Chapter 706 Who The Soul King Is Doesn't Matter, Right?

With the Soul King Palace directly destroyed, Ichibe'e, who had been invisible and preparing to return there, was forced to reappear.

This Zero Division's Captain stood above the collapsing sacred ground. For the second time, his monkish face, which rarely showed emotion, revealed undisguised rage.

"What are you all doing?!"

The Soul King Palace's destruction, and the inability to revive the other Zero Division's members, were minor issues. The key was that the Soul King's physical body had lost its final protection.

Makoto looked at the furious Ichibe'e, maintaining his calm smile, skipping the pleasantries entirely.

"Good of you to come out. Now, give me the Soul King's power."

After a brief pause, Makoto added, "Besides, to you Zero Division, it doesn't matter who the Soul King is, as long as there's a keystone to maintain the three worlds' balance, right?"

Surprisingly, Ichibe'e didn't refute Makoto's words, because what he said was true.

But precisely because of that, Ichibe'e could never allow a being with self-awareness, with ambitions and purposes of its own, to sit on the Soul King's throne.

What he needed wasn't a new Soul King, but a tool that would never resist and never cause trouble for the three worlds.

"Bankai... Shin'uchi: Shirafude Ichimonji."

Ichibe'e didn't answer Makoto's proposal. He answered with action.

Ichimonji's final form was fully released before everyone, transforming into a giant white brush.

It could rename anything it touched, and the renamed object would simultaneously acquire all the attributes corresponding to that name.

This ability touched the very rules of the world itself.

Ichibe'e aimed Shirafude Ichimonji's tip at Makoto. His meaning was clear.

'You want to be the Soul King?'

'Fine.'

'But not as a living being. As a corpse.'

This was the true face of the order the Zero Division had guarded for a thousand years... the Soul King didn't need to have a self, only to be useful.

The next moment, both moved simultaneously.

The clash between Makoto and Ichibe'e had a completely different style from the others.

There were no deafening Cero or Kido explosions, no clashing of Zanpakuto.

Their fighting methods were remarkably similar.

Pochita's ability was to erase anything touched by its chainsaws from existence itself.

And Ichimonji's ability was to erase the name of anything it touched, along with its corresponding power. Things without names would become weak and powerless.

Two powers that both belonged to the 'negation' rule silently collided in the air. Each contact caused a brief distortion in the surrounding space, as if reality itself was caught between two mutually contradictory rules.

Ichibe'e struck first.

His brush-naginata hybrid Ichimonji traced an ink-black trail through the air. Where the tip passed, the very name of the air was erased, leaving behind a completely resistance-free vacuum.

This wasn't a physical attack or Kido, but a direct intervention in the world's rules themselves.

The ink-black sword energy scattered like splattered ink, raining down on Makoto. Each droplet carried enough power to erase a Captain-class soul from existence.

Makoto, in his Black Chainsaw Form, swung his right-arm chainsaw. The blade, spinning at high speed, met the oncoming ink-black sword energy head-on.

The moment they touched, the two forces, both of which were 'negation' at their core, consumed each other in that small space. Then that space itself fell completely silent.

That space, along with all its Reishi and rules, was reduced to nothingness under the assault of both erasure forces.

A strange spherical void appeared between them. The surrounding air, after a moment's silence, rushed in with a delayed howl.

A flash of shock passed through Ichibe'e's eyes.

Having lived for over ten thousand years, this was the first time he had encountered an existence with abilities so similar to his own.

But his combat experience as Captain of the Zero Division for nearly ten millennia far surpassed that of Kirinji, Senjumaru, and the others.

While swinging that ink-black sword energy, Ichibe'e's left hand had already swung behind him without a sound.

"Senri Tsutensho!!"

A giant palm formed from pure Reiatsu slammed out of the void, bypassing the erasure field between them, striking from behind Makoto's blind spot.

Makoto didn't turn around.

Just before the giant palm could touch his back, the space behind him in his Black Chainsaw Form silently split into three thin cracks.

Yomotsu Hirasaka!

That Senri Tsutensho, along with all its Reiatsu, was swallowed whole by that spatial crack.

Then, almost simultaneously, an identical spatial crack opened directly above Ichibe'e's head.

That Senri Tsutensho slammed out of the crack, its power even stronger than before.

Because the Senri Tsutensho had been sucked into a gravity space, its attack power had doubled under gravity's boost.

Facing this pincer attack from both sides, Ichibe'e had no choice but to grip his blade with both hands, sweeping Ichimonji in its widest arc, drawing a massive 'erase' word in the air.

Both attacks were neutralized, but Ichibe'e was forced to step back half a step in this exchange.

That half-step made three things clear to Ichibe'e.

Makoto had demonstrated in those exchanges not just an erasure ability on par with his own.

'This kid had too many tricks.'

But Ichibe'e wouldn't give up.

He absolutely couldn't let someone like this become the new Soul King, especially one not controlled by the Zero Division and the nobility.

"Bankai: Shin'uchi... Shirafude Ichimonji!"

"Futen... Taisatsuryo."

Ichibe'e chanted the true name of this technique with all his might.

This was his final and strongest ultimate technique in Bankai state.

Anyone who tried to attack him, anyone who came within a certain range of him, would be drawn into the ink-black mausoleum rising around him, then have their name, power, and even existence itself stripped away.

Finally, they would be completely erased from the world!

Facing that sky-covering ink-black mausoleum, Makoto didn't retreat.

He held Ryujin Jakka horizontally before him. The pitch-black patterns on the blade visibly deepened.

The Black Chainsaw Makoto showed his fangs and smiled. "Bankai: Zanka no Tachi."

Then, Makoto plunged Zanka no Tachi into the ground before his feet.

The moment the pitch-black blade sank into the stone, the power of the Strongest Fire-type flowed into Makoto's body.

The next moment, Makoto burst forward. A blazing white heat field, impossible to look at directly, expanded in all directions.

This was no longer a clash of rules, but pure, unadulterated numerical crushing.

Since Futen Taisatsuryo attempted to use rules as blades to destroy anything approaching, Makoto simply bypassed the rule level and dragged the fight back to its most primitive form.

'Fifteen million degrees of absolute heat, combined with the all-erasing power of a demon…'

'Come on, let's see who kills whom.'

In the collision, the two forces struggled.

After a stalemate, the ink-formed Futen Taisatsuryo was visibly overwhelmed.

Finally... it completely collapsed!!!

Thud!

When the blazing white light gradually faded, Ichibe'e was kneeling on one knee on the vitrified ground.

Shirafude Ichimonji was embedded in the vitrified debris beside him. The ink that had been surging on the blade was now completely still.

His proud ultimate technique, faced with the most pure power, couldn't even maintain its form and collapsed on its own.

After a long silence, Ichibe'e slowly raised his head, looking at the Arrancarized man standing before him.

Finally, as if pronouncing his own epitaph, he declared in a hoarse voice: "You win, King of Hueco Mundo."