The Pursuit

Once summoned by the Forest of Menos, Gillians could not be stopped from advancing, no matter what obstacles stood in their way. That was an iron rule of Hueco Mundo. The giant footprints and faint Spiritual Pressure Wien had been following were accompanied by devastation along the route, presumably left when the Gillian passed through places where Hollows gathered.

The footprints continued, proving that this Gillian was still moving forward. Whether he was Yammy, Nel, or merely some other Hollow beast, Wien intended to catch up and find out.

Among the ruins of those gathering places, Wien also encountered Hollow beasts that had been gravely wounded but were still clinging to life. From them, Wien obtained not only a supply of rations but also important information.

One was a wounded Mutant Hollow beast, about three meters tall, with the ability to block light. As long as he was in shadow, he could conceal himself perfectly.

But to Wien, the Spiritual Pressure thrown into disorder by its injuries was a fatal giveaway. In a single encounter, Wien knocked it out of the shadows and asked him what had happened here.

It turned out that a lone Gillian had passed through here a few days earlier. Seeing an opportunity, the High-Level Hollows here had decided to gang up on him.

Unexpectedly, this Gillian was extremely powerful. Near-continuous Ceros had shattered their organized line of attack, followed by a terrifying Soul Suck.

Countless low- and mid-level Hollow beasts had been sucked dry, leaving only a few wounded High-Level Hollows who had chosen to flee. The Mutant Hollow before Wien was one of them.

"You mean that Gillian didn't actively attack the High-Level Hollows who ran away? What did he look like? Was he unconscious?" Wien asked, holding his recently regrown bone blade against the Mutant Hollow's mask.

"He had a clown-like mask, with a pointed nose. A mask without any emotion," the Mutant Hollow said. By now, he was no longer capable of resisting, so he could only tell the truth in hopes that Wien would spare his life.

"Had he lost consciousness...?" Wien wondered.

"C-can I go now...?" the Mutant Hollow asked, trembling.

Splurt...

Wien raised his hand and finished off the High-Level Hollow begging for mercy with a single swipe of his claws. Then he tore off his mask, stuffed it into his mouth, and continued racing along the footprints.

As he ran, Wien pondered what he had heard. If the High-Level Hollow had been telling the truth, then he might already have disrupted the original course of events in Bleach, at least in Hueco Mundo.

Both Nel and Yammy had the potential to advance to Vasto Lorde-level. But now one of them had lost consciousness at the Gillian stage, making it at least a degree harder for them to advance again.

Or perhaps the Gillian he had been pursuing so doggedly was neither Nel nor Yammy. Either way, it was bad news for Wien. Still, holding on to that tiny shred of hope, Wien continued his pursuit without giving up.

Wien was moving fast. At his current speed, he should catch up with his target in less than two days. As a Hollow, he could remain active day and night as long as his Spiritual Power was not exhausted; fatigue was a concept entirely foreign to him. As for sleeping and hibernating, those were only necessary for healing injuries and accumulating Spiritual Power.

For now, however, Wien had no time to sleep. Clinging to those less-than-one-in-three odds, he had to pursue the Gillian without stopping.

Losing track of time, Wien raced onward through the dimness of Hueco Mundo. When he was tired, he found somewhere to rest briefly and restore his Spiritual Power. When he was hungry, he found the nearest Hollow beast to fill his stomach.

And so, moving at that speed and following the faint Spiritual Pressure left behind, Wien finally caught up with the target he had pursued for days: a Menos Grande that had lost consciousness and was no different from any other Gillian.

Awooooo...

"Finally caught up?" The distinctive howl of a Gillian rang out from the other side of the hill. Hearing it, Wien immediately halted.

Gillian were different from High-Level Hollows. That qualitative leap changed even the scent of their Spiritual Pressure; otherwise, Wien would not have relied on footprints and the same Spiritual Pressure's scent in pursuit of such an uncertain possibility.

I can't go forward and check yet, whether that Gillian is conscious or not, Wien thought as he stood still. I need to assess how dangerous he is first. If he really has become an unconscious Gillian, then all my efforts will be wasted if he chases and attacks me.

Although Wien was not at all afraid of facing a Gillian, he was not in very good condition at the moment. The long journey had consumed a considerable amount of his Spiritual Power.

"I'll restore my Spiritual Power first, then watch and see." Suppressing his Spiritual Pressure, Wien slowed his pace and crossed the hill before him. On the other side, a massive figure was walking slowly, step by step, in a direction unknown even to itself.

Suppressing his Spiritual Pressure, Wien crossed the hill and saw the massive figure. After confirming that this Gillian was the one he had been searching for all along, Wien picked up his pace and raced toward the Gillian's left side, hoping to circle around him and get a look at his face from the front.

Of course, Wien could not let him discover what he was doing. Otherwise, if this Gillian really had lost consciousness and flew into a ferocious frenzy, he would not spare the "delicious meal" before him, whether he was Nel or Yammy.

Quickening his pace, Wien circled around to the Gillian's left and looked up. Sure enough, the mask on the Gillian's face was pointed like a witch's. This was also a sign that he had lost consciousness.

"Tsk... Has he really lost consciousness? Or was I mistaken all along and followed the wrong one?" Wien's heart sank. Given Yammy and Nel's strength, they should not have lost consciousness.

Could his own appearance have changed the course of the plot? Come to think of it, if not for him, Nel and Yammy might never have met while they were High-Level Hollows, and that great battle would never have happened. One of them might not have lost consciousness.

Either way, I'll follow for now. Whether I'm right or wrong, I can't just leave him alone like this, Wien thought. He then concealed his Spiritual Pressure and followed the Gillian, keeping neither too close nor too far away.

Awooooo...

The grating howl rang in Wien's ears once again. Such unconscious howling irritated Wien somewhat, because the more the Gillian howled, the less Wien knew what to do.

With my current abilities, I could definitely kill him on my own. But the question is, who exactly is this Hollow? Wien had mixed feelings. Killing him would naturally solve every problem, but if this Gillian was Nel, then not only could Wien not kill her, he would have to help her advance so that her consciousness would return. But if it was Yammy, then once he advanced to Adjuchas, he could definitely crush Wien to death on the spot.

Faced with this life-or-death gamble, Wien could not make up his mind for the moment and could only follow it silently as it walked on.

Awooo...

As he was thinking, another roar from the distance broke his train of thought. Looking over, he saw another Gillian approaching him with the same stride as the one before him. Its witch-like clown mask also marked it as an unconscious Gillian.

When two enemies met, it went without saying that this would be a hard fight. Seeing this, Wien moved a little farther away from the battlefield where a clash was imminent, crouching behind a sand dune as he considered the situation before him.

Two Gillians are bound to fight when they meet. I'd better see how things develop before deciding whether to intervene, Wien thought. Both Nel and Yammy could become Vasto Lorde-level beings in the future. If one of them really fell here, Wien believed he would not need to continue tracking them. So, under the pretext of a test, Wien chose to watch the fight.

Less than five hundred apart, the two Hollows finally met. Their simultaneous roars sent slight tremors through the surrounding air. Immediately afterward, two Ceros, an ability characteristic of Menos Grande-level beings, burst from their mouths at once and slammed into each other. A terrifying explosion of energy followed. The dead trees and broken stones around the point where the Ceros collided were pulverized.

Tsk, tsk, a Menos Grande really is something else. Even if my Spiritual Pressure isn't lower than theirs now, unleashing a Spiritual Pressure attack on that scale is still a fantasy. Looks like advancing really is crucial.

Wien clicked his tongue in amazement from the sidelines, but he did not remain idle. While the two Hollows were exchanging Ceros, Wien sprang up and ran toward the Menos Grande he had been pursuing. While the Menos Grande was distracted, Wien broke off a piece of his Blade Claws and stabbed it into the edge of his black cloak. Then he quickly ran into the distance.

"Phew... Now I won't lose him." Wien ran into the distance, moving away from the battlefield. His action just now had been to attach a trace of his own Spiritual Pressure to the Menos Grande he had been pursuing all this time. After all, in a battle between Menos Grande-level beings, Wien could not always move freely across the battlefield. This way, even if he was injured, he would not lose track of his target.

After setting up his means of tracking, Wien withdrew into the distance and watched the battle between the two Gillians.

Roar after furious roar issued from the two Gillians' mouths, accompanied by dark red Ceros filled with immense destructive power.

From the start of the battle until now, the two Gillians had each fired three Ceros at the other. Five Ceros in a single battle should have been the limit for a Gillian-level Menos Grande. If it wanted to fire more, then either its Spiritual Power was naturally higher than that of other Hollows, or it was not far from advancing to Adjuchas and its Spiritual Power had increased greatly.

The Gillian Wien had been pursuing clearly belonged to the former category. After firing its third Cero, the speed at which it gathered the fourth had visibly slowed. The opposing Gillian happened to be in the same situation.

"Two evenly matched Gillians?" Wien's pupils contracted slightly beneath his mask. "In that case, there's no point in watching any longer." He slowly gathered his Spiritual Power. After the fifth Cero was fired, Wien charged forward in a single bound. Before the smoke from the Cero explosion had cleared, he leaped into the air, chained Shadowless Strike into Shatter Slash, and struck the other Gillian's mask with all his might. Its previous strength spent and fresh strength yet to come, the Gillian was at its weakest, allowing Wien, who had long been gathering power, to land his blow.

The Gillian's mask burst apart, and its will-o'-the-wisp-like pupils vanished completely. Its body, dozens of meters tall, crashed to the ground, and its mask disappeared the moment it fell.

Woo... awooooo!!!!

Seeing the enemy fall, the Gillian Wien had been following let out a furious roar, then continued forward. As it passed the other Gillian's corpse, it crouched down and swallowed the body, whose Spiritual Power had yet to dissipate, one mouthful at a time.

"Mm... I'll just keep following you like this for now." More than two hundred meters away, Wien held two pieces of a shattered mask and put them into his mouth bit by bit, chewing as he went. "I hope you really are Nel."