Erich stays carefully out of sight, tucked away in the depths of the shadows as the little fools battle Yhwach; even Ryuuken is present, which is both hilarious and one of the best outcomes Erich could ever dream of. He appreciates everything the man has done to pave the way for his victory, and the fact that Ryuuken will get to watch it first hand? Will get to see exactly what he left his son open to?
Priceless.
He hums quietly and slips through the shadows to another vantage point, carefully reaching out with his magic to ripple the floor just under Yhwach’s foot, and—
There. The man trips. Curses. Whirls on Kurosaki with a snarl, fury in his gaze and the soul-silver arrow limiting his strength and—
“Now,” Erich whispers into Uryuu’s ear.
Uryuu straightens his back, confidence pouring from his body as he fishes out the fragment of black crystal that Erich handed him before they invaded the Soul King’s Palace. He calls his bow and lifts his hand and reishi solidifies around the crystal, turning it into an arrow that Uryuu fires, and—
Yhwach grunts. Stumbles. Falls to his knees and claws at his chest, veins turning purple and skin blackening, breath coming in swift, panting gasps.
“What…?” Kurosaki murmurs, taking an instinctive step back as he stares down at Yhwach in confusion. “Ishida, what was that?”
“Exactly what we needed to take him down,” Uryuu replies firmly as he squares his shoulders and steps closer to Yhwach. He pulls a second fragment of black crystal from a pocket and forms another arrow, aiming it at the back of Yhwach’s head—
“Ishida Uryuu! Put that down immediately!” Ryuuken screams as he launches himself from his high perch. “Where did you get that?!”
Erich steps out of Uryuu’s shadow, his right hand slamming into Ryuuken’s chest and sending the fool flying back to collapse against the far wall. “Ah, ah, ah,” he murmurs with a smirk, waiting until Ryuuken is once more looking at him before letting his loose sleeve shift just enough for the man to catch a glimpse of the dusky black crystals growing out of his skin. The way Ryuuken’s eyes widen in horror is every bit as delicious as he’d hoped. “Uryuu-kun, finish Yhwach off, please?”
“Of course, ji-san,” Uryuu agrees.
Power explodes around them the moment Uryuu looses his arrow, curling-writhing-clawing at everything in the area. Erich doesn’t need to look to know that the ancient Quincy overlord has finally fallen, because he can feel it. Just like he can feel the vicious grin starting to spread across his face as the last, crumbling shackles on his own power fall away like so much brittle ice.
(Just like he can see the horror in Ryuuken’s eyes turning to terror.)
“Very good, Uryuu-kun,” he praises the boy, carefully rearranging his expression to reflect warm pride as he half-turns towards Uryuu. “Come, we need to act quickly, while everything is still in flux.”
Uryuu makes an agreeing noise as he lets his bow fade away, his blue eyes bright with happiness as he gives Erich a small smile.
“Don’t you dare listen to that beast!” Ryuuken growls as he finally struggles back to his feet. “I don’t know what that thing has promised you—”
“Ji-san isn’t a thing!” Uryuu yells back, stepping up to Erich’s side and glaring at his erstwhile father. “We’re going to fix everything! Mother’s death and Sensei’s death and everything Aizen broke and… and everything!”
“Uh, Ishida—”
Uryuu turns to scowl at Kurosaki. “Don’t you start, too,” he growls. “Ji-san and I made a plan. I know exactly what needs to be done, okay? Just… trust me?”
“Does this plan involve taking over the world?” Kurosaki asks dryly, “Because that’s a hell of a goal, Ishida. Last I knew, bringing the dead back to life was impossible.”
“We’re not taking over the world,” Uryuu snaps in exasperation. “We’re just fixing things, right ji-san?”
Erich hums in agreement and gives Kurosaki as much of a reassuring look as he can muster. “Normally it would be impossible,” he acknowledges, just to throw Kurosaki off from his actual plan for a bit longer. “However, the previous Soul King’s absorption into Yhwach, followed by his death, has released a… significant amount of power.” Which is true, and all four of them are capable of sensing that without trouble. “It’s also made reality unstable, though that won’t last for very long. If the right person takes control before that instability fades…”
Uryuu takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders, staring up at the dais where the Soul King had once floated. “I just… need to go up there, right?”
“Yes.” Erich flicks a hand out, a black crystal blade materializing and slamming into the wall next to Ryuuken’s chest, pinning the man’s clothing — and thus pinning Ryuuken — to the wall before the man can do more than take a step towards them.
(As much as he’d prefer to just remove the only one here who knows what he is, killing Ryuuken will lose Uryuu’s trust in this final moment.)
(That is a mistake that past avatars have made far too many times.)
“Hey!” Kurosaki barks as he darts around them to stand between Erich and Ryuuken. His scowl is heavier than Erich’s seen before, but at least he doesn’t attack. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“I didn’t hurt him,” Erich reassures Kurosaki, even as he lays his right hand on Uryuu’s shoulder. “Go on,” he encourages the boy, his fingertips brushing against the boy’s spine at the base of his neck as he focuses—
He can feel the way a vein of crystal creeps down from his wrist and across his palm. Can feel the way his hand begins to stiffen as the thread of crystal traces down his pointer finger, down-down-down to the very tip of his finger where it’s resting against Uryuu’s skin and—
A droplet forms under his fingertip. A single tiny nodule, barely more than an oddly colored — and oddly stiff — mole, right on the skin over Uryuu’s spine.
A single, perfect seed, ready to bloom the instant conditions are right.
“Don’t let either of them take the throne!” Ryuuken snarls at Kurosaki, even as he pries at the knife pinning him to the wall. “That’s not a Quincy standing next to Uryuu, not anymore. He’s been taken over by a crystal parasite.”
Kurosaki blinks and turns towards Ryuuken, confusion clear on his face as he asks, “A what?”
Uryuu just scoffs and steps away from Erich, hopping up onto the dais and moving towards the center as he says, “Crystal parasites are a legend. It’s just some stupid story giving a reason for why the Quincy failed to take over the world centuries ago, I didn’t think you believed things like that, Ryuuken.”
The strangled noise Ryuuken makes is absolutely delicious, and Erich has to fight back another vicious, sharp-toothed grin at the man, since Kurosaki is standing between them and he doesn’t want to give Kurosaki another reason to doubt him. The boy’s Hollow is incredibly sharp, and his Quincy manifestation likely knows the truth of the matter, so he’d really rather not add fuel to the fire just yet.
(Just a few minutes more.)
(He’s so close to victory he can taste it…)
“It’s not a legend,” Ryuuken snaps angrily, even as he gives up on prying the knife from the wall and instead yanks himself free with the sound of tearing cloth. “You goddamn bastard—”
“Will you stop insulting everyone I give a shit about?!” Uryuu yells, cutting Ryuuken off before he can finish his sentence. “If I can’t entirely change history, maybe I’ll make it so that you’re the one who dies instead of mom!” he continues angrily, spinning around to snarl at Ryuuken as he does. “All you ever do is complain and belittle me whenever I have the misfortune to draw your attention! I am so fucking sick of it!”
“Uryuu-kun,” Erich chides gently. When the boy turns a betrayed gaze onto him, Erich tips his chin towards the center of the dais. “He’s aiming to distract you until reality stabilizes again,” he says, because even if that isn’t Ryuuken’s goal, it is what’s happening. Already he can feel the ripples starting to subside and the lingering power beginning to fade.
(Already he can feel his moment beginning to slip away—!)
Uryuu’s face pales as he notices the same thing, and he spins on his heel and hurries towards the center. “I… ji-san, how do I…?” he asks as he settles in place and looks around, brows furrowing in confusion.
Ryuuken snarls and leaps upwards, his bow reforming as he fires—
“What the fuck is wrong with all of you?!” Kurosaki yelps as he moves between Uryuu and Ryuuken, a blast of reiatsu leaving his shorter blade to block some of the arrows.
Erich just hums and sweeps his stiffening right hand towards Ryuuken, not even bothering with a bow as he forms his own hail of black arrows to counter Ryuuken’s. “Yhwach made you his heir,” Erich tells Uryuu as he casually blocks a few arrows aimed at him instead of Uryuu. “Reach inside yourself and then outwards. Claim the power. Claim your place. And remember—”
“I know,” Uryuu says quietly as he takes a breath and tips his chin up. “I need to focus on how I want everything to change or it’ll all be for nothing.”
Erich gives Uryuu a proud smile, then lets it fade as Uryuu closes his eyes and finally does his part; he can feel the gathered reishi shift, can feel the ripples beginning to rise once more, can feel the way Uryuu latches on and starts to spin it all together—
“No!” Ryuuken cries, abandoning the hail of arrows and tearing a seele schneider free of his belt. He snaps it open. Lunges. Darts around Kurosaki, gaze aimed right at Uryuu—
Erich materializes a black crystal sword. Meets Ryuuken strike. Leans in and bares his teeth and whispers “I win,” even as behind him Uryuu cries out, a shockwave of reiatsu slamming into his back and sending him forward into Ryuuken.
“What— Ishida! What the fuck?!” Kurosaki shouts, eyes wide and face pale. “Rerugen-san, Ishida is— there’s— he’s trapped in a crystal!”
Erich chuckles and twists his body to direct Ryuuken’s blade down and away, grimacing faintly at the way his body doesn’t quite want to flex properly—
(There’s a reason he’s been avoiding close combat for decades.)
—and kicks Ryuuken with his less affected left leg, knocking the man down. “It’s nothing to worry about, Kurosaki-kun, it’s just to protect him while he works,” he says, though he can’t quite reach the level of reassurance he wants to. There’s too much glee in him, a rising tide of (I did it, I won, I succeeded where generations of avatars have failed!) that he can’t prevent from leaking through.
Already he can feel the ripples stretching out, expanding beyond the room they’re in. Already he can see tiny crystals beginning to grow across the dais, sprouting up like bamboo, stretching-stretching-stretching…!
Kurosaki spins to face him, scowl twisted with fury and bright, glorious betrayal glowing in his eyes as he spits, “Traitor!” and lunges—
Erich darts aside, black crystal sword meeting Kurosaki’s larger blade with a jarring crash that chips away a piece of it. “Ah, I suppose the cat’s finally out of the bag,” he says with another laugh. He leaps back, dropping the blade and materializing another. “If you leave now, I will spare you,” he offers the boy, then huffs and leaps aside once more in order to avoid Kurosaki’s vicious, sweeping blow. “So be it, then.”
“Ignore him!” Ryuuken snaps out from his position on the floor, even as he hacks at the swiftly growing bed of crystals that are already beginning to trap him in place. “Break the crystal around Uryuu! It’s the only way to prevent the whole world from being engulfed.”
Kurosaki freezes for one brief instant, gaze darting between Erich to Ryuuken, then curses and hurls himself straight at the crystal instead.
Erich snarls and chases Kurosaki, barreling into the boy and slamming his shoulder straight into Kurosaki’s side. It sends Kurosaki tumbling back, not far, but far enough for Erich to plant himself between Kurosaki and Uryuu. “I wouldn’t do that,” he warns as he raises his blade into a guard position. “Breaking the crystal now will detonate it, killing everyone here, especially Uryuu.”
“Better dead than a puppet like you!” Ryuuken shouts, then curses as the little crystals growing around him begin to grow even faster. “My son will not be your pawn any longer!”
“Oh, now he’s your son?” Erich growls at the man, fury drawing his attention away from Kurosaki despite part of him knowing better. “Remind me again, who was it who never told him a thing about his heritage? Who abandoned him to the mercy of strangers? Who tried to tear him from the only friends he’d ever made?”
Ryuuken scoffs at that and drives his seele schneider into the crystals entrapping his other hand, scattering shards everywhere as he wrenches his now-bleeding hand free of the trap. “He should have listened to me,” the man grumbles as he forces himself upright and then curses as a small crystal spears straight through the hand he just freed. “If he’d just… left the spiritual… world alone… like I warned him…” Ryuuken pants through the pain, sweat beading up on his forehead and beginning to drip down. “And then you… showed up…!”
“If you told him anything instead of ordering him—” Erich’s words cut off as a flicker of moment catches his attention. Makes him turn, instincts sluggish from fury. And so his right arm rises, stiff hand flexing as he tries to focus, and—
Kurosaki’s blade slams against his arm, biting deep-deep-deep into the crystals coating his lower arm. Pain lances up his arm as part of the crystal — as part of him — shatters and tumbles from his sleeve. The whine that crawls up his throat is strange, unnatural—
(He hasn’t felt such pain since the Great War!)
—and it feels like something jars loose inside his soul, tiny and vulnerable and aching, and—
He tugs on that tiny piece. Draws it up to the surface. Leans into it as he lets his eyes widen and his lips part and tears gather in the corner of his eyes. Leans into it as he says, breathless and sad and trembling, “Kurosaki—!” like a prayer, like a plea, and it works. It works. Kurosaki wavers, eyes widening and pressure lifting from the blade digging into his crystals—
“Shit,” Kurosaki breathes out. “Hey, Ryuuken! That thing about breaking the crystal— that applies to Rerugen-san too, doesn’t it?!”
Before Ryuuken can respond, before Kurosaki can pull back or bring his other sword to bear, Erich strikes. Slams a dagger into Kurosaki’s side and leaps back. Shakes his right arm even as his stomach roils and bile starts to crawl up the back of his throat.
(Foolishness!)
(He can’t afford to fight Kurosaki in close quarters!)
“It might,” Ryuuken answers right before Kurosaki charges back in, blades poised and power gathering along the edges. “If… if his bones… are crystal then no. But if it’s just… over his skin…!”
“Well, guess we’ll find out,” Kurosaki declares, a deep furrow between his brows and resolution gleaming in his eyes as he swings one blade then the other, the arcs merging into an X launched right at Erich—!
His instincts demand he dodge. Demand he flee. Demand he protect himself above all else. But— but right behind him—
He swallows his instincts. Swallows his terror. Calls forth all his power and shapes it into a wedge. Crosses his arms and braces and prays because— because if he moves, if he tries to save himself, he will leave Uryuu exposed and helpless and unaware and— and—!
(Grandson.)
(Great-something grandson.)
(His, his, his, his, his…!)
(His grandson, his victory, his success, his grandson…!)
Kurosaki’s attack slams into his defense. Grinds against his power. Breaks across his power. Sends him stumbling back-back-back, crystal crunching under his boots and tearing at his feet and scraping against his crystals, jagged edges catching-tearing-shredding—
Erich’s back hits the crystal encasing Uryuu.
He is pinned like a bug, helpless as another wave of power breaks across his faltering guard. Helpless as he feels the crystals before him fragment and dissolve. Helpless as he feels Kurosaki throw a third attack at him. Helpless as cracks start to form in his shield, as Kurosaki’s attack starts to slice through his clothing, through his crystals, through his skin and—
It ends.
It ends.
Panting, Erich cracks his eyes open, trying to gather himself, trying to breathe—
There is a wall of crystal between him and Kurosaki.
The crystal at his back presses warmth into his wounded body, and the crystal in front of him radiates determination, and beyond that a forest of jagged crystalline spears has erupted. It has not, unfortunately, sealed Kurosaki away — the boy’s instincts and reactions are too sharp for that — but it has claimed Ryuuken, locking the man away in a crystalline shell.
“I am not exactly meant for heavy combat,” Erich murmurs as he straightens and stares up-up-up at where Kurosaki stands overhead, out of range of the crystals. Still, he doesn’t exactly need to win, he just needs to not lose, and he thinks he can manage that. “Focus on your ascension, Uryuu-kun, I will be fine,” he adds as he brushes a hand against the crystal at his back.
He shakes his arms out, grimacing as yet more shards of himself fall from his tattered sleeves, and then leaps upwards with a careful flicker of hirenkyaku. He feels… unbalanced. Unmoored. Torn asunder even though his body remains (mostly) intact.
(There is something… something wrong about this…)
(About the crystals, about Uryuu, about himself—)
(No.)
(Focus.)
Kurosaki’s scowl etches deeper as Uryuu’s crystalline shield seals itself closed and Erich lands atop it on one of the slanted sides.
“Go home, Kurosaki,” he tries one last time, hoping against hope that the boy will just give up even though he knows Kurosaki never will.
“Not without both of you,” Kurosaki declares firmly, right before lunging straight at him.
Erich grits his teeth and meets Kurosaki’s strikes with his own crystalline blades. Feels his arms shake and his feet skid. Forces more strength into his limbs. Forces more strength into his entire body. Wishes desperate-bitter-aching that his guardian-protector-beloved had found him before things reached this point—
(Alexis, oh Alexis…)
(Where-where-where…!)
(He is the strategist, the avatar, the one meant to— meant to bring victory…!)
(What a hollow, aching ‘victory’ this is…)
(He brings no victory, he brings destruction…!)
(He is not meant to protect himself, not meant to stand as final guardian over the seed of victory…!)
Erich shakes his head with a curse. Dances away from another blow. Strikes at Kurosaki’s wounded side. Curses again as Kurosaki blocks. Attacks. Blow after blow after blow, a painful dance across the top of Uryuu’s protective crystal, giving-giving-giving ground because he cannot, he is not, Kurosaki’s equal. Has never been. Will never be. But it… it shouldn’t matter. It will not matter. Erich will make it not matter!
(He must, he must, he cannot lose now, cannot be brought to heel, cannot be undone after nearly a century of careful effort to avoid the failures of past avatars!)
(There will never be a more perfect chance, never again be such an opportunity!)
(He cannot lose!)
(…please lose…)
And every strike he’s forced to dodge, every seemingly absent sweep of Kurosaki’s blades, every ripple of reiatsu that he can’t counter carves deep-deep-deeper into the crystal under their feet. Carves away at Uryuu’s protections, until cracks begin to form, begin to spread…!
“I am bringing both of you home,” Kurosaki practically growls as he locks blades with Erich once more.
Erich huffs a breath and bares his teeth back at the boy he’d once mentored, once helped even if only to further his own ends and says, “You will bring none of us back,” with all the confidence in his soul.
Kurosaki snorts. Knocks Erich’s blade aside. Raises his second blade to strike, and—
Kicks Erich’s right knee instead.
A cry tears from Erich’s throat as he stumbles back. As his knee gives way. As he falls.
(As fragments of crystals fall like raindrops around his feet.)
He lays on his side, blades lost, leg a river of agony, breath driven from his body by the pain. He cannot rise. He cannot fight. He cannot focus…!
(He has lost.)
(He has lost!)
(No, no, no!)
“I’m sorry,” Kurosaki says, though he doesn’t sound sorry in the slightest. “Hopefully Hat’n’Clogs can figure out a less painful way to free you,” he adds as he leaps from the crystal, power gathering on the edges of his blades as he turns. Sweeps his gaze over the cracked surface of the shield crystal. Finds his target and—
Erich grits his teeth. Digs his fingers into the cracks near him. Pours his power into the crystal. Prays—
(Work, please!)
(…fail, he must fail!)
(Kurosaki cannot succeed!)
(Kurosaki must succeed…!)
(Please…)
Kurosaki slams into the shield crystal, blade piercing deep-deep-deeper and—
A flash. A flare. Blinding power rising around them, a tsunami of force to wash them all away, and—
Silence.
Once more, Erich pries his eyes open. Once more, he tries to gather himself. He has not fallen from the shield crystal, but that means little. Kurosaki’s blow could have sliced through, could have hit Uryuu, could have ended everything—
Power, gentle-warm-determined, wraps around his body, soothing his pain and coaxing his crystals to start regrowing. Across from him, Kurosaki is frozen, trapped like a bug in amber, blade driven through the shield crystal and into Uryuu’s crystal. It’s hard to see through two layers of dusky violet-black crystal, but it looks as if Kurosaki’s blow nearly connected, nearly cleaved Uryuu’s crystal in half. A heartbeat later, two at the most, and all his efforts would have been in vain. Kurosaki would have won yet again.
(…why does he feel such sorrow…?)
(He has won!)
Erich staggers to his feet, grimacing at the renewed stiffness in his right leg, and makes his slow way to Kurosaki’s crystal. He lays a hand against a facet and just… observes for a moment, memorizing the sweep of Kurosaki’s frozen hair and the frown of concentration and the lingering traces of desperate power seeping from the boy.
That aching, helpless fragment of his soul claws its way to the surface once more. Makes tears gather in his eyes. Makes his hand flex against the smooth crystal. Makes him whisper “I’m sorry,” into the oppressive silence. Makes him want to—
Erich wrenches that fragment back under control. Lifts his hand from the crystal. Steps back and turns away, swiping the foolish tears from his face.
Already he can feel power beginning to rise from the crystal below his feet. Already he can sense it starting to spread beyond the dais. Already the Soul King’s Palace is beginning to change.
The silence is shattered by the chiming crackle of swiftly growing crystal, rising to encompass the entire room. It will become a cocoon of protections, growing-growing-growing until nothing can ever threaten its new heart again. A corrupted Soul King, feeding energy from the universe itself straight into the crystal so it may spread endlessly, engulfing and consuming everything in its path until nothing remains, until this universe itself collapses upon itself, shattering the crystal and rocketing new seeds through the tattered boundaries and into brand new universes.
Endless, cyclical growth into death, again and again and again.
He has won.
(So why does victory feel so hollow…?)
Erich heaves a sigh and shakes his head, trying to scatter the strange, unnatural thoughts from his mind; victory feels hollow because now his purpose is over, and his only remaining task is to wait for the end. An end that could take days, or months, or even years, depending on how swiftly the crystal can grow and how much resistance it may encounter. He is now… useless, just a strategist without a war. He is… nothing.
For one brief moment he contemplates sitting down. Contemplates resting his back against the crystal trapping Kurosaki and simply… letting himself be engulfed as well. The two who are trapped—
Ah, no. The three who are trapped, Erich corrects himself as he peers over the edge and spots the crystal sealing Ryuuken away. The three who are trapped are dreaming. Dreaming the world Uryuu wished for, dreaming and content and powerless, living a peaceful life until their strength is fully drained and their souls are consumed.
And it is… tempting to join them. To rest. To stop caring. To stop aching.
And yet… and yet…
“Sleep well,” Erich murmurs as he gathers the shadows to him and steps inside, leaving the Soul King’s palace and the crystalline heart behind.
If he has nothing left to do, then maybe…
Maybe he’ll see if Urahara’s interest in him remains.
Either way, it’s sure to be fun.