Only when the corpse hit the ground did the flash reveal its true form-
It was a sword.
An absurdly massive, broad-bladed sword shaped like a shark's dorsal fin.
Its blade was azure blue, its edges serrated like shark teeth, and blood dripped from it.
The hand gripping it wore a black fingerless glove.
Its owner slowly emerged from the curtain of rain behind Liuyu.
She had brown skin and a tall, athletic figure. Her short blond hair was tied into a short ponytail, with a few strands hanging over her forehead.
She wore a white Arrancar uniform-a high-collared top, trousers, and an open jacket that exposed her flat, toned abdomen.
Most striking were the remnants of a bone mask on her face, covering her right eye and part of her right cheek, shaped like half a shark's facial bones.
Tier Harribel.
The Third Espada, a Vasto Lorde-class Arrancar who presided over "sacrifice."
She held Tiburón, a massive sword taller than she was, in one hand. Its tip hung toward the ground as rain washed the blood from its blade.
Her pale green eyes calmly swept over the nineteen remaining Konoha ninjas before her, her gaze as cold as icy water in the deep sea.
"Anyone who disrespects Lord Liuyu," she said, her voice quiet yet carrying clearly through the rain to everyone's ears, "will be killed without mercy."
Dead silence.
There was only the roar of the torrential rain, and... the Aburame ninja's trembling breaths.
"That Bone Mask—" The Aburame captain pointed at the half-mask of bone on Tier Harribel's face, his voice cracking.
"It's identical?! The same... mask as that pale monster's?!"
"Las Noches..." The Hyuga captain's face turned deathly pale. His Byakugan darted frantically as he tried to analyze the woman who had suddenly appeared before him.