Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 100 - The Three Great Lords

An ability that could produce a concealment effect. Wayne found himself tempted. It seemed similar to his own concealment trait, could it be a higher-order and lower-order ability relationship? He filed the question away. But in front of Baraggan, he said nothing. Instead, he produced Kamula's freshly slain corpse.

"Great Emperor. As agreed — this is my share." He pushed both the slender Vasto Lorde's body and Kamula's corpse toward Baraggan.

"You little brat." Baraggan's skull shook. He grabbed Kamula's Hollow Mask, then pushed the slender Vasto Lorde's body back. "This mask, I'll take. But keep the body. I know you have other abilities beyond the Law of Space. If you can nourish them alongside it, even if they never reach the level of a Law, they'll still boost your personal strength considerably.

"This one's ability clearly has compatibility potential with yours. Whether it can become part of your power, I can't say. But having it is better than not. I'm not hurting for one Vasto Lorde's worth of Reishi."

Wayne didn't refuse again. Three Vasto Lordes — he'd personally taken down two of them, saved a number of Baraggan's subordinates, and indirectly helped him consume a Vasto Lorde who held a fragment of the Law of Time. By that math, Baraggan had come out well ahead. So when the old lord allocated him a Vasto Lorde that might help strengthen his abilities as a bonus, Wayne could only conclude that cooperating with the Great Emperor was always the most satisfying arrangement.

Everyone called the Skull Emperor arrogant, imperious — a cruel tyrant who'd make his own subordinates split into two groups and slaughter each other. What they didn't know was that Baraggan was just an old man who'd been alone in Hueco Mundo for far too long. In a place utterly devoid of diversions, finding anything meaningful or entertaining wasn't easy. Especially once you hit the Vasto Lorde level.

Baraggan was aloof, yes. But he wasn't stupid. He understood what kind of person would have what kind of effect on him. In the original anime, when no one could bring him any amusement, he'd seemed utterly bored, making his subordinates fight each other to the death could just as easily be understood as a way of strengthening them. After all, inside Las Noches, Vasto Lordes were hard to come by, but Adjuchas-class Hollows were everywhere.

And when Aizen appeared, Baraggan fell under Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis. Exalted as he was — King of Hueco Mundo — he had no choice but to bow his head. Humiliating. But for the chance at revenge, he endured it. Unfortunately, in the later arc he encountered the Visored, who also possessed spatial abilities. That cost him his revenge before he could ever claim it.

Now, Wayne's arrival had threaded a little amusement into Baraggan's world. At the very least, he'd found a comrade with sufficient compatibility. And when the powers of Time and Space met, territories Baraggan had once been unable to push into were suddenly within reach. With a goal in sight, the old lord had naturally freed himself from that grinding, tedious existence.

Wayne's conduct also happened to suit the old man's temperament. That was what had earned the young man no small measure of goodwill.

One Vasto Lorde. He'd already gained far more than that. Helping a comrade grow was an investment in better battles to come.

"In that case, I'll accept the body." Wayne said nothing further and placed the corpse directly into his innate space. He had no intention of consuming it now, he'd wait until the day's fighting had fully settled, then return to his resting place to do it properly.

With the Vasto Lorde battle concluded, the Adjuchas-class war below ended quickly as well. Harribel's intervention had kept casualties among the lower ranks to a minimum. Naturally, these Adjuchas-class Hollows were to be split evenly between Wayne's and Baraggan's forces.

Wayne had long since lost interest in Adjuchas-class Reiatsu. After probing each one with the Law of Space, he found none that resonated with it. So once the division was made, he handed his entire share over to Nel and Harribel.

Harribel had slain these enemies herself, but as a Vasto Lorde she had no great demands. She casually tore off two pieces of Hollow Mask and stuffed them into her mouth, enough to restore the Reiatsu she'd spent in the fight. The remaining several dozen Adjuchas all went straight into Nel's stomach.

Using her absorption ability, Nel quickly drained every Adjuchas on the scene. But they still weren't enough to push her to the next level. It seemed only Vasto Lorde Reiatsu would get her there quickly.

Strange, when you thought about it. In the original work, Nel's Reiatsu had actually been higher than Harribel's. Yet here, Nel hadn't reached the Vasto Lorde level while Harribel had been born one.

One couldn't help but lament the unfairness of fate. Though perhaps this was also Nel's fortune. With her absorption ability, blazing past the others after advancing wasn't just possible, it was likely. And with all the ancient skeletal ruins scattered across the land, who could say Nel hadn't received a Reiatsu inheritance inside one of them?

Maybe Wayne had altered the path Nel would have taken. But growing step by step alongside him, no one could say he'd held her back.

The battlefield was cleaned up quickly. A wave of sneak attackers had instead left Wayne and Baraggan with an abundant harvest. Wayne even felt this kind of bait-and-trap tactic could be repeated two or three more times without issue.

Still, with Kamula's mention of the Three Great Lords in mind, they had to be cautious. What if each lord commanded ten or so Vasto Lordes? Their own lineup might not be enough to chew through that.

After clearing the battlefield, Wayne's group interrogated the few survivors they'd kept alive and extracted a considerable amount of intelligence about the Three Great Lords.

As it turned out, the Hollows of Hueco Mundo's central region had long since settled into a tripartite standoff.

In ancient times, the central region had held the greatest concentration of primordial Hollows, so much so that it had once been called the Primordial Land. Hollows living there survived barely one in ten; the rest were slaughtered wholesale by the ancient Hollows.

But after the King Hollows and the ancient Hollows had successively vanished, the central region was left with vast skeletal ruins. The Hollows that managed to survive within them found their fates divided. Some obtained the Reiatsu inheritance of the ancient Hollows, leaping overnight to Adjuchas-class or even Vasto Lorde rank. Others had, by chance, devoured the residual energy traces those ancient Hollows left behind. Their power swelled, and after centuries of hunting, they ultimately reached the Vasto Lorde level.

Then there were the fortunate few born as Vasto Lordes from the start. Most of these lucky ones were scattered across Hueco Mundo's various regions. But as the demand for hunting grew, the majority eventually chose to come to the central region and stake everything on faster advancement.

After tens of thousands of years of accumulation and bloodshed, the skeletal ruins of the ancient Hollows had been consumed down to scraps. The various factions had gradually been unified and divided under three Vasto Lordes who had ultimately risen to the mid-tier.

Saros Fonte. A medium-framed Vasto Lorde who wielded a long blade. His Hollow Mask resembled a woven-hat hood, carved with blue patterns. His ability was Blade Edge. Rumor held that Saros's ability sharpened the long blade bonded to him, letting it slice through a Vasto Lorde's Hierro with ease. His Cero carried a cleaving effect as well, Hollows struck by it weren't merely scorched; they were cut to ribbons while they burned.

Saros controlled the east-central region, the territory bordering Baraggan's domain. The elite force that had just attacked Baraggan's camp was one of his units, responsible for expanding eastern territory and hunting grounds. Baraggan's temporary camp happened to sit just outside the edge of their hunting range, an area that fell precisely beyond the maximum detection radius of Saros's Reiatsu surveys.

As for this bait-and-trap maneuver and the enemy obligingly delivering themselves to the door, Wayne felt there was room for several more rounds.

Susubus Aureya. A small-framed, fox-faced humanoid Hollow. Mid-tier Vasto Lorde and the only female among the Three Great Lords. Her ability was mental assault, striking the enemy's nervous system to induce hallucinations or paralysis. Her weapon was a long whip, though she was rarely seen using it. As a mental-type Hollow, her psychic power was far more useful than any weapon could be.

Susubus's territory occupied the north-central region, bordering the Northern Borderlands. Rumor held that the Northern Borderlands was where one of the nine ancient King Hollows had sealed a primordial Hollow long ago. The ruins of that seal remained to this day, and the ancient Hollow within had not yet died. This fox had long occupied those ruins. According to the Hollows under Saros, as a mental-type, she could use her psychic power to absorb the Reishi radiating from the sealed ancient Hollow inside the ruins, paving her path toward advancement. Naturally, this was all rumor. Whether it was actually true, no one knew.

Finally, there was the faction in the southwest-central region. And the only mid-tier Vasto Lorde Wayne personally knew.

Szayelaporro Granz. A scientist famous for his madness. Unlike the other two factions, Szayelaporro was a leader who treated research as though it were his very life. He never concerned himself with his subordinates' hunting activities. He only acted when they came to him for help, splitting off embryos with healing properties to treat them, or when he encountered prey that genuinely interested him. Only then would he personally step in.

This left his subordinates holding their strange-tempered leader in equal parts reverence and fear. Yet none of them had ever thought about turning on him. Because every subordinate who had tried was already dead, repurposed as research material.

Based on Wayne's memories of the original work, Szayelaporro Granz was an alchemist from the World of the Living, reincarnated as a Hollow. He carried a vast store of alchemical knowledge, and when he became a Hollow, the energy system of this place flung open an entirely new world to him. While strengthening himself, he never neglected his research into the local system.

Before Timd had appeared, Szayelaporro was the one Wayne had always been looking for. And Wayne was grateful, grateful he hadn't found him back then. Given his strength at the time, Szayelaporro would likely have dissected him on the spot.

Having broadly understood the faction distribution in Hueco Mundo's central region, Wayne released the last prisoner Hollow. Of course, before letting him go, Wayne had quietly tampered with his body.

He'd covertly driven a spatial crystal, loaded with the Death Sigh and a spatial mark, into the prisoner's body. He instructed him to return and inform Saros that the King of Hueco Mundo, Baraggan, had come to conquer, and that surrender was advised, along with similar provocations.

The Hollow obeyed and went back to deliver the message. After all, three initial-tier Vasto Lordes had died in a single stroke. If blame came down from above, he had no way of bearing it. He had no choice but to recount everything that had happened, from beginning to end.

Wayne could now use this Hollow as a coordinate point and quietly infiltrate Saros's forces. On one hand, he could scout the enemy stronghold's location and gauge their true strength. On the other, if Saros launched an attack against Baraggan, Wayne would be positioned to strike from behind. Either way, it was an extremely advantageous move.

Within two days of being released, the prisoner had returned to the core territory. Wayne had already slipped deep into the mountain ranges stretching across the central region.

The following day, Baraggan, regrouped and rallied, led his army in a march toward the center. Harribel and Nel went with his column.

Infiltration was faster and more convenient for Wayne alone than for a group.

On the fifth day, he found a cavern among the mountain ranges. Inside, seven or eight Adjuchas were huddled together for warmth. Wayne spent roughly an hour finishing off every last one of them, neat and tidy. Then he settled into the cave to rest.

After getting himself back into proper condition, Wayne layered a Concealment Field over himself and began searching for the spatial coordinates he'd previously set. Once he located the mark, he released the spatial crystal. The Death Sigh within instantly rotted the prisoner Hollow into nothing, but the coordinate mark, protected by the spatial barrier, fell to the ground completely intact. Wayne used it to teleport to the destination. Upon landing, he immediately used Void Flash to leave his arrival point, then suppressed his Reiatsu, found a secluded mountain foot, and expanded his Nihility Domain to its fullest extent, masking his presence entirely.

Fortunately, by the time the first sentry who detected the prisoner's vanishing Reiatsu arrived at the scene, Wayne had already concealed himself completely. Aside from the faint ripple of spatial fluctuation at the very beginning, nothing further stirred to alert the sentry.

An unexplained Hollow disappearance would certainly prompt a report to Saros. And Wayne, having confirmed he had not been detected, fell in behind the sentry's footsteps, heading toward Saros's stronghold, to see just how much power this so-called one of the Three Great Lords truly held beneath him.

➤ Next: The Dog-Headed Strategist