Dozens of Gillian appeared, along with hordes of Ragged Hollows. They filled the sky, blotting out even the moonlight.
"What... what are those things?"
Even Rei was stunned this time. The Hollow from earlier had been huge, but it was nowhere near the size of these creatures, which looked as though they wore Soul Reaper coats.
"Menos Grande, lower-level Menos Grande—gillian. Wasn't there supposed to be only one? How are there so many? Looks like this is going to be another war... Everyone, retreat! Get out of here!"
Niino's back was soaked with cold sweat, but he steadied himself and roared at the residents to retreat.
"Retreat! Everyone, get out of here!"
Rei came to his senses too and began ordering his men stationed there to fall back, but it was too late. Tens of thousands of Ragged Hollows swooped down on the town.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
At the same time in Seireitei, the sound of wooden clappers rang out in every corner of the court.
If Rei had been there to hear it, he would surely have felt nostalgic. It was the call the tofu sellers in his hometown had used to gather customers when he was a child.
Obviously, no one was selling tofu here. The clappers were meant to wake every Soul Reaper, while messengers were also sent to order the captains to assemble.
"I heard a horde of Menos Grande is invading. That's something you hardly see once in a hundred years!"
"Then what was that Hollow horde not long ago?"
"Maybe it was the vanguard!"
The captains arrived quickly. The first few to reach the meeting began discussing the incident, and soon everyone had assembled.
In the First Division's meeting room, Captain-level Soul Reapers stood in two rows. At the head of the room stood a bald old man, so old that he needed a cane, yet he was the one in charge: the Soul Reapers' Captain-Commander, Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai!
Tap, tap, tap!
The Captain-Commander struck the floor with his cane, signaling everyone to be quiet. It was time to get down to business.
"An invasion of Menos Grande has been detected in West District 67. The 11th Division will deploy as the main assault force. The Third and Fifth Divisions will rescue the souls in Rukongai. The Fourth Division will prepare to provide treatment. The other divisions will stand ready to respond. That is all."
"Yes, sir!"
The Captain-Commander wasted no words, assigning the tasks and the divisions to be deployed. Three captains stepped forward in acknowledgment, then each departed with Shunpo.
At this time, the captaincy of the 11th Division had only passed to the seventh Kenpachi, and the captains of the Third and Fifth Divisions were not characters who appeared in the later story, either.
Of the current captains, the one most recently appointed was the seventh Kenpachi, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, though he had already held the post for over a hundred years.
District 67 of Rukongai was so far away that even Captain-level Soul Reapers would take a long time to reach it with Shunpo. But thanks to the Kidō Corps, Kidō could be used to transport the main force to a nearby area.
The Kidō Corps was not to be underestimated. By combining their Kidō, its members could not only transport people but also move everything within a designated area in its entirety.
The strongest Great Kidō Chief, Tessai Tsukabishi, could even move an entire area and stop time by himself.
In less than ten minutes after the Hollows descended on West Fallen Silver Town, the more than ten thousand souls there were almost all dead or wounded. Screams, curses, sobs, and the roars of Hollows all mingled together.
Severed limbs lay everywhere, and the blood of those torn apart ran across the ground. Soon, not even the limbs would remain: smaller Hollows were picking at the leftovers of the main fighting force.
The gillian-class Menos Grande did not spare the place a glance. Driven onward by higher-level Hollows, they headed straight for the next district.
Rei and his companions were surrounded by the horde. His men kept swinging their blades in counterattack, but it still could not change their fate.
Niino was still there too. As a Squad Member, he had long since learned to release his earth-type Zanpakuto. Unfortunately, his strongest move merely raised a dozen or so two-meter-tall stone pillars from the ground to impale the Hollows. His Reiryoku was limited, and he soon ran out of strength...
"No matter how many I kill, there's no end to them. Damn it!"
Rei cut down another Hollow. In just ten minutes, he had killed more than thirty, both large and small.
"Hold on a little longer. Reinforcements will be here soon..."
Niino himself did not believe his own words. Before help arrived, they would probably all be in the Hollows' bellies.
Rei wanted to say something else, but a Hollow interrupted him, extending a tentacle to pierce him. Rei dodged and sliced its mask apart.
The Hollows had nearly wiped out the Fallen Silver Group, the only ones able to fight back. Not counting those elsewhere, only a dozen or so of the sixty to seventy men stationed here remained alive, and they had been cut off and scattered.
"AAAH!"
"Hey, Zhuye!"
A scream rang out. Zhuye, who had once searched everywhere for opponents for Rei, died a grisly death. At Rei's side, only the terrified Maki and the nearly exhausted Niino remained.
"Yamabi, don't give up... Bastards, die!"
More than ten meters away, Genji watched helplessly as a Hollow dragged away the close friend who had been with him for years after Yamabi ran out of strength.
"Where's Lord Nangong? Please, come save me!"
"Don't be stupid. He won't survive either..."
"We're done for. It doesn't matter who comes now, urgh, aaah!"
Rei could hear the screams around him. He swung his blade with all his might, trying to save them, but no matter what he did, he could not cut through the Hollows surrounding him.
Damn it, is this because I provoked those monsters? I even dreamed I'd become Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13...
Rei roared inwardly. He had reached his limit; even the Ragged Hollows he used to kill with a single stroke could now block his attacks.
Yamabi was dead, Zhuye was dead, and even Genji, who had shown Rei some kindness, had just lost his life. There were no more screams in the world, only the roars of Hollows.
All the Hollows closed in. Maki was nearly caught by a claw, but Rei saved him. Maki had long since been too frightened to make a sound, and only tears streamed down his face.
Niino, however, was not so lucky. Several tentacles seized him and dragged him into the horde.
Is the Soul Reaper dead too? Damn it...
Rei's eyes widened as Niino was bitten in half before him. The Hollows fought over the pieces of his body and devoured them in seconds.
Dozens of terrifying masks began closing in around Rei. The blood of the Hollows and his men still stained his clothes, not yet dry.
"ROAR!"
A five-meter-tall Hollow that looked like a crab attacked first. Afraid of being left behind, the others rushed in after it. Maki closed his eyes in despair...
"Haha, then come on!"
Rei laughed wildly as he swung his blade one last time, but his hand trembled slightly, and fear filled his heart. Is this the end? So I'm afraid of dying too. When I really face death, I'm powerless too, but... at least I tried!
His trembling blade naturally could not cut through the crab Hollow, but just as it reached out with a massive pincer, time seemed to stop around Rei...
The scene shifted. Rei was no longer surrounded by Hollows; he had been pulled into his inner world.
"Hey, have you learned what this feels like? Only a fight on the brink of life and death deserves to be called a battle. What you did before was nothing but children playing house."
An arrogant voice rang out, and the man who had always hidden in the red mist appeared.
Rei turned to look. The man had red hair, a bright red coat, and glowing red eyes. If not for the golden six-pointed star pattern on his face, he would have looked exactly like Rei.
"Are you... my Zanpakuto? You bastard... Tell me your name, quick."
"Let go of me first. And my name isn't 'bastard.' I've been telling you my name all along. Who can you blame if you couldn't hear it?"
Rei had rushed forward as soon as he realized who the man was, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him back and forth. The manifested Zanpakuto broke free and berated him.
"Anyway, let's give it everything we've got... If it's still not enough, we'll die here..."
Rei calmed down. Even if he released his Zanpakuto, he did not know whether he could survive. All he could do was give it everything he had.
"Don't underestimate my power. Let's kill every last one of them together. Listen carefully this time. My name is..."
The Zanpakuto delayed no longer and spoke his name...
As the Zanpakuto's voice faded, time and space returned to normal, and the crab Hollow's massive pincer was still snapping toward him.
At that moment, Rei suddenly drew back his blade to block, moving too quickly for the Hollows to see. A burst of red Reiatsu erupted from him, driving back the Hollows closing in to attack.
"Slaughter on a whim—Blood Drink!"
As Rei's cold voice faded, an even greater surge of Reiatsu erupted from the Zanpakuto, and its blade began to transform into a greatsword.
The Zanpakuto became a straight, double-edged sword, dark red from end to end. Four white blood grooves ran along the blade, two on each face beside the central ridge. The blade was 1.2 meters long and a full 20 centimeters wide.
The hilt was 40 centimeters long. The six-pointed star on the guard grew larger, its points sharpening, and a chain extended from the end of the hilt and coiled around Rei's arm to keep him from losing his grip.
Blade and hilt together measured just over 1.6 meters, nearly as tall as Rei was now.
Rei had no time to examine the greatsword after it appeared. He simply swung it in a half-circle around himself, and the Sword Aura formed from his Reiatsu instantly killed more than a dozen nearby Hollows.
The unfortunate Maki had also been blown away by the Reiatsu. He fell into the horde, and as claws reached for him, Rei arrived and severed six of them with one stroke, sending Hollow blood flying.
But as the Hollows' blood was about to fall to the ground, a suction force came from Blood Drink, drawing it into the blood grooves on the blade. When Rei swung again, the range of his attack was noticeably greater.
The instant he released it, Rei had understood Blood Drink's ability: it absorbed the Reishi in his enemies' blood to increase his attack power and heal his own injuries.
When the blood grooves were filled, Rei's Reiatsu, already strengthened by Shikai, would double again.
This ability allowed Rei, its wielder, to grow stronger the longer he fought. Its only weakness was that if his own Reiatsu was too low, he could not maintain Shikai for long, especially at full power after the blood grooves were filled.
What an incredible feeling! The more I kill, the happier I get, and the more I kill, the stronger I become. Haha...
"Hahahaha! Die! All of you, die!"
As Rei cut and killed, his heart, which had grown heavy from the deaths of his companions, gradually filled with delight.
He slaughtered the Hollows around Maki, the only subordinate left from the Fallen Silver Group. Blood Drink's grooves were already full, and not a single lesser Hollow could withstand a blow from Rei.
In Maki's eyes, Rei's figure began to seem larger. It was the first time anyone had protected him like this, and he could not help clenching his fists...
The weaker Ragged Hollows began to feel fear instinctively, while the stronger ones remained fearless. Hollows over ten meters tall kept closing in.
Rei had long since killed more than a thousand Hollows. He had maintained Shikai for ten minutes, his Reiatsu was nearing its limit, and dark circles had appeared under his eyes.