Everyone Joined Forces

The scattered rubble on the ground quietly floated into the air.

The Reiatsu rising from Ichigo Kurosaki's body was like an invisible mountain rising from the ground.

The air inside the hall hummed low under the heavy pressure.

The black spear that Yhwach had just condensed in his hand instantly turned into fragments and dissipated upon contact with this Reiatsu fluctuation.

Orihime Inoue knelt amidst the rubble, one hand pressed against her chest, unable to breathe properly under the pressure of the high-density spiritual energy.

The orange-haired boy, who had been lying on the edge of the ruins, slowly straightened up by supporting himself with one hand on the ground.

The long sword and short blade he held in both hands simultaneously erupted with pure light.

The two blades met and joined together in front of his chest, their dense dark Reishi intertwining with golden light, transforming into thick chains.

Chains extended from the hilt of the sword, wrapping around his right arm layer by layer, and then reaching his half-black, half-white armor.

The longsword was completely reforged, its blade entirely black, with a dark, blood-like aura flowing along its edges, and several free-floating Reishi Chains encircling its outer side.

The sea of clouds above the entire Wahrwelt was completely shattered, revealing the vast and boundless sky.

The dozens of giant stone pillars remaining around the temple could not withstand the shock of this law and collapsed cleanly from their roots.

Ichigo Kurosaki gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with both hands, the golden light in his eyes pulsating like that of a wild beast.

"Is this your last trump card?"

Yhwach narrowed his eyes, looking at the completely transformed boy below the steps.

"Bankai."

Ichigo Kurosaki uttered two words in a low voice.

The next moment, the white stone slab beneath his feet turned to dust.

There was no sound of air being cut by the Shunpo, nor any extra trace.

Ichigo Kurosaki appeared directly in front of Yhwach.

A massive black blade, bound with crimson chains, cleaved downwards, the Reiatsu emanating from its edge slicing the entire throne room in two.

Yhwach with a single upward thrust of his sword.

The longsword and the broadsword clashed.

The Obsidian steps beneath Yhwach's feet could not withstand the immense force of the blade pouring down and collapsed into a crater hundreds of feet deep.

The black fluid surrounding Yhwach was forcibly torn open by the blade's edge, creating a huge gash.

Yhwach's body was thrown back dozens of steps by this irresistible brute force.

Before the other person could regain their footing, Ichigo Kurosaki took another step forward.

The crimson chains surrounding the blade rang out with a crisp sound, leaving a trail of afterimages in mid-air.

The black and white slashes poured down like a storm, each strike landing on the weakest point of Yhwach's protective barrier.

Yhwach parried with a single-handed sword strike, the Holy Blade clashing with the Bloodlocked Greatsword, sparks flying.

Under the absolute suppression of power, Yhwach's sword was forcibly deflected several times, and his black robe was torn in several long marks.

"Speed and Reiatsu have indeed reached a new level."

Yhwach spoke calmly as he backed away.

The black fluid on his body suddenly began to vibrate at an extremely fast frequency.

After taking the seventh blow head-on, Yhwach stopped retreating even an inch.

His overlapping pupils spun rapidly in the fluid, having already completely grasped the weight and rotation frequency of Ichigo's blade.

Yhwach sidestepped the oncoming thrust, his broadsword slashing upwards at an angle.

The blade grazed past the Blood Chain Longsword, aiming straight for Ichigo's wrist Ichigo the sword.

Ichigo Kurosaki slightly lowered his wrist, using the pull of the chain to forcefully deflect the blade and parry the counterattack.

But the shadow beneath Yhwach's feet instantly transformed into dozens of sharp blades, shooting out from the ground and heading straight for the boy's lower body.

Ichigo Kurosaki somersaulted in the air to avoid the ground spikes, his attack abruptly interrupted.

"Roar--!!"

A rough, high-pitched roar suddenly tore through the smoke and dust.

A massive, dark red figure burst through the gap in the high wall behind them.

Renji Abarai has a head of wild red hair, his right arm is wrapped in a pale, thick, giant snake skull, and his left arm is covered by a hairy baboon arm.

"Bankai · Sōō Zabimaru!"

Renji Abarai swooped down from mid-air, his left arm growing several times its original size, and with the force of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, he slammed straight at Yhwach's head.

Yhwach pressed his left hand upwards, and the churning black mud transformed into a shield to meet the attack.

The force of the punch collided with the black shield, producing a deafening thud.

Taking advantage of this momentary delay, Renji Abarai opened his right hand wide, revealing a serpentine bone armor, and unleashed a condensed beam of Reishi light.

"Zaga Teppō!"

A dark red light pierced through the black mud shield and headed straight for Yhwach's heart.

Meanwhile, in the ruins on the other side, the soft orange light slowly faded away.

Orihime Inoue wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and barely managed to stand.

Having received treatment, Rukia Kuchiki rose to her feet, her Sode no Shirayuki, tracing a graceful arc of snow-white light.

"Some no mai - Tsukishiro!"

A beam of light rose from beneath Yhwach's feet, and the extreme cold froze all the surrounding air into solid ice.

The crimson glow of the Zaga Teppō and the Tsukishiro ice pillar struck Yhwach's body at the same time.

The chaotic Reishi dust completely engulfed the core of the steps.

"Renji! Rukia!"

Ichigo Kurosaki landed to the side, panting heavily as he shouted.

Renji Abarai landed beside Ichigo, spat out a mouthful of blood, and grinned, "Stop acting all dead, Ichigo. I didn't come here to watch you get beaten up!"

Rukia Kuchiki arrived through the snow, her pure white dagger pointing diagonally forward, and said coldly, "This guy isn't down yet, don't let your guard down!"

Amidst the smoke and dust, the ice pillar exploded into powder.

The red Reiatsu of the Zaga Teppō was completely swallowed up by the writhing black swamp.

Yhwach emerged from the storm step by step, his Obsidian robes completely untouched by dust.

"Ants gathered together are still just ants."

Yhwach held his sword in one hand, calmly scrutinizing the three people before him.

"Superior!"

Without any hesitation, Ichigo Kurosaki unleashed a long trail of flame from the blood-red chains on his sword.

Three figures transformed into three distinct streaks of light, flanking and attacking from the left, right, and front.

Renji Abarai's giant baboon arm swept across the ground, lifting dozens of meters of rock that crashed down on Yhwach's back.

Rukia Kuchiki with agility, her white sword flashing through the air, unleashing a barrage of ice spikes that blocked all of Yhwach's escape routes.

Ichigo, facing the enemy, pushed his Reiatsu to its limit and unleashed a horizontal slash with his long sword.

"Getsuga Tenshō!"

The hundred-foot-long blade aura, a blend of dark gold and pitch black, descended with destructive power.

Faced with this near-fatal triple attack, Yhwach let out a low, mocking laugh.

"This boring game of pretend has come to an end."

Yhwach unleashed his Reiatsu without reservation.

The black fluid was no longer a simple shield or spear, but transformed into a black tsunami that blotted out the sky.

The light in the entire hall was instantly swallowed up.

The rock formations that Renji Abarai crashed down into turned to dust the moment they touched the tsunami, and the black waves surged past, crashing directly onto his white bone snake armor.

A cracking sound echoed through the corridor.

Renji Abarai's snake-head bone armor on his right arm shattered inch by inch, and he spat out a mouthful of blood mist. He was sent flying backward and embedded deeply into the stone wall a hundred meters away.

Rukia Kuchiki's ice spike storm crumbled like paper before the black tsunami.

A long, dark whip lashed out from the waves, striking precisely the back of Sode no Shirayuki's sword.

The pure white longsword flew out of his hand and spun around, embedding itself in the ruins dozens of meters away.

Rukia Kuchiki was struck in the abdomen by the blast wave, her body tumbling and falling into a pool of blood, unable to get up again.

Right in the center, Ichigo Kurosaki lifted Yhwach's massive Getsuga Tenshō with one hand and held it firmly in his palm.

The violent Reiatsu exploded wildly between Yhwach's fingers, yet it could not shake him in the slightest.

"Click."

Yhwach exerted a slight force with his five fingers, and the hundred-foot-long crescent moon instantly shattered into countless specks of light and dust.

Yhwach took a step forward, instantly closing the distance to within half an inch of Ichigo Kurosaki's front.

The reverse side of the sacred broadsword swept across Ichigo's chest.

The crimson chains wrapped around his arms shattered one by one, and the half-white armor on the boy's chest crumbled with a crash.

Ichigo Kurosaki flew backward, smashing through stone pillars along his path, and slid for over a hundred meters before finally coming to a stop in a deep crater.

A strong stench of blood filled the air.

The three men lay scattered among the ruins; none of them could stand.

Yhwach sheathed his sword and slowly walked back to the top of the half-collapsed throne steps.

The black fluid around him surged and spread, and dozens of eyelidless pupils swept over the limp crowd below.

"A newly Bankai, a broken snake tail, powerless ice and snow."

Yhwach's lips curled into a cold smile, and his mocking words echoed throughout the hall.

"You call insignificant obsessions 'bonds,' and romanticize dying struggles as hope."

"But before the power to create and destroy worlds, the so-called struggle is nothing more than the pathetic dance of ants in a sea of fire."

"Ichigo Kurosaki, Renji Abarai, Rukia Kuchiki."

"You've gone to such lengths to get to this point, but besides showing me your utterly pathetic weakness, what have you actually changed?"

Yhwach looked down at the boy coughing up blood in the deep pit, his indifferent voice sealing the fate of the battle.

"The old world is about to crumble completely, and you are not even qualified to be witnesses to the new world."