Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 312 - The Time Is Ripe

Whoosh!

A cluster of blue, semi-transparent Reishi gathered at the tip of Quilge's sword. In an instant, every element of the surrounding landscape, white sand, ruins, the atmosphere, vegetation, was reduced to its purest form of Reishi and drawn toward the blue disc hovering above Quilge's head. The disc, which had originally displayed only five antenna-like points, now revealed the shape of a five-pointed star.

Quilge had activated Sklaverei, seizing absolute dominion over the Reishi in his vicinity. He could gather that Reishi and convert it into power for his own use. The fundamental nature of this ability shared the same root as Nel's Absorption Law. The difference was that Nel's Absorption Law operated primarily on Reishi-based lifeforms, whereas Sklaverei went a step further, capable of collecting Reishi from everything in the surrounding environment.

Thinking back a year ago, Uryū Ishida had once used this very technique through the Seele Schneider, though the price was losing his power as a Quincy. After two hundred years of refinement, however, the Quincy's complete form had advanced far beyond what Uryū Ishida had known as a forbidden power, and had become a standard method of combat.

"The Reishi in the atmosphere is being absorbed too," Nel said, sensing the change coming from Quilge.

"Can the Absorption Law do the same?" Wayne asked.

"If it's a living organism, yes, but in open air..." Nel furrowed her brow. "I may need to acquire more power from the Absorption Law before I can manage that."

"That's fine. When we get back, I'll look into it with Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Szayelaporro and see if we can replicate this ability — even if it ends up being exclusively yours."

"Huh?" Nel blinked in mild surprise.

"Having just me as the sole Vasto Lorde isn't exactly a stable arrangement." Wayne laughed. If it were possible, he still hoped to cultivate Nel into the next absolute master of the Absorption Law. Given Nel's pure-hearted nature, he had no concern that after she became a Vasto Lorde, she would cause Hueco Mundo to fall apart due to internal conflict the way the previous Vasto Lorde had.

Nel's loyalty was something Wayne had never needed to measure in terms of trust or distrust. That kind of measuring simply had no meaning.

Of course, the loyalty of all the Hollow Beasts under Wayne's command went without saying. But the chances to become a Vasto Lorde, Wayne himself occupied two slots, and the Law of Causality belonged exclusively to the master of the Hollow Beasts, which left only six remaining.

Whether Starrk could become the next absolute master of the Law of Life, Wayne did not know. After all, Wayne had already distributed a portion of the Law of Life to Timd and Nel. Even if Starrk did become a Vasto Lorde, Wayne would absolutely not allow him to privately reclaim the Law of Life from either of them.

As for Baraggan, he had originally been a Vasto Lorde to begin with. After absorbing a portion of the Law of Life, his strength had already broken through the shackles his past injuries had imposed. Whether he could fully recover his Vasto Lorde-level power, Wayne naturally would not interfere, his own Law of Space and Law of Time complemented each other, and regardless of whether Baraggan succeeded, he would stand on the same side as Wayne.

There was no need to even mention Yagami China. Once Nel ascended to Vasto Lorde, she would be the next one Wayne cultivated.

Five of the nine Vasto Lorde seats would be occupied by those in Wayne's inner circle. It was a pity that Ulquiorra had left, and Harribel had been dragged down by her deadweight companions, or else Wayne's faction could have gained one more holder of an elemental Law.

"Heh heh, I'll definitely work hard," Nel said with a soft laugh. An indirect answer to Wayne.

The two of them were still talking when the situation in the battle below shifted. The three small ones who had been knocked down by Quilge had somehow gotten back up. Not only that, but the three had fused their left arms and summoned their pet, Yaon.

Wayne still remembered the massive creature he had casually destroyed with a single strike a year ago. He wondered whether the beast had managed to grow at all since then.

What Wayne found even more amusing was that such an enormous creature had launched a sneak attack, yet Quilge had failed to detect it in the slightest. Yaon delivered one slap that sent him flying. Perhaps it was the use of Sklaverei combined with the presence of Ichigo Kurosaki that had consumed Quilge's full concentration, causing him to miss the ambush from behind.

Wayne couldn't say for certain, but Yaon's performance was clearly a cut above a year ago. At the very least, in a sneak-attack scenario, Yaon could grind Quilge into the sand, and yes, that was meant literally, since every offensive method Yaon possessed relied purely on raw physical force.

In just a short moment, Quilge was slammed face-first into the sand.

"Hmph, idiot — that'll teach you to look down on us!" the mouthy one strutted toward Quilge, smug as ever. Yaon's attack had gone straight to her head again. "Though you're really tough, aren't you — taking that kind of beating from Yaon and still holding your shape..."

"What an idiot." Wayne sighed with disappointment. Then he watched as she was run through the chest by Quilge's blade as he rose back up from the sand.

"Harribel has done nothing to improve the discipline of those three clowns — not even when facing an enemy. They didn't even bother to sense Reiatsu. They judge everything by appearances alone."

"Will Apache die?" Nel asked.

"Honestly, even if she doesn't die, I'm tempted to land the finishing blow myself," Wayne shook his head. "But she's at least an Adjuchas-level Arrancar. A stab through the chest alone won't kill her right away — though Quilge obviously hasn't gone all out yet. Let's keep watching. If those three die here... let them become the cornerstone of peace."

"Huh?" Nel blinked. "My lord, where did that line come from? I don't think it was in Timd's manga."

"Ah... it comes from the emperor on the other side." Wayne let the offhand remark slip. "Never mind that. Keep watching."

"Alright then." Nel shrugged, paying no mind to Wayne's quip.

"I see. The intelligence reports made no mention of a creature with power this formidable." Quilge climbed out of the sand pit and reached up to straighten his neck, which Yaon had snapped, presumably using his mastery of Reishi within his body to accelerate his own recovery.

"It seems I must advise His Majesty to reconsider the strength calibration of the Blut Vene. But before that..." Quilge lowered his head toward Yaon and the others. "I need to send you to your deaths — quickly!"

With those words, the Quincy cross emblem above his head blazed with brilliant light. A powerful suction force surged outward, and the surrounding environment was instantly converted into Reishi that rushed toward Quilge. In just a matter of seconds, the Reishi wings that Yaon had broken were fully restored, broader than before. Yaon, who had charged mindlessly at Quilge in a frenzy, lost its Reishi support in that same instant. Quilge's Sklaverei stripped the flesh away outright, dismantling it into Reishi, until nothing remained but a heap of bones scattered across the ground.

"Sklaverei, rooted in the Quincy's foundational ability of Reishi gathering, driven to its absolute limit to achieve total and unconditional Reishi subjugation." Quilge's voice had grown coarse and distorted. Absorbing Yaon had clearly caused some degree of mutation within his body.

"If I could have helped it, I would have preferred to avoid using this technique. Because..." he continued, "these sacred wings will be defiled by something wicked."

Quilge now bore the physical traits of Yaon across his body, his teeth had grown massive, his musculature swelled into dense, knotted bulk, a pair of grotesque eyes clung to those pale-blue Reishi wings, and more disturbing still, a serpentine tail had emerged from behind his lower spine.

He looked as though he had forcibly fused with Yaon.

"We have to go, now!" Mila Rose read the situation and used Sonído to scoop up Apache, who had collapsed on the ground, then grabbed Sun-Sun and made to flee.

The power of Sklaverei was beyond any of them. Even Yaon had been absorbed. Let alone them.

"A wise choice," Quilge said, lips curling into a cold sneer. "However, your calculation failed to account for the gap in raw power between us!"

The range of Sklaverei rapidly expanded to over a hundred meters. The three, who had only just begun to flee, were immediately stripped of a massive quantity of Reishi and collapsed to the ground, overwhelmed.

"Every time I see someone lying on the ground in their final, desperate struggle, I am reminded once again, the death of the weak is always this wretched, too unsightly to look at." Quilge accelerated his rate of absorption, and that massive-toothed face revealed a trace of contempt. This time, he intended to drain the three of them completely through Sklaverei, to let them, in this moment, become forever a part of the Reishi within his own body. "So... die!"

CRACK!

Just as Quilge was about to push Sklaverei to its maximum, Ichigo suddenly appeared behind him and, in Bankai, brought his blade down and shattered the blue halo above Quilge's head. The downward cut, wrapped in jet-black Reiatsu, continued straight for Quilge's skull, but was blocked by Quilge's Reishi light sword.

"As long as I smash that disc above your head, you won't be able to use Sklaverei anymore!" In the mere seconds of combat between Quilge and the three, Ichigo had already identified the source of Quilge's Sklaverei. He activated Bankai, intending to finish the enemy off in one go.

"Even knowing that, it won't be so easy to pull off. Still, you are a truly troublesome enemy." With Sklaverei broken, Quilge launched into a full offensive. "Leaving you alive would create a significant obstacle for His Majesty. So... you die too!"

Facing Ichigo in Bankai, however, Quilge's attacks were clearly inadequate. Though he held some kind of strange emblem in his hand and appeared to be attempting an unidentified absorption of Ichigo's Bankai, Ichigo's Bankai had something peculiar about it, it simply could not be absorbed by the emblem.

"Timd," Wayne said, turning to the messenger on his shoulder as he watched the two clash again.

"Present, my King."

"How are things on the Soul Society side?"

"Approximately seven minutes ago, a group of white-robed humans bearing blue Reiatsu launched an attack on the Seireitei. As of now, Soul Society has sustained losses of nearly a thousand Soul Reapers." Timd's voice was unhurried, Soul Reaper casualties were of no concern to him as a Hollow. "Based on Reiatsu readings, Momo Hinamori and Toshiro Hitsugaya are both currently stable. Within the 4th Division, both Yui Mizusue and Retsu Unohana have not left the barracks. Only 3rd Division Vice-Captain Izuru Kira's Reiatsu has disappeared, it cannot be confirmed whether he is dead."

"What about Grandma?"

"She is at home, safe and unharmed. My clone is at the old woman's side." Timd raised his head toward Wayne. "Do you need me to strengthen my clone and bring her somewhere safer?"

"Not yet, that would expose your Hollow Beast aura." Wayne shook his head. "Stay where you are for now. If any enemies appear, notify me immediately."

"Understood, my King." Timd did not know what Wayne was planning, nor did he understand why, with Soul Society already suffering such heavy casualties, his King had still not made a move, only having him keep watch over the people the King held dear. Truth be told, Timd wasn't worried. At his King's current level of power, leaping to Soul Society would take no more than a fraction of a second.

"Now that the fighting in Soul Society has started, it's time for us to move as well." Wayne rolled his shoulders, glanced down at the battle below without dwelling on it, and pulled Nel close, preparing to perform a spatial jump.

"My lord, are we not going to help them?" Nel asked one last time before they left.

"No need. Ichigo won't lose," Wayne said with a quiet smile. "Besides, he still has reason to keep fighting here."

"Is that so?" Nel tilted her head, not quite following what Wayne meant, but trusting his word was always the right call. "Then, my lord, where are we going?"

"To the Wandenreich's headquarters." Wayne snapped his fingers, and a spatial rift opened before him. At the same time, he used the Law of Illusion to conceal the spatial fluctuation.

"The Wandenreich's headquarters?" Nel frowned. "Do you know where their headquarters is?"

"I don't," Wayne said lightly. "But Harribel does." He expanded his Reiatsu perception and activated the brand he had left inside Harribel's body. The brand responded almost immediately. Wayne locked onto that trace of Reiatsu crossing through space, used it as a coordinate, and pulled Nel straight through the jump. Harribel had been the bait Wayne had set, a lure that could pinpoint the coordinates of the Wandenreich. That was also one of the reasons Wayne had exiled her.

Yet it was precisely that brief moment of perception, that link to a distant spatial fluctuation, which allowed Kisuke Urahara, standing below, to catch the faintest ripple of spiritual energy. He looked up, but saw no one. A puzzled expression crossed his face.

"Strange, did I sense that wrong?" Kisuke Urahara furrowed his brow. He quickly redirected his attention to Ichigo's battle. Right now, enemy intelligence was practically zero, and he needed to gather as much information as he could from watching Ichigo fight.

On the other side, Wayne arrived with Nel at the spatial node he had jumped to. The moment they landed, he saw Harribel, restrained on the ground by four specialized Reiatsu chains. She was covered in injuries, her Reiatsu completely depleted. Those four chains clearly had a Reishi-absorbing function. For a Quincy capable of using Sklaverei, crafting such an implement was nothing unusual.

"Mmh... ugh." Sensing the fluctuation of Reiatsu, Harribel stirred from her semi-conscious state. Her gaze came back into focus, and she saw Wayne and Nel standing there directly before her. For a moment, she forgot how to speak. After a long silence, she finally parted her lips, her voice frail and weak.

"My... King."

➤ Next: Base Raid