Apollo was disheveled after blocking Kisuke's sudden attack through his power of light, however, he couldn't mind his current appearance as he looked behind him. Understanding the sheer devastation they'd just experienced, Apollo's orange eyes turned brighter as his Divine Power was fully unleashed, shaking the whole realm, "Kisuke Urahara!!! I'll end you!"
Kisuke signaled Gabriel to back off and the latter could only sigh in dismay, "Please don't let the destruction spread."
Apollo ignored the retreating Gabriel and swung down his right arm. In an instant, a pillar of light that threatened to burn all existence into ashes engulfed Kisuke without any effort.
Apollo knew that this wasn't enough to defeat him so he summoned his silver bow and golden arrows. He then imbued both of them with his Divine Power and his own light and heat attribute, which was both holy in nature and supposedly most effective against Devils.
Stretching the bowstring to its limit, Apollo released the arrow capable of annihilating even the Devil Kings if there were no strong defensive barriers in place, "...Die."
The golden arrow, shimmering with holy light, instantly traveled the space between Apollo and the pillar of light. But before it could even reach its target, a pure white hand with black claws emerged from the pillar, catching the arrow and causing a strong shockwave that leveled the surrounding area .
"!?" The flabbergasted Apollo immediately retreated back while watching his arrow struggle within the strange hand of what could only be a monster, "How!?"
The struggle between both sides lasted for about ten seconds, before the hand closed its fingers and crushed the tip of the arrow, causing the energy within it to be released all at once and resulting in an explosion akin to a high-yield intercontinental missile. Apollo immediately put forward his hands to block it but the wind pushed him further away.
As the mushroom cloud made out of debris and flames rapidly rose up, a silhouette entered Apollo's sights and he immediately recognized the horned individual dashing towards him with three 'blood drums' behind him linked together, '...That form...'
Apollo immediately recovered his balance and got ready to meet the fully hollowfied Kisuke in Shunko by imbuing his Divine Power into his whole body while concentrating most of it in both of his arms. He knew that explosion might have caused the death of his remaining men, but he couldn't worry about that right now.
"Huuppp!!!" Both of them held their breaths and each threw a punch at the other. The clash of fists caused a shockwave that destroyed the ground below them. Apollo and Kisuke coldly stared at each other before they started throwing punch after punch, with each of them clashing and further destroying their surroundings. Soon enough their simple-minded clash evolved into a full-blown martial arts contest with both of them leaving their weapons behind in exchange for full body freedom of movement.
Fists as heavy as hammers, legs as fast as spears, and elbows as sharp as swords, both of them used everything just to make their opponent reveal a slight opening and when successful, immediately go for the kill.
Gabriel and her subordinates were watching the fight from a few kilometers away and were maintaining a barrier to prevent the damage they were causing from spreading further.
"Unbelievable... So this is a battle between top fighters aiming for each other's life. I didn't think it would be much different from the Azazel Tournament." One of the Angels commented. He imagined himself in between them and knew he wouldn't last even for a few seconds.
One of the more veteran Angels then added, "Kisuke Urahara's abilities are surprising, but I'm more concerned with Apollo since he's never shown this much skill nor were there any records of him being capable of this. To think he'd be hiding his abilities until this point..."
Another Angel turned to Gabriel and asked, "But isn't this strange? Although Apollo proved to be stronger than we thought, isn't it very strange that he only came with such a small force? Even if he successfully caught us off guard and there were traitors in our midst, the most they could do is occupy the Third Heaven and they wouldn't even be able to hold on to it for very long."
Gabriel remained quiet for a moment before answering, "I already decided to leave this to him, so let's trust him. In the meantime, tell the others to expedite their missions. No matter what happens, it'll be more reassuring to have them back as soon as possible."
.
.
.
Ten minutes into their brawl, Apollo decided to disengage after his head had cooled down during their prolonged fight. He thought that Kisuke wouldn't allow him to do that and was prepared to blast him away the next chance he got, but was surprised when Kisuke also retreated the moment he did.
And only when watching from afar did Apollo figure out why, '...My arrow injured him.'
Apollo could remember Kisuke's hollowfied form from all the instances that he'd used it and compared to now, his body is full of cracks and most of them were concentrated on the arm that he used to block his arrow, 'Not only that, I remembered that those 'drums' behind him should give him some sort of armor, but it seems that he can't materialize it right now.'
Raising his hand, Apollo retrieved his bow and dematerialized it, "I must admit, you are strong. But looking at you, it should be hard to even stand straight. There's no way you'd be able to kill me unless you risked your life for it."
And as Apollo observed, Kisuke's body was a wreck and he has been trying to regenerate his internal injuries. However, it doesn't matter for him since what he needs is for Apollo not to escape and make his next move. Still wearing his smile, Kisuke replied, "My~ You still don't know my bottom line. Though it did surprise me how you could keep up with me despite having lower physical abilities. Is this your power of prophecy... No... predictions? It's really convenient when you can see the future. I'll admit, I'm a bit envious since that's one of the few abilities I can't replicate."
"Awfully confident, are you?" Apollo grabbed his necklace, "Did you perhaps forget that I came here to invade and take over this place?"
The smile on Kisuke's face disappeared.
In turn, it was Apollo's turn to grin, "I hate to break it to you, but you have no way of winning."
Apollo crushed the gem inlaid in the necklace and an unknown corrosive power began to permeate the whole area. Kisuke immediately jumped back to escape its influence but before he could figure out what the aura was, a 100-meter swirling black and a purple hole appeared on top of Apollo while he proudly proclaimed, "Too bad for you, I brought an army that almost toppled the entirety of Olympus, and no matter how strong you are, you have no way of fighting against that."
The Angels in the distance began panicking as they felt the numerous Deities and monsters on the other side of the hole. Gabriel had to take down the barrier and asked every Angel to come to the Third Heaven and even started contacting the Alliance for immediate reinforcement.
Contrary to the anxiety-filled Angels, however, there was almost no change in Kisuke's demeanor. Apollo thought that he had already given up and was about to welcome the first prisoner to be released.
At that moment, a larger grin on Kisuke's face emerged as he raised his right arm, "Oh God~ How scary~ I definitely have no way of winning. In that case..." Kisuke snapped his fingers and as soon as the sound echoed everywhere, red electric arcs started emerging from the hole and a second later, it suddenly began to rotate in the opposite direction while the purple light in it was replaced by a red one, "I don't want to fight them~!"
"W-what?" Apollo looked up and was incredibly confused by these changes. A second later, the emerging aura of individuals on the other side of the hole started to disappear one by one... Until nothing was left, "...W-what...?"