Gran Rey Cero

Wien's advancement came naturally. Ever since he evolved into an Adjuchas, he had been using Jekain's position in the Forest of Menos to plunder resources.

When he ate meat, his subordinates naturally got a share of the soup.

Unlike other territories, Wien had carefully planned the distribution of Gillians within his own territory.

Wien found and communicated with every Gillian that possessed consciousness. Those who refused to submit or harbored ulterior motives were eliminated by Wien early on.

Those Gillians without consciousness all became food for the Pseudo-Adjuchas. This allowed Wien to consolidate resources to the greatest extent possible, preventing a Pseudo-Adjuchas from suddenly emerging within the territory and disrupting its existing ecosystem.

As for the lower Hollows that had not even reached the Gillian stage, Wien set aside an area for those with consciousness. He then placed unconscious Hollow Beasts and even Gillians inside for them to train their combat awareness and hunt to improve themselves, before allowing them to advance according to how developed their Intelligence was.

If one successfully advanced into a conscious Gillian, he would let it continue hunting. If it accidentally became an unconscious Gillian, he would make it food.

Of course, there were also quite a few Hollows with special abilities among them.

Some had sensory abilities, some had healing abilities, and others could help build up the territory. If any of these Hollows lost consciousness at the Gillian stage, Wien would specifically assign a Pseudo-Adjuchas to cultivate it with special care until it broke through to the Pseudo-Adjuchas stage and regained consciousness.

They would then see Wien again, and he would decide whether to let them join based on their Intelligence, their ultimate abilities, and their willingness to submit.

Those who refused or resisted had no chance to open a Garganta and leave or head to the Inner Circle. Wien and the others would kill them on the spot and divide them up to eat, ensuring they left no trouble behind.

No matter what the situation in Hueco Mundo's Inner Circle was now, Wien would start in the Forest of Menos and cultivate a force to accompany him to Hueco Mundo in the future.

Wien was a combat-oriented Menos Grande himself, so unlike other lords, he did not have to keep only non-combat-oriented Hollow Beasts compatible with him to strengthen his centralized control.

In the Central Forest, Wien treated all types of Hollow Beasts equally. He had only two requirements: loyalty and sufficient ability. As long as they met both, Wien would spare no effort in cultivating them.

Once Wien's elite approach brought about a qualitative change, the so-called Holy War would be nothing more than child's play.

No matter how many Gillians pressed forward then, Wien's side would need only a handful of Pseudo-Adjuchas to annihilate them all. When that time came, what reason would Wien have to lose a war between Pseudo-Adjuchas?

"My king, I sense seven Pseudo-Adjuchas Spiritual Pressures heading toward us. Three of them have already reached Mid Rank."

Beside Jekain, an Adjuchas with bat wings and a head like an ant's spoke up. This was the Hollow Beast with the strongest senses in Wien's force at present.

Wien had brought him along on this surprise attack precisely to rely on him to identify the enemy's location.

"Seven?" Wien looked off into the distance.

"Take to the air and see if there are any natural caves nearby."

"Yes!"

The Hollows acknowledged the order, and all the Hollow Beasts immediately used Sonído to rise into the air.

"My lord, over there." Nel spotted a mountain range far to the north. Even if there were no natural caves, it would be enough for Wien to go over and make one on the spot.

"Let's go take a look." Wien led everyone in the direction Nel had pointed.

After roughly three quarters of an hour, Wien reached the foot of the mountain. Luckily, there was a natural cave here.

Ordering everyone to wait where they were, Wien suppressed his Spiritual Pressure, concealed himself, and flashed straight into the cave. After checking its depth and whether there was any danger, he led the others inside.

The cave was fairly spacious, occupying roughly a third of the entire mountain. There was room to use both Sonído and Cero here. It was a good base.

But considering the destructive power of Pseudo-Adjuchas, unless it was reinforced with special Spiritual Power materials from Hollow Beasts, a few dozen Ceros would probably bury it.

"Nel, just stand here and don't move. I'm going to buy... ahem. I'm going outside to lie in wait and counterkill them."

"My lord, is there anything I need to do?" Nel was already used to Wien suddenly saying strange things.

"Work with Jekain here to lock down space and kill the enemy. At the same time, if they fire a Cero inside, use Cero Doble to blast it back."

"All right, my lord." Nel never resisted Wien's orders, because the tasks he assigned were basically all ones she was fully capable of handling. For those she could not handle, Wien would communicate with her using code words they had agreed on, so they could arrange the next stage of the plan.

"Jekain, if there are three Pseudo-Adjuchas or fewer, you deal with them. If there are more than three, just hold them off. I'll deal with the remaining enemies outside and make a two-sided cheese sandwich."

"Yes, my king." Jekain had likewise grown used to Wien's strange words.

With that, Wien vanished before everyone, having gone outside the cave to prepare an ambush.

"Lady Nel, how should we deal with the enemy? Do we need to hide in ambush?"

After Wien left, Jekain began questioning Nel, the second person in charge here.

In Jekain's eyes, rather than seeing Nel as Wien's subordinate, it was more accurate to say she was Wien's partner. So Jekain always showed Nel respect for two reasons: one was Wien, and the other was his respect for the strong.

Even though Hollows did not have the complex emotions humans did.

But those with intelligence would eventually develop.

"Hmm... Lord Wien told me to stay here and not move, so let's use me as bait. If they use Cero, I'll counterattack. If it's close combat, you can come out of hiding, lock down space, and fight them." Nel lightly tapped her cheek with a finger in thought, though it was over her mask, and spoke after considering it.

"Yes." Jekain nodded, then took the sensory bat Hollow away from Nel and hid.

After roughly two or three hours, the seven pursuing Hollows arrived at the cave. Wien, concealed in the shadows, could already see them and could even hear them talking.

"This is the place." A Hollow Beast among the seven that closely resembled a giant hunting dog sniffed the ground.

"This is the last trace of Spiritual Pressure they left. They're in the cave."

"Are they resting?" a Mutant Hollow beside him asked.

"I don't know, but anyone who could take out Xiuji and the other two in an instant is no small fry. Watch out for a trick."

"Are we going in?"

"Why don't we guard this place and go back for reinforcements?"

"No. Our master gave us such an important task. If we went back for help, wouldn't we become a laughingstock?" A Mid Rank Pseudo-Adjuchas who was evidently their leader immediately rejected the idea, then waved a hand and picked four Menos Grande.

"Go scout ahead first. All four of you, go together and be careful."

After receiving the order, the four Pseudo-Adjuchas Menos Grande—three Low Rank and one Mid Rank—slowly slipped into the cave.

Wien made a quick calculation of the time while raising his finger. An extremely well-concealed Cero had already begun charging and compressing.

According to rumor, Hollow Beasts at the Pseudo-Adjuchas stage and above could master an ability that surpassed Cero: Gran Rey Cero.

It was a blast several times more powerful than a Cero. However, not many Hollows could master this ability. Even now, Wien had not mastered it since advancing to Adjuchas.

It was not that he had failed to master it; rather, Wien had not yet fully developed it.

By compressing his own Spiritual Pressure, the current Wien could likewise fire a blast several times more powerful than a Cero.

By comparison, if an ordinary Gillian's Cero had a power level of 1–2, an Initial Pseudo-Adjuchas's Cero would be around 5–10, while a Mid Rank's could reach 15 or higher. A Gran Rey Cero's value should hover between 60 and 100. But what about Wien? At his current stage, his compressed, charged Cero had already exceeded 50 at the very least.

This left Wien confused. Did the kind of Cero he used actually count as a Gran Rey Cero?

The charged Cero he currently used was much more powerful, but it could not cause spatial distortion.

Wien himself also wondered whether, because he possessed the spatial attribute, his Cero could maintain spatial stability and reduce the Spiritual Power consumed in breaking and distorting space.

But all along, Wien still believed that the charged Cero he used was not the so-called Gran Rey Cero. After all, this kind of charged Cero took a long time to gather. Without the aid of his Concealment attribute, whether Wien could hit an enemy with it was still unknown.

So he kept experimenting, continuously compressing Spiritual Pressure and charging it. He hoped that one day his Cero could break through the qualitative structure of a Cero, reach a power level a hundred times greater than a Gillian's Cero, and truly become a Gran Rey Cero.

Using his Concealment attribute, Wien gathered and compressed the Cero bit by bit. The instant he sensed a fluctuation of Spiritual Pressure inside the cave, he fired the invisible, colorless Cero, which had almost no Spiritual Pressure fluctuations, at the three Pseudo-Adjuchas outside.

Boom!!!

A tremendous explosion rang out as all three Pseudo-Adjuchas took the long-charged Cero at once.

One Initial Pseudo-Adjuchas was reduced to nothing on the spot. The other two Mid Ranks were both injured.

"Damn, I didn't control the power properly." Wien looked at the finger that had just fired the Cero and made a self-deprecating remark. He had intended to kill the Low Rank outright rather than blast it into nothingness, but now he had lost a Pseudo-Adjuchas's Spiritual Pressure that he could have devoured.

"Tsk, tsk. What a waste of resources."

"Th-this Spiritual Pressure is terrifying."

"How did he do it?" The two severely injured Pseudo-Adjuchas looked utterly incredulous.

How had they taken a Cero without reacting at all? And a Cero with power comparable to a King Hollow Cero, at that.

"Information is a good thing. Unfortunately, you never had it." Wien smiled faintly and raised his left hand. Pale Gold Spiritual Power gathered, and the Rift-Splitting Greatsword appeared in his hand.

"Damn it! Escape into the cave!" The two surviving Menos Grande used Sonído to flee into the cave, hoping to join their teammates and counterattack together.

But how could Wien, with his innate spatial ability, give them such a chance? Two steps of Void Flash brought him up to the enemies, and he immediately followed with a Shadowless Strike Flash that pinned one Pseudo-Adjuchas to the wall. The greatsword pierced through its chest, spraying a great deal of blood across the wall.

That was not all. Wien also raised his right hand and released a Space-Bending Cero almost against the other Pseudo-Adjuchas's mask, blasting it to pieces.

"I controlled the power that time." Wien's voice was as calm as ever. He pulled out the greatsword and swung it at the other Pseudo-Adjuchas's neck.

The power of space drove the blade's Spiritual Pressure. Just like that, the Adjuchas, who was the same Mid Rank as Wien, was effortlessly beheaded with one stroke.

"H-how can you be so strong?" The Pseudo-Adjuchas with his chest pierced was filled with despair. He had never imagined that, despite also being a Mid Rank Pseudo-Adjuchas, he would be beaten without the slightest ability to fight back.

"Who knows?" Wien turned to look at the dying Pseudo-Adjuchas. He shook his head, raised his hand, and brought the sword down on his neck. The Mid Rank Pseudo-Adjuchas's Hierro offered no protection at all, and another enormous head flew into the air.

After pulling the masks off the two corpses and stuffing them into his mouth, Wien finally headed deeper into the cave. Four more portions of high-quality food were waiting for him to harvest there.