Bleach: Shattered Blade Novels & Stories

CHAPTER 13 – THE SHATTERED ILLUSION Althea’s POV “Stop shaking,” I whispered to myself. But my hands wouldn’t listen. The photograph lay on my lap innocent, harmless, and at the same time the most horrifying thing I had ever seen. Damian. Darius. Side by side. Same face. Same eyes. Same jawline. But only one of them had the tiny, faint scar at the corner of his right eyebrow. And it wasn’t Damian.

“But the balance you fight for… it was never real. And now, you will pay for your mistake.” He raised the Blade of Annihilation, and as the sun’s light hit its edge, it cast a shadow so deep it seemed to swallow the world whole.

From the corner of my eye, I saw my parents turn away, shoulders shaking as they tried to hide their tears. We stood there in a silent standoff for a long time. In the end, I gave in. Maybe it wasn't for him, and maybe it wasn't for hope, either. Maybe… It was because I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to this world. I humbled myself before my parents' tears. I agreed to continue with the treatments, to go through radiation, and to prepare for surgery. However, radiation wore me down completely. Day after day, I just lay there on the bed, unable to move. My once beautiful black hair was shaved off, and from that moment, I refused to look in a mirror again.

She begins to shake a little and stare out into space. “Samantha.” “Samantha.” Shit. What’s happening? I get out of my seat and walk over to her. I kneel so that we are eye level. I place her hands in mine. “Samantha.” Her head lowers to look at me, and that’s when I see that she’s as pale as a ghost. Which is hard to believe considering her light caramel skin. Her eyes were in my direction, but they were looking through me. I shake Samantha’s hands while speaking her name. Finally, she begins to blink.

Kaela’s scream echoed through the fractured chamber, a raw and primal sound that sliced through the veil between worlds. The remnants of the Hollow’s domain twisted and writhed around her, unstable and imploding. Fractured timelines spiraled into one another, collapsing under the weight of what had just occurred. The relic blade trembled in her grasp, still pulsing with the energy of a forgotten age.

Into the blade. Light flooded the black metal, filling the carved symbols. They glowed – wrong at first, resisting – then cracked. A sharp, splintering sound split the air. Mira's eyes widened. "No – " I tightened my grip. Pushed. The gold burned brighter – hotter than anything I'd felt before. The blade fractured. Lines spreading like spiderwebs across its surface – then it shattered. Shards exploded outward. One sliced across my arm. Another caught Mira's cheek.

Simultaneously, the Oculus Blade pulsed with the imprints of the path, and they absorbed the surrounding energy with a certain zeal, transforming them into a colossal sword beam thousands of miles long. The sword beam cleaved thunderously through the sky and earth, bringing forth a mass of destruction. The black claw that had filled the sky shattered into fragments of aura that scattered across the sky. The rainbow-hued sword beam continued its trajectory, sending ripples of dread through the hearts of countless practitioners in the Bleurealm.

*CRACK. The Mirror-Blade didn't just shatter; it pulverized. Shards of vitrified data exploded outward, incinerating into gold dust before they could hit the floor. The Phantom shrieked, a high-frequency sonar pulse of genuine robotic terror, as the feedback from the broken blade tore through her silver-mercury skin. “Aria! He’s at ninety percent!” Kael’s voice boomed through the speakers, his blue waveform thrashing in the wires. “The petrification is anchoring to the valves! Leo, let go of the static! You’re drowning in the mountain!”

My blade met hers, and this time, it didn’t spark—it burned. Our swords locked. She grinned. “You're learning.” “No,” I whispered. “I’m remembering.” I shoved her back, spun, and with one clean slash, carved a line across her chest. Light exploded from the wound. She screamed—not in pain, but in loss. “I was you,” she hissed, crumbling. “You made me.” “And now I’m unmaking you.” I drove the blade into her heart. The fracture screamed. She shattered like glass, her form dissolving into ash and wind.

It can decimate the entire warehouse in an instant! Violet kept screaming. "Are you insane? That means you won't be able to survive as well!" Daniel exclaimed, "I never planned to survive from the start! Kevin's the reason why my life is ruined! I want him to die with me no matter what!" At that moment, Kevin rushed up to Daniel and began beating him up by punching him repeatedly. He might be a forensic doctor, but he hung out with police officers all year round and picked up some moves from them.