The crawl to greatness (Part 3)
A/N: I know that I said that the first two parts of this 'arc' would take place in the Forest of Menos, but I changed my mind and I think that this entire arc will take place in the forest, and the next arc will happen in the deserts of Hueco Mundo. Also sorry for the time it took for this new chapter to come out, I wasn't really in a writing mood this week.
-Barragan's inner world-
Barragan woke up in his inner world, the comforting sight of the moon and the sands of Hueco Mundo calming him. He turned around, and saw Arrogante standing, seemingly waiting for Barragan. Barragan approached Arrogante. Before Barragan could say anything, Arrogante started to talk.
"I'm disappointed Barragan." Arrogante said disapprovingly. "I though that you were smarter than that. Running straight into an entire army of Gillians and a powerful Adjucha minutes after becoming an Adjucha is at the peak of stupidity." Arrogante looked at Barragan and sighed. "It might have been for the best to keep you as a Gillian for longer, I though that you had learned your lesson, but it appears that I was wrong. Edvairn would have been disappointed to see that the heir that he had nurtured to be the king be such a pitiful and foolish being."
Barragan was quiet while Arrogante was talking, but after that last sentence, Barragan looked at Arrogante with fury.
"How dare you!" Barragan roared. "How dare you speak in Edvarin's name, and insult and belittle me!" Barragan pointed at Arrogante. "You, are merely a tool, something that is used to fight, and a coward that resorts to belittling me!" Barragan continued rambling. "The only thing that you have on me is that you managed to seal away my godly powers while I was in a weakened state, and you dare to call me pitiful and foolish!? You have no right to speak of Edvairn, you don't even know who he is!"
Barragan ran at Arrogante, determined to chop him into pieces, but Arrogante simply slapped aside Barragan's attack with a flick of his hand, and grabbed both of his arms in his iron grip.
"How dare you, you say?" Arrogante said coldly, his eye peering into Barragan's soul. "I should be the one saying that. You called me a weapon, something that is merely used to fight with. Do you understand how big of an insult to my pride is?" Arrogante took Barragan by his skull, and slammed it into the ground, and then threw Barragan's body like a doll. Barragan gets to his knees, and tries to get up, but suddenly he feels a huge pressure pushing down on him, forcing him to the ground again. Barragan manages to look up, and senses the pressure coming from the obviously angry Arrogante.
"I, am a zanpakuto." Arrogante said. "I am a reflection of your power and soul, manifesting as your weapon and lending you my power." Arrogante walked over to Barragan, lifting his head up so that they were face to face. "You and me, we have the same conscious and subconscious, which means that I have all of your memories, even those that you have forgotten. This means that I know Edvairn just as well as you do, perhaps even better since you have forgotten so much about him." Arrogante dropped Barragan's head and looked down at Barragan.
"As for your 'God powers', those were merely the dregs of what you could have been, but never emerged due to you decline and stagnation after the civil war, Edvairn's death and you becoming king of what was left." Arrogante said. "I will say it again, I decided to seal away your powers because you were already too far gone due to your arrogance and stagnation. Sometimes if you need to improve something, you have to tear everything down and build it up again from scratch, that is the approach I took, and it was arguably the best one." Arrogante looked scornfully down on Barragan's body on the floor, barely able to move because of the pressure eminating from Arrogante. "Look at you, if I had restored you with your full power, you would just hit the same dead end, ultimately stagnating and getting yourself killed because of your idiocy."
Arrogante cast one more scornful looked at Barragan, then lowered the pressure that he was eminating so that Barragan could move again. Barragan slowly got up on his knees, then tried and failed to stand up a couple of times, finally getting up after a few tries. Barragan looked at Arrogante, not knowing what to say to his zanpakuto. "Am I really this weak because of myself?" Barragan thought to himself. After a few more moments, Barragan pieced together a sentence.
"I understand." Barragan mumbled.
"Good, at least you understand that you have faults, that's the start of any great person." Arrogante said. "Now, there is something else I want to hear, you might not know of such a thing, it's called... an apology." Arrogante said snidely.
If Barragan could express facial emotions, he would have had a deep scowl.
"Fine." Barragan grunted. "I'm... sorry, Arrogante."
Arrogante chuckled. "You know how to apologize?! What a shock!" Arrogante chuckled again. "Apology accepted, but never talk to me like before again, or there will be hell to pay." Arrogante said coldly. Barragan nodded. "Also, since you understand your own faults now, I think that I will give you a small piece of advice to speed you along on your way." Arrogante said.
"What kind of advice?" Barragan asked.
"Just a short lecture from Edvairn that you had forgotten." Arrogante said. "What he said was that, a kingdom can be represented as a body. The different body parts are different parts of society, but the most important part is the king, which is the head. The head of the body, or king, makes the decisions on what the body or kingdom should do, and what actions it should take, and the body follows. A problem is that, a body without a head, or a kingdom without a king cannot go anywhere or do anything, since the head or king that makes the decisions is gone. A similar problem occurs when the head or king has no body or country. They make decisions but with nothing that can execute the decisions the head or king is helpless. It is only from a body having a head or a king having a kingdom where decisions can be made and executed." Arrogante gestured at Barragan. "You at the moment are a head without a body, or a king without a kingdom. The other Adjuchas in the forest have armies of Gillians, or a body in this case, while you are just a helpless head." Arrogante said. "Do you understand, Barragan?" Arrogante asked.
"Yes..." Barragan said. "I think I understand now."
"Good, since you are starting to wake up again." Arrogante said. "Now remember my advice, or Edvairn's in this case, and continue your fight to the top again. I will be watching you, and next I hope you will come to me better than last time." Barragan nodded, then started to wake up. His inner world fading away.
-Barragan's hideout-
Barragan woke up, and looked around. Barragan stood up, and looked at himself. His injuries were now gone, except for a nasty burn mark from one of the stray ceros that had hit him. "That will probably become a scar later." Barragan thought. "At least I can have it as a reminder of the sin of my arrogance."
Barragan then noticed a gnawing hunger in his stomach, and then a groan. "I haven't eaten in a while, so I should probably go out to hunt." Barragan thought. He tested his body to make sure that it was in good form again, and then headed out to find his next meal. While Barragan was wandering in the forest looking for his prey, he had a passing thought. "Maybe instead of just consuming the Gillians, I can 'recruit' them and start making an army." Barragan thought, remebering Arrogante's words.
Barragan then continued to wander in search of Gillians, now looking to 'recruit' them instead of consuming them. He almost ran into other wandering armies while looking for stray Gillians, but managed to sneak away, and also observed clashes between armies. He saw that most Adjucha armies were only groups of around 40 or so Gillians, which meant that the Adjucha that Barragan had encountered earlier must have been one of the stronger ones. "He did say that he was nothing compared to the Guardian of the Forest." Barragan thought while watching another clash of armies from afar. "He might have been exaggerating, but it might be smart to take his words into account before facing of with the Guardian." Barragan then left, the battle he was watching having just ended.
While Barragan was wandering about, he had another idea. "This is going a little slow for my liking," Barragan thought. "Maybe I could try to do Sonido? I don't know if Adjuchas can use it, but if it could use Hierro, then maybe I could use Sonido." Barragan stopped, and focused, trying to remeber the feeling of Sonido from when he was a Vasto Lorde. He then took a step forward, trying to emulate the explosive step that creates the boom sound of Sonido. Barragan propelled himself forward with the explosive step, and then taking another after travelling a small distance, then taking another step to brake, creating another boom sound. Barragan looked down at his legs, and then whooped with joy at his discovery. "Yes!" Barragan thought gleefully. "Although it is primitive and not as refined as my old Sonido, I still did Sonido!"
Barragan then spent some time in the area getting used to the primitive form of Sonido that he could do, trying to travel shorter distances and at a higher frequency, and tried using it in a more combat oriented way. He tried using Sonido and then swung his axe, and then used Sonido again in order to attack from a different angle. After doing this for some time he decided that he had trained enough, and continued on his way to find more Gillians.
Barragan continued using Sonido while wandering, which meant that the search took much less time. Barragan eventually found a group of five Gillians scattered about, mindlessly wandering the forest. Barragan then jumped out in front of the Gillians, but realized something. "How the hell do I dominate a Gillian?" Barragan thought as the Gillians roared at him and charged up their ceros. Barragan panicked and dodged the incoming attacks, using Sonido. He then retreated behind a tree, trying to think of a plan. "What should I do?" Barragan thought. "The Adjuchas that I've seen seem to use their strength to dominate Gillians, so maybe I could demonstrate my strength to them by flaring my Reiatsu?" Barragan nodded to himself, confident that his plan could work.
Barragan jumped out again, and then faced the Gillians. He flared his Reiatsu, sending a wave of pressure at the Gillians, who tried to roar in defiance, but could not face the onslaught of pressure on their bodies. Barragan walked towards the paralyzed Gillians, who looked at him in defiance. Barragan then flared his Reiatsu once more, pushing back the Gillians with the force of the pressure. They then finally submitted, bowing their heads to Barragan in subservience. Barragan then released the pressure on the Gillians, allowing them to move normally again.
"It seems like you five have submitted to me." Barragan thought aloud. Barragan then gestured towards them. "Come, we are going back to my hideout." Barragan started to walk away, the five Gillians lumbering behind him.
When Barragan had finally made it back to his hideout, he realized something. "When I was a Gillian I could barely fit in the entrance to my hideout." Barragan thought. "How are these Gillians going to get in, if they are this unintelligent?" Barragan suddenly had an idea, and then pointed at the group of Gillians at his side.
"Gillians, blast a hole big enough for you to fit in in that tree." Barragan said, pointing at the tree that was his hideout. The Gillians charged up their Ceros, and blasted them at the tree, creating a loud boom and making a large cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, Barragan looked at the hole. "Not exactly subtle, and it's a little too big, but what was I expecting." Barragan thought while looking at the large and obvious Gillian-sized hole in the hollow tree. Barragan felt his hunger rise again, almost becoming unbearable. He turned to the Gillians.
"Follow my lead Gillians." He ordered. "We are going out to hunt."
Barragan left his hideout with the Gillians again lumbering behind him, all looking for their next prey. After a while Barragan heard a Gillian roar, and Sonido'ed towards the sound, the Gillians shuffling to the same location. Barragan scouted out the group of Gillians, being around 8 in number. Barragan then waited for his Gillians to arrive and gave them orders.
"On my signal, start charging your Ceros and be ready to fire them." Barragan ordered, the Gillians nodding.
Barragan then ran out, showing himself to the Gillians, and slightly flared his Reiatsu as to make them think that he was weak prey with lots of Reiatsu. The Gillians roared and started lumbering towards Barragan, who was running away. The Gillians started charging up their Ceros and shot them at Barragan, who swiftly dodged the attacks with Sonido. He suddenly turned right at a tree, and Sonido'ed away. The Gillians shuffled after him, looking for their prey. When they started turning the corner they heard Barragan's voice.
"Start charging your Ceros!" He yelled, charging up his own Cero.
The Gillians saw a firing line of Gillians with Barragan at the front, who were charging up their Ceros, almost ready to fire. The enemy Gillians roared and started charging up their own Ceros, but it was too late. Barragans cero cleared out four of the Gillians, with his Gillians obliterating the others. The eight Gillian corpses fell to the ground, and Barragan and his Gillian approached the bodies. Barragan started to eat one, but the Gillians stood by, not eating. Barragan looked at the Gillians.
"Why aren't you eating?" He asked. "They might be waiting for orders if they can eat." Barragan thought. He waved at the Gillian corpses. "Take the rest, I only need two Gillians." Barragan ordered, the Gillians then shuffling over to the corpses and devouring it.
"I could have taken all of the corpses, and gotten even stronger." Barragan thought. "But they need it as much as I do, in order to become stronger." Barragan thought uncharacteristically, as he ate his share.
After they had all eaten their fill, Barragan felt his hunger fade, and the Gillians seemed slightly more energetic. They all went back to the hideout, where Barragan was already planning his next 'recruitment' for his growing army. "I think that I'm starting to understand your words Edvairn." Barragan thought gratefully. "Thank you, Arrogante, for opening my eyes, even only a little bit." After Barragan had thought that, he felt something inside of him hum in approval, but he couldn't put a finger on what it was.
A/N: The story might be a little too slow, but the arc will reach its climax in aound two more chapters, so bear with me a little while longer. Barragan will also start to unlock more of his old abilities soon, but you'll see that next chapter.