Soul King

The Soul Society's 'king': in truth a being mutilated and sealed in a crystal for a million years, the living linchpin that keeps the World of the Living, the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo apart.

The Soul Society's founders, among them the ancestors of the great houses, stripped him of arms, legs and heart to make him the pillar of the three worlds. His parts still live elsewhere: the right hand, Mimihagi, in Ukitake's lungs. Yhwach, his son, wants to reunite him with himself to merge the worlds; when he kills and absorbs him, it is the sign the war is lost — until Ukitake's sacrifice buys time.