Scarlet Symphony

Pale Shadow

The ever present odour of the city's fumes combined with the endless torrent of rain managed to suppress the sickening smell of blood as it continued to flow from the boy's dead body. His flesh was now a ghostly pale, his eyes almost translucent. He was swimming in a sea of scarlet, ripples forming as the droplets of rain immersed themselves in.

If his fate had been any different, he would have just lay there until the early morning light, been discovered by the authorities, and been pushed out of society's eyes, just another body to through into the pit of millions. What was one more worthless life atop foundations of others who had died on those festering streets?

However, his fate was of a much darker nature. As the rain continued to pour, a shrill hiss rippled through the air, as if a flurry of claws were trying to rip open velvet. First came the screech, and then came split as the sky itself was torn open to reveal only darkness. From the seething dark, shapes began to appear.

Pale hands tore through the darkness. Reaching out with violent intent, the bleach white claws fought their way into the open. They slid through the air like snakes, slowly reaching out for the bleeding body. The bony fingers slowly curled their way around the torso and head, dragging him towards the rift. Excess blood seeped through the fingers as they dragged the body through it the red pool, his hair now dyed a deep scarlet.

The hands continued to pull him towards the dark, slowly lifting him off the ground. Little by little his bloodied body disappeared into the nothingness, not a moan or a whisper on his lips. The dark swallowed him whole.

"What the hell is this?" the inhuman voice snarled.

The white sands were sprinkled with the red from the deceased body, which was now overshadowed by several demonic entities. The sky was painted in a night darker than the blackest shadow, with a silvery moon that glistened like a pearl in a vast ocean of darkness. The largest and supposed leader of the company resembled that of gorilla, spikes extended from his exposed spinal cord and along his arms. Its mask was similar to a human's, only it had three spikes extending for the base. The others were also animalistic in some sense. One was a blend of giraffe and centipede, many legs and arms sprouting from is torso and long neck. The other two both derived design from insects, one being similar to a wasp, though its stinger was located on its right arm, while the last one resembled something of a skeletal moth.

The Hollows gathered around their prey like vultures.

"You were supposed to bring back a feast of humans! Not one insignificant child! This is hardly even an appetiser!" the lead Hollow snorted, pounding his fists into the clear sand. The other Hollows recoiled in fear with each punch.

The hybrid hollow stepped forward, bowing its head slightly "I assure you, my lord, we were drawn to an intense source of reaitsu, the beacon being this lowly human"

The lead Hollow pounded its chest in frustration and annoyance "Miserable servant! One child cannot hold enough reaitsu to draw the likes of us from Hueco Mundo! Its soul could not satisfy even that of a newly converted Hollow! It would take a large gathering of humans, or an experienced Shinigami for such a dense collection of spiritual particles to break through to fabric of the human world to reach us!"

The lower levelled Hollows shivered, fearing the possibility of being eaten themselves should they anger their leader any further. The gorilla-Hollow glared down the puny, bloodied corpse. "Dense reaitsu…how laughable, what could a child like this possibly achieve?"

An awkward silence spread through the company of Hollows. Behind his pale mask, the hybrid Hollow was sweating. "The…the reaistu that we felt…it…it was stronger than that of Barragan Louisenbarn…"

Another silence engulfed the company, only for it to be suddenly be broken by the tremendous laughter of the lead Hollow. His laughter was a bitter rasp of a howl mixed together with the screech of a primate. "Absurd! You think a human, an insignificant human, a child at that, could surpass the power of the late Barragan Louisenbarn?" the beast howled with laughed at the very notion.

The other Hollows exchanged nervous glances with one another, but didn't dare to question or try to reassure their leader. The muscular Hollow pounded the ground in his fits of laughter before eventually calming down and sending his subordinates a crazed glare "Enough of this foolishness! The God of Hueco Mundo has fallen, the throne is empty, and it is time for a new ruler to arise! As soon as I reach Vasto Lordes, then it shall Sangrienta Simios who wears the crown"

The Hollow felt anger rise up through his bones as his servants simply stood there, stupefied. He had beaten it into every Hollow that he had allowed to travel in his company that ALL must bow on the mention of his name (it was good practise after all). He lifted his fists, about to raise all kinds of hell for their insolence.

Fresh blood flowed from his chest as the flesh was pieced. Like a river the red liquid poured, staining the sand like a splash of crimson paint.

Sangrienta Simios was frozen to the spot, his body shaking violently, breath decreasing with every exhale. He forced his eyes downwards, only to witness the shimmer of the bleach white claw. The nails were the same size as the dead trees scattered through the bleak desert. The red trickled down the arm, dripping onto the face of the deceased child.

The deceased child whose eyes were now open; whose irises were now a petrifying shade of yellow. With a single movement, the claw tore through the upper half of the Hollow, nails tearing and pulling at every bone and artery, unleashing a waterfall of blood.

What was silence had now become hysteria.

White was bubbling form the child's mouth, inhuman clay frothing from his lips, which slowly solidified and covered what remained of his pale face. A mouth formed of jagged teeth covered the lower half of his face, encasing his nose and chin. Black had replaced the white of the eyes, while the sickly yellow irises rapidly took in the landscape. The blood-soaked arm was raised above the ground, the obvious reason that it was ten times the size of the child's body. It was deformed, inhuman, an abomination.

And it was hungry.

Simios drooled blood, using his large arms to try and cover the wound, however this proved futile as he collapsed onto the sand. "Wha…what…?" was all it could mutter as strength vanished from its body. Perhaps from primal fear, killer instinct or an actual sense of loyalty, the other Hollows lashed out from all angles.

In Hueco Mundo, you lived and breathed to kill. Death was more common than birth, mercy was an unspeakable taboo, deaths of vast and various magnitudes rippled throughout the land. Alongside the insatiable appetite to consume and become stronger, killing was the only thing Hollows cared for. As a result, entire wastelands of broken and mutilated bodies were seen scattered across the vast desert.

Simios had killed hundreds, maybe even thousands. It had smashed skulls, mutilated limbs, decimated the largest of Hollows and laughed as their ashes scattered on the unforgiving wind. He had never seen death like this.

The child's monstrous arm made short work of decapitating the first Hollow that approached him. A single swipe was enough to rip off the majority of their limbs. If he just left them there then they would have bled out and died soon enough. That was not an option. The first Hollow, the one that resembled a wasp, lost the complete right half of its body, including the stinger. Before it had even hit the pale sand, the child proceeded to claw at the rest of its body. Digging the nails into the sand, it tore through the remainder of the body like a guillotine, leaving five bloody chunks of flesh.

Wasting no time, the child was already upon the second Hollow, pinning the beast in place with a vicious punch, thriving off of the feeling of the bone breaking under his weight. The Hollow let out an agonised scream, attempting to impale the child with its tail, the bone at the end easily able to puncture flesh. Despite the child's small frame, the tail hit its mark. Whatever sense of victory the beast had was short lived, as the child did not bleed red, but white.

From the open wound sprouted a similar white substance to the material that covered its face and arm. Within moments a second monstrous had formed, the stinger at the end of the tail was forced back the raid transformation, the damage undone. All the Hollow could do was wonder how such a thing could exist when the child brought both fist down on its feeble body, shattering every bone it had, mask fragments and blood soaring into the air. Once again, a simple death was not satisfactory, it needed more, it hungered for more. The blood soaked arms began pummel the body with raised fists. For minutes the rain of bloody knuckles came upon the beast, until the beast was one with the scarlet sand.

Lifting two bloody hands from the brutal kill, the child let out an exhale, its inhuman voce letting out a shrill sigh; as if just experience a high from a drug. The air turned cold form its breath, its unblinking yellow eyes marvelling at the chunks of white mask and red flesh before him. It had no time to savour the experienced as searing heat passed through his body.

He let out a howl of primal anger; it did nothing to stop the barrage of red sphere's heading his way. The hybrid Hollow swung its great neck back and forth, never once stopping the assault, the image of its allies being savagely torn at burned into its mind. It wanted to run but in fear it had attacked, as instinct instructed.

Its mediocre attacks did nothing but to earn the hungry attention of the abomination. The child's face was bubbling with the white claw, covering the other side of its face with razor fangs and unsettling designs, spreading to the neck and shoulders, expanding on each ligament. Yellow eyes saw through each attack, identifying its prey, instinct screaming to rip it to shreds. That's was just what it did.

Simios watched, breathless. He couldn't even feel the agonising pain in his chest anymore, the pure numbness that filled his body blocked off any pain he was feeling at that moment. The sight before him cut into him deeper than any wound he had ever experienced. He watched at the chid went straight for the neck, slicing at it, but decapitating it, instead flailing, stripping it layer by layer before using all ten of its dagger-like nails to tear the Hollow into pieces. Then the child just stood there, looking into the black night, bathed in the blood of its prey, shallow breath coming in bursts. It seemed to be completely at peace.

It lowered its head to face Simios, raising its right hand, stretching its fingers wide. Inside its palm, crimson light began to gather, encircling the gap in its blood-stained hand, forming a large sphere of energy, beautiful to behold, agonising to experience.

The Hollow that stated it would be the next king didn't force it's body to move, neither scream or resist, pen watch with open as the Cero gathered, his death drawing nearer with ever second. It watched as the white clay now covered the boy's torso, a large hole in place right over where its heat should be. The fact that the transformation wasn't anywhere near completion yet made the Hollow shiver in fear. Yet, it was glad, glad it would not be alive to witness this creature's rampage, and the horror it would bring.

"The crown…is yours…"

Red tore through the sand as the Cero was unleashed, cutting through the landscape, incinerating trees and whatever was unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Amidst the blaze of the crimson light, Sangrienta Simios screamed as his body was vaporized until not even ash remained.

A few seconds later, and all was quiet again. Lowering its arm, the creature clothed in white breathed heavily, the air becoming ice. The adrenaline faded, nothing remained, only bodies, still, the transformation continued. The child slowly died, replaced by something, something hungry. To the naked eye, the desert was barren, but in creature knew, it could sense them, sense them all. Millions of them, large and small, weak and strong, all for the taking, miles and miles away, but they were out there, fresh meat, souls waiting to be sacrificed.

It only knew one thing, it hungered, it hungered for death, it hungered to kill. Unleashing a howl that shook the earth and skies, the pale shadow dived into the eternal night. The hunt began.