Kensei Muguruma!!

The next moment, the giant axe wreathed in Respira struck the ice wall...

"Bang!"

With a deafening crash, the giant axe lodged itself in the ice wall.

Just as Hitsugaya Tōshirō instinctively breathed a sigh of relief, the ice wall began to melt away rapidly wherever the Respira aura spread.

"Clatter, clatter!"

The sound of chains rang out!

Just as the melting ice wall opened a gap, Barragan yanked back the chained giant axe and swiftly passed through it, appearing before Hitsugaya Tōshirō. The axe in his hand came crashing down at him.

In the next instant, the giant axe struck Hitsugaya Tōshirō...

Yet instead of flesh and blood rapidly decaying as expected, Hitsugaya Tōshirō shattered like a block of ice.

"Ice Mirage."

The real Hitsugaya Tōshirō appeared behind Barragan. The chill radiating from his body grew ever more astonishing, while the falling snow in the sky became increasingly dense.

Although neither the volume of snow nor the cold came anywhere close to when Soul King Kugo had effortlessly covered the entire Seireitei, plunging it into a frozen wasteland...

They had undoubtedly far surpassed the limits of the Great Crimson Ice Dragon's power that Hitsugaya Tōshirō had once been capable of unleashing.

"Frozen Heavens Hundred Flower Funeral."

Of the twelve-petaled ice flower above Hitsugaya Tōshirō's head, four petals shattered at once...

Under Barragan's shocked and bewildered gaze, frigid ice flowers began blooming wildly from his body outward, engulfing him within them.

The cold that permeated all of Karakura Town seemed to reach its peak at this moment.

Other than the area around "Castle Inferno," every other part of Karakura Town had already fallen below freezing.

Centered on Barragan, an iceberg formed from countless blooming ice flowers rose up...

At this moment, both the Arrancar and the Soul Reapers could not