Ichibē Hyōsube's footsteps gradually faded away in the empty corridor. Those words, which were so cold and emotionless, were like the most vicious curse, tightly entangled in Yoriichi's mind.
"It doesn't matter who is going to be the wedge, as long as someone steps up."
Yoriichi stood quietly, not moving or speaking.
There was a turbulent wave in his heart, and a trace of confusion rarely appeared on his always calm face.
The path he has always adhered to is so simple and pure - to cut off all evil that tries to harm others and protect the life he cherishes.
But now, this old monk who had lived for a million years gave him an unsolvable problem.
If Yhwach is killed, Three Realms will collapse because Soul King's power is exhausted, and everything he cherishes will be reduced to nothing.
Not killing Yhwach and letting him devour Soul King would be equivalent to personally pushing the founder of this world into the abyss of eternal destruction. At the same time, it also means that Zero Division may use Ichigo as a backup plan at any time and push him to the throne of sacrifice.
No matter which choice you make, it's a dead end leading to the abyss.
The so-called justice and the so-called protection seem so pale and powerless at this moment.
Just when Yoriichi's mind fell into unprecedented chaos, the footsteps that had gone far stopped suddenly.
Ichibē Hyōsube didn't look back, he just put the huge brush on his shoulders again and broke the silence with a slightly self-deprecating laugh.
"Haha, it's hard to understand, isn't it?"
"Now that you understand the origin of this world, you should understand the absurdity of it."
His voice was no longer as loud as before, but instead carried a sense of exhaustion and desolation after taking off the disguise.
"A group of 'adopted sons' created by Him personally, in order to maintain the stability of this world, they did not hesitate to cut their Creator into pieces and imprisoned them for millions of years."
"But his only 'parental son', the one who was supposed to inherit everything from him, wanted to destroy this world from the beginning of his birth."
"Yhwach, he is not a life actively created by Soul King."
"He is a collection of consciousness that was accidentally born from the residue of power that escaped when Soul King was divided."
Yoriichi's pupils shrank slightly.
He remembered the scene he saw in the illusion, where Soul King's limbs and organs were peeled off one by one, and the extremely pure power was scattered everywhere.
It turns out that Yhwach was born from that cruel sacrifice.
"His power is indeed the purest Soul King's Power in the world. It is no exaggeration to say that he is his biological son."
Ichibē Hyōsube's voice came slowly, as if telling an ancient story that had nothing to do with him.
"However, since his birth, he has not received the slightest favor or care from Soul King."
"The world he saw was a cage built on his father's corpse. All he felt was the endless pain of being divided and used."
"He had a bumpy journey, growing up in hatred and killing, and finally gathered all Quincy's resentment and wanted to bring order to this 'wrong' world."
"From his point of view, what he did was understandable."
The monk's words were not biased in the slightest, they were just stating a chilling fact.
Yoriichi remained silent, unable to refute.
Because he knew that if it were him, faced with such a life experience, he might do something even more extreme than Yhwach.
"Do you think we haven't thought of other ways in these millions of years?"
Ichibē Hyōsube's tone revealed a deep sense of powerlessness.
"We have tried to find a way to free Soul King and let him rest in peace from his eternal imprisonment."
"But, no."
"As long as we touch the crystal in the slightest, as long as we try to remove the 'wedge', Three Realms will immediately produce violent turbulence, and countless cracks in the world will be instantly torn open. The consequences will be hundreds of times more serious than the invasion of Yhwach."
"His flesh and blood has been completely integrated with the foundation of this world and is inseparable."
"All we can do is maintain the status quo and watch His power weaken day by day until the day it is completely exhausted, and then drag the entire Three Realms with it."
"Or..."
"Find a new wedge that is strong enough to replace the old one that has become rotten."
Yoriichi's heart sank little by little.
He finally fully understood Zero Division's position.
That is not coldness, but the only path left, full of despair and helplessness, after a million years of attempts have failed.
"Soul King Who can understand the millions of years of loneliness, the pain of being eternally imprisoned, and even death becoming a luxury?"
Ichibē Hyōsube turned around slowly, and the face that always had a heroic smile was filled with endless loneliness and sadness.
His deep eyes seemed to reflect the passage of millions of years and the sorrow of a close friend sinking into the abyss.
"Back then, we, the earliest Soul Reaper, followed Him and witnessed the birth of Three Realms."
"But in the end, each of them passed away due to various reasons."
"Now, I am the only one left who still remembers what happened back then."
"For a million years, I was the only one who could accompany Him and understand His silence."
After saying this, the old monk, who had always been so carefree, as if he didn't care if the sky fell, his expression became completely depressed.
The light in his eyes dimmed, and his burly body actually seemed a little stooped at this moment, as if he was being suffocated by the heavy burden called "time".
I actually re-measured it today, the amazing eggplant.
I feel like I am a lamb waiting to be slaughtered!!!