"Urgh!" Ronglin watched unwillingly as Kotsubaki advanced once more. Blood streamed from his nostrils, eyes, and ears. Forcing himself to withstand Kotsubaki despite his injuries only worsened them, until blood flowed from all seven orifices. It was a horrific sight. "Damn it! If I were at full strength, what the hell would a mere Kotsubaki be?!"
Everyone stared pale-faced at Ronglin, whose entire body was stained with blood. They had never expected him to go this far, nor had they expected him to endure the damage for so long.
But they all understood that the moment Ronglin fell, they would be finished as well.
They wanted to help, but they simply could not. Ronglin was able to block Kotsubaki because of his powerful Spiritual Pressure and strange abilities. If they went out to help, they would only get in the way and serve no purpose at all.
The girl gave Ronglin one final, heartbreakingly beautiful smile, then turned and raised her Zanpakuto toward the Kotsubaki close at hand, thrusting it forward.
"What a pity. I never got to tell you my name myself!"
"Pfft!" Ronglin saw this and was overcome with shock and fury. "Come back here!"
Yet the shimmering radiance imbued with the Power of Time could not stop the girl at all. Her Zanpakuto emitted an eerie glow, then passed through the temporal barrier Ronglin had erected and stabbed fiercely into Kotsubaki!
"Boom!"
Kotsubaki suddenly went berserk. No longer controlled by Ronglin's spatial-temporal technique, it trembled violently and shook the entire passageway, releasing a dazzling radiance that instantly swallowed the girl.
The Price!
"No!" Ronglin let out a heart-rending roar. The power around him instantly collapsed into chaos and surged wildly out of control, exploding outward as it swept through the passage and destroyed everything in its path.