On the highest tower of Silbern, Haschwalth overlooked the battlefield.
His brow furrowed deeply.
The course of the battle had completely deviated from expectations.
The Sternritter members on the frontline defense were constantly being routed, and surprisingly, the Schutzstaffel members he had deployed were also falling one by one.
Pernida had vanished, Gerard was sealed and then beheaded, and Lille Barro's presence had just been cut short.
Haschwalth could hardly fathom it.
Especially Pernida, the Left Arm of the Soul King.
It should have been immortal and imperishable; theoretically, even Yamamoto Shigekuni's Ryujin Jakka could not completely destroy it.
But just moments ago, Pernida's Spiritual Pressure suddenly vanished, as if it had been erased from the battlefield by some unknown force.
He recognized the Spiritual Pressure that had appeared there; it was Aizen.
Did Aizen use the Hogyoku to do something?
Haschwalth tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword at his waist.
Things had started spiraling out of control the moment Pernida was taken away, and he had barely suppressed the urge to make a move himself.
However, the subsequent deaths of Gerard and Lille Barro allowed Haschwalth to regain his composure.
Because he had also sensed it.
Haschwalth turned and headed downstairs, stepping methodically until he reached the deepest hidden chamber underground.
The Reishi lamps embedded in the stone walls were flickering, their light pulsing in and out like a heartbeat.
On the stone platform in the center of the chamber, Yhwach lay motionless.
He had remained in this exact state for nine hundred years.
His shriveled skin clung tightly to his bones, unmoving, like a desiccated corpse sealed within a sarcophagus.
But not anymore.
The sound of a heartbeat echoed through the chamber, steady and powerful.
The soul power of a massive number of Quincies was flowing back—those who had died in battle on the frontlines, as well as the Sternritter members who had been reduced to ash by Yamamoto, one strike at a time.
After their deaths, their souls returned to Yhwach's body, their power converging from all directions.
Yhwach's shriveled skin began to fill out, gradually regaining its vitality.
Immediately after, the two most colossal sources of power returned.
One came from Gerard, the Heart of the Soul King.
The other came from Lille Barro, the Hook of the Soul King.
The only pity was that the Left Arm of the Soul King, which had been snatched away by Aizen, did not return.
Yhwach opened his eyes.
Haschwalth could see that his pupils were trembling.
Yhwach's irises had not yet fully focused. His gaze swept stiffly around the chamber before finally settling on Haschwalth.
"Haschwalth."
His voice was hoarse, his vocal cords still in the process of recovering.
"I feel that many Quincies have died, but my mind is still sluggish. What has happened?"
Haschwalth dropped to one knee.
"The Wandenreich has been discovered by the Shinigami. They have invaded, and Yamamoto Shigekuni is among them."
Yhwach blinked.
"There are still ninety years until the awakening foretold by the Kaiser Gesang."
He slowly propped up his upper body. His bones emitted faint creaking sounds, like rusty hinges grinding together.
"Given the current situation, it seems I have no choice but to awaken early."
"Your Majesty, your condition has not yet fully recovered."
Yhwach looked down at his five fingers, clenching them slightly.
Nine hundred years of slumber had left his soul stiff and his thoughts sluggish, but he could feel his power returning bit by bit.
"My mind is muddled right now. I need your counsel."
Haschwalth lifted his head.
"Your Majesty, the enemy's forces are overwhelming. I suggest we avoid battle for now, gather our strength, and make our return once you have fully recovered."
Yhwach closed his eyes, feeling the beating of his heart.
A moment later, he opened them and, supporting himself on Haschwalth's shoulder, stepped down from the stone platform.
His bare feet touched the cold stone floor, the chill creeping up from his soles making his mind a fraction clearer.
"Help me up. Let me see the battlefield."
Haschwalth supported him as they walked to the highest point of the tower.
Wind poured in through Silbern's shattered dome, whipping Yhwach's robes around him.
He looked down over the entire city, seeing only broken walls and ruins.
Scorch marks from Kido bombardments and trenches carved by Zanpakuto were everywhere.
White Quincy uniforms were scattered across the gray stone slabs, some draped over bare white bones.
His knights. His soldiers. His people.
The Quincy bloodline he had saved from the hands of the Shinigami nine hundred years ago had finally grown strong once more, only for them to die in droves yet again.
And their souls, carrying their power, had returned to his body once more.
Yhwach's gaze swept past the ruins, past the scattered skirmishes still taking place, and settled on a single person.
Yamamoto Shigekuni.
Across a distance of hundreds of paces, their eyes met.
The moment Yamamoto saw Yhwach, his expression shifted.
It was the look of seeing a dead man crawl out of his grave.
Pure killing intent erupted from those aged eyes.
"Yhwach..."
Yamamoto tightened his grip on his Zanpakuto. The stone slabs beneath his feet shattered as his entire body transformed into a streak of light, charging straight for the tower.
The corners of Yhwach's mouth curled up slightly.
Awakening this time didn't come without good news. He pulled out a Medallion from his robes.
The Medallion's effectiveness had already been confirmed in Haschwalth's reports.
This meant that he no longer needed to fear Yamamoto Shigekuni's Bankai.
The only unfortunate part was that he didn't know if Yamamoto Shigekuni had further developed his abilities over the past near-millennium.
If he had ample time, he would find a way to test Yamamoto Shigekuni's current capabilities before engaging him in battle.
But as it stood, his condition did not permit him to fight another battle against Yamamoto.
Yamamoto was flying toward him, but Yhwach was in no hurry.
The powers of Pernida and Gerard had already returned.
The Left Arm of the Soul King, the Heart of the Soul King—these two powers coursed through his body, merging into his soul.
However, there was one thing that puzzled Yhwach: the volume of these two soul powers felt somewhat off.
Pernida's power was missing a fraction, and so was Gerard's.
It felt as though something had stolen a portion of it along the way.
But who could possibly steal from the power stream of Auswählen?
Yhwach couldn't figure it out, but he decided not to dwell on it.
He raised his hand.
"Auswählen!"
As Yhwach's ability activated, countless beams of light scattered outward in all directions.
Soul Society, within the Seireitei.
The Shinigami who had stayed behind were locked in a bitter struggle against the sudden Quincy attack.
Small squads of Quincies emerged from the shadows. Though few in number, their combat prowess was ferocious.
Led by several Sternritter members, their varied abilities were constantly unleashed, forcing the Shinigami forces into a continuous retreat.
The Fourth Division's temporary medical stations had been forced to fall back twice. Other division members drew their swords to return fire even as they retreated.
Ukitake Jushiro and Shiba Kaien led their people at the very front. After releasing their Shikai, they barely managed to stabilize a defensive line.
Kuchiki Ginrei led a group to guard the noble estates, executing their duty to protect the aristocrats.
The other divisions fought their own skirmishes. The Quincies acted like madmen, charging into the Seireitei and attacking everyone in sight.
A Quincy wielding a Reishi bow broke through a gap in the defensive line, aiming his arrow at a Shinigami squad member sprawled on the ground.
The squad member's left leg had been pierced by a Reishi arrow, leaving him unable to crawl. He could only hold his sword horizontally in front of him in a final, desperate attempt at defense.
The arrow was loosed, and the squad member closed his eyes in despair.
The next moment, a loud clash rang out.
The Reishi arrow was deflected by a blade, scraping past the squad member's shoulder and plunging into the stone floor.
Sasakibe Chojiro hauled him up from the ground, tossed him to the medical team behind him, and drew his sword to fill the breach.
"Can you still fight?!"
Sasakibe's voice was hoarse. His uniform was soaked in blood, indistinguishable whether it was his own or his enemies'.
Several squad members behind him gritted their teeth and scrambled to their feet.
"Yes!"
"Then fill the gap," Sasakibe stood with his sword drawn horizontally. "The Head Captain entrusted us with the task of defending the Seireitei. We must hold the line."
Just as his words fell, a torrent of light descended from the sky, instantly enveloping the Quincy before them.
Within the radiant glow, his Reishi longbow slipped from his grasp, and his body suddenly began to wither.
It wasn't just him; every Quincy on the entire street exhibited the same bizarre symptoms simultaneously.
Pillars of light fell incessantly. The Quincies swept up in the glow clutched their heads and screamed in agony. Their skin shriveled at a visible rate, as if something within them was being violently extracted.
One Quincy crawled on the ground, reaching out to retrieve his weapon.
The moment his five fingers touched the ground, his fingertips crumbled into grayish-white powder. Then followed his palms, his forearms, until his entire body collapsed into a pile of white bones within seconds.
The bones scattered across the ground, clattering against the stone.
The entire street gradually grew deathly quiet.
On the battlefield that had just been embroiled in bloody slaughter, all the standard Quincies had been reduced to bare bones.
Only a few Sternritter members could still barely stand, though their faces were deathly pale, and their Spiritual Pressure was plummeting catastrophically.
Sasakibe panted heavily. Looking at the ground littered with white bones, he suddenly realized what had happened.
A millennium ago, he had witnessed this very same power.
"Auswählen..."
He lifted his head to look at the sky.
That torrent of Reiryoku was flowing far into the distance.
Yhwach... was he actually still alive?
...
The Wandenreich.
Yhwach floated in mid-air. The light of Auswählen radiated outward from his body, blanketing the entire battlefield.
The power of all the Quincies on the Soul Society battlefield was surging back.
Countless soul fragments coalesced into a torrent of blue light, pouring into Yhwach from the battlegrounds of both Soul Society and the Wandenreich.
Yhwach's soul was mending.
But the next moment, Yhwach's movements abruptly halted.
Someone was stealing his Auswählen.
The deficit in power he had felt earlier had not been a mere illusion.
Right now, the Reiryoku torrent of Auswählen was flooding into his body, yet a faint sliver of that power was bleeding off in another direction.
It was like a small hole had been poked in a water pipe, allowing a thin trickle to leak out.
At this moment, Hasumi Ren stood at the edge of the battlefield, watching the visible torrent of Reiryoku.
Kyoraku sat on a pile of rubble behind him, his wounds having been hastily treated with Kaido.
After slaying Lille Barro just moments ago, Ren had picked up a massive amount of fragments, bumping his Schrift Awakening progress up to 50 percent.
Now, with Absolute Devour fully activated, he forcefully intercepted a portion of the surging Reiryoku torrent in the sky.
System prompts flooded his vision.
His Spiritual Power EXP was climbing.
His Schrift Awakening progress was rising.
His Schrift Awakening progress jumped from 50 percent to 55 percent, and then breached 60 percent.
With the increase in his Awakening progress, the volume Absolute Devour could intercept grew larger and larger.
A portion of the power that should have entirely flowed to Yhwach was instead drawn into Ren's body.
Yhwach frowned slightly. Sensing the exact location of the Reiryoku leak, he followed the direction of the missing power with his gaze.
His perception bypassed the ruins and the ground littered with white bones, locking onto a young man.
A Shihakusho. A Captain's haori.
It was, of all things, a Shinigami.
Yhwach's eyes narrowed slightly as ancient memories surged in his mind.
For two hundred years after his birth, he had waged war across the lands, constantly using the power of Auswählen to absorb the souls of others and empower himself.
But he had always been searching for an entity just like him.
An entity who, like himself, could seize the power of others and make it their own.
After searching for a full two hundred years, he had only found Haschwalth.
Haschwalth's Schrift 'B' possessed the ability to impart power to others, making them stronger, but he could not take it back.
Therefore, Yhwach had kept Haschwalth by his side, viewing him as his other half.
But the other half of that equation—the ability to absorb the power of others—had to exist deep within the soul of some Quincy, simply waiting to awaken.
Now, he had found it.
Yet it wasn't a Quincy; it was a Shinigami.
Yhwach suddenly burst into boisterous laughter.
"A Shinigami..."
Yhwach ceased his laughter, staring at the white-haired young man in the distance, his pupils filled with sheer disbelief.
"A Shinigami, yet possessing this power."
He turned his head to look at Haschwalth.
"Haschwalth, the white-haired Shinigami over there. Do you know who he is?"
Haschwalth similarly looked in Ren's direction. He was somewhat confused; Yamamoto Shigekuni was about to strike, yet Yhwach had suddenly taken an interest in that Shinigami.
He did, however, have some impression of the man.
"That Shinigami is called Hasumi Ren. It appears he has recently become the Captain of the Eleventh Division. I do not have his specific details."
Yhwach smiled again.
This time it was a faint smile, reining it in just as the corners of his mouth twitched upward.
A Shinigami...
Before he could dwell on it any further, Yamamoto Shigekuni burst into the space right in front of him.
"Yhwach, I have come to end your life."
Ryujin Jakka's blade shattered the Reishi barrier Yhwach had conjured, the searing flames forcing him to take a step back.
Yhwach dodged the slash, locking eyes with Yamamoto.
"Yamamoto Shigekuni, you failed to kill me nine hundred years ago. Now, you will not have the chance either."
Yamamoto furrowed his brow, looking at Yhwach as he drew the Medallion.
An ability to steal Bankai. Would his own Bankai be stolen by Yhwach?
Before his eyes, Yhwach's Auswählen was still ongoing.
The torrents of blue Reiryoku continued to pour into his body, and Yhwach's aura grew increasingly imposing.
In the very next moment, Yamamoto Shigekuni unleashed his Bankai without the slightest hesitation.
"Bankai, Zanka no Tachi."
Endless flames erupted outward, only to be completely absorbed back into the Zanpakuto in the following second.
Yhwach looked at Yamamoto Shigekuni, who had completed his Bankai, and fixed his gaze on the unostentatious form of Zanka no Tachi.
This form was indeed vastly different from how it had appeared a millennium ago.
But a moment later, Yhwach raised the Medallion and activated its power.
Yamamoto immediately felt his Bankai slip from his control, involuntarily sucked into the cross-shaped Medallion in his enemy's hand.
The Zanpakuto in his grasp reverted to its Shikai form.
"What?!"
Taking advantage of Yamamoto's fleeting shock, Yhwach blasted him away and ascended to an even higher altitude.
His robes snapped in the wind as he gazed out into the distance. His vision swept over the entirety of the ruined battlefield, locking once more onto Hasumi Ren.
Ren, naturally, saw him as well.
Through this brief interception, Ren had obtained an ocean of Reiryoku fragments. His Spiritual Power EXP had soared, and his Schrift Awakening progress had bounded to 70 percent.
Just as expected, he had drawn the attention of the man himself.
Yhwach looked at that youthful face, looked at the Captain's haori of the Eleventh Division, and frowned slightly.
Something about him felt... off.
He extended his perception more carefully.
Then, he realized that the boy didn't merely possess the power of a Quincy.
He actually housed Hollow powers, as well as Shinigami powers.
Three completely different powers tangled together, forged by him into something he could command as his own.
This was, quite simply, the ultimate form he had always dreamed of.
Yhwach took a deep breath, his voice echoing across the entire battlefield.
"Hasumi Ren, are you willing to follow me?"