Chapter Summaries

Yhwach prepared to kill the Soul King, whom he called his father, but He-El arrived and challenged him. Yhwach accepted the confrontation, and He-El said they could fight without leaving the hall.

• The narration recounted how the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Houses sealed, dismembered, and weakened the Soul King to create the Three Realms.
• Yhwach entered the Soul King’s hall and raised his cross-shaped sword to kill the limbless Soul King.
• He-El arrived and warned Yhwach that killing the Soul King would bring him an even worse end.
• Yhwach mocked He-El’s weak Reiatsu and dismissed his victories over Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and Ichibe Hyosube.
• He-El challenged Yhwach’s confidence, and Yhwach laughed and invited him to fight.
• He-El refused to move elsewhere, saying the fight would not affect the Soul King.

He-El and Yhwach fought in the Soul King Palace, where He-El’s Reishi manipulation overwhelmed Yhwach’s Blut Arterie. Yhwach then used an unexplained power to inflict a nearly fatal wound on He-El, leaving the battle’s outcome uncertain.

• He-El and Yhwach exchanged sword blows until He-El forced Yhwach backward.
• Yhwach activated Blut Arterie, but He-El’s Reishi structure rebounded his force and sent him sliding toward the amber-encased Soul King.
• He-El taunted Yhwach’s reliance on inherited power and advanced on him.
• Yhwach closed his eyes, and He-El sensed an imperceptible change in the hall but could not identify it.
• A sudden, unseen slash cut deeply across He-El’s torso, and Yhwach opened his eyes with several pupils visible.

Yhwach used The Almighty to attack He-El, but He-El regenerated and studied the power while preparing a way to counter it. As Yhwach repeatedly changed the future and tried different attacks, He-El defeated each attempt, though the confrontation continued.

• Yhwach activated The Almighty and wounded He-El, but He-El regenerated and marveled at the ability to change the future.
• He-El summoned a calculating sphere and challenged Yhwach to attack him again with The Almighty.
• Yhwach charged with his sword, and He-El cut him into countless fragments.
• Yhwach fired a Heilig Pfeil, but He-El blocked it with Shell Blut Vene.
• He-El caught and erased Yhwach’s massive Heilig Pfeil with his hand.
• Yhwach used Sankt Altar to steal He-El’s power, but He-El suppressed the Reishi and stopped the attempt.

He-El used his strongest computational mode to predict and counter Yhwach’s attacks, while Yhwach relied on The Almighty to rewrite futures in which he was injured. He-El argued that a future calculated to leave no possibility of escape could not be changed, then trapped Yhwach inside Sankt Zwinger.

• Yhwach realized He-El had calculated and countered every attack he tried, leaving him unsure how to strike.
• He-El explained that his strongest mode calculated every factor affecting the future and advanced on Yhwach.
• He-El wounded Yhwach, but Yhwach used The Almighty to rewrite the future and restore himself unharmed.
• He-El declared that his calculations surpassed Yhwach’s, then cut Yhwach’s cross-shaped sword in two.
• Yhwach rewrote the future again to restore his sword and claimed He-El could not hurt him.
• He-El said Yhwach could not change a future with no possibility of escape and activated Sankt Zwinger around him.

He-El used a pre-calculated Sankt Zwinger to overcome Yhwach’s attempts to escape through The Almighty and trapped him in a state of being alive and dead. He then reached the Soul King and pressed his fingers to the Soul King’s forehead.

• Yhwach escaped He-El’s first Sankt Zwinger by changing the future, but He-El cast another one and anticipated his possible routes.
• Yhwach found a future in which his own Sankt Zwinger resonated with He-El’s and let him escape, then declared that he would eventually win.
• He-El revealed that he had linked the Reishi across the heavens and calculated Yhwach’s limits, leaving Yhwach unable to find any future in which he escaped.
• Sankt Zwinger imprisoned Yhwach, and a contradictory spiral that left him alive and dead enveloped him like black amber.
• He-El reached the Soul King and pressed his fingers against the Soul King’s forehead.

Aizen, the Espada, Ichigo Kurosaki, and the Bleach captains arrived at the Soul King Palace to confront He-El, who was fighting Yhwach inside. True Name Calling Monk gathered the revived Royal Guard and led everyone toward the battle, hoping He-El and Yhwach had weakened each other.

• Aizen and the others emerged from a dark sphere at the Soul King Palace, where True Name Calling Monk revealed that He-El was battling Yhwach inside.
• Shunsui Kyoraku carried Enrakyoten, and Aizen warned him that using the sword would cost him his soul and lifespan.
• Ichigo Kurosaki asked to speak with He-El, struggling to believe that his former teacher would destroy the Three Realms.
• True Name Calling Monk admitted he could not stop He-El alone and said the assembled fighters were the Three Realms' strongest battle power.
• True Name Calling Monk summoned Tenjiro Kirinji, Hikifune Kirio, Senjumaru Shutara, and Nimaiya Oetsu, then led the group into the palace to confront He-El.

The captains attacked He-El while Aizen and Shunsui Kyoraku freed Yhwach from his dark sphere. Yhwach questioned how they had rescued him, but Aizen said He-El had allowed it, as He-El emerged from the flames.

• Soi Fon, Juushiro Ukitake, and Shunsuke Hirako fired Hadō spells at He-El to interrupt him.
• Byakuya Kuchiki, Kensei Muguruma, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Soi Fon, Juushiro Ukitake, Shunsuke Hirako, Retsu Unohana, and Kenpachi Zaraki released their Zanpakuto and surrounded He-El's position.
• Aizen told Shunsui Kyoraku to free Yhwach, and the True Name Calling Monk questioned whether they should release him.
• Shunsui Kyoraku used Enrakyoten to create a dark sphere that shattered the sphere imprisoning Yhwach, leaving Shunsui badly drained and bleeding.
• Yhwach emerged and asked why they had rescued him when he had not seen that future.
• Aizen said He-El had allowed Yhwach to be freed, and He-El appeared amid the flames.

He-El withdrew his hand from the Soul King's skull, breaking the Soul King's role as the Three Realms' Keystone and causing the realms to collapse. Jushiro Ukitake halted the collapse temporarily, but as he neared death, Ichigo Kurosaki and the other Bleach prepared to fight He-El.

• Ichigo Kurosaki demanded to know why He-El was destroying the Three Realms, and He-El said the realms were simply unable to bear what he was doing.
• He-El withdrew his hand, causing the amber-like space around the Soul King to crack and the Three Realms to shake violently.
• Jushiro Ukitake activated Kamikake and used the Soul King's right arm to hold the Soul King together, stopping the Three Realms' tremors temporarily.
• Jushiro Ukitake told Shunsui Kyoraku that he could not hold on much longer, while the Bleach in the Soul King Palace gathered their Reiatsu.
• Ichigo Kurosaki summoned his Hollow mask and vowed to protect his family, while Byakuya Kuchiki attacked He-El with Final Scene: White Emperor Sword, furious over He-El killing his grandfather.

Byakuya Kuchiki launched a desperate, all-out thrust at He-El, but He-El repelled him and left him gravely wounded. The remaining Bleach fighters combined their attacks against He-El’s Blut Vene barrier, while Yhwach foresaw that they would fail.

• Byakuya Kuchiki attacked He-El with his Final Scene: White Emperor Sword, but He-El met his blade and blasted him into the Soul King's Palace wall.
• Retsu Unohana and Kenpachi Zaraki prepared to exploit Byakuya Kuchiki's attack, as Ichigo Kurosaki and the other Bleach fighters launched a coordinated assault.
• Ichigo Kurosaki's Getsuga Tenshō tore through He-El's unstable Blut Vene barrier while the others attacked and tried to weaken it.
• Retsu Unohana and Kenpachi Zaraki struck He-El's barrier together as their allies kept up their assault.
• Yhwach looked into the future and declared that the Bleach fighters would not succeed.

He-El fought off the captains while Soi Fon marked him with Suzumebachi’s Two-Hit Kill, giving the others a chance to set up a fatal second strike. As they all attacked to create an opening, Yhwach declared their plan a failure.

• He-El emerged unharmed from the explosion and dismissed the captains’ attacks as he faced the Hollowfied, bull-headed Ichigo Kurosaki.
• He-El struck Ichigo Kurosaki with an azure crescent and drove him through the wall of the Soul King's Palace and into the sky beyond it.
• Juushiro Ukitake and Shinsuke Hirako distracted He-El, allowing Soi Fon to land Suzumebachi’s first strike and mark his back with a Hōmonka.
• Shinsuke Hirako explained that He-El’s lower Reiatsu meant Suzumebachi’s second strike could kill him, and the captains launched a coordinated assault to give Soi Fon another opening.
• He-El examined the Hōmonka and recognized how it entangled Reishi, while Yhwach watched the captains’ attack and called it a failure.

He-El slaughtered the captains attacking him in the Soul King's Palace. Retsu Unohana died saving Kenpachi Zaraki, whose grief and rage awakened his power as he charged He-El.

• He-El killed Kensei Muguruma with a single slash and blasted Shinsuke Hirako through the palace wall with Hadō #4: Byakurai.
• He-El shattered Juushiro Ukitake's Bankai with a piercing sound and caused him to collapse, bleeding.
• Retsu Unohana and Kenpachi Zaraki attacked He-El together, but he transformed his Zanpakuto into Zanka no Tachi: East—Kyokujitsu Jin.
• Retsu Unohana shoved Kenpachi Zaraki out of He-El's strike and was cut in half; she confessed that her past with Kenpachi was her sin and died in his arms.
• Kenpachi Zaraki remembered their encounter a thousand years earlier, released his Reiatsu, and charged He-El after calling, "Devour, Nozarashi!"

He-El killed Kenpachi Zaraki with a single slash, then killed Soi Fon by trapping her Bankai missile inside a barrier. Toshiro Hitsugaya froze He-El as the Espada, Shunsui Kyoraku, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, Yhwach, Aizen, and Jushiro Ukitake converged around the battlefield.

• Kenpachi Zaraki transformed with Bankai and attacked He-El, who countered with a slash that pulverized him completely.
• Soi Fon struck He-El with Suzumebachi, but her two-hit kill failed, and He-El attacked her.
• Soi Fon fired her Bankai, but He-El enclosed her and the missile in a contracting Dankū barrier, and the explosion killed her.
• Toshiro Hitsugaya increased his Bankai's power and froze He-El beneath the ice.
• The Espada arrived beside the frozen He-El as Shunsui Kyoraku, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, Yhwach, Aizen, and Jushiro Ukitake watched the battlefield.

He-El defeated Baraggan Louisenbairn by turning his power of aging against him. After killing the former king of Hueco Mundo, He-El threatened the gathered fighters and offered them one chance to flee.

• Toshiro Hitsugaya’s Hyōrinmaru: Daiguren Hyōrinmaru failed to hold He-El, who shattered the ice and emerged unharmed.
• Baraggan Louisenbairn released his Resurrección, Arrogante, and attacked He-El with black flames that aged everything they touched.
• He-El remained unharmed by the aging flames and absorbed them into his Zanpakuto.
• He-El sent the black flames back toward Baraggan Louisenbairn, whose own power consumed and killed him.
• He-El warned the Espada and the other fighters that they had one chance to flee.

As He-El defeated the Espada, Yhwach tried to reach the Soul King, but True Name Calling Monk, the Zero Division, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, and Shunsui Kyoraku blocked him. He-El severed the hand sustaining the Soul King and sent the Soul King flying toward Yhwach, as the Three Realms began to collapse.

• True Name Calling Monk and the four Zero Division members stood in Yhwach's way, while Shunsui Kyoraku and Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni prepared to stop him.
• Yhwach warned that the Almighty showed no future in which they could defeat He-El, and Aizen urged the others to let Yhwach absorb the Soul King.
• Shunsui Kyoraku chose to stand with Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and oppose Yhwach, leaving both sides poised for conflict.
• He-El wiped out the Espada and cut through the giant black hand emerging from Jushiro Ukitake, who collapsed and could no longer sustain the Soul King.
• The Soul King's Reishi connections snapped, causing Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living to begin collapsing.
• He-El struck the Soul King toward Yhwach and challenged him to absorb the Soul King and try to shake him.

Yhwach began absorbing the Soul King as He-El faced Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni in battle. Aizen and Shunsui Kyoraku helped Yamamoto strike He-El from within, but He-El recovered and revealed that the attack had gone as planned.

• Yhwach used Hirenkyaku to reach the Soul King and began absorbing it as the Three Realms started collapsing.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni attacked He-El with Bankai, but He-El knocked aside Zanka no Tachi and reminded him of his promise to Sajin Komamura.
• Yamamoto relentlessly clashed swords with He-El, who said Yamamoto could no longer put pressure on him.
• He-El sensed Aizen's move as Yamamoto used Heaven and Earth Ashes to send Zanka no Tachi through connected black-sphere spaces into He-El's body.
• Shunsui Kyoraku coughed up blood as Yamamoto's strike destroyed more than half of He-El's body, but He-El recovered and knocked Zanka no Tachi aside.
• He-El told Yamamoto that his cooperation had been excellent as rows of black spheres appeared behind him.

He-El revealed that his Senkai’s apparent limits were an illusion and that his own power was the true threat. After he killed the four members of Zero Division, Yhwach called on Kisuke Urahara as the Soul King Palace suddenly changed.

• True Name Calling Monk canceled the Black Ant power he had given He-El, but He-El demonstrated that Senkai could produce infinite dark spheres and that their number did not determine his strength.
• Shunsui Kyoraku recognized that He-El used Senkai as a tool for calculations and attacks rather than merely as a means of escape.
• True Name Calling Monk admitted he had no effective way to stop He-El, who declared that he would end the fight.
• He-El used dark spheres to transmit the force of a sword swing beneath Tenjiro Kirinji, Hikifune Kirio, Nimaiya Oetsu, and Senjumaru Shutara, crushing the four of them into dust.
• Yhwach, having absorbed the Soul King, demanded that Kisuke Urahara act, and the Soul King Palace suddenly changed.

As Seireitei trembled, Rangiku Matsumoto and the other Bleach tried to evacuate its inhabitants while Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and the captains went to stop He-El at the Soul King Palace. The Spirit-Restricting Stone walls then turned into beams aimed at the sky, triggering a deadly riot and revealing that someone had prepared all of Seireitei as burial goods to attack He-El.

• Rangiku Matsumoto broke up a noble’s palanquin and helped guide the panicking crowds through the Eastern Azure Flow Gate.
• Yoruichi Shihōin and Kisuke Urahara issued a fabricated Central 46 Chambers alert ordering Seireitei’s inhabitants to evacuate, while Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and the captain-class Bleach headed to the Soul King Palace.
• Ichimaru Gin reassured Rangiku Matsumoto that the outcome had already been decided, while Kaname Tosen remained behind in Seireitei.
• The Spirit-Restricting Stone in Seireitei’s walls flared and shot beams into the sky, causing the evacuation crowds to panic and trample people to death.
• Rangiku Matsumoto withdrew her Reiatsu, rescued some of those who had fallen, and opened the eastern gate so the crowd could flee freely.
• Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tosen realized that someone had altered the Spirit-Restricting Stone across Seireitei to use the city as burial goods against He-El.

Kisuke Urahara arrived at the Soul King Palace with Yoruichi Shihōin, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and Ichigo Kurosaki, activating his Spirit-Restricting Stone arrangement to disrupt Reishi and prepare to fight He-El. The Seireitei faced destruction as the assembled fighters turned toward He-El.

• Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihōin arrived with Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Ichigo Kurosaki to face He-El.
• Yhwach said the completed arrangement was the only future in which He-El could be defeated.
• Kisuke Urahara activated the Spirit-Restricting Stone wave, which began disrupting Reishi around the Soul King's Palace.
• Aizen recognized Urahara's plan, while Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni realized it could destroy the Seireitei.
• Mayuri Kurotsuchi accused Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni of having tacitly allowed Urahara to prepare the stones over the past hundred years.
• Urahara and his companions reached the Soul King's Palace as the assembled fighters looked toward He-El.

Kisuke Urahara used the Spirit-Restricting Stone to block He-El from manipulating external Reishi and reviving after his body died, while Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and Shunsui Kyoraku tried to use Enrakyoten against him. Their plan failed, Shunsui was erased by Yamamoto’s own power, and Yamamoto attacked He-El in fury.

• Kisuke Urahara explained that the Spirit-Restricting Stone prevented He-El from controlling external Reishi, restoring his Senkai, or rebuilding his body after death.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and Shunsui Kyoraku used Enrakyoten to send Zanka no Tachi: East—Kyokujitsu Jin toward He-El.
• He-El said he had already understood the technique and was unharmed by the attack.
• The power of Zanka no Tachi: East—Kyokujitsu Jin instead erased Shunsui Kyoraku, who burst apart after Yamamoto’s voice shook him.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, overwhelmed by grief and rage, used Shunpo to slash at He-El.

He-El revealed that he had fused his body with his Zanpakuto and used his own power to overcome the fighters attacking him. He trapped them in his world and turned their attacks against them, but Yhwach welcomed the change and declared that He-El would die in the next moment.

• He-El absorbed Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's Bankai and knocked him unconscious with a strike to the temple.
• He-El scattered Kisuke Urahara's Hadō #31: Crimson Fire Cannon and cut apart Yhwach's Heilig Pfeil.
• Uryu Ishida, Ichigo Kurosaki, Yoruichi Shihōin, Aizen, and Yhwach attacked He-El from multiple directions.
• He-El chanted “Minor World” and enveloped the Soul King Palace in darkness, reversing the fighters' attacks against them.
• Uryu Ishida, Ichigo Kurosaki, Aizen, Yoruichi Shihōin, and Yhwach were struck by their own attacks.
• Yhwach laughed and declared that He-El would die in the next moment.