Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 116 - Continuous Evolution
"Is this all you've got?"
The flat words left Ichigo's mouth. Spiritual pressure surged through his veins, branching patterns spreading across his skin like tree roots, Blut Arterie pushed to its absolute limit.
CRACK,
"!"
Fine fractures split along the blade. Aizen's eyes went wide. A tremendous force crashed into him and his entire body went flying.
BOOM!
He slammed into a nearby mountainside. It collapsed with a thunderous roar. His momentum didn't slow. Aizen kept flying backward.
Not until his suspended feet drove hard into the ground and the tip of his blade plunged deep into the earth, skidding for hundreds of meters, did he finally grind to a halt.
"To think he could reach this level?!"
Aizen stared in disbelief at the cracked Kyoka Suigetsu in his hand, eyes fixed on Ichigo like he was looking at a monster. He genuinely hadn't expected it. In less than a month, Ichigo's evolution had surpassed even his own, Hogyoku and all.
"We're just getting started." Ichigo raised his left hand. "Keep evolving, Aizen."
SWISH SWISH SWISH,
Dozens of small golden bolts fired from his fingertips, screaming through the air toward Aizen.
BOOM!
The ground erupted into a bottomless crater. Aizen burst free from inside it, his body covered in wounds large and small.
"Ichigo Kurosaki!"
He charged forward with a roar. Ichigo didn't even touch his blade. Blut Arterie had pushed his physical capabilities to a terrifying level.
A single leg lift looked like it might shatter the space around it. Ichigo aimed straight for Aizen's snarling face and whipped out a devastating roundhouse kick.
BOOM!
Aizen had barely burst out of the crater before the kick sent him right back down. His face was a bloody ruin. He hit the depths of the pit and lay there, sprawled in a dazed spread-eagle.
"Ichigo... Kurosaki!"
BOOM!
A terrifying wave of spiritual pressure erupted skyward. Aizen climbed to his feet. A seam split open across his forehead. The Zanpakuto Kyoka Suigetsu had fully merged with the palm of his hand.
"So you actually evolved." Ichigo nodded. "Completely reached the first stage. But it's not enough."
"Not even enough to draw out more of my power."
"Don't get so arrogant!"
Three pairs of enormous white butterfly wings spread behind him. The Hogyoku at his chest sank deeper into his body. Like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, Aizen's spiritual pressure kept climbing, yet it failed to breach the next threshold.
"It's not arrogance." Ichigo said calmly. "I'm simply stating a fact. How's the Hogyoku holding up?"
"Die!"
"Seeping crest of turbidity... become aware of your own helplessness!" The full incantation rang out, and Aizen bellowed with wild fury. "Hado #90: Kurohitsugi!"
Zzzt,
Space itself warped and groaned. A black rectangular coffin swallowed Ichigo whole. Countless shadow blades tore through the air and came screaming toward him.
"Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger."
Shff,
Inside the Kurohitsugi, a massive golden wall of light rose beneath Ichigo's feet and wrapped around him on all sides. Countless bolts of light materialized and slammed head-on into the shadow blades.
BOOM!
The Kurohitsugi shattered in an instant, the golden barrier inside laid bare. Ichigo stood within it, completely unharmed.
"So this is the extent of your power." Ichigo's voice was even. "Not bad. But still far from enough."
"Bastard!"
The seam across his forehead widened into a vertical slit pupil. Aizen's spiritual pressure smashed through yet another threshold and reached the next realm.
"Hogyoku... are you angry with me too?" Aizen looked down at his right hand. Kyoka Suigetsu had completely merged into his flesh. "Angry that I am inferior to a human?"
"My evolution truly has no end."
"Not bad." Ichigo stroked his chin and nodded. "You've gotten considerably stronger."
"Though it's only your spiritual pressure that's grown. Your physical durability still seems to be lacking."
"I have reached the dimension you once occupied." Aizen recovered a measure of his former composure. "And you still intend to fight me using power weaker than mine?"
"Weaker than yours? I wouldn't be so sure." The corner of Ichigo's mouth pulled. "Spiritual pressure is the foundation of our battle—but it doesn't represent everything."
"Come on. Try to defeat me as I am now."
"Defeating you is inevitable."
Shff,
"Whoa!"
Darkness flashed before his eyes. Aizen appeared directly in front of Ichigo, not through footwork, but pure teleportation.
CLANG,
Sparks flew as blades met, yet it was no different from before. Ichigo's footing buckled and he was pushed back several steps.
"Kummerring!"
As he retreated, golden spiritual pressure erupted from Ichigo's palm, forming arrow-like spikes that drove into the ground. Massive slabs of stone were instantly compressed and solidified, their density multiplied countless times over, pinning Aizen beneath their weight.
"Sankt Bogen!"
Steady on his feet again, Ichigo gathered his spiritual pressure once more. A massive bow materialized above his head. Several spear-like bolts of light formed, even larger than before.
"Go!"
The bolts screamed forward and slammed squarely into the pinned Aizen. A violent explosion rang out. Thick white smoke hung heavy in the air and refused to clear.
"A powerful attack."
CRACK,
Aizen's calm voice carried through the smoke. The boulders were riddled with fractures. A terrifying surge of spiritual pressure erupted, pulverizing the stone to dust. The golden arrows pinning him down shattered along with it.
"But insufficient." The tables had turned, now it was Aizen's turn to sneer. "Is that all? Not even enough to make me evolve."
"Ha, the nerve." Ichigo's mouth twitched. "Does something this small really make you that full of yourself?"
"I told you—if that's all you've got, you won't draw out any greater strength from me."
"Heh. You really can't read the situation."
SWISH,
Teleporting again, Aizen appeared right in front of Ichigo. His left hand shot out, reaching for the youth's face.
"I gave you face, and you actually dare go for mine?"
The patterns that had been flowing only inside Ichigo's veins suddenly erupted outward. Golden light formed a hemispherical barrier, not to block, but to corrode.
"Oh?"
Golden lines crept across Aizen's palm. He didn't hurry. A burst of terrifying spiritual pressure flared, holding the corrosion at bay.
"Blut can even be projected outside the body?" Aizen smiled as the encroaching light on his hand was steadily forced back. "What a remarkable technique!"
"Still, this alone won't be enough."
SNAP,
The corrosion was completely purged. Aizen's left hand punched through the barrier and kept reaching straight for Ichigo's face.
"I said—you've really got some nerve."
Ichigo planted his foot and slid backward. Aizen pressed on relentlessly, refusing to let up, as if utterly fixated on Ichigo's face.
Sliding back, Ichigo raised his left hand and pressed it against his right brow. Black spiritual pressure flared. He pulled, a single sharp downward drag, and his entire presence transformed completely.
"Don't push your luck, bastard."
"?!"
The outstretched left hand was caught in an iron grip, unable to advance a single millimeter. Aizen's eyes went wide. The color drained from his face, not merely because he had been stopped cold, but because of what was now resting across Ichigo's face.
A white, horned Hollow mask.
➤ Next: Don't Disappoint Me, Aizen