Bankai—Heaven-Piercing Sword

Bankai—Heaven-Piercing Sword

"Oh? Third Seat Hoshino's tolerance really exceeds my expectations. I thought I'd already angered you long ago."

Hearing Hibiki Hoshino's furious shout, Ailin shook his head with a derisive smile.

"Hmph, I hope your mouth is still this tough in a moment!"

Hibiki Hoshino choked up, his expression stiffening for a moment. In the end, he could only throw out another threat.

Then, Zanpakuto in hand, his figure flickered repeatedly as he charged toward Ailin.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

After several flashes, Hibiki Hoshino had already appeared before Ailin, bringing his Zanpakuto straight down at him.

"Wind Scar!"

With a sweep of Ailin's left hand, three sky-piercing wind slashes tore through the air and instantly swallowed Hibiki Hoshino.

But the next instant, the Hibiki Hoshino Ailin had struck turned into an illusion and vanished.

Elsewhere, Hibiki Hoshino appeared to Ailin's right, his Zanpakuto descending toward him once more.

"Azure Dragon Break!"

Lightning blazed from Ailin's right hand, and a purple thunder dragon tore Hibiki Hoshino's figure apart.

"Boom—"

The purple thunder dragon and the wind slashes swept outward, causing enormous destruction to the Seventh Division once again.

Unfortunately, neither of Ailin's powerful attacks had truly struck Hibiki Hoshino.

After using illusions twice to deceive Ailin's attacks, Hibiki Hoshino's true body appeared behind Ailin, his Zanpakuto slashing directly down at him.

"Bzzzz, bzzzz..."

Unfortunately, Hibiki Hoshino's blade did not actually strike Ailin.

A ring of purple barrier emerged around Ailin, blocking Hibiki Hoshino's attack.

"Slash!"

The next moment, two flashes of blade light passed through the air, cutting Hibiki Hoshino's body in half.

Yet that body immediately shattered like a mirage.

Ailin's expression grew solemn.

He knew that the reason he had struck Hibiki Hoshino's illusions again and again was that he had already been affected by Hibiki Hoshino's ability.

This was the true power Hibiki Hoshino had spoken of.

Although Ailin had taken it seriously before, he had not considered it much of a threat.

After all, aside from the information Ailin had known before transmigrating about Hibiki Hoshino—no, that person had been called Kuchiki Hyōga—Ailin had also created Hibiki Hoshino's Zanpakuto, Muramasa, on the very night he had been locked in the Ninth Division prison.

The moment he held Muramasa, he had learned of the ability Hibiki Hoshino regarded as his trump card.

Muramasa's true ability was to invade a Soul Reaper's inner spiritual world, provoking their Zanpakuto through words or force, amplifying its dissatisfaction with its master or its thirst for battle, thereby gaining control over its wielder.

And this ability had been nurtured from Hibiki Hoshino's own power.

It was an ability that could use his spiritual pressure to invade an enemy's body and create a discrepancy in visual distance. It resembled the manipulation of the five senses, though it lacked Kyoka Suigetsu's overwhelming hypnotic power.

Even so, it was enough to demonstrate just how formidable Hibiki Hoshino's ability was.

Unfortunately, Ailin had only created Muramasa a few days ago.

Learning more about Hibiki Hoshino through Muramasa was already the limit of what Ailin could do at present.

If Ailin had been given more time to fully absorb Hibiki Hoshino's experience, defeating him naturally would not have been difficult.

But now, after being thwarted several times in a row, Ailin could already feel how troublesome this ability was.

If he wanted to defeat Hibiki Hoshino while under the influence of his ability, Tetsusaiga and Sōtenyasha would not be enough.

"Bzzzz..."

"Crack..."

For this battle, the Zanpakuto Ailin had released was his true Zanpakuto, Unlimited Blade Works.

Therefore, when using the ultimate techniques of other weapons, he only needed to release one-tenth of their power separately.

As a result, when Ailin unleashed Azure Dragon Break and Wind Scar, thunder roared and winds howled without pause.

Unfortunately, none of those attacks truly hit Hibiki Hoshino.

Meanwhile, the scabbard at Ailin's waist had already been blasted with several cracks under Hibiki Hoshino's attacks.

Once Tetsusaiga's scabbard shattered, Ailin would lose the protective barrier and would certainly be injured when facing Hibiki Hoshino's attacks.

With that in mind, the Tetsusaiga and Sōtenyasha in Ailin's hands dissolved into spirit particles.

No, not only the swords in his hands.

The "forest of swords" around Ailin also dissolved into spirit particles and was withdrawn into his Inner World.

"Oh?"

Seeing this, Hibiki Hoshino narrowed his eyes. "What? Have you sensed the gap between us and decided to surrender?"

The ring of barrier around Ailin made it difficult for Hibiki Hoshino to attack him.

But clearly, Hibiki Hoshino had also discovered the weakness of Ailin's barrier.

After several attacks, the scabbard supporting the barrier was nearly destroyed.

"Third Seat Hoshino, when did you start having the mistaken impression that there's a gap between us, that I'm inferior to you?"

"I can't deny that your ability is indeed remarkable. At the very least, I still haven't found a way to locate your true body."

"However..."

Ailin extended his hand. Ripples spread through the air before his right hand, and a Zanpakuto emerged from their center, which Ailin seized in one grasp.

"Shine—!"

At Ailin's call, the Zanpakuto in his hand transformed into a double-edged straight sword that resembled a mirror.

"Third Seat Hoshino, your ability has a range limit, doesn't it?"

Ailin looked at Hibiki Hoshino, not caring whether the Hibiki Hoshino before him was an illusion or his true body. "Judging from your previous attacks, the distance between your illusions and your true body never exceeded ten meters."

"Tell me, if my attack range extends three hundred meters in every direction from me, how useful will your ability be?"

"What?"

Under Hibiki Hoshino's horrified gaze, Ailin raised the mirrored straight sword high with both hands.

"Bankai—Heaven-Piercing Sword!"

The Heaven-Piercing Sword was a weapon from Fanatio, an Integrated Knight in the Alicization arc of Sword Art Online from Ailin's memories.

Its initial release, the Complete Dominance Technique, could absorb surrounding spirit particles and transform them into lasers to attack enemies.

Its final release, Memory Release, could absorb spirit particles across a wide area for dense laser attacks, or condense those lasers into an immensely powerful Torrent of Light Shockwave.

What Ailin was using now was the Heaven-Piercing Sword's power after Memory Release.

Centered on Ailin, massive quantities of spirit particles gathered upon his Heaven-Piercing Sword, making it look like a miniature sun.

Then, in an instant, that "little sun" burst forth with countless beams of light, scattering in every direction.

"Boom boom boom boom boom..."