Strength uncontested
Having yet to be bested
I stand above all races
As the pinnacle of all creation
Almighty I have become
Under this Nation I've made
All shall become one
A Predator Among Us
The Hol(low)y War VIII
Defying Fate
The future?
Yhwach stood there, in the center of the city that once was the Royal Palace. Remade out of some relic interpretation of humans in the past thousand years, this entire trek this far has tested the Quincy's patience. He came here expecting fierce resistance, a bloody fight that he'd have to overcome without his prophesied Almighty at his disposal.
Instead, they all greeted him with cheer, calling him the Prodigal Son. As if he is the one who went astray. The entire notion amused, but only grew to annoyance and then outrage. Even his most hated enemy had been manipulated to embracing him as if they had been lost friends separated over this whole time.
As if he hadn't been burned to death by his hands.
"You already know my answer, Reio," Yhwach said with a scoff, narrowing his dark eyes at the white kimono adorned stature with violet hair and lavender eyes staring up at him. "I intend to unmake the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and the Material World. The corrupt cycle of death will end, and a return to the paradise of chaos it once been since before time itself existed."
"I know," Aaroniero said with a smile of understanding. "But I have a better way than simply destroying it all and building it from scratch."
"And that is?" He asked, curious what her solution could be.
"There are unnecessary realms that don't benefit the beings part of the cycle of death and life," She gestured, emphasizing with balls of reishi of varying colors for visual aid. "The Beast Realm, and Hell. Both are simply peripheral realms, with no true overall benefit other than acting as proverbial gutters for the worst of the worst. Instead of destroying the existing realms of life and death, why not eliminate Hell and the Beast Realm?"
"I fail to see the change I wish to enact," He noted.
"Patience, I'm getting to that," She said, snapping her finger, displaying the orbs that represents Hell and Beast Realms twine around the remaining three realms, pulling them inward till a much larger realm swelled up. "Using energy remaining of both destroyed realms, I'll use them as glue to stabilize a complete merger of the three remaining realms."
Hefting the sphere above her head, she looked up at it with Yhwach as she spoke with passion, "The result will synthesize humans and souls into deathless beings, and Hollows will become sapient beings no longer plagued by hunger to drive them to kill others. True equality will be achieved in a matter of moments, and I want a strong leader to herald that new age of freedom from death."
"You want me in charge of the Living World?" He asked sardonically. "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of your new godhood?"
"I've no interest in the day to day lives of billions. You have a much better grasp of how to handle humans than I do. After all, I've been a Hollow for most of my conscious life, and a Shinigami in an only technical sense," She admitted back to him, face softening. "I am weary of being alone at the top. I rather walk among the worthy, and bring an actual lasting impact as a deity. Doing this will end suffering for all, and I believe it's what you want as well."
Yhwach's breathing quieted, his expression cagey. Even from behind, Haschwalth had a hard time gauging what his superior is thinking. Even he had mixed feelings about this entire procession.
How much of this is genuine? Is what Aaroniero says is the truth?
All he knew is that in the dream he and Yhwach had is the same. In war, destruction will rain down upon all of the Wandenreich, with a death inflicted on his superior while he lashed out in what looked like a futile effort to strangle the Reio. And then, darkness, with an ominous jewel thrumming like a heartbeat in the silence.
"Even if you are being sincere, why go through the trouble of this charade?" Yhwach asked with a sweep of his hand, eyeing Aaroniero with irritation. "All you're doing is making these people pacified and giving them a false prelude to my arrival. I am no one's prodigal son. I am simply a byproduct of the one who has been used for Shinigami's gain."
"Which is why I wanted to show you what a world devoid of malice looks like," Aaroniero said, looking to Yamamoto for emphasis. "I gave them peace. They are content, and will live out an existence beyond struggle and despair. An eternity of bliss is far more appealing than a short lived conflict that never ends in this cycle of death rigged against people like you and I."
Yhwach paused, taking in what she said. It seemed like a mystery what the Father of Quincies is truly thinking. Even Haschwalth wondered what aim His Majesty could be pointing to now?
"And if I become this King of the Material World," He proffered with narrowed eyes at the white draped woman standing apart from him. "You will allow my rule to be independent?"
"I would expect nothing less than a dogmatic ruler like you to have total dominion over the World of the Living," She said with a nod.
Yhwach looked down, his hands unfurling at his sides. He held a silence that made everyone hold their breath, his next actions assuredly having weight to what comes next.
"I'm counting on you," Aaroniero said, raising her hand up to shake with Yhwach. The man's dark eyes looked down at the soft hand, looking up at the face that once belonged to Rukia Kuchiki - synonymous with Aaroniero herself. Lavender eyes stared stoically at him with a smile of expectation on her face.
Yhwach raised his own hand, the large dominating set of fingers worn with callouses rose up like an ominous flag. Coming into reach of Aaroniero's own palm, they wrapped around in a slow grip.
A nearby Yamamoto guffawed out heartily, the people around them renewed in cheer and song. An exuberance filled the atmosphere with celebration abound. All but Haschwalth seemed to have a mixed expression, blue eyes staring at the two and then at the flower in his hand.
"You made the right choice," Aaroniero said with a deepening grin. "Our new world will be better without senseless bloodshed. Together, it shall be stronger and more united under a common idea: The end of death everywhere for everyone."
"You know I've been thinking," Yhwach said, his bangs crossing over his eyes, a smile crossing thinly over his lightly bearded face. "A Hollow in the seat of my Father…doesn't sound right, does it?"
Before she could speak, a sudden coldness rushed through her. Eyes shot down, seeing a littany of dark veins stretching out from his hand into hers and flowed up her own. Shrouded over her face, burrowing into every facet of her being, her smile twisted into a crooked grin at the Quincy.
"I misspoke," Aaroniero said, her voice even despite the blood leaking out of her eyes, mouth, ears and nose. "You made the worst choice."
It took Yamamoto only a moment to react. He drew his sword, breaching the gap in between a breath. He drew his sword in an arc of steel to cut down on the arm connecting Aaroniero to him.
BANG!
"HNGH!" Genryusai grunted out, a bullet of light firing out from the shadows of Yhwach's cloak, hitting the base of his sword to repel his swing. As the elder Shinigami skid back, deflecting more swift shots, he looked on in horror with the rest of the shocked folk as Yhwach held out another hand to slam into her face.
At the same time, the Reijin stepped forward, drawing swords in a flourishing motion. Haschwalth drew his own weapon, deflecting a dozen weapons as he covered His Majesty's back. Each blow struck at different intervals, his eyes shifting to a number of opponents who attacked with unseen intent.
The people who were celebrating backed away, stoically staring at the conflict. To Haschwalth, he wondered why they felt no fear or anger, just as Yamamoto had said.
"Sankt Altar!" Yhwach called out, his words casting five points of fiery reishi to assume a pentacle shaped sigil within the ground around their vicinity.
A rush of energy swathed over her, hair rushing up, body appearing squeezed like a sponge being ringed for water. Silvery wisps of light flowed out, entering the Quincy King. The rush of power caused his body to emit an immense reiatsu, cracking the golden road and buildings surrounding him; further extending out, shattering glass windows and rippling out past the city's immediate block with a ferocious gale of force being emitted from his person.
Releasing her, Aaroniero laughed aloud, cackling wildly as her eyes met Yhwach's.
"And here I thought I was greedy," She giggled. "You can't help but covet the mighty. I can't blame you. You were born weak just as I had been. That's why I knew you would refuse and attack me!"
"Your own hubris will be your own undoing, Hollow," Yhwach sneered, raising a hand to point at her center. "Begone, puppet."
KOOM!
A virulent flash of azure-white energy eradicates the body of Aaroniero, her white kimono fluttering in shreds into the breeze. Yamamoto's eyes, wide and filled with shock, following into the next handful of seconds that came to pass.
Reijin appeared in front of Yhwach, thrusting spears to run him through. Black veins shot out like webbing from his shadow, halting all of their attacks by mere inches. The armored beings contorted, twisted and then imploded into a series of sparking blasts of metal and reishi.
More above tried to slash down at him, their airborne figures wielding hammers intent on crushing him. Pinpoint shots speared through their heads, exploding them and rendering them to fall limply by the King's side.
Then, he began to walk ahead, not regarding any of the others throwing themselves at his person.
Yamamoto's person shifted ahead of him, his eyes glaring ahead with a smile on his visage; belying the veins throbbing over his brow along his cheeks.
"Old Friend," He breathed out, ash releasing into the air as his blade began to spark in his grip. "I won't let you advance a step further."
"Gerald," Yhwach murmured under his breath.
A sudden rush of pressure rose up from the shadow between Yamamoto and Yhwach. A mass of muscle wrapped in white came forth, a black-grey blade swung around in an arch of blue. Yamamoto's Ryuujin Jakka erupted in a massive gout of flames, colliding with the new incoming foe.
In his surprise, the cloak fluttered off, burned away by the mere contact of his sword's heat. It revealed a winged-helmet over a broad jawed, smiling man with long flowing blonde hair and a gleam of white beneath the slits in his helm. A flowing red cape billowed behind him, his sword pushing back against the flames and the weapon that bore it.
"I see you're a beast as His Majesty's Daten said," Gerald Valkyrie said with deep throated glee. "But I am no mere obstacle. From this moment forward," he swung his shield about, crashing it into the head of the elder Shinigami, "I AM YOUR OPPONENT!"
A gash of blood splattered out, yet, a smile shone on Yamamoto's face. Reaching out to snatch the edge of the shield, he pulled him in-
THUUM!
-and kicked him back at Yhwach with an air popping blast of force.
The behemoth of the man felt unable to course correct, his hulking frame missing Yhwach as he stepped aside in a flicker of swift movement, crashing through over a dozen Reijin fighting Haschwalth. Grunting, he leaped back up onto his feet, dashing forward and slashing at Yamamoto's person to which he parried with ease.
"You're a thousand years early to best me one on one, boy," Yamamoto snarled, twisting his blade around to collide into his raised shield with a howling conflagration, curling around the man's shield and blowing back across the street. The gold melted along the heat of the fire rushing across it, yet Haschwalth felt too busy fending off the other dozens of Reijin attacking him.
Others emerged from Yhwach's shadows, getting to work getting rid of the armored specters aiming to get to Yhwach's back.
A misshapen head covered in a hood rose up, glowing gold eyes hidden in shadow glared as veins pulses out of its cloak and intercepted a dozen more Reijin, crumpling and twisting them into balls of metal that sank to the ground. Pernida Parknjas exhaled out, not speaking but keeping itself in line with the number of enemies rushing past the fallen.
"It seems we have our work cut out for us," Lille Barro said, casually lining up his fur lined sniper rifle, firing a slew of high powered bullets into a number of armored opponents. His single open eye looked over at Haschwalth, firing without losing accuracy, as he asked, "What's the plan?"
"We keep the enemy from ambushing His Majesty," He said decisively, coolly staring at more Reijin appear in the stead of the fallen. "Given I saw the Royal Guard earlier, it's likely we'll have to fight them too. So be ready for anything."
"Well isn't this a party?" A tall cloaked man said as he appeared beside Haschwalth's other flank. Flipping the hood back, he had a fair complexion, angular yet thin visage, his whole body lanky beneath the bulky uniform attire he has over himself. "I don't think these guys are alive in the technical sense, so I'm just going to hang back until the real threats show up."
"Do as you wish, Askin, as long as it benefits His Majesty," Haschwalth intoned without a glance his way.
"Riiiiiiiiight," He sighed out, stepping back to conceal himself in the shadows of his comrades.
Among the slew of gunfire, sword blocks and explosions, Yhwach continued to walk ahead. Yamamoto's furious flames roared about while Gerald Valkyrie continued to block and repel his mighty strength. The elder Shinigami grinned, seeing Yhwach walk up stairs of reishi, formed ahead of him as he trodded up to the highest point of this new Royal Palace.
Straight to the source of the blinding Sun that cast its glow over the Heavens.
"It doesn't matter," Yamamoto said, withdrawing his attacks from Gerald in a backwards dash. The larger man paused, looking dumbfounded as this legendary warrior stared ahead with a devilish smirk on his face.
"You're following your leader to a folly end, Quincy. It's time you see that, otherwise you will die in ash by my hand," He warned with a chilling glee in his tone. "Make your choice."
"Bahahaha!" Gerald guffawed, swinging his arms out, clenching shiekd and sword tightly. "As if I'd choose retreat. I am no coward. The only choice is clear."
Stomping the ground, he leaped forward, his sword raised over his head.
"THROUGH YOU!"
"Ryuujin Jakka Strike: Nijigiri!"
Yamamoto intoned, taking a gliding step, his body seemingly passing through Gerald's bisecting strike like a phantom.
SPLLRRRT!
In a sudden gasp, Gerald found his shield's lower half and his waist erupt in a geyser of blood; that became ignited in flame, scorching the large Quincy's chest up to his chin.
"GAAAH!" He roared out in pain, staggering forward as his skin cracked and burned over his bleeding wound. Placing his hand over it, he grimaced as bluish white energy snuffed out the fire, leaving a scorched cut across his muscular abdomen.
"How does it feel, to have your very veins engulfed in fire?" Yamamoto asked with a jeering grinpoised at Gerald's back. "I imagine it's quite painful. So much that you may pass out from the agony alone."
"Pain?" Gerald asked with a chuckle, standing up to his full height, turning to tower over the elder Shinigami. Shadows draped over him from the distant glare of Reio's light, giving him a shadow overcast that made his cheery visage a demonic expression of malice. "This is but a scratch."
The former Captain Commander's smile retained, a laugh escaping his mouth.
"I like your spirit!" He exclaimed, his blade ignited with a furious roar along with his body. "Let's see how long it lasts before I burn you to a cinder!"
The pair of titans blurred across space, appearing within a massive explosion of fire and blue reishi. The mansions closest by are cracked then burned away, the shockwave rippling out from a mushroom cloud of fiery light that surges up into the sky.
Haschwalth stood still, allowing the force of the pair to curl around him and damage the Reijin he and the other Sternritter were fighting. The crystalized golems shattered and broke apart from the wave of pressure bludgeoning into the dust along with the nearby center of the massive city of mansions.
"It seems like Gerald has this well in hand," Haschwalth said coolly, lowering his sword down and looking over to Lille. "Let us advance to give His Majesty support."
"Fine by me," The sharpshooter replied.
The three swiftly moved past the molten area of battle Gerald and Yamamoto are waging. Haschwalth at the front, Lille in the middle and Pernida behind, the trio ran up the stairs of reishi that Yhwach made as he slowly walked up towards the flare of light at the glass palace ahead of them.
As they ran up, they'd feel a sudden wave of pressure followed by a body slamming into the reishi staircase. They saw it to be Askin, a smirk on his face as he looked at Haschwalth; or rather what was incoming behind him.
Turning on his heels, Lille fired a flurry of reishi bullets, each one deflected away to explode in shots across the mansion-filled cityscape. The shadow became defined in a flourish of light, a naginata thrusting at Haschwalth.
KRAAAK-KOOM!
Deflecting the spear in a thunderous parry of his sword, they saw Tenjiro Kirinji flip back, skirting across the air like a solid floor. Hefting the gleaming Zanpakutō up onto his shoulder while gnawing on a toothpick, he stared ahead with a sneer.
"You should have drank with me. Beating you into the ground isn't nearly as fun for me," He admitted dryly.
"We want nothing from you other than your death, Shinigami," Haschwalth said stoically, lowering his sword down to his side. "Stand back or die."
"I've already died before," He said, with a smirk, twirling his spear around himself before ending with a forward leaning stance. "Besides, I'm not fighting alone."
At that mentioning, a series of shifts in the air sounded around them. The Schutstaffel and Haschwalth looked about, seeing Ouetsu Nimaiya to the left with Aisubeki Gādian to the left and Shutara Senjumaru to the right with a ringed blade in hand.
The Royal Guard assembled, baring their teeth, with the Quincies standing along the staircase.
"Can I trust you to handle this?" Haschwalth asked, looking over his shoulder to where Yhwach marched. "I must be by His side."
"Go ahead," Lille intoned with a nod, hefting his rifle up in readiness. "We can take care of these guys."
Haschwalth turned and sped up the stairs, leaving behind an instantaneous collision of reiatsu and reishi. His eyes fixated at His Majesty's back, he could only wonder how they planned to defeat the Reio?
Or if they even could?
Arriving at the balcony, Yhwach saw the light dim and the circular marble platform had a pair of glass doors wide open. He beheld a massive checkerboard floor of glossy marble ahead with a massive domed ceiling with stars and darkness depicted above his head.
Walking inside, he could see to his left a large platform led up to by stairs where a black throne lay. Sitting upon it, Aaroniero is draped in a vibrant coat of cosmic swirling lights of stars and galaxies within the tapestry of her coverings. Her hair is white, glowing and pure, with a pair of eyes enamored by white crosses in a black backdrop.
A smile rested on her face, her head leaning to rest against an upraised chin with a look of expectation in her visage.
"I figured you'd get here eventually," She said with a stoic stare at the dark robed man. "A shame you didn't go the way I wanted."
"As one who wields the Almighty, you knew exactly how I'd respond, Aaroniero," Yhwach spat knowingly. "For someone who uses the power of divinity, you're surely foolish in how you wield it."
"I don't know what you mean," She said, raising her head back to the throne's headrest, staring him down with a thin grin. "You're exactly where I want you to be."
A sudden rush of light ascended, blood spraying the air. Yhwach's face construed into surprise, finding his feet and hands impaled by spikes of jagged reishi rising up from below.
Suspended in the air, Aaroniero watched with a smirk as he struggled with his bonds. Crunching flesh tore away, followed by Yhwach ripping himself off the spikes and falling to the ground with a thud. Gritting his teeth, the bloody wounds began to stitch close by threads of reishi, leaving stains of crimson over his appendages.
"You set traps ahead of time? Or rather, did you change the current time for there to be traps?" He mused aloud, grimacing as he rose back to full height. "To think another possessing the Almighty is almost unfathomable. But with you devouring the Reio, I suppose anything is possible."
"It's quite the ability for someone to possess," Aaroniero agreed. "But you know all about that. The last time you had it, you fell to Chojiro Sasakibe and Genryusai Yamamoto. To think you had such power and still died is beyond me."
Yhwach sneered.
He had no retort.
At least, not a verbal one.
VMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Yhwach's body roared to life with an immense aura of bluish-white light, the whole palace of glass shaking under the pressure of his presence. His normally dark eyes glowed red, his lips turned into a fierce grimace.
Arcs of reishi rose up around him, throttling spears in a spiral at the seated Reio.
Widening her smirk, the spears shattered in a twinkle of light, winking out as if by thought alone. Fizzling sparks scattered with a propelling arrow the size of a bus, also eradicated in a pulse of dispersing light.
Appearing past the scattering reishi, Yhwach's hand thrust towards her head, halting a foot away as did the whole of his body. Invisible tethers wrapped around him, squeezing with constricting pressure that forced his Blut Vene to activate in reflex.
"I gave you that paltry amount of power as a test to see if you were deserving of my time, Yhwach," Aaroniero said, grinning maliciously at his vein throbbing face, blue complemented the red fire in her eyes. "But given your greed for power outweighed a better solution, I find your resistance boring."
"HNNNNGH!" Yhwach growled out, his body throbbing and convulsing. Blood spouted from his flesh, his eyes oozing crimson as his nostrils, the cloak and uniform twisting around his body with the unseen tendrils of reiatsu crushing him to death.
And, then, his body released a sudden wave of reishi, throwing aside the now visible tendrils of reiatsu aligned to Aaroniero's head. Her eyes widened, her smile vanishing into an o, and then his hand thrust towards her face.
VOOM!
Throttled backwards across the vast throne room to a far glass wall with a crack, Yhwach coughed up blood and fell to his feet with a stagger. Wincing as he rose slowly back to his full height, he heaved heavily to regain his breath, eyeing at Aaroniero.
"That shouldn't have happened," Aaroniero said, her eyes furrowing into a frown while lowering her smoking digit. "You don't have it yet. That is…of course," she smiled again, looking over to her right as a cloaked figure entering the throne room, "Jugram Haschwalth. I should have known my Royal Guard couldn't hold you down. Are you intent on meddling with this affair?"
The blonde Quincy looked at her and then the bloodied man who is his superior.
"Your Majesty," He began to say, cool blue eyes staring at his inflamed red eyes intently. "What are your orders?"
Yhwach calmed himself.
He could feel his highest of subordinates fighting in the Royal Palace. At the moment, none could come to his aid. If any would fall, he couldn't provide revival with the kind of battle he's in.
There were others he could summon, but none had the ability to face the Reio.
That is but two.
And one of them is standing in front of him.
The other is elsewhere.
The Quincy King walked back towards the throne, his footsteps heavy with echoes bounding in the hall. With his reiatsu rising back up in a quaking flourish of light, he spoke in a stoic expression of confidence.
"Let's crush him, my first son," He intoned with a smile, "Together."
Haschwalth bowed his head, rising up and brandishing his sword. Turning around, his own reiatsu raised up in a white flame, the pair approaching the throne in perfect synchrony.
Aaroniero smirked.
"I was waiting for this," She said, placing both hands on the armrests and pushing herself up to her full height. With white crosses staring ahead, she raised both hands up and released a mass of white reiatsu, a blinding stellar light that shines to the outside of the city of mansions.
The fight between the Reio and the Father of Quincies has just begun!
Grimmjow heaved heavily. Sweat ebbed off his face, his exposed chest damp with blood as well as his arms and legs.
Injuries that had been mended over and over a dozen times began to strain his transformed body. The force of his attacks began to weaken at his draining reiryoku.
His foes, however, seemed to possess no such limits.
Looking around he saw winged Quincies, transformed into angels with their own unique designs to embellish their qualities and overall physical powers.
"It's amazing," Meninas McAllon said, marveling at her foe as she bristled with bluish light from her Vollstandig. Her military jacket blouse became accentuated with heart shaped shoulders, straps that wrapped around her frilled sleeves with studded gauntlets over each fist. Her skirt had an assortment of heart shaped trim in bluish light, while her stockings glowed into a pair of pearlescent heeled slippers. Her wings themselves had large arcs of movement, the material shown to be hearts as well, giving her a cutesy vibe despite her terrifying strength. "Camael should have reduced you to a pulp by now. You're very sturdy."
"Yeah, my Baraqiel isn't doing jackshit either," Candice Catnipp snapped with ire, her own transformation armed with six sets of lightning bolts for wings while her arms, legs, and a set of overlapping two piece bikinis crackled with blue electricity. Even her eyes were sparking with energy, ebbing out in tendrils as she glared down, her wavy lime hair aglow in her sparking reiatsu.
"Now you see what I've been talking about," Giselle Gewelle droned out with exasperation, still armed with skeletal armor over her body, macabre bony wings bristling behind her as skulls are seen with every blink in her hollow eyes. "Azrael gave me a boost when I squeezed the reishi out of Royd, but it burned out quick fighting this guy. He's got strength for days if any of us fight him one on one."
"To think he's avoided as many attacks as he's tanked," Bambietta Basterbine intoned with a glare, her harpy wings of light flapping about as she stared cautiously at Grimmjow. "But he's looking to reach his limit."
"Thank God," Liltotto said, her demure sleeveless attire adorned with reishi gloves akin to a butcher's and an apron of reishi flapping over her buttoned up blouse; enhancing the teeth shaped wings flourishing behind her. "I'm getting irritated with this guy's stubbornness."
The Tres Espada ground his teeth.
"Shut the FUCK up!" He howled out, his voice releasing a powerful sonic wave that bristled the five girls' clothes and hair. Baring his fiery claws, snapping his twin-tails torching ends, he spread his legs and beckoned them as he loudly shouted at them. "All I hear you bitches do is prattle on and on! Either fight me to the finish or die! Stop wasting my time!"
"Ehhhhhh," The five drawled out with prolonged sighs.
"What?! Afraid to get your nails chipped or something?!" He asked with indignation.
"It's just," Liltotto grated out as she scratched her head. "I'm getting kinda hungry, and this fight's been dragging out. I only joined in to end this quickly but you keep healing. So I might just sit this out."
"Yeah," Giselle agreed with a nod. "I know I was a bit fired up, but this is getting sad."
"I mean, I guess I could beat him as he is now," Meninas said with a shrug, looking at Bambietta. "What do you think?"
"I think you three aren't taking this guy seriously," Bambi sneered, glaring at the other girls. "Besides, if he's one of the upper tier, that means His Majesty might reward us if one of us snags a kill."
"A reward, huh?" Candice pondered aloud, stroking her chin with rising interest, eyes sparking in response. "I like the sound of that!"
Grimmjow snarled.
At this point, fighting them almost felt like a waste of time. If he could just get one of them away from the others, he'd have a chance to overwhelm them.
I'll take on their leader, He determined, if she falls, the rest will go with her.
His aura roared to life, alerting the five to his readiness to continue their fight.
KRAK!
Grimmjow widened his eyes, suddenly feeling like his whole body seized up from a shot from behind. He couldn't see it, but he felt something engraved into the center of his back.
A blue U brimming with reishi over his skin.
"Keh-keh-keh, I got you, kitty-cat," A voice cackled from the shadows of a hole right behind him. Rising up, Grimmjow couldn't see, but all the Bambis gave a series of contemptuous stares at the new figure.
"Oi," Candice sneered, raising a crackling hand threateningly at the arrival. "Why are you butting in, Najahkoop? He's our prey!"
"Don't fret over details, Bambis," NaNaNa chided with a raised finger from a lanky exposed dark arm. His face above his nose is covered by a yellow lens visor, his frayed black hair affixed into braids in a pentacle style and his cloak is affixed around his neck to drape back like a cape. With his upper body covered in a short-sleeved jacket, his abs exposed down to a pair of puffy pants to a set of curled jester shoes, he possessed a truly colorful appearance among his contemporaries.
"All is fair in love and war," He affirmed with a grin, black and white teeth arranged like a monochrome chessboard between his lips. "Now His Majesty will reward me. Any of you getting in my way will get what I'm going to do to him. Capiche?"
Bambietta grit her teeth and Candice scowled. Meninas looked away with a sigh, Giselle floated over on her back and Liltotto furrowed her brows. Everyone knows what Najahkoop is capable of. If he had been watching in secret this whole time, then there's nothing any of them could do.
"Fuckin' rat," Grimmjow snarled out, turning to face his his adversary despite the numbness prevailing his form. "I'll kill you first!"
NaNaNa leaped back, avoiding the air shearing swipe. Gesturing with his hands, blue darts fired off at the Arrancar.
He swung to deflect them, finding they stuck into his appendage.
"W-What?!" He yelled out, finding his arm fall limply to his side.
"One arm down," NaNaNa hissed with a toothy grin.
"Grrrrrrrr!" Grimmjow snarled, grasping his affected arm and twisted it with a bloody crunch.
The Quincy gasped, watching the Espada mutilate himself with feral noises coming from clenched teeth. With a vicious tear, an arc of blood sprayed out from where the reishi needle poked arm lied, now held in the opposite clawed hand.
"You're insane!" NaNaNa exclaimed, taking a step back at the sight as even the Bambis we're given pause at this display of gruesome self harm. "You didn't even give yourself an advantage, yet you destroyed your own arm. Are you stupid?!"
"Heh, am I?" Grimmjow asked with a pained grimace. Seconds later and the stump contorted, sprouting a network of blood soaked branches. From their roots grew tissue, bone and muscle, complete with a set of cobalt blue burning claws. The sight of it unnerved the Quincy, yet the sight of his heavy breathing wasn't the only thing he could see.
"You've been regenerating a lot, haven't you?" He asked with a jeer, spreading his arms. "Well, keep it up. Eventually I'll inject you with my Morphine shot till you're completely paralyzed. And then, you won't escape from my killing blow-"
"THEN DO IT!" Grimmjow roared out, his voice pushing back the man and forcing his hands up to his ears. The Bambis too also winced at the volume of his voice, while also feeling a new sensation.
"If any of you have the stones to go through with it, fucking try it! I'm not going anywhere!" He snarled out, rearing about to sneer at the floating Bambis while keeping a peripheral gaze at Najahkoop. "You may use all the tricks, all the team ups and all the backstabs in the world! I know you're scared to face me as I am! So even with me weak, bloodied and cornered," he stomped, his reiatsu rising up and his claws bared up with his tail snapping behind him, "Which of you is brave enough to make the next move?"
Bambietta looked on with wide eyes. Every hair on her neck rose up, goosebumps traced down her spine as she could feel claws all over her body. The monstrous face of a panther overlapped with the Espada's body, a virulent force of deep blue reiatsu that permeated the air with bloodlust.
Looking to the other girls, they too has expressions of fear on their faces. Meninas trembled, shaking in place. Liltotto sweated past her scowl. Candice gritted her teeth as she took an unconscious step back. Even Giselle is devoid of a placid grin, now one of oval eyes and an open mouth.
Najahkoop himself felt his knees buckle. Trembling in place, he found himself chuckling.
"That reiatsu is truly fearsome, I won't deny it," He admitted, brushing away some of the sweat as he grinned towards the on guard Arrancar. "But I see all of your weak spots."
Grimmjow swiped the air, unleashing a severing wind of reishi at the Quincy. He twirled around it, appearing weightless as he glided towards his prey. The Arrancar slashes quickly, narrowing the space of approach, forcing his foe to move in a diagonal path to close the distance.
Darts formed in his fingers, the Quincy baring his monochrome teeth.
"You're mine!" He declared, throwing out a flurry of shots at Grimmjow's vital spots.
The Arrancar perceived the path of the Heilig Pfeil through his Pesquisa. The sparking darts flew towards his chest, upper arms, neck and forehead.
Just as they surged out to touch his skin, the Tres Espada tensed his body up, muscles bulging and reishi rolling through his entire body.
Ting-Ting-Ting!
"...!" NaNaNa gasped, his eyes widened behind his visor. All ten of his darts were deflected, Hierro rebounding the projectiles against the hardened skin.
His Reiryoku quality changed for a fraction of a second when he tensed up! He realized, finding it too late to avoid two pairs of claws crossing over his chest.
Flesh tore open, blood spouted out in a gush of red. Pain swept his being like fire, his mouth opening in a strangled grunt as the Sternritter staggered back from the blow.
POW!
"GAK!" NaNaNa grunted out, blood and spit flying out of his mouth as his body lurched forward from a snapping elbow thrust. A salvo of darts discharged in place, spearing through his back in a line of claw shaped smears of red over the palace roof behind him.
"Get lost, asswipe!" Grimmjow snarled out, stepping back-
THUUM!
-before driving his head into the visor covered cranium of the taller, lanky Quincy. The material cracked, his body sent roaring back in a concussive wave that drove his body to bloodily stain a good stretch of the Silbern roof.
Rearing his head back up, he'd feel a familiar Reiatsu descend upon him from behind. Twisting around to block a studded cross-formed gauntlet, Grimmjow's eyes met Meninas's wide eyes. The air ripped open in a snapping flurry of bluish tendrils, the ground cracked open like an egg and a shockwave erupted between them both.
"So, you're next," Grimmjow seethed with a thin smile.
Along his forearm burst a powerful gale of reiatsu, throwing busty woman back and upwards. Tearing a fissure with his claws at her, he watched her flip on her back and dive under the projectiles of reishi he threw her way.
Thrusting his arm at the exact moment of her dodge, a spear of cobalt light rushed straight at her face. Twisting out of the way at the last instant, her cheek splitting open, she gaped at a second one appearing right where she rolled away from.
Shimmering away with Hirenkyaku, she landed behind him, her winged back to his own. Her eyes trailed a sparking ruby string of light, veins throbbing along her face and a toothy sneer present as she twisted a fist towards his head.
Leaning his lead to the left without looking, he thrust a palm up, catching her throbbing fist in a clawed grip.
Turning around to slam the back of his other hand's knuckles into her jaw. A loud crack filled the air, blood flowing out of Meninas's mouth and nostrils as she staggered a step back. A panther foot kicked into her stomach, throttling her backwards with an intense velocity across the Silbern.
Pursuing her in a bluish blur, Grimmjow thrust a clawed hand to spear into her chest.
CRUNCH!
A sudden rattling stomp from Meninas's feet stopped her backwards momentum instantly. His incoming claws crash into her bosom, sparking out at the last second as blue veined skin emerge beneath the tearing reishi and uniform blouse.
"Sankt Faust," Meninas murmured in a rare deep timbre, her eyes glaring red at Grimmjow's blue orbs. "Disaster Hammer!"
No sooner had she intoned these words did her fist already make contact with his chest. The sound a loud bell filled the air, followed by a terrible shriek of bleeding white light that burst onto his flesh and then a massive howling vortex that tore his muscles and shattered his bones.
In short, this is the strongest blow Grimmjow has felt from Meninas yet, and he felt his entire chest torn open while his body flew back in a gory streak of momentum. Flayed ribs exposed, organs liquified and the front of his person gored from his face down to his feet.
Strangling out a gurgling cough, the Tres Espada somehow managed to stay conscious. He felt like his pain is far greater than before. Lying on his back, he arched his head up, seeing Meninas McAllon appearing at his prone feet.
"You know, I don't like losing my cool," She said, walking up to him, her raspberry eyes a perpetual pair of crimson rings as she strode to stand over his mutilated body. "But you, Arrancar, really pushed it when you hit my face. I don't like it when someone hurts my cute face. It makes me unbelievably," she paused, raising a foot up over his chest, slowly healing with a network of red roots and branches knitting himself back together.
KRUNCH!
"ANGRY!" She shouted, smashing her foot straight into his chest past his back and blasting the Silbern floor beneath them. His falling body puked blood, eyes whitened and limbs flowing up as he fell.
Pursuing him down, she flung fist after fist, driving his bloodying frame deeper and deeper into the vast underground through floor after floor in concussive force waves. Each impact tore open another part of him. His jaw shattering apart, an eye popping out, an arm becoming pulp, organs popping like bloody balloons. Her fury drove him down level after level till they reached the very bottom of the complex.
Breathing in quick pants of anger, she stood over his prostrate body, more meat than a recognizable being. Though she knew she should have controlled herself, the endless combo of punches were spurred on by the strike to her face that brought back memories she wishes to leave forgotten.
A crying girl, face swollen red from beatings, dress stained with her tears as she cried bitterly to herself. A weak girl, helpless and afraid, held captive by someone who sought to abuse her frail and demure form for their own benefit.
A Pure Quincy like her is rare, after all.
And then, a voice called to her in the dark. One that shared her pain, and understood her rage. He gifted her power, the one thing she desired above all things, liberating her.
Freeing her.
Able to be the beautiful girl she has always wanted to be without fearing anyone or anything.
Amidst her daze, she looked in surprise as the barely held together form of Grimmjow strung out a network of roots all across from a white cross filling where his hole lay. His muscles, tendons, flesh and hair to even his clothes restored though reduced by a large margin.
Lying with wheezes on his back, alone in a dark cellar with a faint gleam of light trailing from the holes she made on their descent, Grimmjow's sealed state is unveiled. Opening his eyes, he grimaced, trying to move, but felt utterly sapped.
"You lasted longer than I ever thought possible," Meninas admitted, raising a fist in preparation to finish the downed Arrancar. "But I think it's time I end it."
Closing his eyes, Grimmjow anticipated the oncoming punch to end his life. A rush of air, a clang of metal and a slurry of sparks splashing over his face caused him to open his eyes in shock.
"What's with that look, Tres?" A tall, lanky Arrancar asked, his massive twin-crescent halberd halting Meninas punch a mere meter from his certain demise. "You really going to die in a hole like this? What would Lilia or Tier think if they saw you?"
"Nnoitra…!" Grimmjow hissed out in anger, glaring at the one eyed Arrancar's overbite grin.
"If you're going to get in the way," Meninas huffed, turning to throw a punch at his face, "then die first!"
Swinging his massive weapon derailed the Quincy's aim, a mighty thuum of force curling past and blasting through walls within the empty basement of the Silbern. Seeing this gave the cocky Espada pause, realizing just how strong she seemed to be despite her size.
It must be something with her current form, He supposed with a narrow stare at her.
"You're strong," Meninas dryly stared, her angelic being brightly lighting their environment as she appraised his appearance. "What rank are you supposed to be?"
Nnoitra sneered.
He didn't want to expose the current brand of humiliation given to him by Aaroniero. Especially in front of Grimmjow.
"No answer? That's fine," She sighed boredly, her form unraveling the reishi about her, returning herself back to her base state; sans the damage to her blouse's ribbon over her exposed cleavage, and the small bruise over her left cheek.
"What gives? Run out of juice on that fancy form of yours?" He asked sardonically.
"I don't like using my full strength. Especially on someone so much weaker than me," She stated with a smile.
Throb!
A vein twitched above Nnoitra's brow. Gripping his long crescent halberd, he dashed forward and slashed his weapon at her side.
Clang!
A gloved hand palmed his weapon without breaking her eye contact on him. Sparks flew from her palm, his strength completely stopped completely.
"Heh," Meninas scoffed with a smirk, "Like I said."
Pulling him forward, Nnoitra watched her fist curling forward into his lurching chest.
POW!
Colliding into his chest, sparks firing out and the Arrancar's eye bulging. Throttled backwards, he slammed into the far wall with a smash, blood spewing from his mouth and nostrils.
"Weak."
A/N: And here it is!
I initially planned this to be a strictly Yhwach chapter. But as I began writing, there's plenty of fluff that can be summarized and then rearranged. I wish Aaroniero had something more interesting to talk about, but her plan is pretty straightforward.
Dissolve the realms that don't contribute to the three current realms, and then merge them together to a state of no death. It sounds insane, maybe even impossible for her to achieve, but it's what she believes is possible.
But she seems confident, even as he tries to attack her. So she must know what's going to happen next.
I am really enjoying the expansion on Haschwalth's character. He really is the most criminally underutilized antagonist. Like, he barely had anything to do other than stand there and exposit.
Schutstaffel v Royal Guard, Gerard v Yamamoto
Trying to make those engagements look very exciting, even if I can't give them a large amount of limelight. Will do my best to ramp those up.
And finally, Grimmjow. Poor guy can't catch a break. At least he took out the guy with the most ridiculous name and silliest hair. Too bad he pissed off the strongest woman with a lot of repressed abuse issues.
Also, lol, women beating up Nnoitra.