An unexpected invitation

After his battle with Grimmjow, Wien enjoyed a brief period of peace.

In this trapped area of his forest, there were no longer any Hollows that could threaten Wien as Grimmjow had.

Because he had laid so many traps and lures, a large proportion of Hollows coming from outside chose to enter the forest through the area Wien had created. As time went on, the entire forest began to grow restless.

With Wien monopolizing so much of the food supply, the high-level Hollows in the forest's other areas began killing one another.

Of course, quite a few high-level Hollows also entered Wien's territory, attempting to devour the source of the trouble.

Unfortunately for them, faced with endless traps and Wien's overwhelming strength, they either returned empty-handed and injured or were killed and eaten instead.

Yes, not long after his battle with Grimmjow, Wien had accumulated enough spiritual power to evolve from an Elite Hollow into a Low Rank High-Level Hollow. Perhaps because he had hunted plenty of prey over a long period, his spiritual power had increased nearly tenfold when he advanced.

The horny layer that once covered Wien had evolved completely into a hard layer of bone. It was as though he had put on a thick suit of armor, yet this equipment did not hinder his movements in the slightest.

The bone blade on his right claw had not grown longer; instead, it had become shorter and more flexible. Its edge, however, was a hundred times sharper than before. With his current strength, Wien was confident that if he faced Grimmjow as he had been back then, he would be certain to sever his tail with a single slash.

Not long after advancing to a high-level Hollow, Wien had gained spiritual power skills of his own. It was as if these techniques had been deeply engraved in his mind during the dormant period of his advancement.

Shatter Slash: Concentrated spiritual power in the right claw and launched a series of lightning-fast attacks at the enemy. With Wien's current spiritual power, he could use it three times in succession without exceeding what his body could endure.

Shadowless Strike: Raised the right claw, infused the entire body with spiritual power, and rushed at the enemy at high speed with a piercing attack.

This move was not only devastating, but could also use its momentum to drive back enemies in front of him. It was a good technique for creating distance in a fight.

Shadowless Strike was also a moving attack. Once Wien infused his entire body with spiritual power, the move carried him at ten times his normal speed. If used for movement, he could cross a hundred meters in a flash, making it almost usable as Flash Step. On the other hand, it consumed a fair amount of spiritual power, and he could only move forward.

Still, as Wien's spiritual power increased, the move surely had plenty of room to evolve.

Lightning Strike: Consumed most of his spiritual power to unleash a wide-area spiritual pressure attack on enemies within ten meters.

It was similar to Grimmjow's Pantera's Claw, but covered a wider area. With his current spiritual pressure, Wien could probably use it only once before he had to flee and find somewhere to rest.

If he tried to use it a second time, Wien would probably collapse from exhaustion on the spot. Still, a wide-area attack like this would only be used to clear the field and would hardly ever be needed in a one-on-one fight.

Normally, high-level Hollows (giant Hollows) still relied on their own traits to fight in close combat or use sonic and mental attacks.

The skills they gained were more often used to kill an enemy in a single blow. After all, the spiritual pressure of high-level Hollows was still too low.

A Gillian's Cero could sweep away a whole group of high-level Hollows, to say nothing of Elite Hollows and ordinary Hollows. As long as a Gillian used Soul Suck, none of the Elite or ordinary Hollows within dozens of meters could hope to escape.

After evolving into a high-level Hollow, the spiritual power within Wien grew rapidly. The immense spiritual pressure caused his body to exceed five meters at once. For Wien, his former height of less than two meters had been easy enough to control, but now his body was nearly five meters tall.

Honestly, this body was very inconvenient for him. He could no longer even stand on the branches he had once been able to climb onto.

"I need to find a way to shed all this extra bulk first." With that in mind, Wien began making plans.

He had to solve this problem before beginning another round of hunting. But no matter how he adjusted his spiritual pressure, he could not change his size. Then, three days later, an opportunity presented itself.

That day, Wien was beneath a large tree, digesting the mask of a Hollow he had just killed, while thinking about how to deal with his enormous, nearly five-meter-tall body.

Suddenly, a bizarre howl pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked toward the sound and saw a massive, monstrous Mutant Hollow, roughly two meters taller than himself. It had four thick lower limbs and a large, muscular upper body resembling a human's, much like a half-dragon from the games of his previous life.

Its lower body was covered in a white horny layer, while its upper body was the color of its own flesh. It looked very strange. Wien had just prepared to fight when the high-level Hollow spoke.

"Are you the ruler of this area of the forest?" Rather than attack at once, the half-dragon Hollow spoke first.

"...Who are you?" Wien did not dare relax in the slightest in the face of this outsider who had arrived unnoticed. The spiritual pressure the other party gave off made it clear that he had been a high-level Hollow for a long time.

"I'm a member of the core region deep in this forest. My name is Lephas Linst. And yours?"

"Wien."

"Wien? What a strange name." Refas was puzzled for a moment, and Wien gave it some thought as well. It was true that the name Wien sounded a little out of place in this world. Such an unusual name was easy to remember, and that was no good for him. So after a brief moment of thought, Wien spoke again.

"That's short for my full name, Ace Wien."

"Oh? I see." Refas accepted the name readily. The new name seemed more in keeping with the style of Hueco Mundo.

"In that case, I'll still call you Wien." Refas thought for a moment and continued, "I didn't come looking for you today to fight or devour you. I came to ask you to work with us."

"Work with you?" Wien was a little surprised. But he had also learned something: in the core region of this forest, there were high-level Hollows intelligent enough to understand cooperation, and there seemed to be quite a few of them.

"Yes, work with us," Refas said mildly. "Don't worry. We found you because we detected the spiritual pressure you released when you advanced. You've evolved from an Elite Hollow into a high-level Hollow, and with your abilities, you're qualified to join us. As long as you join, we can overlook the effects you've caused up to now."

Overlook them? You want to learn my hunting methods, don't you? Wien's thoughts raced. At the same time, he asked, "...Is there a Hollow named Grimmjow among your members?"

"Grimmjow? Never heard of him." Refas thought for a moment, then said to Wien, "Let me show you my sincerity first." As he spoke, Refas reached out and tossed two masks over. "These are a gift for our first meeting."

Wien caught the masks and sensed their spiritual pressure. They were the masks of two high-level Hollows. Although they too were Low Rank High-Level Hollows, the two masks were a great supplement for him at his current level.

That was also enough to prove Refas's sincerity. After all, if they wanted to kill Wien, they only needed to send a few Hollows of the same level as Refas. Even if they could not kill him, they would have no trouble driving him out of the forest.

Having sensed Refas's sincerity, Wien promptly stuffed the masks into his mouth. After absorbing them, he opened his eyes and looked at him. "What is it? Just say it."

"Heh, you really are direct." Refas narrowed his eyes beneath his mask.

"The fact is, we noticed you as soon as you entered our forest. But back then, you were too weak to be worth our attention.

"But as time passed, we noticed that the spiritual pressure of many lower-ranking Hollows, as well as that of outsiders, was disappearing one by one in your area. Meanwhile, your spiritual pressure kept growing stronger.

"Some time ago, when you were still an elite Hollow, you fought a high-level Hollow from outside, didn't you? Oh, was the spiritual pressure of that high-level Hollow the Grimmjow you mentioned?"

Refas asked Wien, but received no answer. He did not seem inclined to wait for one, however, and continued.

"What surprised us was that you, an elite Hollow, managed to drive off a high-level Hollow whose spiritual pressure was several times greater than yours. That was what drew our attention to you. Then, not long ago, Inora detected another advance in your spiritual pressure and suggested that I come find you. Oh, Minora has the strongest detection abilities among us."

"So?"

"So we thought you must be extremely intelligent. That should be very beneficial to our hunting, which is why we hoped you would join us."

Hearing this, Wien stared fixedly at Falles, but found no flaw in his words. "From your description, I'd say your group is the strongest force in the entire forest. Since you're already the strongest, hunting in this forest shouldn't be difficult at all. So why come looking for me?"

"It seems you still don't trust me," Refas said with a chuckle. "But that's all right. I expected as much. Fine, I'll tell you. But you'll have to listen while we walk, because we don't have much time."

Wien considered his situation. Ever since he had entered the forest, his every move had been watched, yet the other party had not come to trouble him all this time. And when one of them finally arrived, it was to discuss cooperation.

If his enemies wanted to destroy him, there was no need for them to go to such lengths and take such a roundabout approach. Besides, even if he ventured deep into that barren land, with Wien's current abilities, escaping from dozens of Hollows should not be too difficult. That is, unless he encountered several High-Level Hollows at their peak.

Refas's sincerity had also been clear. After weighing his options, Wien nodded and followed Refas.

"Here's what happened," Refas explained along the way.

"Our group has eighteen Hollows in total. All of our spiritual pressure is at the level of high-level Hollows. In the core region, we hunt the high-level Hollows that come in from outside as a group.

"When we encounter intelligent Hollows, we assess their abilities. If they would be useful, we try to persuade them to join us. If they're too weak or too strong, we join forces to tear them apart and share their corpses.

"But not long ago, our strongest companion, Mirot Zakrod, seemed to show faint signs of breaking past the high-level Hollow stage. Before long, his spiritual power began to run wild, and his thoughts grew confused.

"In that situation, he realized he was in danger, because in the state he was in, there was a good chance all of us could join forces to bring him down and devour him.

"So, not long afterward, he betrayed us and killed four of our members.

"But our combined attacks finally injured him. Badly wounded, Mirot fled our area, hurriedly tearing the masks off two of the four corpses.

"But if he digests those two Hollows' masks, Mirot may well become a Gillian in one leap. If that happens, every Hollow in this forest will be in danger. And given Mirot's personality, if he remains conscious, he'll very likely take revenge on us. When that happens, none of us will survive."

"What does that have to do with me? This is extremely dangerous. If it fails, I could end up getting myself killed. What makes you so sure I'll take part in this fight?" Wien asked coldly, though he continued to follow Falles.

Although this could very well put Wien face-to-face with a Gillian, if there really were more than a dozen high-level Hollows on their side, there was still a good chance they could take down a newly advanced Gillian by working together.

After all, evolving into a Gillian could also cause a loss of consciousness. Judging from what Refas had just said, the Hollow named Mirot had already shown signs of confused thinking before advancing. If he really became an unconscious Gillian, their chances of taking him down would increase greatly.

"Because we lack a Hollow who can lead us out of this crisis." Refas spoke his mind.

"We don't know whether Mirot can actually evolve. If he doesn't, this fight will be much easier. But if he does evolve, we'll have no leader and be scattered and disorganized. Everyone will die.

"So we need a Hollow who can lead us to victory in this fight and direct us. While we were busy deciding whom to choose, Minora thought of you and sent me to take a look.

"Although you're still very weak, when I entered your area and saw the surroundings here, I thought that even I might not be able to get out of the area you've set up unharmed.

"So I believe that while your strength may not be the greatest yet, your intelligence can certainly help us through this crisis."

"Refas is right." The moment Refas finished speaking, a somewhat rough voice sounded beside Wien's ear. Immediately afterward, dozens of powerful waves of spiritual pressure came from all directions.