The Third Power
This is an interesting idea that I had ever since I've started 'Beginning to End', formerly known as 'Time Is Everything', and it is from an Alternate Universe (AU), so some things are not the same as canon, or original. This does not mean that I'm abandoning 'Beginning to End', it just means that I have a separate idea that's been in my mind for some time and I need to put it down in text to save some brain cells for other things. So Lets Go!
"Talking..."
'Thinking...'
"Hollowfied..."
"Transcendent"
So this story is based mainly on Hollows, and the main character will be a hollow as well but it's identity will be revealed later. So please, just read along and have a good day. Happy Reading!
Prologue
Deep within the depths of Hueco Mundo... A dark figure cackles madly as it swings its sword around, sending wave after wave of whiplash and reishi recklessly towards two other beings. The two other figures looked on with serious expressions on their faces as they narrowly evaded the deadly waves sent out by the hollow in front of them.
One had sleek brown hair with a single strand billowing across his face. His eyes were inlaid with purple scleras and white irises. He wore a long white coat with upturned ragged collars and the inner part of the coat being a royal purple. The cloak was seamless as it covered his entire figure like skin-tight spandex except for his head and part of his chest. The lower part of the cloak flared out from the hips revealing more white skin-tight clothing that formed into boots as it went down. He wielded the silver blade of a katana without a guard or hilt, just the blade itself as it extended out from his enclosed right hand.
To his left was a boy dressed in a black cloak with ragged edges. He had dark brown hair billowing back over his face, revealing twin orbs of light blue irises that shone with power. Around his wrists and collar were the ragged ends of his white dress shirt that he wore underneath the jet black coat, and in his right hand was an ornate blade, reminiscent of a Dadao blade with a crossguard shaped like a bird. It had a relatively long handle and its edge was white while the blunt side of the sword was black.
Opposite them was something that could simply be described as the devil of Hell; a humanoid black mask with twin white streaks going down over the two empty eye sockets that glowed a bright yellow from behind the mask. Two long protruding horns jutted out of its skull from the sides and curved around then forward into two long pointed ends.
It wore a white cloak with ragged edges that joined at the middle of its torso then flared out from the hips. Large black streaks decorated the bottom of the cloak, much like the ones on a Captain's haori, and the right sleeve was missing. Around the neck, wrists and ankles were dark flames flaring out of them as reishi flowed freely out of the ends of them. The demon had long straight white hair and sharp clawed hands and feet that could easily tear through any hierro.
The final piece of the menacing figure, and most threatening of all, was its sword; a long pure white daito blade with four protruding curved and sharp segments for a guard. A long chain came out of the base of its hilt, coiling around its right arm while the extra ends at the shoulder flailed about behind it. What made it so threatening was that a single swipe had cleared out an entire section of the Menos Forest, sending all of the tall bare trees falling down upon them.
All three beings, the three most powerful in all the realms, clashed in battle, with the two men against the hollow. A deafening roar shook the scene as the younger of the two dashed in towards the hollow's neck. The creature merely swiped the sword away from its intended path and into the trunk of a fallen tree. The young teen grunted as he pulled it out forcefully, sending the large trunk straight towards the hollow as the white clothed man appeared beside it and swung his blade down on the hollow's head.
The buzz of a Sonido was heard as the hollow fazed out of sight and appeared a few meters away from its opponents. It snarled harshly at the two men as they stared back impassively. The hollow merely stood there as the older man turned to the boy.
"I've prepared the area for sealing. I need you to distract him for me while I initiate the sealing process. This should take no longer than a few minutes if all goes well," the man said. The boy glanced at his father then back towards the hollow.
He nodded quickly to the older figure before dashing off towards the hollow who began charging a Cero between its horns. Before the hollow could fire it, he grabbed a horn and yanked it to the side, causing the Cero to barrel across the field and into a long row of more white trees which vaporized on contact to the beam of energy. He let go of the horn before the hollow could cut his hand off and swung his sword at the hollow once more.
The hollow easily parried the attack and stabbed a hand forward which the younger man dodged by a hair's breadth. It retracted its appendage before letting loose a large barrage of swings and stabs towards the boy at speeds that left afterimages of its own arm and blade. It was only due to the boy's quick latency that he dodged all of the attacks, although his cloak had gained a few nicks and scratches in the process.
He eventually had to resort to parrying the wild swings it was making before taking a risk and swung as hard as he could at the hollow. It parried the forceful swing but was pushed back a few feet as a result, which was just what the other needed.
As soon as it was isolated by itself, several chains shot out of the ground and latched onto the hollow's body. As this happened, gold kanji letters appeared around the hollow and more layered upon the others as thick black bindings wrapped itself around the struggling hollow.
Soon enough, there were nine rings of Kido around a constrained figure wrapped entirely in black bandages and chains all around its torso, arms, legs, neck, hands, and feet. The nine gold rings then shrunk into the waist of the bound hollow as seven pillars emerged from the ground, surrounding the restrained hollow and chaining it onto them as well as latching the hollow's body onto its surface.
The finishing touches were made as red planks enchanted with powerful Kido slammed themselves into the hollow's collarbone, shoulders, waist, wrists, knees, and ankles. After all this was done, the pillars dragged the hollow down until it was kneeling on the ground with its arms to its sides held in place by the various bindings that were placed upon it.
The words of some sort of Kido were murmured as the hollow was soon knocked out by a gargantuan blast of Reiryoku then surrounded by a dome of translucent gold, which hardened into a near transparent glass of toughened reishi.
The young boy just stared as this happened as his father appeared beside him. The older man walked up to his boy and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it firmly to gain the boy's attention. The boy turned around as his father looked back with a blank expression upon his face. He spoke first before his son could ask questions.
"What is done is done, he cannot be saved now," he spoke in a firm and commanding tone, not allowing room for arguments. "Even if you wanted to, those bindings are not easy to break through. I made it so that he will not awaken in a millennium's time. Forget that he ever existed and let us move on with our lives. He is a lost cause which even I cannot fix. Let us go, and leave him be."
He took his hand off of his shoulder and began to walk away. When he noticed the absence of a figure behind him, he turned around to see his son still standing in the same spot with a downcast expression on his face. He sighed as he looked back at his youngest son.
"I said, let us go now. I will not allow his release nor will I allow you to try to free him. He will merely be a forgotten memory in a few years' time and I will not allow my son to grieve over a mere hollow." The young boy looked up at the older man's face for a minute, trying to read the man's blank expression.
But eventually he obeyed; with a short bow before taking off for the castle.
The older man sighed as he looked at his son's retreating figure, then back at the bound and secured hollow. He stared for a few minutes, contemplating over the events that had happened before shaking his head and taking one last glance at the kneeling figure in front of him.
"I shall be seeing you soon, my child." He said, as he turned around and began walking off towards his castle.
. . . . .
As the white-garbed man walked, he noticed a sword embedded into a nearby tree trunk. He went closer and noticed its familiarity. The black blade with the chain at its hilt's end. The hollow's blade. It had apparently flown out of its hands during the sealing process. He took it by the hilt and looked over the blade of the perfectly forged sword. He sighed tiredly as he continued walking to the faroff castle in the distance.
Sometimes, even he would grow weary from life's neverending game.
Back at the castle, the king sat at his throne as his son stood in front of him, kneeling down on one knee. He acknowledged the boy before sitting back against his royal seat. The young man stood as he looked up at his father.
"Why have you come, my son?" He asked. He already knew why it was that he came but decided to put his son's mind at rest.
"I've come all but to ask you, 'What was the purpose of doing what you've just done?' The man is already sealed deep within the depths of the Hollow World, why go so far as to uproot his entire living chambers and leaving it on the sands of Hueco Mundo?" He questioned with a hardened expression.
"I cannot afford having my people remembering him when I'm trying to bring back the peace that we've lost. Enough blood has been spilled, now is not the time to grieve but to rebuild what has been destroyed," he explained, although his son did not seem to like his answer.
"You've already established that much when you sealed him away, why go further by dumping Las Noches in Hueco Mundo? The man in question has already been dealt with, why his property as well?" He asked again in an indecent tone. The older man narrowed his eyes.
"Don't speak so harshly to your own father. As for your question, it is as I said; I cannot afford having my people grieving over his loss when there are other things to worry about. Now take your leave at once. I shall not deal with you right now," he stated firmly, as he stood up from his seat and walked over to the large window.
The boy gave a low icy glare in response before walking out of the room with reiatsu seething out of his being. This would eventually all be just a bad memory in due time, and he would have his peace once more.
The Soul King sighed. He was sure of it.
Back in Hueco Mundo, a few years after the conflict, a Vasto Lorde found its way to a large colossal fortress in the middle of the desert in all of its splendor and glory. It walked in through the opened gates reminiscing in its sheer size. The hollow continued on its way, as it came upon a large room with nothing but darkness in its mist.
The skeletal being raised a bony hand and charged a small Cero which it held in its palm, lighting up the dark area. Its surroundings slowly lit up and revealed more blank space, but then it came upon a rather peculiar sight; a black blade embedded in a block of pure Sekkiseki with a chain dangling off its hilt's end.
He reached out with his free hand towards the sword's hilt but immediately drew it back as an appendage of black reishi stemmed off of the blade and stabbed at the place where his hand was before. It peaked his curiosity but he soon gave up after trying a few more times, each with the same result. He stared at the blade, black reishi swirling around it in a protective manner, before turning around and walking away.
Soon he reached another room with a table and several seats along its length with the biggest at the opposite end of him. There before the biggest seat, was a golden crown with prongs like tipped arrows jutting upwards from its round base decorated with gold engravings. A chain came off of the side of it, latched onto the throne.
He reached out and took the crown, admiring it's intricate handiwork. It stared at the glittering object before setting it above his head as he sat down. He smiled underneath his visage as there, the start of King Barragan's reign began.
That. Is. It! A little start-up for this series 'The Third Power'! I know that some of you out there already know who everyone is, but that's okay. Just means you're up-to-date with some of Bleach's latest updates in the manga. Before you question the Soul King's appearance, I thought that it was a good look for him, and if you saw him in the manga, he's most definitely not a very detailed guy. So that's it! Have a great day or night. Next up is the First Chapter!
