Aizen had thought himself the prime, even sole, choice.

But there were four others?

That surprised him.

Reflecting on Urahara Kisuke's intellect and Zaraki Kenpachi's ferocity, Aizen could understand.

As for the being he created, he knew its potential better than anyone, though it seemed to exceed even his expectations.

The person in the Soul King's Palace was a mystery, but living there implied immense power, likely one of the Zero Division's elite.

"So what do I need to do now?" Aizen asked, looking at Kaiser.

He chose to trust his instincts.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

"Come on, show me this world's power system." Kaiser said.

"The Soul King didn't tell me anything."

With a flicker of telekinesis, Kaiser tore through space.

"This aura… Hueco Mundo?" Aizen's eyes gleamed with realization.

Testing his power in Soul Society would limit his performance.

Aizen knew his own strength too well.

Following Kaiser, they crossed a spatial tunnel to Hueco Mundo, arriving in a barren wasteland.

The desolate expanse stretched for miles, devoid of life.

Under the moonlight, visibility was clear... a perfect place for a fight.

"Let's go." Kaiser said, spreading his arms, golden pupils fixed on Aizen.

With just a shift in stance, without even releasing spiritual pressure, Aizen felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

An impeccable, unassailable presence.

Holding Kyoka Suigetsu, Aizen couldn't even decide where to strike.

"Is this part of the test?"

Aizen removed his glasses, revealing ambitious eyes.

"Shatter, Kyoka Suigetsu."

He released his zanpakuto.

Hueco Mundo's pale moonlight flowed across the ground. Kaiser stood with hands behind his back, and the sand within a hundred miles formed a starry ring of depressions.

Aizen's grip on Kyoka Suigetsu tightened, veins bulging. For the first time in centuries, he felt a thrill from the depths of his soul.

This man, merely standing there, was like the center of the world. The reishi of Hueco Mundo swirled around him like pilgrims, forming golden stellar spirals.

"Let me see your limit." Kaiser said, lightly tapping the air. Star-like specks glimmered beautifully.

"Use your strongest technique."

Aizen's glasses flashed with killing intent. He knew he'd have no chance unless he fought with lethal intent.

His zanpakuto slashed with blinding speed, the pinnacle of his swordsmanship.

Complete Hypnosis had activated the moment their conversation began, but the illusionary mist meant to envelop the battlefield vanished upon reaching Kaiser.

For the first time in three hundred years, Kyoka Suigetsu failed. The trembling hilt signaled its ineffectiveness.

Obscure patterns faintly glowing, untamed and wild aura, emerging yet negating, paralyzing and hindering eternal rest, the crawling iron princess, self-destructing clay dolls, unite, rebound, cover the earth and know your own powerlessness. Hado 90: Kurohitsugi!

Abandoning probing, Aizen chanted a high-level kido. A pitch-black cube instantly encased Kaiser.

Unlike typical Shinigami versions, this Kurohitsugi, woven with seventy-three abbreviated chants, turned every reishi particle inside into soul-rending blades.

Hueco Mundo's ground shattered under the energy's force, rocks touched by the black coffin vanishing entirely.

A cracking sound echoed in the dark space. The cube, capable of slaying Vasto Lordes, developed web-like fractures.

Aizen's pupils constricted. He saw his infused spiritual pressure being reverse-engineered by some immense force. The reishi blades, sharp enough to cut space, seemed to strike an indestructible barrier.

"An interesting technique, with impressive control over your power." Kaiser's voice came from within.

The Kurohitsugi exploded into fragments.

"Simulating spatial confinement through reishi alignment, but…"

He raised his left hand, a reforming black reishi orb floating in his palm.

"The essence of this power is too weak, its lethality limited. Even at the Shinigami's peak, untransformed spiritual pressure is just that."

The black reishi orb shot into the distance.

A massive black cube, far surpassing the original Kurohitsugi, expanded.

Boom!

The force shook all of Hueco Mundo.

Aizen's white haori fluttered in the energy's aftermath.

He stared, stunned, at the distant explosion.

In an instant, his Kurohitsugi had been fully analyzed.

Not only that, Kaiser had enhanced and unleashed it, surpassing kido's limits.

The scattered energy didn't dissipate but began orbiting Kaiser.

Standing at the center of an energy ring, Kaiser seemed wrapped in the cosmos itself.

Aizen took a deep breath. This was a test, and he needed to show his absolute best.

Kyoka Suigetsu traced an arcane path, and Aizen's form split into thousands of afterimages.

This was Sora Cicada Hundred Scenes, combining Shunpo with Complete Hypnosis, each clone carrying genuine killing intent aimed at Kaiser's vitals.

The energy ring around Kaiser solidified, a golden barrier shimmering.

As thousands of slashes landed simultaneously, Aizen felt his blade strike a black hole... all his clones froze.

Kyoka Suigetsu's tip halted before reaching Kaiser.

This was Kaiser's mastery of space, refined through the concept of Infinity, surpassing its original form.

"In this world, the speed and power of that strike stand at the Shinigami's peak." Kaiser said.

"But its trajectory is too linear."

He lightly tapped Kyoka Suigetsu's tip with his right index finger.

A tremendous force traveled through the zanpakuto to Aizen, sending him flying into the distant ground.

Kyoka Suigetsu slipped from his grasp, embedding beside him.

Aizen felt searing pain, coughing up blood.

"Not done yet!"

The desert erupted into dozens of crystalline peaks. Aizen's left hand traced rapid motions behind him.

This was Reikan Jusaku, a fusion of kido and bakudo, each peak sealing a compressed Raikoho.

With a snap of his fingers, the crystals shattered, unleashing a reishi torrent capable of vaporizing captain-level Shinigami, engulfing Kaiser.

The raging energy froze ten meters from Kaiser.

Aizen watched his meticulously crafted attack solidify like a frozen galaxy, its explosive spiritual pressure breaking down into primal starlight particles.

Kaiser hadn't moved a step. The golden glow in his pupils alone stopped the entire kido matrix in time.

"Absolute power suppression? Is this the higher-dimensional world?"

Aizen's face was pale, his throat tasting of blood again.

He realized his attacks were like two-dimensional scratches against a three-dimensional entity. His meticulously refined kido techniques were mere child's scribbles before this higher-dimensional power.

But surrender wasn't his style.

"You've grasped your power to an impressive degree." Kaiser said, his voice resonating like a divine proclamation from the heavens.

He touched the frozen reishi torrent before him, shattering its offensive form into primal particles.

Countless galaxies seemed to bloom and collapse at his fingertips.

Scorching stellar light scattered.

Aizen grunted, his body stinging as if sunburned, his shihakusho beginning to burn.

Another impact left him unsteady, dropping to one knee. His tattered shihakusho revealed a spirit body scorched by starlight.

Three hundred years of mastering kido's secrets and Kyoka Suigetsu, capable of overturning Soul Society, now served only as a mirror reflecting his own insignificance.

"Why doesn't my Kyoka Suigetsu work on you?" Aizen asked.

"Don't you have the five senses?"

His fingers dug into the crystallized sand. From the battle's start, he hadn't stopped trying to wield Kyoka Suigetsu's power, yet it yielded nothing.

The starry illusion behind Kaiser expanded, projections of the twelve zodiacs enveloping Hueco Mundo's sky.

"Your hypnosis targets sensory perception." Kaiser said. "I don't rely on the five senses."

He caught a falling speck of stardust.

"I rely on a power beyond them. If one day you could use Kyoka Suigetsu to hypnotize the sixth or seventh sense, you might trouble me slightly."

As if to prove his point, a golden Cosmo surged from Kaiser's body.

A divine, overwhelming power debuted in this world.

Aizen felt his spirit body being washed by a vast will. Kyoka Suigetsu's blade developed countless fine cracks.

When he tried to channel spiritual pressure to repair his zanpakuto, he found his reishi cycle suppressed, immobilized by Kaiser's force.

The suppression was brief. Kaiser withdrew his power almost instantly.

It was just a test, after all.

Regaining control, Aizen's remaining reishi boiled within him.

"Hado 99: Goryutenmetsu!"

At his limit, Aizen roared, unleashing a forbidden kido. Five black dragons, formed from millions of units of spiritual pressure, soared upward.

This was his final trump card, the ultimate display of his Shinigami power.

Each dragon's scales bore Quincy runes, their claws tearing Hueco Mundo's spatial fabric as they moved.

Kaiser sighed softly, the motion's energy ripple erasing three dragons instantly.

The remaining two disintegrated mid-strike, their spiritual pressure gathered in Kaiser's palm, condensed into a flickering starspark.

Aizen watched in despair as his life-staked ultimate kido became as tame as candlelight in Kaiser's hands.

"Watch closely." Kaiser said, tossing the starspark skyward.

"This is power beyond your world's limits."

The spark expanded into a supernova, Hueco Mundo's pale night turning bright as day.

Aizen instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes, but through his fingers, he saw an unforgettable sight... countless galaxies flowing behind Kaiser, each brimming with power far beyond this world.

His proud kido techniques were less than dust before this cosmic might.

As the light faded, Aizen saw Hueco Mundo's desert transformed into a crystalline plain, each grain reflecting other-dimensional stars.

His broken spirit body was slowly mending under a golden energy.

"What is this…?"

Aizen sensed his body in disbelief.

As a Shinigami, a purely reishi-based entity, he could feel the immense, weighty grandeur of this power.

"Is this your power?" He asked, looking at Kaiser.

Under the Cosmo's baptism, his soul felt more solid.

"Your power system is impressive, but you lack something crucial." Kaiser said.

"A physical body."

"It's the vessel to cross into true greatness."

"I've got a good grasp of your strength and this world's system now." Kaiser continued. "The issue isn't too severe."

"Good." Aizen replied, asking no further questions.

Kaiser's approval was enough.

If he had doubted Kaiser's power before, those doubts were gone.

Such strength could destroy this world in a blink.

"Why didn't you use your Bankai?" Kaiser asked.

"I recall Shinigami have that ability."

In the original Bleach, Aizen never fully revealed his Bankai, leaving it a mystery.

Though in derivative games, it was named Kazetome Mizushibari.

"If it were anyone else, I might have." Aizen said.

"My spiritual pressure has reached in this world."

"To me, Shinigami battles are about spiritual pressure."

"At this level, the difference between Shikai and Bankai isn't significant."

"My Bankai is an enhanced hypnosis based on my Shikai."

"In your terms, it hypnotizes the sixth sense, making others see the reality I want them to see."

"But it's meaningless against you."

"Let's return to Soul Society." Kaiser said.

"I'll stay in this world for at least a year."

"I need to subtly reshape it while enhancing your power."

"You can proceed with your original plans."

"That being you created might be key to your evolution."

Kaiser glanced at Aizen.

In the original story, Aizen evolved rapidly, transforming three or four times during his battle with Ichigo's Mugetsu.

Though his evolution veered toward the monstrous, clearly a misstep, Ichigo's Mugetsu inspired Aizen's correct path.

Merged with the Hogyoku, Aizen became unkillable, only sealable.

In the Thousand-Year Blood War, Aizen matched Ichigo's Mugetsu level, if not surpassed it.

Despite his spiritual pressure being restricted, he easily crushed the Soul King's overflow, which had overwhelmed Soul Society.

Unrestrained, he could have brought down the Soul King's Palace with spiritual pressure alone.

Aizen was the only one who sensed Yhwach's spiritual pressure shifts, standing at the three realms' peak.

Though he lost to Yhwach in the final battle, he fought with seals and restraints, at half strength.

It was no unjust defeat.

"Evolution's key?" Aizen said, catching Kaiser's implication.

He knew his creation's potential... Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy powers, and a physical body.

The perfect setup for the next Soul King.

"A pawn I placed casually." Aizen mused, "Has such a role?"

He was surprised but, with Kaiser's guidance, wouldn't overlook it.

***

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