Without warning, a tentacle shot out from its skin, directly grabbing a normal Hollow crawling in the distance and dragging it over.
Immediately after, the mutated Adjuchas opened its gaping maw and feasted to its heart's content, venting its deep-seated hunger and instinctual greed.
Aizen observed for a moment before delivering his conclusion:
"It was not formed naturally, but artificially modified."
"The Phosphoric Gas of Hell has been present within its body for quite some time."
As soon as he finished speaking, the mutated Adjuchas's crimson eyes locked onto Naraku Sora nearby. It opened its mouth hungrily and let out a piercing, mournful roar.
"Is it of any use?" Sora glared back, refusing to be outdone, before turning his head to ask.
Aizen pondered for a few seconds. "Try your best to capture it. It should provide some inspiration, but..."
Before he could finish, the mutated Adjuchas could no longer hold back. Its deafening roar sounded like a greedy, cruel cackle, and a ferocious expression twisted its ugly face.
Sensing the powerful Reiatsu emanating from the Soul Reaper in the distance, it stomped its four hooves. The silver sand beneath it instantly compacted and caved in, generating a massive recoil force.
The mutated behemoth lunged hungrily at the closest living creature.
Immediately after, a muffled thud echoed out.
The lunging Adjuchas slammed into an invisible barrier that had descended from the sky, as if it had crashed headfirst into an iron wall.
Its previously ferocious speed transformed into a massive impact, splattering its entire dark silhouette against the surface.
Sora looked at the cracks on the Dankū barrier in front of him with some surprise. He suddenly realized that after being enhanced by the power of Hell, this big guy's strength was already comparable to an Arrancar.
No wonder his good brother wanted to capture it if possible.
As a researcher, one could never have too many good materials.
The mutated Adjuchas took two steps back and shook its dizzy head. Its crimson pupils stared fixedly at Sora as a dull sound erupted.
Sonído.
A shrill whistling of wind came from behind Sora.
Bang—
The sharp end of the tentacle smashed into the back of Sora's neck. Through his Reiatsu defense and Hierro, it only brought a faint sensation of impact.
A forced deduction of a single health point.
It did not even break his defense.
Even the mindless Adjuchas froze in place. A dumbfounded expression appeared on its ugly face, seemingly unable to believe the sight before it.
That was until a grinning face entered its line of sight and sneered,
"Doing all these flashy tricks all day, is it of any use?"
"In the end, it all comes down to raw stats!"
The moment his voice fell, a silver blade light slashed upward, carving a perfect arc that bloomed in the desert like moonlight.
Its speed was so fast that it had already surpassed the limits of what the Adjuchas's naked eye could observe. Before the beast could even react, the thick tentacle was sliced cleanly in two.
So what if it had the blessing of Hell's power? So what if it temporarily devoured its own kind to evolve?
Just because someone was pulling strings in the shadows, did that mean it could bridge the massive gap in raw stats?
Zommari Rureaux had not only provided Aizen with perfect experimental material, but he had also brought Sora an enhancement to his Hollow powers.
Coupled with the other Menos Grande he had slaughtered during the Soul Burial Festival, his Hollow powers had now reached fifty percent!
Whether it was his Hierro, Sonído, or the Pesquisa unique to Menos Grande, all of them had been elevated to a whole new level.
Even without actively initiating Hollowfication, he could still display absolute dominance.
Sora stood tall with his sword in hand, the tip pointing at the ground. Circuit-like patterns surfaced on the back of his hand, and scorching sparks continuously spread from the tsuba until they enveloped the entire blade.
Enchantment complete.
Right at that moment, the mutated Adjuchas activated Sonído once more. Its gaping maw, reeking of a thick, putrid stench, opened wide as if to bite Sora's head off.
Boom!
The sound of clashing metal erupted from within its mouth. Its incredibly sharp fangs clamped down on the blade, and a scorching heat akin to magma surged forth.
But at the same time, a bone-chilling sense of crisis grew increasingly intense.
Looking down, it saw the relatively tiny Soul Reaper slowly lower his posture, as if accumulating power.
As his muscles contracted, a heat-filled Reiatsu rose like a blazing furnace.
He grinned ferociously, revealing a chilling smile.
The next moment, a deafening roar suddenly erupted, and an utterly unreasonable amount of power surged explosively from the Zanpakutō.
As if struck by an overwhelming force.
The massive, ugly head instantly disintegrated. Severed tentacles splattered in all directions, and its four legs were flung every which way.
The colossal body was instantly sent flying, leaving a long, bloody trail across the silver-white desert.
It crashed heavily into the raised sand dunes, turning into a pile of mush stuck within them. It looked as dead as dead could be.
However, before Sora could even stand up straight, countless fleshy sprouts suddenly emerged from the battered corpse, continuously weaving together to repair the damaged body.
Aizen appeared right on cue. With a cast of Bakudō #63, golden radiance transformed into snake-like chains that instantly bound and imprisoned it.
After accomplishing this, he raised his finger, pointed it at a certain direction in the empty air, and parted his lips.
"Hadō #90・Black Coffin."
Boom!!
Profound darkness rose from the ground, instantly obliterating the surrounding silver sand. Strange noises rang out, and an abnormal Reiatsu shot straight into the sky, but it was still completely enveloped.
An endless torrent of Reiatsu crashed down. Pitch-black patterns surfaced on the long black coffin, distorting everything around it.
Countless terrifying blades erupted recklessly within, followed by a roar laced with both anger and agony.
The next second.
Cracks appeared on the surface of the black coffin, and a pillar of pinkish-purple Reiatsu shot straight into the heavens.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Crisp shattering sounds exploded across the black cube. Countless Reishi fragments shot outward, and a figure covered in wounds appeared in sight.
Blazing fury burned wildly, as if threatening to consume Szayelaporro's sanity entirely.
A tyrannical aura instantly swept across the entire battlefield, and his gruesome, flesh-rending wounds healed at a visible rate.
Even though Szayelaporro was a Vasto Lorde—the highest class of Menos Grande at the absolute apex of Hueco Mundo—taking a direct hit from Aizen's Hadō #90 while completely off guard still left him in a miserable state.
He had clearly used special technology to completely conceal his Reiatsu, to the point where he could easily bypass the Pesquisa of a Menos Grande, yet he had still been discovered.
His golden eyes stared fixedly at Aizen in the distance, a cruel expression forming on his face.
"Just how did you find me?"
His hoarse voice echoed across the dead, silent desert.
Unfortunately, Aizen did not speak. The one who answered him was someone else.
Sora sized up the figure radiating a cold, sinister aura and curled his lips in disdain.
"I could see a shifty-eyed pervert sticking his fat ass out to peep from a mile away."
"You didn't actually think your stealth technology was so superb that no one could detect it, did you, you narrow-minded fool?"
"?" Szayelaporro stared in confusion.
Although the figure Aizen had blasted out looked slightly different from the image in his memory, combining it with the mutated Adjuchas from earlier made it easy to deduce.
This person should be the future 8th Espada, the scientist of Hueco Mundo, Szayelaporro Grantz.
However, this guy's Reiatsu seemed a bit ridiculously strong.
Sora frowned, suddenly realizing where the problem lay.
When Aizen cast Black Coffin just now, he hadn't held back in the slightest.
Yet, even with a calculated ambush against an unprepared target, he still failed to inflict any effective damage on the other party.
Following Zommari, was this another guy using cheats?
Szayelaporro took a few deep breaths, suppressing his restless anger. His cold eyes locked onto Sora in the distance.
"Although your mouth is incredibly foul, your performance was exceptionally brilliant."
"From the Rukongai in the Soul Society to your two trips to Hueco Mundo, I have taken in everything about you. To express my fondness for you, I plan to keep you here in Hueco Mundo—"
"As my experimental material."
Hearing this, Sora looked astonished.
Since when?
Right at that moment, Aizen walked over from nearby, his calm face showing no significant emotional fluctuations.
"Sora, there is no need to be surprised."
"It is nothing more than some clumsy, unpresentable technology."
"As a researcher, when facing people outside his field of expertise, he will always harbor an inexplicable sense of superiority, causing him to look down on everyone equally."
"However, this arrogance ingrained in his very being only serves to highlight his lack of intelligence."
"Considering the other party is merely a Hollow surviving on instinct, such behavior is not surprising."
"After all, a person's perspective is limited by the environment in which they live."
His plain glasses reflected an indescribable gleam as Aizen looked calmly into the distance.
"Just like an ignorant fool blind to the vastness of the world."
As soon as he finished speaking, Aizen raised his finger. A Byakurai, cast without an incantation, shot out from his fingertip.
It directly killed a worm hidden beneath the surface of the sand.
Viscous purple blood oozed out, staining the silver sand.
Szayelaporro's expression instantly turned incredibly ugly, no longer able to maintain his previous elegant posture.
Now he had truly lost his composure.
He hadn't been this angry even when he was ambushed by the Black Coffin or insulted by that bastard Soul Reaper just now.
But when the Spirit-Recording Bug he had painstakingly developed specifically for surveillance was so easily discovered, Szayelaporro could no longer hold back his burning rage.
Sora, on the other hand, cast a suspicious glance at Aizen beside him.
He seriously suspected that this guy had discovered it long ago but deliberately kept quiet, waiting specifically for this moment just to show off in front of him.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask.
Szayelaporro completely erupted. A dense pillar of purple Reiatsu shot straight into the sky, and a heavy sense of oppression crashed down, causing the surrounding air to tremble violently.
His golden eyes were filled with icy killing intent.
"I'm going to stuff all of you into specimen containers!"
Before he could even finish his sentence, an uncontrollable look of surprise appeared on Szayelaporro's face as a blazing flame of Reiatsu suddenly erupted from the opposite side.
Twisted arcs of electricity flickered across his body, and a trace of black faintly appeared amidst the flames of Reiatsu.
A towering pillar of fire pierced the heavens, dispelling the darkness of Hueco Mundo as if a radiant sun had risen over the battlefield.
Radiating a monstrous, fiery aura, Sora looked at his opponent and grinned.
"It's still too early to tell who will be the one dying today!"
The next moment.
The burning figure swept across the desert, leaving whip-like scorch marks on the silver sand as he crashed fiercely into Szayelaporro like a falling meteor.
Silver sand and dust shot into the sky, blooming over the battlefield like a mushroom cloud!