Boom!
The sounds of bones breaking and tendons snapping rang out one after another. Ulquiorra tore off his wing and avoided Kenpachi Zaraki's stomp.
His slender body staggered back to its feet as flesh and blood rapidly regenerated.
Why had he become so much stronger than when the battle first began, yet Kenpachi Zaraki could still display even greater strength?
The question had only just surfaced in Ulquiorra's mind before instinct drove it away.
His body dodged Kenpachi Zaraki's attack on reflex. Blood gushed from Ulquiorra's palm, dark green light flashed, and strange black, jagged distortions appeared around the ball of light.
This was Gran Rey Cero, a technique only the Espada could use. By mixing in his own blood, its unleashed power was several times greater than an ordinary Cero.
Ulquiorra's arm trembled. He had to grip his wrist with his other hand just to barely stabilize the rampaging power.
The pitch-black jagged edges contracted inward, completely wrapping around the dark green light, only to be eroded by that same dark green in the next moment. Ulquiorra spread his fingers, and the deep green light froze for an instant before it began to move.
Unlike an ordinary Cero or black Cero, Gran Rey Cero was not a beam. It looked more like a constantly shifting sphere of light, drawing a strange, warped arc through the air as it approached Kenpachi Zaraki.
Chaotic gusts collided and tangled together. Everything before Kenpachi Zaraki was swallowed by deep green.
Only when the edge of his Zanpakutō touched the Gran Rey Cero did Kenpachi Zaraki belatedly realize it.
The Cero was not changing shape, nor was its path twisting.
Its terrifying power was warping the surrounding space.
Because Arrancar possessed the ability to open Garganta, a Cero mixed with Arrancar blood also gained the power to distort space.
Tiny fragments chipped from the already battered Zanpakutō. The trembling blade steadied again under Kenpachi Zaraki's iron grip, then came crashing down.
The distorted space shattered, and the power compressed within it burst apart completely.
In that instant, it was as if every sound had disappeared. Only the surging dark green, wrapped in pitch black, swept across everything. Great stretches of towering spires were crushed to pieces, and the falling rubble vanished into ash before it could touch the ground.
"Hah... hah..." Even Ulquiorra in Segunda Etapa could not avoid gasping for breath after using such powerful techniques in succession. Yet unlike his exhausted body, his mind was growing more excited. "Finally..."
Looking at Kenpachi Zaraki lying silent in the ruins, a faint light flickered in Ulquiorra's lifeless eyes.
The instant he defeated Kenpachi Zaraki, he finally experienced the enjoyment Kenpachi had spoken of.
In that moment, he had no time at all to think about any so-called meaning. Even a split second of distraction could have changed the outcome.
By immersing himself completely in the battle, then defeating Kenpachi Zaraki in that instant, the indescribable sense of achievement brought Ulquiorra a kind of exhilarating satisfaction.
Ah... Ulquiorra had finally found the answer.
If happiness truly existed in this world, then it must be something like boundless nothingness.
Nothingness meant there was nothing at all, and nothing left to lose.
If that was not happiness, then what was?
While he had been thinking about that question, he had already been expecting a happiness beyond nothingness.
While longing for the happiness brought by nothingness, he had also been searching for a happiness outside of it.
Because by doing nothing, one could obtain the happiness of nothingness.
That was why he was curious. What kind of happiness did those who were determined to do something gain?
That was why Ulquiorra had not died in the darkness, but instead followed Sōsuke Aizen and became his most loyal Arrancar.
Sōsuke Aizen had a grand plan, and he carried it out with unwavering resolve, moving toward the result he wanted without accepting doubt from anyone.
Ulquiorra's loyalty came from anticipation.
He anticipated the outcome when Sōsuke Aizen succeeded.
Would Sōsuke Aizen obtain happiness, or would he feel emptiness?
If Sōsuke Aizen felt supreme happiness, then Ulquiorra should also be able to find something to do, and thereby obtain happiness beyond nothingness.
If even Sōsuke Aizen, with his clear goal and tremendous ability to execute it, still found only emptiness after succeeding, then Ulquiorra, who had no goal of his own, had even less reason to do anything unnecessary.
For that answer, Ulquiorra would do everything in his power to help Sōsuke Aizen.
To help Aizen, Ulquiorra fought Kenpachi Zaraki with all his strength.
And Kenpachi Zaraki was different from Sōsuke Aizen. Kenpachi Zaraki had no interest in long-term plans. He devoted himself entirely to enjoying the battle before him.
Compared to observing Sōsuke Aizen, fighting Kenpachi Zaraki could give him an answer faster and more directly.
And so Ulquiorra, as the embodiment of nothingness, fought to the death with Kenpachi Zaraki, who enjoyed battle, in order to search for whether happiness existed beyond nothingness.
At first, he had believed that if he won, Kenpachi Zaraki's enjoyment of battle would be meaningless.
If he lost, then Kenpachi Zaraki's enjoyment of battle would be meaningful.
Yet in the face of life-or-death danger, he had abandoned thought completely and thrown himself wholeheartedly into battle, just like Kenpachi Zaraki.
To forget the meaning of battle while fighting was itself the meaning of battle.
No matter the final result, giving oneself completely to battle and enjoying it was meaningful.
Precisely because everything would eventually return to meaningless nothingness, everything that had not yet returned to nothingness had meaning.
Just as a battle would eventually end, fighting with all one's strength was what gave it meaning.
A battle without an end was not worth giving everything to.
A battle without giving everything had no end.
Endless nothingness was a finish line. Its existence was not there to deny the meaning of running, but to make everyone on the track... give everything they had.
"If only I had understood sooner..." Ulquiorra looked at the silent Yachiru Kusajishi. "Then I could have enjoyed it together with him even earlier."
Those words should have been spoken to Kenpachi Zaraki, but Kenpachi Zaraki could no longer hear them.
Yachiru Kusajishi reached out, her pale fingertip pointing behind Ulquiorra. "It's... not too late."
A hideous skeleton bit down on Ulquiorra's body, tearing him in half, and chewed his head with a crunch.
This is... killing intent!
Ulquiorra snapped his head around and saw Kenpachi Zaraki standing again.
Beating his wings, Ulquiorra appeared on the other side of Kenpachi Zaraki.
"Hm?" Kenpachi Zaraki turned and stared at Ulquiorra, who had not attacked right away. "What are you doing?"
Ulquiorra glanced at Yachiru Kusajishi behind Kenpachi Zaraki as light gathered in his hand. "This is the only way to enjoy the battle with everything we have. For both you... and me."