Several powerful Reiatsu surged into Zero's body and exploded, blasting him to pieces, with fragments of flesh scattered across the Soul King Palace District below...
Picaro, one of the Espada, launched another fierce attack on the Barrier set up by the Monk, while the others stood on the Omotesandō watching Zero being blasted into pieces, their faces filled with disbelief.
Grimmjow's eyes widened, and he said in a trembling voice, "Hey, he actually lost?"
Just then, Picaro's Devouring Fruit erased the seal, shattering the Barrier. Grimmjow, who was about to rush over, was stopped by Ulquiorra.
"What? Are you going to watch him die? And you lot, you owe others a lot of favors, why are you all so calm!"
Grimmjow, who had been stopped, looked at the group with dangerous eyes, as if he was ready to fight them one-on-one at the slightest provocation.
Ulquiorra said helplessly, "Are you stupid? He can bring the dead Tier Harribel Resurrection, do you think he'd die so easily? Can't you use your brain sometimes?"
"Ah?"
Grimmjow's anger subsided, and as he looked down, a terrifying storm of Reishi swept in, engulfing the entire Soul King Palace space...
The Monk had just taken a gemstone that emitted a bluish-black light into his hand; it was the undamaged Hōgyoku.
"Its sturdiness is quite good, but since it's called Hōgyoku, it can be erased by me..."
Boom!
Just as the Monk was about to use Ink to seal the power of the Hōgyoku, a pillar of Reiatsu shot into the sky from below the Soul King Palace District, shattering the end of this section of the Omotesandō.
The Monk then jumped back to the vicinity of the steps where Zero had initially come up. The Omotesandō beneath his feet was no more than a hundred meters long, but the Hōgyoku in his hand suddenly slipped from his grasp and froze two meters away from him.
Around the Hōgyoku, a stream of red light condensed and rapidly transformed into Zero's form, Zanpakuto down.
Rumble!
The Monk holding White Brush Ichimonji, disappearing into the Omotesandō), causing this section of the Omotesandō to completely shatter, including the steps. Only the Omotesandō with a few Espada) remained.
"Is this... an evolution like Hollow's? And has his Zanpakuto Shikai again?"
Although the attack was powerful, it did not actually injure the Monk. The force was completely Omotesandō the monk's feet, leaving the two of them standing on the floating debris.
"The Hōgyoku feared the death of me, its host, and even more so, it feared being erased or sealed away by you. Therefore, it determined that I needed greater power, which is why it reshaped my body... what you call evolution."
At this moment, the two wings of light behind Zero transformed into white four-pointed stars that were taller than him, floating about thirty centimeters away from his back.
The facial makeup still resembles the word "fight" like the blurred form, but the crescent moon between the eyebrows has opened halfway, and there seems to be an indifferent eye there.
On the red Reiatsu armor covering his body, white stripes seemed to be rendered by the White Star behind him, giving it a cold and murderous look.
"So what if you've evolved? How can you, a nobody wielding a nameless weapon, possibly defeat me? Come, let me wipe you out again..."
"Bankai: Blood Blade Seven Pagodas!"
The Monk saw that Zero was holding Asauchi and assumed that he was still a nameless person, but Zero showed him through his actions that he had already remembered his name.
Because the Hōgyoku Power made his body too strong after evolution, even after Zero 'Bankai, only a pair of blood wings unfolded, and then the seven red lotuses flew around White Star.
Seeing the Monk's wide eyes, Zero countered, "Hard to understand, isn't it? Actually, the answer is quite simple. The main reason is this Hōgyoku..."
"Sōsuke Aizen and Kisuke Urahara, I must say, they were indeed geniuses. Later I realized that their purpose in creating it was to use it to create a god, to create a true Soul King."
"Therefore, you can see it this way: the power of the Hōgyoku can reach the level of Soul King, or at least... it can devour Soul King."
Zero's words sent chills down the Monk's spine. If the Soul King were lost, the Three Worlds would collapse, everything would return to chaos, and he, Ichibē Hyōsube, would lose his right to eternal existence.
"I understand. You're saying my power is no match for the Soul King's level, which is why your name was saved by the Hōgyoku, right?"
"That's right."
Seeing Zero nod in agreement, the Monk suddenly laughed and said, "Comparing this created thing to the power of the Soul King is utter nonsense. In that case... let's see if it can keep saving you!"
Zero laughed, "I don't need the Hōgyoku to save me, and you couldn't possibly beat me anyway."
The Monk raised his hand and threw out a railing. As it approached Zero, it suddenly split into a hundred beams. Zero, moving at the speed of light, instantly appeared beside the Monk and slashed down with his sword.
Blood splattered, the Monk created distance, and several hands made of Ink reached out from Zero's footing to bind him. Zero cut them off with a sword, but the Monk wrote four 'seal' characters to temporarily trap him.
"O darkness, oh eternal darkness, come here. Meet everyone, and drink it..."
The Monk chanted a long incantation, waving Ichimonji in his hand. The pebbles that were touched were all stained black, and the already broken seal of Zero was stained black again.
Zero activated his Bankai, unleashing his "Unrivaled Body," rendering skills immune to Kidō- type attacks unable to defend against this move. The blackness continued to spread, and Zero's wings were now stained black.
Four points of red light simultaneously gathered at the four corners of the White Star, and then shot towards the Monk in a plane, intending to interrupt his chanting.
Unfortunately, the Monk had already drawn an array while continuing to chant, and a black barrier had been formed, completely blocking the four red Reiatsu rays.
Is it Sealing?
With a thought, a red lotus behind Zero began to move and merged into Zero's body.
At this moment, the black tomb was completed, and Zero was trapped inside. Outside, a tombstone had been raised, inscribed with the three characters 'Nangong Ling'.
"Futen Taisatsuryō!"
The Monk finished chanting, and then solemnly uttered the name of the final move.
'I can't feel anything in my body?'
Zero's feeling was correct. After being hit, his flesh and even bones turned pitch black and continued to collapse, merging with the surrounding environment into black. Even the White Star formed by the high-density Reiatsu behind him was stained black and collapsed.
This is different from the previous shattering. Before, there were still body parts, which could be saved by the 'Complete Regeneration' of the Hōgyoku. Now, if this continues, Zero will only become a pitch-black void.
Zero's head was also dyed black, and half of his head had collapsed and disappeared; but there were still places on his body that could not be dyed black, namely the collarbone on his chest.
At this moment, the speed of the Hōgyoku flashed slightly faster, and then Zero's blackened remains began to explode. The black was forcibly driven out by the red, followed by an even more intense eruption that completely shattered the black tomb.
A brand new Zero was reborn through the 'Pagoda Red Lotus'. When the 'Complete Regeneration' of the Hōgyoku became ineffective, it chose to use its own power to empower the 'Pagoda Red Lotus', allowing Zero to be reborn once again.
Zero's previous "Undying Peerlessness" is nothing compared to his current abilities.
The Monk was dumbfounded, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"If the Hōgyoku granted me the ability to evolve and Complete Regeneration, then my Bankai ability is rebirth, a complete and utter rebirth... It doesn't matter if my name is erased."
Zero wore a victor's smile and laughed, "You know what? I deliberately let you kill me just now, because the Hōgyoku requires me to experience genuine fear of death to trigger my evolution. If I had Bankai from the start, you wouldn't have been able to kill me at all."
Why did you do that?
The Monk sensed that some people were not far away, and he was happy to listen. At the same time, he was thinking of a new strategy, changing the zero to a seal.
"Of course, it's to gain greater physical strength and prepare to become the Soul King! Although I've been gradually getting stronger since fusing with the Hōgyoku, it's nowhere near as fast as a leapfrog evolution."
Zero's explanation left the Monk momentarily stunned. Suddenly, two red lotuses surrounded him, one in front and one behind, their dazzling light eclipsing the entire Soul King Palace.
Buzzing...
The Espada only felt the Reishi in the air vibrating, and then a ringing in their ears. The explosion wasn't silent; rather, it was so loud that it made them lose their hearing.
The nearest Zero Division palace was completely destroyed, and two others were mostly erased, leaving only two intact.
This means that a member of the Zero Division has died completely, and even the Monk couldn't save her, let alone the fact that the Monk has already been blown into two pieces.
The Soul King Palace District at the bottom was also mostly destroyed, with only a small part remaining, which was full of cracks. Countless buildings collapsed, and the royal family living there suffered heavy casualties.
The Soul King's Inner Palace remained intact, because it was protected by the strongest protective shield.
"The explosive energy generated by two Crimson Lotuses is four times that of one Crimson Lotus. Is this what double the damage means? If we were to sacrifice the seven Rebirths and release them together, wouldn't we be able to wipe out the entire Soul Society instantly?"
At this moment, Zero is floating in mid-air. According to the formula, the power of two used at the same time is four times that of one, three is eight times, four is sixteen times... and seven is ultimately 108 times.
With the area encompassing 108 Las Noches destroyed, the Soul Society is practically annihilated as well... Moreover, with the Complete Regeneration granted by the Hōgyoku, Zero doesn't even need to worry about being killed by his own explosion...
The remaining Omotesandō where the Espada stood was completely destroyed, shattered into many stones of varying sizes. As they weaved through the rubble to catch up, Zero's voice echoed in their minds.
"You stay here and fight the Captain-level enemies from Soul Society, I'm going to Soul King!"
"Yes, Lord Nangong."
Zero spoke to them by sharing the Hōgyoku Power, but he couldn't hear the Espada's response; he only knew that their Reiatsu had also started to move.
Just then, a Tenchūren broke through the last barrier and arrived at the original Omotesandō the Soul King Palace.
The moment it arrived, the Tenchūren into pieces, and a group of people dressed in white feather robes appeared first.