Queen's Teeth
Those twisted and frenzied lines were transforming Jerome's body, further enhancing his already exaggerated muscles. His thick arms shifted his center of gravity forward, making him look more and more like a gorilla when he was on all fours.
Holes of varying sizes appeared between Jerome's muscles, covering his entire body. The winds of Hueco Mundo swept over Jerome's body, producing a series of whistling sounds.
An invisible sonic armor adhered to Jerome's body, meaning that from now on, Jerome could unleash the power of the Saint Letters the Roar without opening his mouth to shout; every movement he made was the Roar.
Jerome's physical transformation was less a modification and more an evolution!
As Jerome's body evolved, in the World of the Living, within the enclosed space created by Urahara Kisuke, he was manipulating Red Princess to peel away threads, invisible to the naked eye, from Liltotto's back.
"What are these?"
Upon touching these threads, which were barely visible to the naked eye, Urahara Kisuke immediately understood what they were. These weren't threads at all; they were nerves deeply embedded within the body!
"Did you take them all out?" Liltotto asked as she slowly closed her clothes. She had Urahara Kisuke to help her remove the nerve threads from her body.
"Why are there nerves in your body that don't belong to you?" Urahara Kisuke asked seriously. He could sense that these nerves contained Activation Reishi that did not belong to Liltotto.
"Before the operation began, all members of the Sternritter were forcibly implanted with these nerves—no, not all of them, except for Pernida, Gerard, and Lille Barro."
Based on Liltotto's words, Urahara Kisuke immediately began his analysis. These parts without implanted nerves were all components of the Soul King, meaning they were on the same level as the Soul King?
The thought flashed through Urahara Kisuke's mind, "There's a Sternritter who fights using his nerves."
"These things came from Pernida?"
Hearing Urahara Kisuke's words, Liltotto looked at him with surprise, "Your information is quite something. These are the things that were born from Pernida's body. According to Haschwalth, they can allow our power to evolve further."
Evolution, yes, Urahara Kisuke immediately understood why Yhwach would make such a decision. With his the Almighty abilities, it was impossible for him not to know that the Gotei 13 was no longer the force it once was.
How could Yhwach possibly allow his Quincy war directly against the Three Worlds? The nerve threads extracted from Liltotto were Yhwach's backup plan for the Sternritter.
The King of Soul King ' left hand represents progress, while his right hand symbolizes stillness.
As the Soul King's left hand, Pernida's true power lies in evolution. Implanting Pernida's nerve threads into Quincy's bodies allows them to evolve in a short period of time, gaining even greater power.
"Then, what's the price?" Urahara Kisuke asked, knowing that power obtained through external means could not be without a cost.
Liltotto was silent for a moment, "I don't know, but I've seen those Quincy who were experimented on by Pernida. They all became zombies without self-awareness, only able to launch attacks on the enemy based on nerve control."
This is what Liltotto was willing to ask Urahara Kisuke, a complete stranger, to remove; she didn't want to become a slave to power in the process of evolution.
Back on the battlefield between Halibel and Jerome, after being forcibly controlled by Pernida's evolutionary power, Jerome had become a monster with an open mouth and holes all over his body, constantly emitting whimpering sounds that shook the surrounding sand.
Although Jerome's grinning face made him seem a bit dim-witted, he still possessed basic awareness and was able to control his evolved body.
This is why Yhwach wanted to keep the Sternritter members. Compared to other Quincy, the Sternritter members had stronger bodies and were better able to withstand the side effects of purification.
The moment the transformation was complete, Jerome charged towards Halibel. The violent roars emanating from the hollows around his body coalesced into a nearly solid ape maw around him, its ferocious fangs snapping at Halibel.
Halibel held her greatsword before her, the waterspout of the Cascada Waterfall swirling around her, about to collide with the gorilla's gaping maw.
Who would have thought that Jerome, empowered by Pernida's evolutionary power, unleashed the Roar far stronger than before. Previously, Jerome only had his throat as a source of sound, but now Jerome entire body was a source of the Roar power.
The waterspout shattered upon contact, and in that instant, Halibel was forced to retreat. Unfortunately, her greatsword was still caught in the crossfire, bitten in two by the gorilla head formed by the shockwave.
Looking at the remaining teeth marks on the greatsword, and at Jerome who had used his full sonic power to completely shatter half of the greatsword, Halibel had to admit that she had underestimated her opponent.
"Without your Zanpakuto, you are no longer a threat!" Despite not seeming very bright, Jerome's words were still quite clear.
"If it's a Bleach, perhaps." Halibel tossed aside the greatsword in her hand without a care. "The Arrancar's Resurrección has already Zanpakuto to itself; the blade is merely an external object!"
Jerome understood that Halibel didn't intend to give up the fight, but he didn't care; it would just be a matter of spending a little more time explaining.
Jerome suddenly opened his mouth wide, and his entire body the Roar violently. This the Roar, carrying the momentum of destruction, rushed towards Halibel, and the fan-shaped radiation range blocked Halibel's escape space to the greatest extent.
However, Jerome was wrong. Halibel never intended to escape. A bright yellow spiritual pressure flashed from below her abdomen, and within this light was a black sphere.
By disguising the Hogyoku, Urahara Kisuke had already handed over these inferior Hogyoku to several capable Arrancar during the past year, and they had correspondingly gained even greater power.
"Hogyoku, fuse!"
Halibel said coldly, Hogyoku emitted a bright yellow spiritual pressure that filled her empty void. The moment her heart was satisfied, Halibel's power underwent a qualitative change.
The sonic attack was completely unable to shake the increasingly intense yellow spiritual pressure. Bathed in the spiritual pressure, Halibel's yellow hair turned silver-white, and her white bone armor transformed into black sharkskin-like armor, with gill-like yellow decorations on it.
A long, narrow black fish tail appeared behind Halibel, adorned with fins made of yellow spiritual pressure.
A black, circular object appeared before Halibel. The moment she reached inside, her spiritual pressure materialized into sharp, triangular blades. These triangular blades circled around her, eventually assembling one by one, connected by her spiritual pressure, into Halibel's new, formidable blade.
"The Queen's Teeth." The silver-haired Halibel looked even colder. After coldly announcing her power, she swung the tooth-shaped sword in her hand, breaking through Jerome's attack with a single strike.
A sharp triangular beam of light flashed by, and Jerome was just a hair's breadth away from being beheaded by Halibel had just completed her transformation.
Jerome, who usually seemed rather dim-witted, suddenly became somewhat clear-headed. How could he not detect a single flaw in Halibel?
Hollows and Hollow Hole always coexist. The existence of Hollow Hole means that void beings are flawed, but at this moment, Halibel gives Jerome the feeling of a complete being without any flaws.
After only a moment of hesitation, Pernida's ability to move forward once again propelled him to attack Halibel. As he charged forward with his Hirenkyaku, a whooshing sound emanated from his entire body, and a gorilla-shaped sonic armor enveloped him.
This is Jerome after his entire body can make sounds, making him virtually flawless in battle.
Halibel remained unfazed, her eyes narrowing slightly as she was surrounded by rings of triangular teeth, a mere buff she was applying to herself; it wasn't like she couldn't do it.
Driven by Jerome's spiritual pressure, the nearly solidified black gorilla threw a punch at Halibel. Halibel raised her sword to block, and in that instant, all the sharp teeth around her body coiled around the gorilla.
Standing a little further away, it was like a chimpanzee being attacked by a group of yellow, bloodthirsty sharks; each movement of their sharp teeth tore through Jerome's defenses. In just a few breaths, the triangular teeth had already reached near Jerome's body.
A deep voice sounded, Jerome instantly changed his tone, using his sound field to envelop himself like a tortoise shell, trying to defend against Halibel's attack.
"It's no use; sharks remember the scent of their prey's blood!"
Jerome looked up and saw Halibel already above him, her toothed sword raised high, countless blades swirling around her. When her momentum reached its peak, all the blades merged together, and Halibel swung down fiercely.
"End this, Queen's Teeth!"
The toothed sword in his hand, tens of meters long, instantly transformed into a sharp whip, with all its sharp teeth swarming out. In that instant, Jerome seemed to see a swarm of sharks rushing towards him.
Jerome hurriedly strengthened his body's defenses, unleashing his the Roar with reckless abandon. However, the sharks released by Halibel seemed to be drawn to the scent of blood, always finding weaknesses in his sonic defenses. Their swarms of attacks quickly broke through Jerome's sonic field.
The Queen's Teeth were arranged neatly, all piercing through Jerome's abdomen, then looping around and passing through the back of Jerome's neck before returning to Halibel's hand.
After these two frenzied bites, Jerome was completely reduced to pieces, and even Pernida's nerves couldn't save him, since Pernida herself wasn't present.
After retracting all the fangs, Halibel coldly swung the fangs once more, stirring up the remaining spiritual pressure on Jerome and swirling it into nothingness with the vortex-like water blades.
Jerome was wounded twice, once in the abdomen and once in the throat, in the same areas that Halibel had previously injured. These were the Queen's Teeth; once she found the slightest opening, she would forever remember the source of the bloodshed and tear her enemy to shreds.