Even though the expeditionary force members were all quite skilled, generally a cut above the ordinary soldiers of the Gotei Thirteen, the sheer disparity in numbers, combined with the need to stay wary of the Gillians behind them, meant they didn't dare fight head-on. To avoid being bogged down, they sprinted at full speed the entire way.
In the end, they were still caught.
After escaping from the Hollow nest, they lost their sense of direction, ran in circles, and were intercepted by the Hollows.
After several skirmishes, a third of the squad was already dead. Only six remained, all of them wounded. What was even more despair-inducing was that… they didn't even know how to get back to camp.
"There's definitely something wrong with this hellhole! We can't capture any spirit threads, and the positioning devices aren't working!" someone shouted angrily.
Every patrol squad carried tools for basic positioning and direction-finding. After all, Hueco Mundo had no day–night cycle, no stars to guide the way, and everywhere was just endless desert with no landmarks whatsoever… it was incredibly easy to get lost. Without positioning devices, there was no guarantee of ever making it back to camp.
But this squad's devices had failed.
No one knew whether it was a quality issue, the devices reaching the end of their service life, or interference from Hollow abilities… in any case, they had completely lost their way back.
To make matters worse, those hateful monsters kept chasing them. At this rate, even though Hueco Mundo's high reishi density allowed their stamina to recover quickly, they would definitely be worn down and killed by the Hollows.
"Don't stop! If we get tangled up, none of us will get away!"
"You go on ahead. My injuries are too severe, I'll just slow you down…"
A Shinigami whose ribs had been cut open, barely supported by his companions as he fled, clenched his teeth and said bitterly, "Split up and run. I'll stay behind and buy you time… just don't forget to avenge me someday!"
"What kind of nonsense is that?! Did you forget what that lord said?"
Leaving him behind and scattering was the most rational, optimal choice, but his companions still refused.
"I will never abandon you! I'm bringing everyone back to camp!"
"Kotaro, you..."
"Heeheehee~ such deep bonds of friendship. I accidentally witnessed so many touching scenes~"
Just as the Shinigami were united, encouraging each other to hold on, a strange laugh echoed from ahead. Immediately after, a pink beam of light swept across the desert, cutting off their path.
"Heeheehee…"
Misshapen lesser Hollows poked their heads out of the surrounding sand. One especially massive figure descended from the sky, and its overwhelming spiritual pressure made the squad members gasp for breath.
"Damn it… an intelligent Adjuchas!"
Realizing what kind of monster had set its sights on them, despair deepened in their hearts.
Normally, Gillians were those gigantic, faceless humanoids. Despite their size, they lacked reason and acted purely on instinct, devouring souls with "nutritional value," including, but not limited to, Shinigami, Pluses (human souls), and even other Hollows.
That was why lesser Hollows usually avoided Gillians. Earlier, seeing a group of lesser Hollows peacefully coexisting with Gillians in the nest had puzzled the squad, but now they finally understood why.
There was a higher-ranked Hollow keeping order.
A very small number of Gillians, after growing to a certain point, would regain their reason. Their bodies would shrink and transform into forms with animal characteristics.
Once such animal-type Gillians consumed enough souls, they could evolve into mid-level Hollows, Adjuchas.
The spiritual pressure of these monsters exceeded that of vice-captains. Only captain-class powerhouses could defeat them with certainty.
"Don't tell me… you bastard were secretly watching us this whole time?"
One squad member turned pale, realizing that they had most likely become "mice," used by this Adjuchas for a game of cat and mouse.
Otherwise, there was no way they could have escaped the nest at all!
"Heh heh ha ha… Hueco Mundo is nothing but sand everywhere. There aren't many forms of entertainment. It's rare to run into creatures other than Hollows, killing you too quickly would be such a waste."
The Adjuchas before them had the appearance of a humanoid longhorn beetle. Aside from its face being covered by a white mask, the rest of its body was protected by thick black carapace.
The ends of its four "arms" were as sharp as steel blades, it was clearly a brutal foe with both offense and defense.
Worse still, its personality was vile. "Until I find some new toys, why don't you stay and keep me company~ I'll be very careful and try to let you live a little longer~"
"Damn it!!!"
"Heeheeheehee~"
The lesser Hollows let out shrill, piercing laughter and surged toward the desperate squad like a tide, "Thunder Emperor, answer my call!"
With just a few simple syllables, the free-floating reishi in the air suddenly began to fluctuate violently, as if swept together by a storm.
In the next instant, it transformed into thick bolts of lightning that smashed into the ground like enraged beasts, rampaging without restraint.
"This is… Shinigami power?" The Adjuchas didn't dodge. Trusting in its indestructible armor, it didn't believe this level of "Kido" could threaten it.
But the lightning's true targets weren't it at all. Instead, the bolts encircled the surviving squad members and wiped out the numerous lesser Hollows around them in one sweep.
"It's lightning, but this power… it's Lord Aizen's, Lord Aizen's Kido!"
"He's here, we're saved!"
"One of the Four Heavenly Kings has arrived, it's Lord Aizen Iori!"
The squad members were overjoyed, but no matter how hard they stared, they couldn't spot Iori amid the lightning-filled sky and swirling sand, let alone with the screams and wails of the Hollows constantly stealing their attention.
Instead, the longhorn Adjuchas slowly turned around, as if sensing something. Reflected in its dim yellow eyes was the image of a black-haired youth wearing a Shihakusho.
Aizen Iori.
One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Hueco Mundo Expeditionary Force stood about ten meters away, quiet and solitary, as if he had arrived even earlier than the Adjuchas.
'I didn't even notice...' A bead of cold sweat slid down the Adjuchas's forehead.
Still, it kept its composure, even showing a hint of provocation. "What a pity. You got behind me but didn't launch a sneak attack. Is that some kind of Shinigami pride?"
"Such pointless self-respect, you wasted your only chance to defeat me!"
"Is that so…? I happen to see it a little differently." Iori's smile was calm and gentle, as if he weren't facing an enemy at all, but an old friend.
"The essence of a 'sneak attack' is to increase the chance of victory. But if it can't change the final outcome, then whether you attack from the front or the back… it makes no difference, doesn't it?"
"…Hm, you're quite self-aware."
The longhorn Adjuchas froze for a moment, then grinned. It had absolute confidence in its defense, even head-on against multiple Hollows of the same rank, it felt no pressure at all.
Just a mere Shinigami. Judging by his spiritual pressure, he wasn't even that strong. Indeed, even a sneak attack wouldn't hurt, "Calm."
The yellow sand beneath its feet vanished in an instant, replaced by a mirror-smooth, crystal-clear surface like water. This sudden change set off alarm bells in the longhorn's mind.
Having heard of Shinigami possessing special techniques, it decisively chose to strike first. "Don't even think about it!"
Whoosh!
Like a pitch-black bolt of lightning, it streaked across the mirror-like surface. Its razor-sharp blade-legs slashed across Iori's body multiple times in the blink of an eye.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In a series of rapid flashes, the longhorn performed a deadly dance on the edge of blades with a dazzling "four-blade style."
Judging by size alone, no one would have imagined that this beetle-like Hollow possessed such terrifying speed.
"Hmph…"
The longhorn reappeared behind Iori. It had clearly sensed something wrong with the "feel" just now, it seemed not to have cut into a solid body.
But it had definitely clashed with Iori's sword several times, so it concluded that this was merely one of Iori's tricks. His real body had to still be here.
"I never thought I'd take a mere Shi... huh?"
As it turned around, its forward-leaning body suddenly lost balance. In a daze, it saw one of its blade-legs flying away.
Before it could react, its antennae, back armor, chest plate… the hard carapace it prided itself on, strong enough to withstand Cero, shattered like broken glass, scattering in all directions…
Crack!!!
The Adjuchas's body shattered into countless pieces along with the entire mirror domain.
"When did you..."
Clack!
Iori sheathed his sword and glanced indifferently at half of the longhorn's head. Even after killing an Adjuchas, he felt no particular sense of pride.
Among Hollows, even those of the same rank could differ vastly in strength, just like "captain-class" Shinigami could actually be divided into several tiers.
This longhorn wasn't particularly outstanding among Adjuchas, whether in intellect or spiritual pressure. It simply had a defense-specialized talent and exceptional mobility, so even when facing stronger opponents, it rarely suffered losses.
From that perspective, its confidence wasn't laughable.
It was just that so-called "defense specialization" and "mobility" were a joke in front of Iori's Zanpakuto…
After all, as he himself had said, "The ending was never going to change."
[Current spiritual pressure cap: 970]
[Current actual spiritual pressure: 915]
———
When Iori decided to enter Hueco Mundo, he had only just awakened his Shikai, with a spiritual pressure value of around six hundred. But after "clearing" the main storyline of Akame ga Kill, it had skyrocketed to over nine hundred, approaching one thousand.
On one hand, his achievement of pacifying the world upgraded that CG to [I Am the Mandate of Heaven: Eternal Prosperity], instantly granting him more than ten points of art-style value.
Moreover, since he had only just taken power and the news hadn't yet spread throughout the entire Empire, once his reputation had time to ferment, there would likely be a significant further boost, reaching twenty points shouldn't be difficult.
On the other hand, during that process he had also incidentally unlocked quite a few bond CGs with people like Wave, Akame, Syura, and others.
Although he only gained some attribute points, the "Single-Minded Aspiration: Reversal" buff on him took effect, stubbornly giving him an extra two art-style points, like a guaranteed pity pull in gacha.
As a result, his spiritual pressure cap reached the "1000" threshold.
It had to be said, this was an extremely exaggerated increase. After all, the threshold for captain-class was only around fifteen hundred, and even that standard was rather inflated.
Just like Shikai, once a Shinigami awakened Bankai, even without a true-name release, their spiritual pressure would still increase significantly compared to before. Jumping from twelve hundred straight to fifteen or sixteen hundred was perfectly normal.
So strictly speaking, once spiritual pressure exceeded one thousand, one had basically entered the stage of training for Bankai. In theory, awakening it was possible, the exact process simply varied from person to person.
That was because the awakening of "Bankai" was a matter of mysticism. Spiritual pressure strength wasn't the decisive factor; what mattered more was mental-level communication with the Zanpakuto… it felt a bit like cultivation relying on sudden enlightenment.
Some people might have an exceptionally good relationship with their Zanpakuto and awaken Bankai as soon as they hit one thousand. If their spiritual pressure wasn't quite enough, the sword spirit might even thoughtfully prepare a multi-stage release for them.
Others were practically born with the effect of [Schrift D (Deaf)], their Zanpakuto could call them for hundreds of years and they still wouldn't hear a thing…
And then there were the non-mainstream cases where the sword spirit and Shinigami couldn't stand each other and wanted nothing more than to strangle one another.
From "calling the Shikai name" to "training Bankai," even without considering the existence of bottlenecks, it normally took one or two hundred years to accumulate the same progress, assuming decent talent and no accidental death during missions.
Yet even counting his time in another world, Iori had only spent a little over a year in total. That alone was enough to make many captain-level big shots cry out in disbelief.
Of course, this speed still couldn't compare to Kurosaki Ichigo. After all, he was basically a max-level account from birth, his strength depended solely on whether he remembered his account password. Compared to that, Iori, who had built himself up from scratch, was still lacking.
But Iori had his own advantage, his power was relatively pure and completely under his control. It wouldn't fluctuate wildly or jump back and forth like Ichigo's.
Overall, Iori was fairly satisfied with his current rate of progress. There was only one small issue that left him vaguely uneasy.
Perhaps because he had rejected an Asauchi and awakened his Zanpakuto on his own, Iori's [Clear Mind Like Still Water] seemed far too "aloof."
With his current spiritual pressure, he couldn't sense even the slightest sign of Bankai. The sword spirit barely communicated with him at all, forget training, he didn't even know where to begin.
In such a situation, either the sword spirit was throwing a tantrum, or his spiritual pressure was still far from sufficient… Iori felt he hadn't offended "it," so that left the latter.
In the end, his "cool factor" just wasn't high enough yet.
"Lord Aizen is back!"
"You've worked hard!"
"I heard you killed an Adjuchas this time."
"No way! That's a mid-level Hollow, only Captain Saito could… even one of the Four Heavenly Kings shouldn't…"
Iori brought the rescued squad members back to camp and briefly arranged for them to be treated by the medical unit. He then headed straight for the captain's main tent to report the day's events to Saito Fushimi.
Under normal circumstances, Adjuchas were the highest-ranked Hollows the extermination force might encounter.
In the entire camp, only Saito and the Four Heavenly Kings could deal with them, and even the Four Heavenly Kings couldn't be said to have guaranteed victories.
This time, between rescuing people and slaying a Greater Hollow, his record would certainly gain another entry.
Such achievements meant nothing in Hueco Mundo, but once back in Seireitei, they would become a dazzling resume. After all, the Thirteen Squads were essentially a violent organization and always held special respect for those who rose through battle merits.
Iori had already reached the level of "the strongest under heaven" in Akame ga Kill, so he didn't really crave official rank. Still, higher status meant fewer hassles when getting things done, Nemu Kurotsuchi being a prime example, so it was still necessary to publicize his achievements.
After entering the tent, he calmly and objectively recounted the incident, neither embellishing nor downplaying anything. When he finished, Saito, seated at the head, nodded without surprise.
In fact, while Iori was still at the medical unit, news of his slaying an Adjuchas had already reached Saito's ears.
"You really are an incredible monster~" Saito sighed.
"That beetle-like Adjuchas?" Iori said indifferently. "I didn't think much of it. Just an ordinary mid-level Hollow."
"First of all, 'mid-level Hollow' and 'ordinary' don't go together."
"Second… the monster I was talking about is you, Iori."
Supporting his chin, Saito leaned forward and examined Iori, who was sitting upright below him. A hint of inscrutable meaning flickered in his single eye.
"When we first met, you already had spiritual pressure at the level of a seated officer. Very impressive, but geniuses of that level pop up every decade or so. There's nothing particularly rare about it."