Chapter 385B

Chapter 385

2-in-1 chapter:  

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"Twilight… Eternal darkness… Come forth."

"Meet everyone—"

From the depths of pitch-black darkness, the monk’s figure slowly rose as if emerging from a mire.

Ancient incantations were softly chanted from his mouth.

As his voice echoed, viscous blackness spread in all directions.

On Kaelith's body, golden light blazed brilliantly, like an unyielding star burning in the cold expanse of space.

But as the chant from the darkness neared completion, the area illuminated by the golden light visibly shrank.

“To prevent his rebirth…”

“To stop him from becoming our sacrifice again—!”

“Futen Taisatsuryo!!”

In the darkness, the monk clasped his hands together with a snap.

A massive calligraphy brush rose upright before him.

Behind him, an enormous black palace and countless black gravestones erupted into view!

Boundless darkness surged like tidal waves, slamming against the golden barrier surrounding Kaelith.

Though the Shield of Courage still shone, it was clearly faltering under the relentless waves of darkness.

From afar, Ōetsu Nimaiya broke into a cold sweat:

“The monk… he actually used that move!”

“What is that technique?” Tenjirō Kirinji asked urgently.

Though a veteran of the Royal Guard, he had never seen the monk use this before.

During usual sparring matches, the monk never even needed to release Shikai to defeat him with ease—there was never any reason to use something like this.

Senjumaru Shutara and Kirio Hikifune both looked to Ōetsu.

Ōetsu took a deep breath:

“Futen Taisatsuryo is the monk’s strongest offensive technique.”

“Within its range, Ichimonji’s power covers everything in ink.”

“Anything covered in ink is instantly broken down into nothingness!”

“To this day, no one has ever survived that technique.”

At these words, all three of them were visibly shaken.

In the darkness, the monk grinned at Kaelith.

“Kaelith, surrender now—while there’s still time.”

“This move… once it lands on you, it won’t just be broken bones we’re talking about.”

“After all, I must admit—facing someone of your level, I can’t win without using real power.”

“When a fight becomes serious, holding back becomes impossible.”

Kaelith smirked.

Here it was.

That feeling.

From the start until now, the old monk had always treated this as a game.

But with the appearance of Futen Taisatsuryo, Kaelith knew—he had finally driven the monk into seriousness, even if just for a moment.

Looking at the monk standing in the dark, Kaelith grinned:

“This is what you call serious?”

“Because I’m about to make you even more serious.”

At first, he had wanted to spar with the monk and the entire Royal Guard just to gather data for future simulation battles.

But now, as the fight reached its peak, he no longer cared about any of that.

Now, he only wanted one thing—

To defeat the man standing before him!

The darkness released by Ichimonji had blotted out the entire sky.

The boundless blackness resembled a bottomless ocean.

The surging tides had reached the very edge of Kaelith’s light.

With the next wave, the Shield of Courage would be completely overwhelmed!

But just then, Kaelith stepped forward.

A black shadow burst outward from beneath his foot.

In an instant, the shadow spread from a single point into a vast, endless black sea!

The darkness of Ichimonji, and Kaelith’s shadow—two black oceans took shape in the sky.

Both seas churned, boiled, and crashed against each other—yet neither could gain ground.

A perfect standoff.

Standing in his own shadow, Kaelith wore a wild, manic smile:

“Bankai— Kakuraku-Ten (Happy Heaven): Kaelith’s Paradise!!”

The monk widened his eyes, stunned at the scene before him.

This… what?

Bankai?

What Bankai?

Kaelith’s Zanpakutō was Rixiang Jimie.

And Sayafushi… that was an exceptionally unique Zanpakutō, one that didn’t even have a release form.

Then what was this Bankai?

Why couldn’t even his true name invocation ability pierce its essence?

Facing the dense shadows sweeping toward him, the monk felt a chill run down his back.

In a million years, the only being in existence he had ever failed to see through was the “Soul King,” who represented the foundation of the Three Realms.

And now, standing before him… another presence he couldn’t see through had appeared.

Could it be that Kaelith had already—

While he was still lost in shock, Kaelith let out a crazed laugh and charged through the raging shadows straight at him!

As he charged, two more arms burst forth from his back.

The six-armed demon instantly crossed the space between them, arriving before Ichibē Hyōsube.

The metal claws of Rixiang Jimie, the blade of Sayafushi—both dissolved into light particles.

Without any weapons, Kaelith struck with six fists alone.

But only Ichibē, standing before him, knew—just how terrifying those six fists truly were!

Each fist carried four layers of internal force.

And now that Kaelith had fully unleashed the power of the World’s Shadow, adding its crushing weight into his body—

This was an unprecedented miracle, an attack that exceeded all limits—

Fivefold Dual-Core Ikkotsu ×3!!!

In a flash, the entire world lost its color.

Everything became pure, blinding white—too intense to see any form.

Then, in the next moment, the entire world turned pure black.

Ōetsu, Tenjirō, Shutara, and Kirio Hikifune stood in the darkness, trying to speak, trying to move—but their bodies felt disconnected from their will.

In that darkness, the only thing they could do was think—so slowly it was as if time itself had stopped.

Then, suddenly, the darkness cleared.

The world returned to color.

Everyone instinctively looked toward Kaelith and Ichibē Hyōsube.

The earlier darkness had struck with such intensity that none of them could tell whether it had been the monk’s ink—or Kaelith’s shadow.

And once they saw what lay ahead, their expressions all froze in shock.

Up in the sky, Kaelith maintained the stance of delivering six simultaneous punches.

But all six arms… had been severed at the base.

Blood gushed from the stumps.

And faintly, in that blood, white foam could be seen churning.

That was the power of Hollowfication and Fullbring, trying to repair him.

However, each time the two forces attempted to restore Kaelith’s arms, they were disrupted and shattered by an unseen force.

Despite such severe injuries, Kaelith's expression remained unchanged.

His golden pupils set in black sclera calmly gazed ahead.

There, the monk stood like a fortress, gripping his enormous brush.

His ox-like eyes stared at Kaelith. The monk opened his mouth, seemingly about to speak—

But as soon as he did, blood poured out.

Under the disbelieving eyes of the Zero Division members, his chest down to his abdomen had been completely pierced through.

From the front of his body, one could directly see the sky behind him.

Crack!!

Behind him, the endless black palaces and tombs shattered all at once, dissolving into reishi and disappearing into the air.

“Mon—Monk?!”

Tenjirō Kirinji cried out instinctively.

Was this guy… actually dead?

The monk ignored his comrade's shout.

Even with nearly half his body missing, he continued to gaze intensely at Kaelith.

“Kaelith… this power, could it be…”

Kaelith slowly rose from his forward punching stance.

The white mask on his face dissolved into reiryoku and vanished.

The sea of shadow beneath his feet receded from all directions, until only his own humanoid shadow remained.

Under the monk’s gaze, Kaelith grinned and said:

“It's a strange feeling, isn’t it? To witness a power you can’t comprehend.”

At his words, the monk was stunned at first.

Then his face took on an extremely complex expression.

Toward Kaelith, he had always carried a sense of condescension.

Though Kaelith was powerful, with a growth rate that defied reason, in the grand scheme of the Three Worlds and the flow of history, he was still merely a trivial ripple.

When the monk discovered that Kaelith had gathered all four powers—Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy, and Fullbring—he had been delighted.

The stability of this world relied on the sealed Soul King, who functioned as the "keystone" of existence.

As long as the Soul King remained, the world wouldn’t collapse.

But the monk alone knew—the Soul King was not stable.

Even after being dismembered by the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Houses, with organs removed, the Soul King still “lived.”

He possessed will, could communicate with Royal Realm agents, and even… interact with beings in Seireitei and Rukongai.

The monk truly believed that if the Soul King wished, even in his current near-death state, he could break the seal, regain freedom, and dominate the world again.

At that point, everything would be over.

Even in the best case, if the Soul King bore no grudge and merely chose to destroy himself out of fatigue, wishing no longer to serve as the keystone—

The Three Worlds would still face collapse.

It wasn’t until Kaelith appeared that the monk finally felt at ease.

By gathering the powers of Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy, and Fullbring, Kaelith acquired a unique constitution that no one else could possess.

He could replace the Soul King as the world’s keystone.

That was why the monk treated Kaelith with such respect.

But now, he suddenly felt pressure again.

The Kaelith he had envisioned was someone he could defeat no matter what.

If he wanted, he could forcibly place him in the Soul King's role at any time.

Yet after witnessing the power of the world’s outer shadow, the monk began to doubt that assumption.

Like the Soul King, Kaelith now held the essence of the world’s true power—was he really still just a tool to be controlled?

Countless thoughts raced through the monk’s mind.

He gripped his massive brush multiple times, then released it.

In the end, he gently shook his head.

The sharp blade-like tip of the brush softened back into bristles.

With a wave of his hand, he slung the brush onto his back.

Then he looked at Kaelith:

“That was a battle that truly opened this old man’s eyes… I admit defeat.”

Kaelith looked at the brush on his back:

“What, not going to let me see your Bankai?”

The monk shook his head.

“My Bankai has no offensive power. It is purely rules.”

“For someone like you, I cannot be sure those rules would even take effect.”

“So… to preserve a bit of mystery, I’ll show it to you another time—if there's ever another chance.”

At those words, Kaelith chuckled and shook his head.

Preserving mystery—a very diplomatic way to put it.

In truth, he just wanted to keep a trump card.

But Kaelith couldn’t really criticize—he’d originally wanted to keep Yingda’s power hidden too, to use as a last resort.

But by the end of the fight, he had completely forgotten all that.

Still, he didn’t regret it.

A battle should be fought with full strength, freely and fiercely—that was the way of a refined swordsman.

Oh… speaking of swords.

Kaelith turned his head and looked not far away.

Amid the ruins of the collapsed Omotesandō, a girl in a black dress stood silently, her face bearing a complex expression.

In her hand was Rixiang Jimie, saving it from being left discarded on the ground.

Seeing that both of them were fine, Kaelith laughed heartily:

“Sayafushi! Rixiang Jimie! We won!”

Sayafushi: “……”

Feeling the continuous trembling of Rixiang Jimie in her hand, she suddenly understood why the blade always spoke so colorfully about its master.....They might actually become friends cause of this.

The Zero Division members gathered around.

They all looked at Kaelith as if he were some kind of monster.

The monk—who had lived for over a million years, head of the Zero Division, the strongest in the Three Worlds—had actually lost…

Though he hadn’t used his Bankai, and Kaelith’s arms were completely destroyed, it still couldn’t overshadow the absurdity of the result.

Tenjirō Kirinji walked over to examine the two of them.

He started with the monk.

He had always been puzzled—why had the monk, who possessed the Ōken and an immortal body, left such a gaping hole in his torso unrepaired?

Only up close did he realize—the monk wasn’t choosing not to heal. He couldn’t.

The golden bones formed from the Ōken were continuously releasing divine energy to repair his body.

But each time the healing began, the power left behind by Kaelith’s strike shattered it again.

Unconvinced, Tenjirō reached out a finger to probe the cavity in the monk’s chest.

“ARGH!!”

He quickly withdrew his hand.

The tip of his finger had already been shredded into pulp!

What the hell…

Tenjirō’s face twitched uncontrollably—he felt like he’d just been emotionally punched by Komamura.

Monsters… they were both absolute monsters!

The monk at least had the excuse of being a million-year-old relic—his strength was understandable.

But Kaelith? What the hell was he made of?!

Looking at their injuries, Tenjirō even began to doubt whether his famed Hell Springs would do any good.

But Kaelith didn’t care at all.

Even with both arms gone, he still grinned:

“Banquet! Let’s throw a banquet!!”

The others stared at him in silence for a moment.

Then, exchanging glances, they all broke into helpless smiles…