Chapter 228: Heavenly Obstruction Quaking Star
…Is this your answer, Aizen Sōsuke?
Yhwach lifted his gaze to the sky.
A vast star had appeared out of nowhere, silently falling toward the Wandenreich. Its presence swallowed the horizon, an oppressive shadow that made it feel as if the world itself had tilted.
Yet Yhwach's expression did not change.
He stood facing Aizen, unreadable, as if the descending mass was nothing more than a passing cloud. No one could tell what he was thinking.
Or perhaps, even if they could, no one would dare say it aloud.
Above them, the four Sternritter had already moved.
They struck the colossal star with everything they had, their powers tearing through the air, their spiritual pressure surging like tides. But what was shocking, and in a twisted way expected, was that the abilities Yhwach had bestowed upon them, The Almighty, The Deathdealing, The Compulsory, The Miracle, were almost meaningless against that thing.
Those rules, those warped concepts that could crush most opponents, did not bite into the star.
Only pure force worked. Only violence.
Only by hammering it like beasts could they chip off layers of rock from the falling celestial body.
To attack the Wandenreich at all meant believing you had the ability to do it. So even if the failure of their special abilities was unsettling, the Quincy could accept it.
What they could not accept was something else.
Is this really Aizen's power after being severely wounded?
Isn't this… too much?
The star filled the sky so completely that its edges could not be seen. It felt infinite. It felt like annihilation. An invisible weight pressed against every Quincy chest, and fear began to spread in quiet ripples.
Then, before panic could erupt, Yhwach's voice echoed inside every Quincy mind, cold and steady, like a chain locking them in place.
Do not panic. The falling star is not as large as you imagine. Do not be deceived by illusions.
Illusions?
When?
The moment that thought surfaced, the Quincy found their anchor again.
A vast blue sea of reishi surged across the Wandenreich. Countless streams shot upward, lancing into the star, yet many of them vanished as if swallowed by nothing, as if they had pierced an invisible barrier and been erased.
Less than three seconds passed.
The barrier quietly disappeared.
The true star revealed itself.
It was still massive. Still terrifying. Still more than enough to flatten everything beneath it.
But now its boundaries were visible.
The Quincy exhaled in relief they did not want to admit. Compared to the earlier illusion, the horizon devoured by darkness, this was something they could fight.
Still, it took everything.
With the four Sternritter driving their spiritual pressure to the limit, the falling meteor shattered at a visible speed, breaking into fragments, melting into countless streams of light, dispersing into the sky. It looked effortless from a distance.
Up close, it was brutal.
To keep the palace from being damaged, even the Quincy on the ground poured their strength into destroying the rain of rock and debris, turning the sky into a storm of collapsing stone.
Yhwach watched the chaos without expression.
When he finally glanced away from the sky, it was only to return his gaze to Aizen, who still wore that gentle smile.
"Is this your ability?" Yhwach's voice was calm, almost bored. "It piques my interest, but it is merely average. Disappointing."
Aizen's smile did not waver. "Is it not necessary to assess whether a potential ally has the strength, Yhwach?"
"Heh."
The last fragments of the star continued to fall.
Yhwach's expression remained unchanged. As usual, he raised the light in his hand and swung it upward.
A magnificent pillar of radiance erupted into the heavens.
In an instant, the remaining mass was obliterated. Reishi flames spread across the sky, incinerating every last stone and shard into formless particles that dissolved silently into the air.
Blue specks drifted down like snow.
Bathed in that light, Yhwach stood with a shining blade in hand, cloak flicking as he turned back toward Aizen with quiet pride.
It was a gesture he only made when he believed victory was certain.
And facing Aizen, whose spiritual presence was unstable, whose condition clearly spoke of severe injury, Yhwach had every reason to believe he stood above him.
No matter how strange, how wicked Aizen Sōsuke might be, he could not compare to Yhwach, the Son of the Soul King.
If summoning a star was meant to intimidate, then shattering a star was the answer.
Even Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni could do such a thing. Let alone Yhwach, now restored.
He might be slightly inferior in raw destructive force, but it was only one star.
"Your Majesty, above."
Yhwach's eyes shifted. "Haschwalth? What is it?"
Aizen's voice slid into the space between breaths, smooth as silk.
"How ridiculous, Yhwach. Do you truly think my greeting is only of that caliber?"
Aizen snapped his fingers.
"Heavenly Obstruction Quaking Star."
The sky trembled.
It was as if invisible flames were burning through the heavens, furious and unseen. Space tore open with a soundless violence, and enormous celestial bodies, heavy with cosmic malice, began to descend toward the world.
Yhwach did not panic.
He merely snorted, looking up, tightening his grip on his sword of light.
"Hmph. Repeating the same trick will only make me…"
Aizen continued, unhurried.
"Nine Consecutive Stars."
"What?"
Nine stars appeared side by side, filling Yhwach's vision so completely that for a single heartbeat, even he seemed to freeze.
Then he moved.
He ignored Aizen, ignored everything else, and swung the blade of light upward.
The slash tore through the sky.
In the blink of an eye, the nine stars were cut apart, reduced to fragments, erased as if they had never existed.
The Quincy below instinctively held their breath, watching Yhwach standing in the heavens, sword raised, light cascading off him like a crown.
Where the blade had passed, not a single star remained.
Only… a balloon.
A balloon drifting in the empty air.
And from within it, Aizen's laughter.
"If you cannot even distinguish truth from falsehood," Aizen said, voice soft and amused, "then it is far too early to speak about the problems of this world, Yhwach."
The balloon made a final, faint sound.
Then it vanished into the wind.
At the same moment, Aizen's figure disappeared as well.
…
Silence spread through the Wandenreich.
Yhwach remained suspended in the air for a long time, staring at the space where Aizen had been.
Then, without another word, he lowered himself and walked back into the heart of the Wandenreich.
.....
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