Splendente Scontro

Kurenai leapt back. There was only about thirty meters separating the two. Vittoria's body came ricocheting off. With this distance it didn't even take a few seconds for Vittoria to approach her foe. She quickly stabbed at Kurenai's chest with Kinkeiken. Her white attire flowed in the azure sky as Vittoria's body lost all of its speed.

"My turn." Kurenai declared, as she moved. If Vittoria left an afterimage of a pure white saint as she ran, Kurenai melted into the darkening skies as she approached her prey, moving at a demon-like speed that didn't even allow Vittoria to grasp the process of her approaching. The moment she stopped next to the immobile Vittoria, Kurenai's black coat flapped in the air. Vittoria was unable to respond to Kurenai's quiet approach; she had been looking at the woman advance towards her, but she couldn't perceive that she was standing right next to her.

"…!!" A cold sweat ran down Vittoria's back; only now, she barely understood that she was facing someone akin to a bodhisattva. Before Vittoria's mind could give the order to evade, that lustrous blade came slamming down from above.

"EVADE!!" Before Vittoria's mind could give an order, the massive sword came slamming down from above. Her body unexpectedly jerked back, causing her to fall away in a direction completely opposite of what Kurenai anticipated. Because of that, Vittoria was able to keep her life. The approximately 5 meter-long Zanpakutō missed its target and easily crushed the ground afterwards landing on the floor like a guillotine blade.

It was supposed to be a metal bridge reinforced with cement. But with this heavy and blunt sound, the entire metal bridge shook about due to the impact. The screws that held the metal bridge down broke and made lots of noises. The blue lights used to light the place up lost their glow unnaturally. However, Vittoria didn't have time to notice all of those. Like a meteor colliding with the sea, with Gaikaōtori as the center, a large amount of concrete debris flew all over the place, and some of them hit Vittoria's body.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Just the aftershock of this attack alone was enough to cause Vittoria to be unable to take a step forward. Just as Vittoria felt that her legs were both light and floating, her body had already flown back several metres. Her back struck one of the metal frames supporting the bridge, finally causing her body to stop moving.

There was a *clack clack* sound. The small pieces of concrete fragments were falling onto the bridge like rain. Kurenai placed her sword, which seemed as heavy as a metal frame on her shoulder, moving forward to Vittoria, who was on the floor. Although it was powder, it looked like a visible battle aura as it surrounded Kurenai before being scattered away.

Vittoria was trying her best to stand up. But still…she took a lot of damage from that single strike. Red liquid was left on her lips, and the face that was hit was all red as well.

"So, your power went up by an incomparable amount. The plain and simple reason called rage was the trigger, but this is…Hahahaha, this is the surge of a phoenix." Kurenai remarked; she didn't even smile. "Of course, it's to be expected. The Rising Phoenix used his strong emotions for a power source, and since your rage is at its genuine limit towards me, only thinking straightforwardly can draw out the true power of a phoenix. That's the sole reason why you're able to stand up to me."

"As if I know…!" Vittoria coughed; in any case, she didn't do something about Kurenai, the surrounds would turn into a disaster zone; that wasn't something she wanted, definitely.

Kurenai simply stated, "However! You still aren't clever, former shade of Gai! Your intelligence is insufficient to control your true power! That is a sin."

"Stop talking about things I don't understaaaaaaand!" Vittoria howled as she managed to stand to her feet again.

"Yes! That is exactly why you're called an idiot!" Kurenai retorted with a smirk as she thrust her weapon towards Vittoria. Even though Vittoria's movements were fast, Kurenai's were faster to the point that she was basically disappearing. By the time Vittoria became aware, Gaikaōtori had already sunk deeply into Vittoria's stomach. After that, Kurenai changed where she was facing, and using centrifugal force, she tossed Vittoria away.

The air in her lungs was all forced out, and there was even a little smell of rusted metal in it. Several seconds later, her impacted body floated up from the ground, and afterwards, the impact would make one feel that the Earth's gravity had been increased by numerous folds as it surrounded Vittoria's body. Vittoria slowly fell on the ground again.

Vittoria's vision was slowly becoming blurry, finally catching a glimpse of Kurenai with much difficulty. "The difference…is too great…" If it was Clarissa, at least she could see her actions. As long as she could react to their attacks and make the suitable counters, at least she could land a few hits on Clarissa. "But what on earth is this girl…" Vittoria wondered.

Was she really like Vittoria? This wasn't a difference between humans and humans. It was just like an online RPG where a player was fighting someone that was 100 levels higher. It was not that Kurenai made Vittoria's attacks obsolete through some trick, but rather, fighting through pure ability, there was no way Vittoria could win.

"Vittoria Giovanna…" Kurenai, slowly raising Gaikaōtori, said, "If I infuse you with a fragment of my soul so that you return to being Gai, I'll spare your life."

Vittoria gritted her teeth and snapped, "You…must be…joking…" Though she wanted to stand up, Vittoria's body couldn't muster any strength.

Kurenai clicked her tongue in exasperation, muttering, "Really? If so, I'll let you understand the harsh reality even more." Light amassed and converged upon Kurenai's body, which expanded and engulfed her entirety. Her attire changed completely, into a stark-white striped shirt and dark grey cargo pants. She gained white detached sleeves, her upper arms had white, gold and crimson rings just below the gear symbols, and her lower arms had black belts just below the rings. She had armoured gloves and shoes, both shone a brilliant white. She wore a crimson necklace consisting of six magatama.

In addition, six large swords of light floated in a wing-like formation behind her back. Two fang-like markings formed underneath her eyes, and specks of light hovered around her legs. There was also a blue magical mist surrounding Kurenai's feet which turned into two light blue wisps, one rising from each foot. These wisps circled Kurenai in a manner similar to a double helix. Pale yellow sparkles constantly scattered off Kurenai and created somewhat of a streak behind her as she hovered in the air. "Bankai. Chōetsu Gaikaōtori."