Help! I am bound to Aizen!-Chapter 256

Chapter 256

2-in-1 chapter

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Seeing Kaelith, Baraggan instinctively tensed up—then quickly came to his senses.

Ridiculous. What was there to fear?

Sure, Kaelith was fairly strong, but in the end, he was just a Shinigami. Baraggan, on the other hand, had crossed the boundary between Hollow and Shinigami and gained an entirely new, mighty power!

From his vantage point, Baraggan watched as Kaelith led a raucous band of Shinigami rushing into Las Noches.

“Baraggan, you old fiend! Get out here and face your death!”

Kaelith was shirtless, brandishing his blade and shouting at the top of his lungs, with a crowd of Shinigami echoing his calls.

Baraggan: “…”

This should have been a grand, high-stakes war, one where rival kings exchanged lofty words from afar before sending their troops in. Yet Kaelith’s antics shattered that solemn atmosphere, making them look less like conquerors and more like rowdy invaders.

Though irritated, Baraggan had an image to uphold. High above, his black-and-purple robes billowed in the wind.

“Kaelith, you’ve come at just the right time,” he declared.

“I have yet to test my new power on a worthy foe and christen my great ax in blood. Your rank is somewhat beneath me, but you’ll suffice. Let your life be my tribute!”

With that, Baraggan raised his skeletal arm, pulled down a colossal battle-ax from behind, and gave it a mighty swing, pointing it at Kaelith.

Kaelith studied Baraggan in midair, noticing the ax had a long chain trailing from the handle. It looked like it could be hurled around just like some raging beast. Its style overlapped with his own Release’s chained weapon—worse yet, Baraggan’s giant double-bladed ax seemed even more imposing.

Eyeing the blade in his hand, Kaelith shook his head slightly.

All right, he thought, I won’t release my Zanpakutō for this fight.

Sensing his decision, the Zanpakutō trembled in protest—uselessly. Kaelith simply sheathed it, rolling his neck loose.

“A true hero claims the throne first, so tell me, Baraggan—why is it you alone can sit on Hueco Mundo’s throne, but not I, Kaelith? My Kaelith Technical Bureau commands a thousand fine officers, an army of a million. How could your rotten spark compare to my blazing moonlit sky?

“If you lay down your arms and surrender, I’ll grant you a seat among Hueco Mundo’s high officers. Isn’t that a gracious offer?”

Baraggan paused for several seconds, then glanced again at the few hundred Tsunayashiro survivors behind Kaelith. Filthy Shinigami and their bottomless lies!

“Insolent fool,” he scoffed. “I have transcended all boundaries and stand far above mortal dregs—and you, a mere Shinigami, dare flap your lips?

“Charlotte, Abirama, Findor!”

With a swipe of his ax, Baraggan called out three names. At once, three Adjuchas soared into view: one a vaguely humanoid Hollow clad in pink armor, one a red-feathered eagle-like Hollow, and one resembling a large white shrimp. Their spiritual pressures exceeded those of typical Adjuchas. Spreading out, they charged Kaelith from three directions.

Baraggan kept his gaze fixed on the battlefield. He had no real expectation that these three would defeat Kaelith—he merely wanted a chance. If Kaelith got distracted, Baraggan would hurl his ax. As long as it so much as grazed Kaelith, he’d be done for.

Yet Kaelith didn’t budge, showing no intention of attacking. The moment those three Adjuchas drew close, several figures darted from the shadows of nearby ruins—

“Uuaugh!”

“Graah!”

“Gwah!”

Three heavy impacts: the Adjuchas were all knocked sprawling, plowing trenches through the ground. Baraggan stared in shock at the trio who had appeared: Harribel. Nelliel. Szayelaporro!

Fury flared in Baraggan’s eyes. Szayelaporro…an underling of his! Harribel, whom he’d threatened more than once to bow down before him. And Nelliel—though he didn’t know her well, Baraggan had long assumed she would eventually submit to him, the “king.”

All of them, now standing with Kaelith! Ridiculous…unforgivable!

The soul-fire in Baraggan’s hollowed eye sockets blazed.

“Szayelaporro…you damned traitor! I’ll tear you limb from limb!”

Szayelaporro scratched his head.

“Come now, Your Majesty, plenty of people here are working against you. Why single me out? No need to lose your composure.”

Smiling gently, he continued, “Oh—did I hear you say something about having ‘broken the boundary’ and becoming ‘transcendent’? I see you’re quite taken with that. But crossing such lines isn’t really a big deal. Look at us: Harribel and I have also surpassed the border between Hollow and Shinigami to assume new forms, yet here we are, working under Lord Kaelith just the same.

“I’d advise you not to dwell on such trifles…it’s a bit lacking in class.”

Baraggan trembled in rage, bone joints rattling with sharp cracks.

“Fine…very well, Szayelaporro. Once I’ve got my hands on you, I’ll shred you until nothing’s left!”

He let out a bellow, summoning two more Adjuchas: one shaped like a saber-toothed tiger, another resembling an elephant. Kaelith barely recognized the first, but at sight of the elephant-like Hollow, his eyes lit up. Right, wasn’t this the one who got taken out by “Daizenjin” in that big war? A rare subordinate he actually remembered.

Even so, Baraggan’s display was rather pitiful. Kaelith had three Vasto Lorde on his side—two were half-Arrancar—and Baraggan kept sending untransformed Adjuchas? A bit embarrassing.

Kaelith took a deep breath. Since Baraggan was reluctant to attack first, he’d take the initiative himself. He stepped forward—only for some massive shape to surge up from beneath the sand, triggering an alert in Kaelith’s Soul Domain. Curious, he glanced down.

A huge maw burst out of the silver desert, wide enough to swallow Kaelith and his allies in one gulp. As the gargantuan body emerged, Harribel, Nelliel, and Szayelaporro instinctively leaped aside to avoid it. Mid-jump, Nelliel glanced anxiously at Kaelith, who was still standing there, head bowed as though pondering something.

Was he too stunned to react in time?! Without hesitation, Nelliel sprang toward him, her hoof-like feet pounding the air. But she was still a fraction too slow.

Boom!!

Under everyone’s stunned, excited, or fearful gazes, that colossal maw clamped shut, swallowing Kaelith whole. Only then did people see the beast clearly: a giant whale, nearly a hundred meters long, with a head thirty-plus meters across.

The saber-toothed tiger Hollow laughed. “Well done, Choe Neng! Just digest Kaelith in there!”

The enormous whale offered no response, simply channeling all its spiritual pressure into its digestive system, hoping to corrode Kaelith from within. Baraggan observed calmly.

Choe Neng was a unique Adjuchas: not particularly high in class, but massive in size, and brimming with spiritual pressure inside its body—an endless supply of Cero. More importantly, if it swallowed an enemy, it could create an unbreakable cage of reiatsu inside. Once a foe was trapped, a ceaseless flood of digestive gas would dissolve them to sludge.

Kaelith was powerful, but at the end of the day he was a Shinigami, his physical defenses and recovery surely inferior to a Hollow’s. Perhaps this might actually wound him.

Indeed, after Kaelith was devoured, there’d been no sign of movement or spiritual struggle from within, as if he’d vanished.

Growing alarmed, Nelliel drew a knight’s lance out of the air and prepared to charge the whale, only to sense a surge of danger from the side. She swept her spear horizontally, and Harribel arrived to assist with her own white-bone greatsword. Together, they knocked aside a huge ax that came spinning from nowhere.

Sparks flew. Even with two Vasto Lorde combined, they barely managed to parry.

“Haaah!”

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They shouted in unison, forcing the ax upward. Far off, Baraggan gave his black chain a casual pull, reeling the weapon back in.

Nelliel and Harribel grew tense. Moments ago, they’d seen the ax wreathed in black mist—Baraggan’s “breath of death.” If it so much as grazed the body, you had to cut off that part at once, or the rot would spread and turn you to dust.

Although they knew of this power, it was a different matter to face it up close. Thankfully, Baraggan’s deadly miasma required the blade to land a hit; otherwise, both women would already be gravely injured.

“Harribel,” Nelliel said, “I’ll keep Baraggan occupied—please save Kaelith!”

She bent her knees, bracing for a charge at Baraggan. Harribel frowned. It wasn’t ideal for Nelliel to confront Baraggan head-on, but there was no better option at the moment. She nodded and readied to rush toward the whale.

Before she could move, a voice echoed from within the creature’s body:

“Sis, open your mouth! I’m coming out!”

“…?”

Harribel froze at that familiar voice. Baraggan snorted. So he wasn’t dead after all!

Yet the whale clamped its jaws tight, as though determined to imprison Kaelith inside forever. In the next instant, a bulge rose in its belly—shaped like a fist pressing outward. The creature wailed in agony, reflexively opening its mouth. A figure shot from inside, landing on a distant dune.

“Hey, Aizen—I brought you a present!”

Kaelith’s reiatsu flared in brilliant glory, not a trace of the whale’s innards on him. In his hand was a large bag formed of condensed spirit particles, inside which lay a mass of quivering flesh. Many of the Tsunayashiro Shinigami grimaced at the sight, while Aizen’s eyes lit with satisfaction. He approached, hand outstretched.

Sure enough, opening the bag revealed the whale’s unique internal structure. He glanced up at Kaelith: once upon a time, this man was a clueless fool about research, but now he’d scooped up valuable samples on his own. Pleased, Aizen mentally struck off a tiny fraction of Kaelith’s “annoyance debt.”

All that took Aizen a couple of seconds. Behind Kaelith, the whale thrashed in vain, its huge body collapsing with a thud. It tried one last time to suck Kaelith back in, only to find it had lost the power to do so—its internal sealing ability was gone, leaving it in despair. Kaelith paid the creature no mind, and Aizen even less so. After tossing the harvested organ into the “Shadow Lab,” Aizen pulled down his hood and strode to the front lines.

With each step, his reiatsu swelled anew. By the time he stood in the center, all eyes, including Baraggan’s, were on him. Aizen smiled.

“Everyone,” he said, “I’d like you to witness something.”

Drawing the Zanpakutō from his hip, he held it elegantly, tip downward. Recognizing the gesture, Kaelith clamped his eyes shut without hesitation.

Aizen’s lips curved. “Feast your eyes upon my sword’s Release—”

“Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu.”

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