84 84: Soul Crushing

Alexi saw that Ren's purple eyes did not land on him for more than a moment before he took notice of both of the Bounts. This caused anger and fear to well up within him. Anger due to being ignored but fear because he had a primal fear envelope him during that split moment Ren's eyes landed on him.

'I am the man who has gathered all the Quincy under a single banner for a noble cause and am being ignored by a single captain? Who does he think he is?

I lead the Quincy not just with charisma but also my power. I have been the only Quincy in the past 500 years to awaken a Schrift yet he ignores me?'

As much as he cursed Ren in his mind, he knew that a direct confrontation between the pair would most likely end in his death. Thinking better of it, Alexi decided to try and buy time while he recalled his elite forces to retreat and encircle Ren.

"You have ignored all that is going on around Soul Society and come to find me all by yourself. I wonder if you are being arrogant and foolish or are just that confident in your strength."

Ren turned his eyes and they stared into Alexi's black eyes. Ren let a small smile appear on his face after he studied his face.

"Let me ask. Are you related to anyone named Ishida or Kurosaki?"

Even though he felt that the question was weird, Alexi decided to answer since he still needed more time.

"No. Why are you bringing up both of those names?"

"Cause I have seen the father in the Shiba clan so that meant the name Kurosaki had to come from either thin air or be her surname."

Ren spoke his true thoughts but to all those who had heard him, he was sounding like a madman. Even though he spoke like this, Alexi did not let down his guard or allow the others to do so either. The feeling of danger he got from Ren had increased.

'5 more minutes and one of the other groups will arrive.'

"Anybody here has that surname?"

"No. The Ishida clan has only sent their princess but she is on another battlefield while I have never heard of a Kurosaki."

Hearing Alexi say that, Ren was both relieved and upset. If one of the others accidentally killed the princess of the Ishida clan, that could ruin the future. Thinking about this, Ren unconsciously started making it rain all over Soul Society.

'Oh. This might actually be useful for our people to use as cover. Guess I will just keep it.'

A large amount of killing intent emerged from Ren's body and spread wildly over the Quincy in front of him. Even the veterans who had gone through many battles fell to their knees.

But this was not the end of it. Even knowing about their ability to absorb reishi and reiatsu using their tools and natural abilities, Ren unleashed his in a wild fashion around himself. All of the Quincy around began to cough up blood and feel pain in their chests before they were killed and reduced to ashes.

This was a technique that the most powerful of beings could use, Soul Crushing. Using one's reiatsu, a being could literally destroy another being's soul. Most would do this passively while not actively releasing reiatsu or when their reiatsu was released actively.

Ren was a special case of needed to train his reiatsu to do so since its element was nature and very soothing to most souls in its base state. But with the technique, not to mention ordinary shinigami and hollows, any being that did not have reiatsu comparable to a 5th seat or higher officer could not survive being in Ren's presence for more than a second when he used the technique.

When Ren finally controlled his reiatsu again, the only people left alive in the area were Ren, Alexi, and the two Bounts. All the other Quincy had been turned to ash and washed away by the rain.

'Hmm. It seems like I am a terrible shinigami. Maybe even the worst. All their souls have been completely destroyed this time. Old man Yama is going to give me a hell of a scolding later.'

(Just realized the shinigami are lead by someone called Yama lol. Yama isis a Hindu and Buddhist deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld for those who aren't mythology or chinese/hindu/bhuddist nerds)

While Ren was thinking about how to explain himself to Yamamoto if the old man ever found out, the Bounts and Alexi were scared shitless. They had each seen shinigami battle before and knew that they were basically battles of reiatsu but they had never seen such powerful and raw reiatsu.

This time, Alexi no longer thought it but asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time.

"You... just who are you?"

Ren saw that Alexi could still speak even after being under such a powerful and lethal amount of reiatsu. He reevaluated his opinion of the man before flashing a smile to him and answering his question.

"I am the captain of the 8th division, Ren Igarashi (had most upvotes in paragraph comments). Ren as in Lotus while Igarashi is spelled like Fifty Storms.

I am also known as Ren of the Blood Forest (second most voted, besides Clorox) though. You know, like Teresa of the Faint Smile or Kakashi the Copycat Ninja or Kimblee the Crimson Alchemist."

As he said that, tree branches emerged from the ground to spell out his name in the air in both English and Kanji just for extra effect.