Nel's Return

Cero Doble!

The sight before Wien rekindled the red glow in his eyes with hope of survival. He could feel that Nel's Spiritual Pressure had definitely reached the Pseudo-Adjuchas level. Although she still fell somewhat short of Riate, she had an absolute advantage: Cero Doble!

The pink Cero shot straight at Riate. At a distance of less than thirty meters, he had nowhere to dodge, and the sudden counterattack caught him completely off guard.

The Cero, several times hotter than his own, struck him directly. Its searing heat began to burn Riate's body. In just one attack, the Cero severely injured him.

It had to be said that Nel's counterattack had come at just the right moment. First, Wien had depleted some of Riate's Spiritual Pressure. Second, Wien's dying state had greatly lowered Riate's guard. Third, Wien's provocation had robbed Riate of his calm.

Thus, after Riate fired a Cero in anger, Nel's Cero Doble achieved a spectacular result.

Take his life while he's down! That was one of the fighting tricks Wien had taught Nel. She had never dared forget it. So, the instant Cero Doble ended, a double-ended spear appeared between her hands.

"Lanzador Verde!" Her soft, childlike voice now carried a hint of anger and coldness. Trailing a ribbon of pink Spiritual Pressure, the silver-glinting spear flew toward its target before the dust raised by the Cero had even settled.

Wien heard a muffled thud as the spear pierced flesh, followed immediately by Riate's howling scream. But the scream abruptly cut off.

A second Jade Spear had quickly appeared in Nel's hand, and she threw it toward the source of the sound.

A finishing blow!

Nel's decisiveness in killing left Wien slightly stunned, but he soon came to terms with it. Many Hollows did undergo slight changes in temperament after evolving. In a sense, though, what Nel had done was also closely connected to him.

After all, Wien had personally taught Nel some of her killing techniques and principles.

What Wien didn't know was that Nel had attacked this way entirely because she had sensed his weak Spiritual Pressure and knew he was in imminent danger.

Under those circumstances, Nel's brain had worked as if electrified, coming up with a way to respond.

Kindness and compassion were certainly not meant for enemies.

Nel had only one way to deal with an enemy who wanted to kill her Lord Wien.

Kill!

"Phew... I'm saved." Feeling Riate's Spiritual Pressure gradually disappear, Wien, lying on the ground, let go of the last of his tension and exhaled deeply. He fell back onto the ground, facing the sky.

A hero rescuing a beauty, just like in a novel—he hadn't expected it to happen to him. Oh, no, it was a beauty rescuing the hero.

"Is this my reward for doing good?" Having relaxed, Wien gazed at the dim yellow sky and let out a long sigh. Even the pain of his severed arm seemed to lessen a little at that moment.

"Lord Wien, are you all right?" With the battle over, Nel, who had long since finished evolving, turned and ran toward Wien. With his human head and antelope body, he circled Wien, seemingly checking his injuries. Her soft voice was full of concern.

"Ah, I'm fine." Wien struggled into a sitting position and leaned against a tree. Even with only half his body, Wien, a Gillian over ten meters tall, still towered over Nel, who was less than two meters tall. He reached out and stroked her head with his large hand, the gesture looking perfectly natural. "Thanks to you, Nel, I survived. Thank you."

"Hehehe." Seeing that Wien was all right and hearing him praise her so, Nel lowered her head and giggled shyly.

Although her mask hid her face, Wien could still sense Nel's delight. It seemed that after evolving, Nel no longer hid her emotions from him as she had before. "Lord Wien, let me treat your wounds first."

With that, Nel went to Wien's severed arm, extended her tongue from beneath her mask, and began licking the wound. With every glistening trace, the burns on his stump healed a little more. It seemed her healing ability had also grown stronger with her evolution. In less than five minutes, Wien's stump had completely healed, though unfortunately, no new limb grew.

"All right, Nel, that's enough." Reaching out with his intact hand, Wien gently patted her head. "Nel, you seem to have become very strong after evolving."

"Mm, the Pseudo-Adjuchas level is worlds apart from the previous ranks. My strength, skills, senses, and even intelligence have all improved. Compared to those mindless Hollow beasts that evolve, the increase in intelligence we naturally conscious Hollow beasts gain from evolution seems much more pronounced."

"Mm, that's good." With that, Wien stood up. "Let's leave this place first. We can talk at length afterward."

Wien knew this forest was still the Lord of the Forest North's territory, so they shouldn't linger. Without time to ask more questions, he urged Nel to leave quickly. Even though Nel had now become an adjuchas, she was no match for so many Pseudo-Adjuchas and Gillians. Their best course was to leave as quickly as possible.

"Yes, my lord." Nel nodded her antelope head, then ran off. Less than a quarter of an hour later, she returned, carrying a huge piece of mask in her mouth. It was Riate's mask.

"Heh, I'd forgotten. You can dispose of the evidence too." Taking the mask, Wien stuffed it into his mouth to replenish the Spiritual Pressure he had expended.

"Lord Wien, where are we going now?" Nel asked, looking up.

"Let's leave this forest first," Wien said. "It's no longer safe for us here. With Riate dead, I believe the Hollows in the entire forest's core will be our enemies. We'll leave now and decide what to do afterward."

"Yes, my lord."

"Oh, right, Nel, can your Super Acceleration carry a body as big as mine?" Wien made a quick calculation and realized that at his own speed, the Lord of the Forest North's minions would catch up and surround him before he could run out of the forest. But if they used Nel's Super Acceleration, his body was so big...

"Um... probably not." Nel shook her head. "You only have one arm left now, Lord Wien. If I used Super Acceleration, you might not be able to hold on to me at all and would be flung away."

"Is that so?" Wien fell silent for a moment, seemingly thinking of another way to escape quickly.

"But, Lord Wien, it seems we can escape another way." With that, Nel raised a finger and tapped lightly in the air. In an instant, a black rift opened in midair like a gaping mouth.

"A... a Garganta?" Wien's eyes widened. Of course, after evolving to the Pseudo-Adjuchas level, Nel had a chance of learning to open a Garganta. "Haha, Nel, you really have given me so many surprises."

Nel didn't say much in response to Wien's praise, but her tail wagged nonstop behind her. She seemed to be enjoying the compliment immensely.

"In that case, we have a clear destination." A sliver of red light appeared in Wien's eyes beneath his armor-like mask. "Nel, connect the Garganta to the middle of Hueco Mundo. We're going to the Forest of Menos at the center!"

A Garganta was a special passage that could connect different dimensions. Traveling through one allowed passage between worlds. For example, a Hollow had to use a Garganta to reach Soul Society or the human world. The same was true for Hueco Mundo's outer and inner regions. A Garganta could not only tear open dimensional space, but also shorten travel time. For instance, a journey that would have originally taken Wien and Nel a year could now be completed in just one month.

The only drawback was that opening and closing a Garganta took some time. Otherwise, it could have served as a lifesaving skill.

As they traveled through the Garganta, Wien asked Nel about her advancement to the Pseudo-Adjuchas level, such as the summons from the Forest of Menos that she had felt when advancing to Gillian, and her understanding of her abilities after reaching the Pseudo-Adjuchas level. Nel's answers, however, surprised him.

Nel had been asleep for most of her advancement to the Pseudo-Adjuchas level. When she completed it, an understanding of her own characteristics and abilities had already been imprinted in her mind. Even her fighting skills and intelligence had improved.

When advancing to Gillian, however, Nel had received only a basic understanding of the summons and the rules. She had not conversed with the Forest of Menos as Wien had. On that point, Wien kept his own experience hidden and did not share it with Nel.

Perhaps Nel didn't learn more because she lost consciousness while advancing?

The thought flashed through Wien's mind, but he paid it no attention.

At this stage, thinking so much was useless. Only when that set of events truly arrived and he faced it himself would he be able to understand it.

After entering the Garganta, Wien and Nel continued on their way. Time worked differently in the Garganta from the outside world, and even the injury to Wien's arm had not recovered very well.

"Lord Wien, we've been walking through the Garganta for days. Should we go out for some air and find some food?" The days of travel had left Nel a little bored. They also hadn't eaten for days. She didn't mind that herself, but she was more worried about Wien beside her.

Wien hadn't eaten since devouring Riate's mask several days ago. Without a supply of energy, the growth and recovery of his severed arm had slowed, and there was also the distorted time inside the Garganta. With his injury persisting for so long, Nel feared it would cause him irreversible harm.

"Good idea. It's already been several days. We've come so far that those bugs can't possibly catch up now." After thinking it over, Wien agreed with Nel.

His severed arm did need to recover as soon as possible. Moreover, Wien could feel that if he didn't properly adjust and compress his Spiritual Pressure, he wouldn't be far from advancing. He needed to get his body into peak condition so he could compress and condense it properly.

With Wien's agreement, Nel eagerly opened the Garganta and jumped out with him.

Outside the Garganta, the world was still a dim yellow, but compared with the darkness inside, it was much better. At least they could feel the flow of Reishi here, whereas the Reishi inside the Garganta felt somewhat sluggish.

After leaving the Garganta, Nel quickly sensed a small forest, which became her and Wien's first stop to rest.

A group of low-ranking Hollow beasts was no match for a Gillian and an adjuchas. As soon as the two entered the forest's core, the High-Level Hollows inside began fleeing in all directions.

Perhaps they were still thinking, Where the fuck did these big shots come from, picking on kids like us?

Nel, however, gave them no chance to escape. After a few trips back and forth using Sonído, she had several High-Level Hollow masks in her mouth.

After handing them to Wien, Nel used Soul Suck to devour all the weaker Hollow beasts nearby. Although Nel disliked killing, with Wien in his current condition, she was in no mood to worry about so much and went straight to sweeping the area.

Although Nel was already a Pseudo-Adjuchas Menos Grande, almost among the strongest in the outer region, she also needed to maintain her own condition while Wien was in poor shape. Only by keeping her Spiritual Power plentiful at all times could she better protect him.

In the small forest, dozens of High-Level Hollows, hundreds of mid-level Hollows, and countless low-ranking Hollows were completely devoured by the two in moments. Only after clearing out the forest's core did Nel cut down several large trees and make a simple enclosure where she and Wien could lie down and rest, giving him a relatively comfortable environment in which to recover from his injuries.

Time slowly passed, and a day slipped by in the blink of an eye. A small section of Wien's severed arm had actually begun to grow back, about a few centimeters long.

"It's only been a day, and a little has already grown back?" Wien was somewhat surprised as he looked at his severed arm. Did he also possess a talent for regeneration stronger than the normal ability?

Regeneration was actually an ability Hollows possessed by nature.

Apart from their masks and brains, Hollows could regenerate their bodies, limbs, tentacles, skeletons, horns, and even their eyes and internal organs, as long as they had abundant Spiritual Power and a safe environment.

However, ordinary Hollow beasts did not regenerate limbs quickly. Wien's speed of regrowing a small section of arm in a day was already fairly fast among Gillians. An ordinary Gillian would need at least two or three years to recover a severed arm.

At this rate, Wien's arm would be restored to its original state in a few more months. With sufficient Spiritual Power, he believed it could recover even faster.

Judging by speed, this should be a medium-rate regenerative ability, still far short of rapid regeneration and High-Speed Regeneration.

After all, rapid regeneration occurred visibly to the naked eye, while High-Speed Regeneration could regrow a severed arm in an instant!

However, as he advanced and his Spiritual Pressure increased, this regenerative skill could potentially evolve again with the rise in his Spiritual Power.

That was good news for Wien. If he advanced to adjuchas or even the later stage of Vasto Lorde, he believed this regenerative ability would become one of his trump cards in the future.