Just as Ōetsu revealed that enigmatic, self-assured smile, rings of green electricity began spreading outward from the center of the blade storm like ripples.
After spreading outward, the Lightning-type Reiatsu rapidly sank deep into the ground.
Before long, a fine layer of electricity began appearing across the surface of the earth.
The observing captains immediately used Shunpo to rise into the air.
They had no idea what Tsunayoshi was planning.
They only knew that this was not the time to get in his way.
Inside the storm of Zanpakutō, Tsunayoshi was indeed having a difficult time.
One Zanpakutō after another was unleashing Bankai.
Not a single one of their techniques was weak.
The dense, constantly changing rhythm of attacks, combined with Wabisuke's restriction, left Tsunayoshi with no choice but to remain where he was and endure the bombardment.
But that didn't mean these Zanpakutō could actually do anything to Tsunayoshi.
The breastplate evolved from Lambo's shield emitted deep-green lightning.
Its extreme defensive properties gathered and hardened, forming another layer of lightning armor over Tsunayoshi's body.
Beneath this outermost armor was a humanoid being slightly larger than Tsunayoshi.
Ghost.
As Tsunayoshi's second line of defense, Ghost absorbed a portion of the Reiatsu from every Bankai attack that struck Tsunayoshi and converted it into power for Tsunayoshi.
Finally, the third layer was the black armor condensed through Tsunayoshi's Beyond Bankai.
Three layers of defense in total provided Tsunayoshi with the ultimate protection.
For the moment, although the various Bankai attacks were complicated and numerous, not a single one could penetrate Ghost's second layer of defense.
In fact, Tsunayoshi felt that the pressure from the Bankai within this storm wasn't even as great as when Ōetsu had wielded the two ice-type Zanpakutō together.
Was their Reiatsu output too dispersed?
Or was Ōetsu simply not paying attention to combining the abilities of the Zanpakutō?
Take Hyorinmaru and Sode no Shirayuki, for example.
When combined, the power they could unleash was clearly far greater than the power of either blade individually.
But with the Zanpakutō within this storm, Ōetsu was merely having them release their Bankai and attack Tsunayoshi.
He wasn't taking advantage of abilities that could complement one another.
As a result, when the attacks struck Tsunayoshi, they were essentially dealing no more damage than a single blade could inflict.
It was particularly obvious with the ice dragon created by Daiguren Hyōrinmaru.
It was nowhere near as powerful as the one Ōetsu had unleashed personally.
When an attack couldn't break through his defenses, even countless instances of negligible damage were useless.
In fact, those attacks were continuously supplying Tsunayoshi with additional Reiatsu.
That allowed Tsunayoshi to expand the range of his ability across the entire Seireitei.
Just as Ōetsu was using the Zanpakutō of the entire Seireitei, Tsunayoshi would use the resources of the entire Seireitei.
The rippling green electricity continued spreading.
Near the surface closest to Tsunayoshi, countless tiny black dots began emerging from underground.
More and more appeared.
They rapidly gathered into enormous masses, surging toward Tsunayoshi like swarms of locusts.
Something was wrong!
The moment Ōetsu noticed the phenomenon, he immediately drew the Zanpakutō formed from Tokie Tonokawa.
With Mera Hiuchigashima gone, Tokie was the only Zanpakutō in Ōetsu's possession capable of providing large-scale attacks.
A massive amount of cooling water shot out from the Zanpakutō and crashed into the black clouds.
Yet the black clouds seemed completely unaffected.
They continued flying toward Tsunayoshi.
What were those things?
Ōetsu's mind filled with questions.
But the Visored, who had lived in the World of the Living, smiled knowingly.
They had noticed the fine electrical currents running through the black clouds.
Especially Love Aikawa.
He had personally suffered from this technique before.
Electricity generates magnetism.
Tsunayoshi was using electric currents to create magnetic fields and control metal.
The black clouds emerging from underground were actually countless tiny metallic particles, fine as sand.
Ōetsu had tried to stop this technique simply by throwing water at it.
That was far too optimistic.
Tsunayoshi had spread his lightning across the entire Seireitei precisely so that he could use the metal resources throughout the entire Seireitei to counter Ōetsu's ultimate attack.
Watching the massive black clouds surge toward Tsunayoshi from every direction across the Seireitei, Kyōraku also developed a trace of curiosity.
Just like Ōetsu, he was fascinated by Tsunayoshi's technique.
Hirako instantly used Shunpo to appear beside Kyōraku and briefly explained it to him.
Kyōraku's eyes lit up.
Although he didn't understand the underlying principles, he understood that the World of the Living contained plenty of things worth learning from.
Soul Society was still far too backward.
Connecting Soul Society with the modern world had to be placed on the agenda as soon as possible.
That fellow Kūgo Ginjō also needed to stop wasting his time and start contributing to the development of both Soul Society and the World of the Living.
Looking at the dense black clouds, Kyōraku's worry disappeared.
Instead, he had already begun considering the direction of Soul Society's future reforms.
As for Ōetsu and the Zanpakutō?
Kyōraku trusted Tsunayoshi to handle them.
Tsunayoshi naturally wouldn't disappoint his ally's expectations.
The iron sand surging toward him from every direction briefly swirled within his palm before shooting toward the Zanpakutō above his head.
Because of the iron sand's fine and densely packed form, the particles could separate and recombine whenever the Zanpakutō launched attacks.
They could evade an attack and then continue flying toward their targets.
Ghost controlled this process.
Tsunayoshi himself focused completely on coating the incoming iron sand with a special layer of Lightning-type Reiatsu.
Combining the Lightning-type Reiatsu derived from his Shinigami, Hollow, and Fullbring powers, he endowed the iron sand with an absolutely extreme degree of hardness.
Soon, the first particle of iron sand struck the tip of a Zanpakutō.
Immediately, the iron sand spread like a poison that burrowed into the bones.
Before long, it had completely enveloped the entire Zanpakutō.
Naturally, Ōetsu wasn't going to sit back and allow Tsunayoshi to deal with the Zanpakutō.
He continued controlling the blades and forcing them to unleash their energy.
But no matter what kind of attack they launched, the iron sand imbued with extreme hardness firmly sealed it away.
Ōetsu grew desperate.
He directly ordered the Zanpakutō to ignore everything else and unleash all of their Reiatsu at once, using self-destruction to attack the iron sand.
But the moment the Zanpakutō received that order and prepared to explode, they discovered something horrifying.
No matter how violently they released their Reiatsu, their blades simply couldn't expand.
Let alone self-destruct.
The Zanpakutō couldn't even produce a single crack.
The iron sand had fitted itself perfectly against every inch of their bodies.
Once a Zanpakutō had been completely sealed, a lightning-shaped mark would appear on the surface of the iron sand.
The mark flashed once.
All of the iron sand was then forcibly hardened by electromagnetic force, forming a perfect sheath around the Zanpakutō and sealing it completely.
This was Tsunayoshi's plan.
Wasn't Ōetsu disregarding the survival of the Zanpakutō?
Then Tsunayoshi would use his Lightning-type hardening ability to place an absolutely indestructible sheath around every Zanpakutō.
Whether it was Bankai or an eruption of Reiatsu, everything would be locked inside the sheath.
Tsunayoshi had even wrapped the hilts.
He wouldn't give Ōetsu the slightest opportunity to break free.
This was the true power of the Electromagnetic Hardening aspect of his Lightning-type Beyond Bankai.
It could not only create armor with overwhelming defensive power.
It could also use that same unimaginable hardness to seal enemy forces.
Clang!
A sealed Zanpakutō fell from the sky like a piece of scrap metal.
As though that had triggered a chain reaction, the Zanpakutō above Tsunayoshi began falling like rain.
Before long, Tsunayoshi was standing in the middle of a dark, oppressive sword graveyard.
Every Zanpakutō summoned by Ōetsu had been sealed.
The cards remaining in Ōetsu's hand were now reduced to his personal guard and Sayafushi.
No.
His situation was actually worse than it had been at the beginning.
Mera Hiuchigashima had already been taken out by Tsunayoshi.
As one Zanpakutō after another was sealed, Ōetsu knew that the tide had turned completely against him.
His mind raced as he searched for a way to break the deadlock.
The only weapons he could still use were his personal guard and Sayafushi.
Given Sayafushi's sharpness, it would certainly be capable of cutting through Tsunayoshi's seals.
But if he made even the slightest mistake, Sayafushi might cut through the Zanpakutō sealed inside along with the sheath.
If that happened, Squad Zero would have completely torn away its remaining relationship with the Gotei 13.
Destroying some Zanpakutō while fighting Tsunayoshi could still be dismissed as collateral damage caused by an enemy battle.
But deliberately using Sayafushi to cut them apart himself would be an entirely different matter.
The sealed Zanpakutō couldn't be used.
So what other method could he use to break the deadlock?
While Tsunayoshi continued sealing the Zanpakutō, Ōetsu's eyes rapidly swept across the battlefield.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of someone.
An idea immediately came to him.
The moment Tsunayoshi sealed the final Zanpakutō, Ōetsu drew the Zanpakutō formed from Nimaya Kirinji and Senjumaru Shutara—
No.
The two blades represented by Mera Hiuchigashima's absence were gone, leaving him with the remaining members of his personal guard.
Ōetsu suddenly drew the Zanpakutō formed from Kirindō Hikifune and Senjumaru Shutara and charged out.
His Shunpo wasn't aimed at Tsunayoshi.
Instead, he moved toward Tsunayoshi's left.
Standing there was none other than one of the Gotei 13 captains who had been protecting the Seireitei while observing the battle.
Ōetsu had chosen the blond-haired Rose.
A sickly smile appeared on Ōetsu's face.
If he didn't have a blade—
Then he would forge one himself!
Although Mera Hiuchigashima had temporarily fallen, within the domain of the Phoenix Palace, Ōetsu was still the absolute god of blades.
He could control everything related to Zanpakutō.
Even setting up a forge and crafting a new blade required only a single strike of his hammer.
Ōetsu had observed the blond-haired captain.
There was Hollow Reiatsu within him.
In other words, he was also someone who possessed both Shinigami and Hollow powers.
He met the conditions for Ōetsu's unique method of forging a Zanpakutō.
If he had no blade, he would forge one himself.
Ōetsu was going to forge Rose into a new Zanpakutō!
Ōetsu's sudden movement immediately attracted everyone's attention.
Hirako's expression became especially grim when he saw the abnormal look on Ōetsu's face.
"Run, Rose!"
Hirako shouted.
Ōetsu's Shunpo was simply too fast.
Hirako couldn't get there in time, much less use Kidō to stop him.
Hearing Hirako's warning and seeing Ōetsu appear before him, Rose's instincts screamed danger.
He immediately attempted to use Bakudō to buy himself a moment to escape.
But Ōetsu's overwhelming Reiatsu dispersed the Bakudō before it could even take shape.
A Soul Reaper's battle is a battle of Reiatsu.
For some reason, this sentence flashed through Rose's mind.
So this was what it meant.
In the face of an overwhelming difference in Reiatsu, he couldn't even use Kidō.
It was over.
Although he didn't know exactly what Ōetsu intended to do, Rose understood perfectly that he had become Ōetsu's prey.
Without his Zanpakutō, he couldn't even properly use Kidō.
He was nothing more than a helpless target.
It was over.
A wave of regret surged through Hirako's heart.
When he saw the Reiatsu Rose had gathered being forcibly dispersed, a trace of despair appeared in his eyes as well.
He had led the Visored in hiding their identities.
They had barely survived Aizen.
They had even managed to give Aizen a taste of his own medicine before eventually returning to important positions within the Seireitei.
After everything they had endured, could the Visored really avoid dying at Aizen's hands only to die at the hands of their own comrade?
A gentle pat landed on Hirako's shoulder.
Kyōraku spoke softly.
"Relax. Didn't we already choose to trust him?"
Hirako immediately snapped back to reality.
That's right.
There was still someone who could stop this.
What did Ōetsu's Bankai matter?
They had a power that surpassed Bankai on their side as well!
Hirako's eyes quickly turned toward Tsunayoshi.
Although he couldn't see Tsunayoshi's expression through the armor, he could clearly sense the icy aura emanating from him.
"Ōetsu Nimaiya…"
"You've crossed the line."
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70+ chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789