The calm was suddenly shattered.
"Fusa seyo, Kurotsubasa Daimao (Lock, Great Black-Winged Demon King)."
Ulquiorra's voice carried no emotion at all.
Black reishi shot into the sky, condensing behind him into two gigantic bat wings that blotted out the heavens. A sickly green tear-streak ran from the corners of his eyes down to his jaw. The broken mask on his head sprouted two curved horns.
In his chest was the hollow that symbolized nothingness.
He transformed directly—having sensed that his opponent was anything but simple, he entered the second stage of his release.
This was a posture even Aizen had never seen before, and it was proof of Ulquiorra's strongest state.
He looked down at the tiny human on the ground, his gaze empty, as if staring at a corpse.
Madara stood in place with his arms crossed, watching with keen interest. He could feel the qualitative change in that power.
"Interesting," Madara muttered.
"Susanoo (Heavenly Warrior)!"
Purple energy erupted from Madara's body, rapidly constructing a massive ribcage. Then flesh-like sinews climbed over it, muscles and armor layering on in succession.
A ferocious giant rose from the earth. The shadow cast by its enormous body covered several miles of ground.
And it wasn't over yet.
The giant continued to grow, breaking from a half-body form into a full-body one. Its legs planted firmly on the ground.
It donned heavy armor like a tengu's, wings sprouted from its back, and in its hands it gripped two enormous odachi formed from chakra.
Complete Susanoo—divine power—descended upon the battlefield.
For the first time, Ulquiorra's eternally icy face showed a hint of change.
He had never seen a force like this. It didn't belong to spiritual pressure, and it wasn't Quincy power either. It seemed this world was far more interesting than he'd thought.
He could feel it—the power contained within that giant was in no way inferior to his own.
Madara stood within the diamond-shaped crystal on Susanoo's forehead. Looking at the opponent who had finally grown solemn, the battle lust he'd suppressed for so long erupted completely.
"Hahahahahaha!"
His thunderous laughter echoed across the entire battlefield.
"Good! That's it!" Madara's voice rose high. "At last, a opponent that can make me get even a little serious!"
He guided Susanoo, pointing one colossal hand toward Ulquiorra in the sky.
"Come on! Let's dance!"
Ulquiorra didn't respond to Madara's taunts.
He raised his right hand. A spear of black reishi rapidly took shape in his grip. Green lightning coiled around the shaft, radiating a destructive aura.
"Raiten no Yari (Thunder Spear)."
He aimed the spear at the purple giant below and hurled it with all his might.
The black spear tore through the sky, so fast it couldn't be tracked by the naked eye.
"Madara-san, be careful—high-density reishi compression body. Energy reaction exceeds Bijudama," Shinju warned through the communicator.
Exceeds Bijudama? Now that was interesting.
Madara didn't dodge.
Susanoo's other free hand moved with astonishing speed, drawing the first odachi from its waist.
The purple chakra blade swung upward—simple and direct, yet packed with refined technique.
The blade edge and spear tip collided precisely in midair.
In the next instant, that Thunder Spear—packed with annihilating force—was cleanly split in two from the middle.
The severed energy blasted off to both sides and slammed into distant mountains, triggering two violent explosions. Two mountain peaks were instantly flattened to the ground.
A flicker of shock flashed in Ulquiorra's eyes.
His strongest thrown weapon had been cut apart so easily.
His wings snapped once, and his body vanished from where it hovered.
"It's Kyoten (Sonido / High-Speed Movement). Watch for his ambush," Shinju's voice warned again.
Ulquiorra reappeared at Susanoo's rear flank. Another Thunder Spear had already formed in his hand.
This time, he chose to detonate it at close range to maximize damage.
But Ulquiorra was fast—Madara was faster.
Susanoo's massive body moved with agility that didn't match its size at all. A gigantic chakra odachi swept out in a horizontal arc, forcing Ulquiorra to use Kyoten again to pull away.
"Just going to keep dodging around?" Madara's voice carried a hint of impatience.
The pattern in his eyes shifted again. The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan turned into the purple rippled Rinnegan.
"Refusing the toast, huh? If you won't come here, then I'll drag you here."
"Bansho Ten'in (Universal Pull)!"
An irresistible gravitational force instantly enveloped Ulquiorra.
Ulquiorra's momentum died on the spot.
He felt himself being yanked uncontrollably toward the purple giant.
He frantically drove his spiritual pressure, trying to break free from that pull—but it was useless.
"What… is this ability?"
What greeted him was the chakra odachi Susanoo had already raised high overhead.
The blade fell like a mountain peak, carrying the momentum to cleave heaven and earth.
"Warning: target possesses extremely strong outer-skin defense, called Hierro. Recommend maximum power output," Shinju's analysis followed immediately.
"Hierro?" Madara snorted. "Before absolute power, any defense is meaningless! Today, I'll beat him until he regrets ever coming to this world!"
He poured even more chakra into Susanoo's blade, making its radiance blaze even more dazzlingly.
Ulquiorra was pinned by the pull—there was nowhere to evade.
He could only cross his arms before him, condensing all his spiritual pressure into that single point, trying to withstand the strike head-on.
The massive blade smashed down squarely onto Ulquiorra.
Terrifying force erupted in an instant. Ulquiorra's proud Hierro shattered.
He felt as if his internal organs were about to be ground into powder.
The earth trembled violently. A bottomless crater opened across the wilderness.
Ulquiorra lay at the crater's depths. One of his black wings was snapped, and deep, bone-revealing wounds covered his body. Green blood kept spilling from the gashes.
He struggled to rise, but the lingering power within him made even moving a finger unbearably difficult.
He had lost.
In his strongest posture, he'd been utterly defeated by that strange power.
Above, the purple giant lowered its head to look down at him—like a god passing judgment on a mortal.
Madara guided Susanoo, raising the other odachi to deliver the final blow to this rare opponent.
And then, a sudden change.
Above Konoha Village, the sky tore open again—one black rift after another.
"More Kokukyo (Garganta / Black Cavity)!" Shinju's voice turned grave.
From the rifts stepped figure after figure.
All of them wore white uniforms. Bone masks of all kinds covered their faces. Their bodies radiated power of the same origin as Ulquiorra's—yet each carried a different flavor.
More Arrancar had descended.
And that wasn't all.
On the opposite side of those Arrancar, the space in the sky twisted as well.
This time it wasn't Kokukyo, but a solemn Senkaimon (Interdimensional Gate).
A group dressed in black shihakusho poured out. Among the leaders, several wore white haori that marked their captain status.
At the very front stood a man with a gentle smile.
He simply stood there quietly, yet it felt as though the whole world revolved around him.
Aizen.
And beside Aizen, another completely different source of power made the very air grow scorching hot.
It was an old man, not particularly tall, but his presence was as heavy and violent as a volcano.
White hair bound up, a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, eyes closed, a wooden staff hanging in his hand that looked utterly ordinary.
Genryusai.
In an instant, the entire battlefield's atmosphere became bizarre.
Madara—and the Allied Shinobi Forces at his feet.
The Arrancar host that emerged from Kokukyo, led by Aizen.
And the Gotei 13, appearing from Senkaimon under Genryusai's command.
Three sides formed a three-legged standoff above Konoha Village.
Madara slowly lowered the blade he'd been about to swing, staring at the two new groups with amused interest.
Things were getting more and more interesting.
A supreme melee that would sweep across three worlds was about to be staged on this land he knew so well.
(End of Chapter)
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