Chapter 3: Blue Labyrinth

I stood tall in a stance that showed both my sentience and my imperialism, how I stood alone on the tallest dune and turned myself into the tallest thing that one could see, was a signal of who I was, a pride filled thing that had not been toppled nor could be.

I stood alone, I did not bother with the Hollows scampering under my feet, whether they be the dead and corrupted spirits of animals or those of humans. Instead I casted my net, my Serpientes Veneno Inexistente and found the strongest sources of power I could. Again I had no different result, there were no Adjuchas around, and I had given up on my pursuit on Gillian's. They did not provide the sustenance I craved or needed. Not to make it in the timeframe that was set. They were just a tasty morsel...nothing more.

It had been so long that I had been forced into one way of thinking.

That the Adjuchas in the area had noted my power consumption, my Serpientes Veneno Inexistente, and did not approach because of it. I was content to just stand here and drain everything, content in believing that they were just a rare species, but now weeks had passed and I no longer had the patience to corner an Adjuchas when they were alone and with no one to help them. God help me but I was impatient enough to crush an entire group if I saw any. If need be I would shoot both my Ceros at a group of Adjuchas and devour whoever was left over instead of breaking everyone of their bodies with my hands. It was...as sloppy as it was wasteful, leaving far less for me to eat. It was getting to the point where I would make an attempt to eat even Grimmjow if I found him. But I curbed my impatience and remembered that was a stupid idea, he destroyed his own Fracción when they were all Adjuchas, and that was when he was outnumbered and on the same stage of evolution. To compare whose destinies was greater between him and I was something that I believed was folly. He was the...nemesis of someone and had achieved great fame for it.

Hmph. Damn memory.

My white fist clenched, the fingers making an almighty clicking sound and the force of it disturbing the sand below me lightly. It calmed me, knowing that this wasn't even the extent of my power in this spiritualized body of mine. That a being taller than multiple houses could affect the ground with a mere gesture...

But to get back on track, anyone else was fair game. Although I moved like a violent earthquake when pushed I retained a great measure of agility, I was faster than any other Gillian and far stronger too but, and I was embarrassed to say this; looked like I was have a violent seizure when I was pushed to move.

A snake stays still for many reasons, preserving one's dignity being one of those. And I had no intention of dislodging myself from my spot. I wanted to be the tallest thing around, to be the strongest and most noticeable Menos Grande that could be spotted within this great country. This great world of Hueco Mundo! And it should have worked, but no Hollow brave or bloodthirsty enough showed themselves to face me.

None of them even wandered around here.

So the problems mounted, the biggest being that the Adjuchas were apparently smart enough to somehow determine what my power did from a distance and took the appropriate measures or were just so rare that there were only a couple thousand...or even a hundred! And how was I supposed to find them if there were so few of them? The denizens of this wonderful world also gossiped too. Which meant that everyone knew. I remembered that Cyan Sung-Sun heard people gossiping about Aizen's Arrancar schemes. So I was in a bad spot now that everyone knew my power. Though...There were some extreme solutions...assuming every Hollow somehow did know and believed it. I wouldn't use my last resort unless that was the case. And what was my last resort?

Go to the human world and wait for a squad of Shinigami and put myself in extreme harm by facing someone actually worth a damn. Or just move and eat every Hollow that I could find. Both had to sate both the hole in my heart and my newfound thirst for glorious power. Considering the term Menos was applied only to cannibalistic Hollows I was certain it was the latter option I would be following up on. The only reason I entertained the latter thought at all was simply because I was so desperate. I discarded the thought prior but I had a few ways to render Squad Twelve and its surveillance systems meaningless if I did it right. But those were all theories, if I applied them practically and they were wrong then there was no coming back from that.

I barely recalled them in any significant capacity apart from the fact that they had surveillance equipment and was lead by a great guy. But I knew if I played it right, by curbing the use of my power and invading with other Hollows I could do it. I'd have to be fast too of course. I might bring too much heat on myself once they realized the situation. I did faintly remember a scene where Aizen and his lackeys had moved to rescue a group of Shinigami within minutes. I don't wanna end up a casualty after all.

So I grudgingly moved with an ominous groan of anger, though, to be fair, any noise I made as a Gillian was threatening, even laughter from the heart. Onward I trotted across nameless lands with my tail carelessly carving its place through the sand. Onward I walked with no destination in mind, with my Serpientes Veneno Inexistente out and as potent as possible, draining anything in its range as quickly as it could, forcing the smaller Hollows into the human world, they fled there as it was easier to escape my power that way than run out of the range of my invisible net.

Odd behavior since they had scampered around my feet before. Perhaps they knew of my temperament? No...nonsense, I was a Menos. It was a dog eat dog world in this sense. They must have drifted over to me when they saw and sensed the powerless animal Hollows. Becoming a corrupted spirit didn't seem to help their intelligence any. They stuck around me for some reason I couldn't fathom or couldn't care too.

I enjoyed the scenery however, and on my walk that spanned from one day to the next I thought about some things. About all the curiosities that the human world had surely developed by now and my place in the timeline.

That last one I could not decipher. I knew only part and parcel of Bleach, not all of it. And my memory of things was being tampered with, did Aizen even happen yet? Was Kaien Shiba dead? Frankly I only faintly knew that the sky was blue within Las Noches when Aizen was around. So far I hadn't even found that marble palace. Was I so far flung forward that all the arcs had ended already? I dearly hoped not or else I'd be surrounded by a bunch of wimps.

My net added a truly negligible amount to my Reiryoku. I had yet to find a nest of Gillians again but I did get the idea to stick with a nest full of them for a while. An Adjucha can command Gillians, so one would inevitably come along to take them and add them to its posse. And I would be there amongst them. But no, I would have drained every last one of them. Making it impossible to sense them no matter who you were.

So in the end I decided to just wander the land. I decided to eat whatever I could find now. My Nonexistent Poison as spread out as it could be. Until finally, after a week, I found them.

I stood before a flock of Adjuchas. All of them standing a fair distance before me, looking right at me and were more than ready to cross that distance as quickly as they could. And I was more than ready to cross that distance for them. They could no doubt sense my tremendous power, such was the reason they took me seriously.

The length spanning a few streets was all that separated us, and I would not move backwards to increase it. It did not matter if my poison had more time to drain their Reiatsu or not, I would take it all when I ate them and would need no dirty tricks to do it. I roared my first Cero into life and let it go screaming towards them.

Instantly I saw their freakish forms scatter, my brilliant pink Cero lighting up the world and their hideous forms. Disgusting, they were ugly no matter what they did due to that alien body they were stuck with. Even if they mutilated themselves they'd still be like giant cockroaches in my eyes.

What filthy vermin they are...

I was so strong from having taking multitudes of Gillians into me with the Reiryoku of countless others. My Reiatsu was so strong that I was sure hitting even the most durable Adjucha in this worthless band of rabble would have had serious impact on wherever I hit him. Perhaps even breaking a limb.

From a flock of Thirteen Adjuchas two had already been dealt a crippling blow with the rest already being near my legs, where my second Cero was charging. The shear darkness of the cloak I was adorned with obfuscating my Cero completely.

The result upon its release was as explosive as it was disastrous. One had even perished into nothing upon the direct hit to his body, and the other three to face that blast were heavily damaged, five were crippled and were fit to be meat, mostly incapable of putting up resistance or running.

A Gillian couldn't do this. But I was the exception to that rule, the reason why? A greater amount of Reiatsu.

It was the number one rule of Bleach. In a battle between spiritual entities the only thing that mattered was the amount of spirit energy you had. Skill and strength didn't matter at that point. A Captain ranked Shinigami could take an infinite amount of blows from a regular hollow and be fine. In fact, that inferior spiritual being could destroy itself in its attacks. I recalled that first meeting between Zaraki and Kurosaki quite vividly. Ichigo had suffered a wound to his hand when he struck Kenpachi.

I was operating on that same logic, I had far surpassed Aaroniero's spiritual power, I was just without the power up he got when that useless tool became an Arrancar. I was surely greater than that buffoon. I was devouring Adjucha now. The strength of entire towns and uncountable thousands of Hollows had settled within me along with some Shinigami. Admittedly they were complete losers but still...these guys would have a hard time facing me.

They were in the same spot that Sado was. Compared to me, who drained multiple existences of all the spiritual power that they had? It was like comparing a river to the ocean. A fitting metaphor as I still drained them. Carefully micromanaging my Serpientes Veneno Inexistente to catch the most while leaking as little as possible.

I needed to catch their bodies within my power, expanding my ability anymore beyond just the body reduced the potency of my power.

Thirteen and six had become useless. But now they had to cut through me, but I wasn't that arrogant. I had only beaten so many because I had fired off my Cero's, now was a close range fight, and I only had one more trick up my sleeve.

I was observed by them cautiously, silently. It was unlike the way of Hollows, they would usually make derisive comments, secure in their arrogance. Now they would not bother, for all they knew I was a bag of souls that couldn't even understand them. Not that I could blame them for that, intelligence between Hollows tended to differ between too chatty to being incapable of even talking.

They could tell that attacking me wouldn't go so well, I could see it in there stances the moment they realised that. The sounds that they uttered.

Couldn't tell you what sounds those were what with my size and all. Humans didn't hear ants make noise after all, bit difficult with the height difference between the two.

Which is why I charged as quickly as I could, they wouldn't attack me at my feet anymore, they'd jump up and claw at my shoulders, getting to my neck and mask and I couldn't suffer that charge. I had spikes around my neck but once they got past that then getting them off would be harder.

I could still see them, which was a bad sign since it meant that I wasn't closing in quickly enough, that I would be avoided. If I lashed out with my tail to smash them I'd only get a few, and I could see no way to resolve that troublesome situation. They would have reached my Hollow Mask by then.

Except an insane thought entered my head?

What if I tripped?

I was close enough, and if I started charging a Cero from my mask the results would be disastrous. Which is exactly what I did. But I had already missed three, all out of my range and were likely going to retreat from what I could hear of their frenzied and panicked screams and chatter, at best I was going to kill two with this and fall into a self-made crater where they could attack me. Less than optimal, and my predictions came true, but if the survivors were going to run then I had no more use for my tail. Striking out I grabbed at least one more snack, coiling strong muscle against his body.

He would be the first meal. In the end I didn't count or remember anything I had done that day, simply counting all the meaty snacks and sacrifices that lead to my next ascension of power.

Another herd of Adjucha was what they were. And I needed more than this band of weaklings. They were just like Grimmjow's Fraccion. Weak, talentless, and incapable of handling Seated Officers as Adjucha ranked Arrancar.

Yes. The divide between Grimmjow and his own Fraccion was incomprehensible. These peons were just like them. Literal cannon fodder.

It wasn't enough. There wasn't enough souls amongst these pathetic louts to send me to the next stage of evolution. No. There wasn't even enough Reiryoku in them.

No wonder trash like Yammy all the way to Zommari got to be Espada. Those lot probably weren't even Adjucha and were even stronger than Grimmjow's band of plebs.

A bit mystifying. Perhaps the bar was lowered or raised for certain Hollows when it came to evolving?

It was close at the very least.

Fate's intuition told me so. That I was close to evolving, so all I needed was just a bit more in me. At least they were good trash.

I stood up, no corpses were around me, everything else having been eaten. I began walking again, trying to find something better than high-quality trash.

I admitted to myself in this calm moment of resignation that my sentience was a bit of a mystery. Was it because I was blessed by fate? Maybe it was because I had retained control of my body in the transition it underwent into a Menos Grande. Perhaps the other souls were too weak or stupid? They were insane after all...

I went on a casual stroll, with my tail let down. My mask was undamaged and saw everything. My Nonexistent Poison was out at full, and I intended to narrow it down on the strongest thing I could find within its range. That was how I lived my life.

It took weeks to find another Adjucha. It might take over ten years to find a Vasto Lourde for all I knew.

Two of them. Both of whom were expending their Reiryoku. Fighting.

One was no doubt some sort of octopus, the other was mutated to the point that I could not determine what animal it first took the shape of. Being too humanoid and having too small a mask for me too tell what it was supposed to be.

Octopus man on the other hand had his tentacles out and was clearly losing. His tentacles were also coming out from his hip.

My Serpientes Veneno Inexistente had brought the bar far lower. Even the average Adjucha didn't match up to me now. And these were clearly a bit above the average Adjucha. But it didn't matter, they weren't a match in comparison to my power. My ability having always been on every. Single. Moment.

As it turned out having taken so long to find them was a good thing. I drained everything dry that was in my vicinity. I always did. So my Reiryoku, and more importantly my Reiatsu vastly outclassed whatever my weight class currently was. My Serpientes Veneno Inexistente was simply too good. I drained and kept everything. My own strength, bolstered by multiple Adjucha whilst my opponent was weakening put me in the upperclass of Adjucha power scaling.

In short these two weren't worth mention. The wealth of souls stuck within them was all that I was interested in. Only souls triggered the next stage of evolution. That's what it looked like anyway.

As I stepped forth into combat mindlessly, I went over my theories. No need to think about fighting when it was this easy to win.

Only Gillians who were special could evolve. Those with the mask they had prior and the sentience to go with it, knew that killing and eating Gillians was the way to go. I could ignore that thanks to my power and feast on Adjucha instead.

To retain your mask and avoid the Gillian one you needed to...hmm. Shit. I forgot even that? That didn't bode well at all...

I kicked one into paste. Didn't know who it was but he looked salvageable at least. I smashed the other one with my tail. The massive scaly white appendage being smeared some with his blood.

I was close. So close to evolution. I fell with no grace and ate the one I kicked, lapping up his blood too. My forked tongue making the experience more interesting.

I had a split moment of wondering why we evolved the way we did. How did Shinigami give birth to a new soul? That Zanpakutō of theirs? Was a Hollow just an inferior copy of Shinigami?

No matter how I sliced it that was the only conclusion I could come to. Vasto Lordes were stronger than Shinigami Captains, but did they even retain their ability? Aizen outright mugged Barragan, and Tier Harribel wasn't throwing water at that pin head Arrancar.

I turned to the other one, my thoughts leading me to another line of inquiry completely unrelated to the last one.

Multiplication and Division.

Arrancars and Soul Reapers.

That was it! The only thing that connected them!

The instantaneous multiplication and subsequent dividing of the soul! The moment a Hollow removed the boundary and came into contact with the source of power that a Soul Reaper had, they took strength from it! So much strength that an immediate division was followed up on. Thus creating the pseudo-Zanpakutō that every Arrancar had.

Was it because they couldn't handle all that power in one stage? Suddenly Aizen's butterfly appearance under the effects of the Hōgyoku made sense. Our souls evolved in form, changing shape as was needed to handle the power that we had.

We were insects, replacing leaves with souls and evolving to handle the powers we had. But we were just soul jars. Shinigami had somehow matched us without taking the souls of hundreds of others. By their own they hatched another soul within a blade. They made one. And on top of that they could even match an Espada without the Hōgyoku's transformative capabilities!

I was flat on my stomach, still eating him when I realised that I might not be talking nonsense. I can admit to being a fool and not ever having even finished the Fake Karuka Town arc but I was certain that I was right.

Every sign was pointing to Hollows being the caveman, the dinosaur, the prototype to Shinigami. We were unable to utilize whatever source of power that we had.

No Kido, no Zanpakuto, and no-wait!

I suddenly remembered that odd Captain for whom no explanation was given. A Komamura something or other. Under that helmet had lied a dog. But how?

My mind had cast me back to the past. To the most useless part of my knowledge. Kon was...fighting a dog. A dog Hollow. An animal...had obtained enough power to become that shape and size, but it could not talk or reason. There...was also a lizard Hollow that Uryū observed. Tiny and powerless, surviving on the Reishi within the atmosphere rather than an enemies own power.

Everything within my theory was lining up! But I couldn't hold on, my eyes were closing already.

Everything was adding up, but a rumble came from the earth. It was me. There was nothing to muffle the sounds as I groaned.

This would...I was feeling tired, wanting to sleep. Artificially induced of course. Was I evolving then? Perhaps I should welcome it. After all...I couldn't go to sleep after finding out such a revelation. Maybe I'd even forget it. I wouldn't be haunted by this and could dream away my troubles.

No...that's not what I wanted. I valued truth. Even if I was ever-changing. To remember one's origins was always worthy. To admit was...

Was...

Strangle To Death, Anaconda!

Post Script...

Okay, twelve hours past when I said I'd upload. I mean, like, only ten people are reading this story but still, I oughta explain myself.

I brought a new game. May have sunk 10 hours into it. May or may not have went to bed at 5 in the morning. May or may not have been aware of the passing of time. Sadly, this chapter only has 3600 words or so, and the word potato has taken on a completely different meaning for me now.

Suppose I'll elucidate since you've got two days to wait till the next one. The original Tres Bestia weren't Espada at all. Despite being Adjucha when evolving. Thats what makes me think there's a giant chasm in power levels between Adjucha. We even observe Grimmjow dismantle a whole band of them. His own Fraccion. Weaklings but still enough to make me write this.

Now we're in the realm of seated officers. The lower rungs anyway. Thats what I believe the 9th Espada's strength to be before he becomes an Arrancar.