"No.4 is a Shinigami?"
The captains had no way of knowing Kurosaki Masaki's inner thoughts. They only heard that the 4th Espada was a Shinigami, and at that, the captains present, including Aizen, all showed looks of shock and doubt.
Aizen truly did not know the internal situation of the Espada.
But in his view, even if Kurosaki Masaki had grasped the Soul King's power, because of her foundation, she was still just mass-produced stock, completely unable to compare to the strength of the earlier Espada.
Aizen was very clear that Rosse would not provide false intelligence in matters like this.
Which meant that the 4th Espada was, with extremely high probability, indeed one of the Shinigami, and moreover, someone from within the Gotei 13.
After all, if it were a member of Squad Zero, they should be on the same level as Senjumaru, and would not be reduced to holding a seat among the Espada.
'The 4th Espada... four...'
'Could it be her?'
A flicker passed through Aizen's eyes as his gaze unconsciously shifted toward the direction of the First Division.
'The battle over there seems to be going on for an unusually long time.'
'Even though Commander Yamamoto has only just recovered, with Unohana's strength, she should not have been able to hold on for this long.'
'So... could it be her?'
"All right, I won't waste any more words with you. I hope that when the Quincy King's army descends, you'll be able to put up a respectable resistance. He won't be as merciful as I am."
As Kurosaki Masaki finished her final words, several Reishi threads shot out from her fingertips, wrapping the unconscious Kurosaki Ichigo completely inside.
Immediately after, her figure vanished from the battlefield in an instant.
If not for the devastation covering the ground, everyone else might have thought she had never been there at all.
"It's finally over."
Hitsugaya's relieved words spoke the feelings of all the other captains present.
It had been far too hard.
Up to now, whenever the Gotei 13 encountered Hueco Mundo's royal palace, aside from Rosse forcing two draws and pushing the enemy back, almost everyone else had ended in total defeat.
The shadow of Hueco Mundo had completely enveloped the Gotei 13.
A single Espada was already this strong. If all the Espada moved together, would Soul Society still have any chance?
And also...
"The Quincy King. Have any of you heard that name before?"
Rosse looked at the other captains as he spoke. He was relatively young among the captains, so it was normal for him not to know this kind of information.
This was also intelligence he deliberately revealed to Soul Society.
Otherwise, without him propping things up, Soul Society would really be far too weak.
Although, given how this world's power system worked, being two tiers lower meant complete inability to resist. When it came to the final battle, these captain-level fighters probably wouldn't be able to get a hand in at all.
But since the old sly foxes were still hiding, he naturally wasn't going to be the one to stick his head out.
If no one wanted to come out, then he would provoke them one by one.
If they still didn't come out, he would slowly crawl up the righteous path and take the Soul King's seat himself.
As Rosse's gaze swept over them, the captains all shook their heads.
They barely knew anything about the Quincy to begin with, let alone a Quincy King.
To them, Quincy were already a new term.
"I've heard of it, Captain Rosse!"
A half-light, half-dark voice came from afar.
Immediately after, Mayuri Kurotsuchi's completely unscathed figure slowly strolled into the area.
"You bastard, why didn't you come earlier!", Hitsugaya shouted angrily.
Everyone had been fighting together just now. Even this jerk's lieutenant had been here, yet he himself hadn't shown up. At the very least, he was still combat power.
"Captain Hitsugaya, I have nothing to talk about with a brute like you. I've been observing this place the entire time. If all of you had died, I would have been the only one able to transmit all the information," Mayuri lifted his head and spoke arrogantly.
But his words made everyone present feel displeased.
What did he mean, all of them dying so he could pass on information?
So he stayed away and acted like a deserter just so he could pass information to the living?
If all of them died, Soul Society would instantly lose over half its captains. Even if they knew Kurosaki Masaki's intelligence, what good would that do?
After all, Kurosaki Masaki was only the 8th Espada, not the king of Hueco Mundo.
"All right, Captain Mayuri. You know the origin of the Quincy King?"
Rosse stepped forward to stop the argument from escalating further. While using healing kido to treat Aizen and the others, he looked at Mayuri and waited for his reply.
"Yes indeed. Ever since the royal palace of Hueco Mundo showed interest in the Quincy in the human world, I conducted further research on them. Although I didn't uncover anything new, I did gain a fair understanding of Quincy history."
"A thousand years ago, the Quincy had a king. Under his leadership, the Quincy invaded Soul Society, causing enormous trouble for the Gotei 13 of that era..."
Mayuri seemed extremely familiar with the history of that time, recounting Yhwach's defeat in full detail. And that wasn't all. He continued, "Finally, from the brain of an old Quincy bastard, I obtained a shocking piece of information. The Quincy King did not die, but instead went into hiding."
"The sealed Quincy King, after nine hundred years, reclaimed his heartbeat. After ninety years, reclaimed his consciousness. After nine years, reclaimed his power. And in only nine days, reclaimed the world."
After reciting this Quincy prophecy, Mayuri's eyes carried a hint of excitement.
"This is a prophecy passed down among the Quincy. And that ritual from a few years ago, when the Quincy suddenly lost their powers, should have been that king reclaiming his strength. This is information I extracted from that old bastard's brain. There's no mistake."
"Where did you even get a Quincy from?", Hitsugaya couldn't help asking.
They had never heard of any new Quincy appearing in Soul Society.
"Heh, you just didn't know. Captain Kyoraku and Captain Ukitake are well aware. Over the past hundred years, we've had quite a few encounters with Quincy from the human world. One of their leaders, Soken Ishida, was killed by us and then became experimental material for the Research and Development Bureau."
Mayuri paused, then continued excitedly, "I originally thought he was just an ordinary Quincy from the human world, so I never considered dissecting his brain to extract his memories. But because of that incident a few years ago, I dug out the secrets hidden in his brain. Who would have thought that he wasn't a human-world Quincy at all, but a Quincy who walked out from where the Quincy King resides."
"Then where exactly is that Quincy King?", Komamura Sajin said impatiently.
He didn't want to hear all this nonsense. Nine days to reclaim the world was clearly nothing good.
If they knew the location, they could just kill him directly before he fully regained his power.
"No idea."
Mayuri spread his hands, his tone carrying a bit of regret.
"The memories about that place were likely sealed by Yhwach himself. In Soken Ishida's memories, there are only memories after leaving that place. There are no memories of how he went there."
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