Defeated in Ruin

True King's Palace, Central Heavenly Court.

This was the highest point in all of Hueco Mundo, and the source from which that pair of invisible hands controlled every fate.

Within the dim yet lavish grand hall, only an enormous holographic screen floating in the air cast any light, displaying every detail of the battlefield.

This was no ordinary surveillance feed. The images were transmitted directly through Ulquiorra's shared visual nerves.

That was precisely why the lightning, blood, and every collision of power on the screen appeared so real and brutal.

On the screen, Candice, clad in a lightning cloak, attacked madly like a Valkyrie, while Uryū Ishida stood like an unbreakable reef. Though battered by the raging storm, he remained standing.

"Not bad. He truly is the only person in the entire Wandenreich worth taking seriously."

A languid, seductive female voice sounded from the throne.

"Even though our little Candice has received the awakening power bestowed by Your Majesty, and her raw strength and Spiritual Pressure already surpass his, she still can't take him down. Prolonged attacks are bound to create openings. It looks like little Candice will most likely lose."

The speaker was Sun-Sun, now the chief steward of True King's Palace.

Unlike the somewhat immature Subordinate Officer from several years ago, though she had always had a sharp tongue, she now seemed to have undergone a metamorphosis. Her entire body exuded a breathtakingly bewitching charm.

Her glossy black hair was left unbound, cascading loosely from her head to the tip of her tail like silk and swaying gently with her movements.

On that face, beautiful enough to topple kingdoms, three tiny, vivid beauty marks beneath the corner of her eye were like the final stroke of ink in a painting, adding an even more soul-stealing allure.

She wore