Starrk walked toward a pile of rocks and released a powerful burst of spiritual pressure, blasting the stones away. He stepped closer and stared at the hole leading to the Human World.
The bottomless pit looked like an entrance to another world, exuding a chilling, deep, ominous atmosphere. The rim of the hole was covered in white, dead branches. They resembled the quartz trees often seen in Hueco Mundo, but perhaps due to the passage of time, they also carried an ancient, mysterious aura.
Starrk's expression was grave, as if he had sensed some unknown danger. It felt as though something might burst out at any moment, and together with the thick black clouds hanging overhead, the eeriness only intensified.
"Why do you know this has something to do with Lilynette?" Starrk didn't enter immediately—he turned to Yoshio.
"In the Three Realms, how many people do you think can do something like that?" Yoshio said calmly.
"…" Starrk stayed silent. In fact, as far as he knew, no one could suddenly kidnap Lilynette.
It wasn't that Lilynette was exceptionally strong; rather, she occupied a particular position.
She wasn't in Hueco Mundo, but the Tower of Death was the closest place to Hueco Mundo, so it went without saying there was a special connection between them.
In other words, Lilynette vanished suddenly right in front of Yoshio, Aizen, and the Starrk.
Who in the Three Realms could have such an ability?
Even the people of the Soul King Palace could not do this.
Starrk wasn't familiar with the history of the Three Realms and knew nothing about the Soul King. So he couldn't understand at all who could possibly do such a thing.
So Yoshio told him, "Perhaps only a god can save us."
"God…?"
Starrk frowned. He didn't know much about "gods." In Hueco Mundo there were gods—Barragan was one.
Barragan called himself "King of Hueco Mundo," and also "God of Hueco Mundo"—in other words, he'd given himself various impressive titles.
But the "gods" of this world weren't that special either; once Aizen and Yoshio arrived, Barragan had to step aside.
Gods…
Are they that amazing?
"Is there… a god here?"
"Who can say for sure?" Yoshio said. "But I think ancient ruins always hide clues, and this place has a strange aura. It's very unusual."
He walked up beside Starrk, looked down into the hole as well, and said, "Let's go down and take a look."
"Fine."
The deep cavern had an inexplicable allure, so the two descended together to investigate.
They dropped down without injury, but it felt as if they'd experienced the flow of time and the shifting of ages. The world below was ancient and mysterious, filled with a decayed aura.
Unlike Barragan's "erosion," the desolation here carried a stronger sense of civilizational decline.
There were corridors below, and from them they could see the remains of collapsed structures—yet no corpses.
That was normal. So many years had passed that even if there had been bodies, they would have weathered away long ago into reishi and vanished.
Yoshio approached a ruined building. When he touched it lightly, it seemed to weather away instantly—even the white wall crumbled like dust.
"It's like it was contaminated by some force," Starrk said. "Barragan?"
Seeing the building disappear gave him a strangely familiar feeling.
It did resemble Barragan's death-force.
The Starrk faction and Barragan's faction had clashed more than once or twice.
Of course, they hadn't met recently.
When the Espada were first established, Starrk ranked above Barragan, which triggered the former king of Hueco Mundo's dissatisfaction.
Back then they had fought once, and afterward Barragan had fought Starrk several more times, so Starrk was very familiar with the power of death.
And just now…
It felt kind of similar.
"All the buildings here are like this," Yoshio said. "They're all corroded by the power of death, yet strangely preserved in the state right before they vanish."
"Don't touch anything now. Let's avoid the building ruins."
Starrk nodded. The two became even more cautious, to avoid damaging the ruins and causing a chain reaction—or destroying clues.
"This underground passage is like a shelter."
Starrk noticed several indentations along the corridor wall, suggesting people had once leaned there.
And there were quite a lot of them.
It was hard to imagine such a place had existed in Hueco Mundo. Las Noches alone—where Hollows gathered—was already strange enough, and it had been a kingdom forcibly ruled by Barragan.
But here, there truly seemed to be traces of mutual assistance.
"Looks like we came to the right place," Yoshio said quietly. "This should be the last words—or rather, the last information—left behind by those Hollows before they died."
He walked to a fork in the corridor. There were complex characters and simple drawings carved there.
The drawing showed a group kneeling devoutly and offering sacrifices before a gigantic statue.
The statue wore a black cloak, and although it was a statue, you could still make out ominous eyes.
Then a ray of light appeared among the kneeling Hollows.
Below, the statue vanished, the world collapsed, and the Hollows seemed to panic and flee.
Very simple.
"…What kind of writing is this?" Starrk frowned. He could understand the pictures, but not the text.
"There was once a country called Nergal. The people were a small group, but they were united by a shared faith."
Yoshio's voice suddenly sounded. Seeing the familiar script on the mural, he spoke.
"The god they worshiped was the [God of Death]—not the Shinigami of Soul Society, but a true god of death who rules death and brings the end."
But in Nergal, a new faith gradually emerged, and some secretly worshiped an "evil god," becoming heretics.
"…?" Starrk looked at Yoshio in shock. He hadn't expected Yoshio to decode it—much less that the ruins' past revolved around faith in gods.
Was this another Hueco Mundo?
And… heresy? An evil god?
That evil god was called [Orochi], said to be a god who controls the power of light. Because it could grant Hollows a new path of evolution, many Hollows secretly worshiped Orochi.
"This also led to the destruction of the Nergal ruins. Death brought death to the former believers and destroyed this kingdom that betrayed him. Everything in Nergal fell into death in an instant."
Yoshio continued: "Inanimate objects die instantly, but living beings can feel their life draining away, slowly dying in deep despair."
"They hid in these underground passages to prolong the moment of death. And then the void-dwellers began fighting again."
"What were they fighting over?" Starrk asked when he saw Yoshio stop.
"Yes. The details of the conflict aren't stated, but given the situation, it isn't hard to guess."
Yoshio looked at the fork. There were two paths.
The left path glimmered faintly, while the right path was pitch-black and carried a gloomy aura—as if touching it would mean certain death.
Yoshio added: "Among them, some still believed in the [Orochi] and wanted to pray to the new god for salvation. Others, terrified of death, abandoned the new faith and returned to the brink of death."
"Of course, the outcome is unknown. Perhaps their gods never protected them at all."
"…Does this have anything to do with Lilynette?" Starrk asked after a pause.
He wasn't interested in gods or ancient ruins. He only wanted to know where Lilynette was.
But… this sounded like two fictional evolutionary paths.
The God of Death strengthened a Hollow's instincts, while the Orochi guided Hollows toward light—toward "heart." It resembled the two routes of Arrancar strengthening.
"As we discussed before, only a god might be able to take Lilynette away right in front of us."
"Now, at least two gods exist, and two roads are open before us," Yoshio said. "Either way, it's more likely to succeed than searching blindly outside."
Starrk accepted that logic and said, "Then let's split up again. Whoever finds a clue, notify the other."
Even if trapped, the two of them had the power to break out.
He trusted his own ability.
"Understood."
Yoshio didn't object. "Then I'll go to the God of Death side. The death side seems more dangerous."
With that, he went in.
Starrk didn't object. He also believed Yoshio was stronger than himself.
When Starrk first met Yoshio, Yoshio didn't seem that strong—but he could block Starrk's attacks.
Back then, Starrk felt Yoshio was hiding his true power and wasn't merely a Shinigami.
Now, he felt even more that Yoshio's strength was unfathomable.
In theory, the position of Leader of the Espada required enough strength to suppress any Arrancar.
If Yoshio was confident in taking that role, that meant he had the capability.
Starrk never pursued power. He had abandoned the notion of "getting weaker," but he also wasn't obsessed with "getting stronger."
So he didn't feel ashamed of being inferior to others.
Since Yoshio said so, Starrk started down the "Orochi path."
After the two separated, as Yoshio walked down the corridor, he murmured, "That's improved quite a lot."
"Is this what you call 'filling in settings'?"
And…
It wasn't just that.
Yoshio had created these gods to abuse the power of the "Faceless One."
This function allowed him to create people or settings that did not exist.
The more realistic the setting, the more people believed it, and the more "real" that person would seem.
He created these gods and thought: if more people believed in them, then he could transform into these gods and obtain real power.
At first nothing changed, but as more people in the Three Realms began to believe in gods other than the Soul King, the power he gained after transforming became stronger and stronger.
For example, when he transformed into the God of Death, he obtained only the ability to bring "endings" to things around him.
Of course, this was only a passive state. Even in this state, Yoshio could still use other abilities, and those abilities would also change.
For instance, using an annihilation beam in the Death Avatar state would produce an even more terrifying special effect: once it pierced something, it would also grant the power of erasure.
Using an annihilation beam in the Light Avatar state would produce a holy-burning effect.
As the setting became complete and the Faceless One's abilities strengthened, in addition to his original abilities, he also obtained divine powers.
After appearing before the Sternritter as the Orochi's messenger, Yoshio—taking on the form of the Light Avatar—gained new abilities.
Previously he could move at the speed of light; now he could move others with light, or forcibly warp them through space.
Thanks to this ability, Lilynette and Rukia could be transferred to the Tower of the Dead.
Now, by telling Starrk the mural's contents, he could also sense that he had gained some ability when transforming into Death.
"But in the end, it still isn't reality."
The power gained through this disguise was extremely strong, but it did not truly elevate Hollows or Shinigami into gods. However, it was no problem to strengthen a captain-class Shinigami to the Shinigami limit, or to strengthen the Shinigami limit into a transcendent level.
With the "Avatar" ability added, one could obtain truly terrifying power.
But more than that, Yoshio possessed a soul ability that could truly turn the fake into the real in an instant!
It was the "Special Combat Power" that had been useless and ineffective for decades!
This was the power of the original spirit—Second Division Lieutenant Ōmaeda!
With this ability, one could break the fourth wall and see comments from a higher-dimensional world.
And the ability of this Special Combat Power was to make some of those comments become reality!
In the past, after using this ability, no comments appeared. Yoshio guessed maybe the time hadn't come, and that the mechanism of the ability followed the viewpoint of the "protagonist," Kurosaki Ichigo.
Like a manga…
As Kurosaki Ichigo became deeply involved in the story, and after Ichigo was seriously injured, the two came into contact…
At last, in the higher-dimensional live-commentary world of Special Combat Power, comments appeared—like bullet-screen comments!
…