//------------------------------// // Episode 62: Under Her Spell // Story: Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Episode 62: Under Her Spell Nothing stood in their path as Gaw’s heavy footfalls echoed through the Forest of Menos, the gargantuan sized Adjuchas Hollow not even slowing when the occasional stalagmite clipped her shoulders. The rock pillars merely exploded into dust as Gaw proceeded headlong forward, following the faint trail of Di Roy’s scent and residual spiritual pressure. Adagio and Ember rode on Gaw’s broad, saurian back. Since Gaw seemed to know where she was going Adagio didn’t bother to tell the other Adjuchas to slow down. Besides she had no idea how much time Di Roy might have left. How much she actually cared about that was something she’d already asked herself several times, never quite reaching a satisfactory answer with herself. She told herself that rescuing Di Roy was largely about protecting an investment. She’d gone through the trouble of convincing him and Gaw to cooperate with her and that they would make useful subordinates, so it only made sense to keep them alive. Furthermore she had wanted a confrontation with the Forest of Menos’ Adjuchas tribe in the first place so she didn’t need to justify going after Di Roy beyond simply getting the fight she’d been picking. Yet neither reason sat entirely well with her, either. First of all, there was zero chance this wasn’t a trap. Their foe would be prepared for them coming. That alone meant the smart, pragmatic part of Adagio said it’d be better to just leave Di Roy to his fate and fight again another day on her own terms. Sure she’d likely lose Gaw as well, who no doubt would go on alone to try and save Di Roy, no doubt to her own doom, but Adagio imagined she could find others like them, in time, to serve her cause. After all, only fools and self-styled ‘heroes’ rushed into battles they knew they were likely to lose solely for the sake of rescuing others... Pretty much exactly like how Sunset Shimmer and her damned annoying friends had risked everything to rush to rescue her sisters from Grand Fisher’s clutches. But Adagio was no hero. She wasn’t even particularly fond of Di Roy. His antics were faintly amusing and reminded her in some slim fashion of Sonata, but that was it. So why was she so willing, even eager, to face this battle? Neither pragmatism nor any budding sense of fondness could adequately explain her willingness to throw her existence on the line against what was likely going to be dire odds. Perhaps she was simply desperate? The thought left a bad taste in her mouth, but it didn’t entirely lack a ring of truth either. Grogar, despite having supposedly cut her loose, was still manipulating her in some way, she was sure of it. She wanted to be free of him so badly, to be done with him, that any desperate gambit to gain power seemed more appealing than doing nothing. Either she’d survive this battle and become stronger for it, or she’d be destroyed. Such a do or die scenario was exactly what was supposed to trigger the evolution to an Arrancar. In the end she imagined there wasn’t any one reason for her doing this, but rather shades of all of the above. It just troubled her because she wasn’t sure how much she could afford the attachments she could feel herself forming versus just how much she feared becoming as twisted as the likes of Grogar. “Adagio, I think we’re getting close.” said Ember, breaking Adagio from her mental wanderings. The Arrancar girl pointed with her blade towards where the dark caverns of the Forest of Menos sloped into a massive bowl, like a naturally formed quarry. It spanned easily a city block in diameter, oblong in shape with a smattering of large cave entrances scattered around the circumference. Opening up her Pesquisa, Adagio could sense the blatant flaring up of literally scores, perhaps hundreds of Hollow reiatsus. The air was thick with cold, Hollow energy. And amid the various spiritual pressures she could just barely pick out the flickering flame of Di Roy’s reiatsu as well. It was weak, but not gone yet. Gazing into the huge quarry Adagio didn’t see any Hollows, but she could easily imagine they were lying in wait within the various caves dotting the area. They must lead to various tunnels and caverns further down, no doubt where Di Roy was being kept. “No doubt they’re expecting us.” Adagio said, “If we can lure them out then we can thin their numbers from up here before getting-” Before she could finish speaking Gaw turned sharply towards the edge of the quarry,  and lunged into a soaring leap that took her and her unwitting passengers sailing straight to the center of the quarry with a titanic crash that cratered the stone beneath her talons. She then sucked in a breath and let out a air shaking roar that made rocks fall loose from the quarry walls and ceiling high above. “-...surrounded.” Adagio finished with a hissing mutter, edging over the side of Gaw’s head to peer at the giant Adjuchas’ eye. “Have you  never heard of the word ‘tactics’?” Gaw snorted heavily through her nostrils, slamming her tail to the ground. Apparently no, she hadn’t heard of that particular word, and thought it sounded dumb anyway. There was a wild look in Gaw’s eyes that suggested she was at the end of her self-control. Adagio sighed, floating down from atop Gaw’s head while Ember, dryly chuckling under her breath, hopped down as well, both of them landing in front of their towering companion. “To be fair if we tried to play this your way we’d still end up fighting the same number of enemies, and be more likely to get split up in the process.” said Ember, bouncing her sword off her shoulder casually, “At least this way we can more easily stick together.” “We’re not precisely flush with options are we?” Adagio admitted ruefully, hearing the echoing howls of many Hollows rising like specters from the various cavern mouths, “We’ll see just how large our welcoming committee is soon enough. If they wish to posture and talk for a moment, let me take the lead.” “Sure, knock yourself out. You just say when, and I’ll start the murder spree.” Ember said, cracking a grin that Adagio sensed belied a hint of nervousness. Ember had to be able to feel the number of enemies they faced, just like Adagio could, and knew how high the odds were stacked against them. “Perhaps you should enter that Resurreccion form of yours now? Might intimidate them.” Adagio suggested, but Ember shook her head. “If I’m going to bust that out, I’d rather wait until they’ve got me on the ropes. The transformation alone can regenerate some wounds, so if I hold off a bit, I can get the most benefit from it in the middle of the fight instead of right now.” “Right, I’ll leave that part to you then.” Adagio said and with a deep breath put on a confident smile, “Game faces on ladies, it's time to start this show.” Hollows began to pour out from the cavern mouths surrounding the quarry in a teaming tide. Adagio didn’t bother to count their numbers, but she estimated several hundred of the lesser Hollow variety were forming a wide circle around her, Ember, and Gaw. From the largest of the cavern mouths, easily near fifty feet tall, the huge shadowy masses of Gillians emerged, rising to their full height and stamping forward in a long line of several dozen. Then, emerging from around the feet of the Gillians were forms larger than the lesser Hollows, but no less varied in shape. These were Adjuchas Hollows like Adagio and Gaw, though not a one of them came up to a third of Gaw’s immense size, and none of them were quite as small in stature as Adagio. She guessed maybe twenty Adjuchas in all made up that group, and at the head of that cluster was who Adagio guessed had to be the leader. He was an exceptionally tall and muscle bound bipedal Hollow, and the grinning jester mask on his face was locked right on Adagio. She saw he had a segmented, bony tail that extended from a turtle-like shell on his back, and coiled in that tail and held up for all to see was Di Roy’s sagging, bloody form. Adagio might have thought him dead if Di Roy didn’t manage to twitch his head up and glance at her, Gaw, and Ember with a bleeding half-grin. “Yo boss. I found the leader of the local Hollows like you wanted.” Di Roy said, “Do I get a cookie?” The burly Adjuchas holding Di Roy slammed his tail, and subsequently the half-Arrancar, into the stone with enough force to make a small crater. Di Roy grunted in pain and Gaw growled loud enough to reverberate off the quarry walls, taking a threatening step forward. Adagio held a claw up to forestall Gaw for the moment and floated forward to face the heavily muscled jester Hollow. “That’s my-” Adagio was about to say ‘minion’, but suddenly the word didn’t sound quite right and she changed it at the last second, “-vassal that you’re smacking around. I will give you one chance to release him without consequence, otherwise I’m afraid things will become unpleasant.” She had expected the laughter that rolled in from the Hollows intelligent enough to grasp humor, although Jester Face, as she’d mentally dubbed him, looked exceedingly less amused as he lifted Di Roy up in his tail again and forward enough so that the Hollow could reach up with one of his sizable fists and clasped it around Di Roy’s head. “How about I just tear this insufferable moron’s noggin’ off and punt it to you like a football? I’ve been seriously doing nothing but dream up ways to kill this annoying asshole for the whole two hours we’ve had his dumb-ass pinned to the wall. Now that you’re here, I don’t really need him as bait anymore.” As Jester Face began to apply pressure to Di Roy’s head, Adagio was quick to feign as genuine a laugh as she could, putting all of her uncaring mirth into it as she could. This caused Jester Face to pause briefly, which was all the hesitance Adagio needed to press on further, her voice marinated with cold sarcasm. “By all means provide me some entertainment, o’ Jester of Fools. Do you know nothing of what that creature you’re holding actually is?” Jester Face glanced at Di Roy, who offered nothing more than a shrug as if to say ‘don’t look at me’, and he then returned his now considerably narrow eyed gaze back to Adagio. “He just looks like a half baked Arrancar to me.” Jester Face reached to the cloth of leathers at his waist where Adagio noticed that he had Di Roy’s shark-tooth shaped Zanpaktou sheathed like a trophy, and patted the hilt. “So weak he couldn’t even use this thing like a real Arrancar could. Was thinking of splitting him from neck to navel with it, just for the irony.” “That would be even more amusing than watching you crush his head, I suppose, but the end result would still be just as... how shall we say, explosive?” Adagio said coyly, “You do realize that what you’re holding is one of Lord Grogar’s errant experiments, yes?” It made her internally gag to use the term ‘Lord’ Grogar, but she sold what she was saying with all the cool, arrogant sincerity she could muster, not giving Jester Face much time to pause and overthink her words. “Why do you think I allowed you to capture him? For fun? You’re holding living bomb.” What she was saying wasn’t entirely untrue, which was exactly what made her words carry an honest ring to them, just enough to make Jester Face hesitate and turn his attention back to Di Roy once more. Distracted, for just a brief second. In that second Adagio cast a meaningful glance at Ember, who picked up on the signal and didn’t need to be told what to do. As an Arrancar she had Sonido, which made her faster than any of the Hollows present, including Jester Face. Ember snapped from view and crossed the distance to where Jester Face held Di Roy in his tail, flickering into view with her blade already swinging. Her Zanpaktou bit through Jester Face’s tail at one of the segmented joints, causing Di Roy to drop. To Jester Face’s credit even as he bellowed in pain he reacted with swift reflexes and took a crushing swing of his fist at Ember, which she barely ducked as she caught Di Roy over her shoulder and immediately used Sonido to instantly leap back to Adagio and Gaw. “Nice move.” Adagio complemented her, “I’d hoped you’d take advantage of my distraction like that.” “I’m starting to get a feel for how you operate.” Ember said with a wink, “Way to fake that bonehead out, although I was half convinced you really were ready to just watch him off Di Roy.” “Y-yeah, real glad you were kiddin’ there, boss.” Di Roy said, his breaths pained as he clutched as his stomach. Adagio suppressed a cold shudder upon seeing the still bleeding wound in the half-Arrancar’s gut, the open gouge looking like a bloody second Hollow hole. “Can you stand?” she asked flatly, trying to keep an eye on Jester Face, who was now staring daggers at them from across the quarry. “Ugh...k-kinda? I’ll manage.” Di Roy said, forcing himself upwards, but then Gaw lowered her muzzle over him and snorted heavily on the man, forcing him back down. “Uh, Gaw?” The dinosaur-like Adjuchas made a low growl and a soft barking noise, butting him on the head with her chin with a clear message of ‘stop moving, stay down’. Di Roy glanced questioningly between the hundred foot tall Adjuchas, and Adagio, who ended up shrugging. “It appears Gaw prefers you to sit this one out. Probably for the best. It’d be a shame to go through all this trouble rescuing you only for you to expire on your own. Leave cleaning up this trash to us.” Adagio said, giving Jester Face a pointed look that parried his murderous glare. Jester Face brought his tail’s severed end up to his face and inspected it casually, “You’ve got to be one of the most delusional Hollows I’ve seen come through my Forest in a long time. You’ve got one Arrancar gal in your pocket, sure, but she’s not going to be able take all of us at once. You’re over sized lizard pal still sporting all the wounds we gave her when we took the babbling idiot, and he’s near dead already. And what else do you got to throw at us? Yourself? You look like one of the runtiest Adjuchas I’ve ever seen.” The turtle shell on his back twitched and groaned with a crack of bone, and two large, pale white spears of bone extended out from the shell, which Jester Face then took out to hold in both hands. The spears were twisted like screws, with prominent, stinger-like points. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re going to be able to do?” Adagio didn’t cower from the question, instead rising upwards with a flick of her tail fin and imperiously looking down on Jester Face and his crowd of Adjuchas’ cronies. “What I will do is offer you and any who follow you one chance to surrender and swear loyalty to me. Those who do shall be treated well and fairly, sharing in the spoils to come. Choose to oppose me, and I swear to you that you won’t leave this quarry alive.” Jester Face just stared at her for several seconds, before huffing out a disbelieving laugh, “Alright, so not delusional. Just flat out crazy. Like, padded room and straight-jacket crazy. I’d almost feel bad about what’s about to happen, only I’m really, really looking forward to biting into that smug face of yours. I’d ask your name, but truth be told, I’d forget it by the end of the day.” “How appropriate, I never even cared what your name was, Jester Face. Now are you done? Shall the killing commence?” Adagio asked in her best mind numbed bored tone, which served to clearly irritate and egg on Jester Face if the way his muscles twitched was any indication. “Music to my ears.” he said, and with a gesture of one of his bone spears he sent his small horde hurtling towards Adagio and her allies. She noted that he himself stayed behind while the rest of his minions advanced. Either he wasn’t as confident as he was putting on, or he was simply being pragmatically cautious. Far more so than she was, that was for certain. “Stick close to each other.” she told her companions, “Don’t get separated.” “No problem.” said Ember, sword raised at the ready as the horde of Hollows came rushing in. Gaw let out a challenging bellow just as the first of the lesser Hollows, whipped up into a malevolent feeding frenzy, charged in the final distance. With her colossal size and reach Gaw struck first, sweeping her tail around like a giant hammer and punishing the Hollows most eager to spring ahead of the pack. Bodies and masks shattered alike as a score of lesser Hollows were scattered like broken twigs from the tail sweep, but more piled onward regardless. Ember, not holding back with the initial onslaught, brought a crackle of red energy arcs around her left fist, forming a circle of static energy. She then started to fire out a blindingly fast series of small bullets of Hollow energy, what Adagio recognized from Ember’s descriptions as ‘Bala’. They used the same destructive energy as a Cero, but compacted and miniaturized for rapid fire shots that, while lacking Cero’s impressive force, was ideal for blasting clusters of foes or catching opponents off guard with its speed. Ember’s Bala’s fired into the oncoming horde like a machine gun, decimating a dozen lesser Hollows in mere seconds. Lacking such a technique, Adagio wasted no time floating at about Gaw’s chest height and directing her attention to the thickest cluster of Hollows, just ahead of where the score of more slowly advancing Adjuchas’ were. They were the real threat, but the lesser Hollow needed to be cleared out fast, otherwise even such weak foes would simply dog-pile on them and drag them down so their more powerful masters could easily finish Adagio and her allies off. Tapping into the deep rooted, dark place where she coiled her hatred for Grogar and carried all the pain she’d endured thus far, she easily brought out the potent Hollow reiatsu within her. Her spiritual pressure shot upwards as the siren gem suspended in the blackness of her Hollow hole pulsated with arcs of baleful red light. Her Cero discharge was a wide, devastating beam of ruby death that swept through the center of the Hollow horde like the scythe of a vengeful demoness. Easily another thirty or forty lesser Hollows were incinerated to black ash by the beam’s assault. However her Adjuchas-class foes were not so easily vanquished. Four of them at the front of the group of Adjuchas all stood shoulder to shoulder. One looked like a four winged avian with the head of a great hawk, while another bore a bulkier, hunched bipedal body with a head and mask reminiscent of a beetle. The third was a misshapen brute with arms like bony, gnarled cudgels, its head disproportionately small and shaped like a malformed human skull. The fourth Adjuchas was almost entirely covered in a bone colored cocoon with spindly legs and arms sprouting from its body, with a head and mask like some necrotic moth. These four all raised hands or similar appendages to take the brunt of Adagio’s Cero, and four Adjuchas versus the power of one the outcome was clear enough. They, together, deflected the fury of her attack upwards and away, the beam finishing by impacting the lip of the quarry's northern end, blowing chunks of stone for dozens of yards. Adagio, while frustrated, did note with some satisfaction that not only had it taken four other Adjuchas to block her Cero, but each one’s hand was smoldering somewhat with scorched marks to show for their effort. So it hadn’t just been her imagination or ego. She had been growing more powerful from all the Hollows she’d been consuming, to the point where she could match any one of these other Adjuchas and defeat them easily. Except there were twenty of them, so what elation she might have felt was tempered by the reality of the situation. Adagio didn’t have time for another Cero blast before the first of the oncoming lesser Hollows reached her companions. They came in from all sides, a slavering horde of gnashing fangs and grasping claws, all howling mindlessly for blood. Gaw’s roar pierced the air as the towering saurian Adjuchas went into a frenzy, stamping her feet like a potato masher to pulp Hollows beneath her talons. Her massive claws swept down like threshers through a field, scattering viscera, blood, and limbs alike. Yet dozens of lesser Hollows still managed to leap up on Gaw’s hide, clawing up her legs like viscous ants assaulting a spider and Gaw’s roars quickly turned pained. Ember was a blur on the ground, weaving between Gaw’s stamping feet to lure Hollows to be crushed beneath them while spinning about with her Zanpaktou slicing apart the faces of lesser Hollows in gouts of blood. She never stopped, never ceased her powerful, swift movements, like a frantic dancer at a rave. The lesser Hollows were clearly no match at all for the Arrancar girl, whose blue hair trailed like sapphire flames as she dove amidst the throng of slashing claws and punching limbs, slaying with impunity and leaving severed husks in her wake. Even Di Roy, barely able to move, still forced himself up enough to deliver a powerful punch to the face of the first Hollow that got close to him, smashing its mask entirely in the process. He shook from his wounds, but a wild eyed look was clear to see behind his own partial mask as he shouted, “Ain’t dead yet assholes, c’mon and just try to finish me off!” For Adagio’s part she had a somewhat calmer, cooler head and a better view of the situation. The lesser Hollows were being destroyed in droves, but they weren’t the real threat. They were the distraction. The expendable pawns. From her position floating over fifty feet up she could easily spot that the enemy Adjuchas, under Jester Face’s direction, were moving to surround them alongside the tall and dark forms of the Gillians that had emerged from the caves. Once they had Adagio’s group surrounded she could easily imagine they’d just Cero her and her allies into oblivion. After all, it’d be what she’d do in Jester Face’s place. Knowing she had to act quickly she immediately soared over towards Gaw and started to savagely claw and bite into the lesser Hollows trying to swarm the giant Adjuchas. She employed every natural weapon at her disposal, ripping throats out with her talons while tearing limbs off with her teeth. Her blade-like tail fin slashed like a scythe, severing some Hollows neatly in half as she flew around Gaw in a spiral, slaying dozens of Hollows in seconds. She ended her killing spree up near Gaw’s head. The towering Adjuchas was breathing hard, having already suffered wounds before the battle had even started, and taking more injuries by the moment. Each wound was small, but in time they’d mount up and bring even the hundred foot tall reptilian Hollow down. Adagio was not planning to let things reach that point. “The Gillians, Gaw! Kill the Gillians!” Gaw turned one angry eye towards her, but Adagio was quick to shout, “I’ll grab Di Roy and put him on you’re back. Now don’t argue with me and deal with the Gillians, before they encircle us!” She didn’t wait for a response, because she didn’t have time to let Gaw think of disobeying. Instead she soared downward while her siren gem started to blaze with charging power. She found Di Roy headbutting a Hollow that had started to gnaw on his arm, and as that Hollow got knocked away with a fractured face Adagio swept down and grabbed Di Roy with her tail. “What the!? Boss?” “No questions, just hang on.” Adagio commanded, discharging a lighter but still devastating Cero out in a sweeping line to clear out the lesser Hollows in front of her before flying straight back up with Di Roy still coiled up in her tail. Reaching the top of Gaw’s back she tossed Di Roy onto the Adjuchas’ broad, bony hide, and shouted, “Don’t fall off!” She then flew over to Gaw’s other side, where Ember was slowly but ferociously whittling away at the Hollow horde, and bellowed, “Ember, grab on to Gaw! We’re moving!” Ember cast a glance upwards, and immediately nodded and jumped up with a powerful leap that took her up to height of Gaw’s sides where she grabbed onto one of the Adjuchas’ bone-like armored plates. And not a moment too soon, for Gaw broke into a headlong charge for the Gillians flanking them on the right, plowing through the ranks of lesser Hollows like a toddler kicking aside piles of Legos. The Gillians instinctively sensed the threat barreling their way and many of them opened their vast mouths where the deadly and baleful spheres of bloodlight took shape. Adagio and her companions charged their own Ceros even faster. Ember, clutching to Gaw’s side with one hand, used the tip of her sword as the focus for her Cero. Gaw, not breaking stride, opened her own fanged maw where a widely circulating Cero sphere bloomed. Even Di Roy, clutching his bleeding stomach with one hand, still raised his other with a small, flickering orb of red burning in his palm. Adagio, flying alongside Gaw, built up another Cero herself, her siren gem looking like a crimson beacon. They all fired at once and a pulverizing wave of energy ripped into the Gillians just moments before they fired their own Ceros. Gillians fell, torn apart by the consuming ruby light, even as they discharged Ceros as well. Cutting ribbons of destructive energy tore towards Gaw, but the barrage that had hit the Gillians threw their aim off wildly. Some careened into the quarry walls, blasting huge chunks of rock out and showering the area with thick clouds of dust, while other Cero beams went up to detonate into the ceiling high above. Several beams did still converge towards Gaw, but despite her size the saurian Hollow was deceptively agile. She juked left and right in her headlong charge, narrowly avoiding the brunt of several Cero blasts, while her thick armored hide withstood the one or two beams that struck her. Gaw then threw her whole titanic weight into a body slam that rammed into one Gillian, then barreled it like a battering ram into several others, upon which Gaw, like the gigantic predator she was, started to tear into her prey with reckless abandon. Ember and Adagio threw themselves into the attack as well, Ember flashing towards the next Gillian in line and ramming her Zanpaktou into the huge Hollow’s mask with enough force to blast a hole straight through it. Meanwhile Adagio avoided the large, grasping hand of one Gillian, spinning in mid air and slashing with her tail to sever the Gillian’s limb, before flying up to its face and ripping with both of her talons in a rending attack that removed half of the Gillian’s face. Yet there were still more. Howling with frozen rage and hunger, the Gillians still closest to Adagio’s group stampeded inward, while dozens upon dozens of lesser Hollows swarmed behind them in the path of destruction Gaw’s charge had created. Gaw was still busy ripping apart the Gillians she’d knocked down, and would get overwhelmed in seconds by the other Gillians if something wasn’t done. Adagio saw Ember launch herself into the lesser Hollows like a bowling ball making a perfect strike through the pins, scattering them with a combination of blindingly fast swordplay and equally blazing Bala shots. This left Adagio to handle the Gillians, at least the ones closest to jumping Gaw. She soared across their field of view, letting out a piercing howl of challenge as she fired another Cero blast, raking it across the Gillians and slaying at least one in the process. This got their attention and in seconds Adagio was facing a firing line of open maws, all filling with deadly energy. The Gillian’s Ceros blanketed the air, and Adagio wove between the beams with an aquatic grace. The Gillians attention on her bought Gaw the few seconds she needed to finish the prey she’d brought down, and covered in thick streaks of steaming Hollow blood the giant dinosaur Hollow lifted her head in a earth shattering roar. Her body glowed with crimson light, and Gaw’s signature attack manifested as spikes of energy erupted from various joints on her body, turning her into a hundred foot tall cuisinart. Still distracted by trying to shoot Adagio out of the air, the remaining Gillians never saw their doom coming as Gaw, now covered head to tail in viciously cutting energy spikes, tore through them like a rabid animal. Even Adagio was briefly entranced by Gaw’s brutality as the dinosaur’s jaws ripped Gillian heads clean off with single bites and large sweeps of her tail tore through three of the Gillians at once. Yet Adagio could sense the gathering of multiple Hollow reiatsu’s nearby, and saw that the enemy Adjuchas had not been sitting idle. They now had Adagio’s group boxed in near the quarry walls, and Jester Face himself had taken up a position high on the opposite wall, and Adagio could see him aiming one of his bone spears at Gaw just as she was finishing off the last Gillian. “Gaw, get down!” Adagio shouted, flying forward. Too late. Jester Face cast his spear, and the white spur of sharp bone rocketed towards Gaw. It was a paltry looking weapon compared to Gaw’s size, yet as Adagio watched the bone spear grew more than triple in length and thickness. What was once a ten foot spear was now more than thirty feet long, and impacted with Gaw’s side with enough force to crack her armor and sink in almost halfway. Gaw let out a howl of agony, but didn’t so much as stagger before turning fully towards Jester Face and unleashing a powerful gout of Cero energy towards him. However once more a cluster of Jester Face’s loyal Adjuchas followers leaped before the attack, and much like with Adagio’s Cero they combined their efforts to block the beam of energy. The moment they did so and moved aside, Jester Face had another spear ready and hurled it into Gaw, this time sinking it into her lower chest and now Gaw did stagger backwards from the blow, yet still refused to fall. Now the other Adjuchas moved in, each one eager for the kill. Gaw, with labored breaths, set her legs stubbornly to resist, but Ember flickered into view in front of Gaw’s face. The Arrancar girl was equally coated in blood now, having devastated so many of the lesser Hollows that only a score or so remained, and all of them fleeing rather than continuing the fight. “Take a breather girl,” Ember said, shooting a brief grin at Gaw, “Let me and Adagio handle these bozos. You’ve done your part. Just focus on protecting Di Roy now.” Gaw’s face wasn’t particularly expressive behind the thick bone plates of her Hollow mask, but it was clear she still wanted to fight, but Adagio floated in beside Ember and gave an affirming nod. “She’s right. Ember and I can handle the rest of this. Conserve your strength for now.” “C’mon Gaw, listen to the boss lady.” said Di Roy, still clinging to Gaw’s back. “I don’t need you sporting more holes than I got. Takes away from my cool wounded guy image, you know?” Gaw let out a snort that clearly said what she thought of the situation, but she did back off, taking several lumbering steps back towards the quarry wall. However she did give Adagio a flat look with her gleaming yellow eyes that seemed to communicate; ”I’ll do as you say, but only to wait for an opening to strike down our prey.” That was good enough for Adagio, as long as Gaw let her and Ember take the brunt of the rest of the fight. With the lesser Hollows and Gillians out of the way, it was down to Jester Face and his pack of fellow Adjuchas. Adagio held no illusions in her head that this was going to be easy. Jester Face was chuckling darkly from his position on high, casually twirling another spear of bone in his meaty hands. His cronies had now surrounded Adagio and Ember in a semi-circle, each one of them an imposing and large figure. “Look at you, trying to keep your cool, trying to act like some brave and noble leader.” Jester Face said with a shake of his head, “Never ceases to amaze me how idiots like you survive even a day in Hueco Mundo. You rushed headlong into my turf thinking what, that you’d just overpower all of us? Bet it felt really good wasting all those trash Hollows and Gillians, didn’t it? But each and every one of them was disposable. I could gather up more of their kind in a week. If you’d been smart...” he aimed his spear at Adagio, his eyes narrowing to hateful slits, “You’d have come right for me from the start.” He cast his spear at Adagio, the weapon increasing its size in mid-flight, but she didn’t try to dodge aside. Instead, with anger flaring up in her own eyes and her lips letting out a deep throated growl, she said, “Thanks for the advice.” Her Cero thundered out from her siren gem, consuming the spear and reducing it to flaming bone shards. Then, without taking her eyes off Jester Face, she said, “Ember, can you deal with the lackeys? I believe Jester Face has invited me to a personal dance, and I’d hate for others to interfere.” Ember practically beamed with unbridled anticipation, “Leave them me. You go rip that mouthy bastard’s spine out.” Adagio was already shooting forward like a white arrow before Ember was done speaking, flying straight for where Jester Face looked on from the top of the quarry wall with a gaze of mild surprise that she was charging directly at him. “This is adorable,” he said, gesturing, “Alright guys, feel free to dogpile these morons now.” In response the gang of Adjuchas Hollows sprung into motion. Half a dozen of them used speed almost on par with the Sonido technique to leap up into Adagio’s path, brandishing a lethal array of blade-like arms, or barbed tentacles, avian claws, or simple giant crushing fists. Yet Adagio did not slow her flight, heading straight for the wall of death in her path. Not because she believed she could so easily crash through it, but because she knew she didn’t have to. Ember zipped ahead of her, flipping in the air to deliver a punishing kick to the head of one Adjuchas that had a narrow faced skull mask like some deranged anteater. It was sent hurtling downward from the blow, and Ember flowed into a spinning sword slash that cut the arm of another Adjuchas while simultaneously delivering a knee-strike to the chin of another that sent it smashing into one of its comrades with enough force to throw both into the quarry wall in an explosion of rock chunks. This cleared the way just enough for Adagio to slip through the barricade of surprised Adjuchas and make a bee-line straight for Jester Face. His look of faint surprise soon transmuted into prideful anger as he tore a fresh spear free from where it grew from the shell on his back, brandishing the weapon. Knowing that those spears could grow Adagio was able to anticipate the way Jester Face’s first thrust extended the spear toward her with sudden speed, and she dodged aside with inches to spare. “If you really think you’re Hollow enough to take me one on one, you damn guppy-” Jester Face roared, spinning his spear around to try to catch her on the backswing. She dove under the blow and then surged up towards his throat, her jaws open to try and rip it out. He got his spear in the way of her bite however, her teeth snapping onto the bony shaft of the spear with enough force to crack it nearly in half. Jester Face didn’t miss a beat, however, and rammed  a fist into her stomach, sending Adagio flying backwards with a burst of pain that would have made her cry out if she didn’t clamp her mouth shut to prevent it. “-then you’re only getting one chance to prove it.” he said with the dry, stone cold certainty of a natural born killer who knew only one Hollow was walking away from this fight. ---------- Ember lost track of Adagio once she’d cleared the way for her friend to get through to attack the Adjuchas gang’s leader. After that she was entirely too busy taking on the rest of the enemy to spare even half a glance towards Adagio’s fight. Ember just had to trust that Adagio would be able to win. She had to believe that. Landing on the ground after she’d had her brief aerial skirmish, she found herself surrounded by the hulking shadows of her many foes. Each Adjuchas was, much like the lesser Hollows they’d evolved from, as diverse in shape as they were uniform in their murderous intent. Each skull mask bore different shapes, some bulbous like a puffer fish, others oblong like someone had stretched white gum over a football and given it eye sockets, while others still were various human-like shapes. Their bodies were just as varied, with the very first one to strike at Ember being a centaur-like Hollow with a lower body like a many legged scorpion but with a humanoid upper torso with limbs ending in sharp pincers. She blocked this Hollow’s first strike with her blade, the Zanpaktou sparking off the pincer’s grasping chitin. The other pincer came in from the side, opening to reveal a small orifice within that gave Ember barely a half second to dodge before firing a stream of sickly blue-green acid at her. She avoided most of it, but got a few burning drops on her shoulder as the acid splashed across the ground where she’d been standing. Her Hierro was not as strong as her father’s, but still a hard ‘iron-skin’ that kept the acid from doing more than cause superficial pain. In retaliation she bared her fangs and let out a draconic roar and dove right into the attack, hacking at the scorpion Adjuchas with inelegant but brutally powerful two handed sword strikes. This all but butchered the Hollow in front of her, but its comrades were coming at her from all sides now and for a moment all Ember could do was focus on blocking or dodging. She flipped over a serpentine tail from a tall, slim Hollow that used its tail like a bull whip. She threw herself to the side to avoid a hunched over Hollow that rolled itself into a ball like some kind of spiked armadillo and tried to run her over. Then another Adjuchas, looking like a six armed man with a wolf-like Hollow mask let out a howl that was accompanied by a blast of cutting wind that tore gouges from the quarry floor. Ember had to block that attack with her Zanpaktou, pushed back slightly before whipping it away and retaliating with a point blank Cero blast that tore about half of the wolf Hollow’s torso apart. Yet that brief moment it took her Cero to charge allowed another Hollow, this one the bizarre cocoon shaped one with the spindly limbs, to get in behind her. Several parts of its body opened up like pulsating spinneret and suddenly gouts of moth silk burst out and wrapped around Ember. “Get your filthy crap offa me!” she snarled, using her not inconsiderable body strength to twist around and, despite being bound tightly by the cocoon shaped Hollows silk, literally used the leverage of her own body to send him flying like a tether ball into several of his comrades and bowling them all over. Then she flexed her arms and started to tear herself free, but not before the armadillo-like Adjuchas sent its rolling body bouncing straight into her. The armadillo Hollow’s body ground into her like a buzz-saw, her heels breaking into the stone floor as she was pushed backwards by the relentless roll. Then, with her eyes flashing with rage, she bit her fangs straight into the armadillo Hollow’s spinning body and stopped him dead in his tracks. She then finished tearing her arms free and proceeded to ram her Zanpaktou through the Adjuchas’ body, spearing him like a shish-kebab. She then proceeded to kick the Aducahs’ writhing body with sufficient force to crater him into one of the quarry’s far walls. His attack hadn’t left her uninjured though, as her torso bore a purpling bruise that even her Hierro couldn’t do anything about. Ember wasn’t given a second to catch her breath as more Adjuchas piled in towards her. She prepared to defend herself, but then a shadow fell over the other Adjuchas as Gaw’s form thundered in, literally having leaped from where she’d been waiting on the sidelines. Her landing impact sent several Adjuchas sprawling, and her massive jaws clamped down on the one with the serpent tail, nearly biting the Hollow in two bloody pieces. “Gaw! Hey, these are my kills! I told you to take a breather!” Ember shouted, but Gaw just gave her a look that said ’I took a breather. Now I’m killing things again. If you don't’ want kills stolen, kill faster.’ Up on Gaw’s back, Di Roy shouted, “For the record this wasn’t my idea!” Ember might have said more, but the enemy Adjuchas were fast recovering from the surprise of Gaw entering the fight once more, despite still sporting a pair of giant spears stuck into her. Howls filled the quarry as several Adjuchas either raised hands or opened their mouths to fire their Ceros point blank at Gaw. Ember used Sonido to intercept one of these Cero beams with her Zanpaktou, but a number of others smashed into Gaw’s side and sent her stumbling to the side with chunks of her armored hide blasted off. Gaw fired back with a Cero of her own, a punishing spiral beam that lashed through at least one of the Adjuchas gang, but another Adjuchas took that time to leap onto Gaw’s side, grab hold of the bone spear stuck there, and jab it in even further. At Gaw’s scream, Di Roy’s eyes bugged out and ignoring his own terrible wound he rushed to the side of Gaw’s back. “Get the hell off my dinosaur!” Di Roy shouted as he catapulted himself off of Gaw and drop-kicked the Adjuchas holding the spear. He yanked the spear out of Gaw in the process, and in mid-air spun it around and used it to impale the enemy Adjuchas through the head, impacting the ground hard enough to drive the spear through both Hollow and the stone ground beneath. However his efforts were only rewarded by yet another of the Adjuchas gang, this one a misshapen hulk with club-like limbs, rushing him from behind and smashing both gnarled limbs into Di Roy’s back. He was sent sprawling, and the Adjuchas with the club-arms stood over him with limbs raised to crush Di Roy’s skull, but Ember appeared above the Adjuchas just in time to bring her sword down hard enough to split the foe in half from skull to groin. Blood showered her and she let out a triumphant howl, but it was short lived as half a dozen Cero beams converged on her from behind. She would have used Sonido to evade, but Di Roy was still on the ground in front of her, too dazed to move. For a split moment she considered leaving him to his fate, but a combination of stubborn pride and budding camaraderie with the loudmouth idiot made her turn to face the oncoming Ceros instead. She didn’t have time to counter with a Cero of her own, so instead she braced her left hand behind her Zanpaktou and held it vertically in front of her, coiling her spiritual energy around the blade just as the Ceros hit her. The wave of explosive light split around her Zanpaktou like a raging river around a stone, but Ember could feel the energy, the combined powers of at least half a dozen Adjuchas together, burning away her Hierro. Grunting she dug her heels in and shoved back with her reiatsu, letting out a last roar of defiance as the Cero beams then engulfed her in an explosion that showered most of the quarry with rock dust. However when the dust cleared Ember was still standing, with Di Roy largely unharmed behind her. Her arms were scorched raw and red from absorbing the blast, her Zanpaktou smoking slightly, and Ember’s showed numerous other burn marks with the combined Ceros had marred her flesh. Breathing hard, sweat not dripping from her chin, Ember saw that it hadn’t just been six Adjuchas shooting at her, but most of the remaining gang. Between her, Gaw, and Di Roy’s efforts maybe a third of the Adjuchas had been killed, but the rest were now lined up against her. While she’d been saving Di Roy the other Adjuchas had ganged up upon Gaw. Ember saw the massive dinosaur Hollow laying on the ground behind the enemy Adjuchas, struggling to try to stand but now covered in so many wounds it was harder to see unmarked flesh rather than torn or lacerated hide. Di Roy wasn’t doing any better. His last efforts to help Gaw, combined with the blow he’d taken to the back, had left him nearly unconscious, just barely managing to keep his eyes open let alone stand. On top of that Ember had been expending a lot of energy in this fight, and hadn’t killed nearly enough foes to tip the scales solidly in her favor. No choice then. I was saving this for the right moment, and now’s looking like it. she thought, raising her Zanpaktou, which started to glow with a deep azure glow. However before she could release her Resurreccion she heard something off to her left, up on the quarry wall where Adagio had been fighting Jester Face. At first she was so confused by what she was hearing she didn’t register what it was, since it was so... out of place in Hueco Mundo, let alone a viscous battle between Hollows. But it was clear to hear as the ring of falling crystals shards; a melodic yet powerful and foreboding feminine voice raised in song. Adagio’s voice. ---------- Just a few minutes earlier... “Just one chance, you say?” Adagio barred her teeth in a cross between a smile and a razor sharp leer, doing her best to ignore the pain from Jester Face’s punch. “As if I needed more than one!” She came in low at him, swimming through the air in a slippery pattern to try to throw off Jester Face’s aim as he chucked another bone spear at her. The spear clipped her, drawing a painful red line down her side, but Adagio didn’t slow down. Jester Face looked at her contemptuously as he grew another spear from the shell on his back and swept it towards her, but at the last second Adagio flew upwards, her tail fin digging into the ground and cutting up chunks of rock that she then flung into Jester Face’s eyes. “Grr! Bitch!” Jester Face grunted, shielding his face and lashing out blindly with the spur of bone in his hands. Adagio flew over the attack and raked her claws over Jester Face’s chest. It was like trying to cut through steel. Jester Face might not have had an Arrancar’s Hierro iron-skin, but the sheer thickness of his muscles and hide combined with his not inconsiderable spiritual pressure hardened his body to an impressive extent. Adagio’s claws still scored bloody marks across his muscle-bound chest but not nearly as deep as she’d hoped. To make matters worse Jester Face had only been distracted by the rock dust she’d flung in his eyes for a moment, and now lashed out with a kick from one tree-trunk thick leg. Without time to dodge Adagio crossed her arms in front of her to absorb the blow, but the impact was shockingly strong, numbing her limbs and sending her shooting upwards until her pack smashed into a twenty foot wide stalagmite. Stars burst in her vision but she shook off the daze with a growl, just in time to duck Jester Face’s spear as it extended to its full thirty foot length and smashed into the stalagmite. He left the spear in there, extending two more from his shell and grabbing one in each hand as Adagio circled to his right, her siren gem blooming to ruby life. She discharged a Cero, but Jester Face leaped over the beam, arching upwards while spinning about to cast one spear and then the other in rapid succession. More spears rose from the shell on his back and Jester Face threw them one after another, forcing Adagio to weave her way around the deadly barrage until she could charge another Cero. This time she waited until Jester Face had landed from his arcing jump before firing, catching him just as his feet touched the ground and wouldn’t be able to easily dodge. However he’d anticipated this and had been charging up a Cero of his own in one broad palm, and fired his just as Adagio fired hers. The two crimson beams collided, the torrents of destructive power smashing apart an entire section of the quarry wall and causing it to collapse in an avalanche of stone. Now separated by a gap of collapsed rock, Adagio squared off with Jester Face, surrounded by a small forest of his giant bone spears that she’d evaded. Jester Face had his burly arms crossed over his still bleeding chest, eyeing the gap their combined Ceros had just blown apart. “Hmm, I’ll admit I’m surprised. You’re about as strong as I am, and I’ve been at this for centuries. But no matter your potential, you’re just too naive.” He pointed down into the quarry. Down there Adagio could see the intensity of the battle taking place, with Gaw having jumped back into the fray to support Ember. But as she watched Adagio could see Ember and Di Roy get separated from Gaw, and the way the majority of Jester’s Face’s gang of Hollows swarmed on Gaw. Adagio swore under her breath, and Jester Face chuckled. “There it is. That naive caring. You see me crying over the Gillians you killed, or any of my own gang falling to your Arrancar friend? Of course not. They’re all replaceable. Useful tools for survival, but literally nothing more. But I can see how much you give a shit about those who follow you, which is exactly why you lost this fight before it started.” Adagio was about to retort, but Jester Face snapped his fingers, and suddenly she felt piercing pain explode all over her body. At first she wasn’t sure what had just happened, the pain was almost mind numbing, but as she looked around she saw that the spears she’d evaded, the ones impaling the ground all around her... had suddenly grown additional spikes that shot out around her like a patch of needles. None of them penetrated deeply, but her limbs, tail, and sides were all stabbed by the needle-like growths and held her fast like nails. “Yeah, I must have forgot to mention I can control the growth of the spurs I make. Neat, eh?” He leaped across the chasm their impacting Ceros had made, and landing in front of her. Growing another spear from his back, he twirled it around and aimed it for her chest. Before he could thrust, however, she let out an ear splitting howl and tore with all her strength. Grogar had tortured her far worse than the pain this fool’s little spikes could induce. She’d merely been waiting for him to get close and drop his guard. The spurs shattered around her as she yanked herself free, ignoring the pain rippling through her body, and then bit down on Jester Face’s spear with her teeth, crunching it like a matchstick. She then surged forward, slashing with her blade-like tail fin and ripping with her claws. Jester Face was now the on swearing under his breath as he backed up, trying to parry her attacks with his spear haft. She scored several bleeding wounds upon Jester Face but he recovered from her assault quickly, and since she was now entirely focused on offense she wasn’t really prepared when he tossed his spear aside and proceeded to clasp both hands together to hammer her in the back, driving her into the ground like a railroad spike. Still refusing to quit Adagio immediately spun over and sunk her fangs into his leg, tearing viciously with all her might. Jester Face roared in pain, toppling over as Adagio drug him to the ground. She then flew for his face, hoping to smash his mask to pieces, but then a spear of bone shot from the top of his turtle shell, nailing her through the shoulder. Adagio hung, half impaled on the bone spear, clutching at the weapon as Jester Face stood. He left the bone spear attached to his shell as he hobbled, favoring his now torn leg, and shot her an enraged glare. “You really don’t know when to die. I’d say that makes you a good Hollow, but not really in a complementary  mood right now. So instead...” The pale red energy of a Cero started to fill his palm once more as he pointed it towards her, “I think I’ll just end this.” Behind him Adagio could see into the quarry. There she saw that Ember was now standing alone against the majority of the Adjuchas gang, having just survived a massive barrage of Ceros. Gaw was down, her hulking form covered in wounds. Di Roy lay barely moving just behind Ember, who herself was looking fairly injured herself. Adagio saw Ember raising her Zanpaktou, knowing the Arrancar intended to unleash her Resurreccion. Jester Face saw it too, and instead of looking worried he simply laughed. “Good, was wondering how long it’d take her to do that. Now I can call in the reinforcements.” “W-What?” Adagio said past clenched teeth. “Oh yeah, didn’t you notice the lack of Hollows in your way as you came here? I rule the Forest of Menos. The Hollows here are just my main gang, but at my call I can summon practically every Gillian and lesser Hollow in the entire Forest. Even that Arrancar girl will get overwhelmed!” Refusal burst through Adagio in a hot, angry wave. The only reason Ember, Gaw, or Di Roy were even in this mess was because of her ambitions. They were her responsibility, the same as her sisters had once been. She’d failed that responsibility once, she’d be damned if she was going to fail again, and certainly not because of this bastard! A wash of cool headed calm intertwined with her anger to form a deadly clear state of mind. She realized she’d been going about this battle all wrong. She was fighting on this Hollow’s terms, matching brute strength to brute strength, as was the Hollow way... ...But Adagio wasn’t just a Hollow. The red gleaming gem at her center pulsed brightly, but not with the light of a Cero. No, this light was a power more innate and familiar to Adagio. Time to top fighting like a Hollow, and fight like a siren. Her mouth opened and a deep, resonate set of notes flowed out, weighty with seductive and dominant octaves. Jester Face blinked, the sound of Adagio’s lyrical voice taking him aback. At first it was just a second or normal hesitance that most might feel when an impaled foe about to die just starts singing out of nowhere, but within mere moments Adagio’s siren magic started to penetrate the Hollow’s unprepared mind. Soon the wordless melody turned to words as Adagio poured her power into each enchanting syllable. Without her sisters to back her up she had to focus three times as hard to make her voice carry, but it was as if her Hollow reiatsu had fused so thoroughly with her siren magic that it amplified her voice to an echo that reached out through the Forest of Menos. ”Listen to me now I’m going to make you bow My reign is neigh All you can do is die!” It was clear Jester Face knew something was wrong by the distressed, confused look on his face, yet his arm carrying the deadly Cero sphere didn’t raise any further. In fact after a moment the arm started to lower, shaking in weakening resistance. Furthermore Adagio could see that all of the Adjuchas down in the quarry heard her voice and were looking towards her. She could feel her power like strands of web reaching out to engulf the minds of Jester Face’s gang as well. She willed her power away from her allies, for what she was about to do was solely for her foes. She just hoped Ember, Gaw, and Di Roy enjoyed the show. Strengthening her song further with layers of controlling tones she slowly edged herself off of Jester Face’s spear, forcing herself to sing through the blinding pain as she removed herself from the spur of bone. Once free she floated towards Jester Face’s slowly slacking body and ran a talon under his chin. ”Hear my voice and see All you’ll know is me My word is your command Now your end’s at hand!” Willing him to follow her she led Jester Face down into the quarry, and though his steps were shaking with clear attempts to resist her call, her magic was thoroughly entrapping his mind just as it was his followers. She hadn’t tried singing to this extent or to affect this many victims since she’d had her sisters with her. Ember had been simple enough because she’d been by herself, the same as with Grogar. Now she wasn’t just affecting Jester Face and his gang, but her voice was reaching out into the Forest of Menos, and just as Jester Face had claimed he could call down many more Hollows waiting in the wings... so could Adagio. As she led Jester Face to the center of the quarry, where his fellow Adjuchas all stood entranced by Adagio’s voice, there were distant howls and footfalls, and soon scores upon scores of Gillians and lesser Hollows were gathering around the quarry. The swarmed in from all sides, not to attack, but brought forth by Adagio’s echoing song, haunting and chilling as it pulled upon the simple minds of the lower-caste Hollows. Nearby Ember stood in shock, watching what was happening with an open mouth. Di Roy still lay where he was, but he too watched, eyes glued on Adagio with amazement. Further back the wounded Gaw raised her saurian head in confusion but also interest, as if the song resonated with her on some primal level. Adagio favored her companions with a smile and wink, although some part of her understood she may well have been tipping her hand to Ember concerning her siren powers. But it was necessary. This was the only way to end this fight and save them all, so if this revealed the truth to Ember... so be it, she’d deal with the fallout of that when the time came. Seeing as she had her captive audience with all of their attention her, Adagio turned a satisfied smile as she gazed upon the Hollows all slowly swaying to the beat of her song, eyes dulled with her entrancing voice wrapping their minds like chains. She could do anything she wanted with them for as long as she kept the song going. It didn’t take her long to decide what, and a particularly macabre grin graced her face. It was a terrible thought, but oh so appropriate for a Hollow. Both her Hollow essence and her siren gem were about to garner quite the feast. Rising higher into the air, sweeping her arms out as if addressing and adoring crowd, with a gathering glow of ruby light eclipsing her body, Adagio’s voice rose to an even more powerful height, seeming to shake the very walls of the quarry. ”I shall be obeyed And now you’ll dance for me My hunger won’t be stayed It’s time for all to see Indulge your need It is time to feed So consume each other now!” For many Hollows the desire to consume one another is as innate as living creatures need to breath. What Adagio was commanding through the power of her song was made all the stronger because it played straight into the very nature of Hollows to consume one another. Even the band of Adjuchas led by Jester Face were barely what one would consider allies, let alone friends. The very strength Jester Face had toted to Adagio, that he didn’t treat his subordinates like anything more than tools, meant that none of them had the capacity to resist Adagio’s command. The Gillians and lesser Hollows fell upon each other first, tearing into each other with teeth and claws in a howling orgy of violence. The Adjuchas barely lasted a few moments longer before the alluring siren song, commanding them to give into their base nature's, turned on each other in brutal displays of violence. Only Jester Face resisted, and even he only for a short while before he leaped into the fray, slaying his own comrades in a bloody display of thrusting spears and crushing fists. All the while a thick green mist started to fill the area, flowing down from the quarry walls where the lesser Hollows and Gillians ripped each other to bleeding pieces. The mist soared and swirled across the wrestling and tumbling Adjuchas who slew one another in ever more violent displays. The mist flowed up and gathered around Adagio, pouring into her siren gem, which now shone like a crimson star. Adagio could feel the power filling her. All of the negative energy produced by the Hollows orgy of violence and feeding, from now hundreds of lesser Hollows and Gillians and the score of powerful Adjuchas was now flowing into her body. The heat of the power was incredible, yet also in some ways darkly unpleasant. A reminder of the path she’d walked that doomed her and her sisters to exile in an alien world. Yet her sisters were safe and free now, she was sure, and if she had to walk the dark paths once more to gain the power needed to survive Hueco Mundo long enough to destroy Grogar. She’d just have to ensure she didn’t let this ambition destroy her, or those she cared for... As the power filled her she saw that almost all of the Hollows had slain and eaten one another, only a small few remaining Gillians and lesser Hollows left still gorging on the bloody remains of their kin, while among the Adjuchas only Jester Face still stood. He had slain his own gang, and taken horrific wounds in the process. Now he stood bloodstained among the corpses of his followers, breathing heavily and his eyes in a green hued daze from Adagio’s song. She floated down towards him, eyeing him with cold satisfaction. She floated closer, taking both her talons and cupping his face as she stared into his eyes. She allowed his mind just enough freedom to speak, just enough to realize what had happened. Those eyes of his went wide behind his jester mask. “What...? How...?” She put a talon to his mouth, shaking her head. “Shh, don’t think about it too hard. You don’t have a reason to think about anything anymore.” Her jaws opened wide and bit his mask, and half of his head, clean off. She allowed herself to fulfill her own hunger upon Jester Face’s flesh, the most powerful Adjuchas she’d encountered in Hueco Mundo. Now she added his power to hers by consuming him, while the power of all the many Hollows slaying each other by her song continued to rush into her siren gem like a emerald tide. As she did so she felt her body tremble. Heat filled every pore of her body, shaking like a volcano moments from eruption. Yet at her core she felt a strange, still cold, a feeling that spread to the very center of the Forest of Menos and touched upon something dormant in the long dead stones. Soon the ground itself was shaking, a tremor that grew in intensity with every passing second. “Adagio...?” Ember said, blinking in equal parts fear and wonderment. Adagio looked back at her. Her eyes had turned almost solid red, and cracks were appearing across her skin, letting out blinding light. “Go. Take Di Roy and Gaw from here, quickly.” She held up one of her claws, looking at the fractures spreading across her limb. The tremors in the ground were only growing stronger, with crevasse starting to tear open across the quarry and the Forest beyond. “I don’t know if I can control this.” Ember looked ready to argue but then from one of the fissures opening around the quarry a sudden fountain of cascading water erupted upwards. One after another dozens of geysers started to explode from the stone floor of the Forest of Menos, and Ember could only take one last look at Adagio’s form, now so bright with pulsating crimson light that she could barely make out Adagio’s outline. Gritting her teeth, Ember grabbed up Di Roy and used Sonido to rush over to Gaw. “Can you stand Gaw?” Ember asked. Gaw, having been watching Adagio with odd intensity, slowly nodded and forced her wounded body to stand. Ember used another Sonido to take herself and Di Roy up onto Gaw’s back, and the giant Adjuchas turned and thundered out of the quarry just as more water erupted up from the ground and started to fill not only the quarry, but wash out in a wave through the rest of the Forest of Menos. ---------- Ember now stood on a dune a fair distance away from the giant hole that lead into the Forest of Menos. Gaw had sat her massive form down, licking her wounds as Di Roy patted the giant on the head, where he sat. The ground was still shaking, and Ember stared at the hole into the Forest of Menos, trying to feel Adagio’s spiritual pressure. It was hard to tell just what was happening down there. “Crazy freakin’ day, huh?” said Di Roy. “Shut up, this isn’t done yet.” said Ember, eyes unblinking. Di Roy shrugged, laying back on Gaw’s head and clutching his stomach. “Yeah, but the hell is going on with boss lady? Looked like she was about to explode.” Gaw barked a coughing grunt, as if telling him to shut up. Which he did, but not because of Gaw but because the hole leading into the Forest of Menos, and a large chunk of the surrounding desert, was collapsing. Ember watched on in awe as more and more desert folded in on itself, sand bursting upwards for several moments before water started to shoot up into Hueco Mundo’s dark skies. The ground roiled in an earthquake, and Ember nearly lost her footing as she watched multiple kilometers of Hueco Mundo’s desert collapse into a gigantic, circular hole that endless cascades of dark waters filled with thunderous noise. The process took about a straight ten minutes, but by the end of it Ember, Gaw, and Di Roy were no longer just standing in a featureless desert of white sand, but were standing upon the banks of a large, frothing lake. After a time the churning waters stilled, and Ember looked out upon at least several miles of glistening black waters, with rock cliffs that were once the deep walls of the Forest of Menos now surrounding two thirds of the lake’s circumference. “Holy shit...” Di Roy breathed, and this time nobody told him to shut up. After a moment Ember shook off her daze, “Where are you Adagio?” As if in response something rose from the lake waters about a hundred meters offshore. This figure wasn’t the Adagio that Ember knew, yet she could feel Adagio’s reiatsu clearly stemming from this new being. It was overwhelming. Ember felt her mouth go dry as she tried to recall how to breathe. Meanwhile this new figure walked across the water, causing smooth ripples over the onyx surface as she walked to shore. She was more humanoid in shape now, and as tall as Ember was, which was to say human sized. Bone white armor covered her in a feminine figure, yet none would think the sharp ridges along the shins and elbows would be soft. A tail still extended behind her, covered in fine, white scales and tipped with a bladed fin that was larger and more curved now. Her slim hands and feet still bore wicked claws, and her face still bore a Hollow mask like that of her aquatic siren origin. Yet the mask was smoother now, the snout less prominent. The crest of the mask swept back slightly to display a prominent trio of crown-like spikes. Most striking was the long mane of hair that now flowed from the back of her head, a brilliant orange and yellow striped length of curly strands that hung in two long bangs to either side of her mask yet also filled out a knee-length plume behind her. Her Hollow hole remained where it was prominently at the center of her chest between her armored breasts. There her siren gem hung, somehow more polished and radiant than ever in its blood red glory. Adagio’s eyes regarded them calmly and with no small amount of confident purpose. “I take it from your gawking expressions that my new form is sufficiently striking? I’ll need a mirror to truly appreciate it, perhaps decide how to accentuate it, but I’m feeling... powerful right now.” “Bwhuh?” Di Roy said, and Gaw barked a similarly toned grunt. Ember approached Adagio, trying to hide her apprehension. Which wasn’t too hard because she was still trying to get over what she was seeing, so shock was a good mask for nervousness. “Adagio, do you know what just happened to you?” Adagio’s head turned to regard the lake behind her where the now former Forest of Menos once was. “At a guess I’d say I just blew past my training mark for the day. Hmm...” she looked at her slim yet strong hand, flexing her claws. “Not an Arrancar, but I feel like this is the next best step.” “You’re a freakn’ Vasto Lorde!” Ember blurted, “Do you have any idea what this means!?” “That the next time Garble decides to open his mouth at me I can tear it off?” “No! I mean, well, yes that too, but it means that... that if you do become an Arrancar you’ll be able to challenge for a position among the Espada! Do you have any how long it's even been since an Adjuchas evolved to Vasto Lorde? My dad was the last one to do it and that was nearly a thousand years ago!” Sighing contentedly Adagio said, “I know, I’m incredible. And I feel very much like celebrating. Only something’s missing... I need something to complete this ensemble.” As if she knew what she was doing without needing to think about it, Adagio held her hand out. Something else rose from the lake. This object flew from the lake as if following Adagio’s command, and suddenly a large, bone white trident was clasped in her waiting hand. The trident was a good head taller than Adagio was, its haft carved in an elegant, spiral pattern like ocean waves. Its three gleaming white prongs bore deadly barbed tips. Adagio held the trident with the ease of one holding a lifelong lover. “Ah, this will do nicely. Not a Zanpaktou, but I feel this deadly lady is a part of me. A part of my power.” She turned to Di Roy and Gaw, her eyes softening. “You both have suffered grievous injuries in my service. Let us take you to Las Noches to have them tended to. Now with the Forest of Menos gone, you both shall need a new home. I offer you my own, along with my protection and patronage, if you wish to swear fealty to me.” Di Roy chuckled dryly, which turned into a pained cough. “Ow, hurts to laugh. Like you gotta talk so formal to us, boss lady.” He bowed his head, “I’m your dude, one hundred percent of the way.” Gaw rolled her eyes, but then settled them upon Adagio. There was no words to pass between the two, only a clear understanding. Gaw as a predator, once an alpha herself, but she recognized superior strength when she saw it and would follow the new alpha of the pack for as long as Adagio held the power to maintain that role. With the understanding that if Adagio ever faltered, Gaw would gladly take the position of alpha from her. Gaw let out a soft, accepting rumble as Adagio nodded to her. Adagio then turned to Ember, “Well, it would seem we need to go speak with your father now, shouldn’t we?” “Yeah, looks like.” Ember said, taking a deep breath and gesturing towards distant Las Noches, “He’s not gonna believe this.” “I’m afraid he’ll have to. But not to fret, I don’t plan on leaving his horde quite yet. I intend to repay my debt to him before striking out on my own, hopefully with the understanding of our continued alliance and partnership.” Adagio said, and paused briefly, “And hopefully continued friendship between us?” Ember hesitated, but only a moment before nodding, “Yeah.” But as firm as she tried to say it, she couldn’t help but remember Garble’s words, and think of what she’d just witnessed of Adagio’s power of song. The power to control minds. She swallowed and nodded again, “Yeah, of course we’re friends.”