Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 34 - Growth — Inner Fire

The Northern Forest lay far from the Central Forest. Wayne and Nel wandered and hunted their way across the distance, and it took them over a full year before they finally reached the edge of the Central Forest.

It wasn't that they were slow. For most of that time, Wayne had been outside the Garganta, tracking down gathering spots and devouring Hollow beasts to heal his injuries.

After less than half a year of recovery, Wayne fully restored his severed arm. He then compressed and refined the Reiryoku within his body until he judged it to be at its optimal state. Only then did he and Nel resume their journey, using the remaining time to reach the vicinity of the Central Forest of Menos.

"Wayne-sama, we're here." Nel shook her head and nuzzled against the hem of his clothes. "Should we head straight into the core area?"

"No. We'll take it slow and work our way inward." Wayne looked down at the relatively small but formidable figure beside him. "We'll hunt bit by bit from the outer perimeter. Right now, I need to advance to Adjuchas-class as quickly as possible. The Adjuchas deep in the core won't be something you can handle alone. And this massive body is a burden. I need to return to the agile form I once had."

"I will protect you." The eyes beneath Nel's Hollow Mask held nothing but resolve.

"Haha... mm." Wayne lowered his head and patted her. "Then I'll be counting on your protection until I advance." He didn't refuse her goodwill. With Nel at his side, he walked step by step into the Central Forest.

Why the Central Forest? Wayne had thought it through carefully.

Three reasons.

First, compared to the other two forests, this one had enough Gillians. The next Sacred War between the Forests of Menos had yet to begin, and the Central Forest was still in a phase of recovery. The overall Gillian population was at its peak, even the number of Adjuchas in this forest should be considerable.

Second, with so many Hollow beasts, the supply of Reiryoku and the density of Reishi here were more than sufficient, making it an ideal environment for advancement and training.

Third, by his calculations based on the last Sacred War, the next battle would be between the Central Forest and the Northern Forest, with less than nine years remaining. That was more than enough time for Wayne to grow to a terrifying degree.

Even if there weren't enough Gillians for him to prey on, he could use that long stretch of time to firmly establish himself in the Forest of Menos.

Wayne was no pushover. The face he had lost in the Northern Forest, he was determined to take it back, even if it cost him a decade. Better that than leaving a future threat alive.

In truth, nine years of secluded training in the Forest of Menos wasn't long for Wayne. Hollows had lifespans far too vast. Nine years was merely a sliver of time to a Hollow.

In nine years, if that vile insect advanced into a Vasto Lorde, he would naturally head to the inner circle. If he failed to evolve, Wayne was certain he wouldn't give him another chance.

Advancing from Gillian to Adjuchas didn't take long. As long as one kept devouring Gillians, the day of advancement would come.

But advancing from Adjuchas to Vasto Lorde would take dozens, even hundreds of times longer. And the probability of further evolution was limited by the Hollow's own potential. The vast majority of Hollows were fated to remain at the Adjuchas-class their entire lives, even if they stood just one step away from Vasto Lorde, they could advance no further.

Those with extraordinary innate talent, however, could break through as naturally as water finding its channel once they neared the threshold. It was just that the time required would be very, very long. In the remaining nine years, Wayne didn't know whether the Lord of the Northern Forest could use the Forest of Menos's limited resources to reach the Vasto Lorde level. But one thing he was certain of: after nine years of growth, Wayne would no longer fear him.

Entering the Forest of Menos, Wayne and Nel began their hunt. At the Gillian level, ordinary traps could do little more than briefly restrict some Gillians' movements, so Wayne abandoned that useless approach entirely. Instead, Nel — that Adjuchas-class lethal weapon, stepped in as the primary hunter.

On the forest's outer perimeter, no Gillian could withstand a single strike from Nel. Several enormous Hollow Masks fell before Wayne's eyes in a very short time, and the massive corpses were devoured completely clean by Nel's unique absorption method, leaving not a trace behind.

"Wayne-sama, today's harvest was quite bountiful." That day, Nel brought back six Gillian Hollow Masks and dropped them in front of him. Wayne didn't stand on ceremony, he grabbed the masks and stuffed them into his mouth.

The warm current of Reishi flowed straight into his core, and Wayne exhaled in deep satisfaction. The refining went fast. In less than half a day, the foreign Reishi had been refined into his body, compressed and tempered.

"Mm. Good harvest. Nel, you've really worked hard these past few days." His refining complete, Wayne sat beneath a large tree to rest while Nel lay on her side beside him.

At her current level, Nel would need to devour no fewer than a hundred Gillians before further advancement would have any effect. She was the same as Wayne, neither of them had been born in Hueco Mundo for a hundred years yet. She couldn't do what the Lord of the Northern Forest had done: rely on the limitless resources of the Forest of Menos, accumulating power over hundreds or even thousands of years, to reach the peak of Adjuchas-class while still in the outer circle.

Unless she and Wayne were also willing to spend centuries, heedless of the consequences, devouring the Hollow beasts of the Forest of Menos. That way, even without entering the inner circle, they could safely advance.

But Wayne had said their time was limited. Their stay in the outer circle couldn't be too long. Were it not for the decade of revenge and consolidation, he wouldn't even be willing to waste this time. But this one act of revenge could permanently eliminate a major threat and provide the Reiryoku of a peak-stage Adjuchas besides. Why wouldn't he take that?

A tall tree catches the wind. Stand out in the forest and the wind will bring you down. Wayne and Nel were proof of this now. A full year had passed since they arrived at the Central Forest of Menos, and Wayne hadn't rushed to build his own faction. He hunted relentlessly instead, and not a single Gillian that passed through his territory escaped his grasp.

This left a corner of the forest where no Gillian dared take another step toward the core area.

In practice, Wayne and Nel were already operating in a guerrilla pattern. To avoid accidentally straying into some Adjuchas's core territory, they kept their range of activity deliberately small, hunting within a radius of only a few dozen kilometers.

A year of hunting hadn't brought Nel much improvement. For Wayne, though, it was explosive growth. Over a hundred Gillians had entered his stomach in that one year, causing his Reiryoku to surge dramatically and driving him to break through the limits of late-stage Gillian in a single breath. His second metamorphosis, advancement to Adjuchas, was now close at hand.

For an ordinary Gillian, devouring several hundred others should have triggered advancement long ago. Wayne was different. His terrifying Reiryoku compression made the Reishi within his body extremely dense and compact. Though he was only at the Gillian peak, an ordinary early-stage Adjuchas could no longer withstand a direct frontal Cero from him.

If he encountered Riat now, Wayne at least wouldn't be helplessly at his mercy the way he had been before. Over a hundred Gillians had already given him tremendous growth. Another half month or so, he estimated, and he would advance to the Adjuchas-class.

"Good morning, Wayne-sama." The forest was dim and amber-lit, with almost no concept of time. Yet every time Wayne awoke, Nel would speak that same light, gentle greeting by his ear.

The habit had come from Wayne himself. Once, upon waking, he had unconsciously said "good morning," and Nel had remembered it. She didn't fully understand it, but it carried a hint of warmth, and she had used it ever since.

"Morning, Nel." The eyes beneath Wayne's massive Hollow Mask regained their red glow, signaling that he had awakened from deep slumber. "Although we Hollows don't need sleep, occasionally getting some rest makes it feel as though the Reishi in my body has been fully restored."

"Proper relaxation is important too." Nel's antelope body nestled beside Wayne while her upper humanoid torso stretched gently, as if shaking off sleep.

"Fair point." Wayne glanced briefly at Nel, her upper body's curves on full display, then withdrew his gaze and stood. "Has the hunting been going smoothly lately?"

"Everything's been smooth. Up until the last hunt, no Adjuchas were spotted." Nel raised her head and looked toward the tall figure beside her. "It's just... the numbers seem to have dropped in the last few hunts. I remember when we first arrived, we could take seven or eight Gillians at a time. Lately it's always only two or three." She sounded puzzled.

"They haven't decreased. Our path has been blocked." At her words, the red light in Wayne's eyes flashed sharply.

"Blocked?" Nel didn't understand.

"The Adjuchas here are more shrewd than I imagined. They didn't send anyone to probe us. Instead, they drained our food source to force us toward their territory." Wayne thought for a moment, then explained. "On the outer edge of the forest, the Gillian numbers will keep thinning out. They're redeploying, preparing to isolate us."

"Why?"

"Probably because our presence has threatened their resource base and disrupted their food ecosystem. Think about it — since we arrived, we've already devoured over a hundred Gillians.

Over a hundred Gillians in one year. Calculated within the area we occupy, that number is already considerable. In the Forest of Menos battles every decade, both sides combined only amount to around ten to twenty thousand Gillians — and that's including the Adjuchas and the consumption from Gillians devouring each other.

If the entire forest is divided into dozens of territories, then in our region, the resources may already have been depleted to a point that threatens the local lord. That's why they want to force us toward the forest center — once a fight breaks out there, we won't be able to escape."

"Hmph. So you do have some self-awareness." The moment Wayne finished speaking, an extremely powerful wave of Reiatsu swept over them. Immediately after, a humanoid Hollow beast roughly six or seven meters tall appeared before Wayne.

"You stinking crawling insects! You've eaten so many of this lord's snacks — time to pay back some interest!" The Adjuchas-class Hollow fired a Cero straight at Wayne and Nel the instant he appeared, giving Wayne no room to even open his mouth.

Half a year ago, Wayne might have had to strain to dodge. Now, his scarlet eyes didn't flicker with even a trace of panic. He calmly opened his great mouth, and an equally Reiatsu-laden Cero fired back to meet it. The two Ceros collided. The massive explosion seemed to ignite the very air, and the smell of charred wood spread instantly in every direction. When the smoke cleared, Wayne, still a Gillian, was completely unharmed.

Though still a Gillian, his Reiatsu had long since approached that of an Adjuchas. Wayne felt no fear at all toward a lone Adjuchas. Even if he couldn't win outright, escaping was well within his ability now. And with a true Adjuchas-class partner at his side, facing an Adjuchas who had come to throw his life away, Wayne could only say one thing.

Thank you for the meal.

The sudden arrival of the Adjuchas lord hadn't brought much trouble. In a single exchange, the outcome of the Cero clash left this six-to-seven-meter humanoid Adjuchas filled with shame and fear.

A Gillian with combat power comparable to an Adjuchas, what kind of concept was that? Allowing such potential to develop further was absolutely terrifying. He had to be killed now, while there was still a chance.

Violent jealousy and killing intent flooded the Adjuchas lord's mind. In the next instant, he conjured a gray-white long staff formed from Reishi. It seemed to share a similar principle with Nel's Lanzador Verde, except this gray-white staff could only be used for close combat. Nel's Lanzador Verde, on the other hand, had already been driven into his chest before he could even act.

"You... you two—" Staring at the Lanzador Verde in his chest and the Reiatsu suddenly erupting from the pair across from him, the Adjuchas lord knew he had kicked an iron plate today. The killing intent radiating from his body was steadily swallowed by fear.

"Looks like today's breakfast is still quite sumptuous." Seeing that the newcomer had already lost his will to fight, Wayne lost even the interest in testing his current abilities. He gave the order directly. "Go, Nel. Make it quick."

BOOM! BANG!

The words had barely left his mouth when Nel was already dozens of meters away, right in front of the Adjuchas lord. Super acceleration combined with Sonído, the speed was so terrifying that Wayne couldn't even track it. By the time he focused and caught Nel's figure, she had already rammed her head straight through the Adjuchas lord's chest. Holding the mask, she used her absorption ability to destroy the body and eliminate every trace.

"That girl... she's getting more and more terrifying." Wayne clicked his tongue.

Perhaps it was just good luck. This lord-level Adjuchas wasn't of a high rank, barely middle stage. And that bloated physique didn't look built for combat. So for Nel, dispatching him in an instant wasn't difficult.

In less than a moment, Nel came to Wayne with the mask in her mouth. After advancing to Adjuchas-class, Nel already had a half-human body, but she still preferred carrying things in her mouth rather than her hands. Those hands seemed to exist solely for using Lanzador Verde, something closer to specialized appendages than ordinary limbs.

Wayne accepted the mask from Nel and stuffed it into his mouth in one go. "Living off someone else sure is nice. Long may it continue." Feeling the surging Reishi pour into his body, he couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Hm? Wayne-sama seems to have spoken in a language I don't understand again." Nel tilted her head, the eyes beneath her mask sparkling with curiosity.

"Don't mind the details." Wayne waved a large hand.

"Ah, you said it again."

"..." Wayne was speechless. "Let's go. With this lord dead, his territory should be taken over by another Adjuchas before long. We can use the opportunity to expand our own territory and push a little deeper inward."

"Hehe~ Yes, my lord~"

➤ Next: Assembly and Negotiation