The rampaging waves of pure white light finally began to fade from between heaven and earth.
The billowing dust had yet to settle completely, and the enormous transparent wall of light still stood firm in midair.
Yet right in the center of that Dankū, which could block the vast majority of high-level Hadō, a smooth, perfectly round hole had appeared.
The hole extended straight ahead without the slightest deviation.
Sōsuke Aizen stood silently in the air a dozen or so paces behind the Dankū.
A large section of his specially made pure white restraint robe had been erased at the chest, leaving a hole with charred edges.
Through the gap in his robe, an enormous hole pierced the center of his entire chest, letting light through.
There was no spray of blood, nor any fragments of shattered organs.
All the flesh and bone within the hole had been utterly vaporized and erased the instant they touched the light.
Lille Barro hovered high in the sky, his deformed bird head tilted slightly, a savage light gleaming in its yellow holes.
"Hahahaha! Arrogant blasphemer!"
The monstrous bird's wings beat wildly in the gale, its shrill, piercing cries tearing through the entire ruined palace.
"Have you seen it? This is the supreme power bestowed by God!"
Lille Barro raised his long beak high and declared smugly, "Before divine judgment, a Soul Reaper's paltry barrier is nothing but a sheet of thin paper!"
"The outcome God decrees is an absolutely irreversible reality!"
"Your so-called composure was nothing more than a crawling insect's laughable pretense before death!"
Standing in the air, Aizen lowered his eyes slightly and looked at the hole through his chest.
A visible pallor crept over his formerly calm face, and his body even swayed a little.
"Even Dankū... couldn't defend against