Power Emerges (Continued)
At the command, the darkness of the night was utterly illuminated. Several red fireballs trailed flames like meteors as they hurtled toward the figure that had just emerged from the forest.
After a violent burst of fire and explosions, everyone stared fixedly at the flames, waiting for a miracle to appear beyond them.
Yet when the night wind slowly dispersed the smoke and flames...
The enormous creature, like a towering black spire, still stood where it had been.
The barrage of Kidō, enough to drive back hundreds of Hollows, had left only a few scorch marks on its deathly pale mask.
As expected, even a newborn Hollow, even one that was only a Gillian, was an obstacle that could not be easily overcome!
The newborn Hollow was evidently enraged by the attacks of these "ants." It raised its enormous head and let out a heaven-shaking roar.
It then charged the newly established position, slamming its massive body against the freshly formed barrier.
"Crack!"
There was never any doubt. Under that absolute power, the barrier, which the students had built with what little spiritual power they had left, cracked the instant it was struck.
The newly formed defensive line broke apart in that instant.
"Don't let it get close to the Senkaimon! Draw it away, quickly!"
Seeing this, several blood-soaked teachers leading the group roared, their eyes bloodshot. Without hesitation, they drew their Zanpakuto and charged forward.
Xuanxin naturally joined them. He and several teachers then used Shunpo to narrowly dodge the Gillian's wildly flailing arms, quickly circling around to the creature's sides and rear.
Xuanxin slashed fiercely at the Gillian's pitch-black lower leg. Sparks flew, but the strike left only a shallow wound in its tough hide.
Xuanxin looked at the wound he had left and frowned. If I'd fought this thing earlier, I definitely could have tried to take it on. But now...
Meanwhile, on the main battlefield...
Xuanxin and several teachers had already engaged the newborn Gillian in fierce close combat.
During the fight, the teachers consciously and with remarkable coordination used their own bodies as shields and cover for Xuanxin, a third-year student!
They knew full well that they would reach no greater heights in their lifetimes. Xuanxin, who was there with them, would certainly achieve far more than they ever could, and all they could do was buy this future rising star as much time as possible.
Fortunately, Xuanxin's Zanpakuto gave him a degree of endurance. Whenever his strength was about to give out or his Reiatsu showed signs of running dry...
He would use Shunpo without the slightest hesitation, temporarily escaping the Gillian's attack range and charging into the remaining ordinary Hollows on the outskirts like a tiger among sheep!
Xuanxin pushed Mumyō's domineering "Reiatsu devouring" to its limit.
Each time he killed an ordinary Hollow, a small portion of the Reishi released as it dissipated became Xuanxin's power, feeding back through the black hilt into his nearly exhausted body!
By sustaining war through war, he could naturally keep going without end!
Relying on this chilling method of replenishing himself, Xuanxin fought his way back to the battlefield again and again, blocking fatal attacks for the teachers who were close to their limits.
But even that was not enough.
"It's too hard..."
Xuanxin gasped for breath. Exhaustion now filled every corner of his body.
Even if he could keep going indefinitely, none of his slashes could inflict any substantial damage on the Gillian.
Xuanxin needed more power now.
He needed a power that could erupt completely in an instant and shatter the deathly pale mask on the Menos Grande's face!
As Xuanxin dodged at the very limit of his ability amid the Gillian's devastating attacks, he desperately racked his brains.
Suddenly, his vision began to blur. The roars on the battlefield around him gradually grew distant and ethereal to his ears.
In that instant, Xuanxin's consciousness seemed to be abruptly pulled away from the battlefield in the World of the Living, falling into a silent space.
In that profoundly mysterious trance, he saw the sword spirit once again.
The figure did not look at him. It merely raised the sword in its hand calmly and, facing the endless void, assumed a simple starting stance.
Then it swung.
There was no earth-shaking eruption of Reiatsu, nor any dazzling sword energy sweeping in every direction.
The sword's path was slow and plain, yet it seemed to accord with the ultimate principles of heaven and earth that governed all things in the world.
The sword's trail held a mystery that words could not describe. It seemed capable of cutting through space and severing cause and effect.
After that single swing, the white-haired figure dispersed like mist.
At the same moment, Xuanxin's eyes snapped open!
His once pitch-black eyes now blazed with an unprecedented brightness and sharpness, like two unsheathed blades!
"Everyone, get back!!!" Xuanxin let out a heaven-shaking roar.
The teachers struggling to hold on did not understand why, but trusting the young man, they all shot backward.
Seeing that its enormous fist had lost its targets, the Gillian angrily lowered its head and looked at the silver-haired youth standing at its feet, as insignificant as an ant.
"Whew—"
Xuanxin raised both swords and took a deep breath.
He poured every last bit of the Reiatsu he had just plundered from countless ordinary Hollows into the Zanpakuto in his hands!
"Buzz, buzz, buzz—!"
Mumyō and Shingon trembled violently and excitedly, their two-colored blade lights surging to a length of ten zhang in an instant!
The mysterious path of the sword spirit's strike replayed constantly in Xuanxin's mind.
He knew that at his current level, he could not possibly bring out even a ten-thousandth of that strike's true meaning.
But... even if he could only imitate its superficial path, and extremely clumsily at that, it would be enough to deal with this newborn Hollow!
"Six paths, five rings—"
Xuanxin stomped his right foot down, shattering the rocks beneath it. Then he shot skyward to meet the Gillian's enormous descending palm!
"Kurikara!!!"
In midair, Xuanxin strained to turn his wrists. Following that profoundly mysterious path in his mind, he swung fiercely at the Gillian's deathly pale bone mask!
"Lesser Tenshō!!!"
In that instant, heaven and earth seemed to lose all color and sound. There was no deafening explosion, nor any violent surge of air.
A slender, restrained streak of black sword light slipped smoothly into the Gillian's mask at a strange speed, then silently pierced out the back of its head.
Time seemed to stop at that moment.
All strength left Xuanxin's body. He fell straight from the air like a withered leaf and was caught by a quick-reacting teacher below.
As for the Gillian, still in its attacking stance like a towering spire...
"Crack... crack, crack..."
A crisp cracking sound came from the center of its comical long-nosed mask. An utterly straight, thin black line spread from its forehead all the way to its chin.
Then, beneath everyone's stunned, disbelieving gazes...
The indestructible bone mask shattered into pieces like an eggshell struck by a hammer, scattering in every direction!
Its mountain-sized body let out a shrill, desperate wail and crashed to the ground. Then it turned into a vast downpour of Reishi that blanketed the entire night sky of the World of the Living!
"He... he killed it?!"
"He actually... killed a Gillian?!!!"
Within the position, both the surviving students and the teachers stood frozen as if turned to stone.
Looking at the blood-soaked young man lying in the teacher's arms, still clutching his swords tightly, everyone was nearly as shocked as if they were looking at a god!
They had won! In a desperate situation with no chance of survival, they had truly fought their way out!
However...
Before the crowd could burst into cheers at their escape from death...
"Thud."
"Thud."
The earth shook violently once again, sending chills down their spines.
And this time, the tremors came simultaneously from two entirely different directions, one on the left and one on the right!
Trees along both edges of the forest were brutally pushed down in swathes. Two deathly pale, long-nosed masks, identical to the one before but belonging to even larger creatures, emerged from the darkness once more!
Two more Gillians!
The newborn Gillian had long since attracted the two Hollows, who had come to devour it. The pair had intended to reap the rewards without lifting a finger, but they had never imagined that one of their own would be killed by the tiny ants before them.
But the newborn Gillian had already returned to heaven and earth, so now they could only vent their anger on the "ants" before them.
In that moment, all hope was utterly crushed. The legs of dozens of students gave way, and they collapsed to the ground, unable even to cry.
If not for Mumyō's replenishing ability, Xuanxin probably would not even have had the strength to lift his eyelids. Feeling the two murky waves of Reiatsu, even more terrifying than the one before, he gave a bitter twitch of his lips.
Is this the end...? I really can't accept it...
Just as the two Gillians opened their mouths in unison, preparing to gather Ceros and wipe everything here from the World of the Living—
"Buzz—boom!!!"
The Senkaimon, which had remained silent all this time, finally erupted with a light as dazzling as the sun!
The huge, tightly shut wooden doors were kicked open from within with such violence that it could even be called savage!
"Well, well..."
A hearty laugh, tinged with a hint of irreverence, rang across the despairing battlefield in the World of the Living along with the blinding golden light:
"Kid, you've really got some pull! Not only did you get the Captain-Commander to order the Dangai forced open himself, you even got those nobles to agree to let me come to the World of the Living. You really are something."
Along with those arrogant words, a burly figure in a white Captain's Haori strode boldly out of the Senkaimon.
On the back of the Captain's Haori, flapping in the night wind, was a huge "11," written in vigorous, wild calligraphy!
Captain of the 11th Division, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi!
Kuruyashiki raised his head slightly and glanced casually at the two Gillians in the distance. He bared his teeth in a savage grin:
"Still, I guess I owe you for this. It's been a long time since I came around this lousy place called the World of the Living!"
"The old man only sent me here to hold the line this time... but you should know, my appearance fee as Kenpachi is pretty steep. When we get back, you and I should have a proper fight if we get the chance!"
"Boom!!!"
The instant he finished speaking, a blinding light burst from the Senkaimon once again!
"11th Division! Get your asses out here! The fun's starting!"
"Raaaargh!!!"
At Kenpachi's call, many more battle maniacs of the 11th Division came running out of the Senkaimon, dressed in black Shihakushō, their eyes ablaze with fervor.
Howling, they charged out of the Senkaimon like a black flood bursting through a dam.
Looking at the white haori that represented absolute martial might and a sense of security, then at the rescuing army pouring out like a tide.