Yhwach wounded
Ichigo Kurosaki knee on the charred rock, wiping away a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Warm blood continued to seep from the wounds on my thigh and ribs, and a stinging pain spread along my nerves.
Ichigo used Zangetsu to support himself as he stood up, his black and white Reiatsu rising again from beneath his feet.
He raised his head, his resolute eyes meeting Yhwach's condescending gaze.
"Stop putting on that godlike air, Yhwach."
Ichigo took a deep breath and forcibly combined the Hollow power within him with the Quincy Reishi once again.
"You say the struggles of mortals are meaningless, but if they really are meaningless, why go to all the trouble of severing all Future?"
Yhwach's arm, gripping the pure white broadsword, remained as steady as a mountain, his expression unwavering.
"That was not fear, but the authority and inevitability bestowed upon me by the Almighty and omnipotence."
"Since the entire Future is unfolding before my eyes, smoothing out those uninteresting detours in advance is merely a logical step."
Yhwach took a step forward, his Obsidian robes fluttering slightly in the dry heat.
"Your resistance, in my view, is nothing more than a drowning person futilely grasping at bubbles before sinking to the bottom."
Ichigo the sword hilt tightly with both hands, his arm muscles bulging.
"Whether it's a bubble or not, we'll only know after I cut your head off!"
Before he could finish speaking, the charred stone slab beneath Ichigo's feet shattered into countless fragments.
His figure vanished from his spot in an instant, using a combination of the Hirenkyaku and the Shunpo, almost teleporting, and directly broke through the rolling heat wave.
The next instant, a giant blade wrapped in dark gold chains emerged from the void, slashing diagonally towards Yhwach's neck with unparalleled force.
The air was torn apart by the blade, producing a piercing shriek.
Yhwach didn't even turn his body; he casually held his pure white broadsword back.
With a crisp clang, the blade and the sword collided, sending sparks flying.
Ichigo had anticipated that his frontal assault would be intercepted, so he used the recoil to twist his waist in mid-air.
Using his right foot to gain momentum and the thrust of the Reishi's stomp, he spun around Yhwach's blind spot and flew behind him.
His left fist, enveloped in a dense aura of Black Cero, slammed relentlessly towards Yhwach's vital point at the back of his heart.
"Too slow."
Yhwach coldly uttered three words.
The black shadow beneath the man's feet churned up like a curtain, transforming into several sharp black spikes that pierced straight towards the fist.
Ichigo changed his fist into a palm, Cero in his palm detonated prematurely.
The deafening explosion created a circular shockwave between the two, blasting Blackthorn off its original trajectory.
Ichigo's figure pierced through the smoke, his massive chain blade unleashing three powerful and sweeping Kesa-zaki slashes.
The first strike aimed at the face, the second at the throat, and the third at the lower body.
The three blades of light were so fast that they left only black and white afterimages, completely sealing off the narrow space at the edge of the abyss.
However, Yhwach's broadsword was wielded with unimaginable dexterity.
Every slight parry and deflection precisely targeted the weakest point in Ichigo's sword strike.
Sparks exploded one after another on the plain, the sounds of metal clashing echoing throughout.
"Every swing of your sword, every change of move, is within the millions of Future I have foreseen."
As Yhwach deflected the relentless attacks, he calmly stated, "No matter what choice you make, the outcome will be the same."
Ichigo gritted his teeth, the sweat seeping from his body instantly evaporating in the high temperature.
He didn't respond at all, and his sword strikes became even more ferocious and ruthless.
The chain-wielding greatsword clashed with the broadsword hundreds of times in just a few breaths.
The Obsidian crystal beneath their feet shattered in large sections, falling into the bottomless lava abyss below.
Ichigo dodged a holy blade of light that brushed past him, and the chain on his right arm tightened abruptly.
He gripped the hilt of the knife with both hands, and the three surging forces within him converged on the blade's surface, forming a dazzling light.
Even if you can see the Future, so what!
Instead of retreating, Ichigo advanced towards the sword tip Yhwach offered, letting the sharp edge slice through his shoulder.
He channeled all his strength into the blade and swung it forward with a powerful strike.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
A thousand-foot-long black and gold blade of light erupted from the tip of the blade, resembling a celestial Dangai that stretched out across the sky, pressing down on Yhwach with a world-destroying force.
The distance of that attack was far too close; it practically exploded right at his face.
But Yhwach's expression remained one of unhurried arrogance.
This attack had appeared countless times in past simulations, and he could easily neutralize it.
Yhwach raised his pure white broadsword with one hand, the black fluid in front of him forming a barrier, intending to parry and deflect it as he had done before.
However, just a moment before the blade touched the black and gold light...
Yhwach's twin compound eyes, which seemed to hold the world in high regard, suddenly contracted slightly.
In the depths of his vision, countless lines of predetermined Future, which were originally clearly arranged, unexpectedly twisted and overlapped together.
The Future has been changed.
The branch trajectory that should have glided into the void beside him was completely misaligned in that instant.
"What?!"
The turmoil in Yhwach's eyes finally shattered his timeless composure.
The hastily condensed black liquid failed to fully take shape, and the pure white broadsword fell into empty space.
The next moment, the black-gold crescent moon, imbued with the ultimate power of the Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy, slammed solidly into Yhwach's chest.
Boom!
The entire top floor of the flattened Wahrwelt shook violently.
The rock strata at the edge of the abyss crumbled and collapsed in large areas under the intense light.
The blinding light illuminated the world as if it were daytime, and the violent shockwaves swept outwards for miles.
The Ichigo landed his attack, he was thrown back by the gust of wind.
He flipped in mid-air to steady himself, and his long sword Zangetsu Blade, plunged into the ground, leaving a furrow dozens of feet long in the charred stone slab before he could barely stop his retreat.
Ichigo stood up, a hint of undisguised surprise in his eyes.
"Huh?"
Ichigo muttered to himself, looking at the long sword in his hand with some confusion.
When he swung that knife just now, he originally thought that it would be easily deflected by Yhwach or erased by the Future, just like before.
He had even prepared a series of follow-up attacks with different tactics.
Unexpectedly, that Getsuga Tenshō hit its mark perfectly without any chance of being saved.
That seemingly invincible man actually left a fatal opening at the last moment.
Ichigo slowly created distance, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands and holding it horizontally in front of him, fully prepared.
The smoke and dust ahead were so thick they seemed impossible to disperse, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burning high concentrations of Reishi.
A dry, howling wind swept by, gradually dispersing the billowing smoke.
The view at the edge of the abyss slowly came into view.
Yhwach was still standing there.
However, when Ichigo saw what lay behind the smoke, he froze, his pupils slightly contracting.
Yhwach looked extremely disheveled standing on the edge of the deep pit.
The once pristine Obsidian robe was torn to shreds, and the left side of his chest, along with his entire arm, was charred and torn apart by the Getsuga Tenshō Slam, revealing ghastly bone fragments.
But what horrified Ichigo was not these physical injuries.
Instead, beneath Yhwach's tattered robes, several broken and tattered black restraints were clearly visible.
The style and material of those restraints were exactly the same as the equipment used to seal serious criminals in the Muken the Jail.
In the air surrounding Yhwach, faint, fragmented light rippled like reflections from a mirror.
The lingering Reiatsu fluctuations in the air were mixed with a familiar, yet definitely not Quincy, chilling aura.
Yhwach looked down at his broken body, his compound eyes fixed on the shattered spots of light in the air.
His usually arrogant and indifferent face was now completely distorted by anger.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and a beast-like growl came from deep in his throat.
"Aizen!!!"