It is the BANEBLADE!

The moment of truth had arrived with a horrific sight of Ulv charging up a Cero. A technique that only Hollows and Arrancar to his knowledge could utilize. Horror crept into his mind that his friend, a person he had grown close to, had turned into some kind of monster that had come to snuff him out. The cold emotionless nature of her voice, stating the phrase Cero, in simplicity sent a shiver up his spine, but that shiver quickly faded into nothing. His emotions were cold, he was cold, and if she thought that by amassing this devastating power in front of him with killer intent would stop him? Would get him to turn around like a little child, she would be wrong. Instead Steiner took a step forward, the blast was coming now, and the feeling of numbness surrounded him as she fired her blast.

His reaction was swift.

A shield appeared on his arm, the Tulpa forming swiftly around him, as he placed out his right arm in front of him with sword still in hand as the shield was hit by the massive display of power, and destructive force. For a few seconds, it looked like the shield might hold, but moments in it began to crack along with pieces of Steiner's armor that was formed from his pure will. Steiner stood strong, forcing his arm out, and channeling all of his will and intent into the shield, if Mirja was right this armor...this shield...this was who he was deep down, this was a manifestation of his heroic aspirations and his will to protect, if so this armor would hold. As if also reacting to Steiner's will, Cirno's gem began to glow around his neck an almost crystalline barrier forming in front of his shield, and helping absorb some of the blast itself, but even it was cracking under the burden of Ulv's might.

More cracking as the barrier began to shatter, all the while Steiner kept strong, but could feel his feet sliding from the stance he had taken moments before, and getting dangerously close to the cyclone walls as it did so. He replanted his feet, the air he was breathing becoming far too heavy for him to regain a necessarily bountiful amount of oxygen to his screaming body. Steiner's shield began to crack, chips of it flying off, and evaporating into nothingness as more of the blast made it over the shield so too would Steiner's armor begin to crack. It would impale him, blood pouring from wounds caused by his own armor sundering into him, and if not for his combat trance he might have felt this pain, but the pain was merely a dull throb to Steiner at this point. Bits of Steiner's form became visible under the armor, his shield continued to break, the barrier was just gone by this point as the explosion took Steiner.

Smoke and debris shot out in random directions, falling to the Earth below, and being consumed by the whirling vortex that had formed around the two of them. However, if Ulv had thought Steiner dead she would quickly be surprised as a figure slowly began to appear from within the smoke, and the sound blood gushing from multiple wounds could be heard even inside the cyclone around them as it dropped to the floor. Steiner was alive, but clearly looked like he had been through hell. His body covered in multiple lacerations caused by his own armor, a shield broken and hanging uselessly from a right arm that was so battered and broken that it too was useless, and chunks of armor falling off of him hitting the floor as they faded into the aether. Every part of him was in pain and even through the trance, as much as it was dulling that pain, it was very clear that Steiner couldn't just keep going. Right?

Steiner staggered forward, his body screaming at him as if it were screaming at an infant, and almost fell straight forward after his first step. The only thing that stopped him was his left arm impaling the sword he had gained from his time in the crypt into the ground in front of him. He used it as leverage to keep himself up as he stared at Ulv with one good eye, the other closed due to blood pouring over it, and the feeling of stinging that he felt when he tried to open it. He hadn't even touched Ulv and yet he had received so much damage, so much pain, and so much hurt. Yet....

"You are way stronger than me...I will admit the difference in our levels..."

Steiner said through ragged breath, as he used the sword as a crutch to move himself toward her. Stabbing the sword into the Earth again as he moved close enough.

"But I've been told I just don't know when to quit...call me an idiot if you like...call me someone who is going on some kind of suicide mission. I can understand to someone like you it may seem like it would be useless, that I can't get this done...that I can't make a difference. But..."

Steiner began to cough, blood oozing from his mouth on to the floor as he did so. Perhaps he had a punctured lung, he couldn't tell as the effects of the trance didn't seem to allow him to ascertain just where his wounds were at this moment.

"You're wrong. I may not have your power, but I have a power of my own...my will. So please...step aside, people are dying, and if this meager human can save even one person...then he has to try."

Steiner staggered forward again, this time the sword falling from the Earth, and Steiner falling down on all fours as pain shot through him with the sound of a pained scream being quickly silenced by the howling winds.

The pain was relatively unbearable for anyone of the faint of heart, but Steiner was forcing himself through it willing himself to stay conscious. He looked up to Ulv as she gave her speech and then began to grow frustrated, his one good arm, and hand slamming hard into the dirt below as he forced himself up with one arm to a sitting base. The throws of pain were still there, but they were dulled by the adrenaline in his system, at least for now, and he could tell he was going to clearly feel this for months after, but now was not the time to dwell on this sort of thing.

"I'm not throwing it away...I'm just tired Ulv..."

Steiner looked at her wearily as he brushed the blood from his left eye to open it a bit so their eyes could actually meet so that the gravity of the situation can be ascertained.

"I've watched all of these people fighting for what they believe in and then I have watched them fall. I hear it on the radio, watched it on television, and felt it from far away...people are dying and all I'm doing is standing here...training."

Steiner let out a loud groan as he tried to stand back up, but it wasn't working too well, and instead he finally decided to sit still. He was in no condition to be moving, he pushed himself far too hard to be doing that at this moment, and so he just sat there on the cold earth.

"I can't sit here when people are in danger, Ulv. I can't just watch this world burn to ashes and do nothing.... To do nothing would be to consent to this madness. To accept that this war is right, that it is just, when all it is, is just leading people to the slaughter."

Steiner lets out another groan as sitting is clearly not the most comfortable of positions and he decides to lay back on the ground. He does this softly and gingerly wincing every time he does something that would cause a wound to hurt.

"You bring up Cirno's name, but from the short time I knew her...I could tell she would be just as reckless as me if the world was in danger. And Mirja, as odd as she was...I could tell that if someone she cared for was in danger, she probably wouldn't stop for anything to put herself in harms way to make sure that they were alright. I suppose...in a way I have them to thank for being good role models, they truly were special to me. And I would like to think if they saw me now they would scold me, but they would understand that this is who I am, and that I am not throwing away their good will to me, but using that good will to help others. Then Mirja would probably knock my lights out..."

Steiner began to laugh, but then that laugh turned into a coughing fit as the pain in his chest caused him a great deal of discomfort.