Episode 73: Fires of War
Episode 73: Fires of War
A cold sense of sickness ran its claws over Twilight’s guts as she observed the unfolding carnage with as close to a detached frame of mind as she could muster. Yet no matter how hard she tried to maintain an analytical mindset, her heart kept clenching every time she saw a streaking, crimson Cero beam smash into the fortifications that had seemingly miraculously sprang up for the Quincy army to use. Practically speaking she knew the Hollows presently engaging the Quincy forces were too weak to pose a serious threat, and that her family were all exceptionally powerful Quincy, but the fear for their safety was a hard instinct to kick.
“Wow, will you look at them go at it?” said the impressed, shockingly easy going Indigo Zap as she shaded her eyes to peer at the battle taking place about a kilometer distant. “There’s gotta be tens of thousands of Hollows out there getting their butts whupped.”
“I wouldn’t take this lightly, Indigo,” said Sunny Flare, her own hands clenching nervously as she paced behind them, “There’s enough Hollows out there that some of them could easily come our way.”
“Wish they would, then we’d have something to do other than watch,” said the other girl with a smirk that only partially served to hide the nervousness bubbling in Indigo’s eyes, her hands playing around the dark blue metal of her bow.
The rest of the squad was nearby, all of the girls sticking close as they stood at the rim of a dune stretching along the edge of the slope that led down to the lake, which stretched behind them in its vastness. The other cadet squads were similarly stationed behind dunes much like Twilight’s squad was. The regular Quincy soldats accompanying them were keeping watch at regular intervals, while the three Sternritter in chrage of their protection remained near the center of the group, standing atop the middle most dune, deep in hushed conversation. Twilight couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Fleur De Lis looked agitated, while Soarin and Fleetfoot seemed to be trying to keep the other Sternritter calm.
“She really wants to join the fight.”
Twilight looked over her shoulder to see Sugarcoat was standing just a few paces behind her, arms crossed and her visor-covered gaze focused on the three Sternritter.
“Fleur De Lis?” Twilight asked.
“Yes,” Sugarcoat tapped her visor, “This thing is pretty handy. Can’t hear them any more than you, but I can read their lips.”
“Greeeaaat,” drawled Sour Sweet, who was cradling her large crossbow as she glared towards the distant battle as if trying to repel the Hollows with sheer bad attitude, “So one of the people in charge of protecting us is a battle-crazy psycho, and one of our squatmates has assassins after her. Could this get any w-”
Lemon Zest zipped over and clamped a hand over Sour Sweet’s mouth, rolling her eyes, “Geeze, Sour, are you totally not genre savvy or what? You don’t say stuff like that unless you’re asking for trouble.”
Sour Sweet yanked Lemon Zest’s hand off her mouth with a scowl, “Asking for trouble? Are you blind!? Look at where we are!” She flailed one arm around them, forehead breaking out with stressed veins.
Twilight couldn’t blame Sour Sweet’s stress. They were closer to the battle than she’d have imagined. The VTOLs carrying the cadets had landed right along the edge of the lake. The sleek vehicles remained there, right up against the lapping dark waters. They were southeast of the large wall fortification that had been created from what Twilight assumed was one of the Sternritter’s Schrifts, and at a kilometer distance the battle taking place felt uncomfortably close.
Her brother’s gleaming white barrier encased the whole area, including the spot the cadets were deployed at. Twilight could see the partially translucent wall of white energy extending over a small portion of the lake next to where they were. It was some comfort to see the power of the Bastion at work, yet with Hollows already within the barrier Twilight could hardly feel relaxed. She wasn’t sure what tactical purpose allowing any of the Hollows inside the barrier served, but then again she was woefully lacking in military knowledge. Something she’d have to fix someday soon, assuming she survived this. However, her best guess as to why the battle plan had involved allowing some Hollows inside the barrier was in order to thin their numbers in a controlled manner that didn’t leave the Quincy forces too vulnerable.
Twilight was just worried some stray Hollows might end up coming their way. With so many thousands out there, a portion of them capable of flight, it seemed a likely possibility.
In fact, even as she had that thought, she could see a portion of flying Hollows break through the screening force of VTOLs in the air and start to swoop in their direction.
“Look lively cadets,” called one of the soldats watching over them, Spoiled Rich if Twilight as remembering the name correctly, “Seems as if you might get some target practice after all.”
However before even one cadet could so much as begin to aim their bows there was a billowing gust of wind that blasted around them as Fleur De Lis took to the air with one prodigious leap. The advancing flock of lesser Hollows didn’t stand the remotest chance. Fleur didn’t even bother to use her bow, instead sweeping the Hollows out of the sky with a barrage of wind blades summoned forth with a simple rake of her hand, the pressurized air cutting dozens of Hollows in half in a single blow.
As those bodies, or rather body parts, rained down to the sands, Fleur De Lis flipped her hair and snorted in disgust, landing back amid the cadets and giving Spoiled Rich a sharp look. “Don’t encourage the kids to fight. His Majesty ordered us to protect them, and that is what we shall do, even from flotsam like this.”
Spoiled Rich’s face was unreadable behind her soldat gas mask, but she nodded with stiff shoulders, “Yes, of course.”
Twilight frowned slightly, caught between being relieved that even someone like Fleur De Lis seemed to be taking the task of protecting the cadet’s seriously, and irritated that she didn’t have an opportunity to field test the Hexenfaust.
“Whew,” Sour Sweet wiped her brow, “Maybe with the Sternritter around we don’t have anything to worry about?”
As if the girl’s words acted as some sort of universal jinx Twilight and the other cadets all shivered involuntarily as their spiritual senses were assaulted by a sudden cascade of numerous reiatsu signatures appearing. Twilight looked rapidly around her, taking in the sight of not just a few, but scores of Garganta portals opening up. The portals were, thankfully, outside the Bastion, but the number of them was alarming, along with the fact that they were all surrounding the domed barrier in four distinct clusters, each to the north, south, east, and west.
Then Twilight saw the forms that were emerging from those Garganta portals weren’t normal Hollows. Instead these were the distinctly human-like forms of Arrancar. Their intense reiatsu filled the air like the on rushing waves from a tropical storm, and Twilight could see her fellow cadet’s paling at the sensation. Amid those many Hollow spiritual pressures were blazing beacons of power, towering tsunamis of reiatsu compared to the smaller waves of the other Arrancar. Those had to be the Espada, and Twilight could only feel chilled at the mere sensation of their power.
She felt... four of them? No, five. Amid the emerging masses of Arrancar there were five spiritual pressures far greater than the rest. It seemed like a small number compared to the number of Sternritter that Sombra had brought to the battlefield, but Twilight could get a rough gauge on the strength of the Espada’s reiatsu and knew immediately that these Hollows didn’t need numbers to be a threat.
Especially the strongest one out there, which dwarfed all the others by such a degree that Twilight felt weak in her knees just sensing the reiatsu at a distance. Could that be...?
“Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise?” said Fleur De Lis, licking her lips, “Seems like their own King decided to come out first.”
Standing next to her Fleetfoot lowered her mirror-shades enough for her eyes to gaze northward with intense trepidation, “Damn, first time I’ve felt the Primera’s reiatsu. I’m not even thinking Shining Armor’s Bastion can take one hit from that. Holy balls.”
“Relax,” said Soarin, “Tirek’s not the only King out here. We just focus on our job and let His Majesty handle that monster.”
Fleur De Lis’ lips turned into a curved scythe of a grin, “His Majesty has right to claim that duel, true, and there are plenty of other worthwhile targets out there. Assuming any of them decide to come this way. We can only be so lucky.”
“Nice that she’s so concerned with our safety, isn’t it?” Sunny Flare muttered under her breath, and Indigo Zap gave the other girl a sidelong look before turning uneasy eyes at the growing horde of Arrancar pouring from the dozens of black wounds in the sky.
“Yeah, I’m starting to think us being out here isn’t the greatest idea ever.”
“I-It’s gonna be alright,” said one of the McColt girls, Hacksaw, visibly unnerved by the sight of the Arrancar, “Plenty o’ McColt firepower out there ready ta’ ambush that lot.”
“Gettin’ nervous? Figures it’d be a’ McColt that’d lose faith n’ His Majesty’s plan first,” grumbled Cotton Barrel.
The two McColt sisters both shot glares at the Hooffield girl, but before any argument could break out there was flare of uprising reiatsu that instantly silenced all the cadets. This was accompanied by the sight of a saturation of hellish orange and red light that started to coat the dunes from high above, and everyone’s eyes were drawn skyward to witness a corona of light directly above the gleaming dome of the Bastion. Twilight noticed that all the Arrancar had turned their eyes upward as well, not in fear, but in something akin to reverence. The host of Hollows, even the ones still being slaughtered by Quincy within the barrier, all stopped acting, and just looked upward at the growing beacon of unholy might gathering high above. Twilight felt a copper taste in the back of her throat, and acidic bile rising as her heart started to hammer in her chest.
The Sternritter nearby were silent, Soarn’s eyes somber and granite-like, Fleetfoot taking off her glasses and licking dry lips. Even Fleur seemed subdued by the sensation of power gathering above them, her own perfect jawline clenched in dire resolve.
The cadets around Twilight were all looking at each other or upwards with mixtures of fear and disbelief. They’d all felt this reiatsu a moment ago and it had felt titanic. Now, however, the sensation was so overwhelming that Twilight could see some cadet’s quailing and falling to their hands and knees, struggling to breath, even with the Bastion acting as a buffer between them and what was outside.
“Wh-what is that!?” Sour Sweet said, sweat pouring down her brow, “There’s no way that’s a Hollow!”
Lemon Zest chuckled in an almost manic manner, “Oooookaaaay, can we, um, not be here now? Please?”
“...We... we can’t survive this, can we?” Sunny Flare said, eyes like violet lakes as she stared upward, “If that monster hits us with something like that, we’re all dead.”
“Stay steady everyone,” said Sugarcoat, no less pale faced, but clenching her fists tight around the pearl handle of her bow, “This is what our parents have had to face every day of their lives. We’re not going to embarrass our bloodlines by cowering like children, are we?”
Lemon Zest raised her hand, “I kinda want to.”
Indigo Zap, her legs shaking, grit her teeth and sucked in a breath while slapping her cheeks with her hands, “Okay, right, Sugarcoat’s got it right, we got to put our game faces on girls.”
Twilight was controlling her breathing, and inside her she felt an ethereal surge of energy as Midnight’s voice whispered across her mind.
So much power. Don’t you want to just take it apart and find out how it works?
I’ll be happy with surviving with everyone else, thank you very much, Twilight replied, steadying her breath as she kept her gaze locked on the growing corona of dark orange light high above the Bastion dome.
That had to be Tirek. Was he intending to try and wipe out the whole Quincy army with a single attack? With the sheer amount of spiritual pressure building above, Twilight could honestly believe that may be the case. Regardless, it was clear there was nothing she or any of the other cadets could do but sit tight and have faith that Sombra knew what he was doing.
Because otherwise this battle was going to be over in seconds.
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Shining Armor aimed his bow skyward while Gladmane and Filthy Rich both continued to lay into the Hollows that had just been assaulting the fortifications, although now had all but halted their activity with the arrival of the Arrancar.
“You’d best give that fancy shield your all, boy, because I think its about it get its greatest test,” said Filthy Rich, not fully hiding an underpinning of fear. Shining Armor could’t blame the man. He knew the capabilities of the Bastion, but what he was sensing from Tirek made him feel as if he was trying to hold a sheet of glass in front of an oncoming rock-slide.
A pure white arrow streaked upward, a trail of light in its wake, fired form Shining Armor’s bow. It struck the shield and reinforced the Bastion with a brilliant flare of light just as Tirek took action.
Standing several hundred meters up, the undisputed King of Hueco Mundo was merely holding one finger up. Upon that finger hovered an ever growing sphere of dark orange and crimson energy, flaring with streaks of black lighting. His chiseled features showing faint distaste for the ants crawling around on the sands of his realm below, Tirek merely curled his finger downward, barely moving.
The enormous beam of raw Hollow power that cascaded downward from that one gesture was a Cero half a kilometer wide and containing enough force to reduce a city to ash in an instant.
Only Shining Armor diverting all of his focus to reinforcing the Bastion with all the power he could pump into his Schrift allowed the barrier to withstand the earth shattering assault, even if just for a few seconds. Shining Armor’s bow became a beacon of light rays as he fired dozens of reinforcing arrows, impacting at key points around the crumbling Bastion, trying to keep it up for even just a split second longer. The explosive shockwave of power from Tirek’s unmatched Cero impacting the Bastion created hurricane force winds billowing across Hueco Mundo’s dunes, and the ground heaved beneath them. Shining Armor felt the blow on his very soul like a sledgehammer, dropping him to one knee as he saw cracks form all across the Bastion’s dome.
He raised his bow, hoping to form a secondary barrier before the first one failed, but the Bastion shattered a moment before he could fire another arrow.
However instead of the torrent of Tirek’s Cero falling upon them, there was an instantaneous distortion in the air, forming into a rapidly expanding umbrella of writhing, ink black nothingness that swallowed the Cero like a gaping maw. In counter to Tirek’s crushing reiatsu rose an equally monumental wave of spiritual pressure. Only for the Quincy this pressure was not crushing, but rather a relieving, uplifting force, as if a great hand was lifting the weight of a mountain off of their shoulders.
Night Light’s voice spoke through the power of the Command, reaching Shining Armor and every other Quincy as the Bastion crumbled in shards of fading light.
His Majesty Sombra will deal with the enemy’s leader. Take heart, Quincy of the Vandenrich! Our true foes now reveal themselves, and we shall not relent in the face of our duty to punish these fiends. Now, the true battle begins!
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The incredibly wide disc of darkness that had swallowed Tirek’s Cero undulated like the waters of a turbulent ocean, the air around it distorted with shimmering waves as Sombra’s armor clad figure rose from the disc’s center. The disc then collapsed inward, seeping into Sombra’s own body like a sponge absorbing ink.
With his crimson eyes still and unblinking Sombra rose upward into the sky, smoothly halting when he reached Tirek’s height. The two Kings stood mere meters apart, Tirek’s own gleaming gaze like the glow of an active volcano compared to the artic, still cold of Sombra’s eyes.
Even as the thunder of battle broke beneath them, the two leaders of the clashing armies stood still as they took stock of each other, their standoff framed by the silver crescent of Hueco Mundo’s ever pale moon.
“Remind me, when was the last time we stood like this?” Tirek said finally, his voice a hot rumble.
There was a near imperceptible twitch in Sombra’s jaw, his hard eyes briefly showing a waver of unbridled hate.
“I’m not here to reminisce about the past, Tirek. You’ve spilled the blood of my people. I’m here to return the favor.”
“And so our cycle of self-destruction continues while the Soul Reapers prosper. I enjoy destroying your toy soldiers, boy, but how long do you intend to continue this war while our real enemies sit on high, enjoying the fruits of their betrayal while watching us slaughter one another down on this wretched world?”
Tirek extended a hand, “My offer remains the same as it was then. Abandon your quest to ‘save’ humanity. Ally with me and within a fortnight the very gates of the Soul Palace would fall to our combined might.”
Sombra’s hand slipped into the darkness of his cloak and withdrew the long, dark steel of his sword. As he did so the blade sprang to life with a bright sheen of blue reishi, edged with silver flickers of light like fire. His features were like iron, as was his voice, “To ally with you would be to betray humanity, and that I will never do.”
Tirek smirked, “As if you care about humanity. What you really mean to say is that you refuse to let go of your hatred of Hollows. It wasn’t by my hand that your woman died-”
There was less time in a heartbeat than there was in the time it took Sombra to form his bow by extending a second blade from the hilt of his sword, and both ends curving into a sharp crescent. The arrow of solid darkness flew at Tirek’s head an instant later, distorting the air around it. With equally instantaneous speed did the King of Hueco Mundo bring his own long, gold edged claymore down upon the arrow. A cacophonous blast of conflicting forces emanated from the blow, the air wavering and shimmering around the point of impact as if something was shaking the very foundation of space itself.
Tirek barely had a moment to blink before Sombra followed up that first attack by sweeping one hand out and creating a veritable swarm of small, black discs that were like torn holes in the fabric of reality, surrounding Tirek. He fired another arrow through one of these discs in front of him, and suddenly the same arrow was duplicated through the many scores of other holes in reality, the dark shafts converging on Tirek from all directions.
Tirek responded by erupting with a gigantic sphere of raw reiatsu, similar to a Cero yet expanding like a wave around him. The arrows sunk into this sphere of destructive energy, many of them penetrating deep into it, but still eventually being consumed by the incredible outpouring of power from the First Espada.
“Are you even trying?” Tirek asked, but noticed Sombra wasn’t standing where he’d been a second ago. Glancing over his shoulder Tirek spotted the King of the Quincy behind him, now several dozen meters away as Sombra pulled out a trio of onyx black ginto tubes from the shadows of his cloak. At a glance Tirek saw that at least ten other such tubes had already been tossed into the air by Sombra while Tirek had been busy deflecting the Quincy King’s arrows, and now Sombra threw the final three and all thirteen ginto tubes opened and exposed a glittering sheen of alchemic, reishi charged liquid.
Sombra’s hand became wrapped with distorted darkness as he touched the falling liquid, and invoked a command phrase as he sent his reishi flowing into alchemical catalyst.
”Heiliges Heiligtem” (Holy Sanctuary)
In the span of milliseconds a massive curtain of darkness expanded around the pair, with spectral bands of brilliant incandescent blue forming a complex, weaving web of geometric patterns running through it. The sphere surrounded Sombra and Tirek completely, and within its confines the pair found themselves standing upon a seemingly much larger plane, with its internal borders quite possibly being hundreds of miles wide. Externally the sphere would be no larger than a football field, a perfect black orb hanging above the battle unfolding below.
Tirek looked around with a small, impressed grunt.
“You’ve copied our Negacion fields, and quite thoroughly too. I imagine it’d take me... ten, fifteen minutes to break free from this sub-dimension.”
“I have no intention of giving you those ten minutes,” Sombra said, raising his bow, which now flared with a much brighter sheen of blue and silver than before as a crushing wave of his own reiatsu surged out, “Now that we’re inside this space, I don’t need to hold back in fear of harming my own people.”
Tirek flashed white teeth. Between the bleached bone horns curving up from his brow an orb of dark orange power swirled into being, “I too needn’t restrain myself. Fortunate, since rebuilding Las Noches would be tedious. Let’s see if you’ve grown any stronger since the day you failed to protect your woman.”
A fusillade of hundreds of simultaneously firing Ceros exploded outward from Tirek’s horns, filling the air with the deep rumble. Sombra’s bow similarly unleashed a torrential deluge of obsidian reishi arrows that tore space around them as they flew into the barrage of Ceros. The sub-dimension shuddered with the clash of power, and the combined spiritual pressure of two god-like beings now starting to try to annihilate one another in earnest.
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Clouds of Quincy arrows rocketed across the sky. Arrancar advanced into the swarm of reishi arrows with reckless abandon, many relying on the strength of their Hierro iron skin to protect them as they rushed towards the fortifications the Quincy forces occupied. Even so, a number of weaker or simply less lucky Arrancar were still riddled by dozens of gleaming blue arrows, blood falling from the sky like rain as their bodies impacted with the sands below. Retaliation came in the form of dozens of thick, red Cero beams or bursts of rapid-fire Bala bullets. The crimson beams swept lines of destruction across the fortifications, consuming soldats in screaming blazes, while the hardened bullets of Balas blew chunks of stone out to tear into any soldat not fast enough to evade or harden their skin with Blut Vene.
Filthy Rich continued to pour the power of the Mason into the walls in order to build up the fortifications from a mere wall to a multi-tiered, square fortress. Swiftly reconstructing the very spirit particles of Hueco Mundo’s sands, Sternritter M had given the Quincy soldats thick, tall walls to use as cover while keeping up a steady stream of fire into the oncoming foe. Quincy arrows flew out in deadly clouds while Cero beams tore into those walls, creating a field of criss-crossing red and blue as the two armies tore into each other with equal fury. To add to the army’s firepower, Filthy Rich also created multiple turreted cannons; simple in design, but capable of firing powerful reishi blasts similar to his musket that ripped some Arrancar out of the sky. These cannons were fed by a steady stream or reishi pulled from the surrounding desert, and Filthy Rich controlled them himself, though this required so much of his focus he couldn’t afford to leave the center of the fortifications.
Meanwhile the VTOLs circled above, directing their missiles and gunfire down on the advancing hordes on all sides of the battle, but were just as often forced into desperate evasive maneuvers as ever more Cero beams cut crimson lines upward and smashed more than a few of the vehicles into exploding wreaks.
At the very head of his horde of Arrancar was Torch, the Fifth Espada’s massive, muscle bound form barreling through the rain of Quincy arrows with locomotive force, many a soldat’s arrow simply bouncing off the Espada’s insanely tough Heirro. Torch bellowed laughter, sweeping his axe in wide arcs that generated blasts of wind that knocked aside even more arrows.
“Whoohahah! You all trying to tickle to me to death!? C’mon, where’s the Sternritter! I want a fight, not an exercise in pest control! Hey, Spitfire, where you at, woman!? I want to finish what we began back in the world of the living!”
Not far away Adagio was beside Ember, both of them avoiding the barrages of reishi arrows in their own way, Ember through sheer speed and Adagio with carefully controlled waves of summoned water that shielded her and no small number of other Arrancar. She kept a steady stream of water flowing around her, summoning more with waves of her trident to act almost like an umbrella against the descending arrows. Many arrows could still get through, but with less power or altered courses.
Adagio’s focus was largely on keeping herself alive, but she kept a steady eye to the south east, where the distant, dark form of her lake was clear to see like a splotch of ink upon the stark white desert.
One way or another she’d have to get to that lake amid all this chaos, but she couldn’t make it look like her and Ember were abandoning the battlefield. Fortunately the flow of the battle was already moving towards the Arrancar surrounding the Quincy forces. Torch’s horde was advancing in from the north, while Adagio could see to the west that Hydia was moving in with her smaller but no less destructive collection of deformed Arrancar. She couldn’t see them but she could sense that Guto and his forces had come out of their Gargantas to the south and were moving in behind the Quincy.
Not that “behind” meant much now that the Quincy had formed that makeshift fortress of white, stone walls. Adagio was impressed it had been created so instantaneously. Whichever Quincy was responsible for that had to be pretty dangerous. She’d just as soon avoid facing any of these Sternritter, but Torch seemed eager to call them out.
Torch wouldn’t have to wait long for a challenger.
Tentacles of raw blue reishi rose up into the air and snaked towards Torch. Rising up beneath the advancing horde of Arrancar, a Quincy was surrounded by a writing mass of reishi tendrils that lashed out not just at Torch, but at any of the Arrancar nearby. One such tendril stabbed towards Adagio, and she sent forth a blast of condensed water from her trident to intercept it, only for the tendril to cut right through her water with ease.
Swearing under her breath, Adagio jumped back from the grasping limb of reishi, narrowly avoiding it. Other Arrancar weren’t quite as fast, and Adagio saw several tendrils stab into Arrancar of Torch’s horde, each tentacle like a spear as it lanced into even Hierro hardened flesh. Ember, faster and stronger than most, avoided the pair of limbs coming after her, the flash of her Zanpaktou cutting off the tip of one such tendril. However the limb regrew almost instantly, stabbing for Ember from behind. A Cero beam blasted in from the side, pushing back the tendril.
“Dammit don’t move so far ahead if you can’t watch your own damned back!” growled Grable as he rushed up beside Ember, slashing another tendril that came towards them. Ember rolled her eyes and fired a Cero of her own, forcing back another set of tentacles thrusting towards her.
“If you can’t keep up then don’t bother following me.”
“Guys, this is not the time for arguing,” Adagio pointed out as the central mass of reishi tendrils rose up to their level in the air, the Quincy at the center of them regarding them all with smug indifference as he adjusted the glasses perched on his gray nose.
“Oh don’t mind me, continue doing what you’re doing. I’ll just keep impaling all your companions in the meantime,” the Quincy said, making casual gesture with a strange, halo shaped bow around his right hand to direct the seemingly unending mass of reishi tendrils under his control at Torch’s horde.
However Torch himself rushed down like a descending meteor, and the dark haired Quincy had to redirect the majority of his tendrils to form a shield in front of him to defend against the mass of iron that was Torch’s axe-shaped Zanpaktou as it slashed down at the Sternritter. Scores of tendrils were severed apart by the blow, and the central mass quivered as Torch pushed the whole thing, the Quincy man included, down to the sandy ground in an explosive impact.
Adagio, Ember, and Garble were left blinking at the sight, as Torch, still laughing, cocked his axe back like a golf club and swung it once more into the Sternritter’s mass of tendrils. The Quincy blocked again, losing another dozen or so tendrils, but the wriggling limbs of blue reishi reformed almost as fast as they were severed.
Torch looked up at Ember in the meantime, “Sorry kids, but I get first dibs! You go find your own fun!”
“I don’t recall saying anyone was allowed to leave,” the Quincy said, sending a swarm of tendrils to streak up towards Ember, Adagio, and Garble, but Torch took one swing of his axe and broke the tendrils as thoroughly as a hammer upon an ice sculpture. Torch turned burning eyes towards the human as a deep purple aura of reiatsu formed around him, his spiritual pressured now ratcheting up to full force.
“And I don’t remember any small fry like you being worth called Sternritter, but I guess Sombra’s standards have dropped recently. What do you call yourself, dead man?”
“Jet Set, Sternritter K, the Kraken,” the Quincy said with lips pressed tight in clearly annoyance at being dismissed as a ‘small fry’.
“Well then, you’ve got the honor of being the first Sternritter who’s blood gets to satisfy my parched axe,” Torch said around a battle hungry grin, spinning his heavy weapon with a whistle of air as he barreled towards Jet Set like an living battering ram.
Adagio watched carefully at the movements of Jet Set’s reishi tendrils as they coiled into a conical mass like some deep sea urchin that then thrust towards Torch. The Fifth Espada’s axe hammered into the mass of reishi, creating a shock wave that tossed Adagio’s hair and made her shield her face with one hand. Jet Set, tendrils and all, were blasted backwards by the sheer physical might of Torch’s blow, and the gray faced Quincy went slightly grayer as he adjusted his glasses in momentary surprise.
He recovered quickly, eyes narrowing as he gestured towards Torch and sent a number of tendrils stabbing forward with blinding speed. Torch swept them aside with his axe, but those tendrils had simply been covering a number of smaller off-shoot tendrils that then slipped past Torch’s guard to wrap around his limbs in an instant.
“Hah, you may be strong, but you’ve got no other assets besides brawn, do you?” Jet Set said, raising his hand to send out a massive, pointed tendril out to thrust towards Torch’s head. While focused upon Torch, Jet Set hadn’t lowered his defenses elsewhere. One of the benefits of the Kraken was that the unique reishi tendrils the Schrift created were an omni-directional offense and defense. Any of Torch’s horde of Arrancar that would have tried to get around or behind Jet Set would’ve have found dozens of more tendrils ready to fend them off.
However not a one of Torch’s horde were moving to help their Espada. They instead had swept around the confrontation between Torch and Jet Set, focusing their attacks upon the Quincy fortifications, which still rained out a constant storm of arrows and cannon-fire. Even Ember was only watching her father, making no move to help.
Jet Set assumed this was merely because Hollows weren’t inclined to help one another. It didn’t occur to him that it was simply because every one of Torch’s subordinates knew better than to get close to where their Espada was fighting.
Jet Set, fall back now! Night Light’s voice ordered in Jet Set’s mind, You can’t take that Espada alone. Pull back and link up with my son and Gladmane.
But I have him! This will be over in a- Jet Set started to mentally reply to Night Light’s commands, but paused as the massive reishi tendril he’d sent flying towards Torch’s head was caught and stopped dead in its tracks... by Torch’s teeth.
Torch chomped down and broke the tendril in half, the reishi breaking up into its composite particles. He then flexed his roiling muscles and started to rip his limbs free from the tendrils holding him. Jet Set prepared to send out more, but Torch just turned a sneer towards the Sternritter and opened his mouth. Bright red flames ejected from his mouth in a wide, incendiary Cero that rushed in at Jet Set.
Before it could impact a white arrow streaked by, detonating in a searing flash of light as a thick, square barrier formed in front of Jet Set and absorbed the flaming red Cero.
“Didn’t you hear my father?” Shining Armor said, standing a few dozen meters behind and above Jet Set, “You trying to get yourself killed?”
Jet Set grit his teeth in a sour glower, swiftly backing away from Torch as he eyed Shining Armor, “I’m trying to prevent them from reaching our fortifications! We’ll lose hundreds of soldats if these beats get too close!”
“Let Filthy Rich worry about our fortifications. We can’t fight these Espada one on one,” Shining Armor said, raising his bow to fire a bolt of white light towards Torch. The arrow split into two, forming two facing barriers that tried to encompass Torch, but the Fifth Espada smashed his fists out to either side and crushed the barriers like windows.
“You can’t fight us two on one either, boy!” Torch said, and with a blur of Sonido he appeared above Shining Arm, axe hammering down.
Shining Armor raised his bow, angling the shield portion of it to block the blow, but the immense strength behind Torch’s doubled handed blow split the air with a sonic boom as Shining Armor was sent straight down into the ground, sending a fifty foot geyser of sand into the sky fro the impact.
Torch threw his head back, bellowing laughter, but a second later a trio of blazing white arrows shot upward from the smoking crater and surrounded Torch, forming into a three sided pillar of light that then exploded with white flame.
Shining Armor, bleeding from a cut on his scalp, stood from the crater he was in, and noticed he was now surrounded by quite a number of lesser Hollows. Thousands of such Hollows still remained on the battlefield, and now that the Arrancar were fully engaged with the Quincy the lesser Hollows and Gillians were more free to move and make a nuisance of themselves.
Shining Armor’s face was marble still as he started firing around him in a rapid circle of brilliant white death, arrows blasting through the Hollows coming towards him. Jet Set landed nearby, the tendrils of the Kraken clearing out more Hollows with wide sweeps.
“Okay, I admit it, I underestimated this Espada,” Jet Set said, “Let’s join our compatriots before things get worse.”
“It is too late for that.”
The words were spoken by a soft voice, stemming from a new arrival that calmly walked from amid the horde of Hollows like a wraith. Any Hollow that got too close to this red haired man was cut in half by strikes from his long bladed katana that were too fast to clearly see. Neither Shining Armor or Jet Set recognized this newcomer, but the man’s obvious strength marked him as an Espada.
The white flames from Shining Armor’s earlier attacked cleared, revealing Torch with minor singes on his arms, but otherwise the Fifth Espada was barely damaged. Seeing the man with the red hair, Torch smashed down onto the ground beside him, stabbing out a thick blue finger.
“Don’t even think of poaching my kills, Lament!”
Lament regarded Torch coolly, “I won’t debate who kills who while we’re in the middle of a battle. If you want them, then kill them. Otherwise get out of the way.”
“Bah,” Torch spat, “You can have the boring one in the glasses. The white one is more interesting. I’ll take him. Never let it be said I can’t share.”
Lament shrugged, facing Jet Set with cold, unblinking eyes, “So be it.”
Shining Armor wasn’t certain who this ‘Lament’ was. Their reports had indicated, however, that the Espada had a new number four, and Shining Armor had a sinking feeling that was the ghostly pale, red hair man they faced now, as well as Torch.
Father, I’ve reached Jet Set, but we’re now facing both the Fifth and who I believe is the Fourth Espada. Some reinforcements would not go unappreciated, Shining Armor thought, knowing Night Light would be listening in through the Command’s link.
Gladmane is busy elsewhere. Hold out for a few minutes, I’ll direct Harshwhinny and Upper Crust your way, came the swift reply, and Shining Armor could detect the growing tension and stress in his father’s mental voice. Night Light’s mind was likely being taxed to its utmost extent, directing what was now a battle on at least three fronts.
Focusing his attention in front of him, Shining Armor raised his bow, not intending to let the Espada decide who fought who. He directed his next arrow towards the one called Lament, the bar of bright white reishi parting the sands with the speed of its passage. Lament vanished form view, evading the arrow while simultaneously appearing behind Jet Set within the span of the same instant. Jet Set’s tendrils flashed up, trying to strike the Espada. Lament weaved his way through the tendrils with flickers of motion so quick he seemed to split into multiple images as he strode forward. The Espada then move in a lightning swift motion, his long katana cutting a blinding white arc at Jet Set’s head level. Jet Set’s eyes went wide behind his glasses as Lament’s blade seemed to effortlessly cut through his mass of reishi tendrils, and Jet Set’s skin turned red with Blut Vene lines as he crossed his arms in front of him, blocking even as he jumped back with a swift Hirenkyaku.
Even then, Jet Set screamed as deep gouges were cut into his arms, spraying blood. Even Blut Vene hadn’t stopped all of Lament’s blow, and while Jet Set could still control his reishi tendrils, his arms now like bleeding, limp noodles at his side.
Shining Armor took aim to fire upon Lament while the Espada has his back turned, but Torch charged in from the side, and Shining Armor was forced to make a prodigious leap away to avoid being crushed by Torch’s earth shaking axe swing. Shining Armor turned his bow towards Torch, foregoing precision for sheer volume as he unleashed a full barrage of hundreds of scintillating arrows.
Torch weathered the blows partially with using his axe as a shield, and partially with just the sheer hardness of his supreme Heirro, but the barrage kept him pinned down for the moment. Shining Armor was seeking to buy as much time as he could for other Sternritter to arrive, but he could tell the battle was rapidly growing chaotically out of control.
Jet Set was swiftly retreating form Lament, leaping from spot to spot. Lament kept easy pace, Jet Set’s reishi tendrils being cut to ribbons as they tried and failed to impale the coldly advancing Espada. Meanwhile Arrancar by the dozens were reaching the fortification walls on the north side, despite the vast volume of arrows, missiles, and cannon fire blasting into the hordes. Shining Armor could see soldats now fighting in desperate melee with Arrancar, and both sides were using their own high-speed movement techniques to turn the battlefield into a storm of fast moving forms.
Still the fortifications were holding, and enough reishi arrows were still steadily being fired by soldats on higher tiers of the wall that the Arrancar or the many lesser Hollows still on the field could manage to gather together for a solid push. Shining Armor could also sense that other Sternritter were already engaged with the other Espada on other fronts, likely why Gladmane had been too busy elsewhere to help him and Jet Set.
And as desperate as his and Jet Set’s situation was, Shining Armor knew this was all part of the plan.
High above, Sombra was locked in battle with Tirek within that huge black sphere, and Shining Armor had faith in His Majesty’s plan.
----------
An explosion from a reishi shell pelted Adagio with sand as she moved with swift leaps, heading around the eastern edge of the battlefield, Ember following at her side and Garble just a few steps behind them. Dozens of other Arrancar form Torch’s horde were making their away around this side of the Quincy formation’s flank, most not seeming to care about any losses their side was taking as they whooped and hollered insults at their Quincy foes, firing Cero blasts into the walls.
Adagio saw how fast the Quincy fortifications seemed to repair themselves and figured most of the Arrancar were wasting their time trying to blast the makeshift fortress apart. For every Cero beam that smashed into those walls they likely only got a few Quincy for the trouble, while the walls would rapidly repair, and the Quincy could in turn continue to fire relentlessly with those unending arrows of theirs.
Adagio had barely dropped her barrier of water, guarding herself, Ember, and as many Arrancar nearby as she could as she followed the charge around the east side of the fortifications. She didn’t feel much, or any, guilt at leaving Torch and Lament behind to deal with the Sternritter. Even Ember had understood to let her father have his fun, and Adagio was hardly worried about the big fella. And as for Lament, she sincerely doubted she had much to fear in regards to his safety. She felt sorry for the Quincy stuck fighting him.
Fortunately, as she’d imagined would be the case, the chaos of battle was actually exceedingly helpful for her own plans. The Arrancar horde, along with the still significant number of regular Hollows around, naturally started to move to surround the Quincy positions, which meant all Adagio had to do was move with the flow to the east and south. Already she could see her lake getting ever closer. All she had to do was get to the southeastern edge of the battle, then look for an opening to break off and head for her lake with Ember in tow. She knew Garble would be a problem, but imagined she could either lose him in the confusion of the battle, or failing that use... alternative means to ensure his silence as to what she and Ember would be really doing while the Arrancar and Quincy were busy trying to exterminate each other.
Adagio winced as one Quincy arrow game a little too close, even through her barrier of water, the blue bolts of reishi sparing off her hardened bone-like armor. A moment later several explosive reishi shells detonated upon the barrier of water she was keeping up and Adagio had to concentrate to summon forth more. It looked as if whoever was controlling the cannons in that fortress realized she was shielding a number of Arrancar and was concentrating fire on her.
Oh is that how its going to be!? You, sir or madame, have just made quite the error in judgment, Adagio thought with a hard smirk as she instantly leaped upwards into the air, shifting her barrier from an umbrella like dome of water and into a series of compact spheres. Carefully and quickly picking out the lines of cannons mounted amid the tall white walls of the Quincy fortifications, Adagio directed her water to fire out in a barrage of high pressure beams, slicing up into the fortifications like hots knives through butter.
She ignored the fact that she likely was striking down several Quincy soldiers with those barrages. This wasn’t like fighting those child cadets. This was full blown warfare, and Adagio was a survivor first and foremost. Any Quincy soldier that came at her now was not going to find her particularly inclined to hesitate.
Her attack had destroyed half a dozen of the fortification cannons, and the Arrancar of Torch’s horde around her roared approval as they swiftly started to charge the walls, firing Balas and Ceros while braving straight into the volleys of arrows form the Quincy still on the walls. Adagio nodded in satisfaction at her handiwork. The Quincy whose power was rebuilding the fortification walls would likely be able to rebuild the cannons as well, but it’d take them time to do that, and with Torch’s forces advancing rapidly that meant the Quincy had bigger problems than focusing on her. She also noticed that caught up in the heat of the charge, Garble had gone ahead, apparently assuming Ember would be joining the attack. This would be as good an opening as any, Adagio thought.
“Ember,” she said, nodding toward the distant lake, “This is our chance.”
Ember glanced at Arrancar charging the Quincy walls, and Adagio could see Ember’s hesitance. Ember wasn’t fully comfortable leaving her father’s forces, her comrades, to fight the Quincy without her. But Ember knew what job Adagio had been given and had agreed to help, and Ember had a remarkable streak of loyalty to her own word that Adagio found admirable, even as it seemed unfortunately exploitable.
“Right behind you,” Ember said.
However before either of them could start heading further south, a gust of air billowed around them and from above a series of golden reishi arrows hammered down on Torch’s horde of Arrancar. Blood splattered the sands as several Arrancar fell like broken puppets, the precise reishi arrows piercing heads or hearts with remarkable ease. The charge stifled to a halt as a single Quincy flew down from above from a single VTOL that had flown out above the eastern side of the battle.
Several Arrancar brought their Zanpaktou to bear, shouting out release phrases for their Resurreccions. Adagio saw these Arrancar take on various changed shapes as their reiatsu exploded outward. One gained whip-like arms, while another grew in size as spurs of curved bone formed over his body, while another Arrancar’s form became akin to a thin, spindly centipede, but regardless of what form the Arrancar took Adagio felt the same potent uptick in power that came with such transformations. Yet she saw Garble hang back, as if he instinctively sensed something about this Quincy that warned him off while the rest of the more reckless Arrancar sought to surround her.
Whoever she was, she had dusky gray skin and short, clipped pink hair, and a strong jawline. Her uniform was unremarkable by Quincy standards, with a military waist jacket, trousers, knee high dark boots, and a flapping white mantle. Her bow was formed of two almost scissor-like spurs connected by a central spherical joint, all of a faintly golden hued metal.
As the transformed Arrancar rushed her, this Quincy moved with incredibly quick, precise motions and fired golden arrows into each one. As each arrow hit, it was as if the Arrancar lost all momentum, seemingly becoming paralyzed in place as they fell out of the air.
“What the hell? How did she do that?” Ember breathed, face darkening, “We have to stop her before she wipes out everyone here.”
“We’ve got to go, Ember,” Adagio began to say, not wanting to have their opening to get to the lake interrupted, but it was too late. The Sternritter looked right at them, her pale pink eyes narrowing as she spoke in a cultured tone.
“A Vasto Lorde and a powerful Arrancar, stronger than the rest of these rabble? I imagine at least one of you is a Fraccion then. Vasto Lordes are also incredibly rare. Fortunate you’re not an Arrancar yet. Eliminating you before you can evolve would be quite beneficial, I would say.”
“Oh crap,” Adagio grunted as the Sternritter vanished with a burst of high speed movement, and only Adagio’s freshly sharpened battle instincts, built up over her recent battles, allowed her to narrowly avoid getting struck by a golden arrow fired by the Sternritter as she flickered by at high speed.
Adagio flung her trident out and fired a Cero, but the Sternritter was so fast that the potent beam crossed the sky harmlessly, exploding close to the lake near a kilometer distant.
“Adagio!” Ember cried, zipping in with her Zanpaktou, her own form blurring with the speed of Sonido as she tried to catch the Sternritter, only for her blade to just hit an afterimage as the Quincy woman appeared in the air several dozen meters away.
“Hm, impressive. I take it from your appearance, young lady, that you’re related to the Fifth Espada.”
“I don’t have to answer anything from you,” Ember spat.
The Sternritter shrugged, “A fair point. I can’t help having a certain level of courtesy to those I deem of interest. Prim Hemline, Sternritter Z. Might I know your names, young ladies, before we continue?”
“...Ember,” she grunted reluctantly.
“Adagio Dazzle, if you happen to survive long enough to remember the name,” Adagio offered, not uncourteous herself, and more than happen to buy a moment of time to size her opponent up. The other Arrancar stood poised to jump in as well but Ember held her arm out.
“Don’t! The rest of you go after that damned fortress! Move it!”
That galvanized them to action, the Arrancar leaping away with speedy Sonidos to resume charging at the Quincy fortifications. However Garble remained behind, much to Ember’s clear irritation as she glared at him.
“What are you still doing here?”
“Like I’m going to let you steal the big kills for yourself,” Garble groused, baring his blade at Prim Hemline, “I bet I can take this one down faster than you!”
Prim made a small shrugging gesture, “I have no interest in you, but if you wish to join the dance, I don’t object either. Shall we? I’m eager to see what a young Vasto Lorde and one of the Fifth Espada’s Fraccion can do.”
Even as Adagio brought her trident to bear, water swirling around her in dense, serpent-like rivers as she prepared her attack, part of her gaze was still locked on her lake... so close, yet still so far away.
----------
On the western side of the battle the Quincy were faced with an advancing, billowing cloud of thick purple gas that crawled across the sands, obscuring from view the Arrancar hidden within. This gas indiscriminately killed lesser Hollows unfortunate enough to be trapped within, their bodies withering, disintegrating, or otherwise melting under the corrosive poison, but the lumbering and looping forms of the Arrancar within were unharmed.
That was because Hydia spent years if not decades introducing bits of her poison into the system of her loyal Arrancar followers. Every one of them was unusual in shape, deformed in some way from the more normal human shape most Arrancar possessed. Which was fine by Hydia’s standards. She didn’t care what anyone looked like, as long as they served her faithfully and weren’t boring sticks in the mud. One of the reasons she so loved to relentlessly troll Grogar was because of the ancient oak branch the old bastard had crammed up his butt. Teasing him was an endless source of entertainment.
Since most of her boys and gals were immune, or at least healthily resistant to her poison, Hydia had no qualms pouring the stuff out of her in a continuous haze of raw, dark purple mist that covered the western side of the battlefield. The Quincy were having trouble targeting her and her horde due to it, which let them gradually march ever closer to those fortification walls with relative ease. It was slow going, admittedly, since she had to spread her cloud gradually to ensure it stayed thick and potent, but what could the Quincy do to stop it?
“Hey mamma, you think we can keep a few Quincy as pets when the battle’s done?’ asked Reeka, walking alongside Hydia, who stood on a literal moving blob of sludge that Hydia created from secreting pores in her feet.
“If you manage to snag a few, feel free to keep them, dearie,” Hydia said with a thick laugh, “Just as long as you remember to keep them fed and clean up after them.”
“Blech, why’d you wanna keep any of these ugly bastards as pets anyhow?” asked Draggle, lips twisting in a grimace, “I swear each n’ every one of them looks the damn same. No personality at all.”
Reeka frowned, crossing her arms, “I just like the idea of having a pet! You don’t got to judge everything I do.”
“No girls, no arguing. We’re doing business stuff,” Hydia said jovially, but then she frowned, eyes focusing ahead, “Oh ho, speaking of work, looks like they’re just not gonna let us waltz on up and coat their big fancy walls in poison gas.”
These words were followed by a rumble in the ground as the sands ahead of the poison cloud gleamed with bright blue light and the reishi particles of the desert were quickly reconstructed into new shapes. Hydia sensed the presence of the Sternritter responsible for the fortifications at work, his reiatsu flowing through the sands ahead of them as a series of large white windmill-like fans sprang into being and began to spin rapidly, blowing away the lead elements of Hydia’s poison cloud.
“Well ain’t they clever? But it’s going to take more than a little wind power to stop my poison...” Hydia said, raising her arms and focusing her own spiritual pressure as her body started to become surrounded by an ever deeper miasma of dark purple light. More poison flowed out of her in a growing cloud, rising into the air like a thick fog wall.
However before it could get too large a new Quincy prepared ahead, a giant bear of a man. He was easily eight feet tall, with ludicrously broad shoulders, on par with Torch himself. Shaggy rusty reddish brown hair fell around his head, obscuring the man’s eyes, and flowing into a thick beard tied by a gold clasp. His Quincy ‘uniform’ was more like thick, furred viking garb, with a cloak of gray lined fur and an actual helmet bearing huge, curved yak horns.
“The heck is that? Bigfoot?” Draggle said, chuckling, “He’s just gonna choke on momma’s fumes.”
Hydia wasn’t quite so certain. No one’s fool, she knew a Sternritter when she saw one, and figured this huge shaggy bear of a man wouldn't’ have come out here so boldly if he was going to drop from mere contact with her poison.
Before she could muse further the man bellowed in a loud, thickly gruff tone, “I am Rutherford! Sternritter G! You get to know that before being smashed, Hollows!”
Then without any preamble whatsoever Rutherford flexed his arms and started to expand. Hydia looked up, and up, and up, and up as the Sternritter who started out as a fairly large eight foot tall man transformed into an massive titan easily fifty or sixty meters tall.
“So... uh, did anybody bring their anti-kaiju spray this morning?” asked Reeka as Rutherford, Sternritter G, the Giant, smashed his foot down to the ground with enough force to create a shockwave that billowed away a large portion of Hydia’s gas cloud, and sent dozens of her misshapen Arrancar forces flying.
----------
Guto snorted at the sight of the Quincy giant that had appeared on the western flank. He imagined Hydia was going to have a ball with that one. He wasn’t envious of her, however, as he’d focused his attention on the larger battle and knew soon enough he’d be facing more than enough worthy opponents.
“We’ve boxed their air forces in, my lord,” said Gruff, his oldest and most experienced Fraccion.
Guto stood on the air well above the majority of the fighting, more interesting in directing the fight more carefully than his compatriot Espada even as he was eager to look for the right opportunity to swoop into the battle personally. Gruff, a wrinkled looking old Arrancar with thick, bony protrusions rising from his brow and bearing a gnarled sword-cane for a Zanpaktou, remained close at Guto’s side, providing direction to fast moving couriers who’d relay orders to Guto’s disciplined forces.
Unlike the other Arrancar who charged in at random, Guto’s horde fought in tight moving formations, and Guto had been direction them to slowly box in and start picking apart those VTOLs the Quincy had in the air. Missiles and thick streams of gunfire from turret mounts made the VTOLs tough opponents, and more than a little anti-air fire was coming from the fortifications below, but ultimately that wouldn’t have been as large a problem if not for the one Quincy who was moving among the VTOLs and keeping Guto’s forces off balance with deadly precise shots from a revolver whose bullets seemed to create pockets of high gravity wherever they struck. Guto’s keen eyesight picked out the details of this man, a bulky fellow with purple skin and a ridiculous pompadour haircut, and Guto imagined this had to be a Sternritter. So far the man hadn’t done more than be a nuisance to Guto’s attempts to wipe out the Sternritter’s air forces, and Guto was debating whether to deal with the man directly.
Guto had been cautious with that one, not letting his people charge in too close and instead using concentrated Cero beams to slowly force the VTOLs to bunch together in a narrow space above the Quincy fortifications. HIs caution wasn’t simply because he was concerned with facing one Sternritter, but because among the VTOLs there was one much larger than the others that hung near the center of the battle. That VTOL, Guto sensed, was carrying even more Sternritter, and most of them had yet to make move. His own swift tactical mind surmised that the general of the Quincy forces was on that VTOL, and that he was intentionally keeping Sternritter in reserve to send out as reinforcements when needed.
This was confirmed to Guto when he saw two Quincy, both female, one a dark skinned woman with blond hair and another with buttery yellow skin and a two toned pink and white head of hair, leave a side hatch on that command VTOL and head north where Torch and Lament were fighting.
Good, knowing where the enemy kept their command center was important, and under the right circumstances Guto could take advantage of the fact.
“Well done,” he said in response to Gruff’s comment, “Focus on keeping these flying insects boxed in above their fortifications. We need to limit their movement and ability to provide air support. Tell Greta to take her unit and begin bombarding the fortifications from above. I want Gilda to then-”
“My lord!” a courier appeared with a burst of Sonido, kneeling in front of Guto, “A report from our scouts.”
Guto raised a sharp eyebrow. Caution and common sense had told him to detach several of his horde to scout the area, in case the Quincy had any surprises waiting for them. Given that not even half of the Quincy Sternritter had appeared on the battlefield yet, he wouldn’t be surprised at all if a surprise attack was coming. It made him admire Tirek’s choice to hold Smooze, Catrina and Chrysalis in reserve, while using Squirk primarily to move forces with the Garganta portals. Anything the Quincy tried would get almost immediately countered. It was galling to admit that Tirek’s position was earned not just by raw power, but by cunning as well. It’d almost be shame if the Quincy’s ‘King’ managed to kill Tirek.
“Speak,” he told the courier curtly, expecting to hear a report of some Quincy strike forcing moving in on them from behind.
“We’ve spotted a small group of Quincy hidden near the lake formation to the southeast,” the courier said, “We estimate less than a hundred of them, the majority of them seemingly quite young.”
Guto’s eyes flashed with a sudden, hungry light.
The Quincy’s young generation of cadets!? The one’s Torch, Catrina, and Squirk failed to annihilate completely! He couldn’t stop the sharp, predatory smile creasing his harsh, avian features.
“Is that so? Are they alone?”
“No, my lord, the scout spotted perhaps two or three Quincy among the young ones who appeared to be quite strong, perhaps even Sternritter,” the courier replied swiftly.
Fingers rising to his chin, Guto considered. He wasn’t inclined to rash action. Discipline and well executed tactics was the key to victory in battle. Yet one who ignored opportunity when it came calling was doomed to obscurity. He couldn’t fathom why the Quincy would bring their young, vulnerable cadets out to a battle such as this, but at the same time guarding them with multiple Sternritter was an admittedly effective deterrent. Could Guto afford to abandon his attack on the fortifications to go after the cadets?
His keen eagle-like eyes scanned the battlefield.
Torch and Lament were engaged with Sternritter on the north side, but Torch’s horde was making swift progress in assaulting the fortifications. Hydia was stalled by that giant of a Quincy, but Guto knew she could hold her own. His forces were keeping the VTOLs busy, but he could leave that to Gruff and Greta’s units while he redirected Gilda elsewhere. Much as he was displeased with Gilda’s brash stupidity from the other day, the fact remained he’d been grooming the promising girl for a long time. Her power was a rival for the lower ranked Espada, and given time she might even match him one day. Between the two of them they could likely face off with a few Sternritter... at least long enough for the rest of Gilda’s unit to decimate the Quincy cadets. Furthermore, he doubted the Quincy general sitting upon that command VTOL could afford to ignore a threat to the cadets, which meant that any Sternritter being kept in reserve to fight elsewhere would possibly be sent to stop him, which while dangerous for Guto, would make the battle much easier for his compatriot Espada. He didn’t actually care about their well being, but the glory and praise he’d receive for possibly turning the tide of battle filled Guto with a hungry avarice.
It was too good an opportunity to pass up, he decided.
“Send word to Gilda. She’s to abandon the bombardment plan and regroup here with me,” Guto drew his Zanpaktou and smiled with raw hunger, “We’re going hunting.”
----------
Far from the intense maelstrom of battle, the dunes on the west side of Las Noches stirred with the faintest touch of motion. White sand softly poured down dune slopes as invisible forms passed by with fleet movements that brought them right up to the monolithic fortress walls.
Shimmering camouflage cloaks were pulled back, hoods drawn down as Cadence placed a hand on the flat, cold stone in front of her.
“Nothing nearby,” she said, and her two companions removed their own hoods.
Twilight Velvet gave the faintest of disquiet shuffles as her eyes were drawn south towards the sounds of battle, but Cadence touched the other woman’s arm in a comforting gesture.
“They’ll be okay,” Cadence said.
Velvet nodded, then glanced at the third of their troupe, Sassy Saddles returning the look with sympathy in her eyes.
“I know how you feel. Let’s just do this job as fast as we can. As soon as we confirm that our target is dead, the battle will be over.”
A small nod came from Velvet and she turned her attention to the wall. “Then let’s make short work of this. Sassy, you’re up.”
Up until recently they’d been within the sphere of Night Light’s Schrift, and had been receiving updates on the developing battle. They knew at least half the Espada were already engaged in the fight, but more importantly that the Garganta portals being used to move the Arrancar into the battle were the same as the ones that had brought the raid to the Quincy Academy. It was very likely their target was still inside Las Noches, and if he was actively using Gargantas then his reiatsu would be easy to track once they were inside the fortress. Cadence had selected Sassy Saddles for her team because Sassy’s Schrift would let them get inside the fortress with the greatest ease. As soon as they’d surmised the Espada controlling the Gargantas was still within Las Noches, they’d moved out, using camouflage cloaks and suppressing their reiatsu to avoid detecting while approaching the fortress from a spot far from the battle.
Now with the majority of the Quincy and Arrancar forces locked in deadly combat, Cadence and her kill team could infiltrate with very little chance of being spotted.
Sassy Saddles extended her hand, the Quincy cross around her wrist twinkling with blue light as she brought forth her bow. It was a long and elegant recurve bow formed from metal with a pink hue. The central portion of the bow had a circle of condensed metal mounted upon it, and as Sassy drew her arm back, a pink string of reishi energy forming on the bow and forming an exceedingly thin reishi arrow, that circle expanded into a cone of ever smaller rings.
When Sassy released the arrow it didn’t so much fire as it did transform into a continuous and persistent, thin beam that instantly cut into the wall of Las Noches as if the thick stone was nothing more than paper. With simple motions Sassy Saddles drew a circle with the pink beam of light, and when she was done she simply stood back and made a quick bow.
“One instant door, ladies.”
“Good work Sassy,” Cadene said, pushing on the spot where the circle had been cut. Blut Arterie enhance her strength as her arm pushed on the tones of stone that had been cut through, and a five meter thick circle of stone fell inward as Cadence pushed it. Beyond was a darkened corridor, and another cut circle in the opposite wall. Sassy Saddle’s ‘arrow’ would have cut hundreds of meters into the fortress, making getting into the interior a snap. What would have taken a great deal of time and effort to find another entrance had instead been a matter of seconds.
All thanks to Sassy Saddles, Sternritter N, the Needle.
“Alright, let’s get in there. We’ve got an Espada to kill.”
----------
Cheerilee looked upon the distant battle with faint awe and a distinct look of hapless humor, “You know if we weren’t knocked on our asses by what went down back home, this would have been the perfect chance to step in and really put the hurt on both the Hollows and Quincy.”
“That, or lose uncounted Soul Reapers by making an already chaotic battle even more devastating for all sides involved,” said Luna, her own eyes taking in the scene miles away with careful calculation, “I’d not so casually toss lives into that burning pyre.”
“Really? What do you call what we’re doing now, then, Cap?” asked Cheerilee with a cheeky grin, “We’re not exactly out for a pleasure stroll, are we?”
Luna crossed her arms and glanced away with a small hint of embarrassment coloring her cheeks, “This is completely different. We’re being covert.”
“Without orders,” Cheerilee pointed out.
“...Captain Command Scorpan didn’t not order me to do something if I saw a chance to take advantage of any distractions in Las Noches’ defenses,” Luna said defensively, then snorted and gave Cheerilee a small smirk, “Besides you can’t tell me you don’t enjoy this, Cheerilee. You missed out on all the action back home.”
“Hey, I like playing teacher,” Cheerilee said, sighing she looked up, eyes glazed, “I had a comfy apartment, all the coffee I could drink, and the joy of disciplining unruly teenagers. I was perfectly happy not dealing with the malkavian insanity that went on in Soul Society, your incarceration notwithstanding, Captain.”
“Your concern warms my heart.”
“Oh don’t be like that, you know I was worried half to death for you and Celestia. I’m just grateful those girls managed to unscrew that situation,” Cheerilee said, crossing her arms as she tapped a foot impatiently, “What’s taking Nocturn so long?”
“You rang?” the man himself said as he suddenly appeared with a Flash Step beside the two, saluting with his one arm, “Captain, Lieutenant.”
Luna nodded, returning his salute, “Did you find a way inside?”
“I believe so, Captain,” Nocturn said, nodding back towards Las Noche’s towering walls, “All normal entrances are locked down, and would require so much force to penetrate that we’d reveal our presence if we tried to brute force our way in. However I’ve discovered a series of small vents along the east side. They’re too small to crawl through normally, and quite a bit of steam and smoke is rising out of them. That said, with your Zanpaktou, Captain, I believe we have our way in.”
“Perfect,” Luna said, patting the tanto and katana hilts of her dual Zanpaktou. With the power of her Shikai she could convey herself, her Lieutenant, and Third Seat into any shadowed area, moving along the lines of darkness with swiftness and ease.
“Great,” said Cheerilee, “Now that we have a way in, anyone want to remind me what we’re actually planning to do?”
“What, you didn’t get the briefing?” Nocturn said with a joking smirk.
“I must have been on lunch break when that happened,” Cheerilee said, and Luna groaned at both of them.
“You two are worse than my sister. Look, I understand we’re not acting under orders. Regardless we cannot pass up this chance. No Soul Reaper has ever explored the interior of Las Noches, and we’ll never get a better opportunity to do so while the majority of the enemy is distracted. More than that, there’s another reason for us to go inside, something Starswirl brought up at the last Captain’s meeting before we came here...”
“Oh?” Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, “Care to fill us in on what that was, Captain?”
Luna’s eyes focused somberly upon Las Noches, “Starswirl believes it would be beneficial to study the power of Garganta portals and if one could be used to reopen the way to the realm of Equestria. So we’re going in there to capture a live Arrancar.”
----------
Di-Roy sneezed, ignoring the Arrancar children climbing over him like a living jungle gym as he patrolled the front doors to Lament’s tower.
“Soooooo bored, why do Adagio and Ember get to go have all the fun? Hey kids, you guys want to go take a peek at the battle with Uncle Di-Roy?”
His question was met with enthusiastic shouts, but soon Roka stepped out from the open doors into the tower, smiling pleasantly yet with such arctic chill that Di-Roy froze in place.
“I think it would be better to continue to wait here patiently, children, for Father to return from the battle. Its too dangerous to go peeking at anything. And Di-Roy?”
Di-Roy turned his head slowly, smiling with frightened pleasantness, “Y-yeah?”
Roka was smiling, but her eyes were closed like the pleasant slits of a murderer, “Don’t encourage the children.”
“H-heh-heh, s-sure, no problem,” he said, gulping as he set the children down, many of whom made disappointed ‘awww’ noises, but he shooed them off, “C’mon kids, it was a fun idea, but let’s not get Uncle Di-Roy axe-murdered by your protective big sis.”
“Go play inside, children. It’ll be lunch time soon anyway,” Roka said, and the kids shuffled into the tower. Meanwhile Fenice came wandering out as well, glancing at the passing kids with a momentary soft smile before her look turned sour as she joined Roka and Di-Roy on the steps leading up to the tower proper.
“I hate waiting like this,” Fenice said, “Why didn’t Father just take us with him?”
Roka sighed, shaking her head, “Do you honestly think Father would have been comfortable taking us into battle? He cares for our safety above everything, Fenice. He’d never allow us to fight by his side. Especially given that when he uses his full power, he has little control over what gets destroyed around him.”
“I know, I just...” Fenice’s fingers brushed her pendant, “I hate not being able to do anything. Adagio and Ember are out there too.”
“Ah, and you’re starting to take a liking to them...”
“So what if I am?” Fenice grumbled irritably, her eyes glancing towards Di-Roy, and then towards the foot of the steps where Gaw’s massive form was laying down, sleeping, “Hasn’t been bad having someone else to talk to, even annoying one’s like Di-Roy.”
“Hey, I’m the life of the party!” Di-Roy said, grimacing as his stomach wound acted up, “When I have only the one hole in me that I’m supposed to, anyway. Anyways, you gals don’t need to be worrying about Adagio or Ember. They’re not going to drop from some asshole Quincy. And your old man? Whew, forget about it. I feel bad for whoever’s stuck fighting him. Talk about drawing the short end of the stick.”
“Indeed,” Roka said, giving Di-Roy a somewhat fond smile that was quite different from her threatening one of moments ago.
And unbeknownst to any of them, on the wall of Las Noches’ interior not far from Lament’s tower, a hole was cut open by a thin pink beam, and a trio of cloaked Quincy entered the fortress on the hunt.
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If Velvet and her team accidenly harm the children in the tower, or on purpose, who knows what the Quincy will do, they will be in for a very bad time in the moment Lament knows about it. I wonder what Sombra's special plan will be as long as he occupies Tirek.
This is soooo good! This story deserves a lot more attention than it's getting.
So the real question is if Cadance recognizes her world's sunset shimmer...
Wouldn't be surprised if Cadence's and Luna's groups ran into each other next chapter. Also makes me wonder what those two will do if they do, considering how they interacted during the Friendship Games.
So Radiant Hope was killed by a Hollow, or a Soul Reaper? I mean Tirek says it wasn't him with regards to Sombra's hatred of hollows so I'm assuming that's what started the war (at least between the hollows and the quincy). I can't see the Sombra vs Tirek battle reaching a clear conclusion, most likely limited to giving us background information about the war's beginning.
Um Shining Armor and Jet Set. You two are aware that you're allowed to use Volstandig now right? Because now would be a really good time, unless they're trying to hold off on using it for as long as possible because it's untested in actual battle hmm. Never mind carry on but Jet Set is still dead as shit because we all know The Lament has immunity from it due to the whole Applejack and Sweet Cider thing.
As for Shining Armour vs Torch. I don't really want either of them to die but it is a thematically appropriate showdown of the strongest barrier vs the strongest hierro. Hydia vs Rutherford is a thing I guess, don't care who wins but let's hope the Sternritters do their jobs and keep Guto's forces away from the girls to prevent the inevitable Twilight/Midnight Sparkle vs Gilda showdown from happening. Actually fuck that, LET THEM FIGHT, LET THEM FIGHT!
Adagio, Ember and Garble vs Prim Hairline, at the very least I see Garble getting killed. Adagio might end up having to (or at least be convinced to) leave Ember there in order to get inside Las Noches. Especially once Guto has the three Sternritter guarding the cadets distracted, you know they're not going to get a better shot at it than that.
As for the infiltration teams. Cadence, Velvet and Sassy should just go around Lament's tower, their target isn't there so they have no reason to attack it. Luna's squad on the other hand, while they may throw a wrench in Chrysalis' plans, better not touch my boy Di-Roy and sure as fuck leave Roka alone if you know what's good for your health. But let's face it, the Twilight Velvet vs Captain Luna rematch is inevitable anyway so let's have it.
Good chapter but I hope in the next one, THE BODY COUNT RISES!
For named characters anyway.
Oh man, I'm so excited. My mind is already whirling with the possibilities at play.
I want to see Luna and Cheerilee's reations to human Sunset. And her reaction to that name. Adagio has been carful to avoid it so far, and that makes me wonder.
Di-Roy is getting a visit from the Mistress of the Night. This should be interesting.
struggling to breath, even with the Bastion
growled Grable as he rushed up beside Ember
The Espada then move in a lightning swift motion
“Hey mamma, you think we can keep a few Quincy as pets when the battle’s done?’
shaggy bear of a man wouldn't’ have come out here
and Guto had been direction them to slowly box in and
1. Breathe.
2. Garble.
3. Moved.
4. Meant to be a closing quotation mark.
5. Extra apostrophe.
6. Directing.
Holy smokes these battles are getting all kinds of awesome right now!
I really don't like the chances for anyone involved anywhere.
I can't wait to see what happens next.
As always, great chapter.
An Amazing chapter. Well done.
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That evil Kirby is going to haunt my dreams.
Well this will be real interesting, it's a given that Luna and Cadence will run into each other whilst sneaking around Las Noches. The question is will a fight break out between them and jeopardize their stealth missions or could they work out an agreement of some sort.
Though I'm real curious about the history between Chrysalis and Luna, as it happened while Luna and Celestia were captains.
EDIT: I remembered incorrectly, the noodle incident was before they were captains, but how long have Luna and Celestia been soul reapers if they've only become captains within the last 500 years? I had assumed they were practically ancient given how fond of them Scorpan was towards them much like Yamamato was towards Kyoraku and Ukitake who were amongst the first generation of soul reapers after the foundation of the soul reaper academy which was well over a millennium ago.
He goin' full Frieza! HIT THE DECK!!
One thing I noticed and wanted to ask about (and I'm not sure if this is intentional or just an auto-correct thing... I'm also apparently too lazy to go back through older chapters and check for myself); in this chapter you used 'Blut Vein' instead of the traditional 'Blut Vene'. It seems a little weird to mix the German and English like that; was there a reason you chose to do it that way?
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Nope, just forgot what spelling I was using. The error has been corrected now. Thanks for spotting it.
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That seems right to me. I think it's because the phrasing placed an emphasis on the conservation of reishi which sounded off to me. Although everything spiritual is made of reishi, for a soul reaper it's through the usage of their own reiryoku that gives their powers form and I feel that would be a bit more 'natural' explanation in a way from Discord to another soul reaper.IIRC I don't believe Sunset was ever briefed on what Quincies are at this point in time.
Although I never understood why in Bleach canon the soul reapers were so much more deficient in manipulating external reishi compared to Quincy. Was it some natural limit or a factor in their development. They were definitely able to create platforms in the air with reishi to stand on, but even Captains preferred not to in Soul Society. I chalked it up to the lack of a fleshy meat bag that hinders the release of reiryoku and so soul reapers would gravitate towards utilizing their reiryoku instead of external reishi and maybe that oh so special Quincy blood, but eh
Sombra had a lover? Forgot about that if it was mentioned before. I'm guessing we know her current incarnation, unless he accidentally did the quincy thing and eradicated her soul. If I were Tirek and that happened, I would totally go for that taunt. I'm guessing it's Twilight, given his interest and indulgence, but it could be Cadance or Amore for the Crystal Empire connection.
Anyway, Luna... I can see the tragic Apple family reunion coming from her plan if she picks up one of the kids. Although bumping into the human version of Sunset might throw her.
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Could be the ‘Spirit Queen’... ah, a Lover’s Spat, how anime
It's Fleur
Soarin, and Fleur again.
By Which hand was it though ?
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Hasn't been revealed in the story yet, and for now I do intend to keep it thus.