Something Extraordinary

The instant Exchange activated, all three items vanished simultaneously.

Ripples spread through the space before Fang Xu.

The familiar Exchange image unfolded.

There were no shinobi villages within the scene, nor were there any shinobi.

A dim palace stood amid a desolate desert.

Pale moonlight fell from directly overhead.

The entire palace was so silent that not a sound could be heard.

Before an experimental table, Sosuke Aizen extended his right hand.

A Hogyoku emitting a dark glow hovered above his palm.

After a long period of refinement, this Hogyoku had nearly reached its final form.

Once he completed the final step, he would be able to merge it with himself.

He would shatter the boundary between Soul Reapers and Hollows.

He would transcend the limits of life itself.

"It's finally complete."

Aizen lowered his eyes to the Hogyoku.

His voice remained calm.

There was no anticipation.

Nor was there any excitement at the prospect of gaining tremendous power.

It was as if everything before him were merely an experiment whose outcome had long been decided.

Just as the Hogyoku was about to merge into his body,

its dark glow suddenly vanished.

Aizen's palm was suddenly empty.

There had been no fluctuation of Spiritual Pressure throughout the entire process.

No spatial rift.

Nor had any power invaded Las Noches.

Aizen's movement stopped.

He looked down at his empty palm, encountering a change beyond his control for the first time.

The Hogyoku had vanished.

It had not been taken.

Nor had it been moved by a spatial ability.

It was more like it had been directly erased from this world.

Aizen's Spiritual Pressure instantly blanketed all of Las Noches.

Every wall.

Every grain of sand.

Every living being.

There was no trace of the Hogyoku's presence anywhere he could sense.

Footsteps