-----
-----
"Yuzu… she's actually been corroded by hell miasma. She's wrapped in chains!"
The cruel truth stabbed straight into Kurosaki Ichigo's spine like an ice spike.If he couldn't drag his little sister Yuzu out of this hell, she would end up just like those cursed "sinners," trapped forever in this abyss of despair!
Boom!
The fury he had been holding back finally blew past its breaking point.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
A roar so violent it seemed to shatter eardrums erupted from Ichigo's throat, igniting the spiritual pressure inside him completely. Savage crimson energy surged upward like a tangible storm, ripping through the darkened sky of Hell itself.
Renji and Ishida Uryu, standing nearby, were slammed by a tidal wave of force and sent flying backward without mercy.
"That's it! Yes! Burn with your rage!"
Black Blade's voice slithered out like a devil's whisper, dripping with provocation and mockery.
"This is Hell! We don't need your kindness or compassion here!"
"That useless, pathetic thing you call a 'human heart'? Bury it forever in this endless darkness!"
That poisonous taunt became the final straw.
Ichigo's spiritual pressure continued to skyrocket at a terrifying rate. The crushing pressure forced Renji flat against the ground, barely able to breathe as he struggled just to endure it.
"Die!"
The instant Black Blade flashed a feral grin and released his grip, hurling Yuzu toward the molten abyss below, Ichigo moved.
Wrapped in layers of extreme rage and blood-red spiritual pressure, he shot up from the ground like a scarlet arrow loosed from a bow, screaming as it tore through the air.
Along his path, rock, miasma, anything at all was pulverized in an instant, reduced to dust by the overwhelming force.
He snatched Yuzu into his arms.
And in the very next second, a massive and irreversible transformation overtook Kurosaki Ichigo.
His healthy skin drained to corpse-white. A pitch-black, hollow circular hole tore open in the center of his chest, the unmistakable mark of a Hollow. His short hair grew wildly, spilling down in disarray, and a sinister bull-horned mask slammed over his face like a curse.
The Bull-Headed Hollow had descended.
…
"So he's reached this point after all."
In a distant otherworld, the peerless master known as the Old Heavenly Master gazed across dimensions at the out-of-control bull-headed Hollow. With a single glance, he grasped the truth. Ichigo had gained god-slaying power, but had become a slave to it.
The Old Heavenly Master sighed heavily.
"This is the price of recklessness and overestimating oneself. Used, manipulated at every step. Young man, learn to be more cautious in the future."
Zhang Chulan stared at the raging bull-headed Hollow, fear rising in his chest like a cold tide. Ichigo had only touched a power he couldn't control, and this was the result. And him? Carrying the source of chaos known as the Eight Marvelous Techniques, with the possibly immortal Feng Baobao by his side. Would his own future be swallowed by schemes like this too?
Elsewhere, the members of Quanxing were intoxicated by greed.
"This wild Hollow power is pure temptation," Xia He, the Bone-Scraping Knife, licked her lips, desire blazing in her eyes.
"Hehehe… I wonder if my 'Divine Graffiti' could influence a monster like that," Gao Ning, the Thunder Smoke Cannon, said with a serene, Buddha-like smile that hid a flicker of madness.
"Give it a rest, Gao Ning," Shen Chong scoffed. "You almost screwed up dealing with Old Man Lu back then. Probing a completely out-of-control destroyer like this is just suicide."
In the face of absolute power, even the most refined mind control was meaningless.
On Mount Wudang, Daoist Wang Ye had already resolved to step into the world. Watching the scene, he shook his head with a sigh. "I hope you can still cling to a shred of your original conscience. If the gates of Hell open completely, all three realms will be drowned in blood."
…
Back in the infernal scene, Bull-Headed Hollow Ichigo held Yuzu tightly with one arm and gripped his Zanpakutō with the other.
Vast crimson spiritual pressure, compressed like a stellar core, surged toward the hollow opening between the horns of his mask. The energy condensed violently, swelling into a growing sphere.
"Come on!" Black Blade roared with manic laughter. "Use that power to sever the sinful chains binding me!"
The red energy sphere in Ichigo's hand devoured surrounding spirit particles, triggering violent reactions throughout Hell. Sandstorms erupted. Rocks exploded. Howling winds dragged filth and debris into the compressed core.
At last, the condensed mass grew larger than a full-grown man.
Then the stillness shattered.
"Cero!"
Rage and annihilation poured out with the silent scream, forming an unstoppable crimson beam. Its heat scorched space itself as it blasted forward.
Where it passed, the sky was dyed an unnatural red, Hell drowned in destruction. A thunderous roar followed as savagery, chaos, madness, and ruin fused into a single attack.
Space itself fractured, leaving countless fine cracks that slowly healed behind it. A hill in its path was erased before it could even "cry out," wiped clean into nothingness.
Even the chains that had resisted Zangetsu's blade disintegrated like rotten wood, vaporized on contact.
As broken chains rained down, the Bull-Headed Hollow's first devastating strike came to an end.
A massive trench, hundreds of meters wide, had been carved into the scorched ground beneath Ichigo's feet. A death mark left by the Cero.
"Hahahaha! Beautiful!"
Black Blade threw his head back in ecstatic laughter. "Those idiots in Zhu Lian thought opening the 'gate' would free them. They were wrong! It's these damned chains that bind the sinners!"
He pointed at the remaining chains on his body, eyes burning. "Come on! Just a little more! Cut them all off!"
The answer was another charge of energy.
Rumble!
"Hell's ground convulsed violently, the sky's rifts tearing wider and wider."
The second Cero obliterated every remaining chain on Black Blade's body.
Not only that, it swept outward, flattening the distant white buildings that housed countless sinners and Hell guards, turning them into smoking ruins in an instant.
Crack! Crack!
Space itself reached the brink of collapse. The crimson beam punched through the third layer of Hell and surged upward.
Second layer.First layer.
Nothing could stop this monstrous Bull-Headed Hollow.
Like an arrow piercing the stars, the Cero slammed straight into the Gate of Hell at the top.
Shatter!
The gate exploded under the overwhelming impact. Terrifying black flames surged backward through the shattered portal, flooding toward the human world.
"This attack… it's insane!" Naruto gasped, jaw hanging open. As a fellow bearer of uncontrollable power, he knew just how catastrophic this was.
"The Gate of Hell has opened. The human world may become another inferno," Kikyo said grimly, gripping her sacred bow.
"Fufufufu! That idiot actually pulled it off!" Doflamingo laughed arrogantly. "That fool Kurosaki Ichigo was used so easily!"
On screen, only two chains remained on Black Blade. His twisted grin deepened as he offered the deadliest temptation of all.
"Come on. Just these last two. Finish your mission."
…
Killing instinct swallowed reason whole.
In Ichigo's shattered consciousness, Black Blade had become nothing more than an enemy that had to be erased.
A third Cero began to form.
"That's enough! This can't go on!"
Renji forced himself upright. He knew that if Ichigo fired again, Hell's entire structure would collapse, and Black Blade would escape to the human world.
"Don't fall for his cheap provocation, Ichigo!"
Renji pushed Shunpo to its absolute limit, flashing behind the Bull-Headed Hollow like a ghost. In a split second, he swung his Zanpakutō with all his strength, slashing at the horn on Ichigo's mask.
Slash!
The horn snapped off cleanly, like cutting the fuse to an explosive.
The unstable Cero lost its source of pressure. It let out a pitiful whine and vanished into the air, just like that.
"....."