"Hmm, you've gotten slightly stronger than I anticipated. But it's still within expectation. Good." He closed his hand, destroying the flying slash without even exerting his reiatsu.
"What?!"
Surprised, Ichigo couldn't believe his eyes.
Getsuga Tenshou, his strongest attack was stopped by bare hand. And it was destroyed as if it was nothing.
His mind blanked as he tried to make sense of everything. He was confused by this situation. His strongest attack was broken and it didn't even hurt Aizen. Not a trace of wound could be seen on the traitorous captain.
"Impossible!"
"Sorry, Rukia."
"Wha? Ouch!"
Seeing Ichigo's attack ineffective, Renji quickly threw Rukia to the ground and activated his bankai.
"Bankai! Hihiō Zabimaru!"
His zanpakutou transformed into a bone skeleton with a segmented bone blade, its body was like a snake.
A giant snake head with a mane of red hair and a long tail made from vertebrae appeared.
On Renji himself, a fur cloak with a bone mask draped over his shoulders. He gripped the hilt in his hand tightly.
Renji sent his Bankai straight to Aizen. The snake head opened its mouth and roared before lunging at its target, its sharp teeth glinted with the sunlight.
Nothing would stop him. He had to save Rukia, no matter what. He couldn't let Ichigo fight alone.
However...
"It's weak."
Once again, Aizen only had to stop the attack with his hand.
Renji's zanpakutou, which had transformed into a giant bone skeleton was stopped. The attack couldn't even reach Aizen as he stopped it with his bare hand.
Not even a scratch.
Then...
With a simple gesture of his palm, Hihiō Zabimaru's skeleton shattered.
There wasn't even time to reach after that.
Aizen disappeared from where he stood in an instant, leaving behind an after image. He reappeared right in front of Rukia with his sword drawn.
Both Ichigo and Renji instantly turned around, but they were too late.
"Gah!"
"Ugh!"
They had been slashed already.
Aizen was simply faster than them. Even with their bankai active, Ichigo and Renji were easily outpaced.
A nasty gnash ran across their chest, blood spilling to the floor as they fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"Ichigo! Renji!" Rukia yelled in worry.
"Oh? I thought I cut you into two, but you're more resilient than I expected." The traitorous Captain commented, staring at the two Ryoka who had fallen down. "It is unexpected, but it doesn't change the result."
"Aizen! You bastard!" Ichigo growled and struggled to stand, gritting his teeth in pain. "What are you going to do?!"
"What I need is her." His hand shot forward without hesitation, grabbing Rukia's neck.
The petite girl's eyes widened when Aizen raised her. However, there was nothing she could do at all. She was too weak to move, especially when faced with monstrous reiatsu.
"Huff... Huff... Don't... touch her!" Ichigo glared at him.
His body was injured, his mind was in chaos, and his soul was screaming at him. No matter what he did, he couldn't force himself to stand up. He should help her and beat this man to a bloody pulp, but his body wouldn't move.
"You... You..." He growled, his hands trembled.
"You can't move, can you?" Aizen asked, a soft smile tugged on the corner of his lips. "Your part in this is over so just stay there. After I extracted Hogokyu that Urahara Kisuke hid inside Kuchiki Rukia's body, I will open the gate and reach the next step."
"A gate? Hogokyu?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes, confusion evident in his eyes.
"Shall I explain now that it's all over?"
With that, he raised Rukia to match his gaze and explained everything.
"Are you aware that everyone's potential is different? Some have a high ceiling while some have a low ceiling." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "No matter what, all Shinigami have that limit and they stopped improving at that point."
"It's possible to break that ceiling by one means." He stopped and smiled, "Do you know what it is?"
Ichigo's eyes were narrowed, full of confusion. He couldn't understand what Aizen was talking about, and it frustrated him that his mind refused to make sense of the information given by the Captain.
"A Hollowfication." Aizen said with a smile. His eyes were closed, his expression was relaxed. "By removing a barrier between two lifeforms, new heights could be achieved. I have put effort into hollows: such as sending out hollows that can hide their reiatsu or make zanpakutou disappear with a touch."
"And then a hollow that can fuse with a Shinigami."
Upon hearing the last part, Rukia's eyes widened in horror. Memories of when she had just joined Gotei 13 and watched someone he respected being controlled by a strange Hollow surfaced in her mind.
"No... That can't be...!" She muttered, fear evident in her voice, "Lieutenant Kaien!"
"Yes, I had him become my test subject, to fuse with a hollow I created. And he has given me the information I need." He answered, looking straight at Rukia's horrified face with a thin smile. "But in the end, I failed. None of them could be considered a new being."
"Until one man succeeded in creating something that could remove the barrier between Hollow and Shinigami in an instant. He succeeded in doing what I couldn't. Urahara Kisuke had successfully created Hogyoku and tried to destroy it because he deemed it dangerous. He couldn't do it because of its nature so he hid it."
Aizen suddenly stopped and looked at Rukia.
"I figured there would be a secret to extract a foreign object from someone's Konpaku, so I studied everything I could." Aizen explained calmly as if talking to a student and took out a small tube from his robe. He infused his reiryoku into it and it transformed.
"And this..."
Something similar to ribs shot out from the ground surrounding them like a prison. At the same time, Aizen's right hand was covered in a hardened substance that looked like a glove. Its shape was sharp at the end, like a spear or sword.
"... is the secret."
Aizen's hand shot forward, piercing Rukia's chest.
"No!"
"A..."
A hole formed in her chest.
Rukia was gasping for air as the hand entered her flesh. Something was invading her—it felt uncomfortable, strange, and disgusting. As if her entire existence was violated.
Her vision became blurry as her eyes widened in shock. Pain spread from her chest to the rest of her body, making her feel numb all over. It felt like she was being burned alive.
It hurt.
She couldn't feel anything.
It was too much for her.
Her eyes dimmed, and she became slack.
She fell to the ground when Aizen's hand retreated from her chest, something blue and glowing in his grasp. A sphere encased in clear ice. A crystal orb the size of a marble. A mysterious artifact.
It was a gem-like object, the one that had been buried deep inside her.
Hōgyoku, an artifact created by a prodigal genius.
It glowed in the traitorous captain's hand.
"Ah."
Rukia fell to the ground with a thud, her body felt weak as if her energy was drained. She couldn't even move a muscle, her eyelid became heavy. However, the hole in her chest was slowly closed and disappeared.
Meanwhile, Aizen marveled at the Hogyoku in his hand. He looked at it as if seeing it for the first time in a while.
"Finally." He muttered with a small smile. His expression showed excitement, "So this is Hogyoku... Something so small yet holds the key to my success. To the evolution of life itself. The one who controls it can remove the boundary between Hollow and Shinigami."
His gaze turned to Rukia on the ground. He tried to grab her and end her life.
But when he blinked, Rukia disappeared from his sight.
Holding her like a princess was her brother, Kuchiki Byakuya. His body was riddled with wounds from his fight against Shirou. But he used his last strength to grab his sister away from Aizen.
"Byakuya?!" Rukia couldn't believe it.
"Hold tightly."
A second after Byakuya said that, a meteor-like object appeared in the sky. A bright light descended upon them at a speed faster than sound itself. It left a spiraling trail behind it as it descended, causing wind to blow around the hill.
The arrow pierced Aizen's shoulder, piercing his body. A large wound appeared, causing blood to gush out. It destroyed a part of his body as the arrow pierced him.
And as it touched the ground...
Boom!
A large explosion rocked Sokyoku Hill.