A Sky of Black

An Ocean of White

In the Darkness of War

Are your soul's Blight

A Predator Among Us

The Hol(low)y War II

My Own Worst Enemy (Is Yourself)

Clang!

Their blades met in a fierce collision, sparks flying out with purple and blue light, cascading across the deserted earth in a wave of reiatsu. The saber grinded against the katana, the two warriors of Hollow mind and Wandenreich face to face in hot exchange.

"Existencias, Hueso!" Rudborrn said with a grinding counterswing at the Quincy's weapon. A violet flame slipped out, aiming to encase Kirge in a pair of purple-white stocks with a skull head laced over it.

Craaaaack!

With a flash of blue, the binding reishi is dispelled like glass, dispersing into the air in fizzling sparks of purple light. Rudbornn's stoic mask disallowed facial expressions, but a gasp escaping his teeth is enough of an audible sign for his surprise at this.

"Insolence," Kirge replied, a gloved hand dusting himself off of the purplish reishi still sparkling on his immaculate cloak and uniform shirt. "Binding techniques won't work on me. To try so will only end in absolute failure."

"As if I need to bind you," Rudborrn snarled, lunging at him with a thrust that clashed against an erect rapier; which then glowed brightly a flash of purple white light that made Kirge's eyes widen.

VWOOOOM!

An immense blast of reishi exhumed over the Quincy, casting a bright flash of brilliant flare amidst the enormous jaws that spilled a white below the land of darkness. From it continued to drop thousands more Calavera, the emotionless Arrancar reforming ranks and marching ahead to the flames that reduced the remains of Quincy Soldat to Ash.

Kirge scoffed past the wafting smoke ebbing off of him, his footing a handful of meters away in the sky from the airborne General.

"I seemed to have underestimated your resolve, General Arrancar," He admitted, his hat gone and his bangs messed up and his coat having been reduced to ash. "But I see you haven't sicced your men upon me. Do you feel bold enough to fight one of His Majesty's Sternritter?"

"I am chosen by my Lord and Master to begin this invasion into your realm, Quincy Commander," Rudborrn declared, his blade held upright with poise and confidence. "Just because you believe in your own strength doesn't discount my own. I'll match any maneuver you have, and exceed you in the end."

"Peh," Kirge spat, shaking his head while fixing his bangs. "Blasphemy of the unbeliever. You cannot beat me, even if you were ten times stronger than you are now. The mighty will fall before His Excellency's Hamer of Justice. For it is written," he swung his blade forth, charging up a particularly large Heilig Pfeil in the shape of a cross-notched sword, firing off with a thuum as he shouted, "Vengeance is Mine!"

Rudborrn remains unmoved, even as the massive arrow had tripled in speed from the ones before. Eyeing it from the shadows of his mask, he kneeled down, pulling the blade back behind him.

CRAAAAACK!

And smashed it into pieces with a powerful counterstrike. The sight of which causes Kirge to widen his eyes in surprise as the blade is brought down in an arc of severing light, bearing upon him.

SHEEEEEOOOOOOOOW!

Rudborrn beheld his use of Espada Cero had connected, a shrieking explosion rocking over the sky of his marching army. Rolling flames pumped smoke into the air, blotting out some of the gleams of white light the jaws shed over the dark landscape.

From that smoke, came chain attached arrows, each one still in the shape of swords.

The Arrancar buzzed about the air, evading the arrows while parrying the chains. Unlike the Pfeil before, the bonds carried by the arrows appeared far more durable, forcing him to avoid the lines they cast with the projectiles.

In his focus of avoiding the discharges, he nearly failed to notice the blur of white over his shoulder. Turning about he deflected a saber arching down at him, the force of which sent careening into the Calavera below. Crashing into them, they braces his fall but continued the march unimpeded, as he has ordered them in advance.

Standing upright, he leaped back up and locked swords with Kirge, the two exchanging a series of swift movement attacks with each other while blipping across the sky in an act akin to teleportation.

His unseen eyes narrowed and teeth behind his mask gritted in sync with the bull-headed ones. The foe before him is strong, far stronger than he had planned on dealing with alone. Yet, for this plan to succeed, he needed to keep the army moving, even if he had to be separated from it.

"You're certainly a hard man to pin down," Kirge said, halting his attacks and righting himself in the air. "I might need to use Biskiel after all."

Rudborrn halted.

Biskiel?

What technique is that?

Brandishing his blade around, Kirge began to sheathe his weapon back into his scabbard with a long click.

Reaching for his right hand, he tugged at the glove, revealing a secondary one beneath draped in pitch black with a glinting silver engraving of a five pointed star.

One that glowed brightly in luminous bluish white.

"Behold, the power that brings me closer to God, Vollstandig!" He shouted, a pure column of bright light swathing and expanding outward. Such a majestic rays forced Rudborrn to raise an arm to cover his eyes, grimacing under the intense pressure of spirit energy that elapsed over the area. At the top of this column of assimilated reishi peaked a five star symbol of the Wandenreich; one that began to shatter from the top down.

Cracking away like glass, a newly imposing figure emerged that resembles Kirge Opie, but also much different. A rapier of reishi extended from his right arm, with a gauntlet of spirit energy wrapped around his left, and his boots gained arched toes and heels, while a shoulder strapped band of light is wrapped over his chest and his back. Most impressively are the wings, full and flourishing, humming with dense reishi and a halo of a five star adorned over his black haired head.

"That's right, no Arrancar has seen Leitz Stil before this form. Not for a long time, anyways," Kirge intoned, smiling proudly as his eyes - now revealed to be black and grey bars vertically divided from left to right - stared at Rudbornn's silent demeanor as shock. "We've had a more archaic form that sealed away our powers on use in the past. But this one is much easier to use and has no drawbacks. The perfect form for the enlightened ones who serve our Majesty!"

"Enlightened? You look ridiculous," Rudborrn scoffed, his sword raised up with renewed fighting spirit, his violet reiatsu brimmed back to the surface. "And perfect? You Quincies think too highly of yourselves. I'll show you, just how flawed that absurd form of yours is!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Arrancar lunged forth in a blur. A violet streak encompassed his white clad uniform, a blade curving around space and slashing at the human hovering in place.

Cracking against the raised saber of reishi, the two grinded on contact. Metal sparked against light, hollow eyes glared into vertical lines, the Arrancar pushing with all he had into this blow.

A push is felt, shoving him back off balance-

SHINK!

-followed by a white line running up his front left. Blood spewed, red spraying in the air as Rudborrn spun around, placing a gloved hand over the wound.

Whirling around to fire a whirling razor of chaotic reishi at the Quincy.

THIS WILL END YOU! Rudborrn thought, watching the Quincy stand still before the swiftness of his Cero.

Flickering up in a flash of blue, the Cero is dispersed, leaving only minor ripples in space undulate about the angelic being.

"Gran Rey Cero is well documented in His Majesty's Daten: a chaotic and destructive power capable of warping space and annihilating a vast distance of physical and spiritual land. However, should reishi quality exist exceed that of the Cero," He flourished his blade around with emphasis, gloating with a broad smile, "then there is nothing to fear!"

Rudborrn felt stunned.

He had just acquired this ability from Aaroniero, among others, to bolster his own arsenal. Yet, it was so easily dismissed by this man.

No, not a man.

A monster.

Grinning past his own surprise, the mask clicking as it did, he mused aloud to his foe, "I am aware of your strength exceeding mine. Of all the beings that Aaroniero has entrusted, I am alone weak without my numbers. My pride didn't allow me to see that before; a painful lesson I learned too late that ended my previous life."

"Ended your life?" Kirge inquired, raising a brow. "Are you speaking of a possible past human life or is this a metaphor you Hollows use?"

"I speak not of riddles but truth," The bull-headed Arrancar spoke, angling his sword in front of himself, releasing hold of his wounded chest as he did. "And here's the truth. By the time I finish my battle with you, I'm going to mangle that halo hovering over your oblong head!"

"Oblong?" The Quincy gawked. "My head isn't mishaped!"

"Grow," Rudborrn sneered out, a massive surge of white light spouting out of his chest and roaring outward as he's blooming an aura of a burning white cross from his entire being; shrouding his body in a dark black silhouette. "Àrbol!"

The sword changed to that of a lightning bolt, a pair of zigzag pieces of white steel. Roots of white flourished out from his arm, twining around his chest and other arm, down his legs and over his head. The roots rapidly expanded up, back, forward and downward, the growth taking on a shape that none who knew him could have fathomed him capable.

A massive hoof slammed into the ground, followed by another, all formed out of white flesh and roots, the bone of the hoof made out of hundreds of human looking skulls. Moving up in towering limbs equivalent to skyscrapers are more pale flesh entwined with roots, crossing over a behemoth back that sported barbed and gnarled branches aplenty from its surface. The forward arms themselves had bulging mass of pale roots and white flesh, ending with massive fingered digits that sported skulls for fingernails.

His chest held an exposed ribcage of wrapped branches, heads and bodies dangling from them as if hung by the neck, while up the hybrid of bestial and human traits went up a pair of shoulders massive in muscular sinew to a thick neck up a monstrous skeletal bull head; whose eyes burned a purple flame from empty sockets and large teeth cracked open to let out a powerful thunderous voice.

"CRETUS!" He roared out, a massive sonic wave striking the wide eyed Kirge. "WITH THIS POWER GIVEN TO ME BY MY LORD, I'LL FINISH YOU, COMMANDER!"

Kirge scoffed, his wings flapped as he flourished his sword to his right, "If you come at me, Hollow, as a beast, I shall use my divine power to smite you!"

Reishi flourished from the wastes below, sweeping between the endless ranks of Calavera below, the air itself where the jaws opened the black sky and beyond, all swirling in a wind of glittering blue. It all created a massive construct of reishi over the saber, creating what seems to shape a bulbous hammer easily twice the size of the large angelic man himself.

"Zorn Gottes!" Kirge shouted, swinging his weapon forth in a curling arc of warping space.

A large arm swung around to meet the Quincy's attack, crashing an immense bludgeon of reiatsu and physical might against the reishi formed hammer of light. Plumes of blue and purple fill the air, the stoic soldiers are thrown away in a powerful burst of air pressure, curving the land with the heavens.

The mound of flesh and wood chipped, fragmented, then burst open from the hammer's slam. Dominoing forth in a fiery ripple that ended at the elbow, exploding out with an illuminating flash of bright light and sparking embers.

"Heh," Kirge Opie smirked with self assurance, "Big didn't amount to much after all."

C-C-C-Craaaaaaaack!

"What?" The Commander said, turning to look at his weapon aghast. The hammer itself, cracked and broke like glass, leaving it sputtering away back into the atmosphere.

"That's impossi-GRK!"

Interrupted by a massive surge of growing roots and flesh, the skull mounded fingers curled into a fist faster than he could have foreseen and crashed into the angelic being. In a thuum of force, he throttled over the Palace of the Sun, a splatter of blood escaping his bent nose and split lips.

Righting himself in the air, a shadow overtook him overhead, seeing the arm stretching out and the hand crashing into his flank to send him flying away to the Quincy's left. Hitting a distant hill and exploding out the other side, the behemoth leaped up and over where he tumbled, slamming a hooved foot into his smaller form with quaking impact.

Rudborrn howled, repeatedly stomping on his foe, using his newfound physical might to crush the angelic being underfoot. Blow after blow, the wastes surrounding the two buckled, crumbled and blew outward from the massive beast hitting the smaller human of light.

After a solid minute of brute force being utilized, Rudborrn felt the body go limp. Pulling the foot off, he turned the monstrous head to look down at the man, his body sprawled beneath the earth and feet held up at an angle.

Reaching down with a large hand, he sought to pick him up between two fingers.

SHHHHLICK!

Rudborrn gasped, seeing his two digits cut in pieces in a flurry of bluish white. Flipping up and rising to the air, hovering at the Cretus's head, Kirge bent his neck with a sickening pop back in place, his uniform torn by the collar open and sleeves shredded as well as his pants. Spitting out blood, he grinned despite himself.

"My Blut Vene was insufficient in blocking all the damage. I should consult with His Majesty in correcting that oversight to this Vollstandig," He spoke, more to himself than the massive beast looming in front.

The massive beast stood upright, casting an even greater shadow than it did hunched over. Besides forcing Kirge to look up, he showed no fear this time.

"That being said, I can't allow you to continue having your way in this battle," He gestured with his offhand, the star within his halo expanding and discs wedged within spread outwards. A whirring sound is made, sparks flying and the air beginning to shift as he pointed his left hand up at Rudbornn's massive Cretus form. "It's time for you to die, Arrancar. Or, rather, this will be the first time in your life you shall truly live."

Rudborrn didn't know exactly what this motion or the halo priming its reishi signifies. Given the Quincy is bending the reishi within atmosphere and environment to his whims, perhaps he's charging up an ability.

The giant bestial eyes glinted, the mouth opened with a bellowing roar and cocked an arm backwards in a hulking reflection of a person winding up a punch. With skeletal headed fingers grinding together in a halo of sparks, a swathe of purplish fire ignited around the sinew of white flesh, bones and roots.

Throwing it forward, a massive surge of force even greater than what broke Biskiel is hurtled straight at the unmoving Quincy in the sky.

Let's see what you're going to do next against this! He thought, watching his fist reach the Quincy in an instant.

And that instant he felt immediate regret. From the skulls and bones making up his fingers to the flesh wound roots his fist up past the wrist, the enormous appendage disassembled in a slurry of tearing at the base spiritronic level. Watching it flow up past the elbow, Rudborrn detached the rest of the limb at the shoulder and backed away.

When the reishi began to slough and integrate into Kirge did Rudborrn look on in horror at what became of his arm.

"You criticized my appearance earlier, Arrancar, as ridiculous," Kirge spoke, his voice becoming distorted as vine-wrapped pale flesh twined over him, bulking himself up and swelling his muscles to further tear his uniform. Even his face obtained skeletal fragments overlapping his jaw, with a second and third pair of skulled visages on either side of his head, pauldrons of gaping mouths without eyes pointed upward, flames of blue reishi spouting upwards. "In the face of the Holy, all unholy things look upon me, and despair."

Breaking his daze through sheer will, the massive beast grew the arm back with a twitch. In a massive growth of an arm once more, hands and faces extruded from all over his massive frame. Igniting in a loud revving billow of fiery purple light, he palmed the ground below and opened his mouth.

Firing off a massive Cero, the violet wave of reishi shot into Kirge, and proceeded to be siphoned into his body in a swelling maelstrom of crimson to bluish white energy around an upraised saber. After the Cero finished firing, did Kirge reply with an inhuman, skeletal smile.

"Sklavrei allows me to enslave all reishi, no matter the form. No attack, of any size or density, can break through this absolute authority I have over reishi," He declared, the accumulated energy forming over his saber became an elaborate shape. A massive hammer, rounded at the top and short in its handle, with a pentacle shaped face at its flat.

"Schlat des Zornes Gottes!"

Swinging it with the threatening growl, Rudborrn had bare seconds to react to the arc of light. Landing atop the Cretus's head, the skull, shattering it and sending a bolt of lightning reishi straight through the chest, splintering the body away from all four scattered limbs. Carving a five pointed star shaped hole into the earth, the detached limbs were also siphoned into Kirge's body, further empowering the mantle of reiatsu he wore over and into his body.

Gaining a collar of skulls around his neck, with spines wrapped around his belt and fingernails buttoning his jacket back and white linen fashioned from flesh, the winged specter looked around, trying to see if anything remained of the Arrancar.

A rumbling fell across the land, the distant sounds of battle obscured by a reiatsu that flowed within the earth.

And the soil beneath him shot straight up, spiraling up with rows of blades brandished to drill into him.

"There you are," Kirge said, turning his offhand to crush the top of the branch with a mighty crack. More branches grew out, forming a cage up and around him of blades to cut him down. The halo absorbed the mass, sucking it into his halo to be further distributed to his hulking winged form.

"You're only delaying the inevitable," Commander Opie said, twisting around to deflect a cannon ball of reishi fired swiftly out of the earth. There was a delay of action, making the Quincy suspicious of what is to come next.

It didn't take long, as a barrage of Bala fired from the ground, each one aimed at him. He deftly weaved in and around, his speed enhanced with Biskiel active; parrying a few, sparking off his saber, he launched a flurry of sword shaped Heilig Pfeil at the points of launch.

Detonating dozens of points around him in rising pillars of bluish fire. Briefly illuminating his environment in the Royal color, he felt another pulse of reiatsu and a rumble even more intense than before.

Giving way to a massive arm arm rising up from the ground in front of him, bearing it's entirety to ram into him.

"If that's all you can do," Kirge droned out, his halo widened once more and Sklavrei slurrying the monstrous limb into himself once again. "Then just hurry up and die."

A sudden spear of growth fired to his right, forcing his saber to swing at the column of blades attached to the roots entangled in them.

CRUNCH!

"WHAT?!" Kirge shouted, feeling his head bend down by a strong blow of concentrated reiatsu. Looking over his head, he saw a partially scorched Rudborrn, his mask charred and fragmented to the left horn to a visible blue eye and shadowed fair face below. One that gleamed with determined triumph, as half of a chopped halo fell to the side into sparks from a brimming jagged lightning bolt shaped blade of violet pressured itself onto Kirge's relatively unharmed head.

"This looked important for that Sklavrei you boasted using," Rudborrn said, his blue eye narrowing harshly at the Quincy. "I assume breaking this stops this meddling technique of yours. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Commander."

"ARRANCAR!" Kirge bellowed, sweeping the air with a broad stroke of his offhand. Though Rudborrn leaped back out of reach, an eviscerating wind of reishi struck him, tearing at his uniform coat to the chest and slashing him across his skin.

Had his Hierro not been in use, he'd likely have suffered greater harm, he presumed.

The Quincy Commander pursued, forcing him to fire off another growth from his left arm, the massive swathe bludgeoning into the winged specter.

KRAK!

Shattering on connection to a slash of the dense reishi saber.

"Shi-!"

He couldn't get it out before a hulking fist slammed into his chest. Crushing ribs, blood spouted from his mask's teeth, eye rolling back as he hurtled down and smashed into the ground with a bouncing landing. Wincing, he tried to get up, only for a series of bluish bindings pin his neck, wrists and ankles down.

"You've caused me more trouble than I thought you'd be," Kirge intoned, lowering down to the ground, setting foot astride his right. His exposed eye saw the flecks of reishi already petering away from the imbued essence he robbed him of, the whole of his enhanced power diminishing.

"And you were stronger than I believed you to be," Rudborrn replied bitterly. "But now you can't feed off anything else. Your form will wear down eventually, leading to your demise."

"Doubtful, but if it happens, it won't be by your hand," Kirge sneered, raising his saber over his head in readiness to cut his foe down. "Farewell, Arrancar."

Rudbornn's gaze saw death aim for him. The blade left trails behind of blue, imprints of its lethal shape curving down to deal a mortal blow. For all of his blessed power, all the strives he made to be of use in this new life he still saw that his end came at the hands of a much more skilled and powerful enemy.

It's always the same, He mused, his life flashing before his gaze as the saber looped in the air, the edge reaching down to his neck. At least I fought to the best of my ability. But, even still…

His hand pressing down by the binding loop clenched into the earth, a pulse of purple flaring up around himself.

SHIIIIIIIIIIINK!

A horde of spikes shot upwards, shredding through Rudbornn's own arm beneath Kirge and tore into the Quincy in a flurry of purple flares. Slicing up his chest, tearing off the growth, muscles and limbs, a look of shock crossed his face as the skeletal mask shattered around his impaling body; his mouth coughing out blood, his bar shaped eyes reflecting a glare of blue coming off Rudbornn's exposed eye.

"...I won't lose to the likes of you, Kirge Opie!" Rudborrn bellowed out with victorious jeer, ripping himself free of the bonds with a swirl of reishi around his palm. Leaping up and off the ground he threw his hand forth, forming a purplish flare of energy as he slammed it into the Sternritter's face.

Exploding out the other side with a spike driven through his right eye out of his skull in a shower of brain matter and red. The corpse of the Quincy Commander limply hung forth, hanging on the spikes, leaving the one armed Arrancar standing in front of his enemy the undisputed Victor.

He was stronger, and far more loyal to his master in the end, He thought, closing his eyes and bowing his head to the remains of the human before him. Rest well in the side of your Lord, Commander Kirge. You have earned it.

Righting himself, he looked to his stump and furrowed a brow. A branch grew out of his wound, growing back nerves, muscles, tissue and then a sleeve. Reaching up, he felt his mask hadn't regenerated, leaving it a scar from his battle.

"It is just as well," He huffed to himself, kneeling down and grasping his lightning bolt shaped Zanjutsu, returning it to its sealed state with a swing and sheathing it back to his side.

"I must return to the front. My Calavera will need my command to increase their effectiveness," The General determined.

He said, but he felt something wrong. An abhorrent feeling that rolled off in waves, growing stronger and stronger with every passing few seconds.

Rushing back with a choice Sonído, the Arrancar General stopped at the back of the marching army and saw the numbers of white subordinates of his had flooded into the large fortress. Bursts of distant light and explosions are heard by him, shuddering the ground and frame of the entrance from where he stood, a good fifty meters away.

The cacophony of blasts soon expelled blood, followed by bodies bowling into one another. Like a crude game, the skull headed troops were being killed by reishi infused heads plucked from shoulders, slaughtering them in droves. He counted the number by the signatures he felt vanish from his Pesquisa and it only seemed to multiply with every moment.

A flicker of light is seen by the General, followed by him dashing to the right-

VWOOOOM!

-narrowly avoiding a massive spear with a cross shape at the head of the blade. The blue projectile had been so massive and moved so swiftly that had he not caught sight of it in the distance, he knew he would have died instantly.

Cutting a swathe through his army all the way to the back of the wastes which the jaws of light opened over the black sky, the number of dead is astronomical. He wondered how many people they threw at his forces to overcome so many.

Mentally halting the rest of troops from descending, for the moment, he stood shakily up to see a large silhouette stomp his way outside. The shadow stretched out, a meaty fist reaching out to grasp the top of the place beam, crunching it and pushing it upwards to let himself through.

"Oh, so there's someone alive out here after all," The burly hulk of a man said, a pronounced chin that is rounded with a thick jawline, covered in the edges by three forked ends of a goatee, with a thin line wrapped around the upper lip. His hair similarly had a triage of thick, curly hair shooting upwards in three spikes like a trident or a fork with the rest of the curls braided back into a triage of ponytails over his shoulders.

Muscles upon muscles throbbed beneath a large buttoned up uniform, similar to Kirge's of before. His hooded cloak wrapped around his neck by a chained link, white military pants tucked into a pair of thigh high boots. Apart from a few crosses jingling along with his pentacle embroidered belt, the only other thing that made him stand out apart from his large size is the lack of any injury; save for the blood that stained his fists up his sleeves.

Said fists gleaming with a bright blue shine beneath the stains of red, five pointed stars over what looked like crimson covered iron knuckles.

"I heard Kirge's men got their asses kicked, so I came over to see what the fuss was about," He jeered out, his voice deep and yet had a demented glee behind it. A raucous bark came from his throat as he waved his blood soaked arms out, spraying the ichor over the corpse filled land laid bare before him. "So I came across these guys. They were strong, at first, but the more of them I killed, the easier it became. Soon I had to get creative and use their comrade's heads as weapons just to make it more fun for myself!"

He did that?! Rudborrn thought, realizing aloud in a gasp. The Quincies stopped using foot soldiers and sent one man to turn back the my army? He doesn't even have a scratch on him…how can he be this strong?

"I'm surprised you're in one piece," The man scratched his chin, looking around as he stepped on each body ahead of him in idle crunches, the bones fragmenting under the force of his heels as he marched through. "I thought Kirge was still out here. If I can't sense him, then that means he finally bited it."

If I bring my army down again, there's no guarantee they're going to change anything. This one must have a strange power as well. Yet, I haven't sensed anything-

"So, are you the one, who killed Kirge?" His voice suddenly shook the Arrancar, his eyes looking up to see him suddenly in front of him, looming over him with large eyes practically glowing with a hungry bloodlust.

One that became apparent as the full force of his Reiatsu spanned outward, engulfing the valley in a sensation thicker than poison, and heavier than gravity. Rudborrn felt his throat clenched around in a vice grip, and another fist reach deep inside to latch over his organs to tear them out-!

"Auuuugh!" Rudborrn heaved out, clenching his chest and falling to one knee. Gasping for air, he gloved hand palmed over his uniform chest, seeing no wound on him. In fact, the burly Quincy wasn't standing in front of him, but still walking towards him over the field of skulls and red stained white clothed bodies of his Calavera.

I swore he had just killed me! Rudborrn thought, shaking in place as the man stomped his feet over the dead, drawing closer and closer with every passing step taken.

Looking down at his right hand, he saw it shake in place.

Is this…fear? Am I afraid…of dying again?

"Oi, don't go falling over dead yet," The Quincy said with a toothy grin, a shadow of black falling over him as he raised a bloody hand shining with a trail of blue reishi in the air. "I've yet to thank you for all the power I've got built up in me."

Tightening his hand into a fist, he closed his eyes and willed the fear to the back of his mind.

Rising up, Rudborrn grasped his sword, drawing it in a smooth motion and released his reiatsu into the air. A purplish flare overcast the environment, painting over the smiling brute even as he trudged ahead without stopping.

"Existencias," He spoke in a low hush, dropping to a knee and stabbing it into the earth. "Hell's Furnace!"

Rising up in a sweeping line of violet colored energy came up pitch white walls. Ten by ten meters, they reached up to twenty meters in height, sealing at the top. Beneath, the piles of bodies ignited, erupting into a furnace of pyro-force up and around, the Quincy, engulfing his large physique in a vertical discharge of unrelenting heat.

Even with all that power, you're still human, Rudborrn thought, pouring his reiatsu into his blade and siphoned it into the cage of fire he forced his enemy to endure. If the heat alone doesn't burn through that blood defense of yours, you'll certainly choke from the lack of oxygen within-

A sudden knocking sound is heard along the wall in front of Rudborrn. The Arrancar looked up, his exposed eye blinking with surprise.

Surprise that shifted to horror as a fist slammed through the barrier, shattering to pieces in a single impact. A tall shadow is seen, a pair of blue eyes gleaming brighter than the golden tongues lapping over him.

"Knock knock," He said, walking ahead, smoke curling over his body with nary a burn or scratch off his clothes or hair atop his head. The spell collapsed behind him into pieces, the fire dying down as the corpses below and the earth surrounding it formed a perfect black pile of ash.

Save for two large boot prints that showed where the Quincy had stood.

"I-Impossible!" Rudborrn shouted aloud, his eyes barely able to perceive what he saw in front of him. "That spell of mine is equivalent to a Level 80 Kidō! You should have been harmed, or at least contained longer than that!"

"Oh really? That's impressive!" He jeered aloud, waving off the ash that used to be blood over his arms and sleeves. Dusting himself, he grinned and jabbed a thumb up at his chin. "It's too bad that you sent an army after me. Had we fought before, you might have damaged me with that move. I might have even broken a sweat."

"What does that mean?" Rudborrn asked indignantly.

"I guess I should have introduced myself before," The man said, sweeping his arms out as he gave a loud boastful jeer. "I'm Sternritter Driscoll Berci, blessed by my Lord with the power of the O, the Overkill," he lowered his arms, gesturing to the field of corpses surrounding them. "My Schrift gives me the power to build up strength every time I kill. Man, beast, friend, foe, my power doesn't discriminate. My power rises the more I slaughter."

"No!" The General said with stark realization. "So, the Calavera I sent inside, killed all by you-"

"Has given me all this strength coursing through me!" The Sternritter answered with deep throated glee. "It's all thanks to you. Feel honored that you get to see what I'm like with over ten thousand kills under my belt in a single sitting!"

Gritting his teeth, Rudborrn now realized the error in his strategy. Had he known someone like this Sternritter waited for an army to show up, he would have insisted on an Espada staying by him, in case they could fight them off.

Yet, now he's here, alone.

With an army that is either dead or stuck above waiting to deploy.

If I summon more, he'll only grow stronger. Yet, if I fight him myself, he'll surely defeat me. What can I do against such a monster?!

"Now if you're done pissing yourself," Driscoll said, pulling back a fist with his whole body, left foot forward and shoulder pointed while his right arm coiled back; his left eye twinkling a glare at the Arrancar. "I'm getting back to the killing!"

Rudborrn acted in reflex, slicing his blade up and crying out in a roar.

"Grow, Arbo-"

THUUUUUUUUM!

A massive surge of force crashed through his sword, slamming into his chest and shattering the entirety of his chest out of his back, the head itself cracked all over in a shower of blood. A single branch protruded from his right side shoulder, a bull-headed body growing out and extruding itself away from the collapsing pile of meat left behind.

Dropping to the ground, Rudborrn grimaced, looking up at Driscoll's massive bulk turn towards him.

"So, you can grow a substitute body like how you did those soldiers of yours? Pretty clever," Driscoll said with a toothy smirk, strolling over to the crouching Arrancar. "Too bad I got one kill stronger from that. Want to try that again?"

Rudborrn Chelute felt his life in jeopardy.

If he died now, then his army is likely going to act on his last orders of charging the fortress. Doing so would only make him stronger. But if they sit there and do nothing, the enemy could regroup and then overwhelm his comrades.

I don't want to die, Rudborrn thought, standing slowly up with his head looking down. But, if I can't flee from this, I rather die with my honor intact.

"Dying on your feet, huh?" Driscoll huffed, pulling a fist back and smiling. "I can respect that."

Another fist thrown his way, and Rudborrn closed his eyes, embracing his end.

A crackle from the jaws of light came with a thunderclap. Within that sound beamed down a shadow that spiraled down in a blur, racing across space and defying the passage of time.

Landing between Rudborrn and Driscoll, intercepting the punch in a flash of light.

"W-What?!" Rudborrn shouted in surprise, seeing a tall, strong back with a hand held out in front of himself.

"Hoooooo?" Driscoll softly exhaled out, his eyes meeting a pair of cool eyes, full of strength and confidence. "Here comes a new challenger."

"Yer an ugly big bastard, aren't you?" Gantenbaine Mosqueda said, his left arm covered in a swathe of black and red markings, while holding the massive iron knuckled fist back with seemingly no strain on his part. "I'm going to enjoy pummeling you, for making me save the kiss-ass of the team."

Lilia Starrk strode through the halls of the palace of the enemy, feeling a bit insecure with how narrow the passages are. They were an inverse of how the layout of the palaces were in Las Noches, instead of large elaborate yet empty chambers and corridors, these held a small yet uniform symmetry to the way they moved.

She has been walking for the past ten minutes, hearing distant rumbles and echoes of battle. She figured Rudborrn must have made it into the Palace's front gates, and that he at least is doing a good job drawing attention away.

The further she got inside without being noticed, the easier the next stage of the plan is going to be.

Walking through the tunnel, she found it opened up ahead into a larger room. Stoically maintaining course, she grasped the handle of the door, and turned it open.

Revealing a shadowy figure, standing in wait with a hood drawn up over their head.

"I've been waiting for you," They said, their voice oddly indistinct and genderless. "I felt BG-9 pass away. Did Veronica and Cang Du also perish? I wonder."

"I killed the woman, and the robot. I'm not sure of the metal guy, but I'm not bothering with him at the moment," She answered, her red eyes narrowing at the outline of a face within the shadow of the hood. "Who're you supposed to be?"

"They call me," They said, grasping the hem of the hood and pulling it back, revealing a face; the face of Lilia Starrk! "Loyd. The L of Sternritter Y, the Yourself," She gestures to her suddenly female bodice covered by Quincy robes. "As the name suggests, I reflect the appearance of anyone I see. Along with the change of face, I also have all the powers, skills and physical features they possess to the current moment."

"So that's what I look like!" Starrk said with a sudden wide pair of eyes and a pointed finger at a rapidly blinking Loyd.

"Wait, you didn't know what you looked like up till now?" She asked.

"I haven't had the opportunity yet," Lilia replied with a pouty lipped expression.

"How have you not had time?" Loyd asked exasperatedly."What, were you born yesterday?"

"Kinda?"

"What do you mean, kinda?!"

"It's complicated," Lilia responded, scratching her chin while looking away.

"Explain!" Loyd demanded.

"I don't want to!" Lilia said, sticking her tongue out.

"Tch! It doesn't matter," Loyd dismissed with a huff, resuming an eerie emotionaless mask of Lilia's face. "After I kill you, I'll use your likeness to eliminate the other intruders heading this way. All according to plan."

Lilia paused.

She deduced this is some kind of Quincy ability. It reminded him of Aaroniero, back when he was the Novena Espada. He didn't know what he looked like beneath the helmet he wore, but he presumed based on how he uses a Shinigami's likeness in her facade as Rukia Kuchiki, that this may be a similar feat achieved through different means.

Moreover, since this 'Loyd' didn't use her name, only her likeness, that means they didn't know anything beyond what he showed. Of course this is just her speculation, but there's a chance that she could overpower this copycat if she raised her power faster than she could perceive.

But that required an opening, and one that is likely easier said than done.

Loyd walked forward, confidence oozing off her form. Narrowing eyes, she smiled, she swung a hand out; throwing something at Lilia.

Catching it, Starrk saw it to be a metal tube of some kind.

"Gritz!"

Upon Loyd shouting, the tube discharged a mass of rapidly forming reishi into a metal abolishing cube. Nearly point blank, Starrk dashes to the left to avoid the dangerous spell-

Snatch!

-leading her face to be caught by Loyd's hand.

Smashing her head to the floor, hard enough for her body to jolt up, she found her skull grounded against the foundation into the other wall and into the room ahead. Tumbling forward into a rising motion, Lilia swung a foot around, watching it caught by a raised arm that caught her shin.

Pulled into a thrusting fist, Lilia barely had time to block with her arm, the force still throwing her into a door, out the hallway into the wall behind with a crash. Not even able to gasp, Loyd punched her head back, her back wedging further in and another blow mightily throttled her ahead in an explosive shockwave.

Exiting out of the hall and into an empty barracks, the Primera found herself colliding into several layers of lockers and bunks, crumpling to the floor afterwards. Pushing the debris off of her, she spat out a wad of blood, seeing Loyd stomp inside with a bluish gleam escape normally red irises.

"If you thought you could take advantage of my ignorance of your abilities, I still have centuries of combat experience as a Sternritter," Loyd said with Lilia's voice, an eerie tone of arrogance and condescending shown down to her sprawled out form. "And when you do display your abilities just a single time, I'll be able to replicate it in an instant. So go ahead," she said, lifting a boot up and crashing it down on metal, mattress and locked remains, blasting it all away in a fiery discharge of reiatsu, "and fight back!"

Rolling out of the way, Lilia darted back, throwing a fist coiled in reishi at Loyd. The doppelganger leaned back, evading the Bala that shot a hole in the barracks, spraying the room in affects. Likewise Loyd threw her own fist, forcing Starrk to duck below the counterstrike while palming the arm upwards.

Hitting the light overhead in a spray of sparks, Loyd felt grasped by the collar and kneed up in the stomach, reeling the head into a skull smash in return. Reeling backwards with a grimace, Lilia drove an elbow into Loyd's chest into the floor-

CRAAAAAASH!

-blowing them down through into an open dining hall below.

Colliding with a table with a crunch, Loyd grunted and grabbed the front of Lilia's hair and threw her head over heels across into a counter, shattering it into the kitchen. Clenching her forehead, Loyd snarled and reared around to where she sent Lilia flying into-

"Gingerbuck," Lilia whispered, aiming a pistol at a wide-eyed Loyd. A pale Cero fired through the dining hall, driving through a series of walls with a rolling wave of fire that followed after it.

Loyd evaded at the last moment, a burn mark shown past the shoulder of the cloak and jacket, exposed skin singed and hissing. The Quincy eyed the hole in Lilia's chest, and the weapon she wielded.

"I see, so you hide your own Zanpakutō in your body," Loyd deduced with a smirk, taking her right hand and pushing it into her chest. Gentle blue flames wafted off her fingers as they sank into her breasts, pulling back out a pistol of the same kind as Lilia's.

"Gingerbuck," Loyd said with a smile, firing off a Cero at the Primera who returned fire.

The two collided their beams together, a conflagration of reishi borne flames erupting around them. Even amidst the fire, the pair fired rapidly at one another, the Cero cracking in space and sparking away with mighty explosions that tore the underbelly of the vast complex.

Rapidly evading one another's attacks, the pair continued their game of tag, each one as dangerous as the other. The two mirrors of the Primera Espada wreaked havoc as they went, tearing through long since empty partitions of the Quincy lair.

Amidst the chaos, Lilia Starrk closed the gap between herself and her foe, daringly putting her face into the crossairs of Loyd's gun. The move startled her, long enough for Lilia to transform her pistol in a thrust-

SHINK!

"Coyote," Lilia hissed out, seeing blood splatter across the double's face. The Primera's blade is seen grasped by a gloved hand, having been pushed by her double away from the head while splitting open her palm.

"Nice try," Loyd said, arcing the pistol around into its Coyote form to cut Lilia's head off in a swift stroke.

"Too slow," Lilia muttered, grabbing with both hands while ducking below the horizontal swing, pulling her own blade down in an arc; bluish flames sweeping cleanly through the clenched fingers, thumb, and middle of Loyd's stunned face in a clean severance.

The face of Lilia turned back to a bald man with smooth skin, whose head split open in a straight line past a third eye that cracked open. Blood erupted from the head and hand, the double falling to the ground limply to the floor, while Lilia sighed to herself.

"Another one down," Lilia breathed out, looking around the burning wreak surrounding herself. "Let's hope that didn't bring every Quincy down on my head."

Walking away, leaving the chamber a smoldering ruin, the blood stained remains of Loyd lie there, staring aghast. A reflection of a pair of feet come by shortly after, a hand gestures to his face.

Closing his eyes shut, before leaving him behind.

A/N: This Chapter. Oooooooh this Chapter I had way more fun than I thought possible. First, Rudborrn and Kirge, matchup I literally came up with on the spot, which turned out to be a great parallel. Quincy and Hollow Commanders, duking it out one on one, showing us what they're capable of. Had this been the old me, I would have given them perhaps multiple chapters of dense strategic writing, yet I left that part of me behind in exchange for easy to digest pacing and satisfying swift battles.

I almost pushed out the other two encounters to a future chapter, but I showed that Driscoll literally stood no chance of losing with how many kills he's racked up thanks to Rudbornn's Calavera army. Thankfully Gantenbaine Mosqueda (who?lol) is there and someone is up with his arms!

As for Loyd vs Lilia, I almost pushed this to next chapter, but I decided to give a short yet violent romp. Loyd got some really good hits in, even making Lilia put some effort into this fight, but her lack of awareness in how Lilia fought or how truly strong she is got her axed in the end. I wonder who's followed Lilia now as she descends deeper into the belly of the beast?

See you all in the next update!