Szayelaporro staggered backward, staring in horror at the boundless golden light.
Only when he tripped and fell onto the ground did he finally see clearly what that "light" was.
It was a section of a golden pillar, towering up into the heavens like a sky-supporting column. What he'd just seen as blinding radiance was actually the countless golden motes spilling off its surface as it came crashing down.
"Damn it, which of my test items can save me…?"
"Jutai Kokuchi (Annunciation)!"
"Fukusei Kuron (Clone Replication)!"
"Rokurei-mushi (Recording Spirit Bug)!"
"Shihai Ningyo (Control Doll)!"
"No, no, none of these will work…!"
Szayelaporro's hands flew as he pulled out tool after tool. Cold sweat poured down his face. He simply couldn't think of anything that could save his life in time.
Just as the massive golden pillar was about to smash down—
—just as Szayelaporro was sinking into despair—
a white figure flashed in front of him, blocking his view. A calm voice said:
"Human boy, it's been a while."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and pressed it against the surface of the golden pillar.
A deafening boom ripped through Las Noches.
The ground beneath his feet shattered like a spiderweb, white sand erupting in a localized tidal wave from the sheer force transmitted through his body. Yet that same force was also halted by him—it was this man who forcibly stopped the golden pillar in mid-descent.
Szayelaporro slumped to the floor, then looked up in stunned delight at the figure in front of him.
"Aizen-sama!!!"
The newcomer was Aizen.
He stared at the golden staff segment, speaking in an indifferent tone:
"Szayelaporro, head to the lab. Yammy and Ulquiorra are waiting for you there. Proceed directly to the next stage of the experiment."
"Experiment…"
Szayelaporro blanked for a moment, then a crazed, indescribable fanaticism exploded in his eyes.
"I… I understand!!!"
He looked like something in his brain had been flipped on. Trembling with excitement, he shot to his feet and sprinted full speed toward the depths of Las Noches without even a backward glance.
The enormous golden pillar began to compress, shrinking down until it returned to the form of a golden staff. Cole hefted it onto his shoulder and looked at Aizen, clearly annoyed.
"Aizen, what are you pretending for? If your arm's dislocated, don't hide it behind your back. I'm not blind—I can tell you definitely got hurt."
A flash of cold light flickered through Aizen's eyes. Slowly, he drew his right arm back around from behind him.
That arm—
At the elbow, the joint was twisted at an unnatural angle.
Even now, it was still trembling nonstop.
"Your power… compared to the last time we met, it has grown… tremendously…"
Aizen stared coldly at Cole.
Previously in the Human World, in Karakura Town, the two had briefly clashed because of the zanpakuto Muramasa.
Back then, he could still block Cole's attacks with one hand and avoid injury from that golden staff.
Yet in less than two months…
This human brat's strength had soared again. The weight behind that golden zanpakuto-staff was such that Aizen couldn't fully withstand it even with his current power.
Could it be… that he's fused with the Hogyoku as well!?
The thought suddenly flashed through Aizen's mind.
You couldn't blame him for thinking that way.
Only after fusing with the Hogyoku can one truly understand how terrifying its power is.
It is a forbidden artifact capable of creating gods.
Even though he'd only fused with it for a few days, he had already undergone two evolutions, gaining an ability similar to Shinji's inverted Hollowfication.
His strength compared to his time in the Seireitei had increased dozens of times over.
He had believed that this power was already enough—
Enough to instantly kill ninety percent of all captains.
But now…
The growth rate of this human boy before him was actually outstripping his own.
If it were Urahara Kisuke, it might be possible he had researched a "second Hogyoku"…
…No. Impossible. Half of the Hogyoku was created by Aizen himself. There couldn't be a second one.
Seeing the suspicion and unease flickering across Aizen's face, Cole was inwardly delighted.
One cheat after another…
Now it's finally your turn to be chased down by mine, huh?
Noticing Cole's smugness, Aizen's rage surged.
"Human… are you very pleased with yourself?"
No matter how many times it happened, he could never accept being forced into a disadvantage by a human.
A human.
A lowly creature like an ant.
"Am I not allowed to be pleased?"
Cole asked with obvious amusement.
Aizen had originally wanted to say a few more words, but now he had no interest in talking at all. He drew his zanpakuto in a single motion.
Cole raised an eyebrow.
"Where's Kyoka Suigetsu?"
He hadn't forgotten—Kyoka Suigetsu's manifested spirit had devoured Muramasa, so it should currently possess a physical form.
"None of your concern."
Aizen's reiatsu surged as he swung Kyoka Suigetsu, his voice faint as he murmured:
"Shatter the heavens…"
"Kyoka Suigetsu."
The sound of shattering glass rang out.
But Cole had already turned his head aside, avoiding looking at Kyoka Suigetsu's release. Naturally, he was not placed under complete hypnosis.
Aizen wasn't surprised by that. He stepped forward and instantly blitzed toward Cole.
Cole was caught a little off guard.
"So your footwork has turned into Hollow sonido (sound step), huh?"
Aizen slashed with Kyoka Suigetsu, his tone calm but steeped in condescension as he replied:
"I told you before—I intend to shatter the boundary between Shinigami and Hollow. Are you, like Kurosaki Ichigo, incapable of understanding human speech?"
Cole's forehead filled with black lines. He ignored the whole "boundary" speech and instead said:
"So even the news that Ichigo can't understand people has spread all the way to you?"
Clang!!!
A crisp clash rang out.
Black-red and blue reiatsu collided in mid-air, like two different raging flames striving to devour each other.
On the surface, Aizen's blue reiatsu was clearly stronger.
But Cole's black-red reiatsu only grew more violent, instead suppressing the blue spiritual pressure little by little.
That difference manifested directly in their clash.
The golden staff and Ryujin Jakka ground against each other as Cole and Aizen poured their full power into the struggle.
Aizen's reiatsu was definitely stronger—
Yet he just couldn't overpower Cole's golden zanpakuto-staff.
"This brat's zanpakuto… it's too heavy…"
Aizen pushed down with his zanpakuto, glaring at Cole in fury.
He had never expected that the little punk he'd once dismissed would now become a dire threat—someone who could fight him on equal footing.
Just a few months ago…
This kid couldn't even take a single swing from him.
Cole, on the other hand, was exhilarated. Even he hadn't expected that his current strength could clash evenly with the evolved Aizen.
Even if they were only evenly matched in terms of pure weapon struggle—
That alone proved just how far he'd come.
With that thought, Cole swung the golden staff up and then brought it crashing down toward Aizen as he shouted:
"Eat my staff, Aizen!!!"
Facing the incoming golden streak of light, Aizen didn't hesitate. He met it head-on with a slash.
Boom!!!
Thunderous detonations erupted one after another.
The two of them threw themselves into battle.
Blade and staff wove a storm of afterimages; every second their weapons clashed two or three times. The ground around them was shredded into rubble.
Even the air itself seemed to tremble.
Their figures turned into two streaking rays of light as they tore across the open dome of Las Noches.
One black-red. One blue.
Their speed was like twin beams of laser light.
Any Hollow unlucky enough to be dragged into their battlefield—whether Gillian or Adjuchas—was killed in an instant by the stray shockwaves.
As the saying goes: when the city gates catch fire, the fishes in the moat are the first to suffer.
In the battle between top-tier monsters, the weak are lucky if they're even allowed to remain alive.
Apacci swallowed hard, her throat dry. "These two monsters are way too scary… I can't even see their silhouettes."
Under normal circumstances, a slight difference in reiatsu wouldn't be enough to decide victory or defeat.
Speed, however, was another story entirely.
If you couldn't even see the opponent, that meant their strength was at least three times yours.
They could kill you—
—and you wouldn't even know who did it.
Harribel's beautiful eyes were fixed on the distance, her expression solemn.
"You can't be blamed," she said quietly. "I can only barely make out their silhouettes myself…"
The two monsters in front of them were both using sonido (sound step), the exclusive speed technique of Arrancar and Hollows.
Their figures flickered back and forth in the nearby space, so fast it bordered on madness.
Thinking of that, Harribel turned to Starrk.
"Starrk, can you see their movements clearly?"
Starrk ruffled his hair helplessly.
"Yeah, I can see them… but I have zero intention of getting involved in that fight."
Lilynette immediately kicked him in the leg, snarling:
"Starrk! Aizen-sama is over there fighting his heart out—how can you be such a coward?!"
Unlike the perpetually lazy Starrk, she was full of restless energy.
Starrk sighed.
"This doesn't have much to do with me. And more importantly… it's Aizen-sama. He clearly doesn't want anyone interfering in his battles."
He'd watched quietly from the sidelines for several minutes.
From what he'd observed, Aizen's attitude toward Cole seemed… different.
He outright loathed this human kid.
Just a few words from Cole were enough to make him fly into a rage.
If Starrk rushed in now and butted into their duel, he had a feeling he'd end up getting beaten by Cole…
…and then cut down by Aizen as well.
Boom!!!
Two tremendous explosions rang out in quick succession.
Cole and Aizen, who had been locked together in a furious close-quarters brawl, finally broke apart. They stood facing each other three hundred meters apart, both breathing hard.
Cole stabbed the golden staff into the ground and glanced pointedly at the blood staining Aizen's shoulder, a smug grin tugging at his lips.
"Oh mighty king about to ascend to the throne of the heavens—how did you get that shoulder wound? Care to enlighten me?"
Aizen's face went from green to black under the taunt.
His reiatsu was clearly superior to Cole's.
But Cole's zanpakuto compensated for that gap.
The result was that, in terms of raw "stats," the two were perfectly evenly matched in their clash.
And Cole's swordsmanship was a cut above his. Even though Aizen had done his utmost to defend, the human had still managed to smash him three times with that staff.
Thinking of this, Aizen glanced down at his own body, his eyes darkening with fury.
"One rib… shattered…"
"The bones in my left hand… hairline fractures…"
"The bone in my right shoulder… completely dislocated… that staff almost took the whole arm off…"
The more he focused on his injuries, the angrier Aizen became. A flood of emotions surged into his brain all at once, threatening to drown out reason.
Three hundred meters away, Cole's eyes widened.
"Whoa… is this guy about to super-evolve?"
Right before his eyes, Aizen's already immense reiatsu began to climb yet again, surging straight past Cole's and pressing down on him completely.
At the same time, the wounds on his shoulder—
—began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
And the aura he gave off shifted from pure Shinigami to something murky and hard to define, as though his power had been polluted… or perhaps empowered.
Only then did Aizen's expression finally calm. A smile curled across his face as he spoke to Cole.
"Come to think of it, I should thank you. If you hadn't driven me to lose my composure like that… I wouldn't have fused completely with the Hogyoku so quickly."
As he spoke, he undid his shirt front.
In the center of his chest, a deep blue orb was embedded.
It wasn't hanging there.
It was fused into his body.
Cole recognized it at a glance as the Hogyoku (Breakdown Sphere), and his head immediately began to ache.
"You fused with the Hogyoku this fast…?"
He'd originally wanted to seize the momentum and just finish Aizen off here and now.
Instead—
He'd beaten the guy straight into an evolution.
If this continued and Aizen evolved twice more like in the original timeline, he'd basically be breaking beyond dimensions themselves.
At that point, even if the Royal Guard came down, they might end up dead in his hands.
"Because the Hogyoku chose me," Aizen said, for once unable to keep the fanatic edge out of his voice. "It recognizes that I am the strongest—the one who will shatter the dimensional wall and sit upon the throne of the heavens."
He gripped Kyoka Suigetsu in a single hand and rushed at Cole again.
"This is bad. This guy's cheat is a pure evolution hack, and my system plug-in is practically unusable here…"
Cole's heart sank.
If the fight kept going like this, he was worried he'd force Aizen into that grotesque chrysalis form.
That was one of only two battle states in the entire Bleach world that genuinely broke dimensions. Who knew what kind of scheme was tied up with it?
With that in mind, Cole's body flickered backward. He raised his left hand; his index finger sliced across the air, opening a crack in space. With his right hand, he grabbed the two girls beside him, hefting them like luggage.
"I'll send you two to the Seireitei. Wait for me there!"
Before Orihime and Tatsuki could say anything, Cole grabbed them by the collars and stuffed them directly into the yawning Garganta (black cavity).
Once that was done—
Cole licked his lips, lifted the golden staff again, and charged back into the fray.
…
The black passage stretched on without end.
Behind them, the muffled booms of battle still echoed. The two girls, eyes shimmering with tears, moved forward as fast as they could.
At last, they saw light ahead.
"Orihime-san!"
"Tatsuki-san!"
In the Kuchiki clan compound, Rukia stared in blank confusion at the two girls who suddenly stumbled out of the darkness.
"How… how did you get here?"
Orihime looked at her with tear-filled eyes.
"Rukia… Cole ran into Aizen. The two of them are fighting right now."
"What?!"
Rukia's face drained of color. She rushed up to the edge of the black fissure.
She didn't even have to get close to the other side—
Even here, she could feel a nearly suffocating reiatsu pressing through, like the entire sky was bearing down on her.
"Cole!!"
…
(End of Chapter)
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