Clang.

The black Oharai Gougi, trailing its black-and-red ribbons wrapped around his arm, fell to the ground with a sharp metallic ring.

Makoto's right hand clamped tightly around the girl's wrist.

Their eyes locked, inches apart.

"I've caught you."

What did those words mean?

In that fleeting moment, the question flared in Yhwach's mind.

The girl raised her head, meeting Makoto's gaze.

His chest was pierced by her slender arm, blood pouring from his mouth. The sensation of her arm slicing through his chest and shredding his heart was unmistakable.

Death loomed over this wretched boy.

But why?

Why did unease still gnaw at her heart?

The thought surged uncontrollably in the young girl's mind.

Makoto's grip on her wrist was iron-tight, his fingers digging into her soft flesh, his voice faint but laced with a mocking smile. "Such… unbelievably powerful strength."

"But how did you, with your sealed powers, reclaim that eye, Yhwach?"

Her heart skipped a beat, as if time itself faltered.

A realization struck her.

Her seemingly delicate arm yanked with sudden force, trying to pull free from Makoto's chest.

But, to her shock, it didn't budge.

"?!"

Yhwach's gaze shifted, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Makoto.

He stood calmly, his single hand gripping her wrist with such force it seemed ready to shatter her delicate bones.

"Impossible!" she cried, her voice trembling with disbelief, her gaze on him utterly transformed.

Had he been hiding his strength all along?

No!

That wasn't it!

This freak, if he truly held the upper hand, would never risk his life to bait her into such a dangerous move.

Her mind raced with tension as she pressed her foot against the ground, desperately tugging at the wrist lodged in Makoto's chest.

Yet, for reasons unknown, it wouldn't move an inch.

What is happening?!

Makoto's voice pressed on, unrelenting.

Holding her wrist, he lifted his eyes to meet hers, his tone calm and measured. His words halted her struggles in their tracks.

"Sealed King of the Quincy…" he began.

"Nine hundred years to reclaim your heartbeat."

"Ninety years to reclaim your consciousness."

"Nine years to reclaim your power."

"Nine days."

"To reclaim the entire world."

"For you, to wrest your Almighty power from the Soul King's left hand… shouldn't it require at least that much?"

His words were serene, almost tranquil, not the voice of a man with a pierced chest and heart.

As if the looming specter of death couldn't shake him in the slightest.

The cat-eared girl stared at him, stunned, her black tails beneath her skirt frozen mid-sway. Her body tensed like a taut string, unable to move.

Those words, she knew them all too well.

Before her eyes were sealed, Yhwach had foreseen her death countless times, yet never once felt fear.

Each death, after a millennium's passage, would lead to her inevitable return.

This was the confidence that drove her to recklessly lead her forces into the Seireitei, one of her deepest secrets.

But now, that secret had been laid bare so easily by another's lips.

"How could you…?" she whispered.

"You think that's all I know?" Makoto's gentle gaze seemed to melt her, but his words cut like a blade through her heart. "Ichibe Hyosube must have told you, didn't he?"

"Before you die, those eyes will be sealed forever."

"So how, then, are you using that eye now?"

As he spoke, he slowly reached toward her, his index finger and thumb extending.

They stopped an inch from the double-pupiled eye in her left socket.

A bead of cold sweat slid down her temple.

"It's a deception, isn't it?"

"Through the 'death' state induced by the Dream Death world, you briefly fooled the Soul King's left hand that seals your powers, temporarily unleashing your Almighty."

"But…"

"The death brought by the Dream Death world isn't permanent."

"And, after all, it's my Zanpakuto."

The moment his words fell, his fingers tightened on her wrist with unimaginable force, snapping her delicate bones with a sharp crack.

His fingertips, poised an inch from her eye, lunged forward like a blade, as if to gouge out her pupil.

Whoosh!

Instinctively, her petite form shot back several meters like a bolt of lightning.

But the instant her mind caught up, she realized the left arm that had pierced Makoto's chest was gone, severed at the elbow.

"!?"

Her pupils constricted.

Yhwach looked toward Makoto.

The black Zanpakuto arced through the air, its black-and-red ribbons pulling it back into his hand.

He slowly drew her slender, pale arm from his chest, heedless of the blood gushing from the wound.

His handsome face still bore that signature gentle smile.

"This should be enough," he murmured, gazing at the severed arm.

Yhwach's eyes grew wary, her right hand clutching the stump of her left arm.

The sudden surge of power from this man sent her instincts into overdrive, her body tensing.

But before she could reconstruct her arm, her eyes widened.

The severed arm in Makoto's grip dissolved like Reishi consumed by a Hollow, scattering into a flurry of dandelion-like fragments. They swirled around him, forming a flowing ribbon of light.

Reishi shimmered across his body, his long hair dancing behind him, his eyes glowing with clear blue light, his robes fluttering.

The gaping wound in his chest, like that of a Menos Grande with super-speed regeneration, writhed and closed, flesh knitting together until, in mere seconds, his chest was smooth and unmarred.

Only the torn Shihakusho bore witness to the wound he'd endured.

[Bond Trait Six: Final Dawn]

[In the face of certain death, unleash unprecedented power, followed by a period of extreme weakness.]

[Bond Trait Eight: Soul Incineration]

[By sacrificing the Soul King's power, gain the strength to reshape the world for a short time.]

These two traits were the source of Makoto's confidence in turning the tide.

But to Yhwach, this was utterly incomprehensible.

She watched as her own Reishi was devoured by him. A dense, viscous black Reiatsu enveloped him, rising like a beacon to pierce the sky.

In an instant, he seemed an entirely different person.

The flickering light reflected in her double pupils, sending shivers through her body.

No matter how many times she foresaw or traced the future, her left eye's double pupils found no trace of this moment.

It was as if this timeline didn't exist in the world she was permitted to know.

"Impossible!" she screamed. "Absolutely impossible!!"

"What are you?!"

Her face contorted with rage, she glared at Makoto, her body bristling like a startled hedgehog, all pretense of composure gone.

But no amount of bravado could mask the trembling fear in her heart.

Makoto's right hand gripped his Zanpakuto's hilt, dense Reiatsu swirling around him, forming black-and-red flames that cloaked his clothes, hair, blade, and even one eye.

Yet the terrifying Reiatsu that had once crushed souls was now restrained to an imperceptible degree.

His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. "Didn't you already know?"

"My name is Makoto Fujimiya."

"A naive, pure, handsome, reliable Shinigami who never lies."

Yhwach's eyes widened, her throat catching.

But Makoto gave her no time to process reality.

With a calm expression, he swung his left hand to the side.

The scarlet, hemispherical dome of the Dream Death world tore open with a clear rift under its creator's command.

Web-like cracks spread from the small tear, radiating outward in all directions, sprawling across the scarlet walls of the Dream Death world. Like shattered glass, the barrier burst apart, revealing the smoke-laden landscape of the Soul Society beyond.

The Dream Death world was forcibly dispelled.

In this moment, both Makoto and Yhwach possessed the power to shatter rules in an instant.

"So…" Makoto's voice was soft, his gentle smile laced with malice. "Even you can't keep deceiving that 'hand' with 'death' now, can you?"

Shunpo.

His form vanished from its spot.

A black-and-red blade light, wreathed in blazing flames, carved a sinuous arc through the air, accompanied by a shrill scream of steel.

A fierce killing intent flooded his mind. Almost instinctively, Yhwach raised her reishi sword.

The flaming edge crashed down from above, colliding with the pure white Quincy blade. The sheer recoil exploded outward like a hurricane, upheaving the ground behind Yhwach in a massive arc. Stone tiles and ruined structures crumbled under the terrifying impact, like sandcastles swept away by a tidal wave, reduced to dust in an instant.

Makoto had never experienced such vivid, precise perception.

Everything in his mind surpassed his prior understanding, colors, contours, predictions unfolding like a three-dimensional blueprint, effortlessly foreseeing the next second's events.

No thought was needed; his instincts alone made the perfect judgments.

His body felt stronger, more agile, and perfectly controlled than ever before.

Even the scattered, ethereal Reishi particles moved like disciplined soldiers, obeying his will to fulfill his every desire.

In this moment, he finally understood how Yhwach had wielded such terrifying power before.

But just as her strength was fleeting, his time was limited.

Whoosh!

His blade, cloaked in black flames, slashed forward, its relentless strikes pouring like a cascading waterfall. Their clash was so rapid it blurred beyond recognition. Even a captain-level Shinigami standing nearby would only see ceaseless shockwaves rippling outward, stirring the air with cascading tremors.

The Reishi-crafted world groaned in protest.

But neither Makoto nor Yhwach had the luxury to care.

"Why?!" Yhwach's youthful voice, hoarse and strained, rose in a furious cry. Her blade swung at blinding speed, sparking a flurry of scattered light in the dense clanging of steel. Her words pierced the soul, carried by the vibrating Reishi. "If this world has birthed an heir like me, then why do you exist?!"

"Why stand in my way?!"

"Makoto Fujimiya!"

Clang!

The white reishi sword met the black Oharai Gougi, both weapons parting in unison, veering aside to expose a fleeting opening.

The taut shadowy tails beneath her skirt lashed out like whips, shooting toward Makoto's vital points like arrows.

But the moment those shadows reached within a foot of him, they froze, like branches piercing a still lake, rippling outward in layered waves.

Yhwach's expression faltered.

A sudden tug pulled at her skirt, loosening her defenses.

The shadows she had stolen from Makoto were effortlessly reclaimed, swallowed into the dark pool at his feet, vanishing in an instant to become subservient to his will.

Yhwach stumbled, nearly dragged toward Makoto by the pull of those shadows.

He gazed at her warmly but offered no answer, instead raising his black blade.

The dark tip pointed at the girl before him.

"Oharai Gougi · World Invasion."

As his words fell, the black shadows at his feet deepened into an abyssal hue, spreading backward and stretching into a jagged scar that tore through the Soul Society's spiritual foundation.

Yhwach slowly raised her head, staring blankly at the scene.

The colossal scar, merely standing there, exuded an overwhelming presence, commanding attention and shaking the soul.

Makoto's expression remained gentle, his voice chillingly calm.

"The will of the world, the ideals of life, the meaning of existence…"

"I couldn't care less about such tedious nonsense."

"If you want to kill us, you should be prepared to be killed in return."

"Only the strong have the right to define victory."

"Yhwach."

***

Bonus Chapter:

100 Power Stones = 1 BC

300 Power Stones = 2 BC

500 Power Stones = 3 BC

700 Power Stones = 4 BC

1000 Power Stones = 5 BC

***

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