Chapter 436

2-in-1 chapter:

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“Final technique…”

He murmured the words, repeating the name once more.

Suddenly, as though realizing something, he turned sharply toward Aizen.

“Aizen, judging from the name of this ability, there must be severe consequences after using it.”

Aizen gave a brief acknowledgment.

“It is called the final technique because it releases the user’s entire lifetime of power in an extremely short span.”

“Once it is used, the wielder will lose all power and become an ordinary soul.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened.

After confirming that Aizen was not joking, he quickly turned back toward Kaelith’s direction.

In the sky, Kaelith’s figure flickered continuously. Every time he appeared, he struck Yhwach with a heavy punch that blasted flesh and blood apart, sending him hurtling away. Before Yhwach could travel more than a short distance, Kaelith would instantly move to the point ahead of his flight path and deliver another blow, changing his direction.

Yhwach’s body was pummeled through the air, each strike leaving a continuous trail of mixed red and black, drawn together like an abstract sketch.

Every time his body was close to being destroyed, Yhwach used The Almighty to restore his flesh.

Seeing Kaelith’s relentless pursuit that left no room for reprieve, Yhwach grew anxious.

His power was not infinite. In truth, no one in this world possessed inexhaustible strength. Under Kaelith’s unending assault, his open-eye power was being drained as if a dam were breaking. A deep exhaustion was flooding into his mind.

He summoned giant spirit bows to unleash terrifying barrages of arrows against Kaelith. He formed vast holy arrays to trap him. He fully activated Blut Vene Anhaben to shield himself with external defensive layers in an attempt to block Kaelith.

Yet, before the power of the final extinction, nothing he did had any effect.

Blow after blow continued to smash him apart, until Yhwach, humiliated, shut his eyes.

At this point, he had only one tactic left—endurance. The idea was simple: hold out until the opponent’s technique ended.

Kaelith must have used some secret method to suddenly raise his realm so drastically, and such methods always had a time limit. When the effect ended, the backlash would be immense. If he reduced his expenditure as much as possible, focused entirely on defense and regeneration, and simply endured until Kaelith’s ability was on cooldown, he could seize the final victory.

Sure enough, after about a minute of continuous assault on Yhwach, Kaelith’s movements suddenly slowed.

The golden light in his eyes faded, returning to their normal black, and his strength began to seep away through his skin.

Yhwach’s heart leapt. This was the moment.

He spread his hands, ready to form a spirit sword to show Kaelith what a reversal of offense and defense truly meant.

But at that instant, Kaelith shouted toward the front, “Sōsuke, are you ready?”

Yhwach froze.

Not far away, Aizen, who had been quietly observing the battle, gave a short laugh.

“Do you know who you are speaking to?”

The moment his words fell, an immense wave of spiritual pressure erupted from his body.

A pair of white wings unfolded behind him. Then a second pair, then a third. Six silver-white wings with a metallic sheen spread out in the air, not connected to his body but hovering behind him.

A golden vertical pupil opened on his forehead. At his chest, where the Hōgyoku resided, a deep, abyss-like rift split open, with flowing light and shadow within, like the depths of a nebula. At its very center, the light of the Hōgyoku pulsed quietly.

Aizen raised both hands and looked over himself.

To prepare for this day, he had been storing power in silence for over a hundred years, all for the sake of a single breakthrough.

At last, in the final battle, he had unleashed this technique—True Hōgyoku Fifth Stage.

Back in the fourth stage, he had already discovered a way toward the fifth. The plan had been to let the Hollow power, which was originally the weaker aspect, suppress his Shinigami power and force himself into a state of near-complete Hollowfication to enter a new realm.

But Kaelith had firmly rejected this approach. That day, he had even used almost the same reasoning as today—claiming that if appearance dropped, strength would drop with it.

Whenever Aizen recalled that bizarre logic, he wanted to open Kaelith’s head to see what strange things were inside. Although he could not understand the fool’s thought process, he still chose to exercise the tolerance of a wise man, pausing his original exploration of the fifth stage to search for a new path instead.

In the end, he had completed this new form. It had to be admitted—Kaelith, by accident, had given him the right advice.

The True Fifth Stage of the Hōgyoku was more than one step stronger than what he had originally envisioned. Its balanced power allowed him to perceive the force of the world’s laws with far greater clarity.

If one had to put it into words, the current Hōgyoku fusion could be called the sixth stage without exaggeration.

In the instant he broke through, Aizen’s gaze sharpened, and he charged straight toward the battlefield. Now he had more than enough power to take part in the fight.

At the same time, on Kaelith’s side, the spiritual pressure that had been rapidly fading suddenly surged once more.

[Detected: bound target “Aizen Sōsuke” has increased in power. Automatically synchronizing cultivation progress… Synchronization complete.]

His spiritual pressure rose sharply, growing more overwhelming by the second.

In the blink of an eye, he went from someone on the brink of collapse to a level equal to six-stage Hōgyoku-fused Aizen.

As his strength returned, Kaelith grinned at Yhwach.

A bad feeling passed through Yhwach’s mind.

The next second, Kaelith’s pupils turned gold again.

Final Annihilation—unleashed once more.

Sensing Kaelith activate his ultimate technique again, Yhwach’s composure finally cracked.

With Final Annihilation opened again, Kaelith’s power became even more terrifying than before.

Yhwach realized he could not allow this to continue.

If he kept passively defending, Kaelith might truly defeat him before the collapse of the Three Realms, rendering over a thousand years of preparation—no, far more than a thousand years—completely meaningless.

He clenched his teeth, prepared to stake everything just as Kaelith had.

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Yhwach took a deep breath, preparing to use the true power of his Vollständig.

As the progenitor of the Quincy, his Vollständig was the ultimate version.

It was not like that of the Sternritter, which could be deactivated at will, but more like Uryū Ishida’s during the Rukia rescue—dissipating all power from his body.

After using it, he would revert to the helpless state he had been in at birth—unable to speak, unable to see, living forever in darkness.

Yet as long as he lived, there would come a day when someone else would accept his gift and devote everything to him again.

With that in mind, he made his decision.

After taking a few more of Kaelith’s punches, Yhwach seized an opening, suddenly withdrawing all his spiritual pressure and driving it into his own heart.

Before Kaelith’s next strike could land, he would enter an entirely new stage.

But just as he was ready to crush Kaelith with his renewed form and strength, the scene before him shifted in an instant.

The Kaelith who had been at some distance was suddenly right in front of him.

The fist carrying that terrifying power was already at point-blank range.

In that moment, Yhwach seemed to realize something.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced toward Aizen.

Aizen was smiling faintly at him.

Through the All-Knowing, All-Powerful, an image flashed in Yhwach’s mind—Aizen showing him his Zanpakutō before the fight began.

That blade… there was something wrong with it.

It had distorted his perception of time and distance.

He had thought there was enough of a gap between Kaelith’s attacks, which was why he had withdrawn all defensive power to activate his Quincy final form.

In reality, that gap had never existed.

Yhwach’s eyes widened, his face twisting in rage and despair.

“No! Kaelith, you—”

Before he could finish, Kaelith’s fist crashed into his face.

“Sixfold Force.”

“Annihilation Supreme Fist!”

In an instant, Yhwach felt as though the world had gone still.

His All-Knowing, All-Powerful eyes ceased to function.

All he could see was an endless darkness.

So that was it…

This was why he had seen nothing when he looked into the future with his All-Knowing, All-Powerful.

In every possible future, the only path ahead was death.

Kaelith, Aizen… I will remember these names.

When I return, it will be your end.

Boom!

Under the eyes of all present, Yhwach’s body exploded into a mist of blood.

Kaelith slowly withdrew his fist, his gaze weary, his body slackening.

Aizen stepped to his side and caught him.

He gave a low chuckle as he looked at the utterly drained, soaked-through Kaelith.

“How does it feel to recklessly use power far beyond your limits?”

“Not bad, not bad, nothing serious.”

Kaelith muttered drowsily.

Aizen shook his head with an amused smile.

The body was spent, but the mouth was still sharp.

Yet to his surprise, after resting briefly, Kaelith actually regained some strength.

With a determined look, he began walking toward the mass of black spiritual energy left behind after Yhwach’s death.

Suddenly, Ichibē stepped in front of him.

Kaelith narrowed his eyes.

“Baldy, what are you doing?”

Seeing Kaelith’s hostility, Ichibē quickly waved his hands.

“Kaelith, I’m here to help you.”

“Help me?”

Kaelith curled his lip.

Yhwach was dead, but the Three Realms were still collapsing.

If the power of the Quincy key within Yhwach was not removed to halt the collapse, all the effort just now would have been for nothing.

Under Kaelith’s unfriendly gaze, Ichibē quickly explained the reason for his actions along the way.

After listening, Kaelith showed a look of realization.

The Soul King’s duty was to serve as the key to the Three Realms.

But after a million years of self-imprisonment, the Soul King had grown deeply weary of the throne.

What he desired was release.