I Am Whole

This Feeling Indescribable

Anything I Am Capable

But Still

There Is Something Missing

Where Is My Soul?

Chapter 21 - White Deicide III - The Apex Predator

Aaroniero felt the darkness creeping in. Even as she consumed countless particles of Reishi, the fear for her survival dampened the rush of strength she reinforced with Ira. Combining so many aspects into a singular cohesive whole and repeatedly being damaged against Yamamoto was more taxing than she expected. No matter the bodies or Reiryoku she added to her own, she hadn't disciplined herself to contain it in and was sorely outclassed by a skilled warrior a thousand years her senior.

Flesh stitched together and muscles wove back together, but her strength waned. Her breathing became haggard, the flames having seared straight to her organs and her Shinigami body was horribly burned on the inside as much as the outside. Pain like knives scraping every centimeter of her physical being was like a whole new kind of fiery heat, seeping beneath her pores and gutting at herself from the inside.

Her sight from the outside was cut off due to her use of Árbol enveloping the whole of her body. Its original use was growing modified duplicates based on her own spiritronic structure, but now it was augmented and finessed around her damaged cells. She had never imagined the agony of what would take place once she committed to it.

The Reiatsu flashing on the outside reminded her just how little time she had. His Calavera of Tier Harribel was attempting to back up Coyote Starrk, the two strongest players barring Gin Ichimaru on the field. She wished she could call more, but it was taking all of her concentration to repair her body.

Then, Harribel's signature disappeared.

"No!" She thought, her mind beginning to race as her healing came to a jarring halt. She began to shake as another Reiatsu she picked up joined the fray, more than likely responsible for the disappearance of his Calavera's Reiryoku was snuffed out. Even now, her limited Pesquisa picked up flashes in her mind.

Images that was detailing Starrk's inevitable defeat.

"I'll be next! And all this work...all this planning and secrecy...wasted!" She grimaced between wheezing breaths, tears welling up within her eyes. Balling up her hands, she vibrated with rasping heaves, blood escaping her mouth and onto the floor she was strafed against it. The roots were hardly a defense that could shelter her for long. One could cut and she'd experience that horrid burning once more.

"What kind of powerful being are you?! Pathetic!" The voice of Nnoitra rang aloud in the back of her mind. "And to think I'm a part of this kind of failure; peh!"

"N-No," She shivered out, gasping as she forced her eyes tightly shut. "I-I'm...just...tired. Once I get my strength...I'll..."

"Get your ass roasted? Isn't that what you've been doing this whole time?" Another echo rang within her mind, this time Grimmjow. She could practically picture him squatting in front of her, judging her with those cold despicable eyes she remembered. "How will you rule them if you allow it all to end here? I was destined to be King, had you not ended it. What kind of destiny do you even have, copycat?"

"S-Shut up!"

"HAHAHAHA, just get angry again! Blow them all to Hell!" Yammy's voice crescendo within her psyche, now colliding with the others that continued to disparate her.

"To think my loyalty to Aizen led me to such a despicably low gullet," Harribel sneered within her head, the impression of her Tres Bestias and Ayon releasing snarls that continued to escalate the migraine that throbbed within her cranium. "You're no Aizen, Aaroniero Arruruerie. And you'll never achieve anything of worth."

"NO! I'll...I'll go to the Soul Palace and-!"

"Meet your maker?" Chojiro Sasakibe spoke, bringing a sense of dread to well within her gut. "Do you doubt your resolve so much that you wish to reach the highest of heavens? What makes you believe you are worthy, or even capable, of making such a journey? You cannot even bring my master to his knees. How could you muster the power to get to the zenith of all the realms? Do you even have a plan?"

"I...I just want...to feel," Aaroniero rasped out, lines of blood escaping her damaged eye while clear fluid leaked across the other. Her head pressed against the floor, teeth grinding tightly against sore muscles that forced her gums to excrete a damp taste of copper. "I want to see what he sees. If I just get there, then...maybe...I'll become something more than...just a sack filling someone else's shoes."

"Have you no pride in yourself?" Sverrie questioned, bringing an air of uncertainty within the amalgamation of souls. "If you don't even have resolve in your certainty, no wonder your sword broke against a rigid and unshakable man like Genryūsai."

"Embrace your true nature!" Rana beckoned within, a sense of heat swirling within her as the headache that gonged within was bringing her to a sense of unconsciousness. "That body of yours may be Shinigami, but deep down, you are a Hollow. You can never be satisfied until consume what will fill that pit this wretched form's heart can't give you. You know what that is, right?"

Blood seeped onto the ground, the solid foundation beginning to moisten from the fluids that she excreted from her barely renewed form. Amidst the cacophony of voices, snarls, and howling within, it was all drawing her to a single call. It had no voice that could be understood with words, nor could it speak back in the traditional sense.

The allure of its power was felt only when she had first bore witness of Aizen's use of it to give form to the first generation of artificially powered Arrancar. It was like tapping into something otherworldly with a mind that sought to connect with anything with the will to interact with it. An alien organism that knew not the petty strifes or woes of those around it, only wishing to form a symbiosis with something and anything.

Light coasted from her pale hand, cracking the floor beneath her.

"Are you sure of this?" A faint voice brought her mind in a momentary pause. It was undoubtedly the one whose form she had captured what felt like a lifetime ago. The lithe frame of a Shinigami that had lived a life of bitter struggle that was handed a privilege she never desired. Even when she had amounted to something, fate ripped it out of her hands time and again. Momentary affection and friendship hat renewed her damaged heart, apologies given later than desired, but the resentment she had fostered was buried beneath walls of certainty. "If you go through with this, what if it consumes you whole? What if you become nothing more than a puppet on this thing's strings? Will you completely lose yourself?"

A sudden collapse of the ground and hundreds of Árbol that had attached to her backside were yanked off. Even as flesh was torn apart, hair follicles yanked behind, a smile formed on her face. The pain was muted compared to a sudden rush of not resignation but complete assurance. That subtle tugging, metaphysical hand that stretched out was yanked by her sheer will and she pulled it deep inside of herself.

"I know who I am," She proclaimed, seemingly dropping into a deep, endless pit below with darkness completely cutting her off from the outside world. "I am Aaroniero Arruruerie: the Apex Predator!"

In an instant, she felt a whole other world opened up before her. Her limited sense of self stretched outward as her body coursed with this cosmic power that was gushing into her form. Without even seeing it, her right arm formed a gelatinous stream of organic crystal that slid up over her skin and hardened into a mobile keratin shell. She could see the boundary field of the spell that was holding this mockery of a town in place and the one that lied just beyond in Soul Society.

Pulling her arms inward, she'd wreathe them with a kaleidoscope array of colors, the concept of Reishi use was beyond ordinary manipulation. The world was an oyster before her now all-knowing senses, and the circumference of this city was easily within her clutches.

Thrusting her arms outward, she let loose her power in a rising torrent, geysering into the surface and coiling around the whole of this artificial material town. Her pull sent outwards using the innate power of Angelle enhanced to simply stretch out her Reiatsu into a tangible series of arms that was more force of nature than simply bending the curvature of one's energy. Grasping the folds of dimensional cone she'd give a great heave and a distinct sense of planes transitioning filled her mind's eye.

Hundreds of thousands of souls filled the space above her head. In addition, the material that would've remained unharmed from her descent was immediately erased, her body's mere presence allowing her a bubble-shaped enclosure for her to preside deep underground. It didn't matter where she was, to be honest. Now she was bonded with this god marble, she could do whatever she wished whether it was on the outskirts or at the center.

With the objective in reach, she clapped her palms together, and coerced the whole of the mostly sleeping town to garner straight into her clutches. She felt them, like the slowing breaths of life, escape out of the pores of living flesh and transmuting into streams of Reishi. The bundles of disembodied souls coalesced into the sky, straight overhead. A grin formed on her face and she swiped her arms to the side, allowing its solid-like substance to congeal into a bolt of Reiryoku that infused into her Hōgyoku-bonded form.

An electric rush of energy, woven in such a way to fit a purpose, framed the fabric of her body and encased her into its affects she sorely desired. The wishing orb complied with this sentiment, fastening apparel that fixed around the theme of this apex predator and folded an organic chrysalis from her feet up around her in a peerless series of petals. Her hair affixed to the back in a ceremonial bun, affixed by a white lily, her collar blossoming as a snow colored rose while a sleeveless cloak of white with veined patchwork of the key to the highest heaven embedded into it.

Her curvaceous form rose upward on her own whim, rising up through the hole in a graceful manner till she was resting atop the real world's train station. Unfolding to reveal her majestic beauty in all of its horror and wonder, she'd open her amethyst eyes to soak in the sight of the blue sky and feel its warmth caress her glimmering deep violet shell for skin. Looking down, she'd see the two that almost halted her evolution but for naught could only stare up with fright and resignation.

She had truly ascended!

"I've," Aaroniero finally found her voice, speaking in a surprisingly neutral monotone as she raised her hand to brandish the glimmering, color-swirling sphere embedded into her now purple keratin hand. "Finally tamed Aizen's little jewel. Thanks to that, I now have the Ōken in my possession," She gestured to the veins that stretched from her exposed skin into the cloak surrounding her mostly bare, statuesque body. "Once I'm done with your decrepit body, I'll take my allies and pierce the highest of heavens."

As she added this, she caught sight of Uryū Ishida, standing there with a petrified look of fear and doubt. Any conflict within her was muted and she brought out a sincere grin of depravity aimed towards the high school student.

"Won't that be fun?" She trailed off, asking aloud with a cackle of arrogance equal to her confidence in all her enemies' efforts would fail.

A pair of smooth fingers pulled a cigarette from a pair of stubble framed lips. Smoke escaped his partly opened mouth, the sensation of an ebbing calm helped by his bad habit he gave into with his eyes. It was all he could do after he had made such a haste to do what he could in such a short amount of time. He never thought that he'd have to rely on such an arcane method, but, observing the used-talismans in his grip he was thankful that they did the job.

Looking out the window, he'd see that his station in the hospital was completely enshrouded by a pentacle spire arranged palace of Reishi. The technique, was something he was saving for an event he could defend when absorbing enough assembled Reishi to produce a quality barrier. Fortunately for him, the moment Soul Society swapped out Karakura Town, he had plenty of accumulated energy to utilize within the atmosphere.

However, he didn't possess the muscle of a certain someone that was also within Karakura Town's borders upon the switch transpiring.

"It looks like...we made it...in time," A heaving voice sounded from the bespectacled smoker's right. The sight of Isshin Kurosaki brought him an angled lens of dour glare at the man standing before him. He bore no longer the appearance of a human, as he lauded for so long: draped in a Shihakushō with a ragged pauldron-affixed Haori that barely resembled the coat he once wore as a man of the Seireitei's Gotei 13 leaders. Not long ago he flaunted his old appearance after he had sent his son along with the other's.

It wasn't long enough, in his personal opinion.

"Hardly," The former Quincy dismissed with a cold sigh, placing the cigarette back into his mouth and taking a sharp inhale, crinkling the paper filter as the orange embers became aglow with its gradual burn. Pulling it with hesitation, he exhaled through his nostrils, a cloud of grey smoke wafting over the window frame as he stared at the endless untouched landscape from the battle that took hold of its mock counterpart; at least, on its surface. "Including the hospital staff, patients, and the places of importance I requested of you, we barely filled this structure to capacity. Fifteen thousand people out of the two hundred and twenty nine thousand isn't what I'd call a complete save."

"We did what we could, Ryūken," Isshin insisted, wiping the sweat off his forehead and staring ahead with his telltale cagey stare that he found sobering if nothing else. "I know it's not much, but we did protect as many people as we could. Its leaders, specialists, next generation and as many families as we could. You can't blame yourself for not being able to shelter more."

"Hmph," He smiled morosely, turning around and walking back to his desk. Catching sight of his son framed on the framed photo along his workplace, he couldn't help but look fondly upon it. The youth's smile was so big, and full of life. So many people wouldn't be lucky enough to consider surviving this ordeal, and those that couldn't be save are likely to never fully recover.

Dousing his cig into the ash tray, he gutturally from a bass tone his throat emitted, "Karakura Town, as we know it, died today. There's no changing that."

Stopping, he'd turn to look at Isshin, his face construed into an icy glare. Not aimed for the Shinigami before him, but for the chilling hatred he had frozen in place for the one responsible.

"Let's avenge them, Kurosaki!"

"Amen to that," Isshin replied, his smile reinforced with a fire alight in his own eyes. "Let's lend a hand again, one last time."

Ichigo Kurosaki felt a sense of unease that he hadn't experienced until this point.

No longer adorned in his mask, the long-haired Substitute looked at the bodies -lifeless and strewn about in lopsided postures- across the surroundings that replaced the war torn battlefield he and his allies had partaken in combating. The Calavera were all but mostly bested by their combined prowess but all too late. Residual energies that composed their degenerating corpses even leaked out and joined the host of human bodies of Reishi that plummeted towards the source.

The Ōken was formed, and at the cost of Karakura Town's entire human populace.

"We...lost," Jūshirō gasped aloud, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"I-It can't be!" Nelliel croaked out, her grip on her double-headed lance quivering as she stared into the horizon with a sense of dread filling her being. Looking over to Ichigo, she saw him look eerily silent, staring far away and unable to respond. She didn't know what to say to him, because he was doubtlessly experiencing the same sense of hopelessness the rest of them did.

Rose and Love looked to each other, then glanced their way at Shinji. The man sported a slight gash over his head, resting Sakanade on his shoulder while looking dryly at the ground with visible contemplation.

Byakuya, whom had been manipulating the etchings of his Bankai to lock horns with Ukitake against Gin, looked colder than usual as he spoke.

"Do not tremble. Our duty still remains clear," He reinvigorated as he focused his Reiatsu to brim to the surface, the wave of petal-shaped razors wafting around him like water as he focused on Gin's presence ahead of him; the latter of which suffered several nasty cuts along shredded sleeves and a couple across the neck and cheek. "Destroy the enemy. We will worry about grieving for the departed later."

"Byakuya is right," Yoruichi intoned, raising her guard and turning to look at Nelliel with a smile on her face. "We can still win. Even if we lost this battle, we won't give Aaroniero this war."

Nodding, the centauress Arrancar looked over, seeing the man closing his eyes and standing in the exact same posture as he did when the phenomena occurred. Trotting up to him, she lent a hand to place on his shoulder, feeling him not move a muscle when she gave him a gentle squeeze. The strawberry turned to regard him, a glaze of mourning held within his quivering pupil while his face looked forcibly restrained into stoicism.

"We'll get through this, Ichigo," She assured him with a forced smile of her own. "Together."

"Yeah," He hoarsely whispered, nodding with acceptance to her gesture. Sighing aloud, he'd renew his grip on his black blade, taking deep breaths as he brought himself back to the situation at hand. Reopening his eyes, the glaze transformed into a glare, and the heat wafted off his Reiatsu as tendrils of his power began to dance aloft his long-haired scalp.

"Wait," The blonde pigtailed girl croaked out, her eyes blinking widely as the other Lieutenant Visoreds cast her a confused glance. "Where did that Orihime girl go?"

"Officer Iemura!" A brown haired man rushed ahead, draped in a white-coverall uniform over his normal Shihakushō. The blonde aforementioned 3rd Seat looked over at him, grimly looking out of the window of a now functionally partly filled structure. Bodies of humans lied in varying states of unconsciousness, though they were protected by the barrier erected by the Kidō Corps in combination with the 4th Division's personnel. The cluttered area was riddled with humans and Shinigami, though the separation of the wounded was largely delegated to the latter rather than the prior.

"What is it, 8th Seat?" Yasochika inquired, the shade-adorned man's eyes turned to look at the junior member of the 4th Division. "If you haven't noticed, we all realized what happened."

"T-That isn't it, sir!" The lower officer spoke, raising up what looked like a katana and a small child-sized uniform. "I went to check on Captain Zaraki. Last time we checked, Lieutenant Kusajishi was beside him the moment she awakened. But, now all that I can find is her effects!"

Eyes blanched nearly through his angular shades at hearing this news. Through all the mayhem and chaos of a torrent of the Material World depositing itself back into place and then all living human beings not enclosed in protective barriers swathed into the air like a powerful magnetic force called upon them. Looking at the fabric and sword, he could tell without touching them they were cold to the touch and had not a hint of Reishi of the Lieutenant left.

As if she hadn't used them in some time.

Then, in an instant, the whole superstructure radiated an immense Reiatsu. It was a familiar one, that made the seated officers tremble and tear their gaze away from Yachiru's affects towards the window. There, standing in the middle of the air, was a single white haired man with a light hickory pigmented skin wearing a peerless white cloak with hints of black streaked in between the costume. Flanking him was a host of skull-headed Calavera, no doubt formed by the Calavera!Rudbornn. His sword was already in Shikai, crackling with amethyst lightning and primed for release.

"This is bad!" The 8th Seat spoke with a nervous smile. "T-This Barrier can't hold up against so many. And Lieutenant Sasakibe doesn't seem to be on our side-"

"That's not the Lieutenant," Yasochika proclaimed, his eyes narrowing at them, grimacing behind the sweat that began to cake his brow. "That is...something else."

Point proven, the pale-grey mane whipped back, the doppelganger vanishing in a flash of light and thrusting straight through the suddenly visible barrier folded over the structure. It popped like a snapped balloon, shattering glass and frightening patients within. Many of the Shinigami that rushed -bandaged warriors and medics alike- felt it tiring just getting close to the crackling reaper.

All except a particular pair of Shinigami.

"Oi-Oi-Oi!" A bandaged but standing man, his head gleaming with the encroaching reflection of light coming off the glass shards. He held his sword in one hand and the scabbard in the other. Though he clearly wasn't at full strength he walked ahead, with Yumichika standing beside him in not much better shape than him. The two warriors of the 11th Division stared down the coldly glaring Sasakibe with confusion crossing their gazes. "What's the big idea, 1st Division Lieutenant? You go missing this whole time and now you're suddenly back with an intent to kill your fellow men?"

"I'd hazard a guess that the Lieutenant isn't in his right state of mind," Yumichika proffered with a flamboyant hair flip, his own fan-scythe Shikai in hand with readiness to battle. "That, or more than likely, that isn't the Lieutenant standing in front of us."

"Surrender your lives," The Aaron!Sasakibe ordered coolly, his Reiatsu rising in an intense mantle of violet electricity. It was enough to bring the two nearest standing medical officers to their knees and it pressured Yumichika to hunch forward while Ikkaku possessed a maddening grin. Raising his rapier till it was an upright position, he closed his eyes with resignation. "Very well. Then we shall take your energy for my master, by force."

The entire line of Calavera unsheathed their swords, gathering orbs of Reishi to their razor edges and pointed them in a single line.

"That's not good," Yumichika stated with a grim smile. "I don't think we can stop this building from being slashed in half, let alone collapsing on everyone here."

"And he's not going to let us get past him," Ikkaku ground his teeth together, his smile dimming to look angrily ahead, veins nearly popping along his bald scalp. "Dammit! Got no balls to fight me man to man, huh?!"

Suddenly, a gust of wind flew upward, crashing into the bottoms of the line of Calavera behind Aaron!Sasakibe. His eyes widened with his adversaries, the torrential wind covering them in a field of swirling dust. Cries of pain and agony cut off the would-be-release of over a dozen Cero at the Shinigami hospital. Turning to gaze behind his shoulder, he'd see the cyclonic ash grinding dozens of slashes against them, each one looking precise and clean through what could've been sufficient Hierro.

Raising his rapier, he'd discharge at the cloud of ash, watching it roast what bodies still remained in its fog of dust and seeing it did little to blow it back. The wind coalesced around the air till it fused into a sword hilt, a coral-blonde haired woman standing upright not looking more than a little bit scraped and bumped.

"I take it you're a fake, Lieutenant Sasakibe," Rangiku intoned with cold glare pointed at the golden eyed stare of the Calavera. "The real Sasakibe wouldn't have laid a finger on his comrades; even if ordered by the Captain Commander to do so."

"M-Matsumoto!" The Medic 3rd Seat cried out with relief as he was still pinned to the floor by the Shinigami forgery's Reiatsu. "We were told you were obliterated in your battle against the Arrancars, Tres Bestias. Where have you been?!"

"That is a good question," Yumichika stated with a nonchalant expression on his face.

"I knew she wouldn't be erased so easily," Ikkaku grinned with visible relief.

"I'll explain everything soon," Lieutenant Matsumoto promised, imploring with a two-handed stance taken in the air that was complimentary of her late Captain's. "But for now, I have to dispatch this mockery of the real Chōjirō Sasakibe, before he causes any harm that can't be undone!"

"Fine," Lieutenant Aaron!Sasakibe retorted, raising his blade up in a proper fighting stance. "I accept your resolve and meet your challenge with mine. Have at you!"

Clashing into the sky, the 10th Division Lieutenant traded blows with the enhanced Calavera of the 1st Division Lieutenant. Initially, their swordplay was held evenly, the woman showing veritable skill to at least hold back this doppelganger's proper swordsmanship and deflect his Shikai's shocking currents with an application of Tsuzuri Raiden to cancel out the high voltage coursing through the rapier. But the difference of Reiryoku of the artificial rebirth and the genuine Shinigami was clear for anyone to see.

A sudden eruption of Reiatsu sent Rangiku careening into the ground below. Hunched over on her knees, she gripped her blade, gritting her teeth as the grey-maned warrior zipped straight down towards her. Like a bolt of lightning he thrust towards her, an explosion of dust unleashing upon impact with the ground.

Having realized that the smoke was mixed with her ash, the Lieutenant attempted to rush out-

-only for his skin to make contact and receive deft cuts into his flesh.

Stabbing the ground, he unleashed a violent surge of light that counteracted the cloud of ash and smoke, blowing it back through sheer discharge of Reishi. The flashing amethyst enabled him to pick up her location, standing a bit of a ways while muttering something under her breath. A crimson halo christened around her hilt and her words became more distinct, familiar to the ears of the host of memories this clone possessed.

Leaping forward to run her through!

"Hadō 31, Shakkahō!" She cried out, swinging her crimson lit hilt in the same time he began to stab towards her exposed bosom.

Her Zanpakutō became less of a circumference of separated particles and a distinct flashing specks of rosy sparks. Each one of them streamed forward with a visibly insignificant stream of light, each orb the size of a grain of sand. But, in just grazing his skin and clothes, he'd suddenly feel himself rendered asunder in a fiery explosion of crimson murder.

A voiceless cry was released from his throat, his body unable to repel the damage despite his significant Reiatsu. Caught within a perfect ring of blasting light, he'd be brought to his knees, burning past his silken white uniform Aaroniero had fashioned him upon his creation and down to a scalded naked man with sword still shaking in his grip. Grinning sadly, he looked up at the Lieutenant, who had been blasted backward, slightly steamed across her shoulders and raised left hand to brace her face from the flashing of her handiwork.

"Very well done...Lieutenant...Matsumoto," He confessed, his body decaying into ash himself as he closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Master Aaroniero...and please forgive me...Captain...Commander..."

And, without ceremony, he crumbled into dust and the sword itself vanished in a ghostly blur of ethereal refraction.

Rangiku had made it just in time. Panting heavily, she leaped up, reuniting with the stunned assembly of medics, Shinigami, the 11th Division 3rd and 4th Seats included. She even caught wind of Isane crossing over a sordid number of bodies of humans and reapers alike, her hand resting on her sword hilt that remained sheathed. Thankfully, she smiled with an emotional surprise at the shorter and more curvaceous woman's survival.

"So, mind telling us who saved you?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," The coral-blonde replied with a sloppy smile.

"Try us," Ikkaku intoned with sword clicking back into its scabbard.

"Gin," She replied, bringing them all into silence. Her eyes stared seriously at them, she raised her hands up, explaining to them with a look of the utmost seriousness on her face. "But there's no time for that. Is Captain Zaraki here?"

"He's in bad shape," Yumichika proffered with a gesture to the meek Lieutenant of the 4th Division, whom bowed apologetically to her. "He tangled with the Primera, from what I understand. The scary 4th Division Captain apparently saved him and then fought him to the death. He'll likely be no more help for this whole battle."

"He may be needed just yet," She implored, gripping her open palms into clenched fists, her blue eyes shining with conviction at them. "We have to destroy the one called Aaroniero; and I think only Kenpachi has the power to do so!"

Uryū didn't know what to think.

He had been so close. Breaking away from the fighting against all of the other duplicates Aaroniero left behind to contend with the veritably threatening army of powerful Shinigami and Visoreds, the Last Quincy took off as quickly as his Hirenkyaku could propel him. By the time he arrived, the battle was in earnest against the leader of the Shinigami. While he had no love for the man, he was an asset he couldn't afford to be lost in this war.

But he had failed to stop Aaroniero's ploy. Priding in his ability to gauge the strength of his foes and keep track of their energy, he found himself at a loss for what this new form of Rukia's body was in. At this stage, the ominous sensation of a compulsive gravity all its own was now replaced by a near cosmic level of strength. He had no telling what this overwhelming power that simply just surpassed any enemy he had faced thus far.

Petrified, he had no feeling his feet, rooted in place as his eyes were fixated on this strange life form that housed the dreaded Arrancar inside of his comrade's body.

Then, he felt himself brought to his knees by simply locking gazes with her.

"She's...crushing...me!" The Last Quincy grounded his teeth out as his hands sunk into the earth, a sense of gravity warping around him and vibrated the air around his person.

"If you're not going to fight me, you just stay right there," Aaroniero whispered in his ear, as if having knelt by him the whole time. His bespectacled gaze slanted upward, barely catching sight of her playful smile spread across her lips.

An instant later, an eruption of flames wafted over his back and the periphery of a burning arc of golden-crimson swung towards her neck. A blistering funnel of fire swirled around Uryū and he bit his lip, closing his eyes as he believed he'd be caught up in the crossfire of the Captain Commander's attack.

Instead, he felt no heat and the whole of fire vanished. His eyes blinked and he pressured his head to look up. His mouth gawked, the sword shattering into pieces from the tip all the way to the hilt. A particular tendril of blood red had wrapped around the elder reaper's wrist, having halted his momentum and being the catalyst of destruction to the infamous Zanpakutō, Ryūjin Jakka.

"Funny thing about Metastacia," Aaroniero stated aloud, smiling ear to ear as she leisurely turned to face the leader of the Gotei 13 with a too-sweet expression on her face. "If anyone touches the tendrils along his body, once a night, he can destroy any Shinigami's Zanpakutō. I've been saving this ability for a particularly meddlesome power; one I dare try not to take without a repercussion of someone crafty like you to get one last lick in."

Bearing his gaze, he tossed away the remainders of the hilt aside, the senior Captain glowering at the ascended being standing before him.

"Wait, don't tell me," She began to chuckle, her eyes widening with mocking humor. "You aren't going to intend to fight me without your Zanpakutō? How arrogant can you be?"

"Do you think Ryūjin Jakka was all that made me unsurpassed in a thousand years? How careless of you, Hollow whelp," He sneered.

All at once, a tumultuous Reiatsu was unleashed and the heat that was customary from the famed flame sword was unleashed from the very pores of the Shinigami. The reaper, immersed in a thick mantle of tongues, knelt down and slammed one foot behind him while sliding the other forward. Raising one fist ahead of the other, his eyes knitted into an intense glare and his body undulated with muscular flexing.

In less than the blink of an eye, a loud explosion of kinetic energy blasted the raven haired boy backwards. Sprawling across the ground, he'd see that that Aaroniero had jarred back, heels grinding into the pavement and into the soil beneath it. The neck was tilted at an odd angle, almost staring back right at him with crossed eyes; amethysts that realigned to stare at him teasingly with a broad smile.

A gruesome snap pulled her neck back on straight and the ascended Hollow grinned, unmarked by the contact of the powerful Hakuda move.

"I remember your Ikkotsu, old man," Aaroniero intoned with a cheeky smile. "That won't do any damage to me."

Not responding with words, Yamamoto launched himself in a burning streak of ozone, a trail of crimson left behind him through his sheer propulsive momentum. Uryū couldn't see what was happening, but another explosive connection was made by an arm he couldn't process with his eyes. This time Aaroniero twisted around till her torso was corkscrewed around seven times and wrung around back at the Quincy again. Giggling aloud, she'd swing her body around in a whirlwind of motion-

-punching the air right in front of the Captain Commander-

-sending him flying back with an eruption of clandestine aurora of violet-tinted Reishi. The older being's body tore through the line of the city, sprawling backward with a velocity that sheared through buildings and shattered windows at the speed he was sent hurtling backwards. Fire left a curved streak of where his flight's line of destruction was seen, giving a visible warped cut through the landscape ahead of the Quincy's person.

Standing upright, she twisted her hips back and forth, smaller crackles and pops sounded as she sounded as if she was realigning her spine back into its proper placement. Blowing on her knuckles, she dusted her crystalline chitinous abdomen, humming an eerie tune under her breath. Another spastic shift space later, and she'd raise her palm up expectantly, catching a sudden teleporting fist of a bearded figure.

The hand caught it adeptly, smothering the explosive yield of Reiatsu and defusing the overall strength.

Throwing him forward onto the ground with a bouncing crack into the earth, the elder Shinigami reared back on three of his four limbs. Raising his head up, his eyes widened with surprise as he'd see Aaroniero's pixie-like face inches from his, smiling with a smug expression. Leaning back up, her own right arm raised a hand with a middle finger pulled back by her thumb.

Releasing in a single flick to his forehead.

"HNNNNNNNGH!" Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto winced with a guttural, long-present groan of pain. Blood showered across his face and split open the surface of his flesh. More importantly, he was thrown across the air once again with a uncontrollable amount of physical force, produced by the sheer yield of Reiatsu emitted from a single finger.

Returning back, the blood-framed face of Yamamoto returned with just as much fervor, instantaneously throwing blows faster than any being -Shinigami nor Hollow- had a right to deliver. Each time they were deflected or caught, Aaroniero handily looking nonplussed by her opponent's unfettered tenacity. The temerity of her foe continued to amuse her and for once, she could duly wear him down at her leisure.

After all, she now had all the time in the world to fully satisfy her urges to show what she can do with this kind of power at her disposal.

This entire ordeal stirred something, however, in the currently sole surveyor of this one-sided conflict.

Uryū sighed, allowing the immense force that held him captive and coalesced it around the fibers of his hair, flowing the tangible flow of warping Reishi. Gradually he began to push himself up to his feet, an aurora of threaded lines forcing his weary body up onto his feet. When he could stand solidly on his feet, he withdrew the hilt of his Seele Schneider, and he pulled out, tossing one to his right hand before drawing a second one.

Then, in an instant, he flickered ahead with a shaving sound and his body rapidly accelerated towards the unguarded flank of his foe. Swinging them in a crisscross cuts towards her back, he'd widen his eyes at seeing an invisible cone of light flare up and take the brunt of his attack. Smiling despite himself, he brought both weapons down on it again, a virulent streak of light carving through the shield and streaming straight into the pair of guard-less blades.

The move was enough to bring Aaroniero to look over curiously at Uryū, watching him cut at her subconsciously erecting barriers of Reiatsu to buffet his attacks. Her senses confirmed that he was siphoning her powers and it was forced into the hilts of the seemingly saber-like weapons. Arcane but effective, and Aaroniero thrust a palm into Yamamoto's charging, bruised and bloodied fist casually.

Allowing her free hand to swing towards him, unleashing a sheer wave of crushing pressure to pin him down to the earth once more.

"I was counting on that!" Uryū proclaimed with bared teeth, his glasses cracking as he met the wave head-on. Thrusting both arrows into the vortex, he'd sever the torrent of near invisible wave of artificial gravity and assimilate the dispersed particles. The blades hummed with an ominous feeling in the air, vibrating around the confines of space and sending out chaotic bolts of light to dance around the earth with the potent amount of power it contained.

And in a decisive moment, the Last Quincy slashed at her raised palm of deep purple keratin. The light dragged along its surface, casting a deep groove into its surface and cracking its surface along the groove of her palm. Finishing the crisscross slash, the slightest fleck of blood was sent spurting into the air. It brought the raven haired man a hint of a smile, his weapons shaking in his grip as he continued to swing his weapons around to violently cut at her person.

At the same time, Yamamoto began to drive his wounded free hand straight into her face and torso, each one casting an explosive combination of air splitting potency. The jack-hammering and the cutting bore a blurring visage of Aaroniero's person. Her head lolled along the flow of each attack, eyes rolling around and the veined-coat flapped like a flag in a hurricane. Knees buckled and feet slid across the cracked earth beneath her feet.

Feet that suddenly flexed into the earth, and the form whipped back, thrusting two sets of splayed fingers towards the pair. Her eyes widened as she'd see the bearded Captain endured the blow, both blood encrusted arms -bruised and burnt- absorbed the shock while squatting solidly. A succinct thrusting sound ground into her right set of ribs, and she'd turn to see a determined head of messy black bangs obscuring a now glass-less pair of blue eyes glaring up at her. The force of her Reiatsu had blown off his uniform and exposed lacerated shoulders and arms, with a bruised chest down to a swollen abdomen; but the threads of Ransōtengai still clinging to his wounded form.

"You're becoming an annoyance," Aaroniero hissed aloud as she glared at the handles of the Seele Schneider in hand; eyes pulsed, a throbbing light shattering the two tools and disrupting the blades outright, halting their thrusts into the grooves along her lithe waist.

Swinging her hand around, she slapped him across the jaw, watching his mouth spit out blood and teeth as he'd be send hurtling flying backwards across the ground. Instead of going limp, the young man tumbled over to a crouched posture, withdrawing another Seele Schneider. In another flickering motion he'd come at her with a roar let loose from his throat, a crimson coated mouth howling as he'd throw himself into attacking her once again.

"Uryū, this is reckless," She chastised, pulling back to avoid his attacks, deftly outmaneuvering him while idly staring at him with a more neutral gaze. At the end of his dancing maneuver, she'd reach out and grasp him around the throat, raising him up and toss him away. Rag-dolling away, he'd claw at the earth and wearily push himself up; only to fall to one knee and breath heavily. "This is beyond out of character for you. Why interfere when you have no chance of winning?"

"Who...said...anything...about...winning?" Uryū inquired haggardly, his eyes staring at her past his crusted black bangs. "I'm not going to win. I've had no illusion of doing so. But...someone...else?"

"What are you-?"

She began to feel something, buried within the exterior of the shell of her chitinous exterior. Looking down at her cracked carapace that detailed her Shinigami frame, she saw hints of lines of crimson swathed in and around, forming a variety of kanji-shaped patterns. It stretched up from her abdomen, around the corners of her ribs and fed into the spots that she had felt the initial defense of her body wane against the Quincy ancient tools. Stretching up over her face, curling around her eyes, she felt her mouth ebb a heat that made her choke.

"W-What's h-happening to m-me?!" She gasped aloud, padding at her body, her mouth forming a gagging sensation. The recesses around her eye sockets began to glow a golden-red.

"Rise, o' gods of the earth. Heavens burn. Wind become searing and seas become boiling. Emerge majesty and bring forth ruin to foolish mortals," Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto chanted aloud, his darkened, blood caked hands wreathed in the same flame of Reishi that was immersed within her own shell. Through mnemonic command, he'd swing his hands around and clasp one set of raised forefingers, ejecting the other straight upward. A searing glare poised towards her, and he'd speak aloud his spell. "Hadō #99, Goryūtenmetsu!"

"ULLLLLLLLLLLK!" Aaroniero heaved out, her body convulsing as within the shell, shattered outward with the sight of crimson-golden dragonic shapes. One launched itself from her back, bowling backwards and obliterating the train station face while annihilating the Karakura infrastructure behind her. Another erected out of her throat, funneling straight up into the sky. A pair burrowed into the earth, rending it asunder and setting it ablaze in a massive billowing inferno that consumed the entity from the inside out; a final one shooting outward from the navel, howling outward with bestial fury and ransacking the landscape before slamming into barrier encircled around the city.

Uryū, having nearly no means of ordinarily escaping it, leaped up with Hirenkyaku and casting a barrier through the soles of his feet. Barely avoiding the haze of Kidō borne pit of flames, the young man marveled at the sheer destruction that befell across the now mostly vacant cityscape. Bodies that were cast aside from the Ōken were likely incinerated, but the vast majority of potential friendlies had been avoided in the collective crossfire.

Looking over at the Captain Commander, he saw the man taking breaths slowly. Sweat caked over his body and severity of damage incurred on his face down his chest and from the top of his biceps to the tips of his fingers was severely cracked, burned and lacerated. Constantly slamming himself against a dense defense while receiving counterattacks took its toll, even on the mightiest Shinigami of the Gotei 13.

A hint of a snowflake was seen drifting across the Quincy's eyes, making his blue irises dilate with his pupil.

Swirling inward, the flow of Kidō borne flames imploded into a singular uproar of freezing light that shot outward, encasing the figure that was likely super-heated from the attack itself. Cracking, the pillar dispersed into a flow of snow and out emerged Aaroniero, her body visibly mended and transforming in hue. The white cloak of violet-veins was now long-sleeved kimono that bore red veins detailing where a mockery of a Division's insignia presided. Her chitinous shell that shattered was now renewed with a glittering series of frozen lines that filled the recesses of the cracks, forming a snowflake along her abdomen up over her detailed shell-encased bosom down over her navel. All flesh on her face was renewed, and her smile was revealed to the pair with both amethyst, white patterned hands clapped to the pair.

"Congratulations. That actually hurt," She congratulated them, baring her teeth with a vicious gleam escaping her eyes. "Allow me to repay the favor."

A sudden swipe and a tidal wave of multi-colored Reishi crashed up into the elevated Uryū, concussing his body and sending him sprawling to the ground.

The Captain Commander, however, rushed forward with an outstretched hand to grasp Aaroniero's face.

"I'm done," Aaroniero intoned, an invisible slash of her arm sent an arc of cutting light that tore off the man's limb from his elbow. He'd throw his other arm without fail, causing her to repeat the same gesture without fail. As both limbs were sent with a grotesque slap onto the earth behind her, she thrust her Hōgyoku dominant left hand straight through the man's chest out of his back.

Spewing out blood, the Captain Commander looked up and saw something horrifying. His blood smeared face looked into an empty abyss within a pair of deceivingly normal purple eyes. Deep within the void of her pupils he saw a legion of souls, all coalesced and stirred like some disturbing stew of metaphysical horror. His whole body throbbed, paling and withering, all siphoning into a vein pulsing wrist of white-etched violet keratin. A look of something he had never shown in all his time as a Shinigami appeared across the draining look in his greying eyes.

Despair.

Withdrawing her palm, a hole was shown to preside in the center of his chest, now a shriveled husk devoid of life. Raising her hand, she inspected to see not even a drop of blood was spared as she had drained every last worth of the sapient being's essence. Turning her back to his cadaver, she wouldn't see as it crumbled into ash and dispersed in the wind that blew behind her.

Approaching Uryū, the apex predator began to hum and skip over to the injured teenager. The last flecks of Ransōtengai was beginning to ebb off his body, and it was all he could do was to claw himself towards her. His eyes had a glazed look of nearsightedness, unable to quite grasp just how close she was. Giggling under her breath, she drew towards him, and knelt down with her arms resting on her crystalline haunches.

"You fought admirably, for a human," Aaroniero complimented softly, her eyes now drawing themselves back to a more emotionless neutral gaze at him. "For what it was worth, it was fun being an ally of yours. Even being your enemy is something I didn't think I'd enjoy, but, here I am."

The young Ishida grimaced, his eyes closing and his body heaving strained breaths.

"I'll give you a choice," She offered, lowering a hand towards his face, so he could see it. Waiting for his eyes to open, he did and blinked with confusion at them; until she explained his options she generously gave him. "Become a part of me. I promise to make it painless. If you don't, I'm going to have to kill you and leave your body to waste away."

Gritting his remaining teeth together, blood oozing over his mouth down to the dirt his chin rested on, he began to leak liquid from his eyes.

"Which is it?" She asked, looking a little impatient across her face.

"I...want to join my mother," He hoarsely croaked, staring weakly up at her. "You can keep your generosity, Aaroniero."

Sighing, she curled her stretched hand till only a single finger pointed at his face. A shrill whine was heard as a microscopic equivalent of a Cero was formed at the edge of her finger, illuminating the visage of the Quincy in an overcast of white-purple.

"You're too dangerous to leave alive," The amethyst-haired woman explained a detached expression across her face. "I hope you understand. Goodbye, Uryū Ishida."

Her finger cocked back, unleashing a pillar of fiery light to consume him whole.

"Koten Zanshun!"

A familiar voice shouted aloud, following a streak of light trailing from a golden-winged-insect of sorts. It cast a barrier, rejecting the phenomena of her erasing the light of energy and bisecting it to drill into the dirt on either side of the startled Uryū Ishida. Before the apex predator's eyes she'd see the hornet of crimson-black slice up the chitinous substance of her finger and bisect her outstretched forefinger.

"AH!" She cried out, pulling back finger and leaping away from her bested enemy and landing gracefully away in a streak of ultra-swift-movement. Her eyes opened and saw the wasp of spiritual energy swerve in and around, orbiting around a familiar deep-coral colored hair. The white cloaked girl of curvaceous build had a dirtied and ragged look to her otherwise immaculate dress afforded to her by Aizen, but she had a drastically different look in her eyes than the last time she looked into them.

"Ori...hime," Aaroniero found herself emoting aloud, a prick forming at the deepest recess of her chest and she found a welling of emotion clutching at her throat.

"Inoue...what...are you-?"

"Be still," She turned, smiling endearingly at Uryū as she stepped off a triangular platform her Shun Shun Rikka cast for her. Overlapping him in a semi-circle dome of rejecting light, the golden overcast bathed him in a benevolent warmth that lulled him into unconsciousness. As his eyes closed, Orihime turned to renew the same fiery look of determination.

Shaking her head, she dismissed the confusion that was instilled into her by merely locking her gaze with the young adult's amber eyes. Raising her amethysts to stare back at her, she raised a hand towards her, inquiring with a derisive smirk on her face, "Orihime, I can hardly recognize you. That look doesn't suit you. But, if you're going to be here, I assume you've come to stop me. Are you prepared to kill your friend?"

"I'm not going to kill you," Orihime refused, a glare etched across her face as her body ignited with a beautiful translucent golden halo of Reiatsu of her own sheer confidence. "I'm going to save you!"

At that point, the apex predator blanched. Snorts followed palpable chortles and then a full throat bellow of laughter escaped her mouth. Rearing her head back, she placed a hand over her head, covering her eyes as she exclaimed with the utmost incredulity. Stifling her giggles, she slid her palm off her face, exposing an icy glare from her violet irises.

"Do I look like I want to be saved? How foolish can you be?" She snarled angrily.

"Deny it all you want," Orihime refuted, throwing her hand around with determination in a step forward. "I'm going to save you from yourself; I'm going to bring them all back."

Suddenly, the possessed Shinigami contemplated what she meant. The basis of her powers was all about Rejection of Phenomena. She was there when Aizen explained its powers, as demonstrated through Grimmjow's arm being restored exactly as it once was. Time and again she had been continuing to do more brazen, bold things with this feature of her powers.

Did she intend to undo every consumption of her being, and reverse the progress of her evolution?

"You BITCH!" She spat, throwing her arms around with a visible layer of animosity etched into the shadows lacing from her hair framing her knitted brow lines. "You intend to undo all I have strove to accomplish?! I'll tear you apart for even suggesting that, Orihime Inoue!"

At the same time she declared this, a number of things happened at once.

A host of signatures arrived within her vicinity. Turning her head she'd see less than she'd sense, becoming fully aware of a host of beings that now encircled her in a complete trap of bodies. They were all familiar and it was indicative of their success in clawing their way through their opposition. With all of them brandishing weapons, no matter their conditions, they were all pale individually but together posed a problem.

The other thing that happened was Gin landing near her left, while Starrk finally emerged from his hiding spot with a flicker of his own movement to her right.

"Oh my, this doesn't look good," The aforementioned prior man mentioned with a perpetual leering smirk on his face. "We're completely surrounded by enemies."

"As much as I don't want to bring myself to fight off so many strong enemies, I don't see an option just to run," The Primera sighed aloud, his pistols raised in hand and his sole exposed eye looked over at Aaroniero inquisitively. "Got a plan?"

"I may have one true objective, it seems there is something present that will put it all in jeopardy," Aaroniero stated, her eyes leering over to Orihime, ignoring practically everyone present regardless of ability. "Kill Orihime Inoue, and then we can leave."

"Sorry," A voice emerged from space, directly behind Aaroniero within a span that startled Starrk and amused Gin. Turning to glare icily over her white-rose collared shoulder, the violet-haired woman stared at the sight of a man that Rukia knew all too well; one that was the father of Ichigo and bore the likeness of a familiar Captain according to Sasakibe's memories within her. Namely, Isshin Kurosaki. "I think you've killed enough people today."

Standing silently beside him, much to the surprise of the strawberry himself, was Ryūken Ishida himself. Armed with a short-bow at his side that he held casually in one grip, the man was dressed in the ornate customary effects not too dissimilar from Uryū's. The only exception was armor plating of an alabaster hue with veins of blue woven around them in distinct outlines, keying in that he wasn't just bearing any kind of protection of the ordinary sort.

With the two men being the nearest, Gin leaped in and thrust towards Isshin, the pair colliding in a shower of sparks amidst a curtailing roar of Reiatsu. Starrk turned his pistol and fired, only to have his Cero pierced straight through and nearly stab him in the face. The two leaped away as they engaged, all the while a horde of enemies rushed towards Aaroniero, whose malevolent aura erupted in a visible rippling across space and air.

"No matter the result," She declared in her mind, disregarding all other foes that aimed to deal her damage. "I will kill you, Orihime Inoue!"

A/N: Not a lot to say here. Just felt proud of what I got done in a shorter amount of time. I don't expect to update this frequently for at least the next month, but for now, I'll at least be satisfied with the end result here.