Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 48 - Alright

"Hah... hah..." Firing off several Reiatsu abilities in rapid succession had pushed even Wayne, whose Reiatsu was dense and compact, past the point of comfortable expenditure. If Jekain had been the one burning through techniques at that rate, he'd probably be flat on the ground by now.

"Two left." While the smoke still hadn't cleared, Wayne snatched a breath and activated Sonído underfoot, pulling back to open distance. He needed a moment to steady his Reiatsu.

THUD!

The enemy had no intention of giving him one.

Peromon burst through the smoke before it even settled, Sonído firing, and materialized directly behind Wayne in an instant, arm swinging down in a hammering blow aimed at his lower back.

CLANG!

Wayne spun and blocked with his injured right claw. The result: his entire right arm bent backward in the wrong direction. The force launched him off his feet.

He shouldn't have tanked that with a damaged arm. Peromon was power-type, and that strike had been full of fury.

But a ruined arm beat having both arms out of commission.

Even as he went flying, his left hand formed a loose grip. The Sky-Rending Greatsword reappeared, tip swinging toward the last Adjuchas-class subordinate.

Shadow Waltz!

Pale golden light blazed from Wayne's body. The spatial framework around him shattered, and his figure snapped into existence at an impossible angle beside the final Adjuchas, one strike to send it reeling. The knockback of Shadow Waltz triggered. Then the second strike. The third.

Countless sword flashes tore in from every direction at once, leaving the Adjuchas completely unable to answer. Finally, Wayne drove the blade clean through its chest. Shadow Waltz's accumulated damage detonated all at once, dozens of wounds exploded open simultaneously, a red mist spraying outward without restraint. The Adjuchas lost its life in that same instant and dropped toward the ground.

"Hah... the last one... Ugh!" Wayne hadn't caught his breath when Peromon was already on him. In the split second his focus slipped, Peromon hit him with a full-force body slam and sent him crashing down from the air.

Wayne broke the sound barrier on the way down. He hit the earth and blew shattered rock in every direction.

"Bala: Tremor!"

Peromon poured tremor energy into his dark-red Balas. The spherical shots warped under the vibrating force, flattening into ovals, and came raining down.

They hammered the ground into craters, one after another. Wayne, at the dead center of the barrage, was driven down to the bottom of the impact zone.

"Bastard, just die!" Peromon's fists gathered a surging tide of muddy-yellow Reiatsu. His massive body plunged downward, both thick arms heaving high, and then he brought them crashing into the ground with everything he had.

Earth Core Blast!

BOOM!

The strike nearly punched through the earth itself. Violent shockwaves kicked up a Reiatsu storm that tore skyward, a mushroom cloud of force billowing upward like a miniature nuclear detonation.

For hundreds of meters in every direction, every tree in the forest was ripped out and obliterated. The Gillians and lower Hollows nearby were vaporized without a trace.

"Hah... hah..." After that, Peromon was gasping too.

His Reiatsu had never been tempered the way Wayne's was. The difference showed, after burning through that string of techniques, he was already feeling the drain.

But it had been worth it. Every last subordinate gone, yes. At least he'd avenged them. At least Wayne was dead.

"That bastard was a pain to deal with. But killing him, that does right by those kids who followed me." Peromon rose slowly, taking in the devastation around him, and felt the grief settle into his chest. His entire force had been wiped out. Everything from scratch again.

"With Ace Wayne finished, the only one left is Yinfeng. Hmph, that idiot Gatmont, the killer was right in front of him and he never even knew. Some Great Lord."

He turned it over. Should he go find the alliance lords and explain what had happened? But the more he thought about it, the alliance only worked when each lord's strength was roughly equal, when they could stand on even footing and plan together. Someone in his position, alone without a single subordinate, would just be swallowed whole the moment he showed his face. Without at least one Adjuchas-class, he couldn't hold territory. As far as the other lords were concerned, Peromon right now, him and his land and everything in it, was a fat sheep waiting to be carved up.

"Going back to the alliance is out of the question. Have to rebuild first." He muttered to himself as he started walking. "What a shame, that last blast probably reduced that bastard to dust. Otherwise, with Reiatsu that overwhelming... if I could have devoured and absorbed it, I'm sure my power could have broken through the Adjuchas-class peak..."

"Who told you I was dead?"

Peromon hadn't finished his sentence. A voice rose behind him, level, unhurried, and final.

"Wh — what?!" He spun around.

From the depths of that seemingly bottomless crater, a pale golden light was rising from underground. The next second it shot straight up into the sky. The weight of that Reiatsu hit Peromon like a physical thing. Cold sweat broke across his skin.

"How — how is this possible! How are you still alive?!"

The sight sent him stumbling back several steps. Wayne was injured, there was no question about that.

His right arm was completely deformed. Blood soaked his body from the shockwaves. Muscle tissue had been shredded in places. The Hierro on his legs was drenched in red. His back was a ruin.

But his Reiatsu, the Reiatsu Wayne was putting out right now, said that Peromon's final all-out strike had not added a single scratch.

"Impossible. This is impossible!"

"Nothing's impossible." Wayne smiled, cold and contemptuous. "Your subordinates were wiped out. Mine weren't." He raised one finger and pointed into the distance.

About a kilometer from the battlefield, Nel and Jekain were already there, waiting. And at Wayne's feet, an Adjuchas-class Hollow beast shaped like a pangolin was crawling up out of the ground. Above, a perception-type bat Adjuchas circled high in the sky, wings beating steadily, watching the surrounding area to keep any stray Hollows from blundering in.

The reason Wayne hadn't taken the full brunt of that last strike was the pangolin. From underground, it had deployed a Negación around him. That was what had swallowed Peromon's finishing blow.

The cost: lurking beneath the blast zone and eating most of the Earth Core Blast directly. Not fatal, but the pangolin Adjuchas that climbed back up had its Reiatsu scraped down to nothing, and its wounds were serious.

"How, when did this happen,"

"From the moment I sent the signal, all the way to the end of our fight, my companions were pushing hard to get here. They knew the rule: stay a full kilometer back to avoid detection. I've been drilling that into them since the day they joined me. It's also why eliminating the perception-type was my first priority."

Wayne's left hand came up. The Sky-Rending Greatsword materialized slowly in his grip.

"With the perception-type gone, as long as my companions suppressed their Reiatsu completely, they'd stay off your radar. After that, they just waited for my signal.

Honestly, if I'd taken that last hit directly, I might actually have died here. But the companions I've chosen have never let me down. Negación is a technique almost never used between Hollow beasts anymore. It should be extraordinary, but the suspicion between Hollows, the law of survival, it's been slowly forgotten. A real shame."

A strange light passed through Peromon's eyes. For a moment, he seemed to sink somewhere else entirely.

"Alright," Wayne said. "I'm done playing fair."

He leveled the blade at Peromon. The phrase probably meant nothing to Peromon, but Wayne illustrated the definition clearly enough.

Nel and Jekain came charging in from the distance. The bat Adjuchas above fired a Cero from the sky. Combined with Wayne's own assault, the near-spent Peromon had nothing left to turn this around.

A few minutes later, Peromon lay at Wayne's feet, body streaked with wounds, strength gone. Wayne flicked the blood from his greatsword and pressed the edge against Peromon's Hollow Mask.

"Any last words?"

"Hah... huh..." Ragged breathing. He knew. There was no walking away from today. He steadied himself, then finally spoke, his voice low and worn. "Heh. Heh heh... if you can manage it... kill Gatmont. I think you're far more suited to rule this forest than he ever was."

"Oh?" Wayne paused. He hadn't expected that, something that almost sounded like a compliment. "Is that flattery your way of begging for your life?"

"Ha ha ha ha." Peromon closed his eyes. "If I had possessed leadership like yours — or if I had been able to turn those subordinates of mine into what you'd call companions — maybe they wouldn't have..." He trailed off. "A discussion for the next life.

Ace Wayne. One last request. Devour me. Let my Reiatsu become part of you. I want to see how far you go."

"..." Wayne went still for a moment. He had heard those words before, back when he was still a lower Hollow, from the mouth of a companion named Inola. But Inola had been a true companion.

The silence stretched.

Then he raised the greatsword and brought it down toward Peromon's neck.

In the instant the blade fell, the mouth beneath Wayne's Hollow Mask opened slightly. A single word, barely a breath.

"...Alright."

➤ Next: Development