Soulbound

"So it didn't work?"

I said not angry or anything. Just purely interested in the outcome.

Ukitake failed and was not able to convince the elves to stop pushing the front. Looking at Aizen and his lack of any sort of reaction to the news it seems it must have been his plan all along and I think I got it figured out. I bet that he knew it wouldn't work, and asked Zaraki to go with Ukitake just in case elves decided to attack them or something. As for why even bother? It's for our image. By going there to negotiate we made it seem that even if we kill a lot of those elves nothing it's not our fault after all we warned and wanted peace, right? I mean we would be still guilty, but the difference in public opinion would be massively different.

Do I feel guilt or put off the fact that I will have to kill those elves? No. I am not a saint. The only real obstruction is that I need to maintain balance which is not that easy to tip, so I just need to make sure to not kill too many. Getting rid of an army or two is ok, but eradicating the whole population is certainly not.

The only issue that is vexing for even Aizen is the matter of those destroyed camps. I found a few of them and took care of the souls, but still was not able to figure out who are the ones responsible. A variable appeared that seemed to be against theocracy.

"That means we need to go fight both the elves and the theocracy at the same time huh."

I said after which I saw various shinigami around nod at me awaiting my decision. What to do? Should be more cautious or aggressive.

'Fuck them up. Show them who is the boss here!'

'I hate how dumb and simpleminded you can be sometimes, especially when you are right.'

His proposition makes sense since it would allow all the other factions to recognise our power. That is very important mostly because of my position, if I appear weak the Theocracy will have more room for questioning the religion that worships me. After all what god could be weak?

"We will stop playing around and will simply crush them. Aizen who should be assigned which operation? Give me your opinions."

The keikaku master realising that we were stopping playing around with the locals took off his glasses and performed his magical hair gel trick.

"If my lady wants decisive and easy victory on both fronts we should focus more on the elven side. Slane Theocracy is basically paralyzed and their army useless so it should be way easier to take care of them when compared to elves."

I could see from their faces that all the shinigami along with me approved of what he said.

"So for the theocracy, I would assign basically whoever is up for it, while for the elves I would choose... Squad 11 along with both kenpachis."

There was only silence. Are you serious? Those two, together, against a whole army. They are gonna have a field day! As for the enemies I could only say...

"Poor bastards."

I muttered quietly, but even tho all of them heard me no one decided to say anything since they were thinking the same.

"Don't you think two captains and one squat might be too little?"

"If you feel it that way, I can also go with them too."

Then the old man said something that made all of us pause and look at him.

"I will join them there."

I think that an overkill, but doesn't change anything so why not. Hearing that, no one could stop themselves from saying.

"Oh, those poor, poor bastards."

Yeah, I can already picture a few thousands or hundreds of elves laughing at having to fight just two enemies and a single squad after which stopping to laugh after they cut through them like a blender. Add to that the old man and you can as well take it as a visual description of hell.

To be fair I don't pity them. They had a chance, so they cannot complain about being put to fight those monsters.

'Said the greatest monster of them all...'

'You said something, dear~?'

'N-No...'

"Then, let's do that as for the theocracy front I will join and leave the rest to you. They are so weak and useless that I alone am enough so If any of you wants to come then decide that among yourself."

Wait, and what about our strategist here...

"What are you gonna be doing Aizen?"

Without any change of expression, he answered me.

"I am gonna keep resolving the issue of unbalance in the surroundings of soul society. It's probably the most important issue right now since we don't know what could be the consequences of it."

I see, that makes sense.

"Then have Urahara join hands with you on it."

At my order, his lips slightly trembled. It seems they do not have the best opinions of each other. Hopefully working together will fix that.

"Understood"

With that, I left them there and travelled to the region of the frontline where I found those decimated camps previously. Even if it's a night now maybe I will be able to find something.

At first, I was happy since I hadn't noticed anyone of the captains following me as a guard, but then realised that many members of Onmitsukidō were following after me while trying to be hidden.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a group of armed men camping in a forest near multiple bonfires. I went closer and climbed one of the trees to overhear their conversation to learn what are they doing here.

"Any changes?"

Said a female voice. It seems that some of them are women.

"None. There is no contact to the headquarters."

"Damn it! It's been more than a day already. What are we supposed to do? The orders were to come and see what's up with disappearing soldiers here. We were supposed to stay here after reporting."

"But, what are we supposed to do even? Say that they are dead and we have no idea what happened? We are just low-rank mercenaries, Edwin! They will rather kill us to silence the rumours rather than pay us."

So they don't know either huh.

I hoped I would learn something from them, but it seems I am not so lucky. I will leave them alone, they did nothing wrong here and aren't my enemies.

Using the fact that they are not able to see or feel my energy I spread it all around to feel the vicinity. Other than that glance at the group below, some of them are actually elves. Why are they working with the enemy of their faction? Maybe they are not a part of that elven country and are just general people who want to live.

Oh. There are some theocracy guys following them. Let's see.

Upon reaching the other group I can see that they know they are here and are trying to sneak up to them most likely taking them as a surprise. The mercenaries seem to be right. These guys do not want to pay them for this work.

But shouldn't they also be cut off from the connection? Unless those dumbasses didn't ever realise that something is wrong.

I climbed another tree right above them.

'Will you kill them? I have some nice drink for the spectacle.'

'Yes, I wi... Wait. How do you have something to drink there?!'

'No idea. Ask my maids. They somehow just pop those out of nowhere and I just decided to roll with it.'

'Ok. Drinks aside. Why the fuck do you have maids?!'

'Imagine. I was just here on the throne alone and suddenly a bunch of girls in maid outfits barged in and decided to be my maids and clean the room. I just decided to not question how they got the outfits or anything.'

'I am not happy with you being near a bunch of women dressed as maids who are turbo-loyal to you.'

'Jealous?'

I decided to not continue this conversation and just EXPLAIN to those maids their duties later.

Getting on track I jump above stringt from the tree and wanting to test out I change my zanpakuto into shikai state. This involuntarly made my energy run amok which alerted the soldiers and allowed them to see me.

"Watch out!"

Too bad it's too late for them.

I grabbed the polearm in two hands and while falling slammed it into the soldier who barely had any time to even register what was happening.

The earth trembled as the unfortunate man was split in two by the slash. It gave up from the strength and weight of the attack which made a puff of dust fly into the air.

I stayed there for a few seconds and waited for it to settle revealing a few more dead guys and a crater in which I am in right now. Damn, the attack power is no joke.

They seem to be way smarter than normal since they came to a good decision. They started running away in such a manner that all of them ran in different directions too bad for them.

I whistled which made all of the hidden assassins run after them to kill them off while I ran off after the remaining ones. They are not fast enough for me and I just grab my polearm in both hands and the last thing the two of them see is me as they are made shorter by a head. The last one seemed to be more athletic and got ahead so I threw my weapon which impaled him in the torse. The last enemy fell dead on the ground.

Well, that was quick, but what else to expect from such a weakling.

I made my sword back into a sword and lowered my reiatsu to acceptable and calm levels. It seems I did it just in time as a group of mercenaries appeared. At first confused and later angry after realising what was the purpose of the soldiers here.

What I hadn't noticed was that elf girl I saw before lowering her head in my direction.