Liuyu slowly rose into the air and settled back onto the floating throne of reishi.
The Espada silently gathered behind him like the most loyal of guards.
"Tell them."
Liuyu looked down at the people below, insignificant as ants. The blood moon and the ruins were reflected in his silver-white eyes.
"The banners of Las Noches will fly in every corner of this world."
"And you-"
He paused, his voice echoing through the night sky like the final toll of a funeral bell.
"Have three years."
"Either submit."
"Or-"
"Die."
As his words fell, Liuyu raised a hand and made a gentle slicing motion.
Riiip-
A pitch-black rift tore open in the air.
A Garganta.
He cast one last glance at the dumbstruck faces below, at the faint presence far out on the snowfield, and at the Land of Iron he had reduced to rubble with his own hands.
Then he turned and stepped into the rift.
The Espada followed close behind.
The rift closed.
The crushing pressure of reiatsu receded like the tide.
Gravity returned, the air began to flow, and the blood moon slowly faded.
But at the center of the venue, that bottomless black square abyss remained.
Like an eternal scar.
Carved into the soil of the Land of Iron.
Carved into the heart of every survivor.
Out on the snowfield.
Minato struggled to sit up. He looked toward the venue, toward the vanished rift, toward the blood moon gradually dispersing in the sky.
He lowered his head, looking at the two elders barely clinging to life in his arms, then at his own trembling, bloodstained hands.
Then he slowly closed his eyes.
"The countdown..."
He murmured under his breath, his voice as hoarse as a worn-out bellows.
"Has begun."
In the distance, from the direction