“What’s wrong? Not attacking? Are you waiting for my companions to get further away, too far to support, before you make your move?”
Takashi flicked the blood from his blade, his eyes gleaming.
“No.”
Number Two’s dog-like head and nearly human body, perhaps with a cane, bore a striking resemblance to an Egyptian god of death.
But his appearance was secondary; the wisdom refined by years was the key.
“I’m thinking, are you foolish or wise?”
“How so?”
“You correctly recognized my power, which is why you gathered your companions and left yourself alone to hold me back. I understand all that. But your words displease me greatly.”
“Are you referring to my saying I’ll finish before you guys?”
“Precisely.”
“I don’t believe saying that is a sign of foolishness.”
Takashi was unconcerned.
Number Two laughed in anger, his terrifying face contorting.
The spiritual pressure around him almost materialized, wrapping around his body.
Gradually, his skin changed from white to dark gray.
“That only means you’ve given up thinking and willingly become a fool!”
The next moment, Number Two charged at Takashi with a force that shattered the air.
His claws, drawn together like a hand-blade, aimed to pierce Takashi’s brain, intending to dig out his brain matter for research, an utterly brutal act.
Takashi stepped back, dodging the attack, but the ensuing air current blew his slender figure backward.
He had no choice but to create a foothold in mid-air and perform continuous somersaults to stabilize himself.
Number Two’s attacks followed one after another.
“Did you see it? Did you feel it? From the moment you lamented my improved defense, you’ve already made a huge mistake. You don’t understand my limits, you don’t understand my greatness!”
Number Two’s furious barrage of attacks was interspersed with sharp verbal barbs.
It was clear that such attacks were still not his limit.
Takashi, on the other hand, perfectly utilized his Spirit Arts Academy techniques to parry.
Clang!
The intense sound of metal clashing rang out.
Looking at Takashi, who firmly parried an arm-hammer strike, Number Two said with a mix of mockery and praise, “But then again, to be able to match me in arm strength, you have reason to be proud.”
Takashi remained unmoved, instead saying coldly, “Is this body the result of your ability to devour metal?”
“Oh, so you heard my conversation with that Shinigami earlier too? Then I definitely can’t let you go.”
“Before considering such things, why don’t you reflect on yourself?”
“Huh?”
Number Two didn’t quite understand what Takashi meant.
“I’m saying…”
Mid-sentence, Takashi abruptly sheathed his sword, turned, and delivered a whip kick directly to Number Two’s abdomen, sending him to the ground.
Then, looking down at Number Two amidst the dust, he slowly spoke:
“Gaining a special form with greatly increased defense by devouring metal, and then, on that basis, devouring a Zanpakutō to gain vitality surpassing defense, allowing you to substitute death and split into multiple bodies of equal strength. All of this seems perfect.”
“Precisely because of this, you relaxed when Ōmaeda rejected you. At such a close distance, there was clearly a risk of being counter-killed, yet you didn’t enter this form.”
“That’s why I, who snuck up behind you, was able to stab you with a single strike.”
“How dare a half-baked person like you mock me?”
“?!”
Number Two’s heart flared with anger, but before he could speak, Takashi continued to add fuel to the fire.
“The most crucial thing is that I can feel it: you’ve lived for a long time, yet you’re not even a Vasto Lorde. You actually claim you want to become the King of Hueco Mundo. Does Baraggan know you’re this arrogant?”
“A mere brat actually knows Baraggan… That guy is just a fake. The true King is someone else, and I am his successor!”
Number Two’s unexpectedly intense reaction made Takashi pause slightly.
“The true King… huh?”
“Exactly! That was a noble person who once left the Soul Society helpless, far more brilliant than a decaying old man like Baraggan! I came to the Soul Society precisely to find his legacy and inherit his will! Vasto Lorde or whatever can’t stop me! The Seireitei is the same!”
“…Doesn’t sound like you’re talking about my teacher, so it doesn’t matter.”
“What did you say?”
Number Two looked at Takashi, who seemed satisfied at having successfully obtained crucial information, and only then realized he had apparently been tricked into talking.
Just as he was about to explode in anger, Takashi raised the Zanpakutō in his hand, its tip pointing upwards directly at the moon above.
“Also, let me correct one more thing.”
“I haven’t given up thinking, as you claimed.”
“Not leaving my companions to help was simply because I’m not as careless as you, nor am I… as weak as you.”
“Your boasted ability, the power you always talk about, all your reliance and pride, are insignificant to me. Now, let me show you what a ruler’s power should be.”
At this moment, Takashi’s spiritual pressure converged intensely, as if concentrated at his Saketsu, making his entire body feel empty, with only a single point at the very center, like a star, filled with infinite radiance, and after he softly chanted his release command, an incredible change occurred.
“Eight Phases Manifestation… Chandayami.”
Boom!
The contained spiritual pressure, like a supernova explosion, instantly filled his entire body.
The vast torrent of reishi did not spill out even a trace, firmly locked within his seemingly slender frame.
Thus, high-concentration, high-density spiritual power underwent internal combustion and pressurization, transforming Takashi into a luminous body, even his flowing hair becoming as translucent as colored glass.
A man-made sun appeared in the night sky, creating a terrifying spectacle of sun and moon shining together.
Number Two felt his body trembling.
No!
It wasn’t a feeling.
Including his body.
The atmosphere and the ground, everything composed of reishi, was buckling under the unbearable weight of an additional celestial body.
Every particle of reishi within Takashi’s body was fissioning, fissioning, fissioning, as if endlessly creating a chain reaction, ultimately forming an astronomical scale.
This result was also reflected in his spiritual pressure.
In just a few seconds, his spiritual pressure surged a hundredfold!
Just by standing there, his spiritual pulsation was enough to kill any nearby souls.
Even a Menos Grande would struggle to bear this weight.
Approaching would mean death, so what about attacking?
Number Two only saw an extremely brilliant light descend from the sky.
When he reacted, the part of his body below his chest had already vanished.
Not flown somewhere, but simply erased from existence.
His special form, known for its defense, had been completely useless.
The ground where he stood was also cut open, forming a canyon hundreds of meters long and unfathomably deep, with incredibly neat edges, clearly cut by something sharp.
Such a landscape was undoubtedly visually stunning. Get faster updates on g.com.
Furthermore, the aftershock formed visible ripples that spread backwards, uprooting and shredding entire swathes of trees, leaving no single object larger than a finger.
“What… is this?”
Even with High-Speed Regeneration, he couldn’t recover.
All the reishi in his body was undergoing varying degrees of dissolution.
Number Two clearly realized that his soul was gradually melting…
“It’s just ordinary sword pressure.”
Takashi floated down lightly, stirring up a little dust.
Although his body was still glowing, his spiritual pressure had diminished to its extreme.
“Monster… No wonder those two brats were jealous of you.”
Number Two, in despair, couldn’t help but laugh.
“But they were still too foolish, fantasizing about surpassing you with that thing.”
Those two academy students were said to have gone missing without a trace, but they certainly didn’t just happen to come to Junrin’an and get caught by Ques.
Takashi had intended to ask what that thing was.
But Number Two had already breathed his last.
So he could only temporarily suppress this question in his heart and investigate it later.
“…It hurts a bit. That guy wasn’t wrong after all; it really takes an extraordinary mindset to master this power.”
Takashi clenched his fist.
Recalling the Mushroom Woman’s words, he couldn’t help but feel a greater sense of agreement.
“Chandayami.”
That was the true name of his Zanpakutō.
Its ability was to cause a fission effect in all the reishi of his body within the next eight seconds, thereby generating dozens, even hundreds of times, the amplification of spiritual pressure.
Therefore, it could also be called Reishi Fission.
Although it brought a huge burden to the body, and even the danger of soul suicide, the power possessed within those short eight seconds was truly terrifying.
A hundred times the spiritual pressure of a Lieutenant level, concentrated in a single strike, could easily obliterate a powerful Adjuchas.
Regardless of whether he attacked or not, it would forcibly deactivate after eight seconds, and then he would fall into a weakened state.
Although it couldn’t be said that he couldn’t move, the empty feeling in his body was real, and he truly didn’t have much fighting power left.
Because all of his existing spiritual pressure had been completely expended, like all the blood in his body flowing out, he could only wait for his body to create new blood.
Currently, it would take several hours to recover.
As his own strength grew, the time would further increase.
Plus, the destructive power was truly astonishing.
Such a Shikai was really not suitable for use when there were many allies present.
Speaking of such an extreme power appearing at the mere Shikai stage…
Even Takashi found it perplexing.
Did his true nature really seem that extreme?
But no matter what, the promised task was completed.
The rest is up to you all.
Takashi sat down cross-legged, his gaze directed towards the distance.
The spiritual pressure clashes there were also very intense, clearly reaching a critical moment.
He just wondered if Ques Number Three, with only one life left, would have other ideas.
For example…
a strategic retreat.