At that very moment, Aizen's figure abruptly flickered, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Almost simultaneously, a dazzlingly colorful sphere streaked through the sky like lightning, striking the exact spot where Aizen had just stood.
With a deafening explosion, the ground was blasted into an enormous crater nearly a hundred meters in diameter. Billowing dust rose into the air, and countless fragments of stone scattered in every direction.
"It seems I underestimated you after all, Naruto!"
Aizen stared straight ahead as the gigantic nine-tailed fox, its massive body so badly damaged that it seemed ready to topple and collapse at any moment, slowly staggered out from deep within the smoke that blotted out the sky.
Calling it "battered" was no exaggeration whatsoever, but an entirely accurate description.
Every step it took seemed extraordinarily difficult, as though it might fall at any moment, yet its single remaining eye, burning with fury, remained fixed firmly on Aizen, revealing endless fighting spirit and an unyielding will.
The immense nine-tailed fox slowly paced out of the drifting smoke.
Everyone took a closer look and involuntarily gasped. Fully half of the nine-tailed fox's head was missing, leaving only the battered right half of its face.
Its once symmetrical, imposing face now looked hideously terrifying, sending chills down their spines.
Its arms were in an even more miserable state.
Its left arm looked as though some immensely powerful external force had torn at it, severing it cleanly at the shoulder, with jagged shards of bone faintly visible at the break;
its right arm had not escaped either. Only a short section of the upper arm remained, hanging limply and lifelessly as though it might fall off at any moment.
The sight of its torso was even more horrifying.
Its entire body resembled