The shattering of the Millennium Ice Prison caused a fraction of a second’s hesitation in Hyōrinmaru’s movements.
For a battle-hardened veteran like Isshin Shiba, that was all the opening he needed.
“Now’s my chance!”
Without an instant’s hesitation, Isshin pushed Engetsu’s flames to their absolute limit.
Bursting through the haze of swirling ice dust, he closed the distance with a Flash Step far exceeding ordinary limits, bearing down directly in front of Hyōrinmaru.
His tactical intent was crystal clear—strike while the iron was hot and finish it in one blow!
“Getsuga Tenshō!”
Scorching fire compressed tightly along Engetsu’s edge, scorching the very air into faint ripples of spatial distortion as the blade swung through!
*Pfft—!*
The impact felt…
wrong.
There was no solid resistance of flesh, nor the brittle crunch of shattering ice; instead, it felt as if he had plunged his blade into thick, viscous mist.
Isshin’s pupils shrank.
The moment Engetsu struck, the “Hyōrinmaru” before him shattered like a fractured ice sculpture.
Countless fissures raced outward from the point of impact, and with a crystalline crash, the entire figure burst into a shower of icy fragments.
*An afterimage?!
No, something far more deceptive—an ice decoy!*
*Damn it!* Warning bells screamed in Isshin’s mind as a bone-chilling cold bore down on him from behind.
Practically the instant the decoy shattered, an ominous chill had manifested right at his back like a silent specter.
He didn’t even have time to turn around.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the barest glimpse of an icy dragon claw thrusting silently toward his spine.
It was the real Hyōrinmaru!
Sometime, somehow, the spirit had shed its skin and slipped past both Isshin’s sight and spiritual senses, setting up a lethal ambush from his blind spot.
At that moment, Hyōrinmaru’s deep voice sounded beside Isshin’s ear like the pronouncement of death itself:
“Four Worlds Freeze.”
As those words escaped his lips, a rule of “freezing” that transcended the physical concept of temperature rippled outward, centered on Hyōrinmaru’s true body!
It was no mere wave of frost, but the very concept of freezing made manifest—the expansion of an absolute domain!
The pocket of space enclosing Hyōrinmaru and Isshin seemed to sever itself from the rest of the world, forming an isolated domain of absolute cessation.
Light, sound, the flow of spirit particles, and even the fundamental building blocks of matter began to solidify at visible speed, locked into an eternal, motionless ice blue.
Four Worlds Freeze!
An ability that froze every element within its expanse!
As the strongest ice-type Zanpakuto, this was one of Hyōrinmaru’s supreme techniques, touching the very root of conceptual law!
Isshin’s very thoughts began to congeal.
He felt his spiritual pressure, his blood, and even his consciousness rapidly freezing over under this irrational, absolute power.
Engetsu’s flames dimmed and shriveled inside the domain, reduced to a flickering candle in the wind.
He wanted to move, to resist, to erupt, but his body felt trapped in the densest ancient ice.
Every single motion demanded unimaginable effort, grinding slower and slower!
Right at this razor’s edge between life and death—
It was Yanagawa!
Unnoticed, he had appeared just behind Hyōrinmaru’s flank!
The instant the domain of Four Worlds Freeze reached completion, he forcibly breached the absolute boundary that froze all creation!
Tenzen in his grip was shrouded in a dense mantle of chaotic silver light.
A power even more immense and terrifying than the one that shattered the Millennium Ice Prison gathered and compressed along the blade!
“Air Quake!”
Aiming straight for the golden radiance on Hyōrinmaru’s forehead, Yanagawa brought the blade slashing down!
Originating from Tenzen’s edge, a shockwave that made every sense shudder rippled outward!
*Crack, cra-a-ack—!*
The absolute domain that froze light and halted spirit particles violently clashed with the concussive force!
Starting from the point of impact, dense webs of crisscrossing white fractures erupted across the domain’s interior!
These fractures were not tears in space, but the visual collapse of the “freeze” concept itself as it was disrupted and destroyed by pure vibration!
Frozen light resumed its travel, stagnant spirit particles scattered, and the frost disintegrated in an instant!
Right on its heels, the shockwave punched through the collapsing domain and slammed directly into Hyōrinmaru’s true form!
More precisely, it smashed into the golden light upon his brow!
Under Yanagawa’s brutal strike, the golden luminescence flared violently to its limit.
Then, the light slowly faded.
Like a candle in a gale that had burned its final drop of oil, it succumbed entirely to darkness and void.
The moment the golden radiance died, the light vanished from Hyōrinmaru’s eyes, leaving them vacant.
The terrifying spiritual pressure surging around him deflated like a punctured balloon, crashing down to nothingness.
His hands, still sheathed in icy claws, fell limp to his sides.
His massive body swayed, robbed of all support.
He crashed forward, striking heavily against the fractured, frozen ground and sending up a cloud of ice dust.
The true blade of Hyōrinmaru slipped from his grasp, tumbling away to pierce diagonally into the earth, its luster completely faded.
The domain of Four Worlds Freeze vanished entirely, restoring everything to normal, though a bone-deep chill lingered in the air.
“Hah…
hah…” Isshin sank to one knee, propping himself up with Engetsu as he heaved ragged gasps.
His face was deathly pale, covered in a thick layer of white frost, with ice clinging to his eyebrows and hair.
Just a heartbeat ago, he had truly felt the brush of death’s scythe.
Lifting his eyes with lingering dread, he glanced at the fallen Hyōrinmaru nearby before looking ahead.
Yanagawa was calmly sheathing his blade.
The chaotic silver glow receded like an ebbing tide, leaving Tenzen once more in its pristine silver-white state.