Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 325 - Fragments of the Laws

Huh?

Yaon's two massive eyeballs were drawn to the Hōgyoku, and his attacking fists paused for a moment.

The next second, a blinding white light burst forth from within the Hōgyoku, its white radiance binding Yaon within it as a blazing crimson Reiatsu was drawn out from inside his body.

ROARRR!

A howl of agony spread through the air, but no matter how Yaon struggled, he could not break free of that white luminance.

"Yaon!" Apache cried out in alarm, but Sun-Sun quickly covered her mouth.

"Idiot, don't shout — Yaon isn't going to die!" Mila Rose stepped in front of Apache as well, afraid she might do something reckless.

"But Yaon, he... Mmph!" Apache tried to say more, but Sun-Sun slapped her back into silence.

"You fool! If you want to die, I won't stop you, but don't drag us and Lady Harribel down with you!" Sun-Sun's slap brought Apache back to her senses considerably. Right now, all of their lives were held in Wayne's hands. Setting aside doing anything to Yaon, even if Wayne outright destroyed him, the three of them could not make a single move.

"Yaon can be revived again through the arms we regenerate." Mila Rose offered further consolation. At this moment, she and Sun-Sun clearly had far more composure than Apache.

Wayne, for his part, paid no attention to the three girls' reactions and focused the bulk of his attention on Yaon and the Hōgyoku.

The extraction did not take very long. In under two hours, the blazing crimson Reiatsu carrying its savage power had been fully drawn out of Yaon. Once it was complete, Yaon collapsed to the ground, a low rumbling whimper occasionally escaping from his throat.

"Yaon!" Seeing that her creature had not died, Apache rushed over to check on him. "Yaon, are you alright!"

"Mrrrr..." A low sound came from Yaon's throat.

"Phew... good, as long as you're okay." Apache let out a breath of relief, then quickly sensed something was off. "Wait... Yaon, did you just understand what I said?"

"Hrr..." As if snorting in response, Yaon pushed himself up from his collapsed state and settled into a seated position. That frenzied look was entirely gone from him.

"Wh-what's going on?" Apache was stunned by the change in Yaon. Sun-Sun and Mila Rose behind her felt exactly the same.

Yaon had become... obedient?

"Perhaps it's because he is a summoned creature, or perhaps his spiritual consciousness was too limited to control that savage power within him — that's why he became a mindless monster." Wayne offered the three women an explanation. "So I extracted the power from him, and he returned to normal."

The attribute of the Law of Power was far too overwhelming, and Wayne still did not understand why it had taken up residence inside Yaon. Though the amount of Law fragments present was less than one tenth, it was more than enough to affect his mind.

Now that Wayne had extracted the Law of Power from Yaon's body, it did reduce Yaon's Reiatsu and physical strength, but it had also restored his mind. Looked at from a certain angle, Wayne had actually done him a favor.

"Our gratitude, my King." Sun-Sun and Mila Rose immediately knelt before Wayne. Whether Wayne had done it intentionally or by chance they did not know, but Yaon had not only survived, he had also become docile. Though his power had diminished, something had been gained in exchange for what was lost. All in all, it was a decent outcome.

"Chad, come here." Paying no further attention to the three girls, Wayne waved over at Chad, who was still standing nearby in a state of stunned disbelief.

"Oh — right." Chad snapped back to his senses and walked toward Wayne.

"I have no means of helping you increase your power through training in a short amount of time. But using the Hōgyoku to give you power directly — would you accept that?"

"Hm?" Chad did not quite follow for a moment.

"Simply put, the Hōgyoku just absorbed that creature's power, and some of it is now overflowing. Do you want to try infusing it directly into your left arm? There is some risk involved, of course. You should know..."

"I'm willing to try." Chad spoke right up. "As long as it doesn't turn me into a Hollow."

"It shouldn't come to that." Wayne smiled. "Then let's get started." With that, he brought the Hōgyoku before Chad. The Reiatsu just absorbed had already been converted by the Hōgyoku into pure Reishi, ready for Chad to absorb directly.

"Let's see how this goes — hopefully I don't get Chad killed," Wayne said inwardly. While granting Chad the Reishi, he also extracted a small portion from the less-than-one-tenth fragment of the Law of Power and injected it into Chad's body. He wanted to use this as an experiment, to see whether a human with Chad's affinity for Hollow power could actually absorb the force of the Laws.

The result of the experiment satisfied him.

As the Reishi was slowly absorbed, the color of Chad's left arm began to change. The gray-white leathery armored skin transformed into bone, with bony spines beginning to protrude and lengthen. The skull-shaped pauldron at the shoulder took on the visage of a demonic face. Two long horns grew outward, turning the arm of this devil-figure into a gauntlet built for both offense and defense.

Dark red patterns spread through the inside of the gauntlet, and within it, savage Reishi could faintly be seen churning.

"Looks like it worked." Wayne sensed the surge of spiritual energy inside Yasutora Sado's body, with no negative effects from that small fragment of the Law of Power. All that remained was to observe Chad's condition over time.

"Ugh..." Chad furrowed his brow as he felt out the new power. The sudden surge in strength left him disoriented, yet this power was still something he could control freely, a strange, not entirely comfortable sensation.

"You'll need time to adapt to the power you've just gained." Wayne seemed to read his thoughts and spoke up. "You can't receive a massive influx of Reishi all at once yet, so stay here and spar with this big creature for now. Once you've knocked him down, I'll find you a new training partner. After that, I'll assess the situation and decide whether to keep injecting more Reishi into you."

"Mm. Thank you, Wayne." Chad did not say much, only lowering his head in a bow.

"Thank Inoue instead. Kurosaki is lucky to have classmates like you two." Wayne did not accept the thanks. He turned to the three girls. "You three, stay here with him and help him train and get used to the power. Contact me immediately if anything comes up."

"Yes, my King." Mila Rose and Sun-Sun bowed respectfully, and this time even Apache lowered her head in acknowledgment, the earlier disdain entirely gone.

Having received their reply, Wayne gave a nod and left. How well Chad was absorbing the Law of Power still needed to be observed, it would take time to verify. And he had preparations to make for what was to come.

Returning to his palace, Wayne found Timd waiting for him. The moment they met, Wayne got straight to the point.

"Have you found Ulquiorra?"

"Found him." Timd nodded in confirmation, and a large map screen appeared before Wayne.

After obtaining Soul Society's various technologies, Timd had immediately created tens of thousands of clones to simultaneously study Soul Society's technological projects, and using the resources sent over by the Development Bureau, had constructed a temporary intelligence room at the fastest possible speed. Here, all of Timd's clones oversaw the relevant work, with only three people holding authority: Wayne, Timd, and Szayelaporro.

Others could make use of the related technology, but the relevant permissions were managed solely by these three, not even Nel was an exception.

In truth, Nel and the other high-ranking personnel could have managed those permissions as well. They simply had no interest in putting in the mental effort to learn.

The screen lit up, displaying an enormous map. Approximately 60% of it had been illuminated, with hundreds of red dots of varying sizes distributed across it; 30% was grayed out with several arrows of different colors pointing toward those areas; and the remaining roughly 10% remained dark.

This map showed both the distribution of Wayne's forces and the topographical power distribution across the entirety of Hueco Mundo. After years of effort, Wayne had at last achieved a complete grasp of Hueco Mundo's layout.

The illuminated regions were areas where Wayne's forces were present, while the red dots of varying brightness represented the distribution of Hollow factions in those areas. The gray sections were territories that had been explored but not yet expanded into, and the black sections were the unmapped regions in the central and outer reaches of Hueco Mundo, places either too hazardous in terrain or occupied by powerful Hollow beasts. Those areas would have to wait until Wayne led an elite force to investigate in person.

"Ulquiorra is currently located in a polar region in the north." Timd circled Ulquiorra's position on the map.

"He left the Hollow Forest?" Wayne was puzzled. He had assumed that after the Aizen affair, Ulquiorra would have returned to his old home territory.

"That is unclear. When we first picked up his trail, he was already settled in a mountain range in the far north."

"What's out there?"

"A polar region — almost no Hollow beasts survive there." Timd circled and zoomed in on the area as he answered. "That region is one without white sand. On the northern side of the mountain range lies an area of extreme cold, perpetually covered in ice and snow. As for the mountain range itself, thunderclouds frequently gather there."

"Thunderclouds?" Wayne's eyes lit up with understanding. Could it be that Ulquiorra had gone there to study the Thunder element within the Elemental Laws?

With a general sense of Ulquiorra's purpose now in mind, Wayne prepared to go and meet this Arrancar he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Have Nel, Baraggan, Harribel, Yagami China, Starrk, and Lilynette come see me here. Have Jekain arrange someone... actually, forget it, have Jekain go and spar with Orihime Inoue instead. He was badly wounded last time and still hasn't fully recovered, so this is a good chance to have Inoue treat him. Take care of those lingering injuries while she's at it."

"Yes, my King." Timd nodded in acknowledgment, then had his nearest clones relay the instructions.

Before long, everyone had assembled before Wayne. Harribel in particular was thoroughly bewildered, Wayne had just issued her orders to do recovery training, and before Inoue had even finished healing her wounds, she had been summoned here again.

"Lord Wayne, calling all of us together, is there some important mission?" Nel knew that Wayne had been preoccupied with dealings with Soul Society lately, so she had simply chosen not to follow him in the meantime, instead helping Yagami China look after the grandmother who had remained within Tsukishiro.

"Come with me to meet an old friend."

"An old friend?" Nel was puzzled. Nearly everyone they knew in Hueco Mundo had already gathered in Tsukishiro and joined under Wayne's command. Who else could there be?

"That Ulquiorra kid?" Baraggan, quiet until now, pinpointed Wayne's target in a single line. He was a veteran wielder of the Laws, and the moment he saw Wayne gathering all the Law-wielders together, he understood the purpose immediately.

"Exactly. Well said, Great Emperor."

"Hmph, you." A short laugh escaped Baraggan. "You've called together every Law-wielder, so naturally the aim is to go hunting for Law fragments. But you've got something going for you, kid, without anyone noticing, of the nine great Laws, not only do you hold two exclusively, you've also assembled five Law-wielders here. Seven of the nine great Laws are now under your sway. Put in a little more effort and you could already be squaring off with the ruler of the Hollow world."

Just as Baraggan had said, Wayne held the Law of Space and the Law of Illusion exclusively.

Nel held the Law of Consumption exclusively, and possessed a small portion of the Law of Life.

Baraggan currently commanded nearly 60% of the Law of Time, and a small portion of the Law of Life.

Starrk controlled the greater part of the Law of Life.

Timd had absorbed a small portion of the Law of Life.

Harribel held the water element within the Elemental Laws.

Yagami China held the Law of the Soul exclusively.

Tallied up, Wayne had gathered seven of the nine great Laws' forces under his domain, with all of them at his disposal.

In order to gather still more Law fragments, Wayne was clearly setting out to find the next Law-holder, and the only old friend Baraggan could think of who fit the description was Ulquiorra, who commanded Thunder within the Elemental Laws.

"In fact, I also gathered a small fragment of the Law of Power today." As he spoke, Wayne turned his palm over and produced the Hōgyoku, indicating to those present that he had found a portion of the Law of Power's force. "Though it is less than one tenth, it is most certainly a genuine find. However, this portion is still far too small, I'm not sure who to grant it to yet. I'll hold onto it for now."

Wayne put the Hōgyoku away and looked at the assembled group. "As the Great Emperor has said, the purpose of this expedition is to find Ulquiorra, and the goal is naturally to bring Thunder within the Elemental Laws under our control. I've also called all of you here so that Ulquiorra can be persuaded to join us smoothly. Worst case, we retrieve the Elemental Law fragments from within his body."

"I know that many of you here are acquainted with Ulquiorra, which is why I've called you all to make the journey to the far north together. My hope is that we can bring Ulquiorra back and have him join us."

"I'm not close with that guy." Baraggan spoke first. "Among the Espada under Aizen back then, quite a few people disliked Ulquiorra."

"I've only spoken with the kid a few times myself." Starrk scratched his head.

"Anyway, when we run into him, let's just beat him up first. Talk after we've beaten some sense into him!" Beside Starrk, Lilynette was thrilled to be part of such a high-level meeting and expressed her thoughts without any regard for decorum.

"Heh, that's actually not a bad idea." Wayne and the others had no reason to get angry with a child and responded to Lilynette's suggestion in a half-joking manner.

"Then that's the plan for now. Everyone, make your preparations, we depart in one hour."

"Yes, my King."

➤ Next: Three Moves