"Boom!!!"
With a thunderous roar, the golden staff smashed into Aizen's chest—the gaping hole that the dust-like poison had already eaten through—
And in that instant, it blew the cavity apart completely.
His entire body was practically torn to pieces.
The entire right side of his body exploded into a rain of fragments, and chunks of pale, hollow-white matter scattered through the air.
The shockwave from the golden staff—
Didn't weaken at all.
It gouged a massive crater into the street below.
Thick cracks radiated outward, forming a colossal spiderweb across the ruined pavement.
The violent purple reiatsu that had erupted moments ago vanished in an instant.
Everyone on the battlefield stared, dumbstruck. They hadn't even had time to process Aizen's sudden "resurrection" before Cole had already chosen to strike.
Ichigo swallowed hard.
"Uh… Cole, were you watching Aizen the whole time just now?"
"Obviously."
Cole curled his lip.
"This is Aizen we're talking about. There's no way he just dies like that. Of course there was going to be a trap."
In the Bleach anime—
No.
In the entire anime world—
Aizen was the highest-tier final boss of them all.
His terror wasn't just talk.
In the original story, if Ichigo hadn't learned Saigo no Getsuga Tensho (Final Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer), and if Kisuke hadn't meticulously planned everything out—
That guy would have had a one hundred percent chance of forging the Royal Key.
And ascending to the Soul King Palace.
Even if he had run into the Zero Division, the outcome would've been far from certain.
In terms of sheer pressure, Aizen was even more suffocating than Yhwach, the kind of enemy who made people feel true despair.
In fact—
From Cole's perspective—
If Aizen hadn't learned the truth about the Soul King and lost all interest in everything, he might not have died even in the later arcs.
No.
He hadn't really died at all.
He'd just been thrown into the hellish dump known as Muken.
And all the way up to the manga's Hell arc, the guy was still slated for a flashy reappearance.
Compared to Yhwach, he was several times more of a headache.
Thinking this, Cole glanced over at Gin and couldn't resist grumbling.
"You schemed for hundreds of years, but in the end, your poison didn't work at all. He just casually evolved a dozen more times and shrugged it off."
Gin's face had gone a little pale. Holding the Hogyoku in his hand, he said hoarsely:
"No… by my calculations, that stab should have killed him. Why… why is he still evolving?"
The Hogyoku could push a person past their limits.
With the Hogyoku fused into him, Aizen's reward had been infinite evolution.
But there was a problem.
Gin had already stolen the Hogyoku.
Without it, Aizen shouldn't have been able to keep evolving.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter anymore…"
Cole shook his head and turned to Kisuke.
"Hey, Shopkeeper Kisuke. Whatever you've got, use it now. I really don't want this flipping over into another full-on brawl with him."
In the original story, Aizen had fought Ichigo in his Saigo no Getsuga Tensho state.
And even after Ichigo unleashed that final technique, Aizen still hadn't been killed. On the contrary, he'd evolved into an even higher-dimensional form.
It was only because Kisuke took advantage of Aizen's weakened state that he managed to forcibly seal him.
Remember—sealed, not killed.
If the original Aizen had truly been forced to the brink of death, he might have evolved even further, to an even higher dimension.
Even if you could win, who in their right mind would want to keep fighting an enemy who could evolve infinitely?
"I got it."
Kisuke nodded quickly and thrust his right hand toward the scattered remains that were starting to knit themselves back together in midair.
"Everyone, use Bakudo together. We can't give him time to regenerate. We have to seal him as fast as possible before he evolves again."
Isshin: "Got it!"
Shinji: "I know!"
Yoruichi: "We're not letting him come back!"
Gin: "The Hogyoku's in my hand. He can't evolve any further!"
Kyoraku: "Honestly, the fact he can even revive like this is already terrifying enough…"
"..."
Voices overlapped one after another as they all launched their spells.
"Carriage of thunder, gap of spinning wheel, unite and divide at six!
Bakudo no 61: Rikujokoro (Six Rods Prison of Light)!"
"Wall of iron sand, tower of a monk, glowing flames of iron, silent at the end!
Bakudo no 75: Gochutekkan (Five-Pillar Iron Seal)!"
"Born of the military, eight inches tall, no retreat allowed. Blue gate, white gate, black gate, red gate—interlock and sink into the sea!
Ryubi no Jomon (Dragon Tail Gate)!
Koko no Jomon (Tiger Fang Gate)!
Kikai no Jomon (Tortoise Shell Gate)!
Hoyoku no Jomon (Phoenix Wing Gate)!
Shiji no Saimon (Four Beasts Barrier Gate)!!!"
In the span of just a few seconds, they chained together a whole series of high-level binding kido, strong enough to literally reshape the landscape.
Golden chains, azure spears, roaring crimson flames, and colossal walls in the shapes of the four guardian beasts all appeared in midair.
Every one of those kido—
Was aimed solely at suppressing Aizen.
Even after throwing that much at him, Kisuke still wasn't satisfied. He clasped his left hand over his right wrist and shouted:
"Bakudo no 99: Bankin (Great Seal)!!!"
The highest-level binding kido flared to life, landing all at once on Aizen's body.
"Shokyoku: Shiryū (First Song: Halting Fabric)!"
White bandages materialized out of thin air like serpents, coiling around Aizen again and again.
"Nikyoku: Hyakurensan (Second Song: Hundred Linked Bolts)!"
Countless green spikes shot through the bandages.
"Shūkyoku: Bankin Taihō (Final Song: Great Seal of 10,000 Forbiddings)!"
A colossal stone cube plummeted from the sky like a falling meteor and crashed down with a deafening boom, landing perfectly on top of Aizen.
The world fell silent.
No one dared to breathe too loudly as they stared at the sealed mass beneath the gigantic stone.
Dozens of high-level Bakudo—
Plus the strongest binding kido in existence, Bankin.
If Sajin had been the one crushed under that many spells, even without a single offensive kido mixed in, the pressure alone would have been enough to kill him outright.
The problem was—
The one under the stone wasn't Sajin.
It was the final boss—Aizen.
"That should be enough. He ought to be sealed by now."
Cole rested the golden staff on his shoulder and eyed the massive stone block in the middle of all the seals, his expression far from friendly.
If they could forcibly seal Aizen this time, he was perfectly happy to leave it at that. It would save him a lot of trouble.
As for Yhwach in the future—
That was still a few years away at least.
"Did… did it work?"
Kisuke stared nervously at the layers of restraints.
In his original plan, this wasn't yet the time to forcibly seal Aizen.
But plans never keep up with reality.
After being shredded in turn by Gin and Cole, even Aizen had to be at his very weakest right now. This was the perfect opportunity to lock him down.
Just as everyone held their breath—
The massive stone slab pinning Aizen suddenly exploded.
Shards flew everywhere like scattering flower petals.
His brown hair floated upward against gravity. A pure black eye opened on his forehead. There was a hollow hole in his chest, and within that void, spiritual energy formed the kanji for "open."
Four pale white wings unfolded behind his back.
His entire body had turned almost pure white. From a distance, he looked like some gigantic moth.
Even up close—
You could feel how grotesque this form was.
But Aizen showed no hint of self-awareness. Not only did he feel no disgust—
He actually carried himself with even greater arrogance.
Looking down at everyone from above, he fixed his gaze on Gin and spoke slowly.
"I've won… Gin."
"The Hogyoku you took, even if it isn't inside my body, still belongs to me."
Gin's expression shifted. He hurriedly lowered his head to look at the starry, shimmering Hogyoku in his hand.
"What's… going on!?"
He knew a bit about how the Hogyoku worked—
But he couldn't make sense of this at all.
The Hogyoku had clearly separated from Aizen.
Yet it was still calling out to him nonstop.
While Gin stood there in stunned confusion—
Aizen's form flickered, and he vanished from midair.
It was as though he'd crossed the boundary of space.
Or like reality itself had skipped a frame.
Either way, Aizen reappeared right in front of Gin, and the Hogyoku slipped back into his chest as if it had always belonged there.
Under Gin's dazed stare, Aizen swung the zanpakuto fused with his arm.
His expression was icy as he slashed downward.
A white arc of light flashed.
It looked like it would slice Gin clean in half.
At that split second, Cole's figure appeared behind Aizen like a ghost.
"Seriously, Aizen, you're such a pain. 'Breaking out of the cocoon,' 'becoming a butterfly'… you're just an immortal cockroach at this point."
The previous form Aizen had taken, wrapped head to toe in hollow-white matter, had been neither Shinigami nor Hollow—more like a chrysalis.
And now, with wings fanned out behind him—
There was no doubt that he had shed the chrysalis.
He was the butterfly that had emerged.
As he spoke, Cole swung the golden staff again, the strike carrying a crushing, heavenly weight.
Even having broken the cocoon and stepped into a higher dimension, Aizen still raised his right arm, intending to block it head-on.
It wasn't that he didn't want to use Kyoka Suigetsu.
In this form—
The zanpakuto had already fused completely with his body, becoming fuel for his evolution.
It had pushed him beyond the divide between Shinigami and Hollow.
Into a higher-dimensional state of existence.
At this point, Aizen's arm was hundreds of times tougher than any zanpakuto—
The hardest substance in the world.
But in the instant they collided—
Aizen's pupils dilated.
He watched, helpless, as his arm shattered to dust—
And the golden staff slammed straight into him.
"Boom!!!"
His body was sent flying once again.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]