chapter 313
Chapter 313:
– Layla –
I trudged up the long, winding staircase, my footsteps echoing in the silence. The members of squad zero had accompanied me only halfway before halting.
“We don’t go any farther. The rest is yours to handle.” Then they turned on their heels and marched away, leaving me alone to face this so-called Soul King.
I had no clue what to expect from this guy. My old anime knowledge was worthless at this point.
A massive set of doors loomed before me, humming with palpable spiritual pressure. When I was close enough to touch them, they slid open on their own. “Dramatic much…” I grumbled, stepping into the palace halls. I expected some grand spectacle—ornate walls, fancy columns, maybe a choir of angels singing in the distance?
Instead, the place was strangely plain and damn near empty. No guards, no advisors, not even a single piece of furniture.
I walked forward, the echo of my shoes the only sound keeping me company. After a short while, I found a set of thick crimson curtains. They looked out of place, as if someone had tossed them up as an afterthought to hide something behind them. I could sense a presence just beyond—a faint, sluggish energy that barely felt alive. My pulse quickened. “Hello?” I lifted my hand and channeled a bit of telekinesis, pulling the curtains aside. The sight that greeted me made my stomach lurch. “What the fuck?” I blurted.
Encased in shimmering crystal was—well, it looked like a corpse. A mutilated corpse…
There were no limbs. Just a torso and a head, the features slack and lifeless. I stared, my mind spinning. “This is the Soul King? You’ve gotta be kidding me. What the hell is wrong with this universe?”
He—or it—remained as still as a statue. The faint spiritual pressure came from inside the crystal, but I couldn’t sense any will or intelligence behind it.
“Hello!?” I yelled. “Can you hear me in there?” I stepped closer, half-expecting an alarm to go off or some hidden guard to appear and try to slice me down for disrespect.
But the hall stayed quiet.
I tried again, louder this time, “Helloooo, Soul King?” I reached up and rapped on the crystal with my knuckles. It felt cold and unyielding, more like a coffin than any royal throne. I scoffed. “Damn. This is beyond fucked up.” I circled around the crystal, examining every angle. There were no tubes or wires, nothing hooking this corpse-king to a machine. Yet the entire palace pulsed with spiritual energy that clearly originated from him—or it. “How the hell does this even work?” I wondered.
Part of me wanted to bail out and pretend I’d never seen this. Another part was morbidly intrigued. If this pitiful figure was the lynchpin of this entire universe, what did that say about everything else?
I rubbed my temples and let out a long sigh. This was definitely not in the brochure…
[What brochure…?]
‘I was being facetious!’
[I know…]
I stared at the Soul King’s unmoving form and was on the verge of leaving when its eyes shifted. They actually fucking turned to look straight at me. The crystal surrounding its torso glowed with a strange, pulsating light.
I opened my mouth to say, “Huh, I wonder what’s goi—” but never finished.
A beam of raw energy hurtled toward me, aimed right for my chest!
“Susanoo!” I yelled in a panic. Instantly, a purple ribcage formed around me, my spiritual guardian flaring to life. The beam slammed against the ribs. The attack faded after a moment, leaving me breathless and pissed.
“The fuck was that?” I muttered with my heart hammering. As if in response, the Soul King’s crystal prison glowed again. This time, some kind of blue tentacle formed and then rapidly snapped towards me.
There was something ominous about it, like it wanted more than just to blow me to pieces this time. The instant it made contact with my Susanoo, it tore straight through the protective ribs with ease!
“That’s not possible,” I gasped. My Susanoo was made of my Light Energy, cosmic power, and the might of the Infinity Stones themselves. Yet this bastard’s attack cut through it like wet tissue paper.
My wings flared behind me and I propelled myself backward, so fast a sonic boom detonated right there in the palace. The shockwave tore through the floor and walls, leaving cracks across the marble and stone. Thankfully, I managed to dodge just in time. The tentacle narrowly missed me before retracting.
[Holy shit! I know what this piece of shit is trying to do! He’s trying to body-jack you by latching his soul onto yours! That was a direct soul attack!]
“That’s not gonna happen,” I growled under my breath, glaring at the wretched figure in the crystal.
“How dare he try to hurt Mama!” Ten-chan shrieked from my waist. My new zanpakuto trembled with anger, practically vibrating in her sheath. “Let me stab him!” Ten-chan said eagerly.
Damn, despite being so adorable, she didn’t fuck around…
[I can’t believe I’m going to say this…but use your sword. Until you have the Soul Stone, you won't be able to block soul attacks without it.]
I snorted in disbelief. “Didn’t you tell me not to use my sword?” I mean, I wasn't going to listen, but the System seemed pretty damn adamant…
[Just this once is fine! You’re at the bum-fuck end of your multiverse. No one will sense it… probably.]
I should’ve been more cautious, weighed the consequences, but in that moment, I was too pissed to give a damn. The Soul King—this rotting torso in a crystal—had tried to hijack my body like some kind of second rate Xianxia villain.
Another ghostly tendril lashed out from his prison, whipping straight for my head.
“Sever all bonds! Tenshi no Sābā!” I shouted, gripping the hilt of my zanpakuto and yanking it free from its sheath.
“Yay!” Ten-chan cried, sounding downright thrilled. The silver katana in my hands shifted to a milky white. Tiny angel feathers sprouted at the base of the blade, glowing with a soft radiance.
The soul tentacle whipped forward. I swung Ten-chan in a clean arc. The slash cut through that tendril like it was real, solid flesh, but it also felt… heavier. Like I’d sliced through something more than just matter.
The Soul King’s expression twisted in pain inside his crystal prison.
I didn’t hear a physical scream, but I felt it—like the echo of a wounded animal reverberating all around. The crystal around him pulsed with agony, sending a wave of spiritual backlash that rippled through the empty halls and then spread even further.
“Ah, shit,” I grumbled. “No way the members of Squad Zero didn’t feel that.” I rolled my eyes, imagining those uptight bastards rushing in to see who was messing with their precious corpse-king. I could handle them, but it’d be a massive headache. Before I could dwell on it any longer, the Soul King’s eyes began to glow again. That was enough for me. “Oh, you want more of this, asshole?” I flared my wings. “Alright, buddy. You asked for it.”
I launched myself forward in a burst of speed. The resulting shockwave rattled the whole damn palace. I didn’t pause—I thrust Ten-chan straight through the crystal, aiming for what looked like the Soul King’s heart. A flash of bright light exploded where my blade connected.
For a split second, the Soul King’s face contorted in agony. But then, it smoothed out into an odd sense of peace. The glowing in his eyes faded. I felt a subtle surge of energy crawl up the blade and brush against my own soul.
Thank you… A man’s voice whispered inside my mind. He actually sounded… relieved. Then the Soul King’s eyelids sagged shut, and the crystal prison around him began to crack, splintering into thousands of tiny fractures.
I hovered there, sword still embedded in his chest, dumbfounded. “Wait… did he want me to kill him this whole time? What the fuck was that about?” My voice echoed in the vast emptiness, and not a damn soul was around to answer. A low rumble broke the silence. “Shit,” I muttered, looking around at the walls quaking and trembling. Dust rained down like a grimy waterfall. It felt bigger than just this palace—like the entire damn world was shaking apart. The columns groaned, and pieces of the ceiling started to crash down in chunks.
I yanked Ten-chan free of the crystal with a grunt, and in that same moment, I felt the world around me begin to shudder, growing more violent by the second. “Seriously?” I muttered, glaring at the rapidly collapsing palace. “This entire world’s survival depended on a single being to anchor it all?” It was insane how the death of one limbless bastard could unravel an entire damn universe.
[Seems like it.]
I huffed in frustration.
Technically, I could’ve bailed right then. Just pop over to another universe, wave, and say, “Well, I got my sword fixed, see ya!” But that was something only a total bitch would do.
I wasn’t about to let billions of souls in this place vanish into nothingness—people in the Living World, the Soul Society, and even whatever creeps were lurking in Hueco Mundo. They didn’t deserve that.
I gathered the beginnings of my power over death, about to yank that suicidal Soul King back to life whether he liked it or not. But before I could so much as nudge the energy around him, his whole body shattered into motes of light.
With a small poof, Ten-chan reverted to her human form right beside me. She gave me a gleeful look. “I’ve got this, Momma!” She opened her mouth wide and started inhaling all those sparkling remnants of the Soul King’s body. “Nom, nom!” she said between gulps.
Hungry…
I felt a twinge of jealous annoyance radiate from the Orb of Anywhere inside me.
The moment Ten-chan swallowed the final wisp of light, the palace stopped shaking. That massive quake that had been rocking the world settled down, as if somebody had hit a cosmic off-switch. The entire dimension stabilized in an instant.
[Ding! Ten-chan has earned the title ‘Soul Princess’! The world has been saved!]
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t tell if you’re actually serious with that comment or just screwing around,” I groaned. No way any of this should have been possible, but apparently the rules of reality had taken a fucking vacation.
[Honestly, I’ve got no damn clue either. I say just roll with it! Bow to the adorable Soul Princess! Ruler of the Soul Society and all Zanpakuto!]
Ten-chan beamed at me, her bright eyes practically glowing. “Yay! The bad man is gone and everything’s saved!” She gave a little hop. “Can I go meet my sisters now? I really want to play with them. I never could before, when I was just an Asauchi that couldn’t move!”
I patted her head and forced a small smile. “Um… in a little bit, kiddo. Let’s make sure the entire damn universe is actually stable first.”
…
We barely had a moment to catch my breath before the doors to the throne room were violently thrown open. Three members of Squad Zero burst into what remained of the palace.
Oetsu, Senjumaru, and Ichibe Hyosube—the leader. All of them looked pissed.
I wondered why…?
Their eyes went to where the Soul King previously rested and they obviously noticed he was no longer there and that the entire palace was trashed.
When in doubt, always lie!
“You guys won't believe what happened here!” I told them while spreading my arms wide dramatically. “TRUCK-KUN showed up and started driving all over the place before he decided to give the soul king his own Isekai anime arc!”
[The title is: I lived trapped in a crystal for thousands of years, as the all powerful Soul King, but then an adorable little sword girl killed me, and I ended up reincarnating and getting to live a peaceful Isekai life with my harem!]
There was silence at my declaration.
“Tough crowd…”
“You killed the Soul King!? How dare you!” Oetsu shouted, swinging an incredibly sharp looking blade at my face.
I conjured a Lightspear to block it, and was surprised when the guy's sword managed to almost cut halfway into the spear before it was stopped! I let out a whistle. Damn, the creator of the Zanpakutō had one sharp ass sword!
Unfortunately for him it wasn't sharp enough because it got stuck and I was able to use the distraction to kick him square in the balls.
I wasn't proud of it! But he immediately went down…
“Not cool…” he whispered in pain while cradling into the fetal position.
A flurry of silken cloth ripped through the air. Senjumaru glided forward, her many mechanical arms weaving strands of golden thread and cloth that whipped around my body. She was quick, and for a moment, the thick cloth pinned my wings to my sides!
“I have you now!” she declared.
“No you don't!” I declared right back.
I flexed and tore the cloth apart with my muscles and bare hands. Senjumaru staggered back, eyes wide with surprise.
Ichibe Hyosube darted at me next! He was wielding a giant japanese paint brush covered in black ink! “I will erase your name for the crime you've committed!” he swung his brush and black ink came flying in my direction.
“Almighty push!” I snapped.
The ink was sent flying right back at him and splattered in his eyes and mouth. He comically crashed onto the ground and started choking on his own ink while scrubbing his eyes. “Ow! That stings!”
All three members of squad zero had failed to avenge their king with their first attacks, and after a couple seconds to recover, it looked like they were all about to try again.
But before any of them could, Ten-chan stamped her tiny foot on the floor and shouted, “Stop it right now!”
“Why should we brat–EEEeeehhhhh!?” Oetsu suddenly shouted in disbelief as he got a proper look at Ten-chan.
On the outside she didn't look different, but the amount of spiritual energy radiating off of her was at least twice as much as before.
“She's…. She's become the new soul king!?” Oetsu declared. Senjumaru and Ichibe both gaped in shock.
Ten-chan smirked cutely and put her tiny hands on her hips. “None of you are allowed to hurt momma! The bad man wanted to die! Everything's fine now!” she explained.
I don't exactly know if everything was “fine” but the world didn't seem to be ending at the very least.
…One not so long explanation later, and the three of them had to bitterly accept that they were all technically out of a job now…
“What should we do now, Soul Princess!? We've been guarding the Soul King for over a thousand years!” Ichibe asked Ten-chan like she had all the answers.
I had a feeling she was wise for her age…
She just blinked her eyes at him. “You all should take a nap!”
…But not that wise.
Ichibe blinked his eyes right back at her. I reached down and scooped Ten-chan up in my arms. “Yeah, so like… We're just gonna go if that's cool.”
Before they could argue or try to stop me from leaving with their new Soul Princess, I immediately hopped us both through a purple portal and we ended up back at the squad four barracks in the soul society.
I think.
The place looked different.
Everything was on fire and there were a lot of dead bodies scattered around. Quincy and Shinigami bodies.
I could sense, see, and hear intense fighting coming from pretty much every single direction.
“Oh come on! I was only gone for like an hour!” I shouted to know one in particular.
[And that's probably why the Quincys chose to attack…]
“This time I'm killing the Quincy king!”
XXX