In the somewhat empty Underground Prison, only Zero's clearly audible footsteps could be heard.
Zero, who had just emerged, did not laugh heartily; his face showed neither joy nor sorrow, as if he had never been sealed away.
He smiled and asked, "Did I hear you right? You said 'our Zero Division '? It seems you don't have the confidence to seal me away by yourself!"
The Monk was speechless. He glanced at the seal behind Zero, seemingly expecting something.
Zero, taking in his gaze, chuckled, "Expecting the appearance of the Soul King's Right Hand? Don't be silly, Jūshirō Ukitake is dead, and the Soul King's Right Hand... is right here!"
After speaking, Zero-One rolled up his sleeves, revealing two identical blue and black patterns on his right arm... The colors represented Ryūsaki and Mimihagi respectively, while the patterns were the commonalities in their abilities...
Mimihagi has also been absorbed by Zero!
The Monk's face grew even more somber. Suddenly, he swung the 'Ichimonji' in his hand at Zero, splashing ink, but it didn't touch Zero at all.
The next instant, the Monk felt as if he had been hit by something, and his entire body had pierced through the 'Wooden Floor Palace', appearing in the sky.
The powerful kinetic energy propelled him dozens of kilometers before he finally came to a stop.
Before the Monk could wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, Zero's right hand was already gripping his neck, just like he had gripped Ryūsaki earlier.
But his hands weren't big enough to completely grasp the Monk's neck.
At this moment, the Monk's face turned ferocious, and he suddenly swung the 'Ichimonji' at Zero's right hand. The 'Ichimonji' did not hurt Zero, but it left several ink streaks on it.
Zero sneered, "Don't waste your energy. You don't actually think your Ink is still useful to me, do you? That drop of Ink that sealed me before was just something I deliberately left behind."
Zero's right hand erupted with a burst of red light, evaporating the Ink like a heated furnace.
At the same time, he suddenly exerted force with his right hand, and a burst of blood mist erupted from the Monk's throat as it was completely crushed.
Glug~
The Monk, who had retreated hundreds of meters to create distance, seemed to want to say something, but his ruptured throat meant he could only let out a strange cry.
He swiped the ink off his brush and applied it to his sore throat. A few seconds later, his throat was completely healed...
The Wooden Floor Palace, the five Arrancar regrouped, and the two Little Monks turned and ran away.
Ulquiorra didn't chase after them, but instead looked up at the sky, where two figures stood facing each other.
Upon recognizing the figure in red, Tier Harribel exclaimed in delight, "That's... Lord Nangong!!"
Grimmjow paused for a moment, then remained silent, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Nel asked, "Shouldn't we go help?"
Ulquiorra said calmly, "No need. That bald guy was killed by Nangong decades ago. Although I don't know why Resurrection, he seemed to be at a clear disadvantage in the fight just now."
"Kisuke Urahara, Ōetsu Nimaiya, Kirio Hikifune!" The Monk muttered the names of the other Zero Division members with a gloomy face.
Regardless of the fierce battles that the others were engaged in with Aizen's subordinates, upon hearing his call, they all instantly appeared behind him.
Urahara hadn't yet retracted his Bankai, so the moment the Puppet Woman appeared, the clouds in Soul Society stopped drifting in the wind and instead scattered wildly.
Although the 'blood oath' seal was broken ahead of schedule, only Urahara been able to perform Bankai for the time being.
A smile appeared on Zero's face, "There have been quite a few personnel changes!"
The seal was too thick, and Zero couldn't sense anything inside the Soul King Palace, so he didn't know who in the Zero Division was dead or alive. The only way he learned that Kisuke Urahara had become a member of the Zero Division was through Ryūsaki.
Seeing that Zero's enemies in the sky had suddenly increased by several, and several Arrancars appeared behind him in an instant, their faces cold but silent.
Without even turning his head, he confidently told them, "Just stand back and watch. Even if they all come at me together... they're no match for me."
Upon hearing this, the group retreated dozens of kilometers away without hesitation before stopping to observe... Lord Nangong was very strong; any move he made could cover a large area of the Soul King Palace, a fact they had long known.
Holding a large Lightning Hammer, Ōetsu Nimaiya pointed at Zero and roared, "How dare you boast!"
Ling smiled and shook her head slightly, "Isn't that boastful...? Don't you know?"
The Monk's gaze sharpened, and he subtly twirled the 'Ichimonji', a white circle appearing around his body. "True Fight... White Brush Ichimonji!"
Urahara's eyes flickered, and the Puppet Woman behind him began to wave her hands. A second later, the space where Zero was located began to solidify, and the outside scene gradually distorted, as if it was about to separate from the space of the Soul King Palace.
Kirio Hikifune also took out a handful of seeds and scattered them into the space that was about to become independent.
The seeds grew rapidly inside, becoming vines that tried to entangle Zero and absorb his now imperceptible Reiatsu...
But the vines were instantly vaporized into Reishi the moment they got close.
"Behold my... Concentrated Hammer!"
Ōetsu Nimaiya used the hammer he used to forge his Zanpakuto to strike each of the six surfaces of this space, instantly shrinking it by more than half.
Just as he was about to continue striking, the Monk shouted, "Get out of the way!"
After the Monk Bankai, he still held a bowl of black ink in his hand. He sprinkled the ink on the space and quickly used his Bankai to write a few words on it.
Endless Loop Space!
The Monk's pen can write any name according to its meaning, let alone in its current Bankai state, where there are too many names that can fulfill the meaning of the characters.
This new space, now with a name, acts like a closed loop, locking people firmly within and preventing them from escaping.
As for killing Zero, they no longer dared to even dream of it...
"Don't stop, continue creating several more layers of space to trap him..."
Having just completed the creation of this space, Urahara shouted that he would use his Bankai to create an even larger space to encase it.
However, a sharp red light shot into the sky, and this space was instantly shattered...
Zero's voice slowly drifted over. "Bankai that can quickly create new spaces, combined with the reinforcement from my teammates, not bad, but unfortunately useless against me."
The space ripped open by the sword's edge generated terrifying turbulence, revealing a dark and boundless Dangai within.
Zero reappeared in the Soul King Palace, having passed through the spatial turbulence, a giant red sword now in his hand. The eyes of the Zero Division members narrowed.
The Monk reacted the fastest, instantly appearing in front of Zero, raising the 'White Brush Ichimonji' to return to Zero.
The next second, everyone in the entire Soul King Palace space, except for Ulquiorra and his group of five, remained Stillness, including everyone in the 'Infinite Sin Domain'.
Those who are stronger, like Aizen and the Monk, are still able to function and are thinking about what happened.
He could barely see a streak of light flash past him, and then his body could move again...
The moment the 'Stillness' was lifted, the Monk turned his head slightly to look at Zero, who had his back to them and was holding a Chains in his hand.
Urahara and the other two were impaled in the abdomen by Chains, remaining motionless, seemingly bound by the ever-present 'Stillness' above them. Urahara's Bankai was slowly splitting in two.
The next second, the Monk felt his body rapidly weakening. He looked down at his chest and saw a gash there; his heart was gone.
When the Monk looked at Zero again, he finally noticed a Black Spot floating beside him—his bleeding heart.
'We've lost in just one round? Damn it!' The Monk felt utterly powerless; they were simply not in the same league.
Zero could have easily killed him, but he only took his heart, which the Monk found very puzzling.
The next moment, a Chains snaked out and bound the Monk...
Seeing that the battle was over, the five spectators gathered together again.
Yanis shouted, "Boss is awesome!"
Grimmjow glanced at the candied hawthorn skewer in Zero's hand and asked, puzzled, "Why keep them alive?"
"Of course it's still useful... Come with me!"
Zero replied with a single sentence, without explaining what he intended to do with them.
As the Monk's power waned, Zero sensed the location of the 'Soul King's Inner Palace' with a slight effort, and he led the others to fly in that direction.
As for Aizen in the 'Infinite Sin Domain', Zero certainly sensed his presence, but the most urgent task at the moment was not to fight him, but to complete that crucial step.
There's a huge difference between a demigod and a god.
Less than two minutes after Zero and his group of five stepped into the 'Soul King's Inner Palace', several crisp sounds came from the 'Infinite Sin Domain', Aizen slowly emerged from it.
He glanced around and muttered, "Disappeared? Is it related to that brief moment of stillness?"
Aizen activated his spiritual sense to scan the Soul King Palace, starting with the few Zero Division Detached Palace, but after half a minute, even after searching the entire district where the royal family resided, he still found nothing.
The Zero Division seemed to have vanished into thin air. If it weren't for the eight corpses left behind on one of the four discs in the distance, Aizen would have suspected that the Zero Division had run away out of fear.
He frowned and pondered for a moment before a possibility occurred to him...
Just then, a sound of space tearing came from not far away. An elliptical space was cut open. Aizen glanced to the side and saw Yushima leading Tōsen and Amagai out from there.
Aizen judged from the slightly disordered breathing of the group that they must have suffered fatal injuries, but their High-Speed Regeneration prevented them from sustaining any wounds.
Upon seeing the Zanpakuto in Yushima's hand, Aizen immediately understood... Yushima's Zanpakuto can also manipulate space; it's very powerful. It must have found a node before opening up a space from within and emerging from it.
"Lord Aizen."
When the three saw that Aizen had come out, they were stunned for a moment before quickly Aizen. They had originally planned to go back and rescue Aizen, but it seemed that they didn't need to now.