"Rumble!!!"
"Rumble!!!"
"Rumble!!!"
Heaven-and-earth-shattering booms roared out.
Everyone present felt their faces drain of color at once, as if a weight of thousands of tons had fallen from the sky and pinned them down. It was like carrying a dozen Mount Tai on their backs.
Even the air itself seemed to turn unbearably heavy in that instant.
Within dozens of kilometers, the entire fake Karakura Town buckled under the crushing gravity. Skyscrapers shattered, houses collapsed, and even the ground itself sank a full meter.
It was nothing less than an apocalyptic scene.
Starrk, who had lost his fighting strength, was the most miserable. Caught off guard, his body dropped straight down and slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash.
Lilynette, who had only just re-formed, had her head driven straight into the dirt.
"Ugh… that bastard! I'm gonna kill that bastard…!"
Lilynette howled in grief and rage, tasting a mouthful of soil and gravel. Honestly, she'd rather go back to being a gun.
Starrk sighed helplessly. Still sitting on the ground, he reached out with his right hand and yanked her out of the earth.
"Seriously… don't drag the innocent into this."
After being betrayed by Aizen, the last thing he wanted was to lose Lilynette too.
"Cole… this little brat…"
Aizen's pupils shrank. He stared at Cole in disbelief.
"What is this power!?"
Right now he felt as though dozens of mountains were piled on top of him. Even the slightest movement became painfully slow.
"Cole…"
The others were just as shocked.
They all looked at Cole with stunned, disbelieving eyes.
Kisuke couldn't help saying, "Cole, what's going on with your power? How did it get so much stronger than before!?"
Before this, Cole's strength had already been impressive, but it hadn't actually given Kisuke much pressure.
After all, Yamamoto had still been on the field then.
But now, he realized Cole's strength had multiplied several times over. Just in terms of raw power and reiatsu, it had reached a level that was hard to even imagine.
Isshin couldn't help blurting out, "Hey, Kisuke, is this his Bankai!?"
Kisuke shook his head. "No idea. I've never seen a Bankai like this before. I didn't even hear a release phrase."
Resting the golden staff on his shoulder, Cole grinned.
"This is my Bankai. It doesn't have a release phrase. Its initial form is the Bankai form."
Aizen frowned. "Impossible. Your initial state is already Bankai? How can your spiritual pressure sustain it for so long?"
The reason Shinigami couldn't maintain Bankai indefinitely was because of its terrifying consumption.
Take Soi Fong's Jakuho Raikoben, for example. Every single use burned through a sea of spiritual pressure. Use it too many times and you'd literally kill yourself.
To stay in a Bankai state by default…
Just how much spiritual pressure would you need to support that kind of expenditure?
Even he himself couldn't maintain his Bankai all the time.
Cole tilted his head slightly and gave the golden staff a light swing.
"This is just how my zanpakuto works. Its power depends entirely on how much reiatsu I pour into it. The stronger the spiritual pressure, the stronger the destruction."
It seemed that because the system had forcibly strengthened it, his zanpakuto had mutated very thoroughly.
Saying this, Cole glanced at Aizen and added casually, "You're already about to break through dimensions. How is this any more impossible than that?"
Aizen thought about it and realized it really did make sense.
A Shinigami's powers could take infinitely many forms. Even if you lived for tens of millions of years, you'd still occasionally run into a zanpakuto or a strange constitution you'd never seen before.
As he pondered, the white hollow-like matter on his body began to churn.
At the center of his forehead, a faint crack began to appear. His eyebrows vanished, while white material bulged out from his back.
His already immense reiatsu—
Surged again.
Kisuke watched this happen and felt his heart sink.
"The Hogyoku's fusion with him just deepened again… it's pushed him into yet another evolution, hasn't it?"
At this moment, he deeply regretted ever creating the Hogyoku. It was way too absurd—a device that could let someone evolve infinitely.
If someone evolved all the way to the peak…
What would they become?
A being that broke through dimensions?
A being that shattered the world itself?
Aizen could feel the wings gradually forming behind him and the way his zanpakuto was fusing with his arm.
This was the sign of evolution into a higher dimension.
Even someone as composed as Aizen couldn't stay calm now. His eyes burned with fanatic light as he began to laugh.
"Cole, Kisuke, Captain Isshin, Yoruichi… I should thank you. Without the threat you pose, how could I have evolved to the point of transcending dimensions!?"
"The driving force behind evolution is threat and fear.
"When creatures on land encounter a deadly threat, they evolve toward the sky or the sea, becoming birds and fish.
"The creatures of the sky and the sea are the same.
"Even humans became rulers of the world through one evolution after another."
"And the Hogyoku's essence… is to accelerate that process."
Feeling the wings forming behind him and the continued fusion of blade and arm, Aizen's smile widened.
This was a higher-order evolution.
Even his usually icy calm couldn't withstand the rush. His eyes were wild, as though he had already ascended to the throne of heaven.
"Damn it… Captain Kurosaki…"
Kisuke gritted his teeth and looked toward Isshin.
They had to send Ichigo into the Dangai now and have him train in Saigo no Getsuga Tensho (Final Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer).
"I know, but…"
Isshin wanted to agree, but could only point helplessly at the sky.
"It's too heavy!"
He could still withstand the pressure Cole had unleashed.
But trying to move under such crushing weight was like climbing a mountain with every step—each one was torture.
Kisuke's lips twitched. He glared up at Cole, his face dark.
"You little brat, what exactly are you trying to do!?"
Ever since Cole had unleashed that pressure and spoken those words, he'd done nothing but tear open space, widening a gigantic Garganta.
The crack that stretched across the sky now was even larger than anything a Gillian-class Menos could rip open.
Cole replied calmly, "Nothing much. I just think… why should we be the ones risking our lives here?"
Kisuke and Isshin both froze.
Cole continued, "Since he wants to go to the Soul King Palace, then let him. We'll just drag the Zero Division into the fight while we're at it."
Even Ichigo went blank.
He pointed at Karakura Town, stunned.
"Cole, are you crazy? That guy Aizen is trying to forge the Royal Key. That needs a hundred thousand human souls."
"We don't need those prerequisites."
Cole shook his head and looked at the Garganta leading toward Soul Society.
"My Bankai lets me suppress all things in existence. As long as something is inside the domain, nothing can escape my perception."
As he spoke, Cole leveled the golden staff toward Soul Society's side of the Garganta and said lightly:
"Since Aizen wants to go to the Soul King Palace… I'll just knock the Soul King Palace down here and let the Zero Division members join the battle directly."
The Shinigami and Hollows on the field all went dumb.
What the hell!?
Knock… the Soul King Palace down!?
Which side are you even on, old man!?
If they'd known he was capable of something like this, why had they all bothered fighting in Karakura Town?
They could've just gone straight for Soul Society from the start!
Even Aizen was a little dazed, staring at Cole in disbelief.
"You intend to knock the Soul King Palace down?"
Cole smiled. "What, are you scared? Afraid of running into Senjumaru and her companions?"
Aizen, of course, knew about the Zero Division.
Judging from the last time Senjumaru had appeared, the members of the Soul King's palace each basically possessed strength on par with Yamamoto.
Even having evolved this far, there was still a very real risk he'd lose to that level of monster.
But it wasn't in Aizen's nature to fear. Instead, a fiery gleam flashed in his eyes.
"Knocking down the Soul King Palace… that truly is something I'd never considered. But if we know the exact coordinates, it certainly would be possible to bring it down."
Though the Soul King Palace was located within Soul Society, it was separated from Seireitei by seventy-two layers of barriers.
With such a gulf between them, the only way a normal Shinigami could enter was by using the Royal Key—or some other special method.
However, if one knew the precise coordinates…
And could pierce all seventy-two barriers with a single blow, then yes, it was possible to knock the Soul King Palace down.
Watching the tacit understanding forming between the two, Shunsui and Isshin were stunned speechless.
Seriously?
Not only was he not helping—
He looked like he was openly siding with the enemy now.
Kisuke clawed at his own hair so hard it felt like his skull would split.
"Cole, are you insane!? That's the Soul King Palace! How can you let Aizen into a place like that!?"
Right now he really wanted to scream.
He'd spent over a hundred years scheming against Aizen—
And never once accounted for this wild card of a human named Cole.
But Cole seemed completely unconcerned.
"So what? It's not like I know the Soul King. Of course I want the Zero Division to join the battle."
He could go head-to-head with Aizen himself. He even felt he had a real chance of winning.
But why bother?
Instead of plotting this and planning that, it was much easier to just knock down the Soul King Palace. It would even make it simpler to protect Ichigo.
Otherwise, that idiot would lose his Shinigami powers.
Now that Cole was involved, even if Ichigo did lose his powers, there was no guarantee he wouldn't be able to regain them later.
Aizen's lips curved into a smile. He was just about to speak when—
Behind him, Gin smiled faintly, both hands tucked inside his sleeves. Staring at Aizen's back, he spoke in a soft voice:
"Bankai: Kamishini no Yari (God-Slaying Spear)."
(End of Chapter)
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