Endless fists rained down from the heavens.
Every punch carried power enough to shatter mountains, smashing densely toward the lone, arrogant figure at the center.
Aizen looked delighted.
Around his body, reiatsu formed an unbreakable barrier, blocking all of the thousands upon thousands of wooden giant fists.
From another direction, a deep-purple energy giant raised its long blade, and a meteor burning with flames of destruction plunged down through the clouds.
Hashirama and Madara.
Two legends standing at the pinnacle of the shinobi world were now joining hands to strangle him.
Aizen felt the Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) inside him cheering.
This jewel was evolving at an unprecedented speed, craving stronger opponents—more extreme battles.
He enjoyed that feeling.
Toying with the strongest beings of two worlds in the palm of his hand—this pleasure intoxicated him.
"The strongest of this world? That's all. You don't even understand the essence and the peak of power," Aizen mused.
And Aizen was growing bored.
After realizing that even these powerhouses together still couldn't compare to him, he found they could at best stall him. A strange sense of emptiness even rose within him.
No matter what world it was… was there truly no one who could stand beside him?
He prepared to release even greater power and end this farce completely.
At that moment, something felt wrong.
It wasn't Hashirama's attack in front of him.
It wasn't Madara's slash from the side.
This sensation—
came from behind him.
Aizen's movements stopped instantly.
He didn't even need to turn his head, only extend his reiatsu perception.
There was nothing.
An illusion?
Impossible.
At his level of evolution, he couldn't have illusions.
In the heart of such violent energy, nothing should've been able to approach without a trace.
Yet that sensation grew clearer and clearer.
It was absolutely not an illusion.
Aizen's mind spun at high speed.
Was it a space ability beyond his understanding?
He tried to split his attention to investigate—
—and discovered he couldn't.
Hashirama and Madara's attacks had pinned him in place. His power had to be used for defense. Given enough time, he would probably still win…
But in that instant of distraction—
Namikaze Shinju's figure appeared out of thin air.
He stepped out directly from the "backside" of space.
The system had already completed every calculation.
[Target locked]
[Spatial singularity confirmed]
[Rule Devouring: activated]
Shinju's expression didn't change in the slightest.
His right hand was coated in a bottomless black substance, dull and lightless.
That right hand easily pierced through Aizen's so-called absolute defensive reiatsu barrier—reiatsu so dense that even a captain like Soi fong with a second-level kill technique couldn't break it.
There was no resistance at all.
Aizen's body shuddered violently.
He gritted his teeth and lowered his head.
A hand—
was protruding out from his chest.
That hand was gripping, with perfect accuracy, the source of power within him—
the Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) fused to his soul.
Aizen felt no pain.
Only shock.
All his life, he had been the one instantly crushing others—never once had he imagined he'd overplay his hand like this.
He turned his head with difficulty and saw that young face behind him.
"Aizen, thank you for the gift."
"Your ambition… I'll inherit it."
"And I'll realize it… in a better way."
The moment Shinju's words fell—
the hand gripping the Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) tightened.
"No!"
Aizen let out an unwilling roar.
His power wasn't merely being stolen—this was outright devouring.
That hand was like a vortex, directly acting on the Hogyoku's origin. Aizen could even feel a portion of his soul being dragged toward it together with the Hogyoku.
Danger. Extreme danger.
The Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) trembled violently, releasing vast energy in an attempt to resist.
It had chosen Aizen as its host.
It refused a second master.
But the black substance on Shinju's hand clearly held higher authority.
It ignored the Hogyoku's resistance and began forcibly analyzing its inner structure.
[Detected same-origin system fragment]
[Fragment integrity: 17.8%]
[Begin forced separation]
[Separation progress: 1%, 15%, 45%]
Aizen's body began to mutate in reverse.
The gorgeous butterfly wings behind him started dissolving into points of light.
The white robe formed from reiatsu shattered apart in clumps.
The cross-shaped pupils in his eyes rapidly faded.
What a joke.
Even in another world… there existed something beyond him.
Aizen couldn't help feeling a bitter sense of awe.
The power that had transcended Shinigami and Hollow was now draining away at an unbelievable speed.
No—
it was being extracted.
"Let go! Let go of me!"
Aizen struggled wildly, trying to mobilize the remaining reiatsu in his body to strike Shinju—
But the source of his power was clamped down. At this moment, he was powerless to resist.
He could only watch as he was forcibly dragged down from the throne of a god.
[Separation complete]
[Begin devouring system fragment]
[Fusion initiated]
A burst of black light flared from Shinju's palm.
The Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) released a final unwilling wail—then all its light and energy were swallowed into Shinju's hand.
Shinju slowly withdrew his hand.
His hand was completely intact, as if what it had pierced was not flesh and blood at all.
Aizen's body, on the other hand, became like an empty shell that had been drained of everything.
All signs of mutation vanished, and he reverted to the gentle-looking Fifth Division captain.
Only now, his face was filled with terror and despair.
With the Hogyoku (Wish Jewel) gone, he had been beaten back to his original form.
A man with powerful reiatsu—
but no longer able to evolve.
The immense pressure from above vanished instantly.
Hashirama and Madara both stopped attacking, staring at the sudden change below in shock and uncertainty.
They couldn't understand why Aizen's presence had suddenly fallen off a cliff.
With no power to support him, Aizen could no longer remain in the air.
He began to fall.
The wind roared past his ears.
He looked at the ground rushing closer, his eyes full of blankness and unwillingness.
He had plotted for a hundred years, borne sacrifices no one understood, and was just about to touch that ultimate throne.
In the end—
he had made wedding clothes for someone else.
Even at the very end, he couldn't comprehend what kind of power could plunder directly at the level of rules.
So even across worlds, there were strange powers… truly, there was always a sky beyond the sky, someone beyond the strongest.
Everything from the past replayed in his mind like a revolving lantern of memories.
He even wondered—was he truly wrong?
High in the sky—
Namikaze Shinju stood quietly, sensing the changes inside his system.
[System fragment fusion complete]
[Heroic Spirit Hall system repair initiated. Current progress: 21.3%]
[System upgrade initiated]
[Warning: upgrade will temporarily shut down the system]
[Estimated upgrade time: 24 hours]
[During upgrade, host will be unable to use any system functions]
A torrent of information poured into his mind.
(End of Chapter)
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