Loyd Lloyd raised the Crimson Greatsword, ignoring the disturbance in the distance.
The Sun Wheel's luminous tracks spun rapidly behind him, and vast swaths of golden-red flame bore down on Yoriichi.
"Whatever power you possess, I possess as well."
Yoriichi watched that sun without answering.
His opponent had copied the appearance of his Bankai, along with its techniques and Reiatsu.
But a fake was still a fake.
The Sunlit Pure Realm expanded outward. The flames around Lloyd immediately began to shudder violently, and the Reishi forming the greatsword began to break apart.
"What's happening?"
Lloyd looked down at the blade, panic appearing on his face for the first time.
Yoriichi raised Hekyō.
"Your sun has no heat."
As those words fell, he was already in front of Lloyd.
A crimson blade flashed past.
Lloyd still held his sword aloft, but the Sun Wheel behind him had already split down the middle.
Then the greatsword in his hand dissolved into Reishi, and a thin scorch mark stretched from his forehead to his chest.
"So... the gap was this great."
Lloyd's body split apart to either side.
Sun Reiatsu erupted from inside the wound, burning his soul to ash without leaving him even a chance to slip back into the shadows.
Yoriichi did not look at him.
Kira's Reiatsu was almost gone.
He drew in his Bankai Domain. Crimson light flashed beneath his feet, and he vanished from the spot.
Third Division Headquarters.
Reishi arrows had blasted more than half the Division Barracks into rubble, and the bodies of over a dozen division members lay scattered across the street.
Yoriichi stopped in the middle of the ruins.
Izuru Kira leaned against a broken wall, half his body already gone. Searing Quincy Reiatsu still lingered around his wounds.
Blood kept flowing out beneath