"I can't take it anymore!"
Sōgo Shihoin clutched his head, looking miserable.
"What's wrong, Sōgo?"
With her mouth stuffed full of spicy strips, Lilynette asked Sōgo Shihoin between chews.
"Light! Light!"
"I haven't seen sunlight in over a year."
Sōgo Shihoin pointed at the sky. Hueco Mundo had no daytime, which meant he had spent the past year living in darkness, and a year was already his limit.
"So what are you going to do?"
Lilynette asked Sōgo Shihoin in confusion.
"Making a sun sounds like too much trouble. Let's ask Szayelaporro!"
Sōgo Shihoin thought for a while but couldn't figure out how to solve his problem. As the saying went, when in doubt, ask Szayelaporro. So Sōgo Shihoin would ask the clever Szayelaporro for a solution.
"But Szayelaporro seems really busy lately. He hasn't come to see us at all recently, so... should we wait for him to come to us? Or go straight to Baraggan's territory to find him?"
Lilynette asked Sōgo Shihoin.
"Let's go find him!"
"I can't wait any longer. Oh, right, do you know the way?"
Sōgo Shihoin stood up from the sand dune, brushed the sand off himself, and asked Lilynette.
"Hmm..."
Lilynette's eyes were blank as she kept shoveling spicy strips into her mouth.
"All right! You don't have to say anything. I get it."
Sōgo Shihoin shook his head helplessly. From the look of her, she clearly didn't know the way either.
"Seriously, Szayelaporro always came to see us. It just hit me that we don't even have a way to contact him."
Sōgo Shihoin said helplessly.
"Excuse me, my lord, are you looking for Baraggan?"
Just as Sōgo Shihoin was feeling troubled, a cool voice came from behind him.
"Oh?" Sōgo turned at the voice. A flicker of delighted surprise crossed his eyes when he saw the figure behind him. "You're Little Shark!"
"Little Shark?"
Lilynette tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"Little Shark?"
Tier Harribel tilted her head, equally confused.
"She's the one I told you about last time-the fourth Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande I've seen in Hueco Mundo!"
With easy familiarity, Sōgo patted Tier Harribel's armored shoulder and introduced her to Lilynette.
"Hello! My name is Tier Harribel!"
Tier Harribel nodded respectfully to Lilynette, a trace of curiosity flashing in her eyes. She could sense that the woman before her was a Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande like herself, but unlike her, this Menos Grande wore no terrifying mask over her face.
"My name is Lilynette. Are you a Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande too? You're a pretty girl! I don't think I've seen you before... If only I'd met you sooner, maybe I could have escaped loneliness earlier..."
Lilynette nodded gently to Tier Harribel, then kept talking. With that, the two were acquainted.
"Little Shark, did you say you knew the way to that Las-something palace? I heard the king of Hueco Mundo lives there. His name's something-gan, I think? Actually, a friend of mine lives there too. I happen to need to contact him right now, but I can't find the way there!"
Sōgo Shihoin explained to Tier Harribel, looking troubled.
"I do. I can take you there."
Looking at Sōgo Shihoin right in front of her, Tier Harribel felt slightly moved, but perhaps because of her nature, she still had little to say.
To be precise, few Menos Grande were talkative. A Menos Grande like Lilynette, who kept finding things to talk about whenever she met someone she wanted to converse with, might have been an oddity in all of Hueco Mundo.
"Great! Once we find Szayelaporro, I'll treat you to hot pot!"
Sōgo Shihoin thanked Tier Harribel.
"Mm!" Tier Harribel's eyes lit up, and she nodded lightly before turning to lead the way. "Follow me!"
"Huh?" The taciturn Tier Harribel left Sōgo Shihoin puzzled. He wondered whether he had said something wrong. After thinking for a while without figuring it out, Sōgo lightly patted Lilynette beside him. "Keep up. We're heading out."
"Okay! I've wanted to visit the place where Baraggan lives for ages anyway."
A flash of excitement crossed Lilynette's eyes. Playing Menos Grande Bowling all day had grown boring, and she wanted a more exciting game.
Three figures flickered across the desert, heading straight for Las Noches, where Baraggan Louisenbairn, the king of Hueco Mundo, resided.
The distinctive Spiritual Pressure of Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande, along with Sōgo's terrifying Spiritual Pressure that made hearts tremble, left the Adjuchas-class Menos Grande only daring to watch from afar, not daring to take a single step closer.
"Hahaha... two Vasto Lordes, plus that unfathomable White Devil. Looks like upheaval is coming to Hueco Mundo!"
A Menos Grande who was clearly different from the other Adjuchas, his body transforming toward a higher level, watched the advancing trio with a grin.
"Looks like we need to start preparing too. It won't be safe here much longer."
Several other Adjuchas beside him spoke helplessly. They were all victims of Sōgo Shihoin. Originally Adjuchas from other regions who had no intention of submitting to Baraggan, they had been forced into Baraggan's territory because Sōgo hunted everywhere, and had undergone a life-and-death struggle. The downside was that they had become Baraggan's nominal subordinates. The upside was that they had survived and become considerably stronger than before.
Las Noches in its most primitive state.
At the residence of Baraggan, the king of Hueco Mundo-a collection of crumbling walls and ruins-the great Baraggan Louisenbairn was resting inside a hall that did not even have a roof.
Whoom!!
Immediately afterward, he sensed three terrifying, unfamiliar sources of Spiritual Pressure.
"Hmm!? This Spiritual Pressure..."
"Hahaha... good! Very good! I was already doing you a favor by not coming after you, and you actually dare come looking for trouble with me?!"
Baraggan slowly rose from his seat, powerful Spiritual Pressure surging from his body. That Spiritual Pressure, clearly stronger than that of an ordinary Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande, left the Adjuchas inside the palace not even daring to breathe loudly.
Elsewhere...
"This is bad! This is bad!" Inside his laboratory, Szayelaporro's forehead was covered in cold sweat. "Could my secret research on Soul Reapers have been exposed? Impossible! Who sold me out?"
As Szayelaporro perceived it, Sōgo Shihoin had clearly learned that he had gone to Soul Society and slaughtered an entire division of Soul Reapers, and had therefore come charging over with two Vasto Lordes.
"I'm going to die! I'm going to die!"
Szayelaporro clutched his head in distress. He wasn't afraid of death at all, but he feared he would be unable to help Sōgo Shihoin solve the problem of restricting his Spiritual Pressure before dying. He also feared dying like this before he had even come close to becoming a perfect life-form. That was something he could not accept.
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(End of chapter)