Chapter 194 - The Right to Create

"In the quest for power, remember that the most significant battles occur within." — Itachi Uchiha. 

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At the edge of the anchored space, near one of its key points, Kisuke, Unohana and the rest of the Shinigami, Visored and Hollow alike, stood transfixed as they saw the huge wall of darkness that rose from the ground to the sky and formed a dome at the very top. 

Unohana's hands trembled slightly as she beheld the harrowing sight once more. 

Shunsui whistled, a mirthful light dancing in his eyes. "Damn, no hello or anything. Just straight to Bankai. He must have been pissed for a while now." He laughed a deep belly-rumble laugh, not at all worried about how close they were to the edge of Itachi's Bankai. 

"Oh no, no, no!" Kisuke suddenly cried out with a sense of rising panic. 

"What's wrong?" 

"His Bankai is destroying the stability of this dimension!" Kisuke replied with an urgent shout. 

Kisuke disappeared along with Hachigen to find a way to prevent them from being forcefully expunged to the Dangai. 

Yoruichi looked at Soi Fon standing beside her and couldn't help but ask. "Do you know what his Bankai does?" 

Her former student shook her head, her voice clipped as she gave a reply. "No one does. Only that the Head Captain forbids him from using it unless as a last resort."

Yoruichi frowned. The first time she saw it was when he used it to blow up Las Noches. He had formed an armored titan in it but she doubted his Bankai was that… simple (basic). It wouldn't have been restricted otherwise. 

Even Isshin's Bankai wasn't restricted despite how disastrous it could be upon release. 

"I'm going to help Kisuke at the points." And she left. 

Having nothing else to do, the others just silently watched the umbrella of darkness with varying thoughts. 

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... 

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The Hōgyoku was churning nonstop in Aizen's chest from the moment they found themselves on Itachi's Bankai. 

Aizen had planned to seal Itachi's flames, thereby sealing half of his Zanpakutō and rendering him unable to utilize either Amaterasu or his Bankai, but unfortunately that plan was not to be as it didn't even have a chance to activate. 

For a brief moment, Aizen wondered why no flames were attacking but soon chalked it up to Itachi not attacking him yet. Personally he hoped Itachi would attack him with those despairing flames so he could evolve above them and become fully immune to them. 

"Such a rare Bankai." Aizen praised. "A separate dimension inside a closed off space. It is truly a magnificent technique. What does it do?" He was genuinely curious.

"Everything." An echoing voice replied. 

Itachi stood in front of him and apart from his eyes, there were no other changes in his appearance. 

"Don't be so conceited. It sounds much unlike you." Aizen scoffed. "From the nature of your Zanpakutō and those eyes of yours, I'd say it manifests your illusions and strengthens your flames in some way."

"But that is not it, is it?" He smiled at Itachi, believing to have seen the growth path of Itachi's Zanpakutō. "There's a third aspect to your Zanpakutō's ability and it has to do with that armored form of yours, doesn't it?"

His eyes twitched as he saw Itachi staring at the eye-marked moon with a somewhat forlorn expression. 

"You're not entirely wrong." Itachi's thrumming voice replied with a calm clarity. "Amenominakanushi is me, Tsukuyomi, and Amaterasu reaching equal resonance. Three parts of our souls shared equally."

He turned to Aizen and took a few steps forward. "This is it. Three souls in one, yet across three. The resonance that creates. That is Amenominakanushi."

At this point all of Aizen's shell had broken away to reveal his face. He had longer hair and his eyes remained fully purple. The other noticeable change was his white robes that had a flailing collar and most importantly his Zanpakutō which was now pure white and without any hilt as it was fused with Aizen's fully covered hand. 

Aizen shook his head. His eyes held barely concealed disdain. "Such grandstanding for something so easily understood. You disappoint me, Itachi Uchiha." 

Aizen in his intellect instantly saw possible applications for the ability to create inside a ruled space but he missed something. 

It always came in sets of threes. The Uchiha were connected to third signs. 

The tomoe. The Mangekyō. The Eternal Mangekyō. A set of three. 

The tomoe carried three prongs. The Mangekyō possessed two abilities in each eye, and then granted a third that complimented either one or both abilities upon the achieving of the Eternal Mangekyō. 

If Amenominakanushi was the culminated ability of the three of them, then what of the abilities both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu now solely possessed when in Bankai? The ability to manipulate and control illusions and desolate flames was what they could do during their Shikai stage. Surely now something was different. 

Having grown tired of Itachi's posturing, Aizen brandished his sword and flash stepped to Itachi's side and in a clean motion slashed past his neck. Neither of them looked at each other during this sequence, both staring forward at something only they could see. 

A few seconds passed and Aizen's eyes contracted. "What is this? Your illusions can no longer affect me, so what is the meaning of this?"

"So there is something you don't understand." Itachi quipped. "For your curiosity, right now we are under Kamimusuhi. Tsukuyomi's right to create."

"You think this pathetic act of defiance is enough to measure up to a god?" Aizen snarled and got to his face to cut him up only for his blade to miss Itachi by a mere inch even when the latter stood still and Aizen was but an arms length from him. 

"You are mistaken, Aizen. This is no illusion. This is true control. Everything in this space is as Tsukuyomi wills it. We are but mere pawns held by his will."

Enraged, Aizen fired off a high-tier Hadō from the tip of his sword but he was left surprised as the world around him exploded into a grassy plain. A familiar location, his mind told him. 

When he looked down at his hand, he saw that he was in his old Shinigami garb when he was still under Shinji's Division with the only difference being the Hōgyoku that was still in his chest and his purple eyes. 

The Hōgyoku shone brighter. 

"Time. Space. Perception. Laws. Physics. Through Kamimusuhi, Tsukuyomi can control it all. He is truly an arrogant sovereign."

"Hahaha. Itachi, you fool. Altering my perception and time will only hasten my evolution." Aizen no longer cared for Itachi's tricks. All this would do is push the Hōgyoku to evolve him above such trivialities. 

He rushed towards Itachi who surprisingly held his own blade and clashed with Aizen, causing the man to smirk. 

"You are bound under the same rules as I." He stated cold facts. 

Itachi calmly nodded. "Under Kamimusuhi, all are subjects. But you misunderstand, Aizen."

"Argh!" Aizen grunted in pain, a sound so foreign to me but the sensation remained familiar. He looked down to his gut to see a sword wound that completely pierced through his body. 

A flash of lightning ran through the sky and it carried behind him the indignant shout of thunder. A shower of rain fell and washed over the two fighters on the ground below. 

"Pain. Raw and simple pain." Itachi stated. "All the pain you've seen, heard of, caused, or even imagined, magnified over twelvefold, is what you'll be forced to live through on an endless loop. You have no tolerance to pain nor any defense against it."

"Kuhgh! Arck!" Aizen's knees buckled as a torrent of pain swallowed him. 

"In one eye you'll constantly live through endless torture that progressively gets worst after every loop. On the other, all you'll see is every aspect of your life in a negative way. Guilt, torture and pain. That is all you will know." 

Itachi's words resounded in Aizen's ears but all his brain could deliver was a garbled mess as he felt his Brian being torn apart. 

"And don't forget. We're currently fighting, so you'll have to defend." Itachi remarked as he cut off one of Aizen's legs. Aizen's mouth went wide but only a silent whine came out. His whole being was subsumed with a flood of pain. 

The world went still for a brief second but quickly continued its motion, only that this time Aizen had both his legs while his mouth released unintelligible garble. 

Itachi looked at Aizen who stumbled as he tried to raise his sword. This ability of his Bankai was aimed at completely destroying the mind of his enemies with no respite. As long as the domain of his Bankai was concerned, everything under its umbrella was real and authentic. 

He looked at the Hōgyoku that was shining furiously in Aizen's chest and remarked idly. 

"You are a tenacious thing." The Hōgyoku shome even brighter as if in response to Itachi's words. 

He stabbed Aizen through the head and the man froze completely, veins appearing on every exposed part of his body. 

"You have no understanding of the desires in the heart of others. How could you ever hope to control the Hōgyoku?" 

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