Chapter 118 - Doing Some Side Quest Part 3

(100 Power Stone Bonus Chapter)

On the white desert of Hueco Mundo, Three Hollows is having a standoff with one Shinigami+Quincy and a Zanpakuto Spirit.

"I guess, diplomacy failed huh? Well, not that I didn't expect it. After all, Hollow respects only strength." Adam murmured before coating his arm with Armament Haki. "You stay out of this, Kyoka Suigetsu. I wish to test my strength."

"As you wish, Master. I will cheer for your gallant performance." Kyoka Suigetsu nodded and retreated back while hugging a sheathed green Zanpakuto katana.

Adam nods and approaches the Hollows who sensed their cue and immediately prepare for battle. However, only the humanoid one stepped forward while the beast-like three Hollows stayed on her back.

"If you wish to make me your subordinate, prove to me your strength, Shinigami." The Vasto Lorde stated in a fighting stance.

"Don't worry, I will definitely not disappoint you. A Vasto Lorde is hard to come by after all." Adam nodded with a faint smile as his fighting spirit surged.

It has been a while since Adam felt his fighting spirit were stroked when they usually stayed dormant because he rarely has an opponent that can measure his strength.

After a brief stare down, the Vasto Lorde vanished. She used Sonido and approached Adam with a devastating punch that caused the very air to tremble and reverberate but Adam casually caught her fist and realised the punch was not full strength and merely a probing attack as the real one was a kick aimed at his gut. However the kick was ineffective as Adam can perfectly see and predict her attack as if her lightning fast kick was delivered at a normal speed. Blue veins spread over his body and his flesh was reinforced and hardened by Reishi.

Still gripping her fist, Adam pulled her toward him seemingly into an intimate hug except his right arm pulled back and tensed for a brief moment as golden energy converged in his fist and landed squarely on her chest which caused her to rocketed back and crashed into the side of the cave that cracked and buried her with fallen boulders.

'Is it alright to not use lethal attack Master? Your opponent is Vasto Lorde Hollow after all.' Muramasa inquired in Adam's mind.

"It's alright. I did not sense any intention from her that indicates she was trying to kill me. Though, that might change now after she learned the extent of my strength." Adam said.

Instantly, the Vasto Lorde jumps out from the crash site and looks at Adam with a renewed fighting spirit that tells she is done holding back.

"Right… that cave is her home. Oops." Adam realised before he instinctively dodged to the side when a jet of water beam shot at his previous location.

For the next few minutes, a few dozen jets of water beams attacked Adam but he easily dodged them all with minimal effort as if he sensed it before they were even shot. Well, he actually was able to sense the attack before it was even launched due to several reasons which being the cue when she gathered Reiryoku to create the attacks, his Observation Haki and his instincts.

"Well, since she wants to engage in ranged battle inside of CQC…" Adam trailed off with his words as a blue energy bow and arrow appeared in his hands before he rapidly shot hundreds of arrows in the span of a minute. Each with deadly accuracy but were lacking punch to damage the Vasto Lorde. Not that it matters since what he wanted to achieve is to prevent her from using the water jet attack.

She then abandoned her previous tactic and rushed at Adam who was charging up a powerful arrow with a vaguely sword shaped weapon she conjured that looked like a shark. Adam instead was smirking.

"You fell for it, fool! I can multitask to cast spells!"

"Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro!"

"Hado 33: Sokatsui!"

*Boom*

A blinding blue explosion engulfs everything in the surrounding and temporarily makes the two not visible.

The three Hollows were nervous and at the verge of rushing to help their leader. Meanwhile Kyoka Suigetsu still calmly watches with unwavering confidence. It's partially due to her being able to sense her beloved Master and know he is unharmed.

An explosion of Reiatsu blew away all the kicked up dust and sand to reveal both combatants were still fine. The Vasto Lorde stared at the faintly smiling man with mute and impassive expression. Both were unscated and still look fine without any injury.

"I think both of us can agree none of the weak attacks can affect each other. If that's the case, why don't we use our strongest blow? A decisive attack to decide the winner." Adam suggested.

The Vasto Lorde nodded, accepting the term which made Adam unintentionally smirked because he was gonna cheat using Recoil Burst that allowed him to flatly increase his damage output by ten folds on top of the effect of condensing his Reiatsu.

Adam did his preparation and summoned his Zanpakuto, the nameless Black Katana that felt like an abyss that distort and devour the very light surrounding it. He then activate [Recoil Burst] before he flare up his wild Reiatsu to the maximum that exploded into a blue fiery like aura around him and condense them down into nonexistent that turn into a berserk layer of Reiatsu coating his Zanpakuto blade.

"Hmn, what was its name again? Ah, I remember now. Getsuga Tensho!" Adam declared before he slashed his blade and created a slash wave carrying all the condensed Reiatsu that cleaved the very reality with how dense the Reiatsu it contained.

The Vasto Lorde's eyes bulged wide in shock and panic before she unleashed her attack and clashed with the sword wave but was cut apart like blazing red knife on butter, her attack was cleaved in twain and continued sailing past her before crashing into a mountain in the distance. Instantly, a deep and wide bottomless gouge split the mountain in half that left the Vasto Lorde shocked and terrified had the attack actually truly aimed to take her life, she would have been utterly annihilated.

"Whew, I did pour all my Reiryoku into it." Adam holds his left hand over his eyes as shade while looking at the aftermath of his attack like a golfer after hitting the golf ball.

"As expected of Master. Such an utterly and overwhelming victory. Although, I would prefer if you used my sword instead." She pouted after sounded so cheerful a moment ago.

"Uhm, not to look down on you or something. But, I doubt your blade can withstand the stress of the attack. Your Zanpakuto Blade is specialised for Kido after all. Not combat. I wouldn't dare risk shattering your blade." Adam tried to coax her.

"I wouldn't mind! In fact, I couldn't have been happier if I could serve as your sword, Master. Even if you break me apart, this Kyoka Suigetsu wouldn't mind it at all." She replied with a gaze filled with devotion and borderline madness love.

"No. No. I wouldn't dare do it. You are my precious blade after all." Adam said with a smile to hide his exasperated feeling for her jealousy and unwavering devotion that swinging ever-closer to obsession.

Kyoka Suigetsu silenced up and hid her bashful face after hearing Adam's words. Meanwhile Adam wiped his nonexistent cold sweat before he turned to the Vasto Lorde and her followers that approached Adam and silently watched the romcom drama unfold with flat gaze.

Clearing his throat, Adam said. "So, I have won."

"Indeed." The Vasto Lorde nodded in confirmation. "From today onwards, I, Tier Harribel, acknowledge you as my superior after you have proven your strength. However, while I will follow your order. I will not tolerate any harm done to my followers. They are my family." She replied with a challenging stare that shows she will stood up for her family even if Adam is stronger and able to kill her.

"You wouldn't need to worry. I'm not that cruel of a person. I have a family I wish to protect too. So, I understand your feelings." Adam said before he fell into a monetary daze as he reminisced about his wives and his companions. It has been a year and a half since he's been away from them and even for an hour already feels unbearable. Much less a year and a half.

Sending the truth in his words and expression, Tier Harribel sees her new lord in a different light as his visage exudes genuinely longing and loneliness when he falls into a daze. But she decided to keep that comment to herself.

"Anyway, let's go and find us a new base. We are on a tight schedule and there are plenty of things to do after all." Adam said and reminded the four of their wrecked home which left them looking bitter and resentful at Adam, the said person that wrecked their home into pieces and nonexistent after his final attack.

———

A few days passed by and Adam had been staying inside a cave, isolated from the four Hollows as he worked on experimenting on the Hogyoku.

Inside a dimly lit room, Adam is tinkering with the Hogyoku with various tools and some were even specialised tools created from Reishi. Behind him are a few Adjuchas Hollows he captured and imprisoned inside barriers.

"Hmn, is this why Aizen is trying to feed the Hogyoku and satisfy it?" Adam looks with a slight frown at details displayed on his System screen.

[Hogyoku (False Heart of God)]

A Godhead belongs to a God named Soul King. Contains traces of Soul King's divinity. Due to the nature of Soul King's divinity, the Hogyoku could grant wishes to a limited extent.

Hogyoku is sentient although limited. Influenced by the Soul King's will, it seeks to nurture a candidate to replace the Soul King as the lynchpin of the worlds.

#The Soul King's divinity is still insufficient and the Hogyoku still couldn't fulfil its purpose as the Key to breaking through the limit.

Adam looks at the bottom text that he just revealed after his latest test on the Hogyoku.

As many know, everything created by Soul King contains a small, tiny trace of his divinity. That's why Aizen targets Shinigami and feeds their soul to the Hogyoku. However, there is something that contains even more of Soul King's Divinity. The Soul King's body part. Hence, after he attacked Rangiku and harvested the nail of Soul King inside her, he stopped targeting other Shinigami and focused on finding more Soul King body parts but unfortunately none of them were that easily found nor available.

"In order to make the Hogyoku stronger, I need to feed it more of the Soul King's body parts… Haah, easier said than done." Adam sighed as he was aware where most of the body parts were even as he never finished the actual anime, he delved quite deep into the lore mainly to understand the power and lore that he didn't understand.

Three of the body parts, eyes, a hand, heart and brain are with Quincy. The Shinigami have two, the other arm and a leg. The rest he didn't know because they weren't mentioned.

"Should I capture Mimihagi first?" Adam thought. Considering that Mimihagi's location isn't hidden, it is located in Eastern Rukongai and not really protected.

As for the body parts that Quincy holds. Those would be a little difficult because the holders of those body parts are very strong. But not impossible with Kyoka Suigetsu.

"It's decided then. Mimihagi will be the first sacrifice." Adam said before he stood up and stretched his body which popped numerous times from his bones realigning.

Then he left his lab after properly sealing them back and trying to sneak back into Soul Society using Garganta. Shouldn't be an issue considering Garganta opens up regularly in Rukongai from lesser Hollows searching for food. He just needs to tag along and stay invisible.

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