Rei charged alone toward the distant rocky mountain, Blood Drink over his shoulder. Numerous powerful Reiatsu still emanated from there, all at the Adjuchas level.
More than twenty Adjuchas remained at the rocky mountain. After discussing the matter, they had decided to resist the invader to the death. They summoned over a hundred Gillians, who fired their Ceros at the invader in unison...
"What a sight! Over a hundred Gillians firing Ceros at once."
"Do you think he'll kick the bucket?"
"Forget it. Someone who could catch our Ceros barehanded can't possibly be that weak."
"True. Gillians' Ceros are much weaker."
As Hidri and Moros talked, the distant sky was already glowing red from the Ceros. Those were Ceros from over a hundred Gillians!
While they were talking, an entirely white leopard slowly circled around behind them. As everyone knew, turning your back on a feline triggered its hunting instincts...
Rei was still slaughtering Gillians at will with his Shikai at full power. The blood filling the groove was his own, and his already formidable Reiatsu rose once more.
Whenever Rei found an opening against an Adjuchas, he would cut off its limbs or bind it with Kidō. Defeating them without breaking their masks was, he felt, genuinely difficult. One careless swing and he would cut one down.
Adjuchas who had not become Arrancar really were not all that strong. At most, they could defeat a Third Seat or Fourth Seat.
Of the Adjuchas Rei had encountered, perhaps only Garlic Zommari could defeat a lieutenant alone. The others all fell somewhat short, and even Yanis could only rely on his tail to catch opponents off guard.
By now, several knife-hand strikes had left only shallow scratches on Rei. When their Ceros hit him, they merely shredded his clothes and scorched a little hair on his arms and legs.
Of the twenty-four Adjuchas, Rei had killed three of the stronger ones and two who knew High-Speed Regeneration. He had cut off the limbs of all the others. As for controlling them with Kidō...
He would pass! Even the Great Kidō Chief would not dare claim he could control so many Adjuchas at once. Rei did not think his own Kidō was strong enough to surpass the Great Kidō Chief's.
"What's with this guy? He actually... he actually ate Mero?"
"Isn't he a Soul Reaper?"
"Could he be... a Menos Grande?"
"No, he's being controlled by a parasitic Hollow."
"Looks like our sinful lives end here."
The Adjuchas watched Rei continuously devour their companions with his left hand. They were confused for a while, until one of the more knowledgeable among them realized something.
Some Adjuchas begged for mercy, but Rei did not respond. Yanis, too, kept his head down and devoured them. They did not explain to the meat on the chopping block why they were going to eat them...
"Hmm?"
"Boss, what is it?"
"The Reiatsu I placed on them has disappeared."
"Disappeared? That means they were killed. There's another powerful Adjuchas hiding out there."
Rei suddenly sensed that the Reiatsu he had placed on his mounts had vanished, and Yanis understood what that meant as well.
There had been no major burst of Reiatsu over there. The other party was most likely a loner who had swiftly defeated Hidri and Moros in a sneak attack.
Rei chose not to go over and let Yanis keep eating here. Meanwhile, the other party was eating too. The leopard-shaped Hollow had already killed Rei's two mounts...
"Attacking a group of Adjuchas alone? What an impressive guy. Could he be a Vasto Lorde? I'll sneak over and take a look. If there's a chance..."
The white leopard with black paws was about to demonstrate firsthand what it meant for curiosity to kill the cat...
There were few clouds in the sky, and the moon lit the desert and rocky mountains as brightly as day. In this world, the moon was light.
The leopard Adjuchas slowly approached the rocky mountain, suppressing his Reiatsu to its lowest point. He walked without using Sonído or running, quietly approaching the small valley behind the mountain.
In the moonlight, a humanoid figure sat beside an Adjuchas, pressing his left hand against its mask again and again. No matter how the Adjuchas, whose limbs had been cut off, roared, it was no use.
Every time that guy presses his hand down, the Adjuchas's mask gets a little smaller. He's clearly devouring it... A Vasto Lorde? His Reiatsu really doesn't seem like it belongs to someone at that level. Better retreat!
The leopard-shaped Adjuchas realized something was wrong. The other party's Reiatsu was absurdly high, making him abandon the idea of a sneak attack from behind.
"Hey, where are you going?"
Just as the leopard-shaped Hollow was slowly backing away, Rei's voice came from behind him, making him shudder all over.
"So fast. Just who are you?"
The leopard-shaped Hollow's eyes grew grave. His opponent was clearly not the sort of trash he could casually dispose of.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You ate my two mounts. I can sense that you haven't completely digested the Reishi in their bodies yet!"
A mocking smile appeared on Rei's lips. The leopard-shaped Hollow's Reiatsu was far higher than that of an ordinary Adjuchas, but unfortunately, he was still only an Adjuchas.
"Hmph, they only have themselves to blame for being so useless. You're pretty strong, though. I... am going to eat you!"
As soon as the leopard finished speaking, he charged forward, blue light surging around his body. He raised his right forepaw, intending to smash Rei's head with a swipe.
"Tsk, tsk..."
Bang!
A derisive smile appeared on Rei's lips. An instant before the leopard's paw reached him, he used Shunpo to move to the white leopard's side and kicked him more than a hundred meters away.
"Impossible, that speed..."
Boom!
Before the leopard could recover from his shock, Rei stopped suppressing his Reiatsu and released it at full force. A pillar of Reiatsu that looked dark red beneath the white moonlight shot into the sky, and Rei pursued him at an even greater speed.
"You're courting death!"
The white leopard opened his jaws wide and charged a Cero. Like a turret, he fired the blood-red Cero, striking Rei head-on as he charged straight toward him.
The Cero exploded, filling the air with sand and dust and obscuring the view. The leopard's eyes were full of confidence. Even if that attack had not killed his opponent, it would have left him half-crippled.
Reality was cruel. The leopard looked up at the sky in shock as a pair of large feet came straight down on his forehead, the tremendous force driving his head into the sand.
The Cero had indeed hit Rei, blasting almost all the clothing off his upper body. But Rei had completely defended against the explosion's damage. Using the dust as cover, he had used Shunpo to move above the leopard's head and stomp down.
"Bakudō number sixty-three, Chain Binding!"
Rei aimed his left hand at the leopard and raised it slightly. A thick chain bound him completely, leaving him unable to move.
"Bastard, let me go! Fight me fair and square! I'm going to kill you!"
The white leopard had only just recovered from the daze of being stomped when he found himself bound by Kidō.
He tried to struggle, only for a red chain to tighten its grip on him. It extended from the hilt of the large red sword in his opponent's hand.
"Is that feline logic? I should let you go so you can kill me?"
Rei looked at him as though he were an idiot. Many Adjuchas remained silent when captured, and a few begged for mercy, but very few were still this arrogant.
"So what if you're a Vasto Lorde, bastard..."
"This guy really does have the right to talk big. His speed and strength just now were already beyond what the vast majority of Adjuchas can achieve. Given time to keep growing, he'd most likely become a Vasto Lorde."
"Your left hand talks too? Just who are you?"
The leopard had just been about to speak when the mouth on the left hand spoke instead. Its voice was completely different from Rei's, taking him by surprise.
He had thought Rei was a Menos Grande, which was why his fighting strength was so great. It seemed the situation was a little different.
Ignoring the leopard's shouting, Rei replaced the Kidō with Blood Drink's chain, tied up the leopard, and dragged him back to the rocky mountain, leaving a long trail in the sand.
"Another one to be food."
"An Adjuchas that small dared attack a monster like this? He really didn't know what was good for him."
"Hmph, an alliance of dozens of Adjuchas, and one person attacked and captured the lot of you alive. A bunch of trash."
Two of the Adjuchas lying around the rocky mountain were the talkative type, chattering nonstop. The leopard was mocked as soon as he was dragged over, and he fired back without hesitation before falling silent.
Because Rei did not find them annoying, the two kept trading insults and arguing, hoping to please him and make him show them mercy and spare their lives.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain. Both chatterboxes were ultimately devoured...
"That felt great! I can feel my power has grown quite a bit. Cero!"
Yanis casually controlled Rei's left hand, forming a red sphere of Cero at its fingertips and firing it at a massive rock at the foot of the rocky mountain. The rock instantly exploded into grains of sand and fragments.
After Yanis had been diverting Reiryoku for so long, Rei's whole being had gradually begun to change. His hand was no longer its normal color.
Instead, it looked as though it were covered by a white glove. The glove was made of the same substance as a Hollow's mask, and black, bone-like markings had appeared on the back of his hand, extending all the way to his left shoulder.
"After eating so much, that's all the power your Cero has? It's only a little stronger than this leopard's!"
"Uh, well... most of it went into transforming your left hand, making me and your left hand completely one."
After Rei made that little jab, Yanis told him what he had accomplished so far. Previously, Yanis had changed only some of the muscles in his left hand. Now he had completely changed it.
Before, Rei could immobilize his left hand by severing its tendons and dislocating its bones. Now its structure was entirely like a Hollow's, and Yanis could still move it even if the tendons were severed.
Now, whenever Rei wanted to control his left hand, Yanis could completely prevent him from doing so. He simply had no intention of rebelling... With Bankai there, Yanis had no chance of devouring Rei!
"Hey, if you're going to kill me or cut me up, get on with it! Or are you two planning something?"
His whole left hand is a Hollow? And the body holding the big sword is a Soul Reaper. They've formed something like an alliance, or a master-servant relationship...
As the leopard grew impatient, he also came to understand: these were two separate individuals who had fused and entered a symbiotic relationship.
"Yanis, are you really sure this guy has a chance of becoming a Vasto Lorde?"
Rei asked Yanis curiously. That was also why the leopard had not been killed yet.
"Yeah, most likely! A thirty percent chance!"
Rei's left hand hung naturally at his side as Yanis's voice came from his palm. "Actually, Szayelaporro said this. Adjuchas who are small after evolving from Gillians, yet have strong Reiatsu and fighting strength, have more than a thirty percent chance of becoming Vasto Lordes."
Yanis addressed the Vasto Lorde Szayelaporro by name. He no longer had any respect for him, and felt only a tiny bit of deeply buried fear toward Baraggan.
"Oh? That researcher from Hueco Mundo? Interesting. So that means he's done similar experiments?"
Rei became interested, completely ignoring the leopard roaring beside him.
"He has. Szayelaporro concluded that a Hollow's aptitude is set very early on, and that out of ten thousand Adjuchas, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety can't become Menos Grande even if they spend their entire lives trying..."
The two talked on at length while the irritable leopard beside them flew into a rage. He formed a Cero in his unsealed mouth and fired it at Rei.
After Rei dodged the Cero, the leopard shouted, "You dare trample on my dignity again and again? I, Grimmjow, will kill every last one of you!"