Claire immediately noticed her opponent's sudden change in movement and adapted herself by gaining distance from him.
But when she saw the face Kuruyashiki was making, Claire stopped. She felt his intent and after contemplating it for a short moment, she chose to accept his challenge, 'I'm of the same opinion. There's no need to prolong this.'
The 'mouths' that kept threatening Claire disappeared and she could feel her opponent's Reiatsu rising up to such dangerous levels that it actually started weighing down on her.
The slight fear that Claire had against Kuruyashiki was amplified but she doesn't let it affect her judgment. In response, she nocked her bow, and resplendently golden lights gathered to make the arrow while aiming at Kuruyashiki. Upon release, a loud explosion accompanied it and a streak of golden light was drawn in the sky.
It was the fastest arrow Claire had released yet so Kuruyashiki was a bit taken aback and took too much time to process the light. As a result, he was too late to fully dodge and the arrow took out a chunk of his left flank.
The highly condensed Power of Light arrow continued traveling and buried itself in the ground. A few seconds later, a dull boom resounded through the earth along with a disastrous earthquake and a part of the mountain range collapsing.
Claire continued releasing these kinds of attacks, taking off bits of flesh from Kuruyashiki each time and demolishing the nearby earth by scrambling it from within.
Kuruyashiki, on the other hand, ignored the damage he was accumulating and could still feel that he was still immortal. But before it could eventually disappear, he has to put everything in one go. If he dies while fighting, that'd be great. If she dies before he can, he'd be disappointed but it'd be another day for him.
A few hundred feet away from the flying Claire, Kuruyashiki stopped. But as soon as he did, a chunk of his head instantly disappeared, taking off a portion of his forehead and his right eye.
Despite this, however, the crazed smile on his face never changed and he spread his arms wide. The next instant, an earthquake, 10 times worse than what had been happening until now began.
Claire nocked another golden arrow on her bow and wanted to take off Kuruyashiki's entire head. Though before she could release it, Claire felt her power being sucked up, resulting in the shine of her arrow to slowly disappear, "!?"
The strange happening didn't stop there, as Claire witnessed the entire mountain range morph with a deep dark gorge suddenly opening up under them and spanning for several kilometers.
Claire released the arrow towards Kuruyashiki but it was obviously way weaker than the previous ones and the latter just chuckled at it as he used his leg to kick it away.
Kuruyashiki's spread arms slowly came together and the earthquake became even worse. However, Claire didn't care about that as she could only watch as the entire earth beneath them opened up. With each tooth as large as a mountain, the earth itself transformed into a giant maw that had already surrounded her and Kuruyashiki, revealing an endless darkness.
Claire wanted to get away but as her strength was being drained away, there was also a strange pressure that was keeping her in place. Still, she tried flying up, but the giant maw was way faster than her with half of her view already inside the endless darkness.
Claire tried finding another way but anything she did, including directly attacking Kuruyashiki who was still slowly closing his arms and using Teleportation Magic was deemed useless. And to make it much worse, she could feel her skin dissolving as if a very strong acid was poured on her and she also started losing her focus with something affecting her consciousness directly as if someone was singing a lullaby for her. As she slowly lost momentum and started descending, a certain excerpt from a document that she read appeared in her mind, 'An ability that's capable of destroying the Seireitei in one go, huh?... It wasn't an understatement.'
With everything about to be engulfed and Claire started falling, a sad look appeared on Kuruyashiki's face as he muttered, "Eat up, Gagaku Kairou (Corridor of Hungering Music).
.
.
.
Kisuke, Serafall, Kunou, and Tanis are also focused on Claire's battle that started shortly ago.
"Those are some terrifying arrows," Serafall commented when Kuruyashiki started running towards Claire without much regard for his well-being.
Tanis turned to her and asked, "Are they?" Tanis knew exactly what the destructive power of those arrows was and by no means did she mean to question the strength of those arrows by asking. However, she didn't get how someone like Serafall finds those terrifying.
"Of course." Serafall nodded, "Each of those arrows is fatal for Ultimate-Class Devils. It's not about how much they could destroy but how much they could 'purify' and 'burn'. I've only seen that kind of intensity from Seraphs. But not just that. Claire's arrows are top class even among them... Which is actually unbelievable since she's not a pure Angel."
'Those guys are going to be shocked beyond measure. And once we return, that woman is finally going to have a real competition for the strongest woman of Heaven.' Serafall thought to herself when her eyes landed on Kisuke who looked very worried, "What's up?"
"That Kenpachi is staking it on an all-or-nothing." Kisuke immediately replied while pulling out Tiamat from her sheathe, "Get ready. That guy's ability is one of the most dangerous if fully unleashed."
In Kisuke's opinion, of all the Kenpachi that exists, Kuruyashiki is actually the 'strongest' of them all. If not for Souya Azashiro taking the initiative and killing Kuruyashiki in a surprise attack, no one would be able to take the title of Kenpachi off of him. Not even the current Kenpachi before he learned his Bankai.
And as soon as Kuruyashiki stopped moving, Kisuke shouted, "Let's go!"
Before he could jump forward, someone suddenly grabbed the hem of his clothes and when he turned around, he saw Ophis and Lilith who had hidden themselves until now pulling him back and both saying, "It's fine. She can do it."
Though Kuruyashiki hadn't started, she could feel the dangerous aura and a bad premonition coming from him. Even if Kisuke didn't say anything, she would have jumped in to assist Claire. But Ophis and Lilith are stopping them? She turned to Kisuke to ask for clarification.
"No. It's too risky." Kisuke answered.
However, Ophis and Lilith didn't let go. On the contrary, black tendrils made out of Reiryoku appeared beneath their feet and wrapped around Kisuke, "Trust her. She has to do this."
Kisuke furrowed his brows but within that short amount of time, a humongous maw already swallowed Claire, Kuruyashiki, and the entire area.
Kisuke gritted his teeth, though his grip on Tiamat soon weakened with his sigh, "Ten seconds. I won't allow anything longer."
Ophis and Lilith nodded and finally let go of Kisuke.
But not even 5 seconds later, numerous cracks started appearing on the closed jaw with silver light leaking through them and the small gaps in between each tooth.