Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 308 - The Seat of King Hollow

Chapter 308, The Throne of the King Hollow

Three days later, inside his Innate Space, Tsukishiro, Wayne carved out a Spirit Devouring Array. The formation was nearly identical to the one Isfilit had constructed, and Wayne intended to use it to consume the power of the Ancient Hollow Beast along with several High-Class Vasto Lorde-class Hollows. At the same time, he needed to commune with the Reishi saturating the atmosphere and draw in as much power as he possibly could.

Nel, Baraggan, Starrk, and the others opened a Garganta and left Tsukishiro, heading to the central region of Hueco Mundo to continue hunting. They had their own strength to push forward. Szayelaporro stayed behind. He needed the Hōgyoku to keep converting their faction's Hollows into Arrancar, and he would stand watch over Wayne's breakthrough while he worked. With Szayelaporro's analytical eye and the Hōgyoku's assistance, the advancement would go far more smoothly.

Wayne consumed the Ancient Hollow Beast's Hollow Mask, then settled cross-legged at the center of the formation. The corpses and masks of several High-Class Vasto Lorde-class Hollows surrounded him, crumbling apart piece by piece, collapsing into beams of pure Reishi that coiled around his body and fed into him steadily as his Reiatsu climbed.

The sensation defied description. It felt as though Wayne had lost consciousness, as though his body was no longer his to command, yet at the same time he was awake, aware of every blade of grass and every stone within reach of his perception. He could sense Yagami China not far beyond the formation's edge, still absorbing Isfilit's power. She had already reached the peak of the Adjuchas rank. One more step and she would break through into Vasto Lorde.

He could also sense Szayelaporro in front of the array, running precise instruments across his vitals. The Hōgyoku hovered nearby, casting a faint, steady light, releasing Reishi of extraordinary purity, giving Wayne the best possible conditions for his breakthrough.

Beyond the formation, the Hollows living inside Tsukishiro were each working through their own advancements, or carrying out the tasks Jekain and the others had assigned. The entire city was calm. No fighting, no fear, no death.

He could sense them too, a number of Hollows watching from a great distance, all of them turned in the direction of the formation. Through their masks, their eyes held worry, tension, hope. Some held something closer to excitement. Every one of those feelings reached Wayne with perfect clarity.

But over his own body, he had almost no control at all.

The Spirit Core inside him was no longer drawing Reiatsu inward. Instead it had opened like a spring, washing outward through his limbs, his bones, every part of him. If the Spirit Core before had been a reservoir storing Reishi, then now the floodgates had been thrown open and the water was flowing free, nourishing his body without pause. It was a transformation of his entire being. Wayne could feel his constitution strengthening steadily, even if he couldn't direct it. The pace wasn't fast. But it was real, and it didn't stop.

Time passed. A long while slipped by.

Wayne's consciousness drifted into another world, a place built entirely from white. Pure, featureless white, stretching in every direction. Here he could feel his own awareness, but couldn't locate his physical form anywhere. Then, not far from where his consciousness floated, a soft female voice reached out and touched him.

"My child. We meet again."

"The Dominator of Hueco Mundo?" Wayne's consciousness surfaced from its haze into full clarity. Just as he had expected, when he entered the advancement state, she would come.

"Yes." Her voice was warm. "I'm glad to see you again, my child. You've done very well."

"I can sense the power of many Laws surrounding you. It seems you've gathered them well. What you are now already carries the qualifications of a King Hollow. When you wake, you will stand as the strongest existence in all of Hueco Mundo."

"I never imagined I'd reach this level." Wayne's consciousness exhaled slowly. Hearing her words, he understood, the breakthrough had succeeded.

"Now. I have found many inheritors of Law power gathered around you. Some scattered fragments of Law power have fallen to children who cannot yet control them — those I will reclaim. The children who can already wield their power, I will allow to keep it."

"Oh?" Mild surprise moved through Wayne. "I thought you'd take all of it back."

Around him at this point were six masters of Law: the Laws of Space, Time, Illusion, Souls, Devouring, and Life. If the Dominator reclaimed all of them, she should be able to recover most of her strength. Yet she hadn't.

"Maintaining the balance of this world is the most urgent thing before me. As things stand, you can continue using the power you already have to gather the remaining Law fragments. There's no need for me to intervene too heavily. Forceful intervention doesn't benefit either of us. Long ago I drew a portion of the Law of Life's power from you — now I've recovered some of the Law of Souls as well, along with other fragments. My lifespan has been greatly extended. I still cannot manifest a physical form. But for now, that's enough."

"So the job of keeping the world balanced still falls to us?" Wayne gave a quiet, wry laugh. "The fighting between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society has stopped. The balance between the World of the Living and Hueco Mundo is cycling back toward equilibrium, slowly. As long as nobody stirs up trouble, this peace should hold for about a hundred years."

"Yet among the living things of this world, there will always be those who would shatter that balance for profit or purpose. That is why I hoped a child as capable as you would appear — to help me protect the balance of the Three Worlds."

"I've always wanted to ask," Wayne said. "If I gather all the Law power for you one day, and you recover your full strength — would you then take the balance into your own hands?"

"No." The Dominator's answer was immediate. "I was once a part of the Soul King. If I recover my full power, I will do as the Soul King does, watch over the world, but never intervene. It was to protect the balance of the Three Worlds that I gave birth to the nine King Hollows. That was a different kind of intervention. Something I had no choice but to do when I was on the verge of death."

Wayne understood. If the Laws were all reclaimed, setting aside whether he and the others would survive the process, the collision of all nine Laws alone would be enough to obliterate the Three Worlds. The Dominator at that point would be something like a god of annihilation, capable of unmaking heaven and earth with a casual gesture. A being of that magnitude had no reason to quarrel with the children she herself had made.

"So in the end," Wayne said, "we're still the ones doing the work."

A bitter laugh. But even as he said it, he knew how he felt about it. Now that he stood at the King Hollow rank, the balance of the Three Worlds didn't trouble him much, as long as no enemy at Aizen's level showed up again, and as long as no one at Old Man Yamamoto's level went out of their way to cause problems, he could hold any threat down by sheer force alone. Once he climbed to the apex of King Hollow and drew close enough to the Dominator herself, it wouldn't matter who stood across from him. He wouldn't need to fear anyone. And that distance, to the real freedom he wanted, no longer felt far.

"Now that you've reached the King Hollow rank," the Dominator's voice came again, "there is nothing more I can offer you, my child. However, I who hold the Law of Causality can tell you something of what is to come. It runs against my intention not to intervene. But..."

"You mean the enemies who may threaten the balance of the Three Worlds," Wayne said quietly. "Those enemies... who come from the Shadow Rift."

Silence.

The Dominator said nothing for nearly half a minute.

"I have scanned your body again and confirmed there is no trace of the Law of Causality within you." Her voice, when it returned, carried something close to astonishment. "So your words have surprised me. My child, it seems you possess a most unusual ability. One that comes from another soul living inside you."

"Some things can't be explained in a few words." A faint smile moved through Wayne's consciousness. "In any case, I'll do what I can to avoid unnecessary risks. And I'll fight for my own freedom. The balance of the Three Worlds is part of what that freedom looks like, I intend to protect it. Though some things are hard to say in advance. Who knows what the future holds? Even you, with the Law of Causality."

"You're right. The Law of Causality is not omniscient or omnipotent. That power belongs to the Soul King alone. And among those enemies in the gaps between worlds, there is one who holds the same power. He may prove to be your greatest enemy."

"About them, I have a question." Wayne spoke. "The power of Hollows, the power of Quincy, the power of Soul Reapers — even ordinary human power — all of it originates from the Soul King. So why do these four types of power oppose each other? When Aizen used the Hōgyoku to fuse Soul Reaper and Hollow power, does that count as a kind of return of power to the Soul King? And if so, can Quincy power also be fused with the opposing power of Hollows?"

"That is something you must explore on your own, my child." The Dominator offered no answer. "You already hold the key that unlocks this problem. I have no intention of taking it back. Once you've dealt with what's in front of you now, you can begin searching for the answer yourself."

"...Understood." A brief silence, then: "Leave what comes next to me. Sleep well. If you ever want to talk, reach out anytime, after becoming a King Hollow, there shouldn't be any barrier between us. As long as you have enough power, you can speak with me whenever you want. And as it happens, once I reach that level, I'll be able to lend you some of my own power to rouse you from your sleep."

"As my child, I am glad and proud of how far you've come." The Dominator's voice softened. "And as an outsider, I find real comfort in how much thought you give to me. I've never understood what a friend is. Every living being below has always been my child. Then I met you. You don't revere me as a creator god. You treat me as... a friend? Heh. It's a strange feeling."

"In this world you're a creator god," Wayne said. "But that isn't necessarily true everywhere. My coming here was an accident. But somewhere down the line, I want to break through the walls of this world and see what's beyond it. Maybe the sky outside is even wider."

"If a world like that truly exists," the Dominator said, "I sincerely hope I'll have the chance to see it." The longing in her voice was unmistakable. She had been bound here by the Soul King's mission for far, far too long.

"I hope I'm there the day you shatter those walls," she said, "and finally hold the freedom you've been reaching for."

With that, her voice began to recede.

"Go back, my friend. I must sleep again. One last secret before I do, the Law of Souls is a fascinating Law. Use it well and it will carry you far. I hope that when we next meet, you'll have already dealt with the enemies from the shadows. I look forward to seeing what you become."

Her words dissolved. The white world faded.

Wayne's consciousness drifted back into haze, but not for long. Because his awareness was already finding its way back to his body. That body, saturated with Reiatsu down to the marrow, so dense with power that the smallest movement would send shockwaves rolling outward.

BOOM!

At the center of the formation beneath Tsukishiro, Wayne's body emerged from a pillar of Reiatsu light. The power cycling through him made the entire Innate Space tremble.

He opened his eyes.

Those irises, once pale violet, had become pale gold, saturated and blazing with Reiatsu. An explosive surge of pressure erupted from him in an instant. Several Adjuchas-class Hollows staggered under the weight of it, barely holding on. But the Hollows under Wayne's command were well-trained. They moved immediately, activating Negación around the comrades who were struggling, shielding them before Wayne's Reiatsu could crush them entirely.

The pale gold pillar held for a long moment. Then Wayne drew his Reiatsu back in.

The Spirit Markings that had covered his body vanished. The great dragon-like horns on his head receded and disappeared. After his Tercera Etapa, Wayne had undergone a profound change, he looked far more human than before.

Reiatsu fully suppressed, Wayne returned to his sealed state. The facial markings were gone. His pale gold hair drifted loose in the air as it always had. His Hollow Mask had transformed again, what had once been a hollow necklace was now a crown-shaped ornament resting against his forehead, half-hidden behind the loose strands of hair at his brow.

He looked down at his body. The claws and chitinous hide from his Hollow Beast form were completely gone. Apart from the fist-sized Hollow Hole still sitting in the center of his chest, his overall appearance was now indistinguishable from Tsukishiro Hinamori. Of the two Zanpakuto that had once hung at his waist, only one remained. The Zanpakuto that had served for his Resurrección was gone, it had always been formed from his Spirit Core, and now that the Spirit Core had merged into his very being, it would no longer take that shape. What remained gave him something the old blade never had: far better control over his own power. Power that was many tens of times greater than before, at minimum.

Wayne felt the vast Reiatsu surging through him and couldn't help but smile.

He threw his head back and roared at the sky. His Reiatsu erupted outward, and the sound tore through the entire Innate Space. Every single Hollow inside Tsukishiro heard it.

Every one of them dropped to their knees.

Their own Reiatsu began to rise, climbing into the air around them, weaving into a chorus beneath Wayne's. In that moment, the truth settled through them all without a word needing to be spoken.

Their King had ascended to the very peak of Hueco Mundo. Their people would never again bow to any other force within these endless sands. Wayne, King Hollow, would be the highest faith of every last one of them.

➤ Next: The Use of the Soul Law