Although his appearance had undergone earth-shattering changes compared to how he looked back then—to the point he seemed like a completely different person—Arturo Plateado would never forget this nauseating spiritual pressure.
"How cold of you, Arturo."
Szayelaporro Granz looked at the face from his memories, the corners of his mouth curling upward. It was hard to tell if it was out of joy or mockery.
Long before Arturo was sealed, the two Vasto Lorde had encountered each other more than once in Hueco Mundo. Whether it was Szayelaporro or Arturo, both had desired to devour the other to further their evolution. In terms of raw power, the Arturo of the past had been superior. However, as a scientist, Szayelaporro's methods were far more varied and bizarre. He was often able to contend with Arturo and had even come close to killing him on several occasions.
If not for his extreme high-speed regeneration, Arturo might have actually fallen at Szayelaporro's hands. It was precisely because of those disgusting tactics and abilities that Szayelaporro was the being Arturo loathed most.
Szayelaporro laughed softly. "Ever since you left Hueco Mundo, I have thought of you every single moment. Without you, this boundless desert has lacked quite a bit of entertainment."
Arturo did not reply, simply raising his finger. A crimson sphere of light gathered at his fingertip, drawing in countless Reishi from the atmosphere and emitting a heart-stopping aura. Unlike the spheres condensed by ordinary Hollows, the light Arturo released was far more twisted, looking like a cluster of countless electric arcs that constantly shifted shape within, giving an illusion of madness.
Cero!
The beam of light tore across the silver sea of sand, carving a deep, scorched trench. The moment the impact erupted, sand billowed toward the sky like a surging ocean.
Arturo stepped forward, instantly entering Sonído. Accompanied by the hum of vibrating space, his speed surpassed the limits of visual perception. In a mere flash, his figure vanished. When he reappeared, he had already plunged into the sky-high waves of sand, seizing the moment while Szayelaporro's attention was entirely focused on the Cero.
A slashing strike!
As a Vasto Lorde who had reached the pinnacle step by step, Arturo might not have known the so-called Zanjutsu of the Soul Reapers, but his vast combat experience was enough to make anyone's hair stand on end. Even if the Head Captain of the Gotei 13 were here, he wouldn't necessarily claim to surpass Arturo in sheer experience.
But as an old rival, Szayelaporro was not far behind. In the blink of an eye, a long bone sword grew from his palm, its hilt resembling a mass of tentacles that blocked Arturo's explosive blow. As his wrist flicked, the blade snapped upward, pointing directly at his opponent's throat. It looked as if Arturo had intentionally lunged forward just to get hit.
With the slight stagnation of movement, a heavy, cloying spiritual pressure fell like a tidal wave, wrapping around the blades in both their hands and clashing violently.
"Being sealed by the Soul Reapers did indeed strip away much joy, but over these two thousand years, my only pleasure has been not having to see your disgusting face."
Pressing his blade against the other's, Arturo looked down arrogantly at the familiar, elegantly-poised face.
"Fighting other Vasto Lorde, or powerful Soul Reapers like Yamamoto Genryūsai, allows one to immerse oneself in the wonderful taste of blood and fire. But fighting you only brings me unbearable, extreme torment."
Szayelaporro's lips curled into a playful smile. "And yet... such a battle brings me great joy."
The spiritual pressure vibrated, and the two figures suddenly broke apart, flying backward. Just as he stabilized himself, Arturo saw a sight that made him doubt his own eyes.
Szayelaporro reached his right hand behind his head and pulled a long sword covered in patterns and carvings directly from his spine, which was flecked with spots of blood. In the center of the hilt was a face frozen in a scream, looking somewhat similar to Szayelaporro himself and appearing to be in extreme agony.
"During the years you were gone, I never relaxed for a single moment."
As Arturo's pupils constricted, the long sword swept out, instantly crossing hundreds of meters. A sharp, fierce wind targeted his vitals. Caught off guard, he dodged in panic.
However, a scratch still appeared on his face, and blood seeped out. Immediately, the wound began to rapidly undergo fibrosis, as if turning into wood, continuously releasing virulent poison and decay. A feeling of numbness sank deep into his marrow, flowing toward his limbs.
The silver sand beneath his feet began to churn. One vortex after another appeared, and countless spider-like creatures crawled out from within. They scrambled over each other to cling to Arturo's temporarily paralyzed body. Long, hideous mouthparts extended from deep within their abdomens, piercing his skin and stabbing inside.
Arturo could clearly feel his life force draining at a rapid pace. In his fury, a powerful spiritual pressure erupted. A scorching pillar of pure white light roared and expanded, turning into a white torrent that swept across the area. The strange creatures feeding on his body were instantly vaporized and annihilated, but their deaths simultaneously triggered powerful self-destructing explosions.
From the beginning, Szayelaporro had not pinned his hopes on these methods. His goal in doing this was merely to annoy his "friend" whom he hadn't seen in two millennia. If possible, it would be even better to extract some blood or a limb to place in a petri dish for future experiments.
Foul-smelling smoke and dust dispersed in the violent wind.
Boom!
The grand light bloomed passionately, instantly erasing the tricks Szayelaporro had painstakingly devised.
"Never willing to fight honorably." Arturo stepped out from the pillar of light, his cold gaze fixed on the distant Szayelaporro. "Even with power several times greater than before, you still love using these despicable, low-class tricks. This is exactly why I loathe you. All you researchers are rotten to the core!"
He pointed his finger. Cero!
The condensed Reishi intertwined and spiraled, turning into a sharp lance that violently tore through the air, breaking through Szayelaporro's defensive spiritual pressure. Light flashed, the air hummed, and Arturo lunged forward with Sonído.
Arturo appeared abruptly above Szayelaporro's head and, without a word, delivered a powerful whip-kick. The spinal sword was raised in an attempt to block the strike.
A sharp, booming explosion echoed.
Szayelaporro's hands shook violently. Several cracks appeared on the sword condensed from his spine, and the powerful impact sent him flying backward instantly. Before he could react, Arturo tore through the air again.
Sonído!
The hideous blade erupted with a wild trail of flame. As the figure wrapped in spiritual pressure leapt up, the blade slashed down toward Szayelaporro's head!
Surging spiritual pressure roared out, turning into an indestructible shield for protection. The incomparably sharp blade pierced through the layers of defense in an instant. In a howl of intense light, it carved a massive gash into Szayelaporro's neck. Immediately following that heart-stopping wound, a Cero fueled by rage was poured into it without reservation.
The violent impact instantly annihilated the head, erasing that nauseating, mocking smile. Szayelaporro Granz's presence drifted away in the wind, completely vanishing from the desert.
The originally smooth surface of the sand was now crisscrossed with trenches and left in a mess because of their battle. Arturo stood quietly on the spot, looking at his handiwork. A hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.
'Did I get stronger? Or did that guy get weaker?'
The Szayelaporro who once ran rampant in Hueco Mundo had died this easily? Although it was hard to believe, Arturo chose to believe that he had accomplished what he once failed to do as he looked at the genuine, mangled corpse at his feet.
Vasto Lorde Szayelaporro Granz—removed from existence!
Out of caution, Arturo did not choose to devour the corpse on the ground, nor did he even touch the Reishi. Based on his past experiences with Szayelaporro, aside from his despicable combat methods, the man never forgot to modify even his own body. One careless move could lead to a trap.
Glancing at the corpse, Arturo's eyes flashed with undisguised disgust before he followed the guidance of the moonlight toward the horizon. A single Zommari Rureaux was not enough to restore him to his peak. He needed more, stronger Menos.
Shortly after Arturo left, a blackish-purple worm crawled slowly out from under the scorched, melted sand. Its strange, straw-like mouth sucked at the lingering Reishi in the air. It didn't stop until its body had turned completely black. After determining a direction, the worm burrowed back under the sand and vanished from the battlefield.
In the boundless silver desert, a group of dozens of Gillians wandered quietly under the moonlight. These massive individuals, standing tens or even hundreds of meters tall, were like giant whales swimming in the deep sea, emitting a heart-stopping aura.
"Under normal circumstances, Gillians would not gather so peacefully," Aizen explained. "Unless there is a higher-level Adjuchas within the group. Under the absolute suppression of the evolutionary chain, Gillians, who exist only on instinct, cannot resist the orders of an Adjuchas."
He glanced down at the tracking radar in his hand. The red dot representing Arturo Plateado happened to be located behind the group of Hollows.
"Taking a detour might take more time, but the risk would be correspondingly lower. Should we avoid them?"
Naraku Sora gave a low chuckle. "I should avoid their edge?"
After traveling through Hueco Mundo for so long, he had finally encountered some experience points. Letting them go would be such a waste. Although he wasn't sure how high the sin value of this Hollow group was, even a mosquito's leg was still meat.
Aizen nodded; this answer didn't surprise him in the least. "Half each. Try to keep the corpses as intact as possible."
The research value of a Gillian wasn't particularly high. He had captured a few during his previous visits to Hueco Mundo, but he had given up after some simple study. Their structure was too chaotic; whether it was the body or the soul, they were like products patched together from hundreds or thousands of Hollows.
Normally, a Gillian was formed from more than a hundred ordinary Hollows devouring each other. Under the fusion of spiritual pressure, this situation was quite normal. But once they devoured more of their kind and evolved to the Adjuchas level, the originally chaotic souls would once again become independent existences.
Such a miraculous evolutionary performance had already exceeded the scope of the Soul Society's current science. Even Aizen did not understand the principles behind it. Therefore, Gillians on the verge of evolution were actually of higher research value than Adjuchas. And in the group of Hollows opposite them, there happened to be several such individuals. Their massive bodies towered into the clouds like walking mountain peaks.
"I'm going in first."
Naraku Sora grinned and lowered his body slightly toward the Hollow group ahead. In the next instant, a boom erupted. Accompanied by a swirling shockwave, his figure, wrapped in blood-red spiritual pressure, vanished. Only a straight line of fire remained, lashing the earth and leaving behind a scorched black mark.
In an instant, he crossed a thousand meters. A foreign spiritual pressure descended from the sky, crashing into the group of Hollows. Meeting those dazed and bewildered gazes, Naraku Sora placed his right hand on his hilt. His fingers shifted and gripped it tight, and in that moment, a brilliant spiritual pressure surged out.
Draw, strike!
A flash of lightning expanded explosively, instantly turning into a thunderstorm that poured forth. The sword pressure, converging into a torrent mixed with lightning, swept through more than half the Hollow group. Wherever it passed, the white sand melted and Hierro shattered. Instantly, over a dozen Gillians caught in the blast let out wails of grief, covered by that terrifying sword pressure as they collapsed with half their bodies charred.
The sudden threat of death caused the Gillians, ruled by instinct, to fall into a panic. Chaotic spiritual pressure rose continuously like ocean tides.
On the other side, Aizen's movements were much quieter. He seemed slow, but in reality, he traversed the gaps between the Hollows with indistinguishable Shunpo. Flashes of lightning sword pressure snatched away the lives of the Gillians in an instant.
Hado #4: Byakurai.
The Ghost Swordsmanship Naraku Sora had taught him was surprisingly useful. To a certain extent, it compensated for the lack of lethality caused by the nature of his Zanpakutō. Although he was still inferior to a certain hybrid at the same level of spiritual pressure, Aizen was already very satisfied. Moreover, this move still had immense development potential. As long as he continued to refine his Kido, he would sooner or later reach a height that other Soul Reapers could not attain.
Soon, faced with an absolute gap in strength, the Gillians were slaughtered. Their massive corpses lay across the desert, the air thick with the smell of blood.
As expected, in the large group of Hollows, only one Adjuchas in the form of a hyena remained. Its aura wasn't strong—it was even inferior to that Lumina Griffith. Under the threat of death, the hyena Menos exploded with unprecedented power. A crimson beam of light erupted from its mouth, streaking rapidly through the atmosphere.
Cero.
Facing such an attack, Aizen simply raised his Zanpakutō and slashed forward.
Boom!
The violent Cero was split into two, landing on the nearby sand and blowing up massive waves of dust. Seeing this, the hyena Menos turned and ran without the slightest hesitation. However, before it could even take a step, a simple, unadorned elbow strike slammed into its side. Accompanied by the sound of its skull shattering, its massive body carved a long trench in the sand before it collapsed, motionless.
Having finished, Naraku Sora looked up and frowned at the distance. Not far away, Aizen seemed to sense something as well, looking toward the moonlight. In the swirling wind and sand, a figure was slowly walking toward them.