The blinding crimson light was almost unbearable, but thankfully it didn't last long and soon let up, revealing a widened crack in the sky and the mangled eye.
Its black blood exploded out and some of it went through the crack, dropping into the Seireitei.
"Hooh~ That's pretty devastating." Aizen finally said something and with an amused expression.
The group of Shinigami didn't know how to take Issei's display in, but after those remarks from Aizen, they finally understood the gravity of his power.
Aizen saw a monstrous amount of energy gathering from the hurt eye and said, "But it wouldn't be such a problem if pure violence could solve that."
Issei also felt the energy gathering and his armor transformed once again, this time, the cannons on his shoulder retracted and his gauntlet tripled in size, "Solid Impact Booster." He muttered and put both of his arms forward.
The next instant, a faint flash of white light came from the eye and something hit Issei. But with the latter already anticipating it, he put his arm blasters forward and destroyed the thing that flew towards him although it also resulted in him being thrown back from the impact.
As fast as it flew up, Issei also crashed down in the same manner, slamming into the Soukyoku Hill and creating a crater while also kicking up dirt and dust.
Serafall immediately blew the debris away, clearing everyone's sight, and saw the armored guy standing in the middle of the crater with enlarged arms. His armor reverted back to how it was when he arrived soon enough and he jumped out of the crater towards Serafall's side.
Issei noticed that there were more people present now and most of them were looking at him strangely. Nevertheless, he's already used to these sorts of stares and just asked Serafall, "Serafall-san, just what the hell is that incredibly massive thing? This is the first time I've seen something that big."
"We're the same as you." Serafall answered while watching the hole that 'Hestia' created closed, "What do you think of it?"
Issei looked up and saw that the eye had almost healed itself completely before saying, "As I expected, I have no way of actually hurting it. I might be able to injure it a bit more and stop its regeneration momentarily with Longinus Smasher, but I won't be able to use my [Gift] ability for quite a bit so that's out of the question.
"I may be able to fight it using [Apocalypse AnswerArms] form. But summoning Ryuuteimaru to my side now would immediately cause an alarm and ruffle some people's feathers so I'd rather not do that. Though if needed, I won't hesitate to use it even if it's just buying some time."
"I see... Anything else?"
Issei easily noticed Serafall's hopeful expression and answered, "Somehow, it won't move from its current position and the thing attached to its back may be the reason."
Serafall's face immediately lit up, "Is that so? Thanks. I guess you can settle down for now and wait for further development." Although it's nothing concrete, it's still evidence that could prove that Kisuke is still fighting.
Issei sighed in relief when he saw Serafall's expression become lighter. The next second, his armor started glowing before it disappeared, revealing a young man with short spiky brown hair which further surprised the group of Shinigami.
At this point, the rest of the Captains and Lieutenants have arrived on Soukyoku Hill along with those who came from Hell, wondering what's going on and especially curious about who just unleashed the devastating attack moments ago.
"I didn't expect a young man behind that exaggerated armor... But knowing Sitri, he might just be as old." Shunsui muttered to himself with the corner of his mouth twitching.
In response, Yamamoto just chuckled and said, "I believe he's a bit younger than Kurosaki Ichigo."
"Ah!" Furoufushi exclaimed, "No wonder he looks familiar..."
Meanwhile, Azazel and Ajuka were also making their own observation and judgment with the arrival of more people, [Another faction, huh?] whispered the former to the latter through Telepathy Magic, [And a pretty major one at that.]
[The Deities in the Dungeon World already scared a lot of groups. If they come into the spotlight I don't know what's going to happen.], replied Ajuka.
There and then, Azazel and Ajuka's communication was intruded upon by a third person, [Must be a real mess on that side if even you don't know what's going to happen.]
[Serafall, I see that you've cheered up a bit now that you decided to eavesdrop.]
[You guys are basically asking me to join in with such a simple encryption. How's the progress of your work?]
[We found a working framework and are working out the details right now. From then, we'll scale up.], replied Azazel, [Now it's my turn to ask, what's up with this group?]
[According to my investigation, the estimated strength of the guys wearing a white haori ranges from Ultimate-class to Upper God-class and the guys wearing the armbands range from High-class to Satan-class. They follow a military structure so most of them are combat specialists. On top of that, they all use Spiritual Power and are capable of directly hurting souls. Pretty dangerous individuals I must say.]
Serafall didn't say that they are weak against Magic and Ki since they could hardly sense that, 'I'm not sure what's happening on the other side, but it's better to hide that for now. They'll need more time to adapt to Magic and Ki.'
[Hmm...] Azazel hummed to himself, [Then they could be classified as a major faction even if just counting the people here. Then what about that guy there.]
Even without pointing it out, Serafall knew what Azazel was referring to, [His name is Sosuke Aizen. Let's just say that even if he's not on complete Ophis' level, he's at least on par with Shiva. By the way, you guys better check your current perception. He has a pretty strong Illusion-type ability and the moment you looked at him, he probably already caught you in it.]
Azazel, Ajuka, Michael, and Issei who were silently listening in were surprised and hurriedly checked the integrity of their minds through various techniques.
And as Serafall expected, the first one to notice the anomaly was Ajuka, and while projecting a wry smile he said, [How dangerous... I didn't even notice that he already altered my sense of time and distance. It wasn't much of an alteration, but the fact that I didn't immediately detect it...]
Naturally, Aizen also noticed that Ajuka got out of his Kyouka Suigetsu and smiled, "You really do have interesting friends, Sitri Serafall."
On the other side, the group of Shinigami is also discussing among themselves about the visitors and the eyes that have been peeking at them when the space rumbled and the cracks began to widen.
The giant had started to move.