The captains of the Gotei 13 had all been knocked to the ground. They looked up at the Soul King Palace, which was being dragged out by countless black tendrils, their faces dazed.
This...
Was it really that easy to crack open?
What about those legendary defensive barriers?!
And the legendary Zero Division? Why weren't they coming out to stop this?
It wasn't just the Gotei 13—even Tao Yu looked a little surprised.
By all rights, the members of Zero Division should have come out to stop him.
From what he could tell by the effects of Shikai, the Soul King Palace had a more complete and overbearing system of rules.
The members of Zero Division, fighting on the path to the Soul King Palace or inside it, should have been able to completely overwhelm every Quincy except Yhwach.
Yet now there wasn't the slightest resistance...
"Everyone, I'll go up and take a look. It seems something's gone wrong."
Tao Yu was genuinely worried that the Soul King might have been corrupted by the Abyss. But the Death God World had been relatively normal so far, with no unusual changes. It had even stepped in to stop him before, so it shouldn't have come to that.
The next moment, Tao Yu vanished from where he stood...
The Soul King Palace itself looked like an ordinary cylinder floating in the air. Around it stood the Zero Division's residences, forming a protective ring.
At the front was the path leading to the Soul King Palace.
The entire complex had an ancient, weathered feel to it.
But today, the atmosphere around the palace was completely different. The bright sky had turned pitch-black.
Endless, twisted black mist shrouded the area. From the darkness below, countless tendrils spiraled upward!
Yet in the face of