烈火の如

Having watched Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto invoke the western form of his Bankai and claim a heat of fifteen million degrees, Haschwalth reasons that such warmth could never show as visible fire and first takes the flames for an illusion, before grasping that the commander's spiritual pressure is so immense it merely resembles flame as it pours off him. Closing on the leader in Yhwach's guise, Yamamoto announces he will end the fight before its power destroys his opponent, himself, and all of Soul Society alike. Inwardly, the leader feels his whole body searing and knows only his Blut Vene keeps him from turning to ash at this range.

Noting with a trace of spite that his foe's shattered Reishi Sword leaves him unable to strike back, Yamamoto invites him to flee but promises to hunt him down regardless, which draws a large Heilig Pfeil in reply. The commander swats the arrow aside, remarks that only arrows remain to his opponent, and leaps in to attack. The leader then thrusts out a hand and, insisting that the cross and the arrow are not a Quincy's only arms, unleashes Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger, raising towering pillars of Reishi marked with the Quincy Cross around himself and calling it the ultimate defense, one that shreds any intruder with a holy light. Undeterred, Yamamoto plants Zanka no Tachi in the earth a short distance away, pledges the dead his blade has taken a final taste of battle in exchange for their aid, and activates the southern form, Kaka Jūman'okushi Daisōjin, from which thousands of charred skeletons claw their way up out of the broken ground.

The ninth chapter of the fifty-seventh volume, Out of Bloom, this installment carries a Japanese title translated as Like a Raging Fire, rendered Like an Inferno in English, and was adapted within episode 372. It introduces the southern form of Zanka no Tachi and the enemy leader's signature defensive rite, escalating the duel toward its conclusion in the following chapter. The leader depicted here is still the impostor Royd Lloyd.