Countless mirrors rose throughout the Soul King Palace. The instant Aizen appeared within the inner sanctum, he unleashed all of his remaining Reiatsu. Beside the mirrors, countless versions of Aizen appeared, each one pierced through with spikes.
This was Aizen's final power. The strange Kidō inside him was still devouring his Reiatsu, and the wounds caused by the Monk still had not healed. Today, he no longer expected to defeat the Monk. There was only one thing he wanted to do.
Go to the inner sanctum and personally drag the Soul King down from that throne.
He would do this himself, not be escorted before the Soul King by the Monk like some captive.
The only one who could decide the fate of Sōsuke Aizen was Aizen himself.
"Honestly. Even now, you still insist on struggling."
The Monk felt a headache coming on because of this disobedient junior. All Aizen had to do was surrender obediently, yet he insisted on making these pointless moves. The Monk had already granted Aizen's wish to see the Soul King. What more did he want?
Helpless, the Monk swept his eyes—eyes engraved with truth—across his surroundings and frowned. In his sight, every single Aizen was real.
Interesting, but only slightly.
Those Aizens began releasing Kidō at the Monk all at once. However, with a light sweep of the Monk's brush, one Aizen was erased.
Weak.
Too weak.
After dividing himself into so many real existences, Aizen's strength had weakened to the point that it could almost be ignored. Even the Kidō they released did not make the Monk feel any need to defend. They could not pierce the body constructed from the Ōken at all.
Without much effort, the Monk found the body Aizen was controlling. There was no helping it. Only one body was flying toward the inner sanctum.
It seemed Aizen intended to use these duplicates to hold him back while he went to audience with the Soul King himself.
How improper!
Without him, the Soul King's follower, leading the way, how dare an outsider disturb the Soul King?
An expression of fury even greater than before appeared on the Monk's face. He did not care what Aizen did to him. Even if Aizen killed him, he would not care. But disturbing the Soul King touched his bottom line.
The Monk's pupils turned into black-and-white spiral patterns. Gripping Ichimonji, he swept out a horizontal slash. Black-and-white energy spread outward, wiping out every Aizen in an instant, and the Monk immediately gave chase.
Aizen glanced back. He had not expected the Monk to still be hiding such a powerful slash. It seemed that using duplicates had been a terrible first move, but he had no time to regret it now. He could only hope he reached the inner sanctum one step faster.
Behind Aizen, one Bakudō after another chased after him. In his current state, Aizen could use far too little power. Even his most familiar Dankū could not block the Monk's Kidō.
In the end, Aizen was still bound before he could enter the inner sanctum.
Vaguely, he could almost see that noble figure.
And yet, that was all.
Just a little more. Just a little more, and he could have reached the Soul King by his own will.
"Wait here. I will go in and report."
The Monk's tone was icy. It was clear that Aizen's rude behavior had thoroughly enraged him.
Aizen struggled to raise his head, wanting to see what the inside of the palace looked like. But bound hand and foot, he remained just short of being able to catch a glimpse of the scene inside.
After waiting for a long time, Aizen finally saw the Monk return. By then, the anger had vanished from the Monk's face. He once again wore a cheerful expression, looking like a harmless old man.
"Go in. But you are only allowed to look from a distance."
The Monk dragged Aizen to the highest level of the inner sanctum. It looked like an enormous plaza, with many pillars standing inside. At the center was a huge circular curtain.
Upon arriving there, the Monk directly released the Bakudō binding Aizen, showing no fear that he might run.
Because the Monk had elevated the sealing Kidō inside the Hōgyoku to the same level as the Hōgyoku itself, spikes still pierced Aizen's body. However, they did not prevent him from moving.
Aizen walked into the hall step by step. As he moved, the curtain around the circular enclosure was drawn open, revealing a man who had lost all four limbs, sealed within a crystal.
"So this is the Soul King?"
Although he had long had his suspicions, and although Aizen knew the Soul King was missing many parts of his body, when he saw the scene before him, he still could not help feeling shaken.
Very quickly, that shock was replaced by anger. Aizen turned to the Monk and asked, "Why has the Soul King, who has completely lost all ability to act independently, been placed by you upon this throne?"
"Are you using the Soul King as a puppet to command the Three Worlds?"
At this point, several traces of rage seemed to seep through Aizen's clenched teeth. Personally, Aizen liked the Three Worlds. In his eyes, someone like the Monk, who had hollowed out the Soul King for the sake of authority over the Three Worlds, was a sinner against this world.
Perhaps those nobles in the Seireitei were also inseparable from the people of Squad Zero.
All of them were sinners who had betrayed the Soul King.
"Heh?"
The Monk laughed disdainfully. Sitting cross-legged on the ground with his arms folded, he said, "What would you think if I told you that all of this was the Soul King's own choice?"
"That is impossible!" Aizen blurted out.
How could anyone willingly become a limbless husk, left with nothing in life but endless, empty sitting?
At least, he, Aizen, could never do it.
"Why would it be impossible? This act of the Soul King was all for the stability of the Three Worlds!"
The Monk spread both hands, his tone exaggerated.
"The Soul King willingly became the lynchpin that maintains the stability of the Three Worlds. Once he disappears, the worlds will immediately begin to collapse. That is the importance of the Soul King."
The Monk spoke word by word. There was no need for him to deceive Aizen.
"How could that be…?"
Aizen sat powerlessly on the ground.
To be honest, his defenses had shattered.
He had originally believed that the current Soul King on the throne was nothing more than a puppet, neither truly alive nor truly dead, pushed into place by the nobles.
What Aizen wanted to do was reshape the order of Soul Society. To achieve that goal, he had not hesitated to try to drive the Soul King from the throne and take control of the Three Worlds as the new king.
But the Monk's words had undoubtedly told Aizen one thing: the Soul King could not be touched.
If the Soul King moved, it meant the Three Worlds might become unstable. Aside from not speaking or moving, the importance of such a Soul King was beyond question.
Then what had all his years of effort amounted to?
Trying so hard to ascend a royal throne from which the king could not possibly be removed?
What a joke.
Thinking of this, Aizen then thought of the man who possessed the same research talent as him: Kisuke Urahara.
Aizen had long wanted to question Kisuke Urahara. With unparalleled talent, and with the ability to create the Hōgyoku, why had he been willing to scrape by under the Seireitei?
Now that Aizen thought about it, Kisuke Urahara had perhaps known the Soul King's secret long ago. Displaying his genius only within limits was Urahara's compromise with this unstable world.
Pfft. Pfft.
As Aizen began to give up resisting, two more spikes emerged from his shoulders. When Aizen no longer intended to resist, the power of the Kidō inside the Hōgyoku began to overpower the Hōgyoku itself.
The Hōgyoku's main body also needed to respect the emotions of its host when acting. Aizen's surrender meant that the portion of the Hōgyoku symbolizing Aizen had begun to lose balance, allowing the sealing Kidō's power to gain the upper hand.
"Oh, right. I heard you wanted to become the new Soul King?"
The Monk revealed an extremely sinister smile, every word dripping with mockery.
"You can, you know. As long as you throw the old Soul King down from there, I will make you into the new Soul King."
A bitter smile appeared on Aizen's face.
The Monk had just used the word "make," hadn't he?
A new Soul King?
Most likely, he would be no different from the old one. The Monk would carve him into a limbless husk and seal him away, leaving him who knew how many years before he might see the outside world again.
Aizen's guess was exactly what the Monk had in mind.
Strictly speaking, the condition for becoming the Soul King was to possess four kinds of power: Shinigami, Quincy, Hollow, and Fullbringer.
At present, Aizen possessed only Shinigami and Hollow powers. However, he had the most outrageous thing of all: the Hōgyoku.
The Monk believed that as long as Aizen and the Hōgyoku were sealed together, they could replace the previous king and maintain the stability of the Three Worlds for countless years.
In the Monk's eyes, the only important thing was the Soul King's ability to serve as the lynchpin. As for who the Soul King was, that did not matter. He did not even care why the lower world fought.
The only thing the Monk cared about was the stability of the Three Worlds.
This was one problem, but it would certainly not be the last.
He gave up.
No matter how unwilling he had been to stand beneath another, at this moment, Aizen chose to give up.
Forget it.
Failure was failure. He had no desire to be turned into a limbless husk by the Monk.
Aizen sat down heavily on the ground. After he lost the will to resist, the power of Kyūjūrokkei Kakafūmetsu rapidly surpassed Aizen's suppression. Spikes pierced out from his body one after another, driving the Hōgyoku's Reiatsu to form gray, bandage-like strips that wrapped around him.
Being sealed by Kisuke Urahara was still better than being made into the Soul King, wasn't it?
Allowing the sealing Kidō to spread across his body, Aizen suddenly laughed.
He seemed to somewhat understand why Sawada Tsunayoshi had helped him several times. As it turned out, long ago, Tsunayoshi had already begun to fear the Soul King Palace, fear the Monk, and fear the possibility that he himself might be made into the Soul King.
Did he regret it?
Aizen supposed he did not.
He understood very clearly that, had he not seen the Soul King's condition with his own eyes, he would never have believed it no matter what others said.
Presumably, Sawada Tsunayoshi had also seen through his mentality. No matter what, Aizen was bound to make this trip to the Soul King Palace. That was why Tsunayoshi had chosen to give things a push at Sōkyoku Hill and in Hueco Mundo.
The seal was about to cover Aizen's entire face. His eyes seemed capable of piercing through countless obstructions, looking directly at Sawada Tsunayoshi underground.
He had to admit, he was now somewhat interested in Sawada Tsunayoshi.
Why could a human boy barely in his teens understand the secrets of the Soul King?
Why did he possess a Zanpakutō with those strange seven flames?
Why could he create giants that did not belong to this world?
Sawada Tsunayoshi, once I break free from this seal, you will answer me properly.
Tsunayoshi still had no idea that Aizen's interest in the Soul King's throne had already shifted onto him. He merely stared in boredom at the screen, which showed no changes at all.
Kisuke Urahara had not allowed the surveillance spirit insects to enter deep into the inner sanctum. They were only watching from afar. After all, the inner sanctum was the Soul King's palace. If they trespassed without permission, the crimes that could be pinned on them would not be minor.
The other captains of the Seireitei tacitly avoided mentioning entering the inner sanctum. They could only wait silently from a distance for the matter to progress.
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