God Like You

Long ago, the newborn Yhwach lies blind, deaf, mute, and unable to move, stripped of every means to survive, yet he feels no dread because he already knows he will live. Those who touch him are healed in ways their own souls never could, their failing bodies and hollow hearts mended, without ever realizing that each contact plants a fragment of Yhwach's own Soul inside them. When these people die, the fragment returns to him carrying all they learned and became, gradually restoring his senses. In time he gains hearing, learns that the villagers name him after the god they worship, and adopts that name for himself as he grows into a young man.

In the present, Yhwach sits on his throne in Silbern, notes that James has died, praises the performer, and draws his Soul back inward. Nearby, Uryu Ishida approaches the throne room only to be stopped by Jugram Haschwalth, who explains that the sleeping king conserves his strength to remain the Father of the Quincy and must not be disturbed. Haschwalth describes himself and Yhwach as two pans of a single scale, taking up the Mask of the Ruler whenever his master rests, and grants that Uryu, as the chosen successor, has earned the right to hear the truth.

Haschwalth lays out Yhwach's singular gift: where every Quincy pulls Reishi inward to fuel their power, Yhwach alone pushes his Soul outward, first through touch and later by carving letters of ability directly onto a recipient's Soul. Uryu learns that his own Soul was engraved the moment he drank the cup of Yhwach's blood, sealing a bond he can no longer escape. More chilling still, fragments of Yhwach were scattered across the Seireitei during the first invasion, so every Sternritter and Shinigami who ever brushed against them will surrender their Souls to him upon death. No matter who falls in this battle, Yhwach only grows stronger, and because he reverts to a senseless husk without a steady flow of Souls, the fighting can never truly end. As dawn arrives, the king wakes and thanks the dead for letting him see the world once more.

The chapter is a pivotal reveal of Yhwach's power and the real purpose of the Thousand-Year Blood War. It supplied material for episodes 380, 384, 385, and 387 of the anime. Appearing are Yhwach, Uryu Ishida, and Jugram Haschwalth, with Ayon, As Nodt, Byakuya Kuchiki, Bambietta Basterbine, Sajin Komamura, Cang Du, and Ichigo Kurosaki seen in flashback.