Five hundred years ago, in the past

Gremmy, as a small boy, stood shaken in a corner in a dark room devoid of light, even though he could be rid of the darkness by turning on the lamp or sleeping in the nearby bed for comfort.

Then the door opened, and someone entered the room and sat down next to him...who turned out to be a much younger Yhwach.

'Are you still troubled, Gremmy?' The King asked for several seconds, but the boy remained quiet.

'I hate being like this...' Gremmy spoke in bitterness. 'I hate locking myself in this room; I hate being afraid and powerless and hate being so afraid all the time!'

Yhwach then remained silent for a moment and asked. 'You could be asked As Nodt about it as he is a professional

Gremmy then looked away. 'I don't see how talking about it to him would help, or it would prevent me from being afraid again!' He screamed out In frustration as tears fell from his eyes

Yhwach looked at the weeping Gremmy and let out a deep breath. 'I can understand that.'

The boy then looked at the King in defense. 'Oh, don't try lying to sympathize with me, your majesty. You are pretty much the most powerful Quincy in the Holy Kingdom. You are too strong to be afraid of anything!'

Yhwach then stared at Gremmy. '...Even when I see a near uncountable of visions of my death...and those of others each time I use the Almighty?

The boy was then rendered speechless at what the King said. 'But you can also advert that with the almighty.'

The King shook his head. 'Only most of them and only when I am awake.' He sighed and got himself up. 'Gremmy being afraid of death is not shameful, and not having that fear does not make one strong. But it can be overcome with Courage to those willing to march forward.'

Gremmy stood silent and then looked away. 'How can courage alone can face something unstoppable?' He muttered dejectedly, and Yhwach smiled.

'That is assuming that courage is all one has and truly believes their foe is unstoppable.'

The boy then frowns. 'But I had to face something unstoppable, and nothing I could imagine worked!' He shouted, and Yhwach narrowed his eyes.

'Then refine your imagination, along with your body and strength,' The King said sternly, and Gremmy was taken aback.

'Just because you are faced with a wall that is too tall for you to climb doesn't mean that you will never reach the top, but you will never move an inch up to it if you never believe you will,' Yhwach said, then reached out his hand. 'You have the power and wisdom to overcome that wall, Gremmy, but it can only be grown and refined unless you have the spirit to do so.' The older man then smiled. 'Do you?'

Gremmy then looked on and returned the smile. 'If you believe that I can, your Majesty...then so will I,' he responded hopefully, grabbing the King's hand.

Now in the Preset.

Soundtrack of Choice: Hollowed 2022 B Type

Arturo looked on impassively at the gigantic explosion that reached miles high into the air, expecting Quincy to emerge from the explosion or at least to determine if he was still alive.

'That blow would have been powerful enough to destroy Las Noches several times over, yet I can still sense that he is alive...' He thought as the blast eventually died down and revealed the heavily damaged form of Gremmy. With his clothes and most of his hair burned off, his body covered in third-degree burns, and his breathing now ragged. 'But then again, as the mind of the Reio, that should at least be expected.'

Arturo then slowly walked to the heavily wounded Gremmy. 'So tell me, child, do you still wish to fight the inevitable?' He asked vainly while pointing his fanged sword at his enemy. 'Have you finally decided to accept your fate?

The young man looked up at Arturo with weariness and chuckled at his menacing foe in one last act of defiance.

Growling in contempt, The General raised his blade to deal the final blow...until.

SLASH!

Arturo then suddenly coughed up blood as he stopped himself, and to his surprise, he saw a crystal Scyth sticking out from the right side of his chest.

'Bummer...' Gremmy said dejectedly from behind Arturo. 'I was hoping that by severing your soul sleep and chain, it would at least de-power you. But I guess you've made differently from most Arrancars, I guess,' he commented while the General shot his eyes out in confusion.

'You, but how...' He then looked at the other Gremmy, who continued to smirk at him before fading away.

'What is wrong? Can't tell an imaginary form of me and the real me?' The real Gremmy questions sarcastically while gripping his scythe. Which caused Arturo to growl in rage.

'Don't you dare mock me!' He snapped and tried to strike back at the imperial guard, only for the latter to dodge the blow with a back flip and then transform his scythe into a gray helmet with red outlines.

'Surly, you are more interested in knowing how I evaded your big explosive attack, right?' Gremmy taunted before placing the helmet over his head and then disappeared in a shroud of fog surrounding Arturo, who clicked his tongue in annoyance.

'So that little trinket can hide you in a measly smoke screen?' He said distastefully before charging his spiritual pressure within himself. 'I thought I warned you before...' He then began to ready himself. 'Do not mock me!'

He then unleashed a massive blast of green Spiritual power from his body that annihilated everything within over a mile and left behind an enormous chasm thousands of feet deep—fully believed that he bypassed whatever cover Gremmy used to hide from sight.

Only to hear a taunting chuckle from behind him, much to his bafflement. I saw that the Quincy was completely unharmed.

'Oh, come now, you didn't believe that cloaking myself from sight alone was what allowed me to evade you, right?' Gremmy taunted sarcastically while stepping closer to Arturo. 'Allow me to give you more of a hint.'

Suddenly, a light blue hue surrounded the entire desert, and the General immediately felt an immense cold consuming him while gradually beginning to lose the ability to breathe. But unlike the spear of Mars, which deprived him of oxygen within a desert storm. This change in the atmosphere denied him almost all air due to its severe lack of density.

'Y-You,' Arturo struggled to speak as he collapsed on one knee, staring hatefully at the smug imperial guard.

'Why yes, Arturo, my celestial weapon...' he tapped on his gray and red helmet. Solestic Teir 9 Helmet of Plato. It enables me not just to become invisible but also to become the atmosphere of the planet of Plato itself. Which effectively makes me both intangible and be anywhere and everywhere with a thought.' He then lowered his head to face his foe directly. 'So tell me, how will the Mighty Arturo get out of this one?'

The General then bared his teeth in frustration, which turned into a sinister grin.

'You still do not know the difference between our powers, mind of the Reio?' Arturo spattered out in a dry yet dark tone. But before Gremmy could retort. The giant man quickly engulfed his fanged sword with sparks of electrified Spiritual pressure and swung it at Gremmy, and to his shock, it managed to cut through his intangible body, sending his blood spilling everywhere.

'As I said before...your powers are merely an illusion of reality while mine is power incarcerate!' Arturo roared out loud despite the lack of air in his lungs. 'Before me, your celestial weapons, while they may be named after gods, are nothing more than mere fragile toys before me!'

Gremmy then eyed Arturo and stared at him blankly and then looked at the bleeding cut on his chest before dispelling his helmet and imagining his wounds away. 'So let me get this straight: when I forge weapons with nifty powers, they are nothing more than fragile toys. But when you do it, it somehow makes you power incarcerated?' he chucked. 'Talk about a double standard.'

Arturo then grunted. 'It is not a trick. It's-'

'You combine a Grand-ray Cero into your sword to utilize its properties to distort space and time to bypass my intangibility,' Gremmy interrupted and explained. 'If that is not a trick countering another trick, then I don't know what else it could be.'

The Bethmoth man gripped his hands and body In frustration at his enemy's continued defiance.

'Why...?' He thought in infuriation as he glared into Gremmy's disinterested stare. 'Why does he continue defying me when he knows he is outmatched? When every tactic he has tried has failed, and all he's managed to accomplish is delay the inevitable?'

Arturo then remembered when Gremmy, as a child, ran away from him in fright and conjured up everything he could to slow him down to no effect. 'While he may have been a coward back then, at least he had sense; he knew his proper place in the pecking order of strength.' He then tightened the grip on his sword and narrowed his eyes. 'But no matter, his arrogant defiance will be put to rest soon enough.'

'Prepare Mind of the Reio...' Arturo said ominously as he placed the flat of his energy sword on the front of his forehead. 'For now, you will witness one of my greatest abilities!'

The General's eyes began to shine brightly with a multi-colored aura while his spiritual pressure skyrockets out of his body like an eruption.

Soundtrack of Choice: Hard Battle

'Bestia Del Viento Furioso!' (Beast of the Raging Wind) Arturo shouted out, and soon, rapid winds that moved at over two hundred miles per hour surrounded his body, which was then entwined with his Spiritual pressure. Giving the General the appearance of a ghastly dark figure shrouded in debris and shadow while a terrific thunderstorm clouded the entire sky, blocked the red moon, and spent over two thousand miles in length.

Arturo then raised his sword, which then shined into a massive shining hue of brilliant emerald, and then lunged at Gremmy with furious abandonment—forcing the imperial guard to evade him. Yet, to the young man's surprise, each time he tried to dodge one of his sword strikes, a cut appeared on his body, and when he tried to put some distance. Arturo would launch a tornado blast as large as several mountain ranges, forcing Gremmy to block with his Saturn's scythe, letting the General close the distance and attack Gremmy again.

'Now do you see the folly of you trying to resist me, boy!?' Arturo cried out while continuing to slash at Gremmy's body. 'You are nothing more than a stubborn tree in the face of an unyielding hurricane before being pulled out from under its roots and rendered asunder!'

The young man then raised his scythe through Arturo's wind armor only to divert off course when it came in contact with it. Within that moment of weakness, the wind clade Arrancar launched a punch at the Imperial guard with enough force to blast his shirt off and send him flying off into the horizon.

Only for Arturo to catch him by the back of his skull and slam him brutally into the desert floor before punching him repeatedly.

'You will submit to my power and will beg for your life! Before I devour you whole and finish what I started!' He screamed out in near hysteria while beating down his enemy's head to a bloody pulp.

Until he suddenly recognized something from the corner of his eye.

It was another Gremmy, his wounds now healed and his shirt gone, exposing his lean but well-toned body while having a bored expression.

'Wow...' Gremmy muttered. 'You ended up falling for the same trick twice, and now I guess I am forever in fear of your power and might,' he said with sarcasm so thick it could be cut with a razor-sharp knife.

Arturo looked at the Visionary in confusion but soon gave in to rage. ' Do not think you can evade me with that trick on me forever!' He roared and then struck his sword at Gremmy's neck.

But to his horrified belief, the blade stopped in its tracks upon hitting his skin, while the additional slashes did not harm him. The Quincy's skin, now glowing with the blue vessels of Blut Vene.

'Nah...' Gremmy said casually. 'After seeing all you can do, I don't need to evade you anymore.'

Arturo then winded his eyes dumb-folded.

'But how? My wind-'

'That technique of yours may be awe-inspiring and imitating, but countering is rather simple,' Gremmy explained, looking up at the swirling wind around Arturo's body. 'Each time you launch an attack, it releases blades of wind a split second after it has been delivered, making them nigh impossible to invade. At the same time, the armor around you creates an anti-cyclone that pushes everything away, thus making you nearly impossible to touch.

Gremmy summoned the beaten clone and reformed it into a silver trident with sapphire. For once, he didn't bother to call out the weapon's name to his enemy while staring at Arturo with a dispassionate expression.

'Of course, the keywords are nigh and almost' and then faster than the General could react. Gremmy swung the weapon and unleashed a slash of cold consecrated wind that cut right through the Wind armor of the Arrancar as if it wasn't even there and spilled a massive amount of blood from his chest. Much to Arturo's shock and desperation, he swung his sword at Gremmy's skull, hoping to split it.

But like before, it had no effect when the Visionary blocked it with his trident. While Gremmy, as if not noticing the attack, further explained.

'In case I haven't been clear enough, your technique is just a wilder version of an Arrancar's Hierro with a more unpredictable reach of your blade, with the former getting countered with just greater consecrated force and the latter with a more robust defense. Which is only made easier after analyzing the density of your Spiritual pressure,' Gremmy then gave a questioning glance to Arturo. 'So, do you have any other abilities you want to show me...or is that all you have to offer?'

Soundtrack of Choice: Gorilla Ja L

Arturo's body then began to shake. Not only in anger and desperation but also in denial,' Impossible...' Arturo muttered. 'There is no way that prey like you...' His Spiritual presence then began to rise once. 'CAN EVER BE MY EQUAL!' He roared at the top of his lungs as his spiritual pressure erupted from his body like a massive typhoon, and two substantial white bird-like wings sprouted out from his back and glowed with the same multi-colored aura of head jewels and fanged sword.

He then rushed at Gremmy with the viciousness of an enraged beast. In retaliation, The visionary sliced his chest open with another cold wind blast from his trident. But to his surprise, Arturo took it without slowing down his charge and forcing Gremmy to duck away before getting skewered by his foe's now-empowered claymore.

'I am done trying to reason with an infuriating insect like you or even wanting to devour you!' Arturo raged as he pointed his sword at Gremmy, now flying up in the air. 'Now, I want to see your ground into dust before my feet!

The Visionary then looked at his furious foe and then sighed. 'So you want to end this now, huh?' He then glared sternly at Arturo. 'Have it your way...'

Then, with a single snap of his finger, several solstice-tier weapons suddenly appeared on Gremmy's body. The helm of Plato covered his head, the boots of Mercury were once more wrapped around his feet, and then he raised his left hand.

Solstice Teir Five...Bolt of Jupiter' and then, in a flash of bright green-yellowish lighting, a black rode with glowing golden crystalized highlights formed in his palm and upon sensing the overwhelming power within the electrifying weapon, Arturo, for once in the entire battle, stepped away in fear.


You know, the most challenging thing in writing this chapter was deciding how to design Gremmy's Solstice Teir Five Bolt of Jupiter, which gravitated to it either being a solid black lighting bolt with an orange outline, an absolute electric thunderbolt or a rode similar to how It was detected in the book Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief. But upon seeing old artwork depicting the lighting rod, I decided to stick with the latter. For both lore accuracy, a bit more unique

Anyway, see you next time!