Bleach : The God of Flames

Having made up his mind, the Monk snatched up Shinuchi: Shirofude Ichimonji and launched another attack at Tsunayoshi.

This left Tsunayoshi somewhat baffled.

The Monk's ability to rename him was already ineffective. Why was he still using the same tactic?

Tsunayoshi certainly wasn't going to indulge him.

Golden-yellow light erupted from his body, making him look like a giant light bulb as he clashed head-on with the Monk.

"You brat! You're using underhanded tricks again!"

The Monk cursed as he swung Shirofude Ichimonji.

The light radiating from Tsunayoshi was practically designed to blind him, and there was no sign of it weakening.

"Sorry, Ichibē Hyōsube. What can I say? We're enemies right now."

Hearing Tsunayoshi deliberately call him by his name in such a mocking tone only made the Monk angrier.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about Tsunayoshi for the moment.

He could only silently manipulate the power of Black and create a pair of sunglasses over his eyes.

With the sunglasses in place, the Monk's attacks became much smoother.

The enormous brush in his hands was essentially a spear.

He could thrust it toward Tsunayoshi's body from the most unexpected angles.

Fortunately, Tsunayoshi remained in his state of Super-Activation.

No matter how strange the trajectory of Shirofude Ichimonji became, it failed to touch him.

Instead, Tsunayoshi repeatedly found openings and hammered the Monk with several punches.

Tsunayoshi's fists were frighteningly hard.

The Monk was consequently forced to make his veins bulge as he drew upon the power of the Ōken simply to maintain his offensive rhythm against Tsunayoshi.

The Monk also noticed something else.

Every time one of Tsunayoshi's punches landed on him, another flame ignited on the solar wheel behind Tsunayoshi.

Five yellow flames were already burning behind him!

He's accumulating power.

The Monk remembered that previous Halo Fist.

The power behind that punch still made him shudder.

He couldn't allow the battle to drag on any longer.

First, he needed to cripple Tsunayoshi's hands.

The brush tip of Shirofude Ichimonji, which had been as rigid as a spearhead, suddenly softened.

The Monk grabbed the end of Ichimonji and swung it in a circle.

Large droplets of white ink splattered across Tsunayoshi's body.

Although Tsunayoshi had no idea what the Monk was attempting, he immediately transformed into a miniature sun, preparing to burn away the ink the Monk had scattered.

The light surrounding his body continued to shine.

But suddenly—

Tsunayoshi felt no strength whatsoever in his left hand.

He looked down.

At some point, a single character had appeared around his arm.

Weak.

So that was it.

The Monk's previous attacks had not been useless after all.

Although Shirofude Ichimonji hadn't inflicted any meaningful physical damage, it had left numerous spots of ink on Tsunayoshi's body.

That final flourish of the brush had caused the characters on Tsunayoshi's left arm to fully take shape.

With that, the Monk could temporarily cripple one of Tsunayoshi's arms.

The Sun attribute's flames seemed to be less effective against White than they had been against Black.

Super-Activation would need some time to take effect.

During that brief interval, Tsunayoshi's left side was completely exposed.

Just as expected, the Monk immediately launched a fierce assault against Tsunayoshi's left half.

His exquisite swordsmanship was interwoven with Kidō, and from time to time he even struck Tsunayoshi with Senri Tsūtenshō.

Tsunayoshi was beaten into a position where he could barely defend himself.

BOOM!

Tsunayoshi was slammed into the ground by a palm strike.

His entire body was covered in white ink spots.

As long as the Monk added one more stroke, the process of weakening Tsunayoshi would be complete.

At that point, the Monk would immediately cripple all four of Tsunayoshi's limbs, then use Black ink to completely seal his Zanpakutō.

Right in front of the Gotei 13, he would seal Tsunayoshi away and turn him into the new Soul King.

There was no other choice.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was simply too abnormal.

No matter what technique the Monk used, Tsunayoshi seemed to have some way of dealing with it.

For the Monk, the best option was to completely disable Tsunayoshi.

He could no longer afford to wait until they reached the Royal Palace.

He was going to do it now.

Shirofude Ichimonji drew a circle in the air and sent it flying toward Tsunayoshi.

As long as the circle connected all the white marks scattered across Tsunayoshi's body, the Monk would have effectively secured victory.

Unfortunately—

There was still one more variable.

Just as the circle was about to land on Tsunayoshi's body, black smoke suddenly began pouring from it.

Then flames erupted across the circle.

It spontaneously caught fire.

For no apparent reason, the white circle vanished completely.

That wasn't all.

The white spots covering Tsunayoshi's body began spontaneously combusting as well.

They gradually disappeared within the golden flames.

Everything the Monk had done was reduced to nothing.

BOOM!

An overwhelming wave of heat spread outward from Tsunayoshi as its center.

Behind him, a great sun blazed fiercely.

The yellow flames of the Sun attribute transformed completely into Golden Solar Sacred Fire.

How could a mere splash of ink possibly compete with the blazing sun?

The moment the Monk had slammed Tsunayoshi into the ground, the flames accumulated within the solar wheel behind him had reached the required amount.

The blazing solar wheel was now like a genuine sun.

All the flames surrounding Tsunayoshi underwent a complete sublimation.

The yellow flames of the Sun attribute transformed into gold.

Every ink mark on Tsunayoshi's body was incinerated by the Golden Solar Sacred Fire, and he regained his freedom.

The Sun-type Beyond Bankai didn't appear all that different from an ordinary Sun-type Bankai.

Its true strength lay in the transformation of its flames.

Once the solar wheel reached completion, Tsunayoshi's Sun flames transformed from the radiance of the sun into the sun itself.

The power he could unleash increased exponentially.

And at the moment the solar wheel reached completion, the inhabitants of Soul Society began scrambling into the shadows.

What is happening?

Nothing seemed to have changed, yet why did it suddenly feel as though another sun had appeared in the sky?

The Monk was speechless.

Just how had Sawada Tsunayoshi created this form?

Attacking him allowed him to accumulate energy.

Being attacked allowed him to accumulate energy.

He was basically a bomb that couldn't be touched!

The Monk's strategy of forcibly bestowing a name had failed.

He had to change his approach and use even greater power to deal with Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Tsunayoshi raised his head and looked at the Monk hovering in midair.

"Ichibē Hyōsube, are you going to let me beat you to death obediently, or are you going to struggle while I beat you to death?"

There was no wonder Tsunayoshi was so arrogant.

The completed solar wheel had given him tremendous confidence.

This was a level of power he had never experienced while using any of his other Beyond Bankai forms.

Right now—

He was incredibly strong.

The Monk didn't answer.

Instead, he casually pulled out Ichimonji and wrote a single character in front of himself.

Release.

He spread his arms and allowed the character to imprint itself upon his body.

A miraculous transformation immediately occurred.

The Monk's body began expanding.

He gradually grew until he was roughly the same size as Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō.

Then the Monk pressed his palms together.

CLAP!

The resounding impact echoed across the battlefield.

A layer of golden energy appeared over his body.

The energy took the exact same shape as the Monk himself, as though a suit of golden armor had been fitted over his body.

Tsunayoshi immediately recognized that golden energy.

It was the same type of power behind Senri Tsūtenshō.

The Monk had used this power when fighting Aizen.

But there was a difference.

When fighting Aizen, the Monk had looked more like a pilot operating a giant machine.

Now, the Monk was a warrior wearing his own armor.

Was he still holding back when he fought Aizen?

Everyone watching the battle arrived at the same conclusion.

Some even tried to reject the thought outright.

How could that be possible?

The battle against Aizen had already been extraordinarily difficult.

Was the Monk really bold enough to conceal even more of his strength during that fight?

But the truth was unfolding right before their eyes.

They had no choice but to believe it.

Clearly, the armored Monk was far stronger than the Monk who had fought like a pilot.

"The power of the Soul King has accumulated within my body for countless ages."

The Monk's voice boomed like a great bell, reverberating across the battlefield.

"With every accumulation of the Ōken's power, my body grows stronger."

"Under normal circumstances, in order to move about freely, I seal away my original form."

"Senri Tsūtenshō is not some particularly powerful technique."

"It is simply my own palm."

"You should feel honored, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"To make me fight you in my true form..."

"Are you prepared to face the power of time itself, accumulated within me since ancient times?"

From the ancient past to the present, the power of the Soul King accumulated through the Ōken had given the Monk's body an overwhelming weight forged by time itself.

Everyone's attention focused on Tsunayoshi.

Compared to the Monk's current form, Tsunayoshi's great sun seemed no larger than a fingertip.

"My true form?"

"That's great!"

Tsunayoshi moved his body as though preparing for a match.

"I was worried your previous form wouldn't be enough for me to beat up."

"Arrogant!"

The Monk's enormous hand descended toward Tsunayoshi.

The sound alone produced by the palm's wind made it obvious that this ordinary-looking strike was vastly more powerful than Senri Tsūtenshō.

"Then watch closely!"

Tsunayoshi raised his thumb.

Then he viciously plunged it into the left side of his chest.

A stream of red blood emerged from behind the lizard emblem.

The blood ignited instantly, as though it were fuel.

It began burning fiercely across Tsunayoshi's chest.

"Awaken..."

"The Hunt Begins!"

The moment the words fell, the lizard emblem on Tsunayoshi's chest suddenly opened its eyes.

The burning golden flames split into two streams and converged behind the lizard.

Psshh! Psshh!

They formed something resembling a pair of golden wings.

ROOOAAAR!!!

A resounding dragon's roar shook the Monk in the middle of his attack.

The terrifying killing instinct contained within that roar actually surpassed even the Monk's own killing intent.

The Monk had no choice but pull his hand away.

He couldn't see any obvious change in Tsunayoshi.

The dragon's roar...

Where did it come from?

Tsunayoshi looked up and gave the Monk a polite smile.

The flames of the solar wheel behind him suddenly extinguished, leaving behind only a divine golden disc.

Golden flames erupted from Tsunayoshi's shoulder blades, resembling the wings behind the lizard on his chest.

The supreme Golden Solar Sacred Fire poured entirely into his body.

The green-skinned lizard emblem on Tsunayoshi's chest began to transform.

Starting from its head, the lizard's green skin was purified by the flames and transformed into golden scales.

After being tempered by the Golden Solar Sacred Fire, the lizard completed its evolution.

A creature bearing the wings of the sun could no longer be called a lizard.

It was a dragon.

A Western dragon.

A Golden Holy Dragon, its entire body bathed in the Golden Solar Sacred Fire!

The silver gauntlets on Tsunayoshi's hands were likewise imbued with the radiance of the sun.

Two roaring dragon insignias appeared on the backs of the gauntlets.

His primary weapons had completed their transformation alongside the creature on his chest.

The evolution was completed in an instant.

Tsunayoshi raised his head and spoke calmly.

"Sun-type Beyond Bankai—"

"Golden Holy Dragon Mode."

"Please, show me what you've got."