Devouring Alone - Solitude of the King

Grimmjow names the pair of five-clawed constructs looming over Ichigo as Desgarrón, his ultimate technique. The story then returns to their days as Adjuchas, where Shawlong tells Grimmjow that he and the others have given up. Yylfordt explains that their strength stopped growing after their thousandth kill, and even three thousand devoured Hollows apiece has changed nothing. Grimmjow coldly tells them to die if they want, but Shawlong asks a different favor: that Grimmjow eat a portion of each of them, which will lock their evolution in place and spare them from regressing. Since only certain Adjuchas are ever destined to reach Vasto Lorde, they accept their ceiling, and Shawlong insists Grimmjow is meant for something far greater.

In the present, the left set of talons crashes down and forces Ichigo to the desert floor, slicing past his guard and shattering more of his mask as Grimmjow declares it finished. Remembering how he consumed his own followers so they could become part of him and glimpse what lay beyond, Grimmjow calls himself the king. Then Ichigo drags his blade along the length of one talon until it bursts into fragments, stunning the Espada. Declaring that Grimmjow is not the only one desperate to win, and that he understands exactly the murderous feeling Grimmjow described, Ichigo charges the incoming right-hand talons.

Cutting one apart as it disintegrates behind him, Ichigo admits Grimmjow was right that he came here to fight and to win, the same as with Ulquiorra and Aizen, because he intends to take Rukia, Chad, Uryu, Renji, and Orihime home. Left without an answer, Grimmjow is run through by Ichigo's sword.

The flashback closes Grimmjow's backstory: his followers, unable to advance further, ask him to devour them so he alone can rise. Ichigo breaks through both halves of Desgarrón, an attack meant to be inescapable, and finally impales Grimmjow, deciding their long rivalry. His speech reframes his whole invasion of Hueco Mundo as a mission to reclaim his captured friends.

The Japanese title reads as Shishi Hamite, Hitori and appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump with the extended subtitle Solitude of the King; the Viz edition rendered it Devour the Flesh, Alone. It was adapted in Episode 167. The chapter marks the effective end of the Ichigo versus Grimmjow arc-defining battle.