Bankai

(3rd Person POV)

The Squad Zero had defeated the Schutzstaffel and were now waiting for Ichibe Hyosube to defeat the leader of the Quincy. The two men clashed using their weapons.

*BANG*

"I sense a certain change in your expression.", Yhwach says.

"Is that right?"

"You seem very pleased with yourself. I never thought your face would take on such a frighteningly, cheerful look at the thought of killing me."

Yhwach pierces his sword towards Ichibe, but the monk moves his head to the side and instead swings his ink brush at Yhwach. The Quincy King blocks the attack with his forearm and swipes it away.

"Too bad your thoughts are more frightening than your attack.", Yhwach says.

"Why, because you blocked it with your arm? You see my brush doesn't sever flesh. It severs names.", Ichibe says.

Yhwach groans as he suddenly loses the strength in his arms.

"The name of your arms has just been sliced in two. As of now, all you've got is a pair of 'ar'. They feel heavier, don't they? That's because their strength has been cut in half and so is their ability. Your arms can only function at half capacity now."

Yhwach tries to cut Ichibe, but nothing happens as Ichibe easily dodges to the side.

"Your sword swing has become as soft as a gentle breeze. And now your name as well."

Ichibe raises his brush into the air and swings it in a downward slash, splashing Yhwach with ink, and cutting his name in half. Having done that, he hits the Quincy King with his brush and shoots him back to the platform.

"There. You'll be known simply as 'Yhw' from now on. The once-great Quincy leader whose power has been cut in half. Tell me how does it feel to have been chopped in two? Made half the man you once were by the leader of those Shinigami whom you hate so much?"

...

"Well, 'Yhw', it seems that even a thousand years wasn't long enough for you to learn the meaning of repentance. But it doesn't matter now. You're not on a deadline anymore. You shall have all eternity to repent.", Ichibe says and is about to strike Yhwach down as his medallion starts to shine and he begins to gather a lot of Reishi.

"Now rise. Silver emblems, ashen meadows, circular paths buried in light. Eye of agate, tongue of gold and skull cup, coffin of Adnyeus. The object we raise is your heart.", Yhwach recites some text and the small orb of Reishi in his hand gushes out and forms a giant ring above them.

"Auswählen."

As an extension of his ability to distribute pieces of his soul to others, Yhwach can forcibly take the power of other Quincy; 9 years ago, he used this technique to regain his powers during his revival. After selecting Quincy whom he deems impure, including those with mixed blood, Yhwach can steal their powers and make them his own. This process is fatal to its victims, particularly those who are already weak.

The true nature of Auswählen, however, is power redistribution; the power of the Quincy deemed to be useless is collected and redistributed to the ones who need it, and those on the receiving end are reborn with greater power.

The Auswählen takes the form of a highly dense sphere of Reishi gathered in Yhwach's palm that then expanded into a massive ring large enough to encircle the Soul King Palace, from which innumerable vein-like columns of light descended far to the Seireitei below to claim their victims. Most of the Sternritter and Soldat are hit by these beams of light and are stripped of their powers and lives which Yhwach has granted.

Yhwach revived his Schutzstaffel and gave himself back his full power and his name through Auswählen.

"Stealing the powers of your own comrades. How ruthless you are.", Ichibe says.

"That's what comrades are for. To revive us, to resurrect us and to help us move forward.", Yhwach answers.

.

"Okay, now what the hell is going on?", Nimaiya asks as he sees Gremmy stand up again, fully normal this time.

"Auswählen. It collects the lives and powers of unessential Quincies and redistributes them to others who can put them to better use. Those that lose them die, those that gain them come back to life with even greater strength. It's one of His Majesty's powers. The scales have been tipped, and Squad Zero will be purged.", Jugram Haschwalth declares.

As this is going on, one of the Quincy is thinking about something deeply. Gremmy has been silent and unresponsive this entire time. At first, he was of course messing with Oetsu and the others and thought about just killing them then and there. But something else happened. He remembered something important about the plot and made the biggest gamble in existence ... although it wasn't really a gamble and more a genius move.

He allowed himself to die when Tenjirou cut him truly. That's right, he imagined being able to be killed if the rules of his 'game' were followed. But why would he do that?

Simple. Gremmy remembered two important facts.

First, Gremmy remembered that he had the Hogyoku fused with him. It was not really a separate thing that was stuck inside him, but it was now one with him. As such he had gained the ability to make his wishes into reality. He thought about it as growing stronger the more damage he took or the more he pushed himself. But what would happen, if there was an instance when he couldn't react to an enemy, if he went to another world or something? What then? He would die and then nothing could really help him ... right?

Well not exactly. But that leads us to the second thing Gremmy remembered.

In his fight against Ichibe, Yhwach would use Auswählen to revive the Schutzstaffel. This would do something amazing for Gremmy. He would experience death and use the powers he gained from the Hogyoku to not only grow stronger once more but adapt to death itself. Or so he thought. The plan did work, but it was a bit more complicated than that. He was indeed immune to any form of death, but that was only for beings of this universe or those weaker. There would be beings like Lady Death of Marvel Comics, who could still kill him ... for now.

"No one in this world has the power to deprive me of those things that belong to me. And everything belongs to me. Everything that exists in this world. Not even the Soul King can escape my power.", Yhwach says and then removes the Reishi ring.

"My children, let us begin!"

.

*Bang*

*Bang*

Two shots are fired and Oetsu Nimaiya is hit in his shoulder getting wounded by Lille.

"I see. This has to be that additional power shared with you through the Auswählen, right? Yeah, that's why your bullets that couldn't get anywhere near me before are now suddenly able to blow a damn hole through my body."

"You got two things wrong there. Number one, you're wrong about this being additional power. It's power I've always had, I just haven't had time to use it. And number two, your body wasn't actually pierced by any bullet.", Lille explains and aims his gun at Oetsu again.

*BANG*

Kirio and Tenjirou try to block the attack with their Zanpakuto.

"That's why it can't be blocked no matter how many obstacles you put up.", Lille continues revealing that both of the Shinigami's Zanpakutos have been pierced by Lille and Oetsu has a hole in his chest.

"The name of my power is X-Axis. There's no bullet. It's simply a force that penetrates everything between the muzzle of my gun and the target. In fact, would you mind lining up a single file? Then I can kill you all with one shot.", Lille boasts and aims at them again.

But he doesn't get to shoot as Tenjirou uses his Zanpakuto to release a bright lite. Senjumaru uses this moment to heal Oetsu again and make him ready to fight.

"Good morning, Royal Palace, it's good to be back!", Oetsu shouts.

"Look at that, he's not dead even after you shot him. Talk about stubborn.", Gerard remarks with an impressed look on his face.

Oetsu lands in front of his squad and faces the Quincies.

"If you thought you'd win just 'cause you grew some wings, well, you're dead wrong!"

"You're gonna learn that the five of us are stronger than all the 13 Court Guard Squads put together!"

"You actually believed we would allow you to enter the Royal Palace? You must be living in a dream world."

"All right, then, let's get on with it.", Kirio says and uses her powers of life to grow back some of her trees and begins to separate the Quincy and have them face off against the Zero Division individually.

Gerard is facing Senjumaru

Kirio is facing Pernida

Tenjirou is facing Gremmy

And Oetsu is facing Lille.

.

Gremmy observed his opponent for a moment but his mind wasn't in the fight right now. He only now started to slowly understand just how much of a cheat he turned into after he fused with the Hogyoku. There were no limits to his potential and with his power of 'V' - The Visionary, he could create or imagine anything. So the Hogyoku could manifest anything he desired ... truly anything. It only now started to dawn on him what this truly meant.

He was getting enough of this world. He was already the strongest, or second strongest in this world, if you counted the Soul King. Neither Pernida nor Mimihagi could do anything to him and Yhwach couldn't either. The future was no longer just for the Quincy King to manipulate.

"Heavenly Flash! Kinpika!", Tenjirou shouted and activated his Zanpakuto.

A bright light shone again and the pools of water Tenjirou controlled moved towards Gremmy. He was getting bored of this fight and it wasn't even that long since it started. He wanted to fight someone strong and Tenjirou was not that person.

With a thought, a trident appeared in Gremmy's hands.

[Picture]

Immediately all the water in the surroundings stopped moving. This confused Tenjirou as it was his water, so how did it just stop listening to his command? What was going on?

"What is this? What game are we playing now?", Tenjirou asked Gremmy.

"Game? We are playing he who controls water better wins. And you see, the weapon I am holding in my hands is Poseidon's trident. It holds his control over the sea and water in general inside it, overruling your power over the fluids you are trying to attack me with.", Gremmy reveals.

"What?!"

Gremmy doesn't explain further and only points at Tenjirou with his trident. Immediately the water listens to his command and rushes towards Tenjirou. But the water is Tenjirou's, so it shouldn't hurt him ... right?

Wrong.

This water is no longer the same water as before. It has been replaced by Gremmy's imagination and only looks the same. Making it very lethal.

"Noo-"

The water cuts through Tenjirou, cutting him to pieces and ending his life. Gremmy waits for when the others are also finished with their fight.

.

Finally, after waiting for a while, Suqad Zero is defeated by the Schutzstaffel. Only Tenjirou is dead though. The others are in a very bad state.

"Is this what you call being stronger than all the 13 Court Guard Squads put together?", Gerard asks.

"Ay yo, I wouldn't count my chickens just yet. Hell, you haven't even seen us use the strength of one Court Guard Squad yet, you big, blonde bumpkin. The Royal Special Task Force assigned to protect the Soul King ain't gonna let a bunch of Quincies get the best of them, I'll tell you that. So Squad Zero, front and center, up on your feet, everyone!", Oetsu fires up the other two.

"Senjumaru. You're gonna be the one who kills them.", he says.

"I am? I'm flattered.", Senjumaru says.

"You have a thousand arms, after a-"

*PUFF*

*PUFF*

The heads of both Oetsu and Kirio explode into a fountain of blood.

!!!

Everyone looks surprised as this happens and Senjumaru is the most surprised about it. Lille on the other hand knows who it was that did that and looks at Gremmy.

"What? They were going to kill themselves anyway. Their Bankai was blocked and only if three of them died, could the remaining use it. So I just sped up the process. The talking is getting on my nerves."

"Then ... can't you kill her like that as well?"

"Why? Aren't you interested as well?", Gremmy asks.

"Gremmy, I command you to kill her before she activates her Bankai so-", Jugram tries to command Gremmy but he just silences the blonde.

"Shut up! You're not a person of authority to me."

Senjumaru, understanding what is at stake immediately activates her Bankai.

"Bankai: Shatatsu Karagara Shigarami no Tsuji"

...