Chapter 431

2-in-1 chapter:

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“Oh...?”

Aizen raised his eyebrows slightly.

The moment he saw Pernida’s form, Aizen—himself the bearer of the right hand—immediately recognized its identity.

The Left Hand of the Soul King.

Which raised a serious question.

Even though he hadn’t possessed the right hand for long and couldn’t yet draw out its full power, there shouldn’t have been such a drastic difference.

Was the left hand really that much stronger than the right? Strong enough to crush it so effortlessly?

As if reading his thoughts, Kaelith, who had been shielded behind Aizen, stepped forward to stand at his side.

“Sōsuke, that’s no ordinary Soul King left hand.”

Aizen looked at him briefly.

That statement was… bizarre.

Since when were there “ordinary” and “extraordinary” versions of the Soul King’s limbs?

What did he think the Soul King was—a six-armed Asura who swapped out parts?

The records were clear: the Soul King's form was humanoid, like a Shinigami—a single head and two hands.

As Aizen recalled the data in his mind, Kaelith grinned and said:

“That thing is possessed by the will of the Soul King.”

—?!

The moment he said this, not just Aizen and Yamamoto, but even Yhwach showed a look of genuine surprise.

The will of the Soul King... had descended upon Pernida?

Yhwach turned his head and looked at his subordinate.

Sure enough, just as Kaelith had said, there was a strange energy interfering with Pernida’s form.

Ordinarily, as the King of the Quincy, he could perceive everything within any entity that had become a Quincy.

But now, he could no longer clearly discern what was happening within Pernida.

If this truly was the power of the Soul King... then why would the Soul King aid him?

He instinctively turned to look at Kaelith.

Could it be... that the Soul King, like himself, sought to restore the three realms into one—and had come to help him defeat Kaelith?

Thinking of this, Yhwach’s spirit was instantly lifted.

“What—what did you say?!”

Upon hearing Kaelith’s words, Ichigo looked stunned.

He quickly turned his head.

“Kaelith-san, the Soul King… I’ve heard of him. Isn’t he the legendary god who created the world?!”

“We’re talking about a creator god—something like a deity, right?”

“If someone like that chooses to help Yhwach, how are we even supposed to fight back?”

In response, Kaelith let out a dismissive snort of laughter.

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll beat the hell out of both of them just the same…”

“…?”

Ichigo froze in place, dumbfounded by that absurd statement.

Aizen looked thoughtful, as if lost in contemplation.

Yamamoto, however, showed little reaction.

Though he was the weakest of the four in terms of raw power—and also the most loyal to the Soul King—right now, all his focus was locked on Yhwach.

Until Yhwach was dead, nothing else could occupy his mind.

“Raaahhhh!!”

Yamamoto let out a thunderous roar and charged ahead, leading the way. Wielding his long burning blade, he rushed straight at Yhwach.

Though not a Transcendent, his Ryūjin Jakka had the attack power to injure even those who had surpassed the limits.

Yhwach didn’t dare take him lightly. He summoned his spiritual blade, clashing head-on with Yamamoto in a furious exchange.

Seeing his teacher rush in, Kaelith naturally followed.

Unlike with Yamamoto, the moment Kaelith moved, Pernida responded without hesitation.

A massive gray-white hand stomped forward using Hiryōkaku, appearing between Kaelith and Yhwach, raising a single finger toward him.

“…Hm?”

Kaelith seemed to sense something. Instinctively, he shifted to the side.

Something invisible had rushed past the spot where he had just stood.

The next moment, the ground between him and Pernida suddenly came alive.

With a deep rumble, the earth surged upward like it had gained sentience, rushing toward him in an attempt to engulf him completely.

This ground wasn’t made of ordinary dirt or stone. It had been condensed by a special power into a material many times harder than steel.

Faced with this nearly omnidirectional assault, Kaelith responded with brutal simplicity.

He threw a single punch.

BOOOOM!!!

The merging mass of terrain exploded from within, shattered by an overwhelming force into a storm of debris.

At the epicenter of the blast, Kaelith charged out at full speed.

“This technique… I already experienced it back when I fought Azashiro Sōya. Nothing new here.”

“Now stop interfering and be a good puppet: Twilight Impact!”

With a loud shout, Kaelith launched a punch through the air toward the giant gray-white hand.

A transparent pillar of force roared forward.

But just as the energy column was about to hit Pernida, it abruptly stopped.

The surface of the energy column had become entangled with threadlike structures, almost like capillaries, wrapping around it.

After a brief struggle, Twilight Impact, launched with a triple-force technique, simply dissolved into the air.

“That one was above Azashiro’s level.”

Kaelith nodded slightly.

Azashiro Sōya had to preemptively release reishi from his body and fuse it into the environment in order to manipulate the world around him.

But a technique like Twilight Impact, created on the spot, was beyond Azashiro’s control.

It was indeed the Soul King’s left hand; that strike alone demonstrated power equivalent to at least six hundred units of combat strength.

“Good. Very good.”

“I, Kaelith, love fighting mechanical freaks like you!”

With a fierce grin, Kaelith charged straight at Pernida.

As the famed philosopher Aizen Sōsuke once said—combat between Shinigami is a battle of Reiryoku.

Though that quote lost relevance after the Arrancar arc, as fights increasingly shifted toward countering unique abilities rather than overpowering with spiritual pressure, what did that matter to Kaelith?

He was bound to the original version of the meta. No need to adapt to patch updates.

Infinite Reiryoku—burst out!!

Seeing Kaelith dare to come in for close-quarters combat, Pernida was momentarily surprised.

Its ability was to release nerves from within itself, merge with its surroundings, and take control.

Its preferred method of killing was to instantly integrate its nerves into an opponent’s body, forcing their entire structure to collapse inward, reducing them to a fused mass of crushed bone and flesh.

The nerve-integration speed was beyond comprehension.

Even Kaelith’s Twilight Impact had been absorbed and controlled in an instant.

So naturally, when Kaelith closed in, Pernida used the same tactic.

But the instant its nerve threads extended outward, Pernida’s giant eye in its palm widened.

…No effect?

Impossible.

Before it could even process the thought, Pernida saw a fist rapidly growing larger in its vision.

BOOOM!!!

Kaelith’s punch landed squarely in the palm—right where the dual-pupiled eye was located.

The terrifying explosive force tore through its body and blasted a chunk of flesh open across the back of its hand.

“Guh… grraaa…”

Pernida let out a twisted, pained shriek.

The pain was so severe that its consciousness began to rebel, nearly shaking off the Soul King’s imposed will.

“It’s not over yet! Not even close!!”

Laughing wildly, Kaelith barreled forward and unleashed a second punch, followed by a third.

Seeing Kaelith showing no intention of holding back, the will of the Soul King began to show signs of frustration.

It wished to communicate with Kaelith, but there were things it could not say openly.

When it came to the foundation of the world itself, it trusted no one—not even its own will.

Fortunately, before extending any assistance to Yhwach, it had already anticipated this outcome.

And the countermeasure it had prepared was already en route…

...................

......

.

Yamamoto and Ichigo were surrounding Yhwach, attacking together.

Kaelith was locked in pursuit of the Soul King’s Left Hand.

Not far from the battlefield, Aizen stood quietly, watching.

He had no intention of intervening.

As Seireitei’s foremost expert on Kaelith, he knew well that when Kaelith got fired up, he stopped paying attention to anything around him.

Even if Aizen stood by doing nothing—pretending to have disconnected—Kaelith wouldn’t notice for quite some time.

As for Yamamoto... that old man was even worse once his blood boiled.

Ichigo, the only one who might have remained rational, had long been holding back a firestorm over what happened to his mother nine years ago during the Auswählen.

Now that he finally had the chance to vent all that rage against someone who treated lives as disposable, how could he let the moment slip by?

Swinging his massive blade, Ichigo unleashed a series of slashes, occasionally combining them with his Blut powers and Hollowfication, hammering Yhwach to the point of disarray—more trouble than even Yamamoto was giving him.

Two hundred years ago, Aizen might have found the idea of working with three hotheads like this utterly hopeless.

But now, his thinking had completely changed.

Most of the time, a pure fool was far more effective than a halfwit trying to act clever.

Sensing the Soul King’s ambiguous stance in this battle, Aizen no longer felt the need to act immediately.

Before moving to the next phase of his plan, he had to confirm one thing: where the Soul King truly stood in all of this.

If the Soul King was intent on opposing Kaelith, then he would have no hesitation—he would commit his full strength and help Kaelith crush the Soul King Palace.

However... if things were unfolding the way he suspected, then what came next would be very interesting.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, Aizen looked up.

From above, several figures were falling from the heavens like meteors, heads pointed straight downward as they descended.

Ichibē, Kirinji, Ōetsu, Senjumaru, and Hikifune—

The entire Royal Guard had left the Soul King Palace and was descending into the lower world together.

Even before they landed, Ichibē was already grinning and shouting at the top of his voice:

“Kaelith!! We’ve come to give you a hand!!”

Just as the words fell, his entire body slammed into the center of the battlefield.

Ever since he launched down from the Soul King Palace, he had been accelerating continuously, gathering terrifying momentum.

When he hit the ground, it was like watching a meteor strike Earth from space.

The impact instantly blasted the terrain outward in all directions. The heat erupted violently, distorting the very air.

Everyone engaged in the battle leapt back high into the air, dodging the crash.

The other four Royal Guard members were more measured.

They adjusted their positions mid-air and landed steadily without creating chaos.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the center of the crater, surprised.

Standing in the middle of the scorched and molten earth, Ichibē scratched his head and stood up with a sheepish grin.

“Ha ha, my bad. Didn’t quite manage my landing speed. Hope I didn’t get in the way…”

The impact had landed him directly between Kaelith’s side and Yhwach’s, separating them cleanly.

Yamamoto frowned slightly, as if he was about to say something.

But before he could speak, Ichibē continued at once:

“Don’t worry! I, and the others, all came here to help!”

“Seireitei and the Soul King Palace—we’re neighbors and relatives. You could say we’re one and the same!”

“As the protectors of the Soul King Palace, how could we possibly sit by when Seireitei is in danger?”

Hearing this, Yamamoto nearly burst out laughing.