Claire's clothes were already drenched from all the sweat that's coming off of her but no one would wipe it off her even though they wanted to. There were a lot of distractions around her and she almost failed several times. Thankfully, Aizen would exert his pressure on her to block out outside information from reaching her, 'This would have been a lot easier for her if I could use Kyouka Suigetsu on her.' Aizen thought to himself while turning his head to the already mended space in the sky, 'But even if we successfully pull this off, there's no point if Hyousube is going to be on our tail.'
At that moment, a tinge of an unknown, foreign aura passes through Aizen's senses and he hurriedly turns his head to the golden pillar.
Aside from him, Ophis, Lilith, Flanna, Tanis, Kunou, and Serafall also felt this aura. To them, however, it gave a very familiar feeling of holiness.
"Step aside." Aizen shortly uttered with a commanding tone aimed at everyone else present.
Serafall immediately brought the two girls to her side and pulled them to the side while the group of Shinigami jumped back. As for the Dragons and 'Hestia', they entirely ignored him and just focused on their work of strengthening the boundaries between the three worlds.
In the next second, a massive amount of Reiatsu erupted from Aizen and took the form of a purple pillar that rose along the golden pillar coming from Claire. To the tiny crack that Claire created, Aizen forced it open, widening the channel and solidifying the connection where the golden pillar ended.
"...This is insane," Serafall muttered with her mouth twitching.
Tanis, who had better senses, was also shaking, "How many seconds do you think my arm could last if I stick it in there?"
Kunou gave Tanis a weirded-out glance but she seriously answered, "Err... 12 seconds before complete vaporization? And please don't stick your arm in that to test your durability."
"No wonder Ki-tan asked him to take this job," Serafall added. She was surprised not because of the sheer amount of force he was exerting that was enough to erase High Class or even some Ultimate Class Devils with ease, but because of the control he had over this colossal spear that perfectly preserved the fragile link that Claire created to the other world, "This minute control is impossible for Ophis-chan, Lilith-chan, or Flanna-chan."
Serafall now had to rethink her opinion of him as just having a massive amount of energy. 'I thought Ki-tan was overestimating him because there were a lot of things that I could think of to counter his abilities. But now I understand. He's a giant monster that could flawlessly do precision work. How terrifying.'
For Serafall, there's no need to fear people who are only capable of mass destruction, but people who can manipulate the tiniest things are the enemies that would hit you with something you can't see.
Nevertheless, she immediately threw this train of thought behind her head when she saw countless streams of light from all around the Soul Society rising up to where the golden pillar was.
After thinking about it for a second or two, Serafall and the others figured out the identity of these lights, "So it's begun." Yamamoto loudly muttered while carrying the complex feeling he had while watching the true end of his duties.
The other Shinigami are of course carrying the same sentiment. It was an idea at first but now they're witnessing the reality of it. With how long they'd been doing their job which, is essentially the meaning of their lives, they found it a bit hard to accept.
Tanis saw their forlorn expressions and tried to say something. But before she could do that, a hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed it. Serafall stopped her. No matter how good her intentions are or how 'right' she is, it's not good for someone who doesn't carry the same weight and experience as them to say anything.
In any case, this isn't the time to be helping them better since once a large and stable channel is established, it's not a one-way trip.
As Serafall expected, she immediately felt three individuals coming from the other side and she was very familiar with all of them, 'They responded faster than I thought, huh? And why is he with them?'
Soon, everyone saw three silhouettes from the top of the golden pillar, one golden, one white, and one black. The eye-catching golden and white ones were both sporting 6 pairs of Angel wings while the black one was wearing a long cloak that covered his entire body.
The group of Shinigami were about to place their hands on their weapons when Serafall explained to them, "Please don't worry. They're my friends."
Soon enough, the three silhouettes also saw the group and despite their confusion, they slowly descended to where Serafall and the other girls were.
"I have no words... You guys have done it again." The cloaked one was the first one to land in front of Serafall, "To think you'd open another path to a foreign world. Is it that easy?"
Serafall gave him a wry smile as he removed his hood, "No way. We're at our wit's end here."
Ajuka panned his head out and saw the other people in the vicinity. Despite their apparent and strangely low Magic Power and Ki, he couldn't help but be a bit nervous, 'They're similar to Urahara Kisuke, huh? I don't really like to imagine that.' His eyes then landed on Aizen, who'd just retracted his aura, 'What a dangerous world.'
"I'd like to ask what's going on, but it seems like it's not the time to casually chat." The man with golden wings said while looking at the struggling Claire, "Gabriel, please."
The voluptuous woman with sets of white wings began moving before the man instructed her, "I'm on it."
Gabriel approached Claire and this time, Aizen didn't stop her since he judged that his work was done.
Spreading her wings out, an immense amount of Holy Power erupted from her and compared to Claire's, it's much more pure and dense. And unlike Claire's, her Holy Power didn't shoot out into a golden pillar, instead, strings of it converged out of Gabriel and wrapped themselves around the pillar. After ensuring the stability of the pillar, Gabriel patted Claire's head gently, "You've done enough, Claire-chan. Let me take over."
Since there was no response from Aizen, Claire slowly let out her breath, and the rush of Holy Power from her steadily decreased until all of the Holy Power in the vicinity was under Gabriel's control.
Claire's knees soon buckled and before she could fall to the ground, Gabriel caught her.
Nevertheless, the Holy Power was just serving as a guide for the souls to reach their destination and didn't ensure the stability of the channel. Seeing the crack in space, Michael turned to Ajuka, "I'd like to ask a favor."
Ajuka shook his head, "You don't have to. Increasing Heaven's standing will be a benefit for me too." He then raised his right arm and pointed it towards the sky. A second later, his Demonic Power gushed out.
Although the stable presence of the Holy Power was of utmost importance, Serafall was not worried because the man in front of her is known for his ultimate control.
Sure enough, despite his Demonic Power capable of drowning everyone, it only gently embraced the Holy Power as it went up and produced tens of thousands of Magic Circles, creating another unbelievable sight of majesty.
Editors:
28th00: Yeah, Aizen’s scary as fuck due to his control, not raw power, the raw power just makes his control that much more terrifying.
Goyya: In this fic’s instance, Aizen also has better control than Kisuke since learned it from manipulating his hypnosis.