You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

The sharp wind pressure was enough to cut through steel, but when it hit Iori, it was like a gentle breeze, automatically deflected by the high-density spiritual pressure covering her skin.

Bang!

The stone slab beneath Iori's feet immediately cracked, with countless cracks spreading in all directions.

"What?!" The Skull Emperor was taken aback, especially after feeling the unshakeable power, like a mountain, through the battle axe in his hand, which shocked him even more.

During this pause, Tosen and Esdeath were ready to attack, but Iori stopped them with a word:

"Step back. There's no need to complicate things. It will be over soon."

"……Yes!"

"Then leave it to you."

The two men leaped outwards, leaving enough space for the two sides to fight.

The Skull Emperor still couldn't accept the reality before him: "Ugh... how could this be..."

"Why the unexpected tone?" Iori couldn't tell what kind of expression the skeleton in front of her was making, but she could sense the other person's mental wavering from the voice.

Is it any different from before?

The golden Executioner's Axe trembled slightly under the struggle of the two forces. Barragan unleashed his full spiritual pressure, fully utilizing his Vastod-level brute strength. His cloak billowed without wind, creating undulating waves, and the ground around them cracked like a spider web...

But Iori remained unmoved, as if she didn't perceive any difference.

"impossible!"

Barragan swung his hand, forming a blade, and slashed at Iori's neck. However, just as he made the move, a dark spiritual pressure rose from the void, and a ten-meter-tall black coffin surrounded him. Countless spatial fluctuations formed sharp blades that slashed across his body. Even the most powerful body of a top-level Hollow could not withstand it. In the blink of an eye, his cloak was torn to shreds, and white bone fragments flew everywhere.

After the black coffin shattered, a tremendous force came from the giant axe, and the hard long pole struck the white bones, throwing the King of Hueco Mundo away like a rag doll.

Bang!

The towering stone pillar collapsed with a roar, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Well!"

"You haven't made much progress, that's a real shame."

Iori tossed aside the battle axe, the magnificent weapon spinning back to Barragan, slicing through the ground in front of him and disappearing deep inside.

"I thought you would be spurred on by your shame and become even stronger than before... Did I overestimate you?"

Having said that, he released his true spiritual pressure without reservation, instantly shattering the aura of the King of Hueco Mundo. His powerful will swept across the entire Las Noches Palace, causing all the Hollows, including Barragan, to feel their breath catch in their throats.

"……monster!"

The Skull Emperor stared intently at Aizen Iori, coldly uttering, "What's with your power? It's utterly illogical!"

"How could it be... in just a few years?!"

Iori didn't answer, but just stared at him indifferently. Barragan felt an unnamed anger rising in his heart, but it wasn't directed at Iori, but at something intangible... It was less anger and more "jealousy".

Barragan suffered a defeat in his last battle against Aizen and his sister. This Hueco Mundo king truly felt the humiliation he had never experienced before, and he worked even harder to improve himself than before. In just a few years, he recovered his strength before his injury, and even surpassed it!

However, in Iori's view, these efforts—

Not worth mentioning!

He was so insignificant that he didn't even notice Barragán's progress.

In the first battle, it took the siblings working together to fight him, but this time, one person was enough to easily defeat him.

Barragan had learned his lesson; he knew that Iori possessed some kind of advantage that made him immune to his "aging power," so he planned to use pure power to suppress Iori and prevent him from activating his Shikai and releasing his Mirror Domain.

He was confident because the two had fought before. Back then, even his ordinary strike required Iori to fight with all his might. Now, by using spiritual pressure to specialize his power, he was sure he could defeat Iori with a single, powerful strike!

...But the truth is quite the opposite!

At this moment, Iori is clearly on a different level than she was back then.

Jealousy? It's undoubtedly jealousy.

Barragán was jealous of the Grim Reaper before him, who had remained almost unchanged over a long period of time, while Iori had been transformed in just a few years.

Everything in the world will wither and decay over time, but the person before me is the opposite; he will only grow stronger and stronger, and his soul shows no signs of decay!

"I am... I am the King of Hueco Mundo! I will never lose to a mere Shinigami twice!"

The high spirits ignited Barragan's fighting spirit, and as a result, many Adjuchas felt a power that the "King" had never shown before. The overwhelming spiritual pressure made them want to kneel down.

At that moment, Iori calmly said, "Submit, or die."

"What... surrender? Who do you think you're talking to!"

Barragan laughed heartily, drawing his golden axe and attacking Iori once more: "I am the true Grim Reaper! Do you think a god fears death?"

"Oh?"

Iori narrowed her eyes and dodged Barragan's attack. The powerful slash released spiritual pressure over a hundred meters high, severing a corner of Hueco Mundo.

As the mountain of building debris crashed down, Iori looked at the Skull Emperor.

"Why don't you use your invincible ability?"

"..."

"So that's how it is. You know it won't work even if you use it, so you've lost confidence in your own power? That's really... ridiculous."

It is undeniably tragic that a Grim Reaper cannot wield the power to bring 'death'.

"Enough with the nonsense! This old man won't lose his faith just because you're mocking him!"

The towering skeleton appeared in the air and swung its giant axe down. Iori raised his hand and released a hexagonal spiritual pressure shield with nested inner and outer layers to block the golden axe.

"Belief? You seem to have misunderstood something. The 'sorrow' is not yours, but the power residing within you."

Iori stretched out her hand, her eyes shining with a golden-red rainbow light, reflecting the ferocious appearance of the Skull Emperor.

Target locked —

A greedy usurper!

- Om!

"Varied!"

An unprecedented feeling of weakness washed over Barragan. Despite not being injured, he felt as if his marrow had been ripped out, leaving him with nothing but an empty shell.

"What on earth is..."

Before he could even comprehend what had happened, the demonic power erupting from Iori sent him flying like a hammer blow.

Barragán, who had just managed to stop after crashing into a pillar, looked up and saw the most horrifying scene of his life, which almost broke his will!

black!

It wasn't just pure color, but a spiritual pressure mixed with despair.

That is the power that causes all things to decay. Whether it is matter, living beings, or souls, they will all collapse under the erosion of time. And this "black" is the mighty power that can directly manifest the final outcome!

Even Barragan, its master, had not been able to fully control it, but now it was slowly rising like a wisp of smoke in Iori's palm...

"Impossible!!! My! My King's Power!!!"

The Skull Emperor howled in despair, and the piercing sound caused the Adjuchas to wail in grief as well, but Iori's eyes remained indifferent.

He stared at the "black smoke" in his palm, feeling the changes in his skin and muscles as they aged and regenerated... and suddenly laughed.

"If an ordinary person were to rashly come into contact with this power, even just possessing it would be instantly corrupted, right? It seems that I should be careful when using [The Usurper] in the future, and not lock onto anything that is too troublesome."

Thank you, Your Majesty Barragán. Thanks to you, I have realized yet another shortcoming of mine.

"what are you saying?"

Barragan felt he couldn't understand Iori's words at all; his entire mind was focused on the power that had been taken from him, and he was on the verge of going mad.

"I'm asking you what you're saying! Give it back... give my power back—"

Bang!

Barragan was sent flying by the sudden attack. The once mighty King of Hueco Mundo didn't even make a move to resist. Perhaps he had fallen into a daze. He only came back to his senses when his skeletal body was lifted up.

"Ugh! You... what are you going to do?"

"Submit, or die."

"Heh...hehe...hahaha!"

A forced sneer escaped from the skull: "Foolish fellow, do you think I fear death?!"

“Really? That’s perfect. I have some things I want to verify, such as… why you yourself are not affected by the power of 'aging'.”

Iori spread out his left hand, and a wisp of black smoke, under his control, slowly touched Barragan's skeleton—

"Well!"

In that instant, an indescribable chill swept over him, and the Skull Emperor felt an overwhelming sense of terror.

"...Oh? So this kind of contact is fine after all. It seems you are covered by a special protective layer that can avoid the influence of this force. What a marvelous structure."

Barragán breathed a sigh of relief, but was immediately overwhelmed by a profound sense of humiliation.

He knew he wouldn't be killed by the power of "aging," but he still couldn't help feeling fear just now—the most terrifying moment of his life... Perhaps it was because his abilities had been taken away, causing his courage and confidence to vanish as well...

"let me go!"

Are you... trembling?

"Well!"

"You say you're not afraid of death? It seems that's not actually the case."

Iori reached out and pierced through the Skull Emperor's cloak, seizing the dry, smooth spine. This time, it wasn't a release from a distance, but direct contact. A wisp of black smoke coiled around it once more—

hum!

Like a sand dune swept by a gale, starting from his lumbar spine, the King of Hueco Mundo's body was reduced to countless particles of dust finer than sand, dissipating into the air. With the caress of the black smoke, Barragan's body vanished at a visible speed!

"No! Stop! What are you doing?!"

"I've heard that venomous snakes can be killed by their own venom... This is probably what's going on here."

Iori spoke calmly, as if he were conducting an experiment on a lab rat, making it hard to believe that the life he held in his hands was actually a Vasto Lorde located at the apex of Hueco Mundo.

"It seems you have no resistance to aging. Once you break through that invisible protective layer, this skeletal body will decay and perish like everything else."

"What are you saying! Stop! No... I... I haven't..."

boom!

With a wave of his hand, Iori turned Barragan's entire body into dust, leaving only his crowned skull lying on the ground.

The man released his grip, and a wisp of ashes fell. He frowned slightly as he looked at the head on the ground: "Is there any residue left? It seems I lacked some control. I had calculated that it should be just enough."

"Varied--"

Barragan, now only a head, was speechless. In that instant, an unprecedented despair overwhelmed him. This self-proclaimed "Grim Reaper," the King of Hueco Mundo, realized at that moment that he did not control death, but was controlled by it.

He was lucky to possess that power, but he did not have the corresponding qualifications.

Only this man before me… this monster! could control the darkness that brought everything to wither, so different from my own overconfidence.

Perhaps, this is what truly deserves to be called "Death God"~

"This force is far from mature... What a pity."

Iori waved her hand, and the black smoke swirling around her hand dissipated, returning to the surface of the skull, adding a touch of eeriness, like a ghost.

"I'll leave it with you for now. If I lose this excellent vessel, I won't be able to keep it."

Iori was seriously considering this issue. The true power of "aging" was clearly beyond the limits of Barragan's control. For such an ability to touch the essence of the world to appear in a mere ancient Hollow was incredibly lucky for Barragan.

If Barragan is eliminated now, it will be much more difficult for Iori to find such a special ability again.

"hateful……"

Barragán regained his abilities, but he felt no joy whatsoever; even his hatred and jealousy towards Iori vanished.

This is like a cat playing with a mouse, no, it's even more exaggerated than that. It's not just a matter of the difference in strength, but a complete suppression in terms of life form, just like Vastod's suppression of Adjuchas and Kylian!

What am I fighting against?

—The Skull Emperor has become numb.

"Surrender, or die."