Facing the Espada (4)

Renji Abarai and Yasutora Sado watched Szayelaporro's figure disappear at the end of the passage. The oppressive silence didn't last long. The two exchanged a glance, and without saying a word, rushed towards the wall where Chad had punched Szayelaporro.

The cracks on the wall were clearly visible. Yasutora Sado concentrated his energy, the dark red lines on his right arm glowing slightly. With a deep shout, he unleashed the Giant’s Fist once more! With a deafening crash, rubble flew everywhere, and sure enough, a deep, narrow passage was revealed behind the wall, from which came a chilling wind and the faint sound of machinery.

"Let's go!" Renji said urgently in a low voice, "That guy's ability is too strange. He can even recover using his Fracción. If we keep wasting our time here, we'll be tormented to death sooner or later. We have to find a way to reunite with Liu Hao and the others!"

Chad nodded, and the two of them entered the passage without hesitation. The passage was dimly lit, with a complex structure like a maze. The walls were a cold mixture of metal and stone, and it was filled with a faint smell of disinfectant and the strange smell unique to Reishi experiments.

They moved swiftly, relying on their intuition and subtle perception of Reiatsu, their footsteps echoing in the enclosed space. Soon, a spiraling stone staircase leading upwards appeared ahead. The surface of the steps was severely worn, clearly indicating that "things" often went up and down it.

The two exchanged a wary glance, then tiptoed silently up the steps. At the top of the stone steps was a heavy metal door, slightly ajar, through which an unnaturally bright light shone, along with the faint sounds of conversation.

Renji gently pushed open the door, and the scene inside came into view—a room even more spacious than the hall below.

In the center of the room, Szayelaporro Granz, now dressed in a brand-new, spotless white Espada uniform, was elegantly adjusting his cuffs. Around him, the group of Arrancar Fracción with their heads bowed, the atmosphere respectful yet eerie.

As if he had anticipated their arrival, Szayelaporro slowly turned around, a smile on his face that was extremely unsettling, a mixture of scientific fervor and mockery.

"Oh, thank you both for coming all this way. Not bad." He clapped lightly, the applause echoing clearly in the empty laboratory. "Well then, welcome to the Main Laboratory. The short intermission is over... Act Two, officially begins." He paused, his gaze behind his glasses suddenly sharpening and turning cold. "Or rather, for you, it's about to... be the end."

The moment the words left his mouth, Szayelaporro's demeanor changed abruptly. Without another word, he drew his Zanpakuto from his waist. However, instead of pointing it at his enemy, he performed a bizarre ritual, turning the tip of the blade towards himself, and then—swallowed it!

"Drink, Fornicarás!"

A powerful and sinister Reiatsu erupted! Szayelaporro's body underwent an astonishing transformation: his clothes tore open at the back, revealing a pair of enormous, transparent wings that resembled a hybrid of insect and bat wings, with ominous purple light flowing around their edges.

At the same time, countless thick, ink-like black liquids sprayed out from his body, especially from the base of his wings, spreading out in the air as if they were alive, turning into an inescapable black rain curtain that poured down on Renji and Chad!

The two retreated rapidly, but the ink covered a vast area and moved at incredible speed, eventually staining their bodies and clothes. Even more chillingly, the ink didn't slide off; instead, it wriggled and multiplied like a living thing, quickly spreading across their skin and beginning to solidify!

"What... is this?!" Renji in shock, trying to shake it off with his Reiatsu, only to find that the ink resonated strangely with his own Reiatsu, adhering to it with unusual firmness.

In the blink of an eye, the ink detached from their bodies, coalescing and shaping beside them into humanoid figures with outlines similar to their own, but with distorted and bizarre details! They possessed Renji's wild red hair (but with an even more exaggerated and messy hairstyle), Chad's resolute facial features (but with slightly disproportionate facial features), and wore similar but crudely made "clothes" with a strange, biological texture. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen of these "Copies" surrounded the two, standing silently, their empty eyes locked onto their respective "originals."

"Copying... humans?" Yasutora Sado's expression was as solemn as a mountain. He could feel the Reiatsu fluctuations flowing within these monsters that were extremely similar to his and Renji's, but much more chaotic, unstable, and filled with a nauseating aura of the void.

"This is a huge problem..." Renji gripped the hilt of Zabimaru tightly, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.

"Then, please begin your performance." Szayelaporro hovered in mid-air, his wings fluttering gently, leisurely observing the scene like a director inspecting his actors. "Let me see, between the original and the 'improved' Copy Bodies, which is truly superior."

"Don't get cocky!" Renji roared, trying to capture the leader first. He instantly Shikai Zabimaru, the knuckle blade whistling as it stabbed straight at Szayelaporro in mid-air.

However, the moment he took a step, those "Renji Copies" moved at the same time! They intercepted him with a speed no less than that of the original, and in their hands they also condensed bone weapons that resembled Zabimaru, but with twisted bones and more ferocious blades, which clattered and blocked all of Renji's attacks!

"Please, you two, 'defeat' your Copies first," Szayelaporro's voice trembled with pleasure, "Otherwise, you won't even be worthy of approaching me."

Renji was forced to fight several of his Copies, and he discovered that these guys not only imitated his strength and speed, but also his fighting style and instinctive reactions, only with an added beastly frenzy in their moves.

He glanced at Chad's side, and the situation was equally dire. Chad's Copies silently swung their fists, covered in white "Imitation Armor," clashing against his solid, heavy Giant’s Fist, producing muffled thuds as they were evenly matched.

"You call these monsters 'our Copies '?" Renji delivered a vicious slash, spitting out the words, "Apart from the general outline, how are they similar? They're hideous!"

"I simply made some 'optimizations' and 'modifications' according to my aesthetic and scientific principles," Szayelaporro explained with a smile, as if discussing a work of art. "After all, completely copying your primitive and crude forms would really go against my aesthetics. Aren't they more 'individualistic' now?"

Yasutora Sado knocked back two Copies with a single punch and said to Renji in a deep voice, "Renji! These Copy Bodies may be aesthetically distorted, but they are extremely adept at imitating our abilities and fighting styles. They are very troublesome!"

"I know! Liu Hao warned me to be careful of his abilities!" Renji replied irritably, narrowly avoiding a coordinated attack from the Copies.

Just then, Szayelaporro seemed to think the game wasn't exciting enough. He snapped his fingers and announced, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. In this open space, I've removed the specific restrictions on your Reiatsu. In other words—you can use your full power now!"

Chad's eyes sharpened upon hearing this. He leaped back to create distance, his white armor on his left arm gleaming brightly, and unleashed a powerful "Demon’s Strike" at a Copies from afar! A massive, azure-blue Reiatsu fist roared forth!

However, an astonishing scene unfolded: all the Chad Copies, regardless of distance, made the exact same movement almost simultaneously—raising their arms, gathering their strength, and throwing punches! Dozens of Little Ichi but equally solid blue fist energies, like mirror images, bombarded Chad himself from all directions!

Boom--!

Chad's location was engulfed by the blue light of the explosion. Amidst the smoke and dust, he knelt on one knee, a massive red armor on his right arm shielding him, while his right arm trembled slightly.

He slowly stood up, his voice still steady, but tinged with obvious gravity. "It seems that any attack on a single target will trigger a synchronized counterattack from all the Copy Bodies. They are interconnected as a whole."

"Me too!" Renji was facing the same problem. His ranged bone bullet attacks were completely neutralized by the Copies' identical attacks, even reflecting some fragments back, leaving him scrambling to react. "How do I deal with these monstrosities?!"

Just when the battle seemed to have reached an intractable stalemate, a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Renji's eyes. He glanced at Szayelaporro, who was leisurely in the air, and then looked at the densely packed Copies around him that were moving in perfect sync with his own. A bold, almost insane idea popped into his head.

"Chadu!" he hissed urgently as he parried, "I know what to do!"

"What do you plan to do?" Chad asked, blocking another wave of synchronized punches.

"Come here and watch!" Renji's face broke into a gambler's grin. He suddenly looked up and roared at Szayelaporro in the air, "Hey! Mad scientist! You think just because the restrictions are lifted we can use our full power at will? Watch closely—!"

He gripped the hilt of the Zabimaru tightly with both hands, and his Reiatsu erupted like a volcano, with crimson light shooting into the sky!

Bankai! Baboon King - Zabimaru!!

A gigantic phantom of a skull-snake head appeared behind him, followed by an incredibly long, colossal skeletal spine, and a violent Reiatsu swept through the entire laboratory!

Just as Renji had predicted—no, just as he had bet on—all the "Renji Copies" made the exact same move at the same moment! They also "burst out" Reiatsu in unison, and behind them emerged even more twisted, ferocious, and no less large skeleton snake phantoms!

In an instant, the entire laboratory was filled with the skeletons of countless enormous, colliding and intertwined Baboon King Zabimaru! The simultaneous unfolding of these behemoths in a relatively enclosed space had catastrophic consequences.

Whether it's the current room or other adjacent laboratories, the sturdy metal walls, the sophisticated experimental instruments, the transparent culture chambers... everything is groaning and cracking under the strain of the expanding, squeezing, and colliding of countless enormous skeletons!

Szayelaporro's smile froze instantly, replaced by astonishment. "What?! You dare—!"

Boom--!

A deafening explosion echoed through the night sky! The entire room's dome was ripped off, the walls collapsed in all directions, and countless metal fragments, stones, and Reishi particle debris, mixed with smoke and dust, shot into the sky! A huge mushroom cloud slowly rose beneath the pale "sky" of Hueco Mundo.

As the aftershocks of the explosion subsided, only a huge crater remained. Renji coughed as he crawled out from a pile of rubble, the hilt of the Baboon King Zabimaru slung over his shoulder, a triumphant smile on his face, "Haha... I knew those brainless Copies would Bankai in sync with me! See, they've burst this damned cage!"

Beside him, Yasutora Sado pushed aside a heavy stone slab that had been pressing down on him, stood up, and dusted himself off. Looking at the chaotic scene around him, then at Szayelaporro trembling slightly in the air with rage, he said in a deep voice, "Renji, your method... it did work. But it also thoroughly enraged him. The battle that follows will probably be ten times more difficult than before."

"What's there to be afraid of!" Renji wiped the dust off his face, grinned, and his eyes burned with fighting spirit. "Now that we're out, Liu Hao and the others will definitely be able to sense the huge Reiatsu fluctuations here! Reinforcements will be here soon! Before that—" He gripped the Zabimaru tightly again, pointing to the sky, "Let's settle accounts with this 'scientist' first!"

At the instant of the explosion, Szayelaporro Granz reacted with lightning speed, folding his enormous wings forward and tightly enveloping himself like a cocoon. The shield formed by his Reishi blocked the most direct impact and most of the debris.

At that moment, the wings that had enveloped him slowly unfurled, revealing Szayelaporro, whose body was intact but whose face was now extremely grim. He stood on the ruins, surveying the utterly destroyed laboratory wreckage exposed in the Hueco Mundo wilderness. All the carefully collected samples, data, and instruments had vanished into thin air. Especially seeing his once-secret Research Base now exposed like a pitiful worm stripped naked in broad daylight, his body trembled slightly with extreme rage.

"You... you two rude, uncouth, and utterly aesthetically-destroying monsters!!" His voice, devoid of its usual composure and mockery, became sharp and filled with deep-seated hatred. "You've actually turned my carefully cultivated territory... into this state!! How... how am I supposed to explain this to Lord Aizen... how am I supposed to continue my magnificent research!!"

A terrifying Reiatsu, far exceeding anything before, erupted from him like a tangible black storm, sweeping across the entire ruins. It was no longer the playful gaze of a scientist looking at an experimental subject, but the cold, murderous glint of a predator whose sore spot had been touched.

"I will... disintegrate you all... without leaving a single trace! I will use every inch of your flesh and blood and your souls to atone for my loss!!"