"Captain-Commander..."
"Your Majesty..."
Around Squad One, the many Shinigami captains and Sternritter members all stared nervously at the center of the battlefield.
It felt oddly harmonious—nothing like the life-and-death slaughter from just moments ago.
"So hot… what a terrifying old man…"
Among the Sternritter, someone subconsciously wiped the sweat off their forehead, feeling as if they were trapped inside a scorching steam furnace.
They were at least two thousand meters away from the main battlefield, yet they could still feel heat this intense.
If they got within a hundred meters or so, the temperature alone would be enough to severely burn them.
What they didn't know was that plenty of the Shinigami were also uneasy inside—because Yhwach didn't look the slightest bit weaker than the Captain-Commander.
"What are they saying!?" Isane blurted out.
"No idea…" Shunsui shook his head with a grave expression. "It's too far, and their spiritual pressure is too overwhelming—we can't hear anything..."
At that moment, Byakuya glanced at the heavily injured Toshiro and Nnoitra, and couldn't help frowning.
"What happened to you three? How did you get hurt this badly? Wasn't there only one enemy on your side?"
Earlier, while leading people to support the captains everywhere, he'd already sensed the spiritual pressure over on Toshiro's side.
Two captains and an Arrancar Hollow fighting one Quincy—yet they still ended up injured like this.
Hearing that, Toshiro, Nnoitra, and Soi fong all looked rather ugly.
Soi fong said in a low voice, "That guy was different. His ability was too bizarre—he clearly died, and then he suddenly revived."
Hearing that, Toshiro, Nnoitra, and Soi fong all looked rather ugly.
Soi fong said in a low voice, "That guy was different. His ability was too bizarre—he clearly died, and then he suddenly revived."
Nnoitra glanced at his two severed arms and snorted. "And even when we hurt him, he'd instantly recover because of some ability."
Byakuya's gaze turned solemn as well. He looked toward the Sternritter present.
"Which one is that guy!?"
With strength like that, he had to keep an eye on him—just in case the other side tried anything.
"That one over there…" Toshiro pointed not far away.
That man wore a white face guard. Black markings spread from his shoulder down his arms, while inverted black-and-white patterns appeared across his lower body. A pair of angel wings had grown from his back.
In his right hand, he held a holy sword with a glowing, sword-shaped hilt. His left arm bore a sun-like holy shield covered in conical spikes. His entire figure looked like a war god.
Unlike the battered trio, not a single wound could be seen on him.
Seeing the Shinigami's eyes turn his way, Gerard and the other Quincies sneered.
"Shinigami—if it weren't for the battle over there, you'd already have been wiped out by us."
The Shinigami side immediately darkened.
But before they could respond, they saw a figure in the distance walking over with violent spiritual pressure, carrying three people.
It was Kenpachi—along with Yachiru clinging to his back.
And he wasn't just "carrying three people."
Those were the corpses of three Sternritter, skewered on his blade as he walked.
Seeing that, the Shinigami side smiled—while the Quincy side sank into a cold, furious glare.
Three Sternritter members, defeated by a single Shinigami captain.
It was nothing short of humiliation.
A few seconds later—
With a rumbling roar like an earthquake, Yammy lumbered over. In his hands, he was also holding two corpses.
All of them were Sternritter members.
At that sight, the Quincy side grew even darker, to the point they could hardly restrain themselves from taking control of the reishi in heaven and earth.
The Shinigami side wasn't about to back down either—many raised their zanpakuto and aimed them straight at the Quincies.
They could use Bankai now.
In terms of absolute strength, they were not weaker than these Quincies in front of them.
But right as things were about to explode, Byakuya sensed something off and looked at Rukia with doubt.
Her eyes had been locked on Yhwach at the center of the battlefield.
So he asked calmly, "Rukia, what is it?"
Rukia hesitated, then pointed at Yhwach and said, "Something feels… off. I've seen Yhwach before, but right now… his spiritual flow feels a little different from before…"
She didn't know if she was imagining it, but the sense of wrongness was subtle yet real.
As if the Yhwach in front of them and the Yhwach from the Ice Palace were sharply disconnected—like two separate existences.
Byakuya frowned, unable to understand what she meant.
What did she mean, his spiritual flow was different?
And when had she seen Yhwach?
Still, he said evenly, "If his spiritual flow is off… are you saying this guy isn't Yhwach?"
"That's not it…" Rukia shook her head slightly.
It was only an instinctive feeling. Rationally speaking, the man in front of them was still Yhwach.
After all, within the Wandenreich, only Yhwach could produce spiritual pressure of this magnitude.
Just as Byakuya was about to ask more, the Sternritter members across from them finally couldn't hold back.
Gerard and the others charged straight at the Shinigami.
They were Quincies of the Wandenreich—how could they allow themselves to lose to a bunch of Shinigami?
That would mean execution.
The Shinigami side immediately released their zanpakuto as well. Violent spiritual pressure erupted as they prepared to crush the Quincies head-on.
The war felt like it would ignite in the very next second.
But in that instant, a vigorous voice rang out.
"You—get farther away!"
Before either side could react, everyone froze, eyes widening at an astonishing sight.
Yamamoto lowered the tip of Ryūjin Jakka and gently tapped it against the ground.
Bang.
A soft sound.
In the next instant, the ground split open into a colossal trench.
Or rather—this trench wasn't "cut."
Everything inside it was erased in an instant, reduced to nothingness—gone into a void.
It almost ran through the entirety of Seireitei.
And under that strike—
Yhwach looked unusually battered.
He only barely managed to evade it.
The Shinigami were dumbstruck. The Quincies were dumbstruck.
All eyes fixed on that trench.
A massive gash stretching thousands of meters.
The terrifying part was—before it appeared, none of them had sensed anything at all.
Meaning that if any of them had been standing on that line just now, there was a very real chance they would've been erased along with it.
Gin exhaled slowly, smiling with narrowed eyes.
"So scary. No matter how many times you see the Captain-Commander's Bankai (Final Release), it's still that shocking. We should back off, shouldn't we?"
As he spoke, he kept stepping backward, terrified of being caught inside the battlefield between those two monsters.
He had originally planned to use Kamishini no Yari to sneak-attack Yhwach, but now he felt it was better to abandon the idea.
A monster who could fight the Captain-Commander… was not someone he could ambush.
The other Shinigami nodded unconsciously and retreated as well.
They weren't afraid of death.
They were afraid of meaningless death.
If they got killed by the Captain-Commander's collateral damage, then even if they went to Hell, they'd probably resurrect out of sheer rage.
"Shinigami Captain-Commander… truly impressive."
Gerard stared at Yamamoto in fear, also retreating as fast as he could.
At that moment, Yamamoto slowly raised Ryūjin Jakka and said in a deep voice, "Yhwach. If this is all you've got… then this time, you'll sleep until the world ends."
The moment the words fell, Yamamoto stamped the ground and charged at Yhwach again.
Yhwach didn't hesitate—he swung his blade to meet him.
The instant their blades collided—
An extreme flame suddenly ignited around Yamamoto, as if he were wearing a robe woven from fire itself.
A temperature of one thousand five hundred degrees.
The air around them boiled and warped.
Even the ground beneath their feet began to melt into magma.
Yhwach, who met him head-on, suffered heavy damage under the heat—his black clothing burned away in large patches.
Seeing Yhwach forced back, Yamamoto said coldly again:
"Zanka no Tachi: Nishi - Zanjitsu Gokui!"
Yhwach stopped in the distance, ignoring his scorched clothes as he stared at Yamamoto with a grim face.
"Yamamoto… your flames are extremely hot."
Yamamoto snorted. "Before this old man, you may as well believe you're facing a sun."
As he spoke, the two clashed again.
Blazing flames that covered the sky, and tens of thousands of Heilig Pfeil (Holy Arrows)—the heavens seemed to be dyed into two different colors by the two of them.
During this time, the temperature of all of Seireitei—no, the entire Soul Society—began to soar rapidly.
That extreme heat spread outward from here.
The sky looked as if it had turned into the color of fire.
Watching this, the Sternritter all broke into cold sweat.
Only now did they truly understand why His Majesty had feared Seireitei so much.
Because there was a monster like this here.
Just his Bankai alone—
Could reach a level that might destroy the world.
At that moment, one Sternritter member stared at Yamamoto's blazing figure, eager and restless.
"His Bankai… looks pretty good."
As he spoke, he pulled out his star medallion and aimed it at Yamamoto within the flames.
The Quincies on the battlefield turned pale.
The Shinigami also turned pale.
But before either side could speak, he had already activated the medallion's power.
In an instant, the flames of extreme temperature in the sky surged toward him like fire dragons, continuously pouring into the medallion.
At first, that Sternritter member was thrilled, but his expression quickly grew worse and worse.
"No way… why can't I steal his Bankai? What is wrong with this old man's Bankai!?"
Gerard's face changed drastically as he retreated and roared, "Idiot! That level of Bankai can't be stolen by trash like you! Throw it away—now! That thing's about to explode—!"
Before he could finish, the medallion on that Sternritter member's chest turned red as if it had been heated to white-hot.
It radiated an extreme molten glow.
Then—
BOOOOM!!!
With a world-shaking roar—
The raging flames erupted from inside the medallion like an incendiary bomb, swallowing everything around it in fire.
That Sternritter member was reduced to ash before the explosion even happened.
The flames raged across the ground and buildings.
Inorganic matter melted into scalding magma, releasing a pungent stench.
Seeing this, every Shinigami and Quincy sucked in a cold breath, faces turning deathly pale.
Thankfully, they had pulled away from that Quincy beforehand—otherwise, some of them might have been blown to death as well.
Gerard cursed that idiot in his heart and gritted his teeth. "What a terrifying old man. His Bankai actually has this kind of horrifying power."
It could be said that because Zanka no Tachi was too powerful, their medallions couldn't steal it at all.
In a different sense, it was immune to the medallion's theft.
But in truth, this was only a minor interlude in Yamamoto and Yhwach's battle—barely affecting either of them.
After suppressing Yhwach again and again, Yamamoto swung his blade once more and said coldly:
"Yhwach—look at your former subordinates!"
"Zanka no Tachi: Minami - Kaka Juumanokushi Daisojin (Great Burial Ranks of the Ten Trillion Dead)!!!"
In an instant, the flames expanded across several thousand meters again, forcing both Shinigami and Quincies to retreat even farther.
Everything in sight became fire.
Even the soil was burned into a charred red, as if they had arrived in a flaming hell.
(End of Chapter)
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