BLEACH: Blade of Purification

"A... a Gillian?!"

Looking at the giant figure, Souichirou's expression changed dramatically. His voice also changed significantly, no longer gentle and easygoing, but now tinged with a solemn and deadly seriousness. "Why is a Gillian appearing in Soul Society?!"

"Gillian?"

Ling Qing narrowed his eyes, staring at the mountain-sized monster that looked like it was wearing a witch's cloak and a clown mask. He was even in the mood to make a small joke to lighten the atmosphere. "Does that mean there's a Smallian and a Mediumian too?"

"Don't be careless!" Souichirou hissed at Ling Qing in a low voice. The person who had been protected all this time actually stepped in front of Ling Qing, attempting to reverse their roles and protect him.

"This thing is formed from tens of thousands of Hollows devouring each other and fusing together! Its power isn't a simple sum of those tens of thousands of Hollows. In the past, a Gillian of this level had to be handled by the Royal Special Task Force!"

There was no time to explain what the Royal Special Task Force was. Souichirou raised his hand, and at some point, a sword was already in his right hand. However, compared to Ling Qing's tachi, his weapon looked more like an exquisite dagger.

Ling Qing raised an eyebrow at the dagger in Souichirou's hand. He had thought Souichirou would be more impressive. Was this it? Fighting a mountain-sized monster with a small dagger... he wondered how many times he'd have to stab it.

Of course, even though Ling Qing's tachi was much longer than the dagger, it was still insignificant compared to the Gillian's massive body.

The Gillian, which had appeared out of nowhere, didn't make any extra moves. It simply looked at the two people standing on the wasteland and opened its massive mouth—

In an instant, the air stirred. They could clearly feel the air being forcibly drawn into the Gillian's mouth. The spirit particles that constitute all things in Soul Society were forcibly gathered in its mouth, forming a ball of light.

Then, a massive energy beam, possibly over ten meters in diameter, descended from the sky with a blinding light!!!

"Let me handle this!!"

Seeing that Souichirou was actually going to try and block the descending beam with that small dagger, Ling Qing quickly pulled him back! He himself took a step forward, meeting the roaring beam with the sword in his hand.

"Don't forget, my job is to protect you! What kind of half-assed mercenary gets protected by his client?!"

But Ling Qing's voice was already lost to Souichirou. Shocked that Ling Qing would do such a thing at a time like this, Souichirou had no time to act.

A massive torrent of power instantly engulfed the two of them, along with the rest of Ling Qing's sentence!

A continuous stream of immense energy poured from the Gillian's mouth, a sustained bombardment. The entire wasteland shattered like a fragile cookie, and countless fragments flew into the sky under the immense torrent of power, as if they had lost their gravity—

However—

"What incredible power. This thing is truly terrifying!"

Amidst the surging torrent of power, among the countless fragments flying weightlessly upwards, a voice rang out.

The two of them had landed on one of the larger fragments, flying up towards the sky with it! The speaker was Ling Qing.

In the nick of time, Ling Qing had realized that with his current strength, he was not yet capable of blocking such a high-purity energy attack. If he could use a defensive counter-attack like Senkō (Flash), he might have given it a try, but right now, it was impossible.

But there was no reason for Ling Qing to stubbornly block the attack head-on. Before the torrent of power fell, Ling Qing made a split-second decision to grab Souichirou and move away from the core of the explosion, then used the surging power to fly into the sky. The terrifying force temporarily negated gravity, making it even easier for Ling Qing to fly.

After putting Souichirou down, a battle-hungry smile appeared on Ling Qing's face.

This Gillian... was just as Souichirou had said. It was on a completely different level from ordinary Hollows. Its powerful attack was not something Ling Qing could currently block.

But strangely, Ling Qing had a feeling that he could defeat this Hollow. Although this Gillian looked terrifying and was super-sized, the threat it posed to Ling Qing didn't match that of the man from Zaraki. At the very least, even when they had become familiar with each other's attack patterns, Ling Qing would never dare to drop his defense and leave his back exposed to that man's attack while carrying someone else.

"Protect yourself."

"Wait! That's not an opponent you can handle without even being able to release your sword!!"

Souichirou subconsciously reached out to grab Ling Qing, but Ling Qing had already turned into an afterimage, using the floating fragments as stepping stones to rapidly approach the Gillian.

Before the mountain-like figure, a human was as small as an insect.

But what no one could ignore was that when the massive slash swung from that tiny figure's hand landed on the Gillian, it genuinely tore open a huge wound, and a large amount of blood gushed out!

Souichirou couldn't comprehend what was happening before his eyes. He was so utterly shocked that he couldn't move, as if he'd lost his virginity.

When did the world become something he no longer recognized?

Since when could a Gillian—even the lowest class of Gillian—be dealt with by someone using only an Asauchi, someone who wasn't even a Shinigami?!

However, the shock Ling Qing delivered to Souichirou was not over yet.

As if that single strike had confirmed the Gillian's true worth, a smile appeared on Ling Qing's face, and his next actions became even more aggressive!

It wasn't as simple as delivering ten or twenty slashes. In front of the Gillian, as if replicating its own attack, Ling Qing forcibly drew power towards himself. Smoky black energy was absorbed into his body.

In the next moment, his thunder-like speed seemed to freeze the very air!

Starting from the Gillian's head and spreading downwards at an astonishing rate, countless massive slash lines scattered through the air. The slash lines crisscrossed over the Gillian, completely enveloping it. The speed was so fast that it was difficult to discern what was happening.

The only thing that could be seen clearly was when the slash lines reached the Gillian's feet. The figure of the silver-haired man finally reappeared. Panting heavily, he came to a screeching halt on his heels while slowly returning the white blade in his hand to its sheath.

Click.

The moment the sword was fully sheathed with a soft click, countless wounds all over the motionless Gillian's body abruptly gushed with blood. The severed chunks of its body scattered and completely dissipated before they even hit the ground.

With a final cry, the Gillian swayed powerlessly and collapsed with a deafening crash. A huge cloud of grey dust billowed up amidst the earth-shaking roar.

"You... you really won?"

Ling Qing was panting, and didn't answer Souichirou who had landed beside him. Although he had won, killing such a massive Gillian for the first time had taken nearly all of his strength.

Souichirou patted him on the shoulder, likely trying to convey something along the lines of "good work."

However, as if to demonstrate the meaning of "misfortunes never come singly," they were given no chance to breathe.

The Gillian had just fallen when a sharp, piercing sound ripped through the sky, like something being forcibly torn open.

The two of them looked up at the sky again.

They saw the scenery in the sky distort, and then, as if a fissure had been torn open, the sky split apart from top to bottom. Behind the jagged, tooth-like opening was a space of utter blackness.

Then, something jumped down from the torn fissure, landing on the fallen Gillian's body.

Compared to the mountain-sized Gillian, this thing was insignificantly small, at most only slightly larger than Ling Qing or Souichirou.

But the disastrous and terrifying presence it emanated was several times greater than the Gillian's!!!

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