Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 299 - Spatial Fortress

Chapter 299, Spatial Fortress

"Lord Wayne."

Nel was already running toward him before he'd fully stepped back into Las Noches. Just as Wayne had promised, one month had been enough. Everything in Las Noches was running smoothly. Baraggan had taken his subordinates and shaped the place into something immaculate. With Starrk's strength holding down the peace and Szayelaporro's technology filling in the gaps, the domain under Las Noches was expanding at a visible rate.

"Everything here is basically settled," Nel said, falling into step beside him. "What do we do next?"

"Get everyone into the great hall. We need to work out the strategy going forward."

"Sure~" She flashed a response and left in a burst of Sonído.

After receiving the boost from the Law of Life, Nel, already carrying both the Law of Devourment and a fragment of the Law of Life, had firmly locked in her standing as a high-tier Vasto Lorde. Her power ranking within all of Las Noches had broken into the top five.

The five were Nel, Wayne, Baraggan, Starrk, and Timd, Timd being the dark horse who had risen sharply on the back of his Law of Life fragment. Unfortunately, he had transferred a portion of his strength to Wayne and had yet to fully recover. Otherwise, he'd have had a guaranteed seat in that top five regardless. Not because his raw power was so staggering, but because his ability was simply on a different level.

The life-forms he split off through the Law of Life each held independent consciousness and answered to the primary body. With Szayelaporro's help, Timd had successfully split off minuscule individuals, entities no larger than specks of dust.

So long as those particles survived long enough in open air and found their way inside an enemy, the outcome was not hard to imagine. The problem was that with his strength so reduced, Timd couldn't yet use this method to threaten enemies at the Vasto Lorde level or above. The particles were too fragile, a single Adjuchas-class Hollow could swat a swarm of them out of existence with one raised hand. And any enemy at the Vasto Lorde level or above only needed to cycle their Reiatsu across their body to eliminate every last one.

His true potential wouldn't show itself until he recovered his Vasto Lorde-level strength.

Even so, the fact that Timd had come this far was entirely down to Wayne's guidance and the Hōgyoku. That combination was what had ultimately led him to this godlike technique.

Nel was a different story. Her strength had always been her own. The Law of Life and the Law of Devourment feeding into each other made her combat style more complete than ever. But that power hadn't touched her personality, she was still the same bright, breezy girl she'd always been, and her presence brought no small amount of laughter to Wayne's faction.

Once, when Wayne's influence was still new, there had been plenty of voices dismissing her. A decorative vase. Wayne's plaything. Those voices had faded as her strength became impossible to ignore, and after she broke through to Vasto Lorde, they vanished entirely.

Not long after Nel left, the great hall filled. Every Vasto Lorde-class Hollow and every Arrancar assembled, everyone except Harribel.

"In just over a month, we've expanded Las Noches' domain to cover the entire Eastern Region." Wayne let the administrative details wrap up before addressing the assembled Vasto Lorde-class Hollows directly. "I've already sent Harribel west with a group of Hollows to restore my former fortress. Going forward, aside from the personnel needed to hold the east, we'll concentrate the bulk of our elite forces inside my Innate Space. We're going to turn it into a fortress ready to launch military operations at any moment." He glanced toward the old king. "Emperor, I'll need you to continue overseeing Las Noches on this end."

"Las Noches belongs to this king by right." Baraggan's voice carried no concession, only certainty. "There is no overseeing. Leave it to this old man."

He wasn't going to argue the point. Compared to what Aizen had imposed on him, Wayne had handed him full administrative authority over Las Noches. The Hollows under Wayne's banner still answered to Wayne first when orders conflicted, and Wayne held the same arrangement over Baraggan's own subordinates, but that was a fair exchange. What mattered was this: for the first time since his fall, Baraggan felt like a ruler again. A powerful ally at his back. Vast territory underfoot. A growing force at his command. Everything was different from those days spent rotting under Aizen's thumb. That was enough.

"Mr. Starrk, I'd like you to stay here as well. You've been living here long enough that I imagine you're comfortable." Wayne's gaze dropped slightly, landing on the small girl standing with her arms folded across her chest and her chin lifted at an angle that radiated fearless contempt for everyone in the room. "Lilynette, too."

As Starrk's soul-split fragment, Lilynette could do just about anything and Starrk would let it go. But on anything that actually mattered, she wouldn't contradict him. She followed his lead without question.

It was because of her that Starrk no longer drifted. After Aizen brought them in, the two of them had gradually settled into Las Noches.

"Ah, I'm fine either way." Starrk offered no resistance to the arrangement. Here, there were companions whose strength matched his own. He wouldn't be lonely anymore.

After absorbing the Law of Life fragment, Starrk had joined Nel and Timd as a candidate for the next King Hollow of the Law of Life. Though in scale and raw strength, neither Nel nor Timd quite reached the threshold for that title yet, but that hardly mattered. Nel's aim wasn't the Law of Life. It was the Law of Devourment.

And Timd wouldn't give the idea a second thought. He'd rather be holed up in his own chambers reading manga he'd brought over from the World of the Living.

"Still — is it really alright to let that Harribel go off alone?"

"It's fine." Wayne shook his head. "I originally intended for her to stand with us. But she was far too indulgent with her subordinates, and that led to consequences I couldn't overlook. Sending her away to operate on our behalf as an exile is already the most lenience I can give her. Given what her subordinates did, if I hadn't still been looking for a suitable inheritor of the Elemental Law, I might have handed her over to Ulquiorra and let him devour her."

"You could give her to me instead." Szayelaporro ran his tongue along the corner of his mouth. "As it happens, I'm quite interested in what you all call laws. With my particular abilities, I believe I'd be better suited to the Law of Life than most. Unfortunately, I have no foothold in this subject at all. Otherwise — your Law of Life. I'd love to strip it away and run some experiments."

"Close to eighty percent of the Law of Life's power has already been distributed between Starrk, Nel, Baraggan, and Timd. I still have some material left from Isis's remains, you're welcome to start there. If we're lucky, there are still scattered fragments to be found. Collect enough of them and they're yours. See what you can make." Wayne didn't shut him down. He'd anticipated this. If Szayelaporro turned his focus toward researching law power, there was a real chance he could build an instrument that pinpointed law fragments precisely. If that happened, collecting the remaining power would be far less of an ordeal.

"As for Harribel — let her go east. She's still useful to me over there."

"So then." Baraggan spoke slowly, settling back in his seat. "What comes next, boy? You once said you intended to become a King Hollow. Your strength has already reached that level. You're one step away. And I — after obtaining the Law of Life — have broken past the ceiling of my mid-tier Vasto Lorde rank, completed myself. All that remains is to accumulate more power."

"Conquering the Central Region is non-negotiable. But there's no rush yet. I'd rather Szayelaporro try to build that instrument first, something that can track down law power for us. That would make everything after it twice as efficient. Another month or two. We have time."

"I won't do it if there's nothing in it for me." Szayelaporro's tone lacked the imperious posturing he'd worn in earlier days. He'd spent years at the Vasto Lorde level, and yet law power, the full mastery that Wayne and the others wielded, was completely foreign to him. The unknown didn't frighten him. It pulled at him. But if his research ended up stalling the whole operation, he wasn't sure he could absorb that cost.

"I'll lend you the Hōgyoku," Wayne said. "And we'll give you a portion of our law power to work with. Research it as thoroughly as you can." He reached into the sealed space and tossed the Hōgyoku across to Szayelaporro without ceremony.

There were no traitors in this room. Wayne wasn't worried about a runner. Three Vasto Lorde-class, one King Hollow-class. Szayelaporro would have to have a death wish to snatch the Hōgyoku and bolt in front of all of them.

Watching it arc toward him, Szayelaporro's mouth curved upward. "Since you insist, I suppose I'll reluctantly accept." He didn't linger another second. He was already walking back toward his laboratory before anyone could say another word.

"That's the arrangement for now. Emperor, I'll leave it to you to keep expanding Las Noches' sphere of influence, recruit the strong, remove the hostile. Two months at most, then we march for the Central Region to find where the King Hollows fell."

"Mm." Baraggan gave a single nod, rose, and left the table without further comment. Starrk read the room, gathered Lilynette, and followed him out.

What remained were Wayne and Nel, along with the core members, Timd, Jekain, and the others.

"Boss." Timd had taken human form. One hand was up at his forehead, fingers working absently at the Hollow Mask resting there, a habit he'd clearly stopped noticing he had. "Is it really alright to just let Harribel walk? We don't have a single Vasto Lorde-class Hollow stationed at the old base. Can we actually hold it?"

"It's fine." Wayne didn't look concerned. "Her role was never to hold territory."

"Then what is it?"

Wayne smiled, faint, unhurried. He didn't answer.

Instead, he drew a spatial rift through the air with one hand and gestured for everyone to follow him through.

Wayne's Innate Space was not empty. It had been filled.

Soil, flowing water, mountain ranges, forest, lakes, sandy expanse, ecological zones spread out in every direction, one after another. Over the past month, with the Hōgyoku's help and the labor of a large number of Hollows, Wayne had transformed the interior into something that mirrored the natural world. A city had been built. A palace rose from the land. The space that had once been blank potential was now something close to a world.

The area was vast, territory on a national scale. Filling it should have taken enormous manpower and time, but the Hōgyoku had changed the equation entirely. The Hollows working inside moved with boundless energy, as though fatigue didn't exist for them. Whether they were hauling in new terrain or using their abilities to raise walls and sculpt mountains, the Hōgyoku had multiplied their efficiency several times over. Work that should have taken years was finished in a month.

This was the mobile fortress that Soul Society knew nothing about.

Whenever Wayne chose, he could deploy thousands of Adjuchas-class Hollow teams into any location at any time for a sweeping combat operation. And with the Hōgyoku in hand, he could also spend that time converting these Hollows into Arrancars, work that could be handed off to Szayelaporro.

The space had already changed beyond recognition. What was left was the sun.

He needed to replicate one, use the Hōgyoku alongside the technology behind Las Noches' Dome to create a light source that could drive a self-sustaining environmental cycle. That would need Timd. Only Timd could absorb the necessary knowledge and technical detail fast enough to make it work, and the Hōgyoku could gradually push the theoretical into the real, until this space became a true world in every sense.

"Lord Wayne." Nel moved to his side, her eyes drifting toward a long row of fruit trees in the middle distance. "Can we actually live here from now on?"

"Yes. In here, nothing can attack us. There's no war. The only problem is energy supply, there's no food source, no Hollows to consume. So to keep this place running, we'll need to build a semi-permanent spatial passage connecting to the Forest of Menos somewhere outside the city."

The three great forests of the inner circle were already unified under Wayne. Gillians and Adjuchas flowed through them in a constant, unending stream. Using the Spatial Law combined with the Hōgyoku and Szayelaporro's technology, constructing a semi-permanent transportation array shouldn't be beyond them. Disguise it to resemble a Garganta and it would feed a steady supply of food and air into the space indefinitely.

The project would cost heavily. And if anything went wrong, it could open the door to outside enemies.

That meant defensive infrastructure, which was Timd's domain. Adjuchas-class guards alone wouldn't hold the line, but energy-based ranged weapons built through technology might make up the difference. Wayne would handle the formation array. Timd would handle everything else.

Wayne looked out over the space before him. Across that vast expanse of land, wide enough to swallow a city whole, tens of thousands of Reiatsu signatures rose like standing towers. He could feel them all.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

"Two months to rest. It's time to develop the laws properly."

The battle with Aizen was over. That chapter had closed.

The next phase: grow stronger. And prepare for war against the powerful enemies already pushing through the cracks.

➤ Next: Volume Five: The Thousand-Year Blood War