Chapter 629 - 629 The Feeling of Fear

Toshiro held his sword in his right hand and gently stroked the blade with his left. Then, the surging Reiryoku within his body was channeled into the Zanpakuto.

At the same time, Toshiro closed his eyes, carefully sensing the Divine Power hidden deep within his body, mixed in with his ordinary Reiatsu. Then, he forcibly manipulated that somewhat reluctant Divine Power together with his ordinary Reiatsu, channeling it into his Zanpakuto.

Finally, when enough power had accumulated in the Zanpakuto, Toshiro suddenly opened his eyes and shouted: "Shikai Hyoketsu!" (T/N: Four Elements Freeze.)

Then, Toshiro's Zanpakuto traced a trajectory that seemed ordinary yet contained a certain mysterious rhythm, thrusting through the air towards where Aizen was.

And the Zanpakuto that Toshiro thrust following that mysterious rhythm actually stirred, in an instant, a trace of the purest, most fundamental, and most powerful ice-snow power of heaven and earth.

Then, this trace of the ice-snow power of heaven and earth enhanced Toshiro's Zanpakuto. A flash of ice-blue light passed by. Where Hyorinmaru's blade touched, within forty steps, earth, water, fire, wind, time, space, even molecules and atoms… everything, without exception, was instantly frozen.

And Aizen, as Toshiro's main target, naturally could not escape.

The originally confident Aizen, just as he was about to swing his sword and use his proud Reiatsu to crush Toshiro's attack, suddenly felt his body pause. A thin layer of ice covered his Zanpakuto, then instantly spread to his entire body, freezing him with lightning speed.

And this time, Aizen was truly frozen, without the slightest sign of breaking free.

'What?! How is this possible...' Aizen, still retaining a sliver of consciousness, was shocked inside.

Aizen found that even with his Reiatsu, which was stronger than Toshiro's, he still could not shatter the ice layer on his body.

Moreover, as the ice-cold power within that ice layer eroded his body, even the last sliver of consciousness he retained was about to be completely frozen.

Meanwhile, Toshiro, who had just executed [Shikai Hyoketsu], was sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

"Huff, huff, huff... I didn't expect the improved Shikai Hyoketsu to have such a huge consumption... Huff, huff, huff... It almost drained all the Reiryoku in my body..."

That's right, the Shikai Hyoketsu that Toshiro had just used was not the original version, but an improved one with greatly increased power.

The original Shikai Hyoketsu, as Toshiro's strongest technique, was naturally very powerful. When Aizen had defected from Soul Society, if the Hogyoku hadn't suddenly erupted with extremely powerful power to protect its master at the critical moment of life and death, Aizen might have died from that technique.

But the current Aizen was not the former Aizen. After obtaining and fusing with the Hogyoku, Aizen's power had increased to an extremely terrifying level.

Toshiro was not confident that he could completely defeat Aizen with the original version of his strongest technique, Shikai Hyoketsu.

So, earlier, while trapped in the dimensional space training, Toshiro had incorporated the very weak Divine Power within his body and all his insights into the Ice Law into this technique, greatly enhancing its power, making it his trump card against Aizen.

If this trump card failed to completely defeat Aizen, then Toshiro would basically be helpless, could only hope to break through the Shinigami limit on the spot under the pressure of battle and break through to the True God-level.

"Now it seems... in the end, I succeeded... Even Aizen after fusing with the Hogyoku cannot withstand this new Shikai Hyoketsu..."

Looking at the frozen Aizen ahead, along with the surrounding space, with no sign of breaking free, Toshiro sighed with a mix of happiness and regret.

He was happy that he had finally defeated Aizen, but regretted that he had not been able to break the Shinigami limit during this battle and break through to the True God-level.

This meant that the pressure would be even greater when facing Yhwach in the future.

'Well, whatever. I'll deal with the future later. For now, I should completely deal with Aizen...' Toshiro looked at the frozen Aizen and frowned slightly.

Toshiro could sense that, perhaps because of the Hogyoku, within that small space ahead where all things, even time and space, were frozen, Aizen still retained a sliver of life force, unlike everything else that had completely ceased to live.

"Well, Aizen, in this final moment of your life, let me, your enemy, see you off..."

After resting for a while and regaining some strength, Toshiro walked to the edge of that space, which was at Absolute Zero and completely frozen.

Then Toshiro gently swung his Zanpakuto and thrust it into the completely frozen space before him.

Ding!

Although Toshiro was clearly thrusting into empty space, a crisp collision sound came, as if he had struck metal.

Crack, crack, crack...

That completely frozen space, like a broken mirror, developed pitch-black cracks along where the tip of Toshiro's blade had touched. From within those cracks, one could faintly see the violent and chaotic space currents.

Crack, crack, crack...

The pitch-black cracks continued to appear and eventually spread towards Aizen, frozen at the center of the space.

Crack...

Finally, a fine crack also appeared on Aizen, along with the thin ice layer covering his body.

Then, more and more cracks appeared, like a damaged piece of porcelain. It seemed that soon, Aizen would shatter together with the entire space, becoming one grain among countless fine ice particles.

'Die... I'm going to die! I'm definitely going to die! If this continues, I'm definitely going to die!!'

That faint sliver of Aizen's consciousness seemed to sense the deadly power and began to sound the alarm wildly. At the same time, an unprecedented, extreme feeling of fear surged into Aizen's heart.

'Fear... So this is the feeling of fear?'Sensing the anxious and uneasy feeling in his heart, Aizen felt a trace of joy amidst the fear.

Yes, joy. Because Aizen's evolution required fear. And the reason he had chosen to fight Toshiro was precisely to experience the taste of fear.

'Heh heh heh ha ha ha... The feeling of fear? How long has it been since I last felt fear? This feeling of fear... unexpectedly feels quite good...' Aizen laughed maniacally inside.

Ever since awakening his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu's ability, Aizen had never felt fear again.

Because under Kyoka Suigetsu's hypnosis ability, even those far stronger than him could do nothing to him.

So from then on, it was as if Aizen had lost the ability to feel fear. He had never felt afraid again.