"Cough, cough, can't hold on much longer." Nimaiya leaned on Sayafushi, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
His proud Zanpakuto creation skills and Soul King's power appeared utterly pale and powerless against Setsuna's tactics of 'infinite revival + infinite self-destruction'.
Kirinji also knelt on one knee, his Reiatsu dim, his haori shattered, his face full of fatigue and reluctance.
Ichibe'e wiped the blood from his brow, his gaze grave to the extreme.
"There's no choice but to use that method." Ichibe'e spoke in a deep voice. "Exile him to Hell, let him sink in endless sin."
He looked at Yamamoto, Nimaiya, and Kirinji: "Genryusai, Oetsu, Tenjiro, I am going to open the Gates of Hell now. You need to buy me thirty seconds."
"Thirty seconds?" Nimaiya exclaimed in surprise. "It takes that long? It's just opening the Gates of Hell."
"An ordinary Gates of Hell naturally does not require this." Ichibe'e shook his head slightly. "But he is not only a living 'ghost', he is also an existence at the Transcendent level."
"To forcibly open a Gates of Hell stable enough to safely exile an existence like him, we must maximally communicate with Hell's will and construct the most stable, most powerful passage! Thirty seconds is already the shortest possible time."
As if sensing Ichibe'e's intention, Setsuna's offensive suddenly became even more violent.
"You want to exile me? Don't even think about it!" Setsuna roared, the speed of his nirvanic rebirth seeming to increase slightly.
Crimson-gold karmic flames and black-red lightning intertwined, like a mad demon, he pounced towards Ichibe'e, who was preparing the ritual.
"Stop him!" Yamamoto roared. The radiance of [Zanjitsu Gokui] blazed to its peak as he actively met Setsuna.
Attacking instead of defending, using the destructive flames of fifteen million degrees to construct a moving line of death.
Nimaiya and Kirinji also forced the last of their power, harassing from the flanks to buy time for Ichibe'e.
The battle reached its climax.
Each of Setsuna's attacks was earth-shattering. Yamamoto and the others desperately resisted, narrowly escaping danger at every turn.
Fifteen seconds passed!
When Ichibe'e's ritual was half complete, Setsuna seized a fleeting opening. A Lightning Speed Fist, fusing Conqueror's Haki and Phoenix flames, blasted through Kirinji's defense.
Setsuna followed up with a point-blank [Judgment by Karmic Flames], completely annihilating the severely wounded Kirinji!
"Kirinji!" Nimaiya roared. In his moment of distraction, Setsuna spun and struck him on the neck with a hand blade.
His strength was considerably greater than Kirinji's, so he wasn't instantly killed, but his spiritual body was heavily damaged, his radiance sharply dimming, almost losing combat effectiveness.
All three Zero Division's members were out of the fight, leaving Yamamoto alone to hold the line.
But he was, after all, the strongest Shinigami of the millennium. Relying on the absolute defense of [Zanjitsu Gokui], the terrifying attack power of Zanka no Tachi, and his extremely rich combat experience...
He forcibly firmly held back the seemingly crazed Setsuna, not letting him advance an inch!
Every collision between them caused the earth of the Seireitei to tremble and space to groan.
Twenty seconds, twenty-five seconds, thirty seconds!
"It's complete!" Ichibe'e's eyes snapped open. He formed hand seals and pushed forward.
Before him appeared a super Gates of Hell, inscribed with agonized, wailing faces and ancient chain reliefs, exuding an aura of eternal death, endless punishment, and absolute sealing.
The doors burst open. No light emerged, only absolute darkness deeper and more terrifying than a black hole.
And a pull so vast it seemed capable of dragging in the entire world.
This pull precisely locked onto Setsuna.
But Setsuna's strength was too great. Even this black hole-like Gates of Hell could not pull him in… they remained deadlocked in the air.
"Now! Genryusai, lend me your strength!" Ichibe'e roared, pouring all his power into maintaining and guiding this beyond-specification Gates of Hell.
Yamamoto understood. Zanka no Tachi was suddenly thrust into the ground.
"Zanka no Tachi: East - Tenchi Kaijin!"
He transformed his remaining power into a violent propulsive force, coordinating with the pull of the Gates of Hell, slamming into Setsuna from behind.
Under the dual force, even someone as strong as Setsuna was involuntarily dragged, sliding towards that massive door that seemed able to swallow everything.
"Bastard!" Setsuna roared. The Phoenix Cloth's radiance flashed intensely. His Cosmo frantically burned, trying to resist the pull.
But the maximum passage Ichibe'e had meticulously prepared for thirty seconds, communicating with Hell's will to open, had pull and sealing characteristics far beyond the ordinary. Added to Yamamoto's full-power push...
His feet left the ground, his body uncontrollably dragged towards the darkness within the door.
"Captain!" Zaraki, Azashiro, and Koga were greatly alarmed.
But their strength was still far from the Transcendent level, they couldn't even approach Yamamoto's fire prison.
Just as half his body was about to vanish into the Gates of Hell, Setsuna suddenly lifted his head. His face showed no fear, only a smile full of challenge and anticipation.
He issued his final declaration to those outside the door, to the entire Seireitei:
"Hell cannot trap me!"
"Just wait!"
"When I, from this land of endless punishment..."
"The day of my nirvanic return—"
"Will be the day Soul Society's sky completely changes!"
As his words fell, his figure was completely swallowed by the darkness of the Gates of Hell.
Boom!
The massive Gates of Hell emitted a heavy rumble, slowly closing and shrinking, finally turning into a point of black light, completely disappearing into the air.
All that remained was a massive crater, ravaged beyond recognition by the high temperatures and battle aftershocks, and the lingering, soul-chilling residual aura of Hell in the air.
Almost at the same moment, a black spatial rift silently opened.
A golden Negación Pillar precisely descended, enveloping Zaraki, Azashiro, and Koga, who were still fighting some Shinigami.
The three's figures rapidly ascended within the reverse membrane, received into the Garganta, and the rift then closed.
Ichibe'e watched the direction where the Garganta had disappeared, without even the thought of pursuit.
His aura was weak, he was injured, and the Zero Division had suffered heavy losses. He urgently needed to return to the Soul King Palace to recuperate and recover.
As for the aftermath of those three, he would leave it to Yamamoto to handle.
It was then that he seemed to remember something, asking belatedly: "By the way, what about those wise sages and judges of the Central 46?"
Yamamoto pointed to the ruins below, which had been repeatedly ravaged by the battle aftershocks.
"All caught in the crossfire of the battle just now. Burned to ashes."
Ichibe'e upon hearing this, merely nodded slightly: "As long as the fundamental order of Soul Society can restore stability, that's fine. The wise sages and judges can be replaced with a new batch."
For him, stability was fundamental. Who sat in those positions was not important.
However, for the nobles of Soul Society who had witnessed everything that night, their feelings were completely different.
They cowered in corners or behind ruins, staring at the direction where Setsuna had disappeared, their hearts filled with fear.
"Can a place like Hell really trap him?"
"He is immortal. He will definitely come back!"
"When he returns, he will settle accounts with us! No, from today on, I will be an upright noble!"
"Correct! We must take Captain Chiaki as our goal!"
The Captain-Commander took all of this in, thinking to himself: 'Their change is not because their conscience awoke, but because Setsuna's came.'