Fate In Bleach (489)

Chapter 489 - Captured

"Fifth Division Captain, Ailin?"

Seeing the number on the back of the Shinigami who had saved Tier Harribel, Candice Catnipp's expression changed drastically.

Although the Quincy of the Wandenreich Sternritter had greatly increased their strength over the past millennium, thanks to Yhwach creating "Blut Vene" and perfecting the "Quincy: Vollständig," making them no weaker than the captains of the Gotei Thirteen...

Furthermore, Yhwach had even sealed his ability "Sankt Altar" (Usurpation Altar) into the Star Medallions, granting the Sternritter Quincy the power to steal Shinigami Bankai.

This increase on one side and decrease on the other was enough to give the Quincy the upper hand in battles against Shinigami.

But even so, Yhwach had still designated five "Special War Powers" among the Shinigami side.

These five Special War Powers were considered by Yhwach to be powerful Shinigami who could potentially pose a significant obstacle to the Quincy's defeat of the Seireitei.

Among them were Captain Ichibē Hyōsube of Squad Zero, representing "Wisdom."

The former Captain of Squad Twelve, Kisuke Urahara, representing "Means."

Captain Ailin of Squad Five, representing "Combat Power."

Sōsuke Aizen, representing "Spiritual Pressure."

And the Substitute Shinigami, Ichigo Kurosaki, representing "Potential"!

According to His Majesty, among these five Special War Powers, aside from Ichigo Kurosaki, representing "Potential," who had yet to reach his peak and could be prioritized for elimination, the Sternritter Quincy could flee upon encountering the other four without facing repercussions from the Emperor.

"Oh? You recognize me?"

Having placed Harribel down safely, Ailin heard Candice Catnipp's exclamation. His figure flickered, instantly appearing before her as he asked the question.

"Of course. You are one of the Shinigami marked by His Majesty as one of the five Special War Powers."

"Perfect timing, encountering you here. Let me eliminate you and remove a future threat for His Majesty!"

With that, Candice Catnipp drew a massive arrow of lightning in her hand and shot it towards Ailin.

"Galvanic Blast!"

Boom!

Facing Candice Catnipp's attack, Ailin reached out and crushed the seemingly powerful lightning arrow with his bare hand.

"How is this possible?"

Seeing her attack crushed so easily by Ailin, Candice Catnipp was greatly shocked.

Although she knew from His Majesty's emphasis on the five Special War Powers that these Shinigami capable of hindering his plans were powerful, being strong enough to crush her attack directly was still somewhat unacceptable for Candice.

In Candice Catnipp's view, an attack launched by her in her Quincy: Vollständig state couldn't possibly be shattered so easily, not even by the members of the Schutzstaffel.

Now, it seemed Ailin, representing "Combat Power," was in no way inferior to the members of the Schutzstaffel.

"Electrocution!"

Seeing her attack fail to achieve the desired effect, Candice Catnipp didn't hesitate, directly unleashing her most powerful technique.

Instantly, boundless lightning gathered into a sky-piercing pillar of thunder, crashing down directly onto Ailin.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom...

Ailin's figure was completely submerged within the blue pillar of lightning. The canyon itself was utterly destroyed by Candice Catnipp's attack.

After more than ten seconds, the pillar of lightning released by Candice Catnipp slowly dissipated, revealing Ailin's figure.

"How can that be?"

Ailin stood completely unharmed, causing Candice Catnipp's eyes to widen in disbelief. Her strongest attack, released in her most powerful state, hadn't managed to inflict even the slightest damage on Ailin.

"Combat Power... is this the strongest 'combat power' on the Shinigami side?"

Candice Catnipp muttered under her breath.

"Retreat!"

With a terrified shriek, Candice Catnipp directly issued the order to flee.

In any case, His Majesty Yhwach had said that if they encountered any of the five Special War Powers other than Ichigo Kurosaki, they could retreat directly.

"You attack me and then think you can just run away?"

Golden spatial ripples appeared in the sky. Subsequently, countless Zanpakutō rained down like bolts of black and gold lightning.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The roaring sounds echoed endlessly like firecrackers. None of these Quincy, led by Candice Catnipp, could survive Ailin's assault.

"Damn it!"

Candice Catnipp crossed her arms defensively in front of her. Blue spiritual pressure patterns flickered across her body.

Boom boom boom boom boom...

One Zanpakutō after another, transformed into black and gold lightning bolts, struck Candice Catnipp's body.

However, although these Zanpakutō impacting Candice Catnipp forced her back continuously...

Not a single Zanpakutō managed to break through her Blut Vene Anhaben defense to injure her.

"Blut Vene Anhaben?"

"Interesting."

Seeing this, Ailin smiled faintly.

In his memory, the Quincy's Blut Vene couldn't be used simultaneously with Quincy: Vollständig.

But now, it seemed this flaw had been optimized by Yhwach.

The fact that Candice Catnipp could use Blut Vene Anhaben while in her Quincy: Vollständig state was clear proof.

Of course, even if Candice Catnipp's defense was significantly enhanced by Blut Vene Anhaben, it posed no problem for Ailin.

Even Yhwach's Blut Vene Anhaben had been broken by Ichibē Hyōsube's "Futen Taisatsuryō" (Iron Wind Kill). Could he not break the Blut Vene Anhaben of a mere Sternritter member?

Ailin took a step, instantly appearing before Candice Catnipp.

Shink!

Pfft...

A slender arm pierced through Candice Catnipp's chest.

How strong Ailin currently was, without an opponent of comparable strength, even he wasn't entirely clear on his own power level.

Having learned from the defeat by the Gotei Thirteen a thousand years ago, Yhwach, after awakening this time, had used his "Almighty" ability to perfect the Quincy power system.

Most importantly, he perfected the Quincy: Vollständig, which hadn't been fully developed a thousand years ago.

The Quincy: Vollständig was the powerful state Yhwach created to counter the Shinigami's Bankai.

However, a thousand years ago, the Quincy's final form still required the aid of the Sanrei Glove, and using it even resulted in losing their powers.

But after a thousand years, it had been perfected to the point where Quincy could use it freely.

Blut Vene was a technique Yhwach created to enhance the Quincy's survivability.

Quincy were originally human. Their bodies couldn't become stronger alongside their spiritual pressure like Shinigami spirit bodies.

After all, a human body was ultimately flesh and blood.

Even if converted into a spirit body capable of surviving in Hueco Mundo or the Soul Society, its fundamental nature wouldn't change.

Generally speaking, the Quincy of a thousand years ago were fragile glass cannons with high attack but low defense.

Infusing spiritual pressure into their blood to maximize their defensive and offensive capabilities greatly increased the Quincy's survivability.

And indeed, this proved true.

In the Wandenreich's current invasions of the Seireitei and Hueco Mundo, all the Sternritter Quincy who had mastered "Blut Vene" had retreated unharmed.

Candice Catnipp was the first Quincy whose Blut Vene had been directly broken.

Moreover, it happened while she was in her Quincy: Vollständig state.

"How is this possible?"

Candice Catnipp's pupils trembled.

Her Blut Vene Anhaben, in her Vollständig state, had been pierced straight through by Ailin's arm.

Was this the strength of Captain Ailin, designated by His Majesty to represent "Combat Power"?

Ping...

A shattering sound echoed. The lightning wings representing Quincy: Vollständig on Candice Catnipp's back broke apart, and she fell from the sky.

Swish...

Ailin flicked his hand and shook the blood off his arm with spiritual pressure.

"Bakudō Number Four: Hainawa!"

Golden spiritual pressure condensed on Ailin's index finger, finally transforming into a rope of light that bound the hands of the unconscious Candice Catnipp.

With Ailin's current strength and status, even if he directly told the other Shinigami many secrets, while they might wonder how he knew, they wouldn't be foolish enough to voice their suspicions openly.

However, now that he had captured a member of the Sternritter alive, sending her to Squad Twelve would allow Mayuri Kurotsuchi to extract whatever information he could about the Quincy from Candice Catnipp.

Information obtained this way would be far more convincing than if it came directly from Ailin's mouth.

Furthermore, this would greatly enhance Mayuri's understanding of the Quincy, enabling him to invent more effective countermeasures.

Suddenly, black shadows emerged beside Candice Catnipp.

This was the shadow domain constructed from the Reishi of the Wandenreich Quincy.

The Quincy had utilized this shadow domain to leave the Wandenreich's Reishi space for their attacks on Hueco Mundo and the Seireitei this time.

Precisely because of this, the Quincy who left the Wandenreich had a time limit for staying in Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society.

Once the time limit was reached, they would be pulled back into the Reishi space by the shadow domain.

This current situation clearly indicated that Candice Catnipp's time outside had expired, and she was about to be pulled back into the Wandenreich by the spiritual pressure left behind in the Reishi space.

"Trying to snatch someone from my grasp?"

Ailin raised an eyebrow.

If he hadn't captured Candice Catnipp, Ailin wouldn't have cared if she was pulled back into the Reishi space.

But now that Candice Catnipp was his captive, and he had already planned to hand her over to Mayuri, how could he possibly allow her to be easily reclaimed by the Reishi space?

Golden spatial ripples appeared before Ailin. With a flick of his hand, the Hainawa binding Candice Catnipp swung her like a pendulum, tossing her into the spatial ripple.

The spatial ripple, also known as the technique Ailin named "King's Treasury," was essentially his "Shikai."

Its ability was to open spatial passages connecting his Innate Bounded Field, Unlimited Blade Works, to the outside world.

In terms of the nature of the ability, Ailin's Bankai "Unlimited Blade Works" was very similar to the "Wandenreich" carved out by countless Quincy within the shadows of the Seireitei.

Except, the "Wandenreich" was a "Reishi space" carved out by countless Quincy within the shadows of the Seireitei, while Unlimited Blade Works was initially a "Reishi space" carved out by Ailin's Zanpakutō. As Ailin created more Zanpakutō within Unlimited Blade Works, this "Reishi space" grew larger.

After Ailin comprehended his own essence, the Zanpakutō within Unlimited Blade Works themselves became the foundation constructing this Reishi space.

The black shadows pursued Candice Catnipp, attempting to invade Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works and pull her back into the Wandenreich.

However, Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works was in no way inferior to the Wandenreich. In fact, having absorbed the Royal Family's spatial treasure, the "Ōin" (King's Seal), the level of Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works surpassed that of the Wandenreich.

These black shadows tried to invade Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works through the spatial ripple of his "King's Treasury," but the ripple suddenly erupted with dazzling golden light, directly dispersing the shadows attempting to enter.

A Reishi space carved out based on a material naturally possessed the characteristics of that material.

The "Wandenreich," being a "Reishi space" carved out by the Quincy from the shadows of the Seireitei, naturally possessed the characteristic of "shadow."

In Ailin's memory, during the Thousand-Year Blood War, Mayuri Kurotsuchi had deciphered the secret of the "Wandenreich," transforming his laboratory in Squad Twelve into a space completely illuminated by light, devoid of shadows. This prevented the Wandenreich's second surprise attack on the Seireitei from affecting Squad Twelve.

Similarly, under the light released by Ailin's King's Treasury, the black shadows attempting to reclaim Candice Catnipp for the Wandenreich were directly dispersed.

Generally, because Quincy used their own spiritual pressure to carve out the Wandenreich, their connection to it was extremely close.

Once they exceeded a certain time limit outside the Wandenreich, they would be forcibly pulled back.

Now that Candice was directly imprisoned within Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works, her connection with the Wandenreich was temporarily severed.

As for whether Mayuri Kurotsuchi could achieve the same after Ailin handed Candice over to him, Ailin had no doubts.

You could call Mayuri weak, but never stupid.

Glancing back at Tier Harribel in the canyon above, Ailin sensed her spiritual pressure had stabilized. Without further words, he flew directly towards Las Noches.

Judging from the spiritual pressure fluctuations in Hueco Mundo, the battle on Coyote Starrk's side had already subsided.

However, conflicts involving spiritual pressure still raged over at Las Noches.