Chapter 33: The Dance of Sovereigns
Now begins the execution.
Zommari Rureaux looked down from the bridge, his golden eyes wide with a mixture of shock and zealous glee. The primal fear he had felt for a fleeting moment was burned away, replaced by an ecstatic, fanatical fire. This was it. This was the true soul of his ancient enemy, revealed in all its magnificent, arrogant glory. This was a power worthy of being subjugated.
"Yes... YES!" Zommari roared, his voice filled with rapturous delight. "This form! This pride! This is the apotheosis of your being, Kuchiki Byakuya! And I shall be the one to become its master!"
He threw his head back, an unholy light beginning to emanate from his Resurrección form. "You have transcended your limits to face me. It is only fitting that I show you the true face of God!"
His grotesque, pumpkin-like lower body began to dissolve into pure, golden Reiryoku. The fifty-eight eyes covering his form snapped shut, the spiraling tattoos glowing intensely before sealing them away forever. His body elongated, regaining its humanoid shape, his skin taking on the sheen of polished obsidian as he levitated into the air.
"Segunda Etapa!"
The spiritual pressure on the bridge didn't just increase; it changed in nature, becoming a calm, absolute, and terrifying weight. Eighteen large, golden, unblinking eyes materialized from nothing, arranging themselves in a perfect, divine halo behind Zommari's head. The sun-shaped sigil of his Amor burned itself onto his forehead, glowing with a soft, authoritative light. He was no longer a monster. He was an idol, a terrifying, symmetrical mockery of a saint.
"Brujería: Soberano de Cien Ojos."
He looked at Naruto, his new form radiating an aura of complete and total dominion.
"Come then, Kuchiki," Zommari said, his voice now a serene, resonant boom that seemed to come from all directions at once. "Let us see whose will is truly absolute. Let us begin the final judgment."
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The air on the broken bridge was no longer air. It was a crushing, tangible sea of pressure, a war between two divine presences. Below, the water churned in a vortex, unable to settle. Above, the last of the mist was atomized, burned away by the sheer intensity of the two souls who now faced each other.
Zommari Rureaux, now Soberano de Cien Ojos, floated with the serene arrogance of a deity. The halo of eighteen golden eyes behind him pulsed with a soft, menacing light, each one an instrument of absolute authority.
Across from him hovered Naruto, now Shūshin: Hakuteiken. His wings of pure white Reiryoku cast a gentle, snow-like light, and the billion petals of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi swirled around him, a silent, beautiful promise of annihilation.
The battle resumed without a word.
Naruto moved first, becoming a streak of white and pink light. His Shinsoku Shunpo was not a step, but a seamless transition, a fold in space. He appeared instantly behind Zommari, a spear formed from a million condensed petals aimed at the back of the Espada's neck.
The attack never landed.
Zommari didn't turn. He didn't dodge. But one of the eyes in his halo swiveled to fix its gaze on the incoming spear.
"Stop."
The single, whispered word of Mandato Divino echoed not in the air, but in reality itself. The spear of petals, a projectile moving at god-like speed, froze dead in the air, inches from its target, its momentum utterly erased.
Naruto's sakura-patterned eyes widened slightly. Before he could react, Zommari's voice echoed again.
"Break."
The spear of petals, a weapon forged from his very soul, cracked and then shattered into a cloud of useless spiritual particles.
Zommari turned his head slowly, a condescending smile on his face. "Your speed is meaningless, Kuchiki. I am already everywhere. This entire battlefield is my domain." To prove his point, the eighteen eyes of his halo all focused on a point in space directly above Naruto.
"Cero Soberanía."
A golden Cero materialized from nothingness and blasted downwards.
Naruto's wings flared. He vanished again, the Cero scorching the air where he had been a nanosecond before. He reappeared a hundred meters away, but the moment he did, another golden Cero was already materializing right in front of him.
He was forced to use his Shunpo again, and again, and again. It was a horrifying, impossible chess match. Zommari wasn't aiming at where he was; he was aiming at where he would be. His Omnipresencia gave him a perfect, prophetic sight of the entire battlefield. Naruto couldn't outrun an attack that was already waiting for him at his destination.
He's not just predicting my movements, Naruto thought, his mind racing as he evaded a third and fourth Cero. He perceives everything simultaneously. I cannot win a battle of speed.
"Now you understand," Zommari said, his voice calm. "You are a king trapped in a cage of my design. You have nowhere to run."
Naruto stopped his frantic evasion, hovering in the air. The billion petals of his Bankai surged around him, forming a dense, perfect sphere of swirling blades. Kōtei no Hōi. The Emperor's Dominion.
"Then I will not run," Naruto's fused voice echoed. "Let's see your gaze penetrate this."
Zommari's smile widened. He had been waiting for this. He would not use his Cero. He would prove the superiority of his philosophy. The eighteen eyes of his halo blazed, focusing on the swirling sphere of petals.
"Kneel."
The divine mandate washed over the sphere. The billion blades, which were an extension of Naruto's own soul, felt an immense, foreign pressure trying to force them into submission, to make them stop their perfect, defensive rotation.
Inside the sphere, Naruto felt the pressure directly on his soul, a crushing weight of absolute command. But within his dominion, his will was absolute.
"My soul bows to no one," Naruto declared, pouring more of his own spiritual energy into the sphere. The petals spun faster, their white-pink glow intensifying as they actively shredded Zommari's invading will, atomizing the golden energy of his command.
The two forces were locked in a stalemate. Zommari's absolute command was being met by Naruto's absolute control. Neither could gain an inch.
Zommari let out a low chuckle, a sound of genuine, zealous admiration. "Yes! This is it! This is the pride I sought to break! Unyielding! Unbending! How wonderful it will be to finally see it shatter!"
He changed his tactic. He could not dominate the sphere, so he would annihilate it from all sides. The eyes of his halo shifted, and a dozen golden Ceros materialized, surrounding the sphere in a cage of imminent destruction.
"Let's see your perfect defense withstand this, Kuchiki!"
Naruto knew he couldn't just defend. A passive shield would eventually break. He had to counter. Inside his sphere, he raised his hand. His spiritual energy began to converge, the billion blades around him feeding their essence into a single point of light before his palm. It was the beginning of his Ōgi, the art of erasure.
The Ceros fired.
Naruto's ultimate attack began to form.
It was a race. A contest between the speed of Zommari's divine bombardment and the formation of Naruto's soul-erasing blossom. The battle had escalated beyond simple clashes of speed and power. It was now a duel of ultimate techniques, a final, world-breaking collision that would leave only one sovereign standing.