"That's all you have to give, Chosen? If it is, you will die the next second!"
Hearing what the red man said to him, Leise felt a chill as the world seemed to freeze.
"The man stopped the blade with only a finger, how strong can he really be?" this question assaulted Leise's mind had he tried to seem the most calm he could.
Taking a deep breath, Leise calmed down and retracted Death Blink into its scabbard. He began to make himself comfortable in the chair and said:
"How can you say that if you don't even know me? From what I see your strong, strong enough to blow a country to smithereens. So why don't you just kill me? It would be a lot easier for both of us."
Leise gazed at the red man with his fox-like eyes searching for a sign that could give away a weakness that he could explore.
The red man stood there thinking about the words of Leise. Then suddenly, he released a thundering laugh.
"AHAHAHAHAAAAAAA..."
"Very good, very fearless. But I advise you to stop the joking." the red man abruptly stopped laughing, starting to release a chilling intent.
"Very well. I'm Azrael. Were are now in your inner soul."
Leise stood there baffled. He finally came in contact with his inner soul.
After he died, Leise stood in the void in soul form. Even after many years he still couldn't pass the barrier separating the outer soul from the inner soul.
The outer soul being the emotions, personality and abstract thoughts. The inner soul was the mechanism that protected the power that slept in every living being but expressed in different ways.
For example, the inner soul of a dog can be a bone, the one that once unlocked can upgrade the physique of the dog; Or the inner soul of a human adult could be a flame, giving him the power of fire.
The power in the inner soul could be very different from person to person. But Leise guessed that this inner soul was probably the same thing as the soul space were the shinigamis confronted their zanpakutos.
"But don't I already have Shinso zanpakuto?" Leise though.
"Master to answer that, God left a note." The System intervened.
[Boy, the power you got its a mere copy of the power of another being. So to say, it can never be as strong as the original. To overcome that you have to connect with your inner soul and convince her to unlock herself. It will not be easy, but fight young man]- END OF NOTE
Reading the note, it all made sense now. Every opponent that Leise confronted were weaker than he remembered from the anime and manga.
"So this world is a copy of the original...."
Leise looked at Azrael and said:
"So you are my zanpakuto's spirit, am I right?"
"You can say that if you want. I only called you here to inform you of three things."
"First, in the way you are now, you will reach your max potential very soon. Even if you can become the strongest of this world you will never go past that."
"Second, when you stood in the void I absorbed a little of its powers. That means that I can help you go to the real world, not this copy. There you will boost your potential as you face more challenges and struggles."
"Third if you comply to the second note, I will erase the zanpakuto power as you will fight against me till you can defeat me."
Leise stood there with his poker face thinking of all the possibilities and chances. But a flash of true fighting intent couldn't escape the perception of Azrael.