Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 109 - Nightmare Descends
Chapter One Hundred and Nine
As the ancient Hollow let out a final wail and collapsed to the ground, Wayne and the others breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The greatest enemy had been eliminated. Sweeping up the remaining battlefield was only a matter of time. Of course, the distribution of what came after would be left to Baraggan and Szayelaporro to sort out.
"Impressive, Wayne." With the battle over, the four wings behind Szayelaporro folded and retracted. He raised a hand to brush back the long hair behind his mask. "Even if it was an ancient Hollow that had been gravely wounded and had its realm diminished, its overwhelming presence was still very much intact. And yet, here we are — we brought it down together just like that.
As per our earlier agreement, this big fellow is yours. I have already claimed Saros's remains. As for the Adjuchas below, I'll send my people to recover the experimental materials I want. No objections?"
"Of course not. The most important thing in any cooperation is good faith." Wayne nodded, then gave Baraggan a look. As far as Baraggan was concerned, who the remaining Adjuchas belonged to was not a pressing matter. He had come here to expand his territory and strengthen his forces, and right now, Szayelaporro was standing right in front of him. The matters that followed, he could discuss directly with Szayelaporro himself. Whether it would be a peaceful trade and alliance, or another fight to absorb him into the fold, these were things to be considered and arranged only after the battlefield had been cleaned up.
"Great Emperor, then as agreed, I'll be taking this half of the mask. As for the fact that we failed to secure Susbus's remains..."
"No matter." Baraggan waved a massive skeletal hand. "This old one will handle the distribution of the Adjuchas afterward. Those few Vasto Lordes still alive — do you want to bring them under your command?" Baraggan was well aware that, beyond boosting his own strength, recruiting subordinates was also one of Wayne's goals on this trip. Through their various past collaborations, Wayne had only taken in Harribel, a single Vasto Lorde, and one loach-type Hollow. When faced with Ulquiorra, he hadn't managed to pull him into the fold either. The Vasto Lordes encountered in the central region went without saying, they had all been fought to nothing, and not one had proven worth taking under his banner. And so, old Baraggan decided to share a bit more of the resources with Wayne, in order to sustain their cooperation. In the future, there were still far more distant frontiers for them to expand together.
"Hmm, that's worth considering..."
"Lord Wayne!" Before Wayne could finish speaking, Nel and Harribel arrived at his side simultaneously.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" Wayne looked at the two women's anxious expressions, puzzled. Just a moment ago the two of them had still been below, sweeping up the Adjuchas-class Hollows, yet they had suddenly broken away from the battlefield and come to his side.
"Emergency signal!" Nel pulled out from her chest the badge unique to Wayne's forces. The white jade-like badge had turned blood-red.
On Harribel's chest, a badge in the shape of a great sword was also radiating red light outward.
"Red?!" Wayne likewise retrieved his own badge from his personal space. It too had turned completely blood-red. "The highest-level emergency distress signal."
Wayne's eyes narrowed. He had once made an agreement with Timd, only upon encountering an enemy capable of massacring his entire force would the blood-red badge signal be sent out.
It was clear, then, that Wayne's forces had now suffered exactly that kind of devastating blow.
"Great Emperor, my forces have been struck by a sudden crisis. I have to head back now. You can handle things here on your own." The moment Wayne finished speaking, he gave Baraggan no time to respond. He went straight to the ancient Hollow, swiftly tore off half of its mask, stored it in his personal space, and then prepared to use the teleportation array to return home with Nel and Harribel.
"Oh? Long-distance teleportation?" Szayelaporro's gaze flickered. This was a truly rare ability. "If the opportunity arises in the future, I hope you'll let me study your ability. I'm very interested in teleportation techniques."
"We'll see. There will be an opportunity." Wayne was already carving the array glyphs while preparing to bring the two of them back.
"Boy, whatever you run into over there — if you can't handle it, come back to me anytime." Baraggan swung his robe sleeve toward Wayne. This friend, he had made up his mind to keep.
"I will, Great Emperor. I'm off!" As he spoke, Wayne had already finished carving the array glyphs. Bringing one person didn't require this, but bringing two, the array glyphs would be far more reliable for Wayne.
The three vanished from everyone's sight in an instant. Only Szayelaporro and Baraggan, two mid-tier Vasto Lordes, remained, overlooking the battlefield of Adjuchas below.
"That kid, leaving in such a rush this time. It's a bit out of character for him."
"Hmph. His subordinate just said it was an emergency signal. Perhaps a terrifying enemy has launched an invasion against his forces in the far west. Maybe it's another ancient Hollow?" The wings behind Szayelaporro beat gently. He had already begun selecting his experimental subjects.
"Speaking of which, Szayelaporro — would you have any interest in joining my forces? Under my banner, the Adjuchas number in the thousands, and the lower Hollows number in the tens of thousands. If it's simply research subjects you need, I believe that would be more than sufficient."
"Oh?" Szayelaporro's interest was piqued. "In that case... I'll need to have a good talk with the Great Emperor. By the way, I should go call Timd to come and discuss our future cooperation together."
Now, shifting to the other side.
Wayne brought Nel back to his own forces. He had barely stepped out from the fixed imprint at the throne when he caught the scent of blood in the great hall.
"Something's wrong!" Sensing that the atmosphere was off, Wayne immediately activated his detection nerves to probe his surroundings, and discovered that Jekain was currently leading his subordinates in a retreat outside the built-up city. Behind him were three enemies, and their Reiatsu...
"This Reiatsu — it isn't a Hollow's Reiatsu." Wayne instinctively felt something was deeply wrong.
"Tia, you and Nel go outside to look for survivors. Organize people to retreat toward the Forest of Menos. I'm going to the battlefield to take a look." Wayne issued his orders at once, then Sonído'd toward the outpost outside.
Nel and Harribel exchanged a glance, and each saw the worry in the other's eyes.
"I need to go find Sun-Sun and Apache first." Harribel was the first to make her position clear. She had been fighting alongside Wayne for quite some time, yet the ones she cared most about were still the bickering trio of sisters. As for Wayne's forces, Harribel had not yet developed much attachment to them.
"I understand, but I also hope that after confirming their safety, you'll help organize people to retreat — or get to Lord Wayne's side as quickly as possible to support him." Nel knew there was no talking Harribel out of it right now. After all, the bond wasn't deep enough for that, and Wayne had only kept Harribel by his side through force to begin with. Now that disaster had struck, whether to stay or fly was entirely up to Harribel's own judgment. There was nothing to be done about it. Nel herself also had to go first to the training chamber beneath the cliff face to check on the situation there. That chamber housed the Garganta connecting to the Forest of Menos, one that had been maintained for a long time. Wayne had opened this Garganta years ago and had continuously stationed Hollows to maintain it, all for the purpose of having a fallback route on the day a sudden crisis struck. And that day had now come.
The two female Hollows gave each other a nod, then each set off in the direction they needed to go.
On the other side, Wayne had already Sonído'd to the sky above his forces' city.
Arriving in the sky, Wayne's Reiatsu began to surge and roil uncontrollably. The sight before him caused the eyes behind his Hollow Mask to turn cold and fierce.
Throughout the city, the halls and towers that had been built were already collapsed. Everywhere were ruins left by Cero explosions. Blood was scattered across the plaza. But not a single Hollow's corpse had been left behind.
It was already very clear. The reason his Hollow subordinates had left no bodies was not that they had been devoured by other Hollows, it was because they had been cut down by Zanpakutō, or slain by a Quincy, which caused them to dissolve into Reishi and vanish directly into Hueco Mundo.
"Soul Reapers..." Wayne's heart tightened. He immediately rushed toward the area where the fighting was still ongoing. Jekain and the Hollows were in retreat, but Wayne could clearly sense that the enemies behind them were simply following at an unhurried pace, as though toying with them.
On the city's outskirts, Jekain was indeed doing exactly as Wayne had judged. He was leading several dozen peak Adjuchas-class Hollows in a scattered retreat, occasionally exchanging fire with the advancing enemies. But something was deeply wrong, no matter how his people dodged or fought back, the enemy always found an opening, breaking through their guard or simply crushing them outright and dealing devastating wounds. In less than an hour, half of the Hollows under his command had been slaughtered.
After Jekain had arrived and witnessed the enemy's terrifying strength, he immediately ordered his forces to begin retreating toward the Garganta leading to the Forest of Menos, while he himself led the elites forward to hold the enemy back. But no matter how his people attacked, the enemy seemed to be cheating, neither energy attacks nor physical strikes could deal even the slightest damage. And so their own casualties mounted, while on the other side there were only three people. Three eerily powerful Soul Reapers.
Not far behind Jekain, the three Soul Reapers were still pursuing in a triangular formation. Judging by their Shihakushō, none of the three were captain-class. Only the Soul Reaper at the front bore a badge on the upper part of his left arm marking him as a lieutenant.
"Heyyy, sir, these Hollows are starting to scatter and flee in all directions. Should we split up and chase them?" A young man with light purple short hair and a wide smile on his face was moving at high speed with Shunpo, calling out toward the lieutenant at the front.
"There's no need. Under our lord's ability, those Hollows have nowhere to hide." A dark-skinned young man with gray-white glasses spoke up from the other side.
"But the one leading the Hollows appeared only after our lord had already activated his ability, didn't he? Is that really all right?"
"It's fine. That Hollow appears to have used some special means to summon a companion." The Soul Reaper at the front murmured quietly. "Until his companion arrives, we'll just follow along like this. Gin, ready."
"Yes, Lord Aizen."
"Yes, Lord Aizen."
Turning back to Wayne's side. He was still making his way toward Jekain's location. With the unease in his heart, Wayne did not dare use teleportation to appear directly at Jekain's side. Instead, he concealed his presence and slowly closed in from behind. Not long after leaving the city, Wayne spotted Jekain and several of his panicked, fleeing subordinates scattering in all directions, trying to split the three Soul Reapers behind them apart.
And the three assailants were exactly the plot-driven threat Wayne had feared most.
The purple-haired youth: Gin Ichimaru.
The dark-skinned young man: Kaname Tōsen.
And the current 5th Division lieutenant: Sōsuke Aizen.
"Has the timeline moved up?" Wayne concealed himself in the shadows and ran the numbers. It seemed this was four or five years earlier than he had estimated for Aizen's arrival in Hueco Mundo.
Perhaps it was the butterfly effect he himself had caused, Shinji Hirako and Urahara had failed to join forces and take Aizen down. Or perhaps Aizen had used Kyokasuigetsu on them from the very beginning.
There was no way to know. What Wayne could sense right now was that Aizen's Reiatsu had already far surpassed captain-class. It was possible that Shinji and the others had already run into trouble by now.
A direct confrontation, Wayne had almost no chance. His only advantage right now was that he had not made face-to-face contact with Aizen, had not been hypnotized by Kyokasuigetsu, and was positioned in the shadows. Striking with a thunderbolt ambush was Wayne's only opportunity.
His mind made up, Wayne suppressed his own Reiatsu to the absolute limit and began moving toward Aizen.
One hundred meters. Fifty meters. Thirty meters. Ten meters. Five meters.
He had entered the absolute assassination range. Wayne's Reiatsu exploded outward, causing all three Soul Reapers before him to shudder at once. A Cero charged to its absolute limit, kept hidden until this moment, blasted toward Kaname Tōsen. Simultaneously, he tore open a spatial rift and suddenly appeared in front of Gin Ichimaru. And Wayne himself unleashed a fully charged slash, one powerful enough to cleave a mountain range apart, straight down on the back of Aizen's head.
BOOM!
The muffled detonation of the Cero surged toward Kaname Tōsen. It punched straight through his chest and burned through his organs. Kaname Tōsen lost his balance completely and was sent flying.
Gin Ichimaru had been moving at high speed, and the rift that suddenly appeared gave him no time to dodge, he plunged straight into it headfirst and vanished. Wayne had already sealed him away somewhere unknown.
As for Aizen, the space-splitting slash came for him from behind without warning. Even he had no time to evade. The enormous blade arc cut him and the sand beneath his feet clean in two, carving a wound in the earth so deep it could only be called a ravine.
"Did I get him?" Wayne's eyes widened in surprise as Aizen was bisected from the back of the head, blood and viscera spilling as the body fell into the ravine. And yet Wayne felt uneasy rather than relieved. This had gone far too smoothly.
"My king, you're here." Sensing the surge of Reiatsu from behind, Jekain stopped in his tracks. The several Adjuchas around him also spotted their anchor and rallied back one by one.
"Move! Quickly!" The intense unease drove Wayne to immediately tear open a spatial rift, sending Jekain and the other subordinates back to his own base.
"My king, what exactly..."
"Go! Get back! Back to the forest!" Wayne surged his Reiatsu, and within a radius of one hundred meters around him, he activated a spatial tremor.
In an instant, the surrounding space began to shake. The white sand and quartz, the rocky terrain, all of it began to crumble and disintegrate. Without paying any heed to Jekain's questions, Wayne gave him a kick and sent him flying straight into the spatial rift.
Seeing this, the other Hollows all charged into the rift in turn. In mere moments, every last one of them had vanished from the wasteland without a trace.
"Omoshiroi." A voice, rich and magnetic, laced with genuine amusement, suddenly rang out directly behind Wayne. In an instant, every hair on his head stood on end. As he had feared: every blow he had landed just now had struck nothing real.
"Quite a remarkable Reiatsu." Aizen's voice came from directly behind him. Then, at Wayne's ear, came the sound of shattering glass, a soft, crystalline cracking. In the distance, Kaname Tōsen's pierced body and the severed remains of Aizen at the bottom of the ravine both shattered and dissolved into the air.
"He evaded it all?" Wayne turned to look. Sure enough, not far behind him, Sōsuke Aizen, dressed in a lieutenant's uniform, stood calmly alongside Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen. And that Zanpakutō with its vivid green hilt, Kyokasuigetsu, rested at Aizen's hip, still sheathed. Or perhaps more accurately: he had already drawn it once. Because the illusion that had just shattered was Aizen's doing, specifically, one of Kyokasuigetsu's abilities: the Bankai of Ten Thousand Reflections.
"Naturally. Knowing full well that an enemy was summoning allies, why would I not prepare?" Aizen's voice was calm, entirely undisturbed by Wayne's attack or the release of Reiatsu.
"However, that strike just now was excellent. Being able to attack all three of us at once, and with that kind of ability. A concealed Reiatsu and form, a torn spatial rift, and a Vasto Lorde-level Reiatsu. I am quite taken with you."
"..." Wayne's nerves were pulled taut. Behind his Hollow Mask, his eyes were locked on Aizen's hands, watching for any movement toward the hilt of Kyokasuigetsu at his waist.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sōsuke Aizen. These are my subordinates, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen." Aizen raised a hand and gestured toward each of them in turn.
"This Vasto Lorde — might I know your name?"
"Ace Wayne." Wayne kept his eyes fixed on Aizen, while simultaneously thinking of how to launch another sudden ambush. The goal: cut him down before he could draw his blade.
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P.S.: It's almost the end of May. I'd like to say something to all you Vasto Lordes out there. Because the full-month attendance bonus unexpectedly fell through this month, I'll be taking it easy for a while. June will be spent brainstorming new plotlines.
Given the direction the story is heading, everyone should be able to tell that the upcoming arc is going to have some major swings. Rather than updating blindly, I think it's better to take a step back, let things settle, and put more thought into the plot first. Mainly, getting sick earlier tanked the pacing on the chapters. I want to say sorry to everyone about that.
I'm not sure whether the upcoming story twists will be something you all like or dislike. I can only write out everything I'm able to imagine. If it's not to your taste, I hope you'll at least be gentle about it. Writing a novel isn't easy, and I'm not asking for gifts or rec votes. There's no need for us to get bitter about any of this.
Also, I've received invitations from other platforms, so I'll need to balance things on that front as well. Time isn't all that plentiful. Taking it easy in June, aiming to go all out in July. That's all.
Well... happy Children's Day a little early!
➤ Next: Ace Wayne VS Kaname Tōsen