Scarlet light exploded through the forest, wrapped around a vicious arc of blade-light, and hacked half of the Gillian's leg clean off.
The pain drove the Hollow into a frenzy. It roared loud enough to shake the ground, dust blasting into the air.
Unlike the standard, black, long-necked Gillians, this one had both intelligence and a combat-ready body—basically an Adjuchas in waiting.
But what truly terrified it was that the Shinigami brat in front of it clearly had weaker Reiatsu—
Yet somehow, through sheer, overwhelming ferocity, this kid was forcing it back again and again, leaving it no room to counterattack.
If this kept up, was it really going to lose to a Shinigami?
Unacceptable.
"You're just food. How dare you?!"
Seething with rage, the Gillian seized on a gap in Naraku's offense. Its massive jaws snapped open, and a crimson beam erupted without warning.
In mid-fight, Naraku reacted instantly. With a sidestepping Shunpo, the red Cero grazed past him and detonated behind his back.
Blazing fire shot up to the sky, dyeing the entire forest red.
The Hollow didn't pause for a second. Using the window created by its own Cero, its giant body lunged forward and closed the distance to Naraku in an instant.
Claws the size of a person's torso swung up and came crashing down.
Boom!
The earth shook. A deep crater cratered into the ground, the soil packed hard and dark from the impact.
Naraku had been watching its movements the entire time. Before the strike landed, he slipped into Shunpo's invincibility frame and dodged the blow by a hair.
Blood-red Reiatsu billowed around him like mist, staining his black-and-white eyes a glowing red.
He and the Gillian looked almost like the same kind of creature.
His body, strung tight like a bow, dipped low. Gold and crimson danced along his blade—explosive thunder and searing fire twisting together.
Two forces that should have clashed instead merged into a strange, perfect harmony under his control.
The sword vibrated. The air itself warped in the heat, even his face reflecting back in a grotesque distortion—
Like a demon.
The Gillian backed up a few steps and heard something crackling.
That was the sound of its own hair breaking apart.
The air temperature spiked. Sparks mixed with arcs of lightning skittered along its body. Clumps of hair burned through like dead grass, snapping and falling away—
Then turning straight to ash.
At the edge of his vision, Aizen caught that and a rare flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
He'd already thought Naraku's Reiatsu growth was absurd—but he hadn't counted on his talent in swordsmanship and Kidō being even more terrifying.
Back at the Academy he'd only been slightly above average.
Yet after graduation, he'd practically sublimated. The talent he was showing now was outrageous.
Even I'm barely keeping up, Aizen thought.
Late bloomer? Or something else entirely?
A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, but he shook them off and refocused on their surroundings.
He couldn't explain why, but even with Naraku clearly dominating the Gillian—pushing it hard enough that Aizen barely needed to worry about the fight—
The sense of unease inside him was only growing.
It felt like something else was lurking nearby.
But he'd already washed the entire forest with his Reiatsu. There were no unfamiliar presences.
Not even a hint of unusual reishi fluctuation.
Where was the danger coming from?
Aizen frowned. What am I missing?
One side was quiet enough to be eerie. The other was burning hot with battle.
Naraku grinned viciously. As he lunged, his Zanpakutō whipped upward in a rising slash.
Heat detonated in an instant—hotter than the sun—severing the Gillian's thick tail like a pillar being chopped through.
Dark red blood gushed out like a fountain, spectacular for all of one heartbeat—
Before vaporizing completely.
Gone without a trace.
The pain of losing a limb hit, and the Gillian's roar tore through the forest again.
But this time, there was a hint of fear in it.
The Gillian stared at the boy in front of it—who looked more like a demon than a Shinigami—and suddenly had the distinct feeling that this guy was more Hollow than it was.
This wasn't reasonable at all.
A fight it should have easily won had somehow become a one-sided beatdown under the crushing weight of the boy's sheer aggression.
It wasn't that it couldn't fight back—
It just had no hope of winning.
Time to retreat. If it didn't run now, it would lose more than its tail—its entire existence would stay here.
But the moment the Gillian thought of running, the outcome of the battle was already decided.
Another piercing sound tore through the air.
Shakkahō and Sōkatsui overlapped along the blade, the clash of power exploding the instant the sword came down.
A scorching wind rushed out.
The fear on the Hollow's hideous face froze. A thin red line appeared down the center of its head, from the top all the way to the bottom.
BOOM!!
The explosion rocked the forest. The ground beneath the Gillian split open, wild light coiling into a pillar of flame that shot into the sky.
Shockwaves rippled outward in visible waves, blasting apart trees by the dozens and turning the battlefield into a wasteland.
"Guh…"
The Gillian let out one last faint sound—then vanished into the roaring wind, its life snuffed out. Even its body couldn't hold together; flesh peeled away and evaporated, leaving only a charred skeleton in the crater.
What surprised Naraku was that at the exact moment the Hollow died, ripples spread across his vision like waves on a pond.
[Successfully executed criminal Hollow: Gillian. Sin Value: 1145. Contribution: 100%!]
[Your Reiatsu has increased. Current Reiatsu Grade: 6!]
[Your Hakuda has increased. Current Level: LV48!]
[You have obtained Hollow Power!]
Justice, that's what I'm talking about.
He'd thought only locking them up in the underground prison triggered rewards. Turned out in some cases, killing on the spot worked too.
Now he had to keep jumping in.
That familiar sensation surged through him again—a brutal, raging power tearing through his body. Scorching heat burned at the root of his soul.
Stronger than last time.
But Naraku wasn't the pushover he used to be. With his refined control, he could clamp down on the Hollow energy and keep it within safe bounds.
Right as he was merging it—
Aizen suddenly flashed to his side with Shunpo, grabbed him—
And ran.
Without a word.
The next heartbeat—
Under the light of the setting sun and rising moon, the soil of the entire forest began to churn and boil. The rumbling of grinding earth rose into a roar.
Blazing fire erupted from underground, turning everything in sight to molten rock in an instant.
Naraku's eyes went wide as he watched the inferno roll over everything behind them, and he couldn't help cursing under his breath:
"Shit."
In less than ten seconds, the vast forest had turned into a miniature Blazing Hell.