Chapter Fifty-Three: The Ever-Present First Release

"Clang! Bang!"

An Ye Yiyuan and Baron swiftly separated, each readjusting their stance.

"Ha, unbelievable! Such tremendous strength in a body so slight—enough to rival me?" Baron grinned, his face showing no trace of tension despite their evenly matched exchange.

"That should be my line. For someone your size, I’m surprised that’s all the power you have," An Ye Yiyuan retorted. As the former steward of the An Tian family, he was formidable not only in skill but also in wit—few could get the better of him in words.

"Is that so?" Baron’s lips curled up, and he broke into a ferocious smile. "Then how about this?"

Suddenly, the massive sword in his hands was enveloped in a dense layer of spirit particles, which began to twist and morph until they formed a grotesque, demonic face.

"To be honest, I’m not much of a Quincy. Unlike the others, I lack their precise long-range attacks, so I simply abandoned that. Instead, I gather spirit particles into this form..." Baron hefted his hammer-like weapon onto his shoulder. "So long as I can take down my enemy, any method is justified."

"Now that I’ve revealed my weapon, how about you activate your Shikai?" Baron raised a hand toward An Ye Yiyuan.

"Shikai?" An Ye Yiyuan arched an eyebrow, his tone suggesting he didn’t quite understand.

"What’s with that expression? Are you trying to tell me that my strength isn’t enough to make you use your Shikai?" Baron frowned. If his own power couldn’t prompt this captain-level opponent to release his Shikai, then perhaps he was being too arrogant.

"No, that’s not it. I just meant..." An Ye Yiyuan lifted his hand, ready to explain. "My Shikai has been active from the very start. Didn’t you notice?"

A shadow fell once more over Baron, blocking out the sunlight.

With a crash, the beautiful lieutenant dropped from the sky, delivering a fierce kick to Baron’s shoulder that drove him into the ground.

Retracting her foot, the lieutenant spun gracefully in midair and landed lightly at An Ye Yiyuan’s side.

"Well done, Valkyrie," An Ye Yiyuan said, lowering his blade and gazing calmly at Baron, who was still motionless.

"My Shikai has been attacking you from the beginning. You truly didn’t notice."

With a rattling sound, Baron rose from the ground, the stones that had pinned him sliding off his body.

"So there are Shikai forms like this?" Baron grabbed the longsword beside him, wiping dust from his white uniform with a grin.

"The forms of Shikai are as varied as the stars—we Shinigami don’t know how many truly exist. Why are you, a Quincy, so surprised?" An Ye Yiyuan readied his stance once more.

"In respect to you, I won’t hold back."

Valkyrie stepped forward in unison.

"Let’s go, Valkyrie."

"Yes."

With a swish, two black shadows, accompanied by a fierce rush of wind, charged straight at Baron.

Two opponents... Baron, himself of captain-class strength, understood all too well that both An Ye Yiyuan and his Zanpakuto—Valkyrie—possessed captain-level power.

He was now facing two captains at once.

Was this fortune, or misfortune?

"Does it matter so much..." Baron bared his teeth in a wild grin.

"As long as I can fight with everything I have, that’s enough!"

His gigantic frame did not retreat an inch.

"Roar!"

The spirit particle-formed demon face suddenly opened its massive jaws.

With a sudden motion, Baron aimed the demon face at his two airborne foes.

"Quincy’s Bow!"

A multitude of tiny spirit arrows burst forth from the demon’s mouth. Though each arrow was not powerful on its own, their sheer number and the breadth of their spread were overwhelming, engulfing An Ye Yiyuan and Valkyrie in an instant.

...

"It has been a long time, Shigekuni Yamamoto."

In the fiftieth district, at the meeting place between the Soul Society and the Silver Cross Order, the two leaders confronted one another.

"You deliberately released spiritual pressure to lure this old man here..." Yamamoto’s spiritual pressure gathered, causing his white haori to flutter around him.

"Are you hoping this old man will die here in the Soul Society?"

With a cold laugh, Yhwach responded, "You’re mistaken. I simply wanted to choose a suitable place for your grave."

"If you prefer, I can move your corpse elsewhere."

"In the end, my remains will indeed rest here, but not yet..." Yamamoto’s face twisted into a fearsome, almost demonic visage.

"At least until I have slain you, I will not die."

"You will die before I do, Shigekuni Yamamoto." Yhwach raised his head and said calmly, "But before that, many others will fall ahead of you."

"What?"

"Have you not noticed?" Yhwach lifted his hand, pointing behind Yamamoto.

"What is happening there?"

To confirm Yhwach’s words, a pillar of light suddenly shot up behind Yamamoto. Judging by its thickness, it was some distance away, but Yamamoto, intimately familiar with the Soul Society, realized immediately—it was...

"The Seireitei!"

From the center of the distant Soul Society, the intense pillar of light and the overwhelming spiritual pressure could be clearly felt even in the distant fiftieth district.

"Do not be afraid! Medical teams, evacuate the wounded immediately! Those uninjured, help out!"

In the Seireitei, chaos reigned.

Chojirou, normally responsible for its defense, was drenched in sweat.

Just minutes ago, an unidentified object had forcibly breached the barrier and crashed into the Seireitei, landing right in the barracks and causing heavy losses among their ranks.

"Hmph... So this is the Seireitei? What an old-fashioned place."

A voice rang out from the previously silent intruder, and from his tone, it was clear he was no denizen of the Soul Society.

At such a critical time, the only outsiders who could have forced their way in were—

Quincies!

"Well, looks like there is a leader here after all," the figure emerged from the smoke, growing clearer.

"Who are you?" Chojirou’s face broke out in cold sweat.

For someone to dare to charge into the Soul Society alone and break through the barrier with their own strength—judging by his voice, he hadn’t even been hurt.

"Heh, seems this won’t be boring after all. Well then, Shinigami..."

Mohammed swept aside his cloak and the smoke coiling around him, revealing his flamboyantly stylish attire.

"Let us put on a good show!"