Not long after, at the end of the messy street, a tall man with purple hair appeared, wearing a Shihakushō and wielding a Zanpakutō.
This time, Ivan didn’t retreat.
Instead, he initiated the attack, using Sonído to charge forward.
Swish!
With a single flash, Ivan appeared directly behind ‘Umi Ito’ and thrust his sword.
‘Umi Ito’ raised his blade to block, then retaliated with a reverse slash aimed straight at Ivan’s face.
Ivan engaged his core, leaning backward to dodge the strike, then used the momentum to deliver a fierce kick that knocked ‘Umi Ito’ back.
Immediately, his left hand blurred into a series of rapid points, firing dozens of black-red spheres of light that blasted the surrounding low-slung earthen huts to dust.
It was Bala!
Facing the carpet-bombing of the Bala barrage, ‘Umi Ito’ executed a rapid series of Shunpo, turning into an afterimage.
In the next breath, the huts that had been reduced to dust reformed into their original state.
After all, this was ‘Umi Ito’s’ inner world, not the real Rukongai.
“Hado #4: Byakurai!” ‘Umi Ito’ pointed a finger, firing a streak of pale lightning straight at Ivan.
Ivan countered by firing another Bala to neutralize it.
Who said the 11th Squad couldn’t use Kido?
That Byakurai was perfectly executed!
Ivan grumbled inwardly.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
As the Zanjutsu duel between Ivan and Umi Ito reached a fever pitch, various wounds appeared on both of their bodies.
But there was one crucial difference: the injuries on ‘Umi Ito’ kept accumulating, whereas Ivan’s wounds were instantly healed by High-Speed Regeneration the moment they appeared.
Realizing he couldn’t defeat Ivan with Zanjutsu alone, ‘Umi Ito’ abruptly retreated.
He raised his Zanpakutō high above his head and shouted his release command: “Wage war, Kamikaze Maru!” The longsword in his hands abruptly transformed into a pitch-black spear wreathed in roaring gale-force winds.
With his Shikai unleashed, he charged at Ivan once more.
“Hahaha, bring it on!” Ivan laughed heartily.
He ran a hand along the length of his massive Asauchi, coating the blade in raw lightning, and clashed head-on against the wind-wreathed spear.
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
“Kamikaze First Form: Seven-Blade Wind Kill!” ‘Umi Ito’ thrust his spear seven times in rapid succession, launching seven meat-grinder-like tornados toward Ivan.
Unfazed, Ivan swung his massive sword with all his might.
Following a deafening boom, he unleashed a gigantic arc of lightning.
It was the Thunderclap Slash!
Post-evolution, the Thunderclap Slash was leagues beyond the attack that had killed the snake Adjuchas.
It easily cleaved through the seven tornados.
Slash!
The fierce, overbearing arc of lightning struck ‘Umi Ito’ directly, carving a deep wound from his left shoulder down to his abdomen, exposing the bone!
Yet, ‘Umi Ito’ completely ignored the fatal injury, continuing his fierce assault against Ivan.
However, Ivan could clearly feel his opponent’s speed dropping.
Sure enough, Ivan realized, even in the inner world, sustaining damage still affects your combat state.
“Kamikaze Second Form: Wind Dragon’s Roar!” ‘Umi Ito’ twirled his spear continuously with both hands.
Howl!
Amidst the shrieking gales, a dragon forged of razor-sharp wind instantly took shape and roared down toward Ivan.
Clearly, this was ‘Umi Ito’s’ ultimate killing move.
Seeing this, Ivan held his sword horizontally.
At the tip of the blade, a wisp of black-red Reiatsu intertwined with dark-gold arcs of lightning.
In an instant, it condensed into a terrifying sphere of shifting black, red, and gold light.
“Gran Rey Cero!” The terrifying dual-colored Cero erupted as Ivan spoke, blasting straight toward the wind dragon.
This Gran Rey Cero was yet another new ability Ivan had acquired upon evolving into a Gillian.
In canon, only Espada-class Arrancars or Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande could unleash a Gran Rey Cero.
Yet, Ivan had naturally mastered it the moment he became a Gillian.
The terrifying Gran Rey Cero effortlessly shattered ‘Umi Ito’s’ wind dragon, reducing it to absolutely nothing.
Even ‘Umi Ito’ himself, or rather, the spirit of Kamikaze Maru, was vaporized into nothingness after taking the Gran Rey Cero head-on.
In the split second after defeating ‘Umi Ito’, a wave of vertigo hit, and Ivan was pulled straight back into the real world.
After his round-two rematch with the phantom of Umi Ito, Ivan now had a crystal-clear understanding of his current strength.
His Reiatsu was vastly superior to that of a Lieutenant-class combatant like Umi Ito, but his actual combat techniques and Zanjutsu were still inferior.
That was exactly why he had been tangled in such a long, drawn-out fight.
If their technical skills had been equal, Umi Ito wouldn’t have lasted more than a few exchanges.
But there was nothing to be done about that.
In his past life, Ivan was just a corporate drone.
Part of his current combat instincts came from blindly feeling his way through life as a Hollow, while the vast majority came entirely from Umi Ito’s memories.
In other words, he was just imitating Umi Ito.
Naturally, an imitation couldn’t surpass the original.
If only I could go to the Soul Society for some advanced training!
Ivan mused.
But as a Hollow, stepping foot into the Soul Society would mean instantly becoming public enemy number one.
While indulging his wild imagination, a flash of inspiration suddenly hit Ivan.
He thought of a way to infiltrate the Soul Society!
Half a month later, somewhere in the Forest of Menos.
“You…
A grand Vasto Lorde like you…
Instead of challenging Baraggan in Las Noches, you’re out here bullying a lowly Adjuchas?!” A centaur-shaped Adjuchas cried out in indignant despair.
Am I being mistaken for a Vasto Lorde again?
Ivan thought to himself.
But he couldn’t exactly blame the centaur for the misunderstanding.
After all, what kind of Gillian could cripple an Adjuchas with a single, casual sword swing?
Smiling wordlessly, Ivan swung his sword again, and the centaur Adjuchas died with lingering resentment.
Ivan skillfully activated Soul Devour, completely absorbing the fallen Adjuchas.
But it wasn’t over.
Right after absorbing the centaur Adjuchas, a small segment of the armor-like centipede carapace connecting his back to his mask suddenly detached.
His mask wriggled for a brief second before instantly returning to normal.
The moment the detached segment hit the ground, it rapidly expanded.
In the blink of an eye, it morphed into a massive, ten-meter-long giant centipede, its front mandibles covered by a bone-white mask.
Ivan had just utilized his Clone ability, a skill he had unlocked back when he evolved into a Giant Hollow.
Because his strength had been too low at the time, he had left it untouched until now.
The Clone forged from this technique shared a single mind and a single soul with the main body.
They operated under one unified consciousness!
Ivan had forged this specific Clone using the entirety of the Reiatsu he had just devoured from the centaur Adjuchas.
Ivan’s main body and his newly minted Clone stared at each other in silence.
This feeling of looking directly at myself is really bizarre, Ivan noted.
Sensing the Reiatsu radiating from the Clone, Ivan confirmed it had definitively reached the Adjuchas level.
Its total Reiatsu reserve was roughly twenty percent of his main body’s capacity.
In terms of raw energy, this Clone was even stronger than Ivan himself prior to his Gillian evolution.
However, to avoid permanently draining his main body’s core essence, Ivan hadn’t imbued the Clone with his specialized innate abilities like Lightning Arc or Reiatsu Concealment.
As a result, this Clone didn’t possess any unique traits characteristic of a standard Adjuchas.
All it had were generic Menos abilities like Sonido and Cero.
Essentially, the Clone was a blank-slate Adjuchas.
But for Ivan’s purposes, that was more than enough.
Ivan’s main body raised his right hand and slashed at the empty air.
The previously stable space tore open, forming a massive, jagged fissure that revealed a pitch-black, ink-like void behind it: a Garganta.
Ivan’s Clone leapt high into the air and dove straight into the Garganta, embarking on a journey to the Human World.
A moment later, the Garganta rapidly sealed shut behind it.