The scene shifted to the other side.
Through the Royal Key that had already been completed in the human world, Sosuke Aizen and his group of five successfully crossed into the Soul King Palace.
The sky there seemed higher. The silence felt older. Even the air carried a different kind of pressure, as if every particle in that sacred realm existed solely to remind intruders that they had stepped into forbidden territory.
Aizen lifted his gaze with the same calm indifference as always.
"So this is the Soul King Palace…"
There was no awe in his voice. No fear either.
"It was easier to invade than I expected."
In the next second, the camera cut sharply from one member of the Zero Division to another, matching each of their faces against the five invaders standing before them.
Five against five.
Fair enough to feel almost deliberate.
Before that tense composition could settle, Tenjiro Kirinji moved first.
"This is the Soul King Palace! Intruders are not welcome here!"
The long blade in his hand, shaped almost like a war paddle, flashed with blinding golden light as it came down toward Aizen's face.
"Shine, Kinpika!"
The strike fell.
But it did not hit Aizen.
The blade passed straight through his figure as if the man standing there were nothing more than a mirage waiting politely at the gates. Steel cut through empty air without resistance, without blood, without even drawing the faintest reaction from its target.
Tenjiro landed, narrowing his eyes.
"Kyoka Suigetsu…?"
It was the obvious suspicion. After everything Aizen had done, no one in a position of power could possibly be ignorant of his zanpakutō's ability. Even so, the Zero Division had their own confidence, bordering on arrogance: none of them had ever witnessed Aizen's initial release.
In other words, Kyoka Suigetsu should not work on them.
That was one of the foundations of their certainty.
Aizen's lips curved into a faint smile, one edged with quiet contempt.
"Kyoka Suigetsu? Don't be ridiculous."
He took a step forward, as though the question itself had insulted him.
"Do you truly believe that, simply because you are not under its influence, you can defeat me?"
His gaze swept across the palace guardians with cold, almost graceful disdain.
"Do you think I came all this way relying only on Kyoka Suigetsu?"
His voice deepened, calm yet absolute.
"You are far too arrogant, Zero Division."
Then, as if stating a law of the world, he continued.
"A shinigami capable of surpassing me appears only once in a thousand years."
The line had originally belonged to another legend, but Alex had rewritten it for Aizen, and disturbingly enough, it fit him perfectly. From his mouth, it did not sound like exaggeration. It sounded like a verdict.
"You do know how to speak, Sosuke Aizen."
That voice arrived with an elegant, threatening presence.
Senjumaru Shutara emerged, escorted by the soldiers of the Soul King Palace. Her movements were too graceful for someone stepping into the center of a battlefield. There was a poisonous refinement to her, a cold authority that made every gesture seem as if it had been prepared centuries in advance.
"I did not expect you to dare enter the Soul King Palace uninvited. Did defeating Yamamoto make you lose all sense of proportion?"
The tension was already suffocating, yet the simple sight of Aizen and Senjumaru sharing the same frame sent a wave of excitement through veteran viewers. It was the kind of collision that felt impossible outside a fan's wildest dream: two iconic villains, sharpened charisma, overwhelming presence, and pure threat compressed into a single scene. Even with the atmosphere stretched to the breaking point, countless viewers felt their hearts race for reasons that had nothing to do with fear.
Aizen's smile deepened.
Without answering immediately, he continued walking toward the palace's central hall.
Step by step, he crossed the staircase with the composure of someone strolling through a corridor that already belonged to him. At the exact moment one of his feet was about to officially touch the floor of the main hall, Senjumaru spoke in a low, clear voice.
"You shall go no farther."
In an instant, ten soldiers of the Soul King Palace appeared around Aizen, surrounding him from every direction. Their zanpakutō thrust forward at once, each blade aimed at a different vital point on his body.
"Become dust beneath the Soul King Palace."
As Senjumaru spoke, the ten blades were only a heartbeat away from piercing Aizen.
But that heartbeat never arrived.
The bodies of the ten guards began to age at an impossible speed.
In less than five seconds, their faces wrinkled, their backs bent, their flesh withered, and their skin began to peel away like rotting cloth. Before a single scream could fully form, their bodies collapsed, crumbled into dust, and were carried off by a faint breeze, vanishing into the sacred air of the Soul King Palace as though they had never existed at all.
The entire process took less than five seconds.
"The guards of the Soul King Palace amount to this?"
The cold voice came from behind.
Barragan remained motionless, yet everyone understood at once. He was the one who had erased those ten soldiers from existence.
"The power of aging, is it?"
Senjumaru showed no surprise. She merely named his ability with a coldness equal to his own.
Aizen tilted his head slightly, amused.
"Oh? You already knew? I suppose you learned it by observing the battle in the Seireitei and studying the abilities of the top four Espada."
His smile turned cruel.
"How heartless of you, Zero Division. While the Seireitei drowned in blood below, you simply sat here and watched?"
Tenjiro, already recovered, rested his blade across his shoulder and answered with a dry laugh, a thin stick clenched between his teeth.
"The duty of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads is to protect the Seireitei. The duty of the Zero Division is to protect the Soul King Palace."
His eyes sharpened.
"Do not try to use that silver tongue of yours to drive a wedge between us and them."
His voice hardened.
"In the end, if the Seireitei became a sea of blood, are you not the one responsible?"
Another member of the Zero Division walked into view, smiling gently despite the chilling coldness in her eyes.
"Isn't that right, Vice-Captain Aizen?"
Kirio Hikifune.
Former captain of the Twelfth Division. One hundred and twenty years ago, when she still held the rank of captain, Aizen had been only a vice-captain.
"It has been a long time, Captain Hikifune."
Aizen answered with a nearly nostalgic calm.
"You have changed quite a lot."
Then, without altering his smile, he struck exactly where it hurt.
"If the Seireitei is completely under the Soul King Palace's surveillance, then I assume you already know about the death of your subordinate."
He was speaking of Hiyori.
The cruelty of that sentence cut through the screen like a thin blade. Fans felt admiration and discomfort at the same time. Aizen was exactly that kind of man. It did not matter who stood before him, nor how dangerous the emotional minefield beneath his feet might be. He would always walk across it with elegance, as if provocation were merely another form of breathing.
At that moment, Barragan sensed something strange.
He lowered his eyes and realized that the clothes covering his body were becoming tighter and tighter. Looking carefully, he saw a thread so fine it was nearly invisible to the naked eye. It ran along his garment, slipped through the folds of the fabric, and extended all the way to one of Senjumaru's prosthetic limbs.
"Your power is rare."
Senjumaru raised her hand, revealing the needle between her artificial fingers.
"But your powers of observation are surprisingly weak."
The needle's tip gleamed.
"Supreme Garment."
In the next instant, Barragan's clothing contracted violently, crushing his massive body as if trying to compress him from within. At the same time, enormous barbs burst out and pierced through his flesh, impaling him in brutal silence.
"Do not even think about taking it off before you die."
Senjumaru said it with cutting elegance, and the actress behind the role dominated the scene completely. Her coldness, posture, gaze, and presence all radiated absolute control.
Online, the comments exploded. Some viewers screamed that she looked impossibly cool. Others remembered how the actress had defined their childhoods, half as a goddess, half as a nightmare. Some lamented that she had left the spotlight too early, while the more experienced viewers simply watched with caution.
Because anyone who had followed Alex's works knew the rule well.
The one who shows off first is the first to fall.
Yamamoto had seemed invincible before. He had spent nearly half an episode dominating the battlefield like a divine force, only to be overturned by Aizen in the final five minutes.
And, as if the narrative itself were answering that memory, in the very next second, the constricting garment around Barragan, along with the giant barbed spikes piercing him, was swallowed by a sinister black spiritual pressure.
Immediately afterward, crimson spiritual energy surged outward like blood, shaking the entire Soul King Palace.
"Segunda…"
Barragan's voice emerged low and heavy.
"Etapa."
Beneath the overwhelming blood-red spiritual pressure, Barragan appeared in a form completely different from the first release he had shown in the Seireitei.
Before, his Resurrección had transformed him into a skeletal figure wearing a crown and a dark violet cloak, like a dead king walking through ruins. Now, in his Segunda Etapa, he looked even older, even more profane: a dark sovereign risen from the depths of hell.
His black mantle was broader and heavier, filled with blood-red spiritual pressure that made the fabric rise and billow as if alive. Four massive horns stained with blood jutted from both sides of his skull. The enormous golden belt shaped like a scythe, together with the reinforced Axe of Death in his right hand, added a cruel magnificence to his monstrous presence.
The spiritual pressure was so ominous that even the members of the Zero Division frowned.
None of them dared treat him as an ordinary enemy.
"Oh my…"
Gin Ichimaru smiled with his usual lazy mockery.
"Using Segunda Etapa this early? How passionate of you, Mister Barragan."
"It does not matter."
Aizen remained indifferent, as if everything was still well within expectation.
"With this level alone, the Zero Division is not even capable of forcing my evolution."
His gaze shifted toward the others.
"Leave it to the Espada."
Hearing those words, Starrk and Harribel exchanged a brief look.
There was no reason to hesitate anymore.
"Segunda Etapa."
Starrk, who in his first release had taken on the appearance of a hunter wrapped in a wolf-pelt coat that covered almost his entire body, changed drastically upon entering his second stage. The heavy silhouette vanished, replaced by a far lighter and more exposed form. His dark hair turned blue and was tied into a long ponytail, while the black vest on his body covered only his shoulders, leaving nearly his entire torso bare.
The sharply defined muscles, sculpted abdomen, and firm lines of his body instantly sent a wave of screams through older female viewers, as though the screen had just handed them a personal gift.
But for most of the male audience, their eyes were not on Starrk.
They were fixed on Harribel.
After all, if her first Resurrección had already been so daring in its visual design, then what would happen now, in the second?
In front of their screens, younger actors like Paladis and Norton swallowed unconsciously, their breathing suddenly turning shallow. Beside them, Mark and Teacher Hugo maintained their dignity for less than a second before also staring at the screen without blinking.
In the end, men remained boys until their final breath.
Five seconds later, under the concentrated gaze of countless viewers, Harribel slowly emerged from a lightning-shaped surge of spiritual pressure.
And then, almost every man watching the broadcast erupted in fury at the same time.
"Who the hell turned on the holy light?!"
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