A pillar of pure white light descended from the sky, instantly carving a smooth, even cleft through the center of the entire ruined palace platform.
No dust rose. The stone bricks touched by the pillar of light simply vanished into nothingness.
Lille Barro's grotesque beak parted slightly, sharp, rasping breaths escaping his throat.
Yet at the focal point of his gaze, there were no remains of the man in white.
"Where are you aiming?"
A calm, unhurried voice drifted down from high in the air, a dozen or so meters above and to Lille Barro's left.
Sōsuke Aizen stood upon empty air, his hands still secured inside the specially made restraint robe.
The pure white fabric stirred gently in the wind. His expression was so calm that not a ripple showed.
"No flight trajectory, no ballistic delay. Complete penetration, with the point of impact itself constituting the result?"
Aizen lowered his eyelids slightly, scrutinizing the swollen, distorted body of the monstrous bird from above.
"A truly interesting attack."
"Unfortunately, the very intent to attack still falls within the realm of biological responses."
"As long as I move the instant your nerves direct those apertures of light to focus, your supposed guaranteed hit is nothing but empty words."
Lille Barro's bird head abruptly rotated a hundred and eighty degrees, a chaotic, savage light flickering in its yellow hollows.
"Arrogant worm!"
Lille Barro threw back his head and shrieked. His bizarre cry sent fine ripples through the entire space.
"You think dodging once by sheer luck lets you see through the power bestowed by a god?"
"The light of a god is everywhere! It cannot be touched, nor can it be resisted!"
His eight wings of light beat wildly in the air, every circular opening upon them suddenly taking on a pure,