CLANG!
A sharp metallic impact rang through the chaotic space, the force of the collision seemingly making the entire realm tremble.
"What the fuck? This thing is that hard?"
Kazuma refused to believe it and swung Hokushin Raitei again.
He'd struck with all his strength, yet it felt as though his blade had slammed into an indestructible slab of steel.
Not only had he failed to leave so much as a scratch, but a tremendous counterforce rebounded through his sword and into his hand, instantly numbing the web between his thumb and forefinger.
Gritting his teeth, Kazuma raised Hokushin Raitei once more and poured every ounce of strength he could muster into another slash.
The recoil was even more violent this time.
The moment his blade struck, the resulting force drove him several steps backward.
That was when all four founders moved at once.
Each held one of the strange weapons they'd only just revealed.
The Tsunayashiro founder wielded a longbow gleaming with cold light, its bowstring drawn taut as though a lethal arrow might be released at any moment.
The Ise founder held a razor-sharp longsword whose chilling edge radiated a savage, murderous presence.
The Shihōin founder supported an oddly shaped set of scales in his hands, strange waves of power pulsing from both sides of the balance.
And the Kuchiki founder gripped an enormous scythe, black smoke coiling around its blade like something dragged straight from the deepest pits of Hell.
Four completely different powers erupted from the weapons.
They intertwined, merged, and rapidly spread around Kazuma before forming an enormous cage that sealed him inside.
Kazuma stopped attacking and carefully studied the four weapons.
The longbow gave him an extreme sense of danger, as though the moment its string was released, countless arrows would pierce through his body from every direction.
The Ise founder's sword overflowed with endless battle intent. Its edge seemed capable of cutting through anything in existence, carrying a destructive presence that made even Kazuma uneasy.
The scales were stranger still.
Just looking at them stirred an inexplicable fear in his heart, as though they were capable of weighing the value, fate, and very existence of every living thing.
But the most terrifying was undoubtedly the Kuchiki founder's massive scythe.
The sheer aura of death radiating from it was overwhelming.
Now that looked like the weapon of a genuine God of Death.
As Kazuma carefully sensed the four forces maintaining the prison around him, an increasingly ominous feeling settled over him.
Each power was extraordinarily strong, and worse, they complemented one another almost perfectly.
Breaking out of this cage was not going to be easy.
"Stop wasting your strength, Kazuma."
The Kuchiki founder slowly approached with the enormous scythe in hand.
Thick deathly energy continuously poured from his body, spreading around him like a black fog.
"You cannot break this prison."
"So this is the trump card you've been hiding."
Kazuma finally stopped his temporarily pointless struggle.
He looked from one founder to the next.
"Fine. Then where's the Shiba founder?"
He sneered.
"Tell the old bastard to come out already. What's the point of hiding now?"
Seeing Kazuma stop resisting, the four founders visibly relaxed.
Their tightly wound nerves loosened slightly, and their vigilance toward him dropped by the smallest degree.
The Tsunayashiro founder gave a cold laugh.
"You can stop searching."
"That old man has been dead for a very long time."
Kazuma froze.
"Dead?"
He stared at them.
"He's fucking dead?"
His expression went completely blank.
"How the hell is he dead?! I've spent this entire time assuming the Shiba founder was the hidden trump card you four bastards were saving for the right moment!"
"And now you're telling me the man isn't even alive?!"
Kazuma felt as though lightning had struck him directly in the head.
What the hell was this supposed to be?
The invisible enemy he'd spent all this time imagining, locating, analyzing, and guarding against…
didn't even exist.
The realization was unbearably embarrassing.
'Wait.'
Kazuma's face twitched.
'Have I been the fucking clown this whole time?'
"You bastards tricked me!"
His fury exploded.
Kazuma had spent years being the sneaky bastard who played dirty and screwed with other people. When had it ever been his turn to get played this badly?
Right now, he wanted nothing more than to grab all four ancient founders by the head, twist their necks like ropes, then punt their skulls across the void like footballs.
"That was entirely your own assumption."
The Kuchiki founder sounded immensely pleased with himself.
"We never once told you that the Shiba founder was our hidden trump card."
He was enjoying this far too much.
Kazuma had cut him open earlier, leaving him with plenty of pent-up resentment.
Watching Kazuma rage helplessly after realizing he'd outsmarted himself was almost enough to make up for it.
Kazuma glared at them for several seconds.
Then, realizing that anger alone was accomplishing absolutely nothing, he asked,
"How did he die?"
For all his fury, he remained trapped inside the prison and could do little more than stare at them.
"We killed him, of course."
The four founders' voices were chillingly calm.
They stood around Kazuma like wolves surrounding prey that had already been cornered, utterly confident that he had nowhere left to run.
As far as they were concerned, Kazuma was trapped.
There was no need to worry about whatever tricks he might try next.
The Tsunayashiro founder noticed the genuine curiosity in Kazuma's eyes and smiled faintly.
Since the man was so interested, there was little harm in telling him.
"You killed him?"
Kazuma frowned.
"Because he disagreed with you?"
He'd already guessed part of the answer.
Among the original five noble founders, the Shiba ancestor had vehemently opposed the mutilation of the Soul King.
Perhaps that disagreement had eventually escalated into a conflict serious enough that the other four joined forces to eliminate him.
"We certainly disagreed."
One of the founders nodded.
"But that was not the real reason."
His voice gradually hardened.
"The truly unforgivable part was that he dared stand in the way of our rule over the Three Worlds — and our path toward a far greater world beyond them."
Anger flared in his eyes at the memory, as though he wished he could resurrect the Shiba founder solely for the pleasure of killing him again.
"Tell me, why should someone so incapable of understanding the future have been allowed to live?"
Kazuma's expression changed.
"A greater world…?"
Those words immediately caught his attention.
His eyes sharpened.
These four ancient bastards knew that something existed beyond the Bleach world?
Under normal circumstances, they should never have possessed that knowledge.
Unless…
one of them had somehow made contact with the mysterious god lurking beyond this world.
Kazuma's gaze slowly shifted toward the four weapons.
The bow.
The sword.
The scales.
The scythe.
Something clicked.
His heart jolted.
Those weapons were almost exact representations of the legendary Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The bow symbolized conquest.
The scales represented famine.
The sword embodied war.
And the scythe—death.
An astonishing possibility flashed through Kazuma's mind.
Could the mysterious divine being hidden behind all of this somehow be connected to the Apocalypse itself?
Kazuma took a slow breath.
"I'm guessing you've already established contact with a god from beyond this world."
The moment those words left his mouth, the Tsunayashiro founder's pupils contracted.
Shock flashed across his face before he could conceal it.
The four founders had always assumed Kazuma was merely an unusually powerful Shinigami born within the Three Worlds.
They had never imagined that he might know anything about matters beyond this world.
Kazuma saw their reactions and immediately knew he'd hit something important.
"Oh, come on."
He sneered.
"Do you seriously think I'm stupid?"
"I might have walked into your carefully prepared trap, but my brain still works perfectly fine."
He pointed at the Tsunayashiro founder's weapon.
"That bow in your hands carries the unmistakable power of Conquest."
His gaze shifted.
"The scales held by the Shihōin founder represent Famine."
Then to the Ise founder.
"That sword is practically screaming War."
Finally, his eyes settled on the Kuchiki founder's enormous scythe.
"And that one doesn't exactly require much imagination, does it?"
"Death."
Kazuma explained everything with perfect calm, almost as though he were discussing something completely ordinary.
The four founders, however, were anything but calm.
Their hearts were in turmoil.
The nature of the powers represented by their weapons was absolutely not information that anyone from the Three Worlds should have known.
Even Adnyeus, an ancient being who had existed within this world for countless years, might not have understood the truth behind them.
Yet Kazuma had identified all four with barely a glance.
Then one of the founders suddenly reached a horrifying conclusion.
"There is… a god behind you as well?"
The atmosphere changed instantly.
The four founders, who'd remained composed until now, could no longer hide their alarm.
They'd carried out this entire operation under the orders of the mysterious and immensely powerful god supporting them.
Originally, they'd considered Kazuma nothing more than an extraordinarily strong Shinigami.
Dangerous, yes.
But still manageable.
With all four of them working together, plus the weapons and powers bestowed upon them by their divine patron, trapping Kazuma should have been entirely within their capabilities.
But now Kazuma had revealed something they'd never considered.
Perhaps there was another god standing behind him.
The possibility caught all four completely off guard.
Their patron had never mentioned anything about this.
If Kazuma truly had the backing of another divine being, then what had initially seemed like a straightforward capture mission was suddenly far more complicated than they'd imagined.
Possibly far beyond anything the four of them were capable of controlling.
They exchanged uneasy looks.
This was no longer funny.
A mission they'd considered virtually guaranteed to succeed had suddenly become a contest filled with completely unknown variables.
Kazuma watched their expressions and almost laughed.
"You're not completely stupid after all."
From the looks on their faces, the being they served had clearly told them very little.
Otherwise, these four scheming old monsters would never have made the ridiculous assumption that some god was standing behind Kazuma and protecting him.
There was no divine patron backing Kazuma from somewhere outside.
The truth was far stranger.
Hokushin Raitei himself existed within Kazuma's inner world.
But there was absolutely no reason to explain that minor detail to these four idiots.
Kazuma straightened his back and immediately decided to make full use of their misunderstanding.
"You reckless old fools actually dared imprison me here?"
He looked at them with open disdain.
"Did nobody tell you there's an overwhelmingly powerful god behind me?"
The four founders' expressions stiffened further.
Kazuma continued, now sounding more arrogant with every word.
"If that divine being discovers what you've done to me, you won't even have the opportunity to beg for mercy."
He paused dramatically.
"I've already been missing for days."
"With his power, he has almost certainly discovered what happened by now."
Kazuma smiled coldly.
"For all you know, he's already on his way here."
"So when he arrives…"
His grin widened.
"You four can wait to die."
Kazuma spoke with such conviction that one might genuinely believe an unfathomably powerful god was about to descend upon this space at any moment.
"Hmph."
The Ise founder quickly recovered her composure.
"You expect us to be frightened by such a crude bluff?"
Her gaze carried open disdain.
She'd always been the most analytical and level-headed of the four, and even if Kazuma truly did have a god coming to rescue him, she saw no reason to panic.
Their own side had a god as well.
Their divine patron would never stand by and allow another outside deity to interfere.
If a genuine threat appeared, that being would certainly intervene.
That thought restored much of her confidence.
She straightened her posture and looked down at Kazuma as though she'd already seen through his little game.
Kazuma refused to give an inch.
"Hah! Then you'd better hope the god behind you can actually take a beating."
His confidence remained absolute.
"Gods beyond this world aren't all equal."
He sneered.
"For all you know, the one you've been worshipping is some third-rate nobody who'll get the shit beaten out of him the moment mine shows up."
Kazuma certainly had no intention of losing a contest of bravado.
Even if the being behind them truly was connected to the Apocalypse, so what?
He refused to believe some small-time outsider like that could possibly be a match for Hokushin Raitei.
"Whatever."
Kazuma casually sat down.
"Wash your necks and wait to be slaughtered."
With that, he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
If these four old bastards wanted to play dirty, then he'd scare the life out of them instead.
Did they really think he was made of clay?
The four founders looked at one another.
For the first time since trapping Kazuma, none of them knew what to believe.
Was he bluffing?
Or was another god truly on its way?
And suddenly, none of them felt quite so certain anymore.