The phoenix soldiers were all in their respective post as they guarded the chariot. While the triplets arrived outside together with the Arranchar maids and their stuffs were neatly packed, they were surprised that the Dark Lord was here.
Baffled by what was going on, Rangiku went to Rukia and asked:
" Is the dark lord sending us somewhere? Is there something wrong?"
" Dark lord Yumikō insisted me to take you all home while he had some unfinished business to attend to." Rukia answered
" Huh? Already?" Yoshimura asked, but to Ichitarō, he wondered why would Yumikō decide on such short notice. Heck, he didn't spotted Excalibur anywhere either.
Seconds later after bringing Renji inside, Ichitarō went to Shunsui and was worried on Ramune's reaction.
" I can't believe we're leaving here for good. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to everyone." He stated, sadly.
" There will be time for that." He said.
" Would you send my regards to her?"
" I will."
" The three of them have to leave now." Yumikō insisted after maids and guards were done packing inside the chariot along with the triplets. By then, the chariot took off as they waved goodbye. Watching the chariot departed, Yumikō couldn't help but to feel guilty at that point. While Shunsui noticed his distress and finally understood why would he made that decision.
" I know that feeling. It happened the same thing to us where I come from." He said, making Yumikō scoff.
" The Elders and their decisions. Sometimes, it's full of shit, other times it'll make a leader tremble, uncertain if one would do it. Even if it's against them."
" You're doing the best you can. What now?" Jushirō asked.
" All that's left is to save your home. Boys, get yourself ready." He answered, with a smile on his face.
~~~~~~~
It was late midnight now and they have already left. Yoshimura was peeping out of window as soon as the sun hadn't come out. She stepped away from the window and looked through her flip phone to play some games. It even woke Renji up with a splitting headache.
In the mean time, the Retributions were watching them. As they've reached to the Crystal Souls, the mage warrior conducted the others equally for the eyes of their prize.
" So, this is where they'll be taking them?", The mage warrior wondered, she couldn't help but to smile deviously when she saw them." The Espada's girlfriend sure is smart enough to put two and two together when it comes to attacks and strategies. I can even sense their presence from miles away. Now that `he` isn't here and Halis left me in charge because he's busy with something, why don't we track them down and attack? This is Kazumi's orders after all."
" That sounds like a marvelous idea, Hexis."
" Here they come," Hexis whispered, mostly to herself when she spotted a chariot. As the chariot ascended, a flock five phoenix soldiers were marching in the forests, carrying their weapons and two young chauffeurs were sitting awkwardly at the front in silence until snow had fallen down, followed by a freezing cold, howling wind getting closer to them as they wondered through the ebon winter.
Suddenly, something affects the road as it stirred in. The chariot around them wobbled as they've reached to the town of Crystal Souls. Vines and crystal like branches were blocking the wheels and the horses. By then, those vines went inside those horses against their will and it grows inside them, devouring their insides and are now dropped dead.
" Why are you leaving so soon, when you just got here, kids? We've been waiting for you." Hexis's voice echoed. By the time they turn their backs, they saw the Retributions again, emerging from the forestry woods. Their eyes are on the chariot and the three of them took them out and stepped back
Just then, Hexis, Mustang, Mace, Knife and Blade appeared beneath the shadowy ebon night. Although neither Halis nor the other Retribution member had arrived, they all gradually got up from the shadows and a mischievous smile appeared on Hexis, caught everyone by surprised except for the phoenix soldiers who knew what they was up to.
" Shadow creatures, we're not afraid of you all! ARCHERS, FIRE!!" Shouted one of the phoenix soldiers.
Archers raised their bows up and unleashed massive amounts of flaming arrows straight through them. The shield warrior and rushes in. His hands glowed and water appeared, morphing it into a shield, countering the attack and transforming it into smoke.
Two out of five warriors on the same outfit, descending from their horses and they surrounded the Retributions, Only Rangiku noticed it and she wondered what are they are going to do to them as they were ambushed. Five phoenix soldiers joined together in a circles and Rapture blasted two soldiers together with her wings, as they were sent flying away. The phoenix guards transformed into their phoenix bodies and used their fiery feathers to shield the chariot.
He started weaving his hand as they slowly approached the chariot where the kids are, then sniffed a great deal of smoke with his fingers. Blade absorbed it immediately and he released the flames on the others. Renji took out the triplets to safety and bounced back as they watched the crashed chariot engulfed by fire.
[ KA-BOOM!!! ]
Turning his head swiftly, Renji saw Hexer, Rapture and Mustang advancing towards him, with Rapture stretching back her hands and summoned her staff and the three of them attacked him. Distracted by who he was seeing, one of the injured phoenix guards was freed from the hold force by Hexis and within minutes, he took the triplets when an incoming plasma ball knocked him and stabbed his chest across the trees, turning himself into ash.
She looked up as her black eyes glowed and she slice some of them in half. Moreover their blood stained the snowy ground.
Minutes had passed and the five phoenix guards rushes in with their weapons. Now there's one remained and four were in ashes. The three soul reapers followed them from behind as they could see the Retributions on a distance.
As confident warriors, Rukia, Ichigo and Renji stared at one of the Retributions targeting the triplets. Without hesitation, their attacks were blocked by the shield warrior, Mustang.
They were split individually and attacked them, when Rukia felt a hand placed on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Blade standing behind her. His smile appeared behind his mask and punched her small body. Ichigo saw this and was furious at Blade, but Knife couldn't let him get away.
" You're not leaving yet, substitute bastard!" He yelled, throwing daggers at him. Ichigo caught an incoming dagger and he blocked the others by swinging his blade.
{ DANCE: SODE NO SHIRAYUKI }
Meanwhile, Rukia grabbed the ribbon from the end of the handle and the pommel and span her Zanpakuto as it gathered some snow particles, both from the sky to the ground.
{ YON NO MAE: MŌFUBUKI }
Moreover from the tip of her blade, she released snowy wave, but Blade didn't see it as a dangerous attack. Once she jumped high and while in the air, Rukia swung her sword and a tornado like blizzard slashes Blade, but he dodged it and grabbed the Zanpakuto, then destroyed her incoming attack and the blade itself with his barehands. He raised his fist and landed on to Rukia. She quickly leaps on one of the trees and his fist crashed through it.
{ SAN NO MAE: SHIRAFUNE }
Incarnating her Zanpakuto's special ability, Rukia then did a back flip and her Zanpakuto reforged itself, piercing through his chest and ice crystals feasted on his heart all the way to his body. Yet, not enough to kill him.
She tightened her grip on the sword. As soon as Mace advanced towards her, she swung the sword at him, trying to harm him. But he dodged her. Meanwhile, Hexis moulded a huge fireball and threw it at Renji.
{ ROAR: ZABIMARU }
As the fireball drew closer, Renji summoned his blade's shikai form and hit the fireball as it crashed through the other side from Crystal Souls. With her mind engulfed by lust for fight and mostly him, Hexis casted another spell and sent an ray of light towards him.
The incoming incoming blue light hit that ray of light violently, creating an explosion in midair and Renji noticed Rukia was saving him before continuing her fight with Mace.
" SHIT! We need to get out of here. Fast!" He said to himself. Within few minutes, Renji overcame a splitting hangover and ran freely, catching up on both of them while Ichigo was swinging his Zanpakuto on to the flying daggers that tried to attack them and Rukia dodges and strikes her opponent. Luckily, they found a well and on the inside, the water has yet to be frozen.
With the look of how the fight was going, they all were working with a plan to escape as Ichitarō, Yoshimura and Rangiku were not involved due to their safety and hadn't yet controlled their powers. Rapture unleashed fully her powers as her body and wings radiated a red lightning. She diverted the ray back to Rukia. However, she was smart enough to jump clear from that path.
[ DOOF! KA-BOOM!!!THRASH!! ]
Rukia, swiftly tilted her petite body and leap towards Rapture, stretched her leg and kicked her in the face as she landed to the ground and watched Rapture crashes down. Rukia ran further towards the well as she stayed close to its border. Technically, magic is magic, no matter what type of spell enacted it.
A whispery voice chanted inside the bottle and Rukia opened the bottle and threw it inside the well, ready to take them back. Sadly, nothing happened. They had no option, but to save them. Especially when they'll gamble their lives.
[ BLOB! ]
Despite Renji's hangover, Rukia's devotional confession to Ichigo and the triplets unusual powers were awakened, a sapphire violet light still shone through the well. Its sudden appeared caught Renji's corner of his eyes and he began noticing it.
' The portal. It works! Yumikō's dumm potion works.' he thought.
While they were dealing with the guards, he'd climbed down to take the kids with him. It was difficult work since he's now developing a hangover. But Hexis saw him, just as the well opened up its magical portal behind them.
As Hexis raced towards him, Renji swung his sword and attempted to slash Hexis, but she dodged the sword blow and punched him in his jaw. He staggered for a while and managed to control his feet before charges in towards her again.
Hexer conjured telekinesis and placed Renji's Zanpakuto in mid air. With all his strength, Renji tried to pull back his Zanpakuto but it wasn't working, making Hexis sneered in pleasure.
Ichigo jumped forward to rescue Renji but Rapture re-emerged her wings and sent a powerful blow to Ichigo, as he was flying in mid air and crashed against the trees.
The other phoenix soldiers tried to save the triplets as well, yet they all suffered the same fate. Hexis walked towards the triplets, evolving a black plasmic from her hand as she made that spell to kill them. Ichitarō and Rangiku were activating looktheir ability, but the black plasma sucked them in. That's when Yoshimura stood up and reached her both arms, protecting her siblings.
" Yoshimura, what are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Rangiku squeaked.
" Go and run away as far as possible you can. Don't worry about me, I'll catch up with you guys….. somehow." She answered and they're all stunned by her words.
" Yoshimura, we can't leave you here! " Ichitarō shouted.
" I do not care! They'll not attack me nor my siblings when I'm done kicking their asses, Ichitarō! Just go, you moron!" She shouted, hasn't returned her gaze to her brother.
" Enough speech, little girl! Hexis, get her!" Mace screamed and the mage warrior nodded. Hexis waved her hands and chanted:
{ SPELL 58: METEOR BLAST }
She shut her eyes as Hexis's spell latently increases with a flow of her magic. Just as it swelled up and the plasma ball briskly turned into light, it was heading straight to them. Seconds later, they were immediately stopped at what they were doing.
They felt a shivering spirit energy surrounding them. Uncertained who it was, their eyes widened with shock and it was too late on what's before them as it consumed them, except Hexis.
Afterwards, that certain ice creep towards Hexis and with full force of gluttony, it swallowed nearly whole of her body as her spell died down.
" Yoshimura, what the hell are you doing?" Ichigo's voice was heard and her eyes widened. To her suprise, a wave of ice appeared on thin air while it was expanding into a tsunami.
" Huh? What am I doing?" She asked herself, releasing her first ice powers. Not only did it countered Hexis's devastating spell, but it also devoured and froze her, leaving her left arm outside and the rest of the Retributions. All of them were shocked except Yoshimura, who couldn't believe what just happened in an exciting manner.
" This is our chance to escape. Renji, take her now while Ichigo and I will take the others!" Rukia shouted.
" Damnit, Rukia! Is it that necessary to shout at me like that?! Alright, I'll do it! Just don't give me that look again!" Renji grunted as Rukia wanted to give him that killer look.
Renji pulled Yoshimura with the last strength in him and he suddenly lifted and placed her on his shoulder as they all went inside the whirlpool, using the sphere from the Shiba clan. As the three of them placed their hands on the sphere, it transformed into a bubble as they jumped inside.
Ichigo, Rukia, Renji and the triplets were all sucked into the water portal and were all inside a bubble shaped forcefield. She looked at Ichigo and held him tightly as they were whisked away from the spirit world...
~~~~~~~~~
[ MEANWHILE….. ]
Battered, bruised, and now swallowed by a giant ice, Hexis felt her exposed cold arm and chanted on a spell, melting the ice bricks capable of freezing them to death. As soon as the pillar block of ice was destroyed, the Retributions gained a newly found information to finally tell Kazumi.
« We found them, my queen. They're hiding inside the well as we speak. You can come and see it for yourself, Your Highness and they are all yours.» she chuckled telepathically. At the same time, Yumikō and Starrk arrived, hiding beneath the shadows.
They waited for hours, while the sun hadn't made its move yet. The buzz that the Retributions' intrusion they've had created died down, and they feared Kazumi will forgot about leaving the Seireitei. This gave Yumikō a chance to ambush them.
He glanced down at the burnt chariot, then waved his hands to show his signal. Yumikō needed both hands for the task ahead, so he took out one of his potions. He and Starrk then crept towards Kazumi, ready to attack and capture her. But just before he could cork it out, Hexis chanted a spell and her words paralyzed him and Starrk.
" It will take more than a mere distraction and couple of brains to outsmart me, dear sister." Kazumi's voice boomed as the Retributions moved backwards while the snowy ground were separated into its naked, muddy ground as her shoulders became warm while golden wings erupted from her back.
She was quick when it comes to assaults, Yumikō couldn't do anything but wiggling himself to freedom. He was expecting to die, cursing his entire tribe and ways of protecting his people.
" I never thought you'd get this far, to be honest, Yumikō Mishima. But here you are, your soldiers are now ashes and you're all alone. Waiting to be trapped like a little mouse." She added.
Yumikō's eyes darkened with anger and replied;
" The sacrifice my men created, makes them even more important. To you, it's just a child's play, but to me? All I see is you gambling innocent lives for your greedy reasons. You always choose who must live and who doesn't. You're not Celestia and neither is that dead moron of yours."
Kazumi gave a dainty laugh and spoke;
" Do not put your sins on me, sister. You are just as guilty as those soul freaks from the Soul Society are. More so, in many different ways and yet, you still throw yourselves at death, all for those kids and taking my throne away from me. None of your kind can see the grand picture as I do."
She had the feeling that Yumikō was setting her up in her attempt to save the kids. Not knowing his full motivation.
" No. I will not let you destroy everything." He shook his head in anger. His voice was a guttural growl. Though it took effort not to make every word a shout, every sound a roar. " You do not seek balance. You always want control, domination and dictatorship. You are no better than Celestia. The spirit world belongs to no one. Celestia created for us all! Her wishes was to seek balance on both two worlds!"
" Balance? Balance? Celestia lost balance the moment she created thes evil bastards!" Kazumi argued. " All Aizen ever wanted to do is recreate it. That's all he wished for, dear sister." Her features softened, and she took a step forward.
" I will take the boy's heart and let Yato become the new spirit god and restore balance. No longer will puny mortals live and their pathetic world be at war with one another. There will finally be peace and I shall rule the spirit world without soul reapers around."
Something caught the Queen's side of her eye and a light vanished from the chariot, and it was just a magical glow. Kazumi didn't hesitate to head towards the chariot, assuming Ichitarō and his sisters were there and found no evidence regarding on the triplets. Only footprints marked the snow. She closed her eyes and giggled.
" Mortals are always reckless and pathetic race. I shouldn't have expecting you to understand." Her eyes snapped opened, cold and glowing with gathering power. " Once I'm done with the immolation, I'll remove that ` I want to be a man` attitude from you, then you will understand what I am capable of. All I ever wanted was my little sister back, can you be that person?"
" Go to hell, you insufferable ugly woman."
" What's done is done, Yumikō. The world's not meant to be Celestia's domain anymore. The wild spaces in both worlds are only wild, as long as their civilization exists. I shall be in control.
When her eyes changed to normal, she released a strong spell that wrapped Yumikō's body around and plastered him to the snowy ground, two of the Retributions, Blade and Mace followed to the unfrozen well. As she got closer, she incarnating a spell in a godly Valkyrian accent and almost immediately, a little light appeared in the palm of her hand.
{ CELESTIAL ART: DEMON SLAYING TRACKER}
A light around her bent towards her hand and covered his body like a film. She may not felt it, but she saw her palms shrouded in light, then morphing it into a sphere. That small light leapt off her hand and without hesitation, it landed towards the well, illuminating its shimmering light. A well projected a small, shimmering wave on her royal blue eyes. As she waved her hands and send it towards the , the ray of colours had suddenly changed and freezes the well.
With the well's water and its glowing light disappeared, Kazumi trembled while her body made a wide stance. There was no evidence that the triplets nor the lieutenants and Ichigo were at sight. It's like they have vanished from the face of the spirit earth.
"What the fuck! Impossible!" Kazumi thundered, retrieving back her wings while Hexis and the Retribution members went with him, bringing Starrk to his knees.