let's catch up properly with everyone in the Gotei 13." The now-chubby Hikifune Kirio said with a simple, honest smile. "Eh? Where's Senjumaru?"
"She already left, didn't she? That woman really moves fast. All right, we're out too!" Ōetsu slung his Zanpakutō over his shoulder—and vanished the next instant.
If nothing else, Division Zero's speed was truly absurd. Each of them was faster than the last.
Yoshio had seen it clearly: in terms of Shunpo alone, the Division Zero members' mastery was far beyond that of the current Gotei 13 captains.
Leaving aside their combat power while sealed, if you only compared Shunpo as a stat, Yoshio felt each of them was on par with Yamamoto at least.
Kirinji Tenjirō, formerly famed for his speed as Lightning-Fast Tenjirō, was one thing—but the others were just as terrifying.
As expected from the ones who had undergone the baptism of the Soul King's power—Division Zero, who had broken through the Shinigami's limits with ease.
"Old man, what now? Looks like all the reinforcements just pulled out."
Seeing Division Zero suddenly depart, Shunsui couldn't help looking over at Yamamoto.
After his battle with Angra, Yamamoto had already released his Bankai. If he'd kept it up any longer, whether the Soul Society could survive was one thing; he himself would definitely have been burned to death by Ryūjin Jakka.
Because the power of his Bankai was too great, the strain on his body was equally enormous. Otherwise, their earlier battle would have been much easier.
"Commander-Captain!"
At that moment, Aizen also arrived with Shunpo. "Right now, only Captain Zaraki of Division 11 is still in a berserk state. The other captains who were contaminated have already lost consciousness and fallen unconscious."
"Looks like the only captains still able to move are just us few." Yoshio said.
At the same time, he looked into the distance—that was where Zaraki Kenpachi and Unohana Retsu were fighting. Though it was far, the intensity of their reiatsu was something they could easily sense.
Empowered by the black mud, Kenpachi was erupting with immense power, while Unohana had absolutely no desire to duel Kenpachi in this state, so she fought by constantly giving ground.
All she did was keep Kenpachi occupied and prevent this rampaging beast from causing greater destruction.
You had to say, Unohana's heart was really ruthless. With her strength, if she went all-out, she could have taken down Kenpachi long ago, then gone to help other Shinigami.
But clearly, the first Kenpachi cared more about Zaraki Kenpachi. Until the day she was truly ready to fight him, she wouldn't go all-out against anyone else.
"I'll go stop Zaraki. You three take care of calming the other rampaging Shinigami," Yamamoto said in a low voice.
Though he was heavily exhausted, dealing with a Zaraki Kenpachi was still no real effort.
"Let's move too."
Once Yamamoto left, Yoshio spoke again.
Aizen and Kyoraku both nodded. The four of them headed out in four different directions to suppress the remaining battles in the Seireitei.
The Seireitei was vast and sparsely populated. The people living here were either Shinigami or nobles. There were only six or seven thousand Shinigami; even if you added the Onmitsukidō, Kidō Corps, and other institutions, the total combat personnel barely reached twenty thousand.
Of course, some Shinigami had families—wives, children. But aside from that, everyone else here was a noble.
And yet the Seireitei was enormous. Even if you packed a hundred thousand people into it, the population density would still be pitifully low.
So most of what he saw was ruins, without a single person in sight.
Especially because Angra had earlier used his black mud to animate the entire Seireitei, turning the huge city into a living entity. Although Division Zero's attack had since stripped away that activity, the previous battles had already toppled a vast number of buildings.
At this point, maybe only one percent of the Seireitei's structures remained intact.
As Yoshio walked, he checked the changes in himself.
After using the "Big Cousin" ability on the Soul King, Yoshio's appearance hadn't changed at all, but he could clearly feel some special force acting on his body.
He carefully looked inward, observing the changes within his own soul.
His soul's strength had risen another step. Before, his soul had already been at a Transcendent level; now it was even stronger.
But beyond that, he didn't see any other obvious change.
No way…
Was that it?
Yoshio scratched his head, puzzled.
They'd taken advantage of the chaos to sneak up to the Soul King Palace, yet he felt like his gains were the smallest.
Forget it; maybe there were changes he hadn't discovered yet.
Yoshio calmed himself and went back to work.
He knocked down every rampaging Shinigami he came across, and by then someone was already running up from ahead.
"Captain Yoshio!"
Kira came running over, panting. "What are you doing here?"
"The war is over. I came to see if anyone was still under control." Yoshio said. "Good to see you're okay."
Kira nodded. "I came from the very front. There's no one left in this area."
"I see. In that case…"
Yoshio felt out the reiatsu across the Seireitei and found that the agitated presences were gradually disappearing. "Then it really is ending. Let's head back."
"Yes." Kira nodded, and returned with Yoshio to the Seireitei's central area.
Before long, the captains who had split up had all come back—this time with an extra Unohana Retsu.
The other captains were lying on the ground, unconscious. No, not unconscious—Unohana had sealed off their senses.
"This is…"
Yoshio was startled. "So they still haven't recovered?"
"The captains were exposed to a much stronger pollution. The black mud has contaminated the very core of their souls. Even for me, I can't dispel it in a short time."
Unohana's voice held little emotion; she said calmly, "So I sealed them for the time being."
"In that case, rebuilding the Seireitei falls to just us?" Kyoraku let out a wry smile. "Where's Ukitake?"
"He's a bit injured." Aizen said quietly. "I saw him earlier. I did some basic treatment and then sent him off to rest."
"Ukitake had been recuperating for so long and finally got a bit better, and then this sent his condition downhill again." Kyoraku sighed. "Where did that guy come from? Isn't he way too strong?"
The last line clearly referred to Angra, and it was a question lingering in all their minds.
How had Hueco Mundo suddenly produced such an overwhelmingly powerful Hollow?
Based on their past experience, Hollows who attacked the Soul Society were rarely this strong.
Why?
Because before reaching such strength, they would have been unable to resist attacking the Soul Society already.
Under those circumstances, even a top-tier Vasto Lorde was manageable.
Even if by some means a Hollow surpassed the Vasto Lorde level, they still wouldn't be able to handle the combined might of the Gotei 13.
Yet this King of Hollows was whole orders of magnitude above them. The combined Gotei 13 looked like a joke in front of him, easily broken apart.
"Since Division Zero dealt with this matter, we don't need to worry about it for now," Yamamoto said, tapping his cane on the ground. "For now, gather all Gotei 13 members who can still move. Rebuild the Seireitei!"
"Yes!"
With Yamamoto's command, the Shinigami of the Seireitei immediately began a frantic mobilization, preparing to rebuild their home.
…
Meanwhile, in the shadow of the Seireitei, things were not going smoothly for the Wandenreich either.
The Wandenreich was built upon the shadow of the Seireitei; the two were almost one. When the Seireitei suffered a near-annihilating disaster, the Wandenreich experienced something like a massive earthquake.
Buildings collapsed, ice sheets shattered, and many Quincy were buried and killed in the upheaval.
Baelz stepped through the Sun Gate into Sector 32 of the Wandenreich and saw his toppled R&D facility. His heart ached. "My lab! There were so many of my inventions in there!"
"Nothing dangerous in there, I hope?" Liltotto, who'd come with him, shot him a sideways glance, recalling the vengeful spirit that had once escaped the Seireitei's Technology Bureau.
Expressionless, she said, "If you had that kind of thing, I wouldn't help you clean it up."
"Relax. My lab is way safer than Mayuri's Tech Department. I care a lot about product safety, you know."
Baelz patted his chest. "Lili, I think you should sit out the next mission. That guy is actually kind of tough."
"That's not up to me." Liltotto sighed. "We can't defy His Majesty's orders. But you—life's been easy since you joined the Schutzstaffel."
The Sternritter would soon be heading to Hueco Mundo again to hunt for the Hollow King, while the Schutzstaffel remained on standby in the Wandenreich.
The Schutzstaffel were Yhwach's trump card, rarely mobilized, tasked mainly with guarding him.
Baelz was about to walk forward when he sensed something ahead.
From the rubble of the collapsed facility, a hand suddenly emerged.
The hand was pale and smooth, but exuded a sacred aura.
In an instant, the debris above turned into Reishi, swirling around the hand before flowing into it.
Liltotto's gaze snapped to Baelz, full of suspicion.
"This is your absolutely safe you were talking about?"
At the same time, the surrounding Reishi seemed to thin out; even they could feel the distortion of the field.
"Er…" Baelz choked, then frowned and glanced in another direction. "I knew it, can't be my fault. Gremmy, what are you doing?"
On the other side of the R&D facility, Gremmy had appeared.
With the upper rubble dissolving away, the lower layers also turned indistinct, revealing Gremmy on the far side to both of them.
"Gremmy?" Liltotto was surprised. "Weren't you sealed up again?"
"Ah, it was too noisy out there." Hands in his pockets, Gremmy said blandly, "The seals His Majesty set all got broken by the tremor, so I came out to have a look."
Baelz frowned. "What did you do to my lab?"
"Hey, don't get the wrong idea." Gremmy's mouth curled up. "You should be thanking me. I even saved your cute little subordinate for you."
?
The two were confused, until the last of the rubble vanished, revealing a figure within the remains of the lab.
She had golden hair, her whole body radiating a sacred golden aura. She looked like a being no one dared profane.
"This is…"
Baelz stared, thinking she looked familiar.
After a closer look, he exclaimed, "Isn't that Aiwass?!"
"Aiwass?" Liltotto gave Baelz a puzzled look.
Baelz replied, "A new recruit in the lab. She's only been here a couple of days. How did she… end up like this?"
"When I got here, I saw her half-dead under the rubble and had a new idea," Gremmy explained, excitement in his voice. "The Seireitei's Tech Bureau merging with other things produced a vengeful spirit. So what would happen if everything in your R&D facility fused together?"
Gremmy looked extremely pleased with himself. "Isn't that just a great concept? So I gave my imagination a push and fused everything in the lab into that woman's body."
"So that's why Aiwass became like this…" Baelz frowned. "But… is she still Aiwass?"
"You may continue to address me by that name."
Aiwass spoke. Standing on the ground, she had already, naturally, entered a Vollständig-like state.
A halo floated above her head, golden wings spread from her back.
The sight shocked Liltotto. "She… she can open Vollständig without His Majesty giving her a Schrift?! How is that possible?!"
"Who knows." Baelz said quietly. "Gremmy's created plenty of special beings, but one who can use Vollständig? Not a single one until now."
"Even Domino doesn't have a Vollständig."
Shaz Domino was also one of Gremmy's imagined creations.
His ability was Stigma—recovering his bodily injuries by absorbing external Reishi.
After creating him, Gremmy let him roam freely. By constantly absorbing Reishi in battle to heal himself, Shaz gradually replaced Gremmy's imagination with external Reishi.
In the end, he completely manifested in the outside world as a real, independent entity.
Perhaps because Gremmy was interested in him, he didn't kill him after he solidified.
When Yhwach learned of this, for reasons unknown, he even promoted Shaz to a Sternritter and granted him the Schrift "ϛ".
Still, even with a Schrift, Shaz Domino had never used Vollständig.
Yet here Aiwass was, just directly entering a Vollständig-like mode. It was unbelievable.
Even Liltotto was stunned.
"What the hell do you have in that lab?" Gremmy looked intrigued. "How did this happen? I really want to know the theory behind it!"
"I told you, the reaction is too complex. Unless I dissect or thoroughly study her, I can't figure it out in a short time. Maybe it's related to her ability?"
In truth, Aiwass could not only use Vollständig, she could maintain it continuously.
It was downright broken.
Her ability was Materialization—fundamentally, converting Reishi or adding a physical vessel attribute to Reishi.
And the essence of Vollständig was absolute ownership over Reishi.
In other words, Aiwass's ability naturally came bundled with a kind of Vollständig: when she activated it, she would, as a matter of course, impose a dominance effect over the surrounding Reishi.
Her materialization had many uses.
Reishi and physical matter are fundamentally different. A fire made of Reishi and a physical fire are utterly distinct at their roots.
Aiwass could convert Reishi into physical matter, and in doing so could freely overwrite its properties—for example, turning a fire-attribute Reishi mass into an ice-attribute physical object.
She could do even finer operations; especially once in Vollständig, those property conversions entered an extreme.
Though…
Baelz still wasn't sure if Yhwach would give Aiwass an additional Schrift, further changing her powers.
He glanced back at Silbern, then turned away and walked on.
…
In the blink of an eye, months had passed.
During those months, everyone was busy.
Baelz hadn't heard anything about Aiwass since. She hadn't joined the Sternritter or Schutzstaffel. It was as if, once she entered Silbern, she'd vanished; no trace of her could be found anywhere in the Wandenreich.
But she had to still be alive—and inside the Wandenreich. Otherwise, Aizen would not have stayed calm.
The Sternritter, meanwhile, were dispatched one after another to Hueco Mundo to continue searching for the Hollow King, hoping to kill him while he was still badly wounded from his battle with the Monk.
In reality, Angra had already long been sealed by Urahara Kisuke. After so many months of injecting him with Shinigami factors, Angra finally responded.
The black coffin suddenly swelled, as if a tremendous force inside were pressing outward.
Jinta and Ururu, who had been watching it, saw the movement and rushed to inform Hachigen Ushōda, who in turn hurried to contact Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi.
Moments later, the two arrived.
To avoid drawing attention with too big a disturbance, Urahara took out a device and opened a path to Hueco Mundo again.
Once he moved the black coffin to Hueco Mundo, its swelling resumed under that environment's stimulus.
Boom, boom, boom!
Huge sounds echoed from within the coffin, followed by a roar.
"ROAR!"
The roar was so shocking it felt as if something dreadful had clawed its way out of the deepest hell, bringing a hair-raising aura. Darkness flowed out from the coffin.
"Is… that going to be An-chan?" Yoruichi said in a low voice.
"I don't know. All we can do now is pray." Urahara looked tense as well. "This comes down to Angra's will. The Shinigami factors we injected only woke the consciousness that was being suppressed by the Hollow King. Whether he can seize control…"
"That's up to his own battle."
ROAR!
The moment he finished speaking, a powerful reiatsu blew the black coffin to pieces.
Angra's deep red-black reiatsu took the form of a great halo, shattering the coffin and continuing to expand outward, sweeping tens of kilometers in a flash.
Where the black halo passed, explosive Reishi waves blasted up the white sand, while Urahara and the others, closest to the source, were blown far away.
The four halberds on Angra's body were also jolted out and shot away like four speeding blades, embedding themselves in the distant sands.
White substance kept growing from Angra's body. Once it appeared, it tried to engulf him again, and the two sides clashed violently.
Their clash sent twin black and red beams of light into the sky, blowing away the heavy clouds of Hueco Mundo.
That oppressive aura swept over all of Hueco Mundo once more.
Any Adjuchas nearby were crushed to dust by that overwhelming reiatsu.
It felt like the same tremor that had once shaken all three worlds was about to happen again, starting here, under his feet.
But before this tremor could spread, a voice cut through everything.
"Get lost!"
The words boomed through Hueco Mundo like thunder. The white matter on Angra surged, then was shoved away with a deafening impact.
It became a huge writhing white monster that, once ejected, shot into the sky and vanished in an instant.
Angra, meanwhile, returned to himself. The mask on his face broke off, and the Hollow hole at his chest once again became that glowing cross-shaped circle. Breathing hard, he looked like he'd just finished an intense battle.
"Angra!"
Yoruichi and Urahara flashed to his side, Hachigen close behind. Urahara checked Angra's condition.
"Hah, that bastard escaped." Angra said hoarsely and weakly.
"He broke through earlier than you did. Forcing him out at all is already impressive." Urahara said. "Good thing you came back."
"I did, but… it might not be that simple."
"…Right. They're already here," Urahara said gravely.
The commotion Angra caused was far too big. Of course it had drawn the attention of the Quincy hunting for the Hollow King in Hueco Mundo.
Angra was the Hollow King.
At least one Sternritter had already arrived.
"You three should go."
Angra said calmly. "I can't control my power very well yet. If I go to the Living World, I'll probably wreck it."
"These guys—I can handle them alone."
"Don't be reckless." Yoruichi frowned. "Are you sure you can fight them in your state?"
"Relax. Don't forget, I have already transcended Hollows."
Angra said with confidence. "I'm the strongest."
"…We don't have a better option," Urahara said. "We'd just be in the way. Even if Angra can't win, he can still run. With us here, he'd lose that flexibility."
"Let's go." Urahara said.
"…All right." Yoruichi nodded.
Angra opened a Garganta. "This one leads straight to Black Cat Bookstore."
The three nodded and stepped through.
Once they were gone, Angra sensed the distant reiatsu and narrowed his eyes.
At least four Sternritter were coming, and none of them weak.
Bazz-B, Candice, Giselle, Meninas. More Quincy were on the way behind them.
"Fine. I'll play with you first."
He hadn't actually abandoned the Hollow King's left hand. Earlier it had looked like he split it off, but that was only because his body naturally allowed such division.
After the extreme battle with the Monk and months of adjustment, the left hand of the Hollow King had completely fused with him.
Splitting the left hand now was no different than cutting off a portion of his body, something he'd done before.
Temporarily separating that left hand was necessary because he was still far from truly invincible.
If he didn't, the Monk would have gladly helped him separate it.
You could say the Monk was now something like the administrator of the three worlds.
The Soul King was the group owner, the Monk the admin. The owner did nothing, so the admin was the real boss.
Only when the admin was away did people plot usurpation.
But thanks to their fight, the Monk had definitely taken note of Angra…
Angra had gone all-out then, but there was still a gap between him and the Monk.
So he'd chosen to feign weakness for now, outwardly splitting off the left hand.
That way, he and that separate left-hand form would draw the Monk's attention, giving Yoshio and Baelz more room to develop.
"…The hell? This doesn't match the file on the Hollow King,"
By then, Bazz-B had arrived. Seeing Angra, he looked puzzled.
Months before, Angra had attacked the Seireitei in full Hollow form. Now, his mask was gone.
"Idiot, that just means he's weakened!" Candice, who had caught up, shouted. "If he was in the same state as back in the Seireitei, we'd just be throwing our lives away!"
"Weakened, huh?" Bazz-B sneered and raised his hand. Three fingers pointed at Angra.
"Burning Finger 3!"
Blazing magma-like flames surged toward Angra. He simply stood there, motionless.
"Quincy, huh. Interesting."
Angra rolled his neck. "Since the beginning, Urahara's been working with me because of you people. But until now, this is our first real head-on clash, isn't it?"
Back in the Wandenreich, it had mostly been Starrk fighting them.
"Fine. Let's see how much you're worth."
As the flames hurtled toward him, his body vanished. The next instant, he appeared right in front of Bazz-B and Candice.
"Using that state against me—you two think too highly of yourselves."
He placed a hand on each of their chests, reiatsu gathering in his palms, then firing as twin Cero that engulfed the pair in an instant.