One Piece: The Living Devil

Chapter 776: After Today, There Will Be No Regrets.

BOOM!

Along with a deafening roar that seemed ready to tear apart the heavens, countless violent bolts of lightning exploded across the barren land of Hueco Mundo.

At this moment, Aizen Sosuke completely released his spiritual pressure without holding anything back.

A deep purple pillar of spiritual pressure shot into the sky like a materialized divine punishment connecting heaven and earth, completely covering his entire body.

And within that suffocating light, his form began undergoing a violent transformation.

In the next moment, he stepped into a complete state he had never reached before.

At his chest, the Hogyoku emitted a strange and profound glow, like the beating heart of a god.

Violent lightning intertwined and spread behind him, eventually turning into a pair of brilliant wings that covered the sky.

His figure suddenly grew taller. Complicated ancient purple lightning patterns appeared across his pale skin, giving off an aura of destruction.

At the same time, his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, had completely fused with him.

His right hand directly turned into a sharp blade flowing with purple electricity, while his left hand transformed into the claw of a divine bird covered in lightning scales.

Deep within his eyes glowed emotionless purple divine light. Several magatama made entirely of lightning slowly floated and rotated between the wings behind him like the drum of a thunder god.

At this moment, Aizen looked like a true Takemikazuchi descending upon the world.

"Lord Rosse, thank you for granting me the power I now possess."

Aizen's low and magnetic voice echoed through the air.

However, the instant his words fell—

Buzz!

No afterimage. No trail.

His figure suddenly crossed the distance of space itself and appeared directly before Rosse.

At the place where he had originally stood, only a distorted vacuum zone remained, caused by the air being instantly drained away.

This was not silent movement.

His speed had simply surpassed the speed of sound by far.

Only after he stopped in front of Rosse and swung down the blade of his right arm, enough to split heaven and earth apart, did the deafening sonic boom behind him finally spread out like a tsunami.

"So fast…"

In the distance, Hitsugaya's pupils suddenly shrank to needle size.

Now that he had broken through to first-class spiritual might and believed his strength had greatly increased, he still did not even have the qualifications to capture Aizen's movements.

On his retina, only a purple afterimage remained, one that stabbed at his nerves.

In truth, it was not just him. Aside from the top-ranked Espada, no one present could clearly see Aizen's movement path.

Aizen's speed had indeed reached the absolute limit, but before Rosse, it still seemed far from enough.

Facing that thunderous fatal strike, Rosse did not move his feet even slightly. He merely raised his right hand casually and blocked the purple lightning blade with perfect precision despite appearing slow.

Clang!

Aizen's Zanpakuto, fused with the power of Takemikazuchi and the Hogyoku's spiritual pressure, slammed directly into Rosse's completely unprotected palm.

With the explosive sound of metal clashing, endless shockwaves surged wildly outward from the point of collision.

Just the aftershock leaking from this single ordinary exchange raised a sand tsunami thousands of meters high across Hueco Mundo, like a wall of sighs covering the sky as it crashed toward the spectators.

"You've got to be kidding me… this is way too ridiculous!"

Looking at the terrifying sea of sand rushing toward them, Hitsugaya swallowed hard.

The wind pressure coming straight at him felt like it would tear his soul apart.

Out of battle instinct, his hand subconsciously gripped Hyorinmaru behind him. He was already preparing to chant Bankai to block the impact of this mere aftershock.

"Enough, stop embarrassing yourself."

Beside him, Matsumoto Rangiku glanced sideways at him helplessly.

She casually stretched out one pale hand forward.

"You're supposed to become the captain's vice commander in Hell someday. Before receiving the blessing and getting stronger, don't lose your nerve in front of these Espada, Toshiro."

Before her words even finished, Rangiku lightly moved her finger.

In an instant, the overwhelming sea of sand was precisely split apart by an invisible absolute blade.

The violent sandstorm obediently divided to both sides along the path traced by her fingertip and spread toward the rear, unable to even lift a corner of her clothes.

"Y-You… what kind of ability is that?"

Hitsugaya was completely stunned.

No chant. No Shikai. There was not even a strong fluctuation of spiritual pressure.

When had the world become something he could no longer understand?

He stiffly turned his head and discovered that the other Espada were also displaying their own methods. Whether it was Harribel or Ulquiorra, all of them casually blocked the aftershock powerful enough to destroy a city.

What terrified him the most was that these people had barely released any actual spiritual pressure.

'This simply makes no sense.'

'How are you people blocking this level of aftershock without even releasing spiritual pressure?'

If it had been him, he definitely would have been seriously injured without using Bankai earlier.

"It's only the basic application of my Zanpakuto."

Rangiku casually withdrew her hand, the corners of her lips lifting proudly.

"Haven't you noticed? Our bodies are no longer made of spirit particles like before. We now possess real physical bodies. Once you receive the blessing in the future, you'll naturally understand this kind of dimensional suppression."

Rangiku stopped paying attention to the Hitsugaya who was questioning his life and turned her gaze back toward the battlefield in the center of the storm.

In just the few seconds they had been talking, Aizen and Rosse had already exchanged hundreds of moves inside the storm.

At times it was ultimate sword strikes, at times pure hand-to-hand combat.

Their movements were so fast that even space itself trembled faintly.

However, aside from the first collision causing the sandstorm, not a single trace of aftershock spread outward during the later clashes.

The lack of aftershock was not because they were holding back.

It was because both Aizen and Rosse had already reached absolute perfection in their control over their own power.

Every bit of kinetic force, every strand of lightning, every trace of spiritual pressure was compressed one hundred percent into the exact point of impact. Not a single bit of energy was wasted damaging the surroundings.

Anyone could feel the terrifying strength contained in the clash of those two afterimages.

Even Harribel and Unohana clearly understood it now.

The current Aizen could erase them instantly with a casual strike. They did not even possess the qualifications to resist either one of them.

At the same time, all the Espada came to the same realization.

In the eyes of everyone outside, this reconstructed Espada were Rosse's proudest creations as the Hollow King.

But only now did they understand that the true masterpiece had never been them.

Aizen Sosuke, the man who had remained lonely and proud from beginning to end, walking step by step to this day under Rosse's guidance, was the truly flawless and most perfect creation in Rosse's hands.

BOOM!

The heavens were completely torn apart. Even the reflected sea above Las Noches boiled under the shockwaves.

Violent purple-gold lightning raged around Aizen's body, every arc as thick as a dragon.

As Aizen crazily swung the blade fused with thunder god power, hundreds and thousands of lightning pillars that tore through space turned into an airtight web of death, roaring as they swallowed Rosse.

It was terrifying energy capable of instantly vaporizing the entire Seireitei.

Facing this world-destroying thunderstorm, Rosse stood with his hands behind his back.

The fierce wind blew his luxurious Hollow King robe. Within his deep eyes finally appeared a long-lost smile of excitement at meeting a worthy opponent.

"Good," He muttered softly.

In the next moment, ripples of water appeared in his previously empty hand as a Zanpakuto condensed out of thin air.

Facing the overwhelming lightning, Rosse did not even take a defensive stance. He merely turned his wrist slightly and casually swung forward.

Splash!

There was no deafening explosion, only the grand echo of surging tides.

Countless dark blue raging waves suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Like silent deep-sea beasts, they crashed head-on into the endless thunderstorm with a seemingly gentle yet irresistible heaviness.

The violent lightning struggled fiercely within the deep seawater, yet failed to create even the slightest ripple before being completely swallowed by the bottomless ocean and canceled out without a trace.

"Lord Rosse, is this the power you possessed in your original world?"

Aizen stood in the sky and looked at the unbelievable scene below, extreme admiration bursting from his eyes.

"The softest water in the world… I never imagined it could display such weight and dominance in your hands."

"In my world, ninety percent of everything is covered by the sea. And I stand above that ocean as the god of the sea."

Rosse's voice was not loud, yet it clearly overpowered the thunder and echoed across all of Hueco Mundo.

Along with his words, the Zanpakuto in his right hand began undergoing a violent transformation.

A Zanpakuto was originally an extension of the soul, so naturally it could resonate with the power deep within the soul according to one's will.

He did not choose the standard Shikai or Bankai forms within the Shinigami system. Instead, he completely fused the Zanpakuto with the Sea God Halberd he originally possessed.

Accompanied by a terrifying fluctuation of spiritual pressure, a four-meter-long fangtian halberd flowing with abyssal water light appeared in his hand.

Within the halberd blade, it seemed as though the world itself was reflected.

With this divine weapon that crossed and fused systems, even a casual strike from him now displayed destructive power far beyond the Bankai state of his own Zanpakuto.

Of course, if he also used the Bankai Heavenly Dome Purifiying Cycle and summoned a perfect projection of his enemy to create a two-against-one situation, that would be his truly flawless strongest form.

But today, he was only responding to Aizen's challenge.

A seeker who dared to swing his blade at a god did not require that level of treatment yet.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

As Rosse stood holding the halberd, endless deep blue seawater erupted from the empty space beneath his feet and instantly transformed into an inverted ocean floating above Hueco Mundo.

This was not ordinary seawater.

Under Rosse's current power, which was practically that of a creator god, every drop of water in this ocean weighed thousands of tons.

Rosse quietly stood atop this heavy-water ocean, the hem of his gorgeous clothes fluttering violently in the sea wind.

Deep blue divine light flashed in his eyes. At that moment, he was a true king who ruled over everything.

The divine might radiating from him felt like an entire upside-down starry sky pressing down, steadily overpowering Aizen's thunder god form.

"So strong… is this the Commander Captain's true strength?"

Several thousand meters away, Hitsugaya Toshiro clenched his teeth tightly as cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

Even from such a distance, the heavy-water field spreading from Rosse made every breath feel like his lungs were being torn apart.

Forget stepping forward to fight. With his current spiritual pressure, even getting slightly close to the edge of that sea would instantly crush him into a puddle of flesh from the invisible gravity.

He painfully turned his head again to look at Aizen confronting Rosse in the sky.

At this moment, although Aizen was slightly suppressed in momentum by Rosse's heavy-water ocean, the violent lightning around him that pierced through the heavens shone with unprecedented brilliance.

It was the ultimate sharpness of someone refusing to submit even in hopeless circumstances, trying to match a god with a mortal body.

This was also a monster he did not even have the qualifications to approach.

Hitsugaya painfully admitted it in his heart.

Matsumoto Rangiku was right. The current Aizen was truly on a completely different level from captains like them.

In truth, the observing Espada beside them felt it even more directly.

Hueco Mundo's law had always been survival of the fittest, recognizing only absolute strength.

At this moment, looking at the man bathed in lightning in the sky, the pride in the Espada's hearts was completely shattered.

Just the courage and power Aizen displayed now, daring to draw his sword against a god, made him fully worthy of Rosse's expectations.

"Lord Rosse! To witness your world-ruling figure with my own eyes, all my painstaking evolution until today has not been in vain!"

Within the violent storm, Aizen suddenly raised his head and let out a wild and unrestrained laugh.

At this moment, he had completely abandoned the gentle and refined mask he wore in the past, and also discarded all the schemes and calculations hidden in the darkness.

Now, only pure battle intent remained in his eyes, like the purest and most fanatical challenger.

In today's battle, he did not even plan to use Kyoka Suigetsu. He only wanted to compete against Rosse head-on.

Illusions were his method of achieving success, but they could never become the support for ascending the throne. He had known this from the very beginning.

Today, win or lose, he would fight with the posture of ascending to godhood.

"Come fight!"

Aizen shouted. His entire body transformed into a purple thunderbolt piercing through heaven and earth as he charged directly toward Rosse without hesitation, facing the heavy-water ocean that seemed capable of crushing eternity itself.

At this moment, genuine joy radiated from his entire being.

As he continued charging forward, his momentum rose to its peak.

To stand upon the highest stage among all worlds and fight the strongest and most worthy god in a completely unrestricted battle of flesh and blood, to Aizen Sosuke, this was the highest form of romance he had dreamed of his entire life.

After today, there would be no regrets.

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