"C-Cole…"
On the white desert that had been turned to ice and snow, Rukia finally stopped gnawing on Cole and lifted her head.
She stared, stunned, at the endless tide of Hollows in the distance.
"How… how can there be so many Hollows!?"
As far as the eye could see, in the boundless white sand, countless Hollows were charging madly toward them.
There were small-fry Hollows.
There were Gillian-class Menos.
There were low-tier large Hollows.
And there were upper-tier large Hollows.
Packed so densely together it was like a rising tide, towering ten thousand meters high and crashing straight in their direction.
Even though that mass of Hollows hadn't reached them yet, Rukia already felt fear gnawing at her heart.
There were simply too many of them.
So many it was hard to believe such a number even existed.
She could clearly see huge, mountain-sized black Gillian stomping down, crushing hundreds of small Hollows under a single foot.
And none of those corpses were wasted.
They were devoured clean by the surrounding small-fry Hollows.
It was the very picture of hell on earth.
Cole shook the frost off his clothes, glanced at the shattered remains that were all that was left of Aaroniero, and said,
"They're here for this, right?"
In Hueco Mundo, Hollows didn't vanish the moment they died. Their bodies lingered for a while like ordinary corpses before dispersing.
That was the key to why Hollows could devour each other in the first place.
After Aaroniero's death, his corpse had become a delicacy in the eyes of the small Hollows and the Gillian.
After all, he had devoured more than thirty thousand Hollows. Even a tiny scrap of that corpse was enough to let a low-tier large Hollow evolve once.
This was basically the prototype of "Gillian feed" from the original story.
"That's not the problem…"
Rukia said anxiously, "We have to get out of here right now. If we let them surround us, we're dead for sure."
This was a Hollow tide in Hueco Mundo.
You could kill and kill and still never reach the end of it.
Once you were entangled by a swarm of Hollows like this, there was nothing waiting at the end except death.
Cole, however, showed no fear.
With a wave of his right hand, the Ruyi Jingu Bang appeared in his grip, its golden staff shining with dazzling light.
Even in this urgent situation, Rukia still noticed that something was different.
"Cole, your staff… it looks different."
The corners of Cole's mouth curled up. He gave the golden staff a light swing.
"Of course it does. After all these battles, I've finally managed to grasp a bit of my bankai's power."
As he said that, he couldn't help complaining in his heart.
Way too slow.
Ichigo had awakened his bankai in less than a month.
He, on the other hand, had taken close to half a year.
On top of that, he'd absorbed more reishi than he could count.
Between the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, he'd pretty much stripped both sides bare.
And even then…
He'd only barely touched the edge of bankai.
Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Cole took a deep breath.
He slammed the golden staff down into the ground and shouted,
"Bankai!!!"
In an instant, golden light shot up into the sky.
Infinite golden radiance flooded Hueco Mundo.
Under the night sky, Las Noches and the white desert were blanketed in that glow. From a distance, it was like a golden mountain had been dropped over the land.
And that wasn't just a metaphor.
Within that golden light, gravity suddenly multiplied several hundred times over.
Small-fry Hollows and Gillian alike screamed in pain.
Large Hollows collapsed one after another onto the sand.
No matter how they struggled or roared, they couldn't escape the restraint of the golden light.
They couldn't advance.
They couldn't retreat.
They could only remain fixed to the ground, howling in place.
The Hollow tide that had terrified Rukia just moments ago—
Was wiped out by Cole in a single move.
Rukia stared blankly at Cole, her mouth hanging open as she stammered,
"T-this is… your bankai!?"
She'd seen large-scale offensive abilities before.
But she'd never seen anything as absurd as this.
With one thrust of a golden staff, everything within dozens of kilometers was pinned down.
It might as well have been an invisible mountain range dropped from above.
"It's not a full bankai yet."
Cole shook his head with a hint of regret.
"It's just half a step into bankai. If it were complete, all those small-fry Hollows would've been crushed to death the instant my ability activated."
Under the current hundreds-of-times gravity, only a few relatively strong small Hollows could survive.
Ordinary small-fry Hollows—
Would be crushed to pulp by the pressure alone.
Rukia swallowed hard and turned to look around.
All around them, countless Hollows lay pinned flat to the ground.
And sure enough…
Boom. Boom. Boom…
Small Hollows exploded one after another.
In terms of pure killing efficiency, this was far more outrageous than Senbonzakura.
"Alright, enough staring. Let's go."
Cole wrapped an arm around Rukia's waist and smiled.
He tapped his foot lightly, and their figures vanished from the sky above Hueco Mundo.
With Cole's departure—
The golden staff disappeared as well.
Without the suppression of the hundredfold gravity, the collapsed Hollows regained their greedy nature and charged forward with crazed roars.
Many of them threw themselves on the remains of their comrades who had been crushed to death by the gravity, devouring them in great gulps.
Meat was still meat, even if it came from a mosquito.
In the blink of an eye…
The place had turned into a gluttonous feast.
From time to time, a small Hollow would let out an excited roar as its body surged in size, transforming into a Gillian-class giant and throwing itself madly toward the center.
The center of the battlefield was even bloodier.
Mountain-sized Gillian-class Menos wrestled and howled as they tore at Aaroniero's remains.
As the carnage went on—
One pure-black Gillian, after swallowing who-knew-how-many corpses, suddenly began shrinking rapidly.
Her form twisted into a humanoid shape, with a graceful figure and long black hair that fell to her waist.
An Adjuchas had been born.
She licked her lips, staring in excitement at the direction where Cole had vanished. Then she stepped barefoot onto the white sand.
"Shinigami! Stop!!!"
Cole knew nothing of what was happening behind him.
He'd already brought Rukia to a certain room deep within Las Noches.
"Yo, Hiyori, Lisa. You two don't look so good."
Cole pushed the door open and glanced at the two Hollowfied girls and the two Arrancar inside, greeting them with a cheerful grin.
"Cole!"
"Thank goodness, you're finally here!"
Hiyori Sarugaki and Lisa Yadomaru froze for a moment, then looked at Cole in delight, nearly moved to tears.
Only they knew how much they'd suffered here.
They'd finally waited long enough for someone to come save them.
Rukia's face flushed red. She didn't dare look directly at the two of them and muttered under her breath,
"Um… Hiyori, Lisa, your clothes…"
Right now, the two girls were in a state that could only be described as dangerously provocative.
They were wearing the solemn black shihakusho of Shinigami—
But the black robes had been torn open in strip after strip, exposing large swaths of pale skin.
Bare shoulders, slim waists, long legs… each part revealed just a little, enough to send the imagination running wild.
It had that same sinful charm as a nun in black stockings.
At Rukia's words—
Hiyori and Lisa's faces turned beet red.
They wanted nothing more than to find a hole and bury their heads in it.
"D-don't look…"
Lisa whispered in a mosquito-soft voice, cheeks burning.
Despite all the dirty books she read, that didn't mean she had much real experience.
If anything, she was still pretty pure.
Cole rubbed his chin with a baffled look.
"Far as I know, Hollows don't have reproductive functions or reproductive urges. So what exactly did you two go through?"
Unlike humans and Shinigami, Hollows weren't born through pregnancy or eggs. They manifested.
They were directly transformed from human souls into Hollows.
That meant Hollows had no reproductive ability and not even the urge for that kind of thing.
In fact, Hollows below the Adjuchas level didn't even have reproductive organs. Even among Adjuchas, those who did were rare.
Hearing this, Hiyori ground her teeth and glared at the two female Arrancar.
"It's their fault…"
Ever since they'd been brought to Las Noches, she and Lisa had been locked in this room. They barely saw Aizen, much less any other Hollows.
Then, two hours ago, these two female Arrancar had barged in.
They'd said they didn't like the sight of them.
Said they couldn't stand that Aizen had personally remodeled them.
Said they needed to "teach them a lesson" and prove to Aizen that they were the real strongest.
All sorts of insane nonsense.
And with their spiritual power sealed, Hiyori and Lisa had no way to fight back. They'd been beaten up and toyed with for two full hours.
After hearing the story, Cole couldn't help shaking his head.
"Aizen really is the ultimate big bad. He's got people's psychology dissected down to the bone."
In the Soul Society, there was Hinamori.
Here in Hueco Mundo, there were these two female Arrancar.
It was like Aizen could see straight through their hearts, manipulating them like puppets in his hands.
And the saddest part was—
He did it all just for fun.
"So what do we do? Should we kill them?"
Face still flushed, Rukia hopped out of Cole's arms, drew her zanpakuto, and tried to glare viciously at the two female Arrancar.
The two of them jumped, quickly pulling out their own zanpakuto.
The black-haired twin-tailed girl pointed her blade at the two Shinigami—but after a moment's hesitation, she turned the tip toward Cole instead.
The blonde, blue-eyed tomboy Menoly Mallia copied her, pointing her blade at Cole too.
Cole spread his hands helplessly.
"I wasn't the one who said it. Why are your swords pointed at me?"
Loly Aivirrne gritted her teeth.
"Idiot! Because you're the most dangerous one here. You don't think I saw your fight just now!?"
Those arrogant, high-and-mighty Espada had all been beaten bloody by this human Shinigami.
If Aizen hadn't arrived in time to bail them out, there probably wouldn't be many of the Espada left alive.
Even Aizen himself…
Hadn't managed to take Cole down.
Compared to this walking disaster, that petite female Shinigami was hardly worth worrying about.
Rukia ground her teeth hard.
If she hadn't just used her bankai, she'd have loved to show these two female Arrancar what Absolute Zero really meant.
Menoly swallowed nervously.
"Shinigami… you'd better calm down. We're Lord Aizen's personal guards. If you lay a hand on us, Lord Aizen will never let you go…"
Boom!!!
A crushing spiritual pressure flooded the entire corridor.
The raging wind it kicked up tore at their clothes and hair, sending their long locks flying wildly in the air.
The two Arrancar's pupils dilated as they stared in horror at the figure radiating spiritual pressure, standing in the middle of a blue storm.
Cole looked at them and spoke mildly.
"You said Aizen won't let me go?"
"And how exactly is he going to 'not let me go'?"
The two girls trembled.
They wanted to speak, but no words came.
That brutal spiritual pressure pressed down on them like a mountain, smothering their voices.
"Loly… I can't hold on…"
Menoly looked at Loly with despair in her eyes.
She knew.
They'd kicked an iron wall this time.
He'd pinned them in place with spiritual pressure alone. There was no need to even talk about what he could do in an actual fight.
He was a monster on Aizen's level.
Even with that kind of gap, Loly Aivirrne still refused to give up.
She gritted her teeth and shouted,
"Poison him—Hyakushi Dokushō (Hundred-Sting Poison Harlot)!!!"
In an instant, the black-haired, tsundere little brat transformed into a venomous beast.
Her body took on the form of a giant centipede.
Both arms became long, segmented white weapons, each segment covered in poisonous spikes.
Thick purple venom spurted from every sting.
Looking at her, Cole couldn't help the exasperation in his eyes.
"I swear, there are way too many strong monsters in this world. Why do you upper-class Hollows always like turning into animals?"
Thinking back over the Arrancar he'd seen so far—
In their Resurrección forms, they could just about fill an entire zoo.
Boom!!!
Even more terrifying spiritual pressure exploded from Cole's body, pressing down on them like the heavens themselves.
The oncoming purple venom never even had a chance to reach him before it was forced a hundred meters away by that brutal pressure.
Loly Aivirrne, who'd wanted to launch an attack, crashed to the ground with a thud, flattened by the spiritual pressure.
Her centipede-like white arms kept trying to push against the floor, but no matter how many times she tried, she couldn't get her body to rise.
The dark, sinister Hollow reiatsu weighed on her back like an abyss.
She couldn't stand up at all.
"Menoly…"
Loly looked toward her companion, unwilling to accept it.
But Menoly Mallia, blonde, blue-eyed, and usually brash as a boy, was in even worse shape than she was.
The female Arrancar knelt on the ground, zanpakuto in hand, face pale and body trembling uncontrollably.
She couldn't even manage to release her zanpakuto.
Just like that—
The two female Arrancar, the "Espada" numbered 33 and 34, one kneeling, one collapsed, could only stare as Cole walked past them as if nothing had happened.
With a casual wave, the seals on Hiyori and Lisa shattered.
Cole frowned at the two, who still hadn't moved.
"Why are you still sitting there?"
Hiyori and Lisa both wanted to roll their eyes right out of their heads.
Their jaws hung open in matching expressions of complete meltdown.
Seeing that, Cole suddenly thought of something and couldn't help smirking.
"Hiyori, when did you start being as bad as Lisa?"
The two of them nearly coughed up blood.
We were almost crushed to death by your spiritual pressure, okay!?
Rukia hurriedly tugged on Cole's sleeve.
Only then did he realize what he'd done.
He pulled his spiritual pressure back with a slightly awkward cough.
"Right, right, my bad. I forgot. You two, hurry up and get changed. We still have to head back to the World of the Living and support the Soul Society."
(End of Chapter)
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