Byakuya looks at the army of clones Rudbornn has seemingly created from nowhere with confusion. Each of them has enough reiatsu to be considered a 3rd seat shinigami. However from what he can gather is that the clones don't have additional resurrections of their own, possibly making this battle easier for him. With the arrancar continuously creating the cloned army from its branches his only choice is to deal with Rudbornn himself and not the army of exequias he has created. From beneath Rudbornn, Byakuya notices that the strands that protrude from the espada's torso stick into the ground like roots, piercing through the stone of the outer precipice of the espada's gathering hall. 'There's no ice on this building and he seems to be pulling the spirit energy he needs to create his fruit from the structure." Byakuya thinks to himself as the arrancar raises his arm and points in Byakuya's direction. Immediately dozens of members of the exequias sonido towards him at blistering speeds.

The sixth squad captain is forced to backpedal away from the arrancar, as he parries dozens of sword strikes from the clones that flash step in front of him. Despite their numbers, their sword strikes don't have nearly enough force behind them to wind him easily but their numbers sure do. Byakuya barely dodges a sword swipe that cuts away a portion of his perfect hair before he flash steps away from the group that is attacking him. Appearing a kilometer away from the sentient tree, Byakuya takes in a deep breath trying to regain his composure from the surprise onslaught. In the distance he can hear the clone army laughing at his predicament, but he doesn't let it get to him. His shikai should be more than enough to deal with these fools, he raises his blade into a kendo stance and grabs it with both hands before lifting it in front of his face. "Scatter." He says causing the blade to turn a bright pink before falling apart like falling flower petals. "Senbonzakura." He declares the name of his sword allowing the pink petals that form from the blade to orbit him. As the army advances towards him, he remains stationary. Even as exequias clones appear and try to swipe at his flesh, however the moment they do appear a telepathically controlled petal slices straight through the clone's weapon and body faster than any of them could react.

"Hado number four. Byakurai." He says calmly, as he raises his left hand and points two fingers directly towards the main body of Rudbornn. A bolt of blue electricity manifests off his fingers arcing into some of the nearby exequias and electrocuting them. With the crack of thunder, the lightning bolt created by this kido screams through the air at the speed of light slamming hard into Rudbornn's shoulder. As the light dissipates, he sees that not only did his attack land, it also struck one of the clones that the arrancar tried to use to protect itself but it wasn't nearly fast enough to stop a bolt of lightning. "Whatever I throw at this thing, he will use his clones to defend himself but if they're not fast enough I can land a strike." He internally monologues before flash stepping back to the point where the two had begun their battle.

"I don't think such a technique will work twice, Lord Kuchiki. He's probably smart enough to realize that you can create an attack that fast and will continuously use his clones to protect himself." The voice of his inner hollow that has come to call itself Kuraiyoake Kareki speaks up within his master's inner world. "You're gonna have to deal with those clones now." While Byakuya doesn't answer the inner hollow, he does give off the feeling that he accepts his hollow's advice on the fight.

Surrounded on all sides by the exequias, Byakuya scans the ones in front of him for a moment before looking up at Rudbornn. He watches the arrancar pull spirit energy from ground and use it to repair himself as well as create more clones to replace the ones the captain had defeated. All around him, the exequias begin raising their hands charging hundreds of red ceros all directed towards him. Knowing that his Shikai alone isn't strong enough to deal with over a hundred simultaneous ceros, he waits for the moment the clones fire. Though he doesn't get what he planned for. The exequias clones fire intermittently rather than all at once causing the captain to have to dodge and weave between the attacks. Taking a page from Ichigo's book, he pours as much spirit energy into his legs to move faster and faster. Flash stepping into the air he vanishes then reappears milliseconds later in a different spot creating a vague shadow where he originally was. Pressing this further and further he pulls more of his spirit energy into himself channeling this power into his legs to further his speed. Then, out of the corner of his eye as he appears from a flash step he sees a cero completely miss him and aim for the spot he originally was.

Trying this again, he flash steps out of the way of another cero then appears a few dozen meters away from his original spot. From the corner of his eye he sees another version of himself that the exequias fire at before it fades. Through his usually stoic outward expression he smirks to himself, proud of the fact that even as a captain in the Gotei 13 he still has room to grow. Deciding he's had enough of this light show, he lifts a hand and presses it flat to the air itself. "Bakudo number 81, Danku." He chants creating an impenetrable barrier of kido out in front of him. The ceros slam into the reiatsu barrier and explode into smoke and flames, beam after beam slams into the barrier and explodes but the wall stays strong. The barrier creates a perfectly flat wall of smoke on the side that is getting impacted by the ceros. Rudbornn stops his army from firing at the shinigami captain, expecting there to just be a smoking cloud of ash in the sky but that isn't the case. What he does see is the flower petals created by Senbonzakura get pulled towards the captain. The color has shifted, turning from the vibrant pink to a reddish brown as they're pulled back towards their master.

Rudbornn senses a dramatic shift in Byakuya's spiritual pressure, feeling it become empty and decayed though it's still very much alive. As the smoke clears Rudbornn is greeted by the petrified wooden hollow mask on the face of the captain. The white bark of the mask is only accented by strands of reddish brown that arc outwards in two long strands under his right eye. Something moving catches the eye of the arrancar, causing him to look down at what had fallen. He watches slightly confused at the fact that this captain just dropped his sword, however it suddenly disappears creating ripples in the air as if it had fallen into water. "Bankai." The hollowfied echoing twisted voice of Byakuya echoes outwards over the battlefield. "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi... Kuchite." He says as hundreds of massive swords erect out of the ground and stand as tall as skyscrapers over the battlefield. As they rise to their maximum height, the blades suddenly turn black, and glow with a pink hollowfied reiatsu before decaying into billions of dead flower petals.

"Vibrant Scape of a thousand cherry blossoms?" Rudbornn questions the name of Byakuya's Bankai. "Such arrogance, all I see are disgusting wilted petals." the arrancar says as Byakuya uses the petals to orbit himself and prepare his next attack.

"Normally yes, they are quite beautiful, however my hollow powers cause them to wilt and their abilities to change. I will warn you only once, every petal is a blade as sharp as a razor and as small as a single coin. You will not be able to defend against this and it would be wise if you submit. I will make your death painless, and ensure you reincarnate in soul society. That is the only mercy I can offer you." Byakuya says calmly as the petals continue to orbit his body.

"Don't make me laugh, it is impossible for you to defeat us." Rudbornn and his army declare in unison, but it does nothing to shake Byakuya's resolve.

"So be it. I won't make you suffer, but I apologize for what you are about to experience. It isn't a fate a wayward soul should fall to." Byakuya says apologetically before lifting a hand and firing a single brown petal at the lead soldier created by Rudbornn.

With the entire army being expendable and replaceable in moments, Rudbornn makes zero effort to have this individual soldier evade the attack from the captain. The petal slices through the neck of the clone, the brown petal nearly decapitating the soldier as it slices straight through him. Rudbornn merely creates a new soldier to replace the one that died but he stops when the body doesn't disappear and the spirit energy doesn't return to him through his roots. Instead a searing pain screams through his body, forcing him to sever the telepathic link he has with the affected clone. Not wanting the other clones to suffer the same fate, Rudbornn moves some of them away, but even through the hive mind he has over the clones, Byakuya can see that they're terrified of what happened. The affected clone spasms and seizes on the floor before its stomach bursts open revealing tree roots that reach upwards before stabbing into the ground. The body is hoisted up by the roots growing from its stomach before being flipped and pulled towards the ground. From its arms and upper body, branches explode from its skin and reach high into the sky creating an abhorrent mockery of nature. The exequias soldier is no more, and the only semblance of its former identity is its mask, slightly encapsulated within the bark of the unnatural tree. Its limbs producing the same brown petals that orbit the hollowfied captain, the terrifying transformation of his own clone shakes Rudbornn with fear.

"Impossible... this... this has to be an illusion!" Rudbornn shouts as he commands his army to attack Byakuya once again.

"I'm sorry that it's come to this. Know that I don't take pleasure in doing this Rudbornn Chelute. I pray that you'll forgive me in the next life." Byakuya apologies before lifting his hand, expanding his fingers outwards prompting the billions of wilted petals to gust forwards. The motion commands the petals created by the tree that absorbed the clone to wilt from their branches and take flight just the same as the others.

"Kill him! Kill him! Die!" Rudbornn screams as petals tear through clone after clone causing them all to seize before going through the same viscous metamorphosis. With each clone that dies, a tree grows and blooms before wilting and shedding its petals. Quickly growing an orchard of suffering takes place of the army created by the legion arrancar. Thousands of petrified trees with pained faces that were once masks worn by Rudbornn Chelute. The arrancar reverts his resurrection in order to escape from the pain of every single clone he created being ripped apart by the petrified trees growing through their bodies and blossoming into the air. There sadly is no escape for the arrancar, the last thing he sees is Byakuya's hollow mask before he's split vertically from the sword swipe. He sees Byakuya's form from the follow through of the sword swing before his eyes start sending two different messages, from one he is still eye level with the captain, but from the other his vision is now focused on his chest as the two halves of his body slide then split apart. "Please forgive me, Rudbornn Chelute. Be born again, in Soul Society." Byakuya says the prayer aloud as the arrancar disintegrates into spirit particles blowing away in the wind. The captain solemnly removes his mask before gazing upon the orchard of suffering he created to slay this arrancar. The frigid winds of the frozen desert shaking the leafless limbs in the petrified orchard.