Within the total obscurity of the Menos Forest, a cry of pain and anger was heard. The trees themselves seemed to tremble with the intensity of it. There was no doubting it: the Devil itself must be walking among the dust of the Forest; there could be no other monster than it to produce –or cause—such an inhumane scream… even among hollows.

At the very center of the damned woods, a great gray snake slithered on the ground. Its long, sliding body was covered in blood, its ugly head looking down on another creature in front of him.

It was a huge scorpion, completely white from its demonic head to its deadly tail. A single bright green stripe decorated its neck. Its eyes were a deep violet, and reflected nothing but hate and fury. It was badly wounded as well, but in a slightly better shape than the great gray snake. It was that horrific scorpion that had screamed that terrible scream, for it felt an unbearable pain in its veins, bubbling up in its carapace until it had needed to get out in the form of a cry. The snake had poisoned it, before it had time to inject its own deadly blood into its enemy's body.

But there was no need to lament. The snake was finished. The scorpion lunged at its neck one last time and, with one clean, neat chop of its claws, the head of the serpent slid of the rest of its body and landed and the dry earth beneath it, raising a cloud of dust into the air.

Yet another enemy down… Yet another step closer to evolving. It wanted to evolve more than anything, desired the feeling of power that she would feel by accomplishing it, yearned for strength above all else. The scorpion would become Queen of the Forest, the most feared and most admired hollow in those detestable woods. And soon, it'd be able to leave that hated place behind to head for Las Noches. It had heard of the great Aizen-sama, and the strange rumor of his ability to give power to hollows, turning them into smarter, better creatures.

The scorpion stepped closer to its enemy's huge carcass, and lowered its head to feed on the fallen serpent.