Chapter 150
How could that be?
Haruto made no move in response... except for the Reiatsu cluster that lingered at his fingertips.
"Although I didn't join the 11th Division, I am indeed quite warlike."
Haruto casually came up with a very insincere reason.
"Besides, I already told you to show your true abilities, so I definitely won't make a move prematurely... At the Fourth Seat Sakae, you can just inject the medicine directly into your body. There's no need to pretend with a syringe. The liquid inside is the toxin extracted from your Zanpakuto, right?"
"... Good eye."
Instead of sticking to his own opinion, Sakai Shukugo immediately released the syringe from his hand.
"Sizzle!"
That was the sound of clothes tearing.
A true scientist doesn't need any external aids when administering medication to himself—the scaly growths on Sakai Shukugo's back are filled with medicines he has created and treasured.
"You'll regret this."
"Gurgle."
That was the sound of skin swelling and bursting.
Under the influence of the drug, Sakai Shukugo's body began to swell rapidly, within mere seconds—
"Boom!"
As the entire wooden house collapsed completely, a jet-black spider with countless dark red patterns Sakai Shukugo Haruto.
"Nangzizhong Ancient Mountain King!"
A sinister and malevolent voice emanated from the spider's abdomen, and the face of Sakai Shukugo appeared on the surface of the enormous silk sac.
Upon closer inspection, the finely detailed, protruding human faces overlapped almost every segment of the spider's limbs.
"I just warned you..."
"Thump!!"
Spider legs covered in long, hairy fur slammed into the ground, and a violent and terrifying Reiatsu filled every corner of the field of vision.
"It's too late to regret it now!"
"..."
"I see."
Haruto calmly observed the spider's entire appearance.
Judging from Reiatsu...
This guy has just stepped into the Third-Class Reii, barely reaching the Captain-level.
By using this method, Sakai Shukugo replaced Bankai with a ridiculously powerful boost to his strength; and despite his ferocious and terrifying appearance, he actually had no Hollow-like elements within him.
The entire spider-like monster was created entirely from a single soul.
"You haven't finished this yet, have you?"
"... That's right."
Seeing that he had completed his transformation, Sakai Shukugo was no longer as nervous as before.
"After screening and modifying 30,000 units, only one-third were selected to become part of my body."
To put it bluntly, the monster before us was created using ten thousand souls as fuel.
"What about the perfect form?"
"If there are 100,000 qualified candidates, even Captain-level wouldn't be worthy to carry my shoes."
"That's really impressive."
Judging from the content of their conversation, the two seemed to be chatting like old friends.
"But..."
Haruto changed the subject.
"Even if your appearance were ten times stronger, it still doesn't seem to be a match for Kirio Hikifune."
"... What did you say?"
Haruto's words displeased Sakai Shukugo.
"Isn't this obvious?"
Haruto shrugged.
"Even with ten times the combat power of someone who has just entered the Third-Class Reii, it's merely Zanpakuto of their Bankai to its limit."
Ten times the combat power.
If one can fully master the Zanpakuto Bankai, their Reiatsu can be amplified to this extent in a short period of time...
Of course, the consumption rate is also a factor.
"No way, really?"
Haruto mocked in a sly tone:
"I thought you knew."
"The kind of shut-in girl you're talking about..."
"But among the Gotei 13, they are among the very few Second-Class Spiritual Pressure level captains."
"!?"
In that instant when the other person was distracted...
Haruto gestured with the tip of the two fingers of his right hand, which were forming a pistol shape. The Reiatsu that had been condensed into the Zanka no Tachi began to rapidly decompose and recombine.
In less than a fraction of a second, the black and red energy had condensed into a solid form.
"Hadō #91"
"Call out!"
As the high-density fireballs flew out, Haruto's arm, which had become the butt of a gun, was raised high, and his feet were pushed back half a meter.
"Senju Kōten Taihō!"
"Boom!!"
The explosion blew everything away.
Whether it was buildings or forests, everything was reduced to barren wasteland in an instant—if Haruto hadn't deliberately controlled the angle of his shots, the entire group captured underground would probably have been buried by now.
"Waaah!"
The summer breeze blowing through the forest dispersed the thick smoke.
"He's still alive."
Spider-type monsters have extremely high defense.
Apart from the spot where the Senju Kōten Taihō struck, which left a huge hole, the rest of the body only suffered burns.
Not only that.
Even the part that had just been blasted open by the Senju Kōten Taihō was being rapidly filled in as the muscles and bones writhed.
"This isn't High-Speed Regeneration, is it?"
Although it resembled High-Speed Regeneration, Sakai Shukugo's body did not integrate with the Hollow part—even Aizen researched the fusion of Soul Reaper and Hollows for a long time before possessing the Hōgyoku, so this guy definitely didn't have that ability.
For Haruto, who could change his body towards Hollowness by simply taking a single pill while maintaining his Soul Reaper form— Kirio Hikifune's technique certainly played an indispensable role, Haruto didn't feel it was all her doing.
His body, perhaps like his Zanpakuto, harbors secrets unknown to others.
"... certainly."
Sakai Shukugo did not immediately answer Haruto.
It took him a long time to calm his chaotic Reiatsu... He was almost no different from before he was hit by Senju Kōten Taihō.
"This is my masterpiece, the culmination of hundreds of years of work."
It was as if Haruto hadn't used Kidō at all.
"The ten thousand souls used to create the 'Tsuchigumo' weren't wasted for nothing."
"Any attack that fails to completely obliterate this mountain-sized Tsuchigumo only requires 1 unit of soul to fully restore it."
Do you know what that means?
Although he was at a disadvantage from the start, Sakai Shukugo suddenly became incredibly confident after seeing that even Hadō #91 couldn't defeat Tsuchigumo.
"..."
"I see, he is indeed a good meat shield."
That's an incredibly abnormal ability.
The monster, which Sakai Shukugo called the Tsuchigumo, possesses both formidable defense and vitality, further enhanced by his Zanpakuto, which accelerates the depletion of Reiatsu.
In a war of attrition, almost no one can defeat him. If there are opponents with limited strength who are stronger than him, they will probably be worn down by this thing sooner or later.
"But."
The Reiatsu concentrated at his fingertips did not dissipate.
I need to verify your statement further.
As Haruto folded his fingers into claws, energy spheres with interlaced black and red halos appeared simultaneously at the tips of his five fingers.
"What!?"
Having just taken a direct hit from this Kidō Reiatsu a few seconds ago, Sakai Shukugo was naturally very clear about it.
"Who told you that..."
"The Kōten Taihō only fires one shot?"
"Boom!!"
Reiatsu and raging flames.
The turbulent energy flow created a storm that ravaged the entire forest.
Within a radius of several kilometers in front of Haruto, not a single object remained intact... regardless of whether it was originally dead or alive.
"Not easy to control."
Haruto's trembling fingers only lasted a few seconds before returning to normal.
After the Reiatsu increases, the benefits of Bone Strike become even more obvious:
Haruto is not only able to unleash the complete Senju Kōten Taihō, but he can also quickly recover from Reiatsu exhaustion and muscle fatigue.
"Releasing six in succession, versus firing six at once..."
"There is still a difference in difficulty between the two."
Haruto looked at the road in front of him, constructed from irregular wreckage.
This was the first time he had fired more than four Kōten Taihō simultaneously, and he wasn't very skilled at it.
The timing and angle of the hit deviated from what was expected.
"And their destructive power is on a completely different level."
If all the Kōten Taihō could hit the same coordinates at the same time, that would be the true power of the Hadō #91.
"Like Kisuke Urahara, releasing eighteen at once..."
"As expected of a technique that can be used to deal with First-Class Reii."
Haruto stared at the largest piece of monster remains in the path of the explosion.
Despite its remaining volume being less than one-fifth of its original size, it has stubbornly survived, and even its Reiatsu is slowly recovering.
"To have survived like this, it seems the lie wasn't true."