Chapter 45: The World in My Eyes |
"What are you waiting for? You have been granted the honor of recognition by our Lord..."
Ulquiorra folded his black wings, returning to a more human appearance, and spoke indifferently, noticing that Harribel remained rooted to the spot.
Harribel needed more time to recover from her injuries and restore her depleted Reiatsu, so her breathing continued to be heavy and ragged.
"I thank you for the assistance provided, but I... I will never bow my head!"
Harribel exhaled and spoke resolutely, glaring at Ulquiorra. Then, after a few seconds of silence, she turned to Nelliel and asked, "You are Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, aren't you? The nature of your Reiatsu and your appearance have changed significantly, but the old traits remain. It must truly be you. Why... why did you choose to serve this man? How could you fall so low..."
Harribel did not know Starrk or Ulquiorra at all, as they lived in complete isolation for various reasons, but she was relatively well-acquainted with Nelliel, who was the only other known female Vasto Lorde besides herself.
Nelliel glanced at Harribel and spoke slowly, her eyes following the departing Yeruashi. "This power was granted to me by the Lord. You ask why I serve him? Isn't that natural for any of us, for any Hollow?"
"?"
Harribel was deeply puzzled by her old acquaintance's words.
Harribel fell into thought, her eyes widening in shock as she considered one incredible possibility.
Exactly.
Vasto Lorde had long been revered as the supreme rulers of Hueco Mundo and the final stage of Menos evolution.
Today, for the first time, she had encountered Hollows at an evolutionary level higher than a Vasto Lorde.
The ability of this mysterious being to raise a Vasto Lorde's level by a whole step meant that his own level stood at least two steps above them!
In her memory, Hueco Mundo had never seen such a powerful being. A gap of two evolutionary levels represented the absolute suppression of any Vasto Lorde, no matter how strong they might be!
Only one figure in the history of Hueco Mundo fit such a description...
The mythical and shadowy figure who had created Hueco Mundo more than a million years ago—the True Hollow King!
Thinking of this, Harribel saw Nelliel first hoist her bone spear onto her shoulder and nod to her, then turn and follow Yeruashi.
Ulquiorra and Starrk stepped forward with Nelliel to follow Yeruashi, leaving Harribel alone.
Harribel first took a cautious and uncertain step forward, watching the departing figures with clear hesitation and doubt. Then, she let out a breath and resolutely ran after them.
Yeruashi, walking confidently toward the center of Las Noches, raised his head to the sky with a pale gold glow in his pupils to observe the events occurring in the Hollow King Palace.
Those three Arrancars who had attacked Harribel earlier had not been created by Aizen.
Just as he had suspected, his existence over a million years ago had exerted a significant influence on the fates of the beings born and living in Hueco Mundo.
The ability used to create the independent space of the Hollow King Palace was similar to the Nine-Tomoe Rinne Sharingan's Amenominaka used by Kaguya, combined with Reishi to provide form.
When creating this small dimension, Yeruashi had established a special spatial barrier because he had no intention of allowing outsiders there.
To overcome this spatial barrier, one would need to possess a Nine-Tomoe Rinne Sharingan.
However.
This did not make the barrier absolutely insurmountable for the inhabitants of the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, as these dimensions were endowed with part of his power...
Since a representative of the Panther Clan had awakened the Rinnegan after turning into a monster, cases of awakening even higher-level Dojutsu could certainly exist in the long history of the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, granting the right to enter the Hollow King Palace!
And once inside the palace...
The possessor of such Dojutsu would gain access to the Six Paths Evolution Power that Yeruashi had left there over a million years ago. This, in turn, would allow them to take another step forward, as possessing this evolutionary power was equivalent to possessing a Hogyoku.
To be more precise, the Hollow King Palace itself was endowed with certain properties that closely resembled those of the Hogyoku.
Any Hollow who found themselves within the Hollow King Palace could tear off their own mask, thereby becoming an Arrancar.
This was the true origin of the three Arrancars who had attacked Harribel earlier.
"Tell me, how do you see this world?"
Yeruashi first glanced at the situation in the Hollow King Palace, then deactivated his Eyes of God and spoke casually to Harribel, who was struggling to walk behind him, dripping blood onto the gray sands of Hueco Mundo.
"A world filled with sacrifice and loneliness..."
Harribel whispered softly, clutching the wound on her right shoulder.
Yeruashi stopped and spoke calmly, looking at the battered Harribel. "Your vision is too narrow and limited. Do you want to know... how I see this world?"
Harribel stopped and looked into his eyes.
Yeruashi first raised his right hand and placed his palm on Harribel's forehead, then said calmly, pressing his thumb against her right eye, "Open your eyes."
Buzz!
At that moment, Harribel felt as if her consciousness had been ripped from her soul, and the width and range of her vision began to expand uncontrollably to unimaginable scales.
Her body felt as if it had lifted off the ground and was flying rapidly toward some infinite, boundless distance beyond the sky.
Las Noches, which had once seemed incredibly imposing and vast to her, grew smaller and smaller until it looked like a small pebble lying at her feet.
After some time, Harribel saw all of Hueco Mundo, which appeared as a massive, bubble-shaped dimension in the middle of a void, and then noticed another similar dimension nearby, filled with countless souls.
Then these vast dimensions, representing Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society, began to shrink further, just like the giant Las Noches before them, until they looked like two specks of light floating side by side in the boundless cosmos.
A moment later.
The two distant specks of light began to enlarge rapidly, and her field of vision narrowed quickly until Harribel's gaze returned first to Hueco Mundo, and then back to Las Noches.
But it didn't end there.
After returning to her original position, the world around Harribel continued to expand rapidly in size.
Las Noches grew larger and larger until it seemed immense and infinite.
Eventually, the world around Harribel had enlarged to such an extent that she no longer saw Las Noches or the gray desert of Hueco Mundo, but a beautiful and mysterious composition carefully woven from countless Reishi.
She looked around in awe.
The ground.
The sky.
The entire surrounding world consisted of countless Reishi, and its laws appeared as these beautiful and mysterious compositions.
She even faintly glimpsed a small, independent dimension right above Las Noches, separated from the Hueco Mundo dimension by several layers of space.
It seemed there were living beings within this independent space...
In just a few fleeting seconds, Harribel's eyes had witnessed both the vast breadth of the universe—against which their world was but a speck of dust—and the infinitely small and complex world of Reishi that formed the very foundation and laws of their existence.
She witnessed how the inhabitants of Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society turned into Reishi and were reborn in the World of the Living after death, and vice-versa—how inhabitants of the World of the Living turned into Reishi and were reborn in the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo after death.
Buzz!!!
After several seconds that felt like an eternity to Harribel, her blurred consciousness returned to her body, and she gradually began to regain clarity.
Harribel staggered and took a few steps back, feeling intense dizziness.
After a while, when Harribel had partially restored her sanity and mental clarity, she exhaled and submissively knelt before Yeruashi, demonstrating her total surrender.
Yeruashi nodded calmly, showing no surprise at Harribel's action. He raised his hand and infused a bit of his own power into her body.
"I grant you my power of evolution."
Whoosh!!!
Harribel, still kneeling before Yeruashi, emitted a bright, hot glow as a powerful pulse rippled out from her body in all directions.
First, all the wounds covering Harribel's body completely healed and vanished. Then, her white armor with its fins and jagged mask, resembling a predatory shark, became covered in numerous cracks and shattered into pieces.
Finally, when Harribel stood up once more, she had gained a fully human appearance, just like Nelliel before her.
She wore a form-fitting white shirt that revealed her slender waist and smooth stomach, along with a long, loose skirt of the same color that swayed gently in the light breeze.
The heavily damaged white blade that had been part of Harribel's arm transformed into an elegant short dagger, its hilt gripped in the palm of her right hand.
"I thank you."
Harribel bowed respectfully to her new Lord.
Yeruashi spoke calmly, slowly scanning Harribel and the other Arrancars. "Your primary task will be to guard my palace, as soon as I drive the rats out of it..."
"We will fulfill your will to the best of our ability, Lord."
Nelliel, Starrk, Ulquiorra, and Harribel bowed to Yeruashi in unison.
Only Lilynette, who had been clinging to Starrk's back the whole time, didn't seem to notice the solemn atmosphere at all.
She poked the top of her small head out from behind Starrk's shoulder and squinted at Harribel and Ulquiorra. Then, she whispered slowly, looking at Yeruashi, "O-o-o-oh, greatest and most powerful Hollow King, where... where is Starrk's gift..."
Boom!
Starrk immediately punched Lilynette on the head as she hung from his shoulder.
Truth be told, Starrk himself was very curious about that question, but he did not dare ask it.
Yeruashi answered casually, "Because you were originally far stronger than them."
Lilynette: "..."
Starrk: "..."
Yeruashi raised his head and said thoughtfully, stroking his chin, "I could, of course, forcibly break into my own palace from other places, but its design includes a self-destruct function in the event of such an intrusion. Therefore, we must enter properly through the main entrance using the key."
"Let us go."
After saying this, Yeruashi calmly stepped forward and moved about a hundred meters, slightly quickening his pace.
Lilith, Ulquiorra, and the others followed Yeruashi.
After a short time, the small group led by Yeruashi moved from the outskirts to the central region of Las Noches.
The central room, located at the very peak of Las Noches, was a spacious throne room without a roof.
Baraggan Louisenbairn, wearing a purple cloak with a black fur collar and a gold crown, sat on a high throne. He stroked his skull's lower jaw with a bony hand, watching the figures of Yeruashi and the others enter the throne room through the main entrance. "Why have you returned, and even brought someone with you? Did I not make myself clear enough..."
"That was my final warning!"
"Do not even hope to leave this place alive unless your next words are an agreement to join my army... Harribel!"
Whoosh!!!
Accompanied by Baraggan's cold and majestic voice, a dark red Reiatsu erupted from his body, carrying the terrifying breath of death.
This monstrous spiritual pressure crashed down upon Harribel, Yeruashi, and the others, seemingly making not only all of Las Noches tremble but even the gloomy sky of Hueco Mundo visible from the open throne hall.