Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 110 - The Flame That Burns Away Everything
"ROAR!"
The ice dragon's shriek cut through the conversation. Its massive wings beat without pause, slit pupils locked onto Ichigo with unblinking focus. Something in the deepest part of its instinct screamed a single warning: the human standing before it was extremely dangerous.
"What's an ice lizard hollering about?"
Light flickered at his feet. Ichigo crossed the distance to the ice dragon in an instant, took a brief moment to get a feel for the tachi's grip, and got straight to work.
"ROAR!"
Boundless cold erupted from the ice dragon's body. Its spiritual pressure exploded outward, and the dark clouds overhead thickened once more.
"Even stronger than Hitsugaya's ice by quite a margin."
Ichigo's body seized. A thin layer of frost crawled across his skin. He frowned slightly, and spiritual pressure surged through his veins, the frost dissolved in an instant.
BOOM!
A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky. The warrior made no sound, but the attack came fast and ferocious.
"Not bad."
The bolt grazed his left shoulder, leaving a charred black wound. That single strike had already surpassed the output of most Captains.
"Those dark clouds—seems like they've been giving your attacks a serious boost."
Snowflakes drifted onto his face. The strange sensation made Ichigo's brow crease. He looked up at the cloud-blanketed sky and felt it immediately: something was wrong here.
"Then let's start with the weather."
BOOM!
A terrifying wave of spiritual pressure erupted skyward. The pressure from within his body merged with the spirit particles in the air, and a gold-blue radiance surfaced along the black blade, rapidly converging toward the tip.
"Getsuga Tensho: Modified!"
The black blade swung. An enormous crescent moon burst from the tip, vast enough to blot out the sky. The gold-blue radiance blazed with blinding intensity, flooding the darkened sky with light.
"Wh—what is that?!"
Muramasa's eyes went wide. Behind the mask, both pupils reflected the image of that massive crescent moon, as if it meant to swallow the entire sky whole. Every last dark cloud vanished without a trace, as though they had never existed.
"...Roar..."
The ice dragon tried to call the clouds back, but the roar came out hollow. It couldn't do it. Ichigo's spiritual pressure saturated every inch of the sky, leaving no room for any outside presence to intrude.
"To seize control of the sky in that manner." The ice dragon crouched low into an attack stance. "What a terrifying power!"
"Oh, you can actually talk." Ichigo looked genuinely surprised, then grinned. "And this is nowhere near all of it."
"Pay close attention. Otherwise the fight might be over before you realize it started."
Shff,
The moment the words left his mouth, gold-blue radiance flashed beneath his feet. He had used Shunpo with his physical body and Hirenkyaku simultaneously.
"Told you."
"?!"
The slit pupils contracted sharply. The ice dragon barely had time to react before it found that half its body was simply gone, it hadn't even felt it happen.
"Ten days ago, dealing with you might have taken some effort." Ichigo's voice came from behind the ice dragon. "Now all it takes is one unguarded moment."
"And the fight is over."
"Damn you... just what kind of monster are you..."
The ice dragon cried out, resentment bleeding through every word. Gold-blue radiance flickered at the wound. It tried to pull moisture from the air and condense it into ice to rebuild its body, but it couldn't. Every time moisture drew close, that radiance dissolved it away.
Without a word, the warrior stepped forward, expression grave. The canopy of light overhead had dimmed from its peak, but it remained overwhelming.
"Still not giving up." Ichigo's mouth curved into a half-smile. "Then don't you dare let your guard down."
Shff,
CLANG!
Sparks scattered. The black blade met the staff, and the warrior was forced back a step. Their spiritual pressures were close, but the gap in raw physical strength was far too wide.
"More battle experience, at least."
Ichigo kept pressing forward, reading the contrast at a glance: the ice dragon's youth against the warrior's long history. An enemy actually worth something...?!
"What... is that?!"
In the distance, countless tiny blades were closing in, Byakuya Kuchiki's Bankai.
"How is this possible... don't tell me you're also someone's Bankai?"
Even at that distance, Ichigo could sense something deeply wrong with those blades. No soul. None of that presence he'd felt the last time he'd seen them. Just hollow emptiness.
"Looks like you're the one behind this."
His gaze shifted to the tall, slender masked figure, the one whose spiritual pressure felt most unsettling. Ichigo's eyes narrowed, and his form flickered.
"What a terrifying ability. A power aimed specifically at Soul Reapers."
"?!"
The whisper landed like a cold blade. Muramasa felt waves of dread crawl up unbidden from somewhere deep. That feeling was the shadow of death itself.
'How is this possible?! I am a Zanpakuto! My master is still alive, why am I feeling like I'm about to die?!'
Muramasa kept denying it, but the shadow of death had settled in like something festering in the bone. It wouldn't shake loose. Cold sweat soaked through Muramasa's back in an instant.
"Oh? You've felt your own death coming."
Ichigo pressed his left hand against Muramasa's back. The dampness made him frown, then the corner of his mouth pulled into a faint smile.
"Did you think, before this, that you could never die?"
The demon-quiet voice sent Muramasa's composure into freefall. Muramasa tried to move and found it impossible.
"I don't know what your ability is. What technique you used."
Gold-blue radiance flickered in his palm, casting light across Muramasa's body.
The warrior tried to step forward. An arrow of light was already trained on them.
"Then—farewell."
That was the last sound Muramasa ever heard. The gold-blue radiance bloomed. No scream. Muramasa's body simply burned away as if consumed from within, reduced to ash and gone into the air.
BOOM,
On the ice dragon's dying body, a tongue of gold-blue flame appeared. It burned the dragon away in a heartbeat, and the dragon became white light and streaked off into the distance.
The same flames rose from the warrior's body. The warrior's eyes went clear all at once, sharp and lucid where they had not been before. A slight nod toward Ichigo, gratitude, wordless.
"Go back."
Ichigo nodded back and returned the smile. The next moment, the warrior became a streak of white light and was gone.
The black-armored giant not far away ignited with the same flame. Not only the Captains' bankai, every Zanpakuto that had taken physical form met the same end.
As the flames consumed them, each one transformed into white light and streamed back into the body of its original owner.
BOOM,
The rebellion had not lasted long, but a small number of Zanpakuto had killed their masters. The gold-blue flames found those as well, the ones who had lost their masters, and burned them to nothing. Like Muramasa, reduced to ash and scattered from the world.
WHOOSH,
Somewhere in a hidden pocket of space within Karakura Town, a Soul Reaper sealed away for hundreds of years felt a tiny spark catch on their body.
BOOM!
It spread across every inch of them in an instant, blazing without mercy. Gold-blue radiance filled the space. That sealed Soul Reaper didn't let out a single sound before turning to black cinders and vanishing from this world entirely.
➤ Next: All Creation Annihilation!