Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 339 - Wayne vs. Yhwach

Chapter 339, Wayne vs. Yhwach

The Royal Palace. Inside the Royal Chamber.

Ichigo Kurosaki stood before a slab of amber crystal, gripping Yhwach's holy sword mid-swing. The crystal had already been cleaved in two by his blade. Sealed within it was the source of this world, the Soul King.

"What... what is going on!" Ichigo's eyes flew wide. His arm had been seized by the Blut Vene, and he had no idea why he had done it.

Ichigo had only been fighting in Soul Society for a short while after returning from his training in the Royal Palace when Yhwach used the passage Ichigo had opened to ascend straight to the Royal Palace. With no other choice, Ichigo regrouped with Orihime Inoue and Yasutora Sado under Kisuke Urahara's guidance, and the group boarded the device to the Royal Palace once more.

What Ichigo never anticipated was that in a single exchange, Yhwach seized control of his body, raising his arm and cutting the Soul King sealed within the crystal at the waist. The blow triggered the collapse of the Three Worlds and brought them to the brink of destruction.

Just as Ichigo stood frozen in shock, a dark shadow shot upward into the sky. That was Jushiro Ukitake's sacrifice. He had become the Soul King's right arm, connecting the two severed halves of the Soul King's body, barely holding the Three Worlds' collapse at bay and keeping the world from being completely annihilated.

"What's happening... what is... that!" The shock was not Ichigo's alone, Yhwach felt it too. Those eyes of his, capable of seeing through the future, had not foreseen the matter of the Soul King's right arm. Rage flooded him.

"It did not appear within my eyes. That means... this was your own doing, was it, Soul King!" The three pupils in Yhwach's eyes trembled without stop, as if trying to pierce through the very nature of the Soul King, yet it had no effect whatsoever.

"Why would the Soul King's own right arm come to interfere! Have you grown attached to the Soul Society you were meant to protect!" He stared at that right arm with its vertical pupil, rage burning in his voice. "Answer me! Soul King!"

Crack, crack, crack... BOOM!

The Soul King gave no answer. What there was instead was space shattering beside Orihime Inoue. In an instant, the captains and lieutenants of Soul Society poured through one after another, followed by several Hollows. They closed in and surrounded Yhwach completely.

"Your Majesty!" Haschwalth called out urgently from not far away. At the same time, the Sternritter who had finished their battles against Squad Zero came rushing in as well. But none of it changed the fact that Yhwach was now surrounded.

"Good, good — we made it in time." Shunsui Kyōraku stepped out through the spatial rift, pressed down on his kasa, and came to stand before Yhwach.

"Captain Kyōraku?" Ichigo was the first to react with surprise. "How did you all..."

"You have Wayne to thank for that. His spatial ability is the only reason we got here at all — otherwise we might not have made it in time for your fight, Yhwach." Shunsui Kyōraku answered the question forming in Orihime Inoue's eyes first, then fixed his gaze on the enemy's leader.

"You lot." Yhwach's pupils shifted faintly. His expression turned ice-cold.

"Your appearance did not appear within my eyes. Why is that? Is there yet another Soul King among you?"

"The arm behind you was formed from the 13th Division's captain, Jushiro Ukitake — he sacrificed his own life for this." Shunsui Kyōraku reached out and drew his Zanpakutō from its sheath.

"Whatever the outcome, I am here to settle Ukitake's debt with you today!"

"No — it is not him." Yhwach spared only a brief glance and resumed searching through the crowd. "I can see clearly the future of what happens after you come at me. As it appears within my eyes, you will die a meaningless death. But that variable... that fragment of the Soul King — where exactly is it?" He paid no heed to Shunsui Kyōraku's words and kept scanning the crowd, passing over captain after captain, lieutenant after lieutenant, Arrancar after Arrancar, and still could not find the existence capable of threatening his all-seeing eyes.

"Even the Soul King's right arm, after stabilizing the Soul King, could not possibly have the power left to interfere with your futures. There must be someone else. Who is it!"

"Looking for me?"

Wayne appeared behind Yhwach without a sound. Before Yhwach could register it, Wayne had already driven his Zanpakutō straight through the back of his heart.

"Sorry, I lurked a little longer than necessary, just to avoid drawing your attention." Wayne's form gradually materialized behind Yhwach as the words left his mouth.

"Just as I thought... so it is you, Ace Wayne." Yhwach seemed to have already guessed at the identity of the existence he could never see through. As for the blade driven through his heart from behind, he continued speaking as though he felt nothing at all. "It makes sense. With Hollows of this scale arriving here, there is no reason for the King of Hueco Mundo to be absent."

"Those eyes of yours that can see through the future, it seems they didn't see this death coming." Wayne narrowed his eyes and wrenched his Zanpakutō free, then used Sonído to put distance between himself and Yhwach. "Or is this simply not your true body."

"Hmph. Not bad, for someone who possesses the Soul King's power. Indeed... the moment you fools appeared and my eyes failed to see it, I had already made use of the power of Y." As he spoke, Yhwach's body began to transform into the second bearer of Sternritter letter Y, Royd Lloyd. The Royd Lloyd standing before them had dark-red skin and vacant, lifeless eyes. He had clearly been converted into a zombie by Sternritter Z, Giselle. Only as a zombie could he receive the power left behind after his brother's death and become Yhwach's avatar once more.

And in the instant Royd Lloyd hit the ground, a faint blue radiance silently shot up from the shadow beneath Wayne's feet. An arrow brimming with boundless Quincy Reiatsu pierced upward through Wayne's body and launched toward the sky.

"Hmph. My ambush on you failed, what made you think your ambush on me would succeed?" Wayne looked up at the arrow already streaking toward the heavens, a cold glint surfacing in his eyes. He stamped his foot down hard. Yhwach was instantly launched out of Wayne's shadow and shot straight up into the air.

"Sharp instincts." Yhwach looked down at Wayne from above, forced from hiding. "I very much want to know how you came to obtain the Soul King's power."

"That is none of your concern." Wayne had no intention of yielding to Soul Society's habit of announcing one's power before a fight. That was simply too foolish.

Right now he had only one thought: cut Yhwach down before he finished absorbing the Soul King's power. This was the last window. Once the Soul King's power was fully absorbed, killing Yhwach would become far more difficult.

"All you need to know is that in the battle ahead, I will erase you completely. That is enough."

"Bold words." Yhwach swept a hand out. A shadow rift split open behind him like a tear in space. At the same moment, his four Royal Guard members, along with Haschwalth and Uryū Ishida, appeared at his side in an instant.

"Six against our twenty-odd?" Wayne smiled. "I won't deny that you Quincy are genuinely powerful, but facing this many enemies, did you really think we'd fight you one-on-one?"

"There is no need for that." Yhwach's pupils writhed and began to spin at speed. As his Reiatsu climbed, arrow after arrow of blue light began firing in every direction. The targets were the Soul Reapers and Arrancar below.

"Negación." Wayne spoke quietly. Eight walls of orange light rose up in an instant, blocking every Heilig Pfeil from outside.

"Interesting." The corner of Yhwach's mouth curled. Vast darkness spread at his back like a canopy blotting out the sky and swiftly began to envelop the entire Royal Palace. Wayne had just moved to use his teleportation to bring everyone away when he saw Haschwalth already charging straight at him. At the same moment, a blue pulse rose across Uryū Ishida's body, he had activated the sacred letter ability he had received: Antithesis, complete reversal.

Sensing the power of that law, Wayne immediately stepped aside rather than meet Haschwalth's attack head-on. At the same time he flung a standard Cero at Uryū Ishida and activated his Phantom Law to evade the damage of Antithesis.

HMM!

The Cero detonated the instant it was about to reach Uryū Ishida, but it was neither Ishida who took the explosion, nor Wayne. It was a stone pillar of the Royal Palace. Wayne's Phantom Law had done its work.

"Tsk." Wayne clicked his tongue. The damage had been evaded, but Haschwalth and Uryū Ishida's attacks had broken his rhythm in time to save everyone. A vast expanse of shadow rifts swept over every Soul Reaper and Arrancar like a flood and sent them scattering to the five sub-palaces of the Royal Palace.

"Royal Guard, hold them back." Yhwach summoned a Reishi longsword and leveled it at Wayne. "Haschwalth, Ishida, go reinforce them."

"Yes, Your Majesty." With those words, Haschwalth vanished into a shadow rift.

"I will go deal with Ichigo Kurosaki." Uryū Ishida stowed his spirit bow and flew off in the direction of Ichigo's Reiatsu.

"A one-on-one, is it?" Wayne's mouth curved. "Fine by me, I was worried you'd end up hurting my subordinates anyway."

"The Royal Guard will take good care of them." Yhwach looked down at Wayne with contempt. "Against you, who likewise holds the Soul King's power, my Almighty Eyes have already lost their effect. What remains is a contest of pure strength."

"The Almighty is only one of your abilities. Don't you still have twenty-five others?"

"After the sacred letters were distributed, I am temporarily unable to use their power. What I can use is only the portion reclaimed through the Auswählen. As for the rest of that power..." A thin pause. "You have your subordinates to thank for that, they returned all of it to me."

"Meaning, aside from your Royal Guard's few abilities, you've already reclaimed close to twenty?" Wayne quietly drew his blade. "Then I had better take this seriously."

"You seem to have misunderstood." Yhwach raised his blade and readied himself. "The sacred letters are only a part of my power. My full strength... not even Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto managed to make me display it completely."

"Oh, you just reminded me of something." A glint crossed Wayne's eyes. "The power of the old man's Bankai is still in your hands, isn't it?"

"Are you here to take it back for that old man?" Yhwach raised his hand, and a cross-shaped Medallion materialized. "I know, you have already revived him. But without his power, what use is his Bankai to him."

"It's not for him." Wayne smiled, slowly sinking into a lower stance. "That Bankai is mine!"

WHOOSH!

The words were barely out of his mouth when Wayne vanished. He reappeared directly behind Yhwach and brought his blade down in a single slash.

CLANG!

Yhwach reacted with extraordinary speed. He spun around in an instant to meet the blade. As their Reiatsu erupted, a series of terrible muffled detonations formed between their clashing swords, the collision of Reiatsu compressed and burst the very space around them.

With the Hōgyoku's support and his laws in full effect, Yhwach's Almighty Eyes had lost their grip on Wayne. What remained was pure strength. And in terms of Reiatsu, Wayne's pressed directly down upon Yhwach. The sudden strike forced Yhwach to receive it in haste, his full attention dragged onto defense. Exactly what Wayne had planned.

One slash, and Wayne made a show of surging his Reiatsu, while his mind turned elsewhere. Phantom Law and Spatial Law activated together, silently teleporting the Sternritter Medallion from Yhwach's other hand. That brief split in focus was all Wayne needed. By the time Yhwach realized, the Medallion was already gone.

Seeing this, Yhwach's counter carried far greater force. He seized the moment of Wayne's divided attention and threw everything into a single blow. After that one strike, an enormous holy bow materialized and pressed almost directly against Wayne's face.

"Got it. Time to go." Wayne showed not the slightest panic at the sight of it. One thought, and he vanished, reappearing a hundred meters away.

The instant Wayne appeared, the holy bow swiveled and fired again. With the distance as a buffer this time, Wayne raised his hand at an unhurried pace. A black Cero surged out to meet the Heilig Pfeil head-on. The massive explosion that followed rang out across the entire Royal Palace, bringing every Soul Reaper and Arrancar scattered across the various sectors to a standstill.

The Reishi flung skyward by the colliding Reiatsu burst like ocean waves, forming ripple after ripple that blanketed the line of sight between the two. Wayne didn't waste a second of that cover, he raised his hand and fired several hundred Cero in Yhwach's direction. Wait for the Reishi shockwave to clear? He had no time for that.

"A pointless trick."

Countless Cero went wide, yet the sound of faint explosions confirmed that some had found their mark. But when the shockwave finally cleared, Wayne saw it, around Yhwach, a brilliant blue barrier had blocked every last Cero from outside.

"Blut Vene Anhaben, an external application of the Blut Vene, a defensive technique we Quincy possess." Yhwach kept his cold gaze fixed on Wayne. "Your Cero just now let me absorb quite a good amount of Reishi. My thanks."

"Hah, you think you're the only one who's been absorbing?" Wayne scoffed and crushed the Sternritter Medallion he had just retrieved from his pocket dimension.

The next instant, a crimson Reiatsu shot straight into the heavens. The temperature of the surrounding air began to climb. The power of Ryūjin Jakka's Bankai was released here, and it flowed steadily into Wayne's Zanpakutō.

"Now my power is complete." Wayne watched as that vast Reiatsu surged into his blade, and he smiled.

"Come then, Yhwach — show me exactly what you're made of!"

➤ Next: True Purpose