The moment he landed a hit, Gin Ichimaru instinctively reached for the Hogyoku.
In his eyes, it contained the part of Rangiku Matsumoto's soul that had been taken away. It was something he had to reclaim.
But just as his fingers were about to touch it, he suddenly sensed a bone-chilling Reiatsu behind him.
Before he could even turn around, a familiar Zanpakuto had already pierced through his back and out his chest. Grayish-white power of death wrapped around his entire body.
"Y-You? When?" Gin Ichimaru turned his head with difficulty and stared at Allen's slightly youthful face.
"Just now! Sorry, Captain Ichimaru, but you made the wrong choice."
Allen easily snatched the Hogyoku from his hand and mercilessly pulled out the bloodstained Zanpakuto.
"Damn it! I was so close..."
Regret and unwillingness appeared on Gin Ichimaru's face as he watched his body begin to break apart.
Unfortunately, he no longer had a second chance.
A few seconds later, he vanished completely along with his Zanpakuto.
More precisely, Death had eaten him as a delicious meal.
"So close?" Allen sneered and shook his head. "No, you were still far from it."
While speaking, an indescribable force suddenly surged from within the Hogyoku and poured wholesale into Aizen's body, which lay on the ground.
In the blink of an eye, Aizen, whose body should have been completely consumed by lethal poison, slowly rose from the ground. The bloody hole in his chest had somehow been entirely plugged by an unknown white substance.
After getting up, he first glanced at the clothes on the ground that belonged to Gin Ichimaru, then curled his lips into a cold smile. "What a foolish man, isn't he?"
"Perhaps. But rather than foolishness, I'd prefer to call it persistence—or infatuation." Allen shrugged indifferently.
Clearly, Gin Ichimaru's