"He's still alive!"
Even after cleaving Rhodes Fores in half, Barragan did not relax.
One half of the Vasto Lorde's body had already begun deteriorating under Respira's influence. The decay spread from within, gnawing at tissue that struggled to regenerate fast enough.
The other half twitched violently, regeneration activating — but noticeably slower than before.
"Now!" Sombravida appeared instantly at the center of the battlefield and erected a layered spatial barrier around the bisected Vasto Lorde.
"It was you… you rat!"
Rhodes' remaining eye locked onto Sombravida immediately. Unlike previous encounters with Barragan, this time the decay had begun from his internal organs. The difference was catastrophic.
His regeneration had always overwhelmed external corrosion.
Internal decay was another matter entirely.
Golden-red reiatsu flared violently.
His severed head regrew.
His torso attempted reconstruction.
"We cannot allow him to stabilize!" Sombravida swung his Sky-Splitting Greatsword, unleashing two compressed dimensional slashes aimed at the neck region.
He was testing.
The core.
The mask was clearly not the source of Rhodes' life force. That much was obvious now. The regenerative origin point had to be elsewhere.
Sombravida severed another limb.
Respira seeped deeper.
Rhodes' subordinates, seeing their lord restrained, erupted into fury.
"Lord!!"
They broke formation and charged.
Barragan turned without hesitation.
Respira surged outward in a dense wave.
Time itself accelerated in the path of the black miasma.
Approaching Adjuchas aged to dust mid-charge.
Cero and ranged attacks dissolved before making contact.
Barragan re-focused on Rhodes.
Through the spatial conduit Sombravida established, compressed Respira was fed directly into the barrier dimension.
The enclosed space became saturated with accelerated decay.
Rhodes regenerated.
Decay consumed.
Regeneration slowed.
Decay intensified.
A vicious equilibrium formed — but it favored entropy.
Meanwhile, Sombravida was under strain.
Maintaining layered spatial containment, concealment, and protective displacement simultaneously consumed immense concentration.
And he did not fully trust Barragan.
Spatial escape anchors remained pre-positioned.
Rhodes' movements grew erratic.
Internal organs deteriorated faster than they could reconstruct.
Finally—
His eyes burned white.
Cracks of blinding light spread across his split body.
Sombravida's instincts flared.
"He's detonating!"
A mid-level Vasto Lorde self-destructing—
The destructive output would rival upper-tier Bankai-level devastation.
Sombravida abandoned the barrier instantly, displacing outward through a pre-marked anchor.
Barragan reacted equally fast.
Respira condensed around him defensively as he retreated.
The detonation came.
White light engulfed the battlefield.
The spatial barrier shattered instantly.
Compressed Respira dispersed violently.
The explosion tore across several kilometers.
Sand was stripped from bedrock.
Quartz forests disintegrated.
Dozens of Adjuchas were annihilated outright.
Hundreds were thrown violently outward.
Sombravida shielded himself through layered spatial redirection, using displacement to vent explosive vectors sideways rather than absorb them directly.
Barragan endured through condensed Respira, allowing decay to neutralize portions of the blast before it fully impacted.
When the light faded—
The battlefield was devastated.
Smoke and reiatsu residue lingered.
Sombravida immediately began scanning.
At first glance, Rhodes' spiritual pressure had fragmented.
But—
There.
A concentrated fluctuation.
Compact.
Dense.
More refined than the scattered remnants.
Sombravida located it quickly.
A palm-sized lump of flesh encased in white mask-like material.
Condensed spiritual core.
As he approached—
It burst forward at high speed, grazing his shoulder and tearing flesh.
Fast.
But not fast enough.
Sombravida displaced ahead and intercepted it.
He switched grip mid-swing and struck it downward with the flat of his blade rather than cleaving.
The lump slammed into the ground.
Blood seeped slowly from beneath the white casing.
"…Don't kill me…"
It spoke.
Sombravida paused briefly.
So consciousness remained centralized in the core.
Interesting.
"I'll tell you my secret…"
Sombravida's gaze remained cold.
"Secrets are liabilities."
He did not gamble.
He opened his jaws and swallowed the core whole.
The moment it was crushed—
An immense surge of Vasto Lorde-level spiritual pressure flooded his system.
His body expanded slightly under pressure.
Internal channels strained.
Unlike Adjuchas masks, this was not residual shell energy.
This was concentrated Vasto Lorde core essence.
Sombravida immediately began compressing and refining.
If he failed to stabilize—
His spiritual structure could rupture.
From afar, Barragan approached.
"I sensed him again briefly. Is he finished?"
Sombravida exhaled slowly, aura stabilizing.
"He is now."
Barragan's skull tilted slightly.
"You consumed a Vasto Lorde core while still Adjuchas… and remain intact."
Sombravida responded evenly.
"It was only the condensed core. Much of his spiritual pressure detonated."
Barragan studied him but did not press further.
The battlefield cleanup resumed.
Approximately one hundred seventy Adjuchas-level masks were gathered as agreed.
Sombravida sealed them spatially for later refinement.
He would not evolve within another lord's territory.
That would be reckless.
Barragan returned to him once operations concluded.
"You performed well."
Sombravida inclined his head slightly.
"Your Majesty's Respira made the plan possible."
Barragan dismissed the flattery.
After a pause, Sombravida asked:
"What is it like to evolve from peak Adjuchas to Vasto Lorde?"
Barragan shook his skull slowly.
"I did not ascend through Adjuchas."
Sombravida narrowed his eyes.
"I was not born Adjuchas," Barragan continued calmly. "I was born something greater."
Sombravida remained silent.
"I was born as a Hollow King."
The revelation struck like compressed reiatsu.
"A Hollow… King?"
Barragan nodded.
"Long before the current era. When Hueco Mundo's power was not fragmented. There were nine of us."
Sombravida listened carefully.
"Each governed a principle. Mine was decay — the acceleration of time."
Respira.
A law-level manifestation.
"I fell after battling an ancient Hollow entity. My body shattered. What remained regressed into Vasto Lorde."
Sombravida absorbed the information carefully.
Above Vasto Lorde.
Hollow Kings.
Law-level manifestations.
"Ancient Hollows?" Sombravida asked.
"Entities without sovereignty. Only instinct and law. Destruction incarnate."
Barragan continued:
"After my fall, the other Hollow Kings disappeared over centuries. Sealed. Destroyed. Or something else."
He looked toward the endless white sky.
"No new Hollow Kings have emerged since."
Sombravida processed this carefully.
If spatial manipulation could ascend to law-level—
If concealment could also—
The implications were immense.
But he remained calm.
"You sought Rhodes' life force to restore yourself?" Sombravida asked.
"Yes," Barragan answered plainly. "But his regeneration was not law-tier. It would not have restored what I lost."
Sombravida remained silent.
Barragan waved a skeletal hand dismissively.
"What is consumed is consumed. I will not demand its return."
A pause.
"When I move toward central Hueco Mundo, I will send word west. Our alliance remains."
Sombravida nodded slowly.
He no longer viewed Barragan as merely a Vasto Lorde tyrant.
He was something older.
A fallen sovereign of principles.
"Then I will return west and strengthen my domain."
Sombravida turned toward the distant horizon.
There was still much to refine.
Much to evolve.
Hueco Mundo was deeper than he had imagined.
And he intended to climb higher.
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