Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 105 - The Beast Breaks Its Seal

Saros led his forces up the mountain, and Baraggan sent his own troops charging up behind them. Wayne concealed himself in the forest at the base, keeping Harribel close. Nel stayed at Baraggan's side. Wayne needed Nel's position as a teleportation anchor for their escape, while he and Harribel stayed hidden, ready to circle around back and get a look at whatever those Bone Ruins behind the mountain actually were.

Halfway up the slope, Adjuchas-class fighters from both sides had already clashed. Susbus was pushing down from above with her subordinates. Compared to Saros's forces, Susbus had no fewer than nine Vasto Lorde-class Hollows under her command. Five of them were occupied with Saros personally. Three of the remaining four were lending support to the Adjuchas fighting below, while the last one stood at Susbus's side awaiting orders.

With the Vasto Lorde count roughly balanced, Susbus took up her position midway up the mountain and faced Saros across the slope.

"Saros, quite the talent you have — you actually managed to bring the Skull Emperor all the way from the east to back you up." Susbus extended her tongue from behind her Hollow Mask and dragged it slowly across her own claw. "But why are there fewer Vasto Lorde Beasts on your side? Heh heh — did you eat them yourself?"

"Save your breath, Susbus. It's time we settled what's between us." The long blade in Saros's hand turned slowly, a faint pale-blue Sword Gleam rising quietly along the steel. "Let's fight. Today you die on this mountain range."

"Hmph! Arrogant!" Susbus raked a claw through the air. Four Reiatsu Ribbons shaped like claw blades screamed toward Saros, slicing an unlucky Adjuchas Hollow Beast clean in two along the way. "You really think you've got me figured out?"

CLANG!

Saros swept his blade and shattered the claw marks, but the force behind them gave him a private jolt of surprise. It had been a casual exchange on both sides, his parry was offhand, and her throw had looked offhand too. Yet the power behind it was anything but casual. Was Susbus actually on the verge of advancing? Or had she... already advanced?

"Whether you've got me figured out, you'll only know after we fight." Returning the gesture, Saros swept a Sword Gleam of his own toward Susbus, but a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow Beast standing in front of her stepped in and intercepted it. Susbus didn't even have to move. The one who blocked it was precisely the Vasto Lorde posted at her side, not from Saros's camp.

"Tsk. An entry-level Vasto Lorde daring to show off in front of me. Charge!" Having his strike stopped by an entry-level Vasto Lorde stung his pride a little. Though to be fair, it had only been a casually thrown technique.

At his command, Saros's forces surged up into the mountain. Numbers overwhelm masters, if Susbus chose to ignore the Hollows flooding from below, the sheer volume of Adjuchas would bury her. Saros and Baraggan's combined Adjuchas count had reached three or four hundred. Susbus's side had less than half that. Judging purely by the Adjuchas-class fighting, this battle had no suspense. But with three Vasto Lorde-class Hollow Beasts thrown into the mix, that Adjuchas-level brawl snapped back into balance.

Seeing this, Susbus stopped pressing. She let her Adjuchas fight on while she herself began walking toward Saros, unhurried.

"Mongrel — watch how I deal with you!" She ordered her subordinates to intercept Baraggan, then charged straight at Saros herself. Several barely-visible Spiritual Whips lashed out from behind her and snapped toward him.

BOOM! BOOM!

Saros poured Reiryoku into his blade and cut through the incoming whips in an instant, but the resonating shockwave from the spiritual force hammered his head, forcing him to raise his Reiatsu and tank it outright.

On the other side, Baraggan had dispatched his subordinates and was making his unhurried way toward the one remaining Vasto Lorde-class fighter.

"Little one." Baraggan glanced at Nel beside him. "Go give it a try. I'll stand guard."

"Yes, Great Emperor." Nel didn't hesitate. She broke into a gallop and charged straight at the lone Vasto Lorde.

She trusted Baraggan's word completely. At the very least, he had no reason to throw her away for nothing. And standing before a master of the Time Law, a mid-level power like Baraggan had no fear that the entry-level Vasto Lorde across from her would cut Nel down before he could act, he needed only an instant to pull her back. On top of that, Baraggan could at any moment draw out wisps of Death Sigh and bring considerable grief to the entry-level Vasto Lordes fighting in the Adjuchas battle below, since his Death Sigh was lethal on contact. Whether the decay came fast or slow was entirely a matter of his mood.

Here, Nel could open her Reiatsu fully and fight without holding back, with no fear of dying. At the peak of Adjuchas-class, she wasn't far behind a Vasto Lorde. Wayne was the exception, naturally, Wayne was an existence capable of trading blows with a mid-level Vasto Lorde. And given everything that had passed since then, Wayne's Reiatsu had grown considerably further, putting him probably not far from mid-level Vasto Lorde territory himself.

With her restraints off, Nel threw herself at the opposing Vasto Lorde-class Hollow Beast. Super Acceleration, Lanzador Verde, Cero, every technique she could call on, she used. And beyond that, Nel was a close-range specialist. Even without any fixed form, pure battle experience alone kept her from being pushed back. She traded blow for blow with the entry-level Vasto Lorde, attack for attack.

When faced with strikes of greater force and higher power, she applied what Wayne had taught her, redirecting the opponent's momentum and turning it into a counter. In the back-and-forth of the exchange, she actually fought the Vasto Lorde to a standstill. Fear of Baraggan may have been a factor on the Vasto Lorde's part as well. But looking at the overall picture, Nel's side still had plenty of fight in it.

"Saros has engaged Susbus, and every Vasto Lorde on the field has found a counterpart. It's time."

At the base of the mountain, Wayne took in the whole battlefield. The Adjuchas-class Hollows were grinding forward on two-to-one and three-to-one advantages, racking up steady wins. The Vasto Lorde-level fighting was holding at rough equilibrium. Baraggan hadn't even moved yet and a stalemate had already formed, that was something Wayne hadn't anticipated. Still, he didn't let his guard down; who knew whether Susbus had anything held in reserve. But in the short term, things shouldn't shift. Now he could slip around to the back of the mountain and get a look at the Ancient Hollow Beast's sealed site.

He pressed a hand to Harribel's shoulder and teleported them both to the rear of the mountain.

What met his eyes was an enormous sealing array. Almost certainly the handiwork of a King Hollow, an array this powerful probably couldn't have been constructed by anything less. But after weathering ten thousand years of wear, this sealing array was already on the verge of collapse. Wayne could sense it clearly: beneath the seal, a terrifying beast lay curled in wait, anticipating the moment the seal broke.

The trapped Hollow was also extraordinarily weakened. Judging by its Reiatsu, this Ancient Hollow Beast appeared to have retained only the power of a High-Class Vasto Lorde, not even at peak condition.

In terms of Hollow Beast tiers, a fully intact Ancient Hollow Beast could take on ten or more High-Class Vasto Lordes without difficulty. The same held for a King Hollow, the gap between tiers was exponential. But after an imprisonment spanning countless millions of years, this Ancient Hollow Beast had entered its twilight, likely made worse by Susbus draining it without pause, day and night.

After all, a beast trapped within a seal could do nothing. It could only sit there while Susbus bled it dry.

"An Ancient Hollow Beast with the power of a High-Class Vasto Lorde." Wayne murmured. "Tia, what do you think — if we let this thing out, wouldn't that be interesting?"

"My lord, I would advise you to reconsider."

"Oh? You picked up that comeback from Nel fast." Wayne raised a hand and lightly tapped Tia on the head.

"My lord, no matter how weakened the Ancient Hollow Beast is, it is still something we cannot match. And once we release it, if it has any chance to recover, it may not take long at all before it restores its original power. At that point, subduing it again would not be easy."

"That's all true, but there's a piece of meat this close and I don't take a bite? That feels like a real loss." Wayne clicked his tongue. "Besides, if we don't do something, once Susbus breaks the seal, this thing is going to go berserk anyway. Why don't we just quietly take it down ourselves?"

"...Whatever you say, my lord." Seeing that Wayne had no intention of backing down, Harribel answered respectfully and readied herself for battle.

"Hmm... let me think." Wayne sat cross-legged at the center of the array, feeling the Reiatsu rising from below.

He didn't know Susbus's Extraction Method, so he had no way to directly absorb the Reiatsu. But what if he released the Ancient Hollow Beast first? What would that look like?

He thought it over. Wayne decided to lean into his talent for courting disaster and let the big one out, after all, this was an Ancient Hollow Beast, and it was still alive.

At the edge of the formation, Wayne opened a spatial rift. One end connected to the front of the mountain, to a corner of Baraggan's territory, serving as their escape route. On the other end, Wayne and Harribel each loaded a Cero Oscuras, ready to blow the already-crumbling Array Core apart in a single shot.

With every preparation in place, they attacked simultaneously, and the Array Core detonated to fragments in an instant.

The next second, a column of Reiatsu erupted from the earth, and the entire mountain range shook.

SKREEEE!

A shriek tore across the sky and shook heaven and earth, loud enough that the whole Central Region could have heard it.

"Oh no, oh no, I think we just let out something seriously bad." Wayne pulled Harribel behind him. That single howl said a great deal. One: even with only a High-Class Vasto Lorde's worth of Reiatsu left, an Ancient Hollow Beast's raw intimidation and technique tier wouldn't be low. Two: this Ancient Hollow Beast had no real sentience, or at least not much. Because any creature with actual intelligence, who the hell would come blasting out of imprisonment and immediately howl loud enough to announce themselves to everything for miles around? Any sensible one would stay quiet and build up strength first.

At the base of the seal, the earth split apart. Lava began flooding upward. A massive crimson Earth Drake hauled itself out of the ground.

Its body was enormous, roughly a hundred meters long, and even on all fours it stood over ten meters high. Its four limbs were heavily muscled, the claws on its feet razor-sharp. The joints of its forelimbs and hindlimbs were built differently, making it obvious this Ancient Hollow Beast could rear up on its hind legs and tear an enemy apart with a single swipe.

Its crimson body was covered in blood-red scales, hard as iron, their edges just as sharp, a careless graze would slice through flesh. On its face, a white Hollow Mask was fastened over the upper half, while the lower half exposed a maw packed with savage fangs. From its tail, countless thorns jutted outward. One lash from that tail would leave an enemy dead or gravely wounded.

"Truly a beast born purely for battle. Every inch of it is a weapon." Wayne stood at the edge of the spatial rift and watched the Ancient Hollow Beast radiate killing intent from every part of its body.

The moment it crawled free of the seal, it spotted Wayne not far away. But it didn't attack. It gave him a brief sidelong glance, and then turned and charged at full speed toward the other side of the mountain. Every step it landed kicked up billowing walls of dust and sent shockwaves rolling outward, yet its speed was tremendous. The rock faces lining its path shattered as it barreled through.

"It ignored us? It's going... for revenge?"

Revenge was the first word that came to Wayne's mind. It made sense. A beast that had been draining your Reiatsu for years, possibly decades, was right on the other side of that mountain. Anyone would find that unacceptable.

"Interesting. Come on — let's go watch." Wayne pulled Harribel into the rift.

They emerged on the front face of the mountain. The battlefield had already dissolved into chaos from the Ancient Hollow Beast's roar.

"Who did this!" Susbus was howling in fury, screaming while driving Saros back with everything she had. Not long before, she had sensed two Vasto Lorde-level Reiatsu signatures appear behind the mountain. She had barely gotten out the word "bad" before that earth-shaking roar came right on its heels, with no gap for her to fall back and defend.

"Who the hell let it out!" Susbus condensed a massive Spiritual Whip and lashed Saros back with a single strike, then retreated on Sonído. The breaking of the Ancient Hollow Beast's seal was something she had never anticipated. After all, she had been feeding on its Reiatsu for years, if that thing came crashing through right now, she would be the first to die on this battlefield.

"Retreat!"

At her command, all her Vasto Lordes were recalled. Her Adjuchas-class Hollows broke off from their opponents and began pulling back toward her.

Seeing the sudden shift, Saros halted his attack and called his own subordinates back to his side, forming ranks to deal with whatever came next.

"Great Emperor." Wayne returned to Baraggan's side. Nel dropped down beside him at the same moment.

"You little troublemaker." Baraggan's skull face arranged itself into an expression of open distaste. "Why did you just go and let that thing out for no reason?"

"Heh — never seen one before. Figured I'd let it out for a look."

"Hmph, always stirring up trouble." Baraggan shrugged. "Fine by me. Let's see how much of its old strength this beast has left."

SKREEEE!

Another shriek split the sky. The Ancient Hollow Beast had already scaled the mountaintop. It looked down at the sea of Hollows below as if gazing upon a sumptuous feast, and then, somewhere in that feast, it found the one enemy that had been bleeding it dry for years.

A massive Cero began gathering before its maw.

One colossal, black Cero that dwarfed even a King Hollow's flash.

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