Chapter 352: Defeat

"Captain Commander!"

"Yamamoto Captain Commander!"

The gathered Shinigami were shocked, their voices trembling with disbelief as they watched Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto crash into the Noble's District. Just moments ago, their Captain Commander had seemed invincible, wielding a Bankai that could annihilate the world. Yet, even with all that power, he couldn't defeat the child before him. Instead, he was sent flying.

The Shinigami were overwhelmed with fear, their hands shaking uncontrollably as they gripped their Zanpakutō. How could they possibly win against an enemy that even Yamamoto couldn't defeat?

"How can this be happening?" Yoruichi Shihoin, who had been assisting Urahara Kisuke in setting up barriers in the Noble's District, felt goosebumps rise on her tanned skin. She stared, wide-eyed, at the sight of the Captain Commander crashing into the ground. The Seireitei's strongest Shinigami in a thousand years had been reduced to this—utterly powerless against H'el.

Yoruichi struggled to accept the reality unfolding before her eyes.

Urahara Kisuke's expression was grave, doubt gnawing at him. He began to question whether the barriers he had meticulously crafted would be of any use at all.

He looked up, eyes fixed on the Hell Gate slowly opening in the distance. Never had he wished for it to open faster.

Meanwhile, within the rubble and dust of the crater in the Noble's District, Yamamoto slowly rose to his feet.

A massive surge of spiritual pressure blasted away the dust, revealing his battered form. His shihakushō was in tatters, his once-proud white beard stained with blood and disheveled. The oppressive spiritual pressure emanating from his body made the air itself seem to ignite, his eyes burning with an icy, lethal intent.

"Corpses, the ashes of those who perished by my flames, lend me your strength and savor the thrill of battle once more."

Yamamoto plunged his Zanpakutō into the ground, his voice echoing with murderous resolve:

"Zanka no Tachi, Minami—Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin!"

In an instant, the surroundings seemed to shift into another realm. The ground turned a deep, blood-red, lit by the fiery glow of the resurrected, charred skeletons. These blackened bones, summoned by the heat and spiritual pressure of Yamamoto's Bankai, clawed their way up from the earth, forming an endless army.

The charred skeletons, reeking of scorched flesh, moved as one, their empty eye sockets fixed on H'el as he stepped gracefully through the sky. The skeletal hands reached out, ready to drag him into the abyss.

H'el watched the advancing skeletons, calmly swinging his Zanpakutō. A crescent-shaped, white slash of energy tore through the massive pyramid of charred bones, shattering it instantly.

But it was futile.

More skeletons surged forth from the earth, each one filled with a relentless killing intent, their hollow eyes locked onto H'el.

The skeletons, gaining agility, began sprinting toward him, leaping into the air.

A dense rain of skeletons flooded the sky, descending upon H'el from all directions.

He glanced around, noting there was almost no space left untouched. His right hand gripped his Zanpakutō as its once fiery, charred appearance began to change. A dark hue spread from the guard, down the blade, staining it as black as ink.

The Zanpakutō in his hand now seemed to ooze a dark liquid, which dripped from the tip of the blade to the ground below.

"Shadow Demon World!"

Suddenly, from the shadows on the ground, black hands reached up, grabbing the descending skeletons, pulling them back down.

Not a single skeleton reached H'el; they were all dragged back into the shadows, their bones shattering upon impact with the ground before being absorbed into the shadow realm.

This technique was a twisted version of Kyōraku Shunsui's Shikai—those whose shadows are stepped on lose. But H'el had modified it into his own world of shadows, where the skeletons were crushed under the weight of his realm's rules and spiritual pressure.

While Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni himself couldn't be dragged into the Shadow Demon World, the skeletons born from his spiritual pressure and flames were the perfect victims, pulled down and ground to dust.

"Zanka no Tachi, Kita—Tenchi Kaijin!"

In H'el's vision, the world suddenly shifted into a landscape of fire and ash.

Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's form became a blur, instantly appearing before H'el with a violent gust of wind, delivering his most powerful attack—Tenchi Kaijin!

An endless sea of flames erupted from beneath H'el, engulfing him once more. His skin instantly vaporized, revealing the fibers of muscle underneath.

The searing flames, charged with Yamamoto's immense spiritual pressure, continued to burn through H'el's dense muscle tissue, reducing him to a skeletal figure, much like during their first encounter.

A massive surge of spiritual energy exploded from within H'el's bones, fighting against the flames.

The flames kept destroying, and the spiritual energy kept regenerating—it was a stalemate.

On the ground, the shadows from the Shadow Demon World continuously returned from the skeletons' positions, gathering beneath H'el, replenishing his spiritual energy.

And then, within the raging inferno, H'el smiled.

With a casual wave of his hand, the flames dissipated, leaving the world clear and serene. The crackling of fire and the suffocating heat vanished entirely.

Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's face was etched with exhaustion and disbelief, his body slumped.

He couldn't fathom how H'el had survived his strongest technique, Tenchi Kaijin, by somehow synchronizing and nullifying the destructive heat, emerging unscathed.

He had no strength left to dodge what was coming.

H'el thrust his Zanpakutō forward, piercing through Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's chest, lifting the elder's hunched body into the air.

The Shinigami who all witnessed this scene couldn't help but recoil in horror.

It was as if the world had suddenly gone dark, with only the sight of H'el, his Zanpakutō impaling Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's body, remaining.

°°°

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