Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow

Terrifying monsters emerged one after another from the cracks, falling onto roads, fields, and villages.

"This is bad! A massive group of Hollows is attacking!"

Upon hearing the Hollows' cries, some people in the villages and fields looked up at the sky, their expressions changing drastically.

"Everyone, run! Disaster is upon us!"

The moment the Hollows were discovered, some villagers began organizing the others into an orderly evacuation.

The escape routes they led the villagers along stayed far away from the Hollows that had landed on the ground. Even if those Hollows wanted to feed, it would take them some time.

Then, blue Reishi Arrows shot out from every corner of the villages and fields, attacking the Hollows that had descended upon the settlements.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

The Hollows that had fallen from the Gargantas of Hueco Mundo were slain by the Reishi Arrows. However, perhaps because the liquid in Urahara Kisuke's glass bottle had worked too well, a great number of Hollows emerged from the Gargantas of Hueco Mundo.

There were even several medium-sized Hollows, in addition to the most ordinary fodder Hollows and small Hollows.

The most numerous fodder Hollows would basically dissolve into black smoke after being struck by one or two Reishi Arrows.

Unless the mask on a small Hollow's head was hit, it would take roughly seven or eight Reishi Arrows to kill it.

Medium-sized Hollows were beings comparable to elite Soul Reapers.

The stronger ones could even rival Seat Officers.

They were extremely fast, and ordinary Quincy arrows could not hit them.

They trampled one large pit after another into the fields as they raced toward the most densely populated areas...

"These Quincy are so weak..."

In the forest, Ailin watched the battle ahead and could not help shaking his head as he compared them to the Quincy in his memories.

The number of Hollows drawn here by Urahara Kisuke's medicine was about the same as when Uryu Ishida had wanted to compete with Ichigo Kurosaki in Ailin's memories.

Their strength was also not far off.

Yet this group's performance was not even as good as Uryu Ishida's alone back then.

Even though Uryu Ishida's fingers had split and bled from repeatedly drawing his bow, that many Hollows had never posed a true threat to him.

Though these Quincy were more numerous, not a single one among them could compare to Uryu Ishida when he had first appeared.

Many of them even had wavering phantoms of bows in their hands, as if they would collapse the next moment.

It seemed that the battle between the Light Empire and the Soul Society more than nine hundred years ago had truly wiped out the Quincy elite.

Those left behind in the Human World were merely insignificant Quincy. After nearly a thousand years, their inheritance had all but been severed.

As several medium-sized Hollows dodged countless arrows and charged toward the crowd, Ailin placed his hand on the Zanpakuto at his waist.

But the next instant, a hand pressed down on the back of Ailin's hand, stopping him from drawing his sword.

"Captain Ailin, before we begin our operation, please do not rashly expose our position."

Ailin looked at Jūshirō Ukitake, whose eyes were fixed seriously on him. After a few seconds of silence, he pulled Jūshirō Ukitake's hand away and smiled. "Don't worry, Captain Ukitake. If I make a move, I definitely won't let the Quincy notice."

Ailin did not know how to evaluate Jūshirō Ukitake.

He was kind, gentle, honest, and loved peace. He treated Soul Reapers and humans equally, and was just as gentle toward members of other divisions as he was toward his own.

These everyday actions made Jūshirō Ukitake seem like the model of a harmlessly nice man.

Yet when it came to "a man's dignity," he valued it even more than his life.

This could be seen in how he had stopped Rukia from saving Kaien.

Furthermore, Jūshirō Ukitake had both proposed and implemented the plan to use the Substitute Badge to monitor Substitute Shinigami.

The proposal stated that if a Substitute Shinigami ever did anything to rebel against the Soul Society, they were to be eliminated without exception!

Just look at the only two Substitute Shinigami—what kind of people were they?

Ginjo Kugo and Ichigo Kurosaki. Both possessed the powers of a Soul Reaper, a Hollow, and Fullbring. Both had the potential to become the Spirit King.

Through the ability of Divine Divination, Jūshirō Ukitake had discovered this and designated the two as Soul King Candidates. Should anything happen to the Spirit King and cause the Three Realms to collapse, Ginjo Kugo and Ichigo Kurosaki could, through a series of methods, become the new Spirit King and stabilize the Three Realms.

From this point alone, Jūshirō Ukitake, like the later Urahara Kisuke, was a hardliner who could sacrifice everything for the Seireitei.

Ailin felt that he could be friends with people like that, but he could not confide in them.

Because Ailin did not know whether, one day in the future, the two might also regard him as a Soul King Candidate.

In any case, Ailin neither wished to become someone as selfless as the Spirit King, sacrificing himself for the world without resistance, nor did he wish to become a "wedge" like Yhwach, forcibly made to stabilize the Three Realms.

After Ailin was delayed by Jūshirō Ukitake, the fastest medium-sized Hollow in the village had nearly caught up to the group ahead of it.

Just as Ailin was about to act—

"Whoosh!"

A sharp arrow flashed through the air and pierced straight through the medium-sized Hollow.

The next moment, equally sharp arrows swiftly killed the other medium-sized Hollows.

"Quick! Gather around me!"

An elderly man with a white beard held a bow shaped like a spiderweb. After flashing several times, he arrived atop the tallest roof in the village and shouted loudly.

When Ailin saw the bow in the old man's hand, he released his grip on his Zanpakuto.

He recognized that form of bow.

It was the advanced form a Quincy could transform their bow into only after reaching a certain level of strength—Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow!

In Ailin's memories from his previous life, Uryu Ishida's bow had only taken that form when he entered Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue.

At that time, Uryu Ishida had possessed power at least on the level of a Vice-Captain.

Since this elderly Quincy possessed the same bow, his strength was likely no weaker than Uryu Ishida had been then.

With the old man here, even if there were several times more Hollows, they would pose no threat to this village.

This elderly Quincy must have held great prestige in the village. Upon hearing his words, the villagers both inside and outside the settlement ignored whether there were still Hollows in their path and swarmed toward him.

Once everyone had gathered around him, the powerful Quincy drew back his bowstring. Powerful reishi formed blue Reishi Arrows in his hand.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Countless Reishi Arrows burst forth from the old man's Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow like a torrential downpour. As he moved his bow, they wiped out every Hollow before him.

Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow was a bow only advanced Quincy could master. It could fire more than a thousand arrows per second.