Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 345 - Do You Know? This Life of Mine

"Ban! Kai!"

Wayne's voice rang out with the incantation, and pale-golden light blazed across the sky.

"Hollow World Reincarnation, Reinhardt!"

The golden blazing-sun battle armor settled over him. Wayne's Reiatsu radiated searing heat, and the Bankai forged from Old Man Yamamoto's Ryūjin Jakka bared its edge once more.

"Bankai? A Soul Reaper's power? You actually have a Soul Reaper's power too!" Ikomikidomoe erupted. A Soul Reaper had sealed him for over a thousand years, how could he not hate?

"This scent... I remember it. A thousand years ago, the strongest Soul Reaper had this exact Reiatsu. Hmph. You intend to use the power of my long-defeated enemy to bring me down? Dream on!" Ikomikidomoe healed his wounds fast and hurled his massive body straight at Wayne.

"Heh. You think the old man's power is still what it was a thousand years ago?" Wayne twirled his blade, and golden flames danced along the Zanpakuto.

"Come try it, then! Try these flames that burn all of creation to ash!" Wayne charged right back at Ikomikidomoe, a pale-golden meteor streaking to meet the massive black-and-crimson one bearing down on him.

BOOM!

Gold and black-crimson collided. Wayne felt like he had swung into a planet. The force nearly snapped both his arms clean off.

"Tsuki-chan, hold on!" Yagami China channeled her soul power into Wayne's bones, muscles, and Hierro, letting him abandon defense entirely and pour everything into keeping the strike alive.

TSSSSS!

The golden flames on Reinhardt began burning through Ikomikidomoe's black-crimson Reiatsu. The meteor-like shockwave weakened, layer by layer, vanishing as if vaporized.

"How is this possible!" Shock flooded Ikomikidomoe's voice. His own Reiatsu, burned through outright. Just how high a temperature did that take?

THUD!

The black-crimson shockwave finally shattered. Wayne's golden flames carved a deep gash across the armored skin of Ikomikidomoe's head, and the struck area charred black on the spot.

"Shadow Step — Break!" Wayne's figure blurred forward. Afterimage after afterimage, phantom-like, punched bloody holes across Ikomikidomoe's body one after another.

"Hmph!" Ikomikidomoe snorted and fired his regeneration. But Wayne had no intention of stopping, he kept circling, kept dealing damage. Every strike was enough to punch through Ikomikidomoe's body. Every hole sealed a second later. The battle locked into a stalemate.

"Wayne-boy's power is dropping." Starrk watched from a distance, tracking Wayne's attacks while reading Ikomikidomoe's state. "Those golden flames — they can't hold much longer."

"It's fine." Baraggan appeared at his side. "Trust the kid. That old bastard is almost at his limit anyway."

"Hm?" Starrk studied Ikomikidomoe more carefully, then the words left him before he could stop them. "His recovery speed is slowing down."

"It's not him slowing down." Baraggan shook his head. "It's that the rate he's devouring Reishi from the atmosphere is slowing down." The Skull Emperor extended a skeletal hand and pointed at the green figure off to the side.

"Ever since just now, that Nel girl has been using her Devouring Law to drain all the Reishi from the battlefield. The air is almost empty — nothing left but the white sand under our feet. Combine that with Wayne-boy's attack pace, and that old bastard Ikomikidomoe is finally running out of road."

Neither of them moved to reinforce Wayne. Both knew that stepping in now would only get in his way. With Wayne, Nel, and Yagami China, just those three were enough.

The Reishi in the air was gone. Neither Wayne nor Ikomikidomoe could draw any replenishment. But it was obvious who was failing first. Ikomikidomoe had been leaning on his Devouring power to sustain himself through the fight, and the cracks were showing earlier than Wayne's.

"Can't keep up anymore, old man!" Wayne finished a thrust, cut straight upward, and landed directly above Ikomikidomoe's head.

"Void Slash!" A massive Slash Gleam, wrapped in Black Cero Reiatsu, came crashing down. This time, Ikomikidomoe had no choice but to raise both arms to block, because he knew his recovery was failing him.

THUD! The Slash Gleam swept through and carved deep wounds across both his arms. Before he could react, Wayne had already flashed behind him and swung out another.

One slash. Two. Three!

The wounds on Ikomikidomoe's body multiplied. The healing slowed with every pass.

"How is this possible, how is this possible?! How do you have Reiatsu this strong! This can't be real! I am the strongest king of Hueco Mundo!" Ikomikidomoe was panicking. He had spent a thousand years inside that Zanpakuto amassing power. In his mind, nothing alive was stronger than him.

"A thousand years ago, Old Man Yamamoto was defeated by you, but you lost to the Zero Division. A thousand years later, a King of Hueco Mundo who doesn't even consider the Zero Division worth his time is standing in front of you. Tell me, how much chance of winning do you actually think you have?"

Wayne's form shifted again. The golden blazing-sun battle armor dissolved and became a crown of golden flame that settled onto his head. Greater power surged through every limb, every vein. His strength swelled and kept swelling. The pale-golden radiance shot straight into the sky and stained the entire night of Hueco Mundo gold.

Wayne had given up defense completely. That was China's job now. All he had left to do was attack. Attack. Keep attacking.

WENG!

A Cero of Annihilation, dyed pale gold, fired from in front of him and streaked straight at Ikomikidomoe's chest.

"Do you know? This life of mine..."

Wayne's eyes burned with battle-lust. His voice rolled like thunder across the open sky.

"From the moment I was born, I survived by keeping my head down. I didn't dare provoke anyone. I had to grow in the shadows, stay invisible, stay quiet. That kind of grinding hardship, can you even understand it?"

The Cero hit Ikomikidomoe's chest. That body, broad and thick as a mountain range, was pierced clean through. Not a drop of blood, the wound seared shut instantly.

"When I was still a Lower Hollow, I cut off my own limbs to escape a high-level Hollow. I mutilated myself for one sliver of a chance to survive. That kind of humiliation, have you ever felt it?"

Wayne teleported in front of him. One Shattering Slash converted from a cut to a slam and drove straight down onto Ikomikidomoe's skull. The impact sent him crashing from the sky, and a tsunami of white sand exploded where he landed.

"Before Nel and I even reached Menos, we ran into an enemy that could match an Adjuchas. I nearly died in that fight. If not for Nel, I'd have been dead a dozen times over. That kind of bond forged through near-death, do you know what that feels like?"

Wayne dove after him. His sword slashed toward Ikomikidomoe's eye, and then Ikomikidomoe's suddenly elongating arms ambushed him from below. His right arm got knocked flying. Wayne didn't flinch. He chained Sonído underfoot and drove his blade straight into Ikomikidomoe's eyeball.

UWAAAOOOAAHH!

Ikomikidomoe's howl of agony tore across the sky. Wayne teleported clear, using Ultra-Rapid Regeneration to restore his arm.

"In the Forest of Menos, I groveled. I let others use me as a tool, just to stay alive. I faced peak Adjuchas-class fighters and held my ground. I crawled up one step at a time, every move calculated, every step deliberate. That kind of suffering, have you ever lived it?"

His arm finished regrowing. Wayne was already in front of Ikomikidomoe again. Countless Black Ceros unleashed in a frenzied barrage.

"I built my own faction. I finally stopped having to grow with my tail between my legs. I could fight openly against every major power in Hueco Mundo. And my final goal, I had that locked in from the day I was born. Decades of patience and restraint, all to win freedom. That kind of hunger, have you ever had it?"

Wayne raised his blade and charged again the moment the Black Ceros stopped, giving Ikomikidomoe no room to breathe.

"Slaughtered by Aizen. Backstabbed by Gin Ichimaru. My spirit energy scattered to nothing. Everything gone, start over from zero, and I still came back. I fought the Academy. I fought Captains. I even joined Aizen's side and kept enduring, all to reclaim my strength. And in the end, I out-schemed Aizen. I took my power back. I seized the Hōgyoku. My strength surged straight to Vasto Lorde. You want to guess what I did all of it for?"

"Freedom. Can you even understand that word? Born a King Hollow, can you possibly know how I've lived these past hundred years?"

Wayne's blade flashed again and again, each pass nearly tearing Ikomikidomoe apart.

"I sealed Aizen. I kept raising my power. I deliberately slowed my reinforcements to get the old man's strength. I deliberately stayed off the battlefield to bleed Soul Society dry. I deliberately let Harribel end up stranded outside, to lock onto Yhwach's stronghold. I deceived Shunsui Kyōraku. I deceived Kisuke Urahara. I even played the Zero Division. All of it to get my hands on the Soul King's power."

Wayne reached into his chest and pulled out the Hōgyoku. He pressed it into his own sternum and let it fuse.

"My entire life has been calculation. I sealed Aizen. I sealed Yhwach. I eroded the Zero Division's strength. Every single thing, all of it aimed at one end: freedom. And you are the last obstacle on that road. I have planned for everything. Did you really think I forgot about you? Tell me, what gives you the right to beat me? What gives you the right to beat a game I've been building for over a hundred years?"

Wayne smiled. He could almost see the dawn of freedom on the other side of this. Just one more thing to sweep aside.

"Hōgyoku Fusion — Hōkai! Hollow World Reincarnation · Ace Wayne!"

BOOM!

The Hōgyoku erupted with a cascade of prismatic light. Power beyond measure surged toward Wayne like a breaking wave. Thunder. Blazing flame. Weak Water. Hurricane. Thick Earth. Every element transformed into Reishi and poured through him.

The light of souls. The silver of illusion. The obsidian of time. The deep blue of space. The searing heat of raw power. The nothingness of devouring. The bloom of life. The turning wheel of cause and effect.

Every Law poured into his body at once. Wayne raised his Zanpakuto. Nine-colored Reiatsu coiled around the blade and tore upward into the sky. A blade of light hundreds of meters long condensed before Ikomikidomoe.

"How can this be... How can you wield power this strong... This is, the Soul King's power!" Terror took hold of Ikomikidomoe. It had never crossed his mind that he, born a King Hollow, would ever be ground down and shattered by another Hollow.

"Unlike Ichigo Kurosaki, I'm not going to slash away every last drop of my Reiatsu in one swing." The corner of Wayne's mouth curled. He looked down at Ikomikidomoe lying in the sand crater with open contempt. "Though I do wonder if this strike can cut off the BGM too."

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! You will not kill me! Even in death, I refuse to be killed by vermin like you!" A scorching energy began spreading across Ikomikidomoe's wound-covered body.

"Trying to self-destruct?" Wayne's pupils shrank. He couldn't let that happen. If Ikomikidomoe blew himself apart, what body would the Dominator of Hueco Mundo inhabit?

"You trash! Die! I'm taking all of you with me!" Madness spread across Ikomikidomoe's face. His Reiatsu erupted outward layer by layer, like a volcano coming apart.

"Damn it, we have to go help!" Starrk moved to rush in, but Baraggan's hand caught him.

"No time. Move!" Baraggan dragged him backward. If Ikomikidomoe actually detonated, everyone on that field, except maybe Wayne, was dead.

"Dominator of Hueco Mundo! Get out here!" Wayne threw his voice to the sky. A brilliant ray of light descended almost immediately and fell entirely over Ikomikidomoe's body.

"This is... the Dominator of Hueco Mundo?!" The black-crimson luster on Ikomikidomoe's body began to fade. His self-destruction was being suppressed.

"No, it can't be! Dominator of Hueco Mundo! Under the Laws of the Three Worlds, you cannot intervene in the affairs of Hueco Mundo or the Three Worlds!"

"Sorry." Wayne's voice was quiet. "These Three Worlds — the ones I spent my entire life scheming against — I'm the one who makes the rules now."

BOOM!

The nine-colored Reishi blade descended from above, hundreds of meters of light falling as if it meant to split the sky and earth in two.

The blade came down. The earth was cut in silence. A ravine ten thousand meters deep opened around Ikomikidomoe. The white sand melted. Glazed Sand coated every surface of the Gorge as far as the eye could see.

One slash. Ikomikidomoe was dead.

That strike could have annihilated him entirely, but the Dominator of Hueco Mundo's intervention preserved the body.

"Quick, possess him!" Wayne forced the Hōgyoku fusion to a stop and threw the Hōgyoku toward Ikomikidomoe's remains.

"Thank you, Wayne." A gentle voice drifted down from above. The Dominator of Hueco Mundo became a golden light and wrapped around both the Hōgyoku and Ikomikidomoe's body. "I hope that when we meet again, you'll see me in my true form."

"Hah... it's over."

Watching the Dominator of Hueco Mundo begin to fuse with the body, Wayne finally let go. And the moment he did, his mind went sideways. The ground disappeared from under him. He dropped out of the sky.

Forcibly fusing with the Hōgyoku, channeling the full weight of the Soul King's power through his own body, it was still too much. He had only agreed to it after the Dominator of Hueco Mundo confirmed he could hold that kind of power. But absorbing this much of it all at once had pushed past his limit.

"Wayne-sama!"

"Tsuki-chan!"

Two voices reached him. They were the last things he heard before the dark closed in.

His fight was over. As long as the Dominator of Hueco Mundo didn't turn on him right now, though that worry was obviously pointless. He had watched with his own eyes as the Dominator fused into Ikomikidomoe's body.

This outcome was enough. He had spent his whole life laying the groundwork. This time, at last, there was nothing left to fight.

"So sleepy... let me... sleep a little while..."

➤ Next: The Hollow World's Cycle