Pillar

The simultaneous Bankai, once hailed as the pinnacle of Seireitei's power, proved utterly insignificant before the Monk's spiritual pressure, like a child's toy, utterly failing to pique the Monk's interest.

"Cough cough..." Tsuna coughed twice and struggled to get up from the ground. In this tense situation, even the slightest movement would be magnified infinitely.

"Tsuna!"

Tatsuki quickly came to Tsuna's side and helped him up. Tsuna looked up at the high and mighty Monk and forced a smile.

Compared to Tsuna's ugly smile, the Monk was all smiles. It was good that he wasn't dead; only a living Sawada Tsunayoshi was of use. Looking at the two precious Soul King candidates below, the Monk felt infinitely happy.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, I acknowledge your strength." After a series of battles, even the Monk acknowledged Tsuna's power. "But your greatest misfortune is coming to this world. Your misfortune is my fortune. Come, come back with me, back to the Soul King Palace!"

The Monk stretched out his palm, and a giant hand reached out to grab Tsuna. Everyone was on high alert and launched their attacks to meet the attack.

Ineffective, completely ineffective. The attack that he was usually so proud of was instantly crushed without even a wisp of dust in the Monk's palm.

"Get out of the way!"

A heavy roar, accompanied by spiritual pressure, dissipated everyone. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto appeared above them, his hands turning as red as molten lava. Ryūjin Jakka had vanished, and he unleashed both fists.

"Genryū - Sōkotsu!"

A wave of heat erupted instantly, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's fists contained terrifying flames. The mere sight of those flames filled Hirako and the others with fear, their instincts telling them that a single touch would mean certain death.

Yet, this powerful attack was forcefully suppressed by the Monk's palm. The extreme heat, like a giant umbrella, cascaded down on everyone. The heat spread, causing the surrounding land to dry up rapidly, cracking into pieces of soil. The plants also suffered, all withering quickly under the scorching heat.

Boom! Thud!

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto used all his strength to shift the Monk's hand to a different position, thus preventing the Monk's attack from successfully grabbing Tsuna.

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's own hands were now covered in blood, the color of which had changed from flames to blood plasma, Ryūjin Jakka had returned to his waist.

The Monk didn't care about Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's resistance at all; it was just a simple Thousand -Senri Touten Palm. If he wanted to, he could use tens of millions of palm strikes.

On the contrary, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's behavior displeased the Monk. "Stop with your little tricks. What right do you have to stand before me if you haven't trained your strength? Or do you want the entire Soul Society to be buried with Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

In that instant, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto entered Zanpakuto fusion state. Just as the Monk said, he had never used this technique before. He not only failed to block the Monk's attack but also injured himself.

As for using Soul Society as a sacrifice, it was unavoidable. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto himself wasn't skilled enough to control the heat after the Zanpakuto fused together.

Therefore, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto had to order the Gotei 13 to evacuate, and he couldn't guarantee that his own strength wouldn't harm others.

For the Monk, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's act of bringing Soul Society into the world without his permission was an overstepping of boundaries. "Since you all want to die, then let's all die together."

With another palm strike, the Monk made up his mind that, apart from Ichigo Kurosaki and Sawada Tsunayoshi, no one else needed to be left alive. As for the Gotei 13, they could come back if they wanted, or he would have time to slowly cultivate a new organization if they didn't.

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto suddenly looked up, wanting to continue using the power of the Zanpakuto fusion, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably and wouldn't obey him at all.

"Get out of the way, old man!" Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto turned around abruptly and saw Ichigo drawing a black bow and pointing it at the Monk.

The bow had dense, vein-like blue lines on it, and the arrow on the bow was even more familiar to the Monk —it was something intertwined with black and white.

The Monk's eyes widened in disbelief. How could Ichigo Kurosaki know such a move?

With the help of the Decimo Boss and others inside Tsuna, and with Old Man Zangetsu Zangetsu inside Ichigo discussing important matters, they unanimously chose a technique that led to the same goal as Tsuna, combining all their power and unleashing it all at once.

With a whoosh, Ichigo's arrow pierced through the Monk's Senri Touten Palm and headed straight for the Monk.

This time, the Monk was really going all out, directly confronting Ichigo's attack head-on. Black and white energy condensed into a ball in his palm, which he then rammed into the arrow.

There was no explosion; Ichigo's attack was easily neutralized. After being hit by Tsuna's Sky power for so long, the Monk had almost forgotten that his ability was effective.

Black erased the names of the various powers from the arrows, White gave them the title of the weakest attack, Monk crushed Ichigo's desperate opinion into pieces in an instant.

"Damn it! Do it again!"

The previous arrow had already consumed most of Ichigo's spiritual pressure. Even if Ichigo squeezed out some more spiritual pressure, the arrow he fired next would not be as powerful as the previous one.

Even if he were stronger, so what? Faced with the Monk's conceptual abilities, Ichigo couldn't do anything, unless... unless Ichigo could perfectly fuse the four powers and reach the level of the Soul King...

"That's enough, Ichigo."

Tsuna's soft call made Ichigo stop drawing his bow. Ichigo's hands were trembling; he knew Tsuna's actions all too well. The next thing he would say was to persuade him.

"Everyone, thank you so much for being here for me. You all have your own wonderful lives ahead of you, and you shouldn't be fighting this unwinnable battle for my sake." Tsuna straightened up. "Go back, this is my battlefield."

Tsuna gently brushed away the tears on Tatsuki's face and patted her on the shoulder. "If you have time, could you look after my parents?"

Tsuna staggered forward, but Ichigo grabbed him as he passed Ichigo, saying, "What do you mean we can't win? I don't understand! We're going together!"

Listening to Ichigo's sincere yet frivolous remarks, Tsuna laughed helplessly. If there had been any hope of winning this battle, he wouldn't have driven these people away. But the Monk was just too powerful, and there was no hope of winning at all.

"Wait, if we can't handle it, we still have Aizen, right?!" In this critical moment, Ichigo's mind worked quickly. "I'll go unseal him, we still have the Hogyoku!"

Before Tsuna could speak, Ichigo immediately used Flash Step to rush towards the place where Aizen was sealed. The Monk's face was full of annoyance. One Sawada Tsunayoshi, and the Sosuke Aizen. These guys who were causing trouble in the Soul King Palace could never make people feel at ease.

The Monk aimed at Ichigo's position and struck down with his palm. Tsuna and the others had no time to stop him, or rather, were powerless to stop the Monk's angry attack.

Just as his palm was about to strike Ichigo, a huge spiritual pressure blast flew over, sending Ichigo flying back to Tsuna and the others. Chad quickly caught Ichigo, preventing Ichigo from suffering secondary damage.

Hearing the thud of his palm striking the ground, the Monk's gaze fell outside the Seireitei. He generally didn't care about places like Rukongai, which were of low strength, but Monk knew the direction from which the cannonballs came.

At the Shiba Clan, the place used to launch the Tenchūren, the Kakkaku Cannon was used by Kūkaku Shiba to aim at the Monk.

Below the Kakkaku Cannon, Kūkaku Shiba smugly wiped her nose and looked at the screen Urahara had added for her, saying, "Want to mess with my Shiba Clan's juniors? Have you even asked me first!"

"Alright, Kūkaku Shiba withdrew his gaze, his main focus Monk being on capturing Tsuna. This time, he didn't plan to use the Senri Touten Palm, but instead walked step by step down the non-existent steps from the sky. This physical body, comparable to that of Soul King, was the Monk's greatest reliance.

Watching the Monk descend step by step, Tsuna smiled. He also wanted to step forward, perhaps it would make him look more dignified. As he took his first step, every figure behind him blocked his way.

"You..."

"The wounded should stay put and not move, bald man!" Hiyori yelled, but her hands were trembling. Facing imminent death, how many people could remain fearless?

"Alright!" Ichigo stood at the front of the group, pointing his sword at the Monk. "If you want to deal with Tsuna, you'll have to step over our dead bodies!"

"Ha, a bunch of ants!"

Monk a sweeping Ichigo, the monk unleashed a torrent of white rain that cascaded down from the sky like a waterfall. He had no patience for removing names and then renaming them; he was going to consign these troublesome creatures to the status of mere ants in one fell swoop.

"They are not ants..."

The flames slowly spread, forming a canopy that shielded everyone from the torrential white light. Ichigo and the others focused their gazes on Tsuna, watching the flames rekindle above his head. It was Tsuna acting as their safe haven.

Flames, those orange flames again. The Monk's fists clenched. Why did Sawada Tsunayoshi always have to cause trouble at crucial moments? The spiritual pressure of these flames wasn't strong, yet it was able to completely neutralize the power of the name.

Harmony, for Tsuna who remembers the Monk's power form, even a simple Sky Shikai is enough to completely harmonize the Monk's abilities.

"The reason I've been able to grow to where I am today is because of these friends. They've always supported me and helped me move forward. To protect my friends and family from harm, I must become stronger, the strongest!"

"So strong that no one can stop him, so strong that he can protect my ordinary life!"

Tsuna no longer had the strength to wait for the Decimo to come up with a solution. He knew that once he let his breath catch, he would never get up again. He wanted to take advantage of his still conscious state to unleash a final battle cry on the Monk.

"Hyosube Ichibei, come and fight!!!"

As his fighting spirit intensified, the flames on Tsuna's forehead burned ever brighter, reaching their peak as he finished speaking. The flames shot skyward, burning not his spiritual pressure, but his Tsuna life.

The Decimo remained silent in his inner world, silently helping to synchronize with Tsuna's flame frequency, silently burning himself out. He was a failure; he had no better way. The only thing he could do was accompany Tsuna to the end.