Becoming a god isn't as pleasant as one might think.
Someone might ask, "What are you talking about? What could be better than becoming an omniscient, omnipotent god?"
True. It could be good. But everything in life has its pros and cons; where there is light, there is shadow.
There's a movie called Bruce Almighty that collects the advantages and disadvantages of omniscience and omnipotence, so watching it once wouldn't be a bad idea.
Of course, my deification is quite different in nature from the Creator in that movie.
If I had to compare, the Soul King would be closer to that.
A being that interferes with the world through his own will. It could be said that this world itself, including the Three Worlds, is the Soul King's divinity.
In contrast, I am a being who stands alone within the world inside myself. A being completed as an individual, not through my surroundings.
Nothing can serve as my proof, and nothing can replace me.
My divinity is myself. I am my own god. I am the final form of the world I wish to create.
Of course, there will be very, very few who achieve complete apotheosis like me.
Seekers who save themselves can never be many.
"Just what... what are you talking about...!"
I saw Ichibe Hyosube looking at me with a face full of bewilderment.
The past he walked, the present he witnessed, and the thousands of possibilities he held entered my vision.
Thousands of strands of thread originated from him, fluttering in the air; they were so fragile it felt as though they would snap just by the touch of a finger.
"Is this the kind of world you've been living in?"
As I said that and looked toward the Soul King, I saw him covered in an uncountable number of thread bundles.
It was a phenomenon that occurred because he was the gathering point of all possibilities. In a sense different from my own, his future could not be seen.
Omniscience and Omnipotence. Is this what it looks like when you visualize the ability to achieve anything you desire?
In contrast, not a single line was connected to me.
Impotence. But it is not impotence because I can do nothing. It is the end of all possibilities. The most extreme possibility a human can possess.
Because I was death and destruction itself, no thread could ever connect to me.
Then what were the things I had achieved until now?
That was my will; it was not a fate permitted by the world, but a life I fought for and seized from the world.
I frowned deeply at the sensation of answers I didn't even need being provided automatically.
I let out a long sigh and tapped my temple with my palm.
"What a headache-inducing way to live."
A god's vision is different from a human's. Unlike humans, who exist in the present, a god is singular and unbound by time.
I could see anything I wanted to see, and since the answer already existed within me, there was no need to seek it.
This is truly inconvenient because it becomes difficult to indulge in useless thoughts.
I could do it if I tried, but I just felt it instinctively.
'I already know the answer, so do I really need to take the long way around?'
This thought occurred to me naturally.
This was exactly why I hated the idea of becoming a god...
"Well, it happened anyway, so what can I do? I should finish what I started before thinking about it."
I chuckled and dusted off my hands, turning my head as I felt Hyosube's gaze fixed on me.
Ichibe Hyosube was looking at me as if I were something incomprehensible.
It was understandable. To him, it must feel as if a mountain of staggering height had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
From wondering why it appeared to questioning what this mountain even was, he must have a lot to think about.
"Don't think too hard about it, Ichibe Hyosube. I already knew that you would try to kill me after you fell into Hell. No, saying I 'knew' is slightly wrong. To be precise, even the fact that you would try to kill me was part of the plan."
"You used me...? If so, how are you any different from me...!! Using another being for your own ends just as I did!! How can you act so high and mighty after claiming it was wrong!! If that is not a contradiction and self-refutation, then what is!"
"Didn't I tell you? There is a difference between suppressing and crushing things that haven't even happened, and predicting and preparing for things that haven't happened."
Infatuated with the measly power of his 'eyes,' Ichibe Hyosube had tried to suppress and crush Yhwach, the King of the Quincies, to manipulate him according to his will.
He did so while rationalizing that he was working for the sake of the world, simply because the King of the Quincies might become a great threat in the future.
In contrast, I merely cast Ichibe Hyosube into Hell as a verdict based on the principles of justice and punishment for his sins; I did nothing else to him.
"Utilizing the given environment and trying to kill me was your own will. Did I ever command you to kill me? Did I ever force the choice of killing me upon you?"
"You shouldn't have thrown me into Hell in the first place!! If you hadn't done that...!!"
"If I hadn't, what would have changed? Are you trying to say you wouldn't have tried to kill me? Even though you were secretly planning to seal me?"
Did you think I wouldn't know that?
Did you think I wouldn't notice a black ant constantly trying to crawl up, or the 'blackness' lurking within?
Did you truly think I wouldn't know that you intended to grant me a name and a life just to puppet me to your whims?
Did you think I was that easy?
"That is...!!"
"Then you'll say everything would have been fine if I hadn't intervened at all. What would have changed then? The Quincy who turned into enemies of the Soul Reapers? Squad 0 who died at Yhwach's hands only to be brought back? Yhwach, who kills the Soul King and collapses the Three Worlds? A peace built upon countless deaths? Or perhaps you, living large after successfully sealing me? Or the gates of Hell opening due to conflict with Hell?"
Every time I listed one of the possibilities I saw, Hyosube's expression stiffened.
"I simply lived my life. You simply lived yours. We became intertwined as we lived our respective lives, and this is merely the result reached through countless choices. There is only will there; no one is at fault."
"Then... you're saying even the fact that I fell into Hell was a result of my own choices...?"
"Of course. Did you expect to live a life of luxury in Heaven forever after accumulating such massive karmic debt? Foolish man."
Leaving the speechless Hyosube behind, I walked toward the Soul King.
Having scraped the very bottom of the power I gave him to deliver his final strike, the Soul King's physical vessel was now attempting to reconnect with the parts of himself remaining on the surface to maintain its existence.
If left alone, the Soul King's Left Arm, Right Arm, Heart, and all other fragments on the surface would be drawn back to him.
If that happened, unnecessary sacrifices would be made. Jushiro Ukitake, the Sternritter Pernida Parnkgjas, Gerard Valkyrie, and everyone else possessing a fragment of the Soul King would perish.
It had to end now.
I couldn't drive innocent children to their deaths just for the sake of our reunion.
"You wouldn't want unnecessary sacrifices either."
"I agree."
"Do you feel relieved?"
"I'm not quite sure."
Saying that, the Soul King looked at me and gave a faint smile.
"...At least, not yet."
"You saw it, then."
The Soul King gave no answer, but that was enough.
As I said before, the answer already existed within me.
I began to gather all my flames into the palm of my hand.
Unlike the Soul King, whose final strike required the world to move, my blow moved nothing.
The wind was calm, the sky was clear, and the ground did not shake.
Since my world was within me, the only thing that changed was my will.
A small fireball floating above my palm and the halo behind my head began to devour the flames blooming from me, growing in size until it was slightly larger than a head.
Compared to the lightning-clad sun the Soul King had created, it was a tiny and insignificant-looking ball of fire, yet the power contained within was immense.
The moment it was complete, the ball of fire began to burn violently, incinerating everything around me.
The ground melted completely into a sea of lava, and the sky collapsed into a state of absolute nothingness.
It was destruction itself, created literally to burn all things in the universe to nothing.
"Farewell."
"Let us meet again in the next life."
Accepting the Soul King's final goodbye, I smiled and detonated the tiny sun in my palm.
"Pashupata (पाशुपता)."
And then, only light remained.
*
After the light subsided, I opened my eyes and scratched my head in the center of Hell, where neither Ichibe Hyosube nor the Soul King remained.
The only thing left before me was the Soul King's soul, slowly disappearing like fading ashes after a total burn.
"It's finally over."
I gave a bitter smile, gathered the Soul King's soul, and headed toward the edge of Hell—the Hell of Black Darkness where Ichibe Hyosube had originally fallen.
The reason I threw the monk into the Hell of Black Darkness was not actually to make him try to kill me.
The true purpose was to make that bald priest turn the Hell of Black Darkness into his own territory.
Why did I bother with such a thing?
"To protect this."
I smiled faintly as I looked at the Gate of the Six Realms of Reincarnation. Though broken and damaged here and there by the impact of the final strike, it was still performing its role.
The Gate of the Six Realms of Reincarnation lies beyond the Hell of Black Darkness.
It's the end.
I, who started my life as a human, have become a god.
And the Soul King, who started his life as a god, becomes a human.
I placed the remains of the Soul King's soul into the path of the Six Realms of Reincarnation.