Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 49 - Development

Chapter Forty-Nine

The battle was over. Wayne ordered his men to clear the battlefield. Peromon's corpse and Hollow Mask he kept for himself. The remaining Hollows he had killed, along with their masks, were divided among the four Hollows who had come to reinforce him, with a particular share going to the pangolin Hollow that had activated the Negación.

Resources distributed, Wayne led his people back.

"Jekain. Are all our forces accounted for?"

"My lord, they are waiting for orders a few thousand meters out."

"Good. Organize the men and bring every Adjuchas-class in our territory here. We're not leaving any resources in this area, harvest everything on the spot."

"As you command, my lord." Jekain bowed and accepted the order.

"Nel, after this, take the perception-type Adjuchas-class and a few suited for scouting. Patrol the borders of the nearby hostile territories. If you encounter enemies, deal with them on the spot. If there are too many or you can't hold, fall back first, then regroup and organize a defensive formation when you return."

"Yes, my lord." The tail behind Nel swayed gently. "But, my lord, your injuries. Do you not need me to treat them?"

"It's fine. I took considerable damage in this fight, but I also picked up some insights and experience from it. I need time to process all of that. The front line has to have capable fighters holding it. So for the next few days, I'm leaving the harvesting of this territory to all of you."

"Understood." Nel gave a small nod and agreed.

Wayne led his men back to their own territory to rest and recuperate. Jekain split off midway, taking a large contingent of Adjuchas-class into Peromon's former territory to consolidate and harvest its resources.

Because it had been a surprise attack, the other lords had no idea what had happened in Peromon's territory. Fortunately, the fighting had taken place not far from that territory's central area, so word hadn't reached any neighboring domains. Otherwise, by now, Wayne might well have found himself trading blows with some unknown opportunist lord trying to fish in troubled waters.

With all his orders issued, Wayne returned to the underground cavern beneath the fortress to rest.

From the very beginning of construction, the rock-type Hollow beast among his subordinates had been continuously building the core fortress according to Wayne's instructions.

After more than a year of work, the massive fortress was nearing completion. It wasn't particularly elegant from a design standpoint, but its practicality was exceptional. The outermost layer housed perception-type Adjuchas-class and those with powerful long-range combat capabilities.

The corridors and walls wound in a twisting, maze-like pattern. Without allies to open the gates of each partition wall from the inside, enemies would waste considerable time just navigating the detours.

Of course, without Reiatsu reinforcing them, the walls themselves were nothing special in terms of raw durability.

Moving inward was where Jekain's subordinates lived. Further in still were Jekain's own quarters. At the very core sat the fortress's main assembly hall, and above that, Wayne's domain.

For his own convenience, Wayne had ordered the rock-type and pangolin Hollow beast to work together and excavate a large underground space beneath the fortress for his personal use.

That underground space was where Wayne could rest and train, developing his abilities away from everything else.

Inside the cavern, Wayne sat cross-legged on the ground. The Reishi within his body began to circulate and flow according to his will. First order of business: recover from his injuries.

The reason he hadn't asked Nel to treat his wounds was precisely this, he wanted to use the injury to study his own regenerative ability. How fast was it, exactly? And did he have any capacity to enhance it?

Based on Wayne's understanding of this world, Hueco Mundo and Soul Society were actually similar in composition, both were formed from Reishi. Whether living beings or structures, every blade of grass, every rock and stone, all of it was the same. The only difference was the density and arrangement of the Reishi, which produced different forms of matter.

In the world of Soul Reapers, there was no mention of molecules, atoms, or any of the scientific and chemical terminology he had known in his previous life. But the absence of the terminology didn't mean those concepts didn't exist.

Wayne was a transmigrator. He knew far more about these things than anyone else here. So given that all matter was composed of Reishi, he wanted to explore whether Reishi could be treated as a structural framework analogous to molecules and atoms.

"This so-called Reishi composition is nothing more than breaking matter down into Reishi, then reconstructing matter from Reishi. Different base arrangements, different densities, different substances." Wayne sensed the Reishi within his body slowly regenerating his flesh and bone and settled on his conclusion.

Hollows as a species seemed to have innate regeneration speeds. No Hollow had ever thought to develop or accelerate their own regeneration through self-cultivation.

"Wait, I seem to remember... there was a Hollow in the manga with some kind of ability that could restore health almost instantly by consuming something. Which one of the Espada was that again?" Wayne scratched his Hollow Mask and thought for a long while. Nothing came.

After a bit, he gave up trying to remember and returned his focus to perceiving his own regenerative ability.

From comparisons with some of his ordinary Adjuchas-class subordinates, Wayne had already concluded that his regeneration speed was faster than a typical Adjuchas-class.

He had considered whether this was related to the degree of condensation of his own Reiatsu, but after thinking it over, he let that theory go. There was a ceiling to how dense Reiatsu could become, and if he had already hit that ceiling, he should have mastered ultra-speed regeneration long ago.

In the end, Wayne concluded that it came down to the speed and adaptability with which Reishi converted into bodily matter. He kept that as his research direction and pressed on.

If the opportunity ever arose, he genuinely wanted to establish something like the Soul Reaper Twelfth Division Research Institute. Unfortunately, the outer reaches of Hueco Mundo didn't have many Hollows with relevant capabilities, so that idea would have to wait.

He'd wait until this war was over. Once the revenge plan was complete, Wayne would head to the inner regions, to meet the Adjuchas-class of considerable power there, and even the Hollows with Vasto Lorde-level strength. By then, he believed his forces would expand several times over, laying a solid foundation for contending with the major factions down the road.

With his direction confirmed, Wayne resumed his seclusion. Beyond regeneration, he also intended to optimize and develop the techniques tied to his own abilities.

The grueling fight had made one thing clear: his Dimension Slash, the follow-up variation of his Space-Rending Slash, still had a flaw. When constructing the spatial coordinates, it generated a Reiatsu fluctuation that put enemies on guard, creating a gap in the long-range Reiatsu sword-edge attack and giving opponents a window to defend or dodge.

If he could integrate his concealment ability into the spatial construction, hiding the Reiatsu fluctuation as it formed, then perhaps the only thing enemies could detect would be the fluctuation of the sword-edge itself. That alone would reduce their chances of evading.

And if he could conceal even the sword-edge, that would be even better.

The problem was that such precise manipulation would burn several times more Reiatsu than an ordinary Space-Rending Slash. It meant deploying the sword-edge, the slash technique, his concealment talent, and his spatial talent all at once, with extremely precise and focused execution on top of that. Whether this line of development was actually worth it was still something Wayne needed to keep weighing.

The same went for Sonído. His Air Flash Sonído was already excellent as a movement technique, but Wayne still hadn't managed to split off multiple clones simultaneously.

Especially after his Reiatsu had been partially depleted, during the fight with Peromon, even pushing to high-intensity bursts, he had only managed a single clone to block Peromon's line of sight.

There was still significant room to improve his proficiency with Air Flash Sonído.

With his development direction set, Wayne began his seclusion in earnest.

It didn't last long. One month later, he emerged from underground.

The reason was simple. The Gillian resources in Peromon's territory had been nearly exhausted by his Adjuchas-class subordinates. What remained of Peromon's territory was an empty shell, land without resources.

Time to step out and pick the next target.

"Jekain. What's the progress on Gatmont's side?"

"Gatmont has used his overwhelming strength to seize two territories. The alliance on his side is nearly broken. Their pace of attack has been much faster than ours."

"That's fine. With both alliances under assault at the same time, the other two won't sit idly by. While they unite against a common enemy and scramble for resources, they'll inevitably generate internal conflicts over their own interests. We need to be ready to exploit those moments."

"My lord, what should we do?"

"Over the past month — any new Adjuchas-class join us?"

"Yes, my lord." Nel answered softly from the side. "During the month of harvesting, we found six conscious Gillians in Peromon's territory willing to join us. Including the Gillians from our own camp, that brings the total to twenty-two. Seven have already completed their evolution. Six more have already sunk into the sand. The rest are still accumulating."

"However, my lord, over this past month we also had several clashes with neighboring lords. All of them are members of Peromon's alliance. Peromon had gone so long without attending their alliance meetings that they eventually sent someone to check on him. We killed two scouting parties. In the third encounter, one of the alliance lords, Sneak Attack, came personally. Our perception Hollow beast Adal was unable to fall back in time and was killed."

"Adal — the bat Adjuchas-class from our last fight?"

"Yes." Jekain lowered his head in sorrow. "Adal was our strongest perception-type Hollow beast. Unfortunately, he couldn't withstand Sneak Attack's ambush and died on the spot. With our perception-type gone, we lost five Adjuchas-class in total that scouting battle, Adal included.

Fortunately, Lady Nel arrived in time and held Sneak Attack at bay, or our casualties would have been far greater. That said, the enemy also lost three Adjuchas-class Hollow beasts in the engagement. Combined with the two earlier scouting parties — four on their side in total — our Adjuchas-class casualty ratio stands at seven to five.

But the fact that we eliminated Peromon has now become known to that alliance. The next time Sneak Attack comes, it likely won't be just a handful of Adjuchas-class."

"Mm." Wayne nodded slowly. He understood the situation clearly enough. He still couldn't match the sheer force of Great Lord Gatmont's faction, couldn't simply crush opponents through raw power.

Outwitting them was the only path forward.

➤ Next: Experiment