A Promised Rest [Alastair, Lukas]

The impact of the young man slamming into her frame did nothing to affect the Arrancar as she stared him down. Though the reflection of that thing he was doing to try and propulse himself about certainly reflected in those dull hues. It wasn't often she saw such an application of an ability, but his strength was not, presently, to the point where it would be a problem. However, the spike in his Reishi intake indicated that that would no longer be a problem.

"Is that what you think? Unfortunate." She murmured in response as her Zanpaku'to glinted in the night air, drawn from her waist in anticipation. He was being quite aggressive certainly, most would have been caught off guard. But she could sense the impending change, and her pesquisa was absolute. She could, in this moment, understand that her ability to keep up with him was about to expire.


"Murcielago."

Lukas's release of Letz Stil was executed concurrently to the release of Ulquiorra's own Resureccion, as spiritual energy suddenly smothered the skies, and Lukas suddenly would feel as if he was trying to move through water as Ulquiorra's already impressive spiritual energy magnified. A sea of Green-Tinged black crashing through the air with a rushing howl as a Cero Oscuras fired. A cero that likely would be unlike anything Lukas had likely ever experienced, as there was no buildup, no warning. As if the ocean around him had simply collapsed in an instant, slamming into that Ahnengeist the instant that it had begun manifesting.

Lukas was not aiming to attack below, but he was also desperate, she could see the sheer panic in his eyes, and that eruptive burst of reishi was deemed unacceptable by the Arrancar. Her Cero fired with pressure and force adjusted to promptly smother and obliterate the expenditure of energy in such a manner that both attacks would clash and unleash an explosive burst of wind outward. Cracking the windows of nearby buildings, but sparing them any direct exposure to the reishi that had been released.

This was going to be a pain in her ass.

One of her wings curved around the man, in either direction as he tore from her grasp. Aiming to encircle him as her eyes narrowed the slightest bit. She was more than a match for him, though his Letz still was a problem. She was capable of fighting him, or perhaps stalling, as the unsustainable expulsion of power through his frame was so very clearly limited in it's ability to be maintained.

However, she also had to make sure the city wasn't destroyed. And that required a level of force beyond what she would prefer to use.

She stuck to him, attempting to keep him trapped within her grasp, eyes narrowed as she anticipated that in order to escape, he would need to attack her. Not preferable.

"You're using too much energy. You're endangering the city." She rebuked him, a slight tension in her voice as her mind raced. She could have simply killed him. Placed a hand on his chest the moment he'd slammed into her and blown the entirety of his chest cavity out the other end. It would have been the most safe. The most certain. But she did not want to rain this man's blood down on the city. She did not want to have to extinguish a life that had upheld the interests of the vandenreich. And she did not want to endanger this city more than it already currently was.

She was being foolish. Was she not?
There was a clear and optimal answer in front of her. This tactic endangered her. This human was sufficiently strong enough that he might injure her, or worse in this limited form of his. And even so. She could not shake something. An irrevocable sensation that she would prefer this man be taken in alive. The contradiction within herself produced the slightest change. A slight grimace of her lips, the faintest furrowing of her brows. Emotion on her features.

"Please. I would rather not harm you." That cold, calculated tone broken by the slightest hint of urgency. Beseeching an appeal to break that frantic look on the man's own features.

Powerful.

As reckless as this man was, he was not in a state with which she could simply dismiss him. Even in her own released state, she could FEEL the enormity of this own strength, and she flexed her spiritual pressure, attempting to brace against him. Her eyes slid to the side, narrowing as that clawed arm managed to pry her wings open, preventing her from trapping him. In this state, he was stronger than her. And instinctively, she felt a dull pulse in the center of her chest. An instinct. A reflex that was ingrained into her memory. Her Segunda Etapa. A state which would have, without a doubt, put her well above his level. But nothing happened. Whatever Szayel had done to modify her soul, she no longer had access to it, that state felt like a faded memory. Something just barely outside of her reach.

The swell of his spiritual energy, another one of those howling gales. She could nullify it, if she executed a Cero Oscuras with sufficient energy. But no. The angle he was firing from, sending her upward. She could not risk him moving. Otherwise, her cero would plow into the city down below. Her pesquisa tingled, noting the position of Alastair. She could sense what Lukas was aiming for, and her spiritual pressure spiked, digging into the air itself as that eruption of power promptly threw her upward. Wincing as that terrible wind slammed into her and promptly slung her skyward.

Into the garganta she had hurriedly opened up, her spiritual pressure all but vanishing from the area as she spared Alastair being struck with her flying form, a sliver of that hurricane vanishing into the garganta with her, creating a safe zone to spare Alastair being blown away as well. But it wouldn't spare her from being sent flying through the garganta before she could unleash an explosive burst of her cero, even through that dark maw, the sudden burst of spiritual energy would be felt, sparing the city at the expense of briefly removing herself from this pursuit.

She was leaving Alastair to fight in her stead for the moment. But that would not be a problem.

She could sense that Lukas's form was at or nearing its expiration.

Blood dripped from her arms and shoulders as she stepped out onto the rooftop of one of the city's skyscrapers beneath the battle. Nullifying the forceful winds had not been a simple endeavor, and frankly, her arms were sliced by the winds as well as all over her body. Wounds that in truth, could be healed within seconds. But looking up to the sky, Ulquiorra could see that swell of spiritual energy up in the air. A light show that was truly the sort of explosive finale one might expect from such a powerful quincy. But she could already tell that the man was petering out. IN these very instants, the energy radiating from that enormous attack was dwindling into the realm of what she would be able to handle.

But.

She still wanted to be sure.

She spat something into her cupped hands, before black and green energy roared along the lengths of both of her arms, the blood peeling from the wounds all over her body as it congealed and twisted into black blades along the edges of her wrists and hands, bringing them up over her head in an X shape. One of her hands missing her pinky and index finger.

A sacrifice.

Dedos Del Rey: Caja Expiacion _{(King's Fingers: Cage of Atonement)}

The upward explosion of her attack bloomed outward and wide, far surpassing the sheer width of the attack that was coming down from above, before that X suddenly spread outward, wrapping upward in a twisting spiral to coil in a great spherical cage around not only the attacks, but the two combatants up above. Naturally, Lukas's attack would break upon it like a terrible rain, but with his power fading, and the sacrifice of energy she'd made, not a single mote of that destructive force would make it down to the city below, Containing even any explosive force from the attack well within that cage as it twisted and spin like a self-contained hurricane above the city, and at least for the time being, even as Ulquiorra dropped to a knee, panting from such a massive exertion of energy, at the very least it was a move that would accomplish her goal: Trapping Lukas with the Grandmaster.