Hueco Mundo had always been a place without order.
Even the Great Hollows that lived here existed in a cycle of devouring and being devoured—living without knowing why they lived, dying without knowing why they died, drifting along in a fog, surviving with no purpose.
Later, Las Noches was built, but it was still nothing more than a brutal breeding pit where the strong ate the weak—a one-man dictatorship under Barraggan.
After that, Aizen arrived, and Las Noches finally gained a semblance of order… yet it still couldn't escape that same law of the jungle.
But even that was enough to satisfy Starrk.
Because in this vast coliseum called Hueco Mundo, even the faintest trace of order was better than having none at all.
That was also why he was willing to submit to Aizen and follow him into the assault on Karakura Town.
Because he truly couldn't endure the loneliness anymore.
Then Aizen left, Cole took over Las Noches—and what he did was even better than the previous two.
Because he only laid down two rules.
First: members of Las Noches were forbidden to kill each other.
Second: Las Noches would not take in Hollows that were extremely evil.
Other than that, Cole acted like a hands-off boss, not managing Las Noches at all, tossing all the work and duties onto them.
From that day on, Las Noches welcomed a group of Great Hollows with gentler dispositions.
They no longer liked slaughtering and devouring other Hollows as they used to. Instead, they became far more mild—almost like humans.
And that was exactly the kind of environment he liked.
Lazy, unhurried, free and easy—wandering around when he felt like it, resting and chatting anywhere at any time.
So even if Cole were going to break the order he himself had set, Starrk would fight to the death to stop him.
Because he didn't want Las Noches to return to what it used to be.
And because he didn't want anyone else to keep suffering through loneliness.
Facing Starrk's words, Quilge Opie's expression turned icy.
He didn't answer. He simply nocked an arrow without hesitation and loosed a Heilig Pfeil (Sacred Extinguishing Arrow).
"Die!"
Against Shinigami, he might still be interested in talking.
But against Hollows, he didn't even have the desire to speak.
A bunch of beasts—no matter how human they looked, they would never change the animal savagery buried in their hearts.
Starrk let out a quiet sigh. Then he abruptly raised both pistols, pulled the triggers, and spoke in a flat voice:
"Unlimited Cero (Hollow Flash)."
In an instant, dazzling blue light erupted from the muzzles.
In a single second, nearly three thousand Cero (Hollow Flash) shots were fired.
Even Quilge Opie couldn't help widening his eyes.
"How is that possible?!"
Cero (Hollow Flash) was a Great Hollow's strongest ability. Normally, a Hollow had to charge for dozens of seconds just to fire one.
Yet this guy in front of him had fired over three thousand in a single second—more than even the number of Heilig Pfeil (Sacred Extinguishing Arrow) shots he could produce.
Our intel on him isn't enough… no, our intel on Hueco Mundo as a whole isn't enough.
We were careless…
Regret surged through Quilge Opie as he watched the endless Cero (Hollow Flash) barrage collide with his Heilig Pfeil (Sacred Extinguishing Arrow).
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions like thunderclaps erupted one after another, shaking the sky.
Hearing the commotion from far away, Grimmjow, Nnoitra, Nelliel, and Tier Harribel all let out sighs of relief.
Nelliel relaxed and smiled.
"I knew it. With that much noise over here, there's no way Starrk wouldn't show up."
Tier Harribel snorted, sheathing her blade.
"That lazy guy was definitely slacking off somewhere nearby. When Cole-sama comes back, he'd better punish him properly."
Grimmjow and Nnoitra looked a bit disappointed.
"Looks like we won't need to go. Starrk alone is enough."
Nnoitra hefted his six huge crescent scythes, glaring at Yammy with irritation.
"So, Yammy, you bastard—why'd you steal my opponent? Once I get Segunda Etapa (Second Release), I'm definitely going to chop you up."
Because of the order Cole had set, Nnoitra hadn't fought in a long time. He was starving for battle.
Yammy scratched his head awkwardly.
"Because you guys were too slow. If you've got the guts, go steal Starrk's enemy."
Even as he said it, he knew that with Starrk here, that enemy would be dealt with soon.
After all, even if Yammy had already mastered a third stage of Resurrección, he still wasn't confident he could beat the former Primera Espada.
And now that Starrk had repaired the damage in his soul…
Maybe he'd even taken another step forward.
Maybe he'd already mastered Segunda Etapa.
The rumbling gradually faded.
Then, from within the dust of the white desert, a sudden howl rang out.
A few azure-blue wolves stepped out of the sand and walked up to Starrk, nuzzling him affectionately.
In his Resurrección state Starrk calmly reached out and patted the wolves' heads.
Opposite him, Quilge Opie stood on the white sand, soaked in blood.
One arm was gone, and the rest of his body was torn and bleeding—clear bite wounds left by those blue wolves.
After a moment of silence, he lowered his gaze to the wound in his chest, then looked back at Starrk and asked evenly:
"What… is that ability?"
Just now, within the countless Cero shots, the other side had fired several extremely strange Cero blasts.
They weren't laser-like beams anymore.
They transformed into blue wolves, moving with agility as they charged him.
They could even ignore physical attacks.
Not only could they tear into his body, they could also self-detonate right beside him.
Even though he had resisted with everything he had, he was still bitten until he was covered in wounds—his heart even blasted apart by one of the wolves' self-destructions.
At that point, even if he wanted to use Ransōtengai (Disordered Dress of the Heavenly Puppet), it wouldn't matter.
Hearing that, Starrk held his pistol in his left hand, lazily scratching his head.
"Wolf Pack."
As he spoke, he stroked the blue wolves and said flatly:
"These wolves aren't my weapons. They're souls I split off from myself. Each one carries part of my strength."
"So I can control them perfectly. They can pass through physical attacks—and they can also cause damage directly to the soul."
"And you… were just hit directly in the soul."
He exhaled slowly, feeling a trace of regret for Quilge Opie.
Whether Shinigami or Great Hollows, they were fundamentally spiritual beings—their souls were extraordinarily tough.
That was why his soul-splitting ability hadn't been as effective against Shinigami before.
But Quincy were different.
They still had flesh-and-blood bodies, and their methods relied on manipulating reishi in the world around them.
So his soul split was, in a sense, their perfect counter.
"I see…"
After learning what had killed him, Quilge Opie nodded slowly. His body swayed, unwillingness flickering across his face.
"What a shame… if I'd held out a little longer, you would've died from soul splitting too…"
With those words, he collapsed heavily into the white sand, quickly buried, his presence vanishing.
At the same time, Starrk's twin pistols transformed back into Lilynette.
She looked at Quilge Opie's corpse with disdain and clicked her tongue.
"Idiot. He actually thought he could make us run out of soul power and die. Does he think you and I are still injured like before?"
This wasn't like the past.
With Orihime's restoration, the damage the two of them had suffered from splitting their souls had long since been healed.
Now, even though they could still fight together, it was more like two independent individuals.
In that situation, even if they both split thousands of blue wolves at once, they could recover quickly in a short time.
Besides, they didn't just have soul splitting anymore—they had other killing moves as well.
Starrk yawned lazily.
"Alright, Lilly. No matter what, that guy was a strong enemy. No need to mock him so much."
As he spoke, Starrk walked forward, rubbing his head with a headache.
"The Quincy have already invaded Hueco Mundo… which means something big went wrong in Seireitei or the Living World."
"Maybe the enemy they're facing is even stronger than ours…"
"What a pain…"
With that, Starrk sighed, already able to foresee the war to come.
…
At the same time, within the Wandenreich.
Yhwach's expression sank.
He could already feel Quilge Opie's and Driscoll Berci's power returning to him—because they had drunk the blood wine he bestowed.
When they died, their power returned to his body.
"Your Majesty… what is it?" Jugram Haschwalth asked at once.
Yhwach was silent for a moment.
"Quilge Opie and Driscoll Berci are dead. Where did they go?"
Jugram Haschwalth froze, then frowned.
"They went to Hueco Mundo…"
In his view, sending those two to Hueco Mundo was already giving it more respect than it deserved.
And yet…
"Did they run into Cole?!"
Yhwach's brows tightened.
"The one from the Military Police?"
"No. A Substitute Shinigami on the Shinigami side. He's very strong, and his name is also Cole."
"Another Cole…"
Yhwach's frown deepened, an instinctive sense of wrongness rising in his gut.
In truth, from the moment he awakened, he had already felt something was off—because the situation was simply too bad.
Now, with setbacks piling up in Seireitei and Hueco Mundo, his suspicion grew even heavier.
He drew in a breath, rose from the sofa, and strode out.
"Haschwalth. Come with me to see someone."
Jugram Haschwalth paused, then hurried after him.
"Who will Your Majesty see?"
"Aizen."
…
Meanwhile, in Seireitei.
In the First Division, while rushing to rebuild and set up defenses, Chōjirō Sasakibe suddenly froze—then burst into delighted shock.
"What's going on?!"
"Why can I feel Bankai again?!"
(End of Chapter)
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