"Bawa Bawa!"
After confirming Sombravida had regenerated completely, Bawabawa crawled toward the severed arm and bit down fiercely.
Crack!
Its teeth shattered instantly.
"O(≧口≦)O"
"Bawa…!"
The mudskipper Hollow rolled in agony, tears streaming from beneath its mask.
Sombravida exhaled lightly.
"Even detached Vasto Lorde flesh is too dense for a low-level Hollow."
Unlike ordinary spiritual matter, Vasto Lorde bodies were condensed reiryoku constructs. Even severed limbs retained extreme density.
Sombravida crouched.
Using a thin spatial edge layered with controlled reiryoku, he carefully sliced the arm into dozens of manageable fragments, reducing the density of each piece.
"Now try."
"Bawa…"
Sniffling pitifully, Bawabawa swallowed the fragments.
The moment Vasto Lorde-class spiritual particles entered its core—
Its body reacted violently.
Spiritual pressure surged.
One meter.
Three meters.
Five.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Sixteen meters long.
Its body expanded dramatically, sand scattering beneath it.
Its reiryoku spiked to the level of a high-tier Hollow — bordering on Gillian density.
Nel clapped happily.
"Bawabawa grew!"
The mudskipper swayed, bloated with unstable reiryoku.
Sombravida observed carefully.
"If you keep expanding without compressing, your core will rupture."
Hollows that absorbed beyond their tolerance often exploded — especially those without speech or developed mental cohesion.
"Compress it."
"Bawa…"
The enlarged Hollow curled tightly.
Pale blue light flickered around its body.
Gradually—
It began compressing its spiritual pressure inward.
Its body shrank.
Ten meters.
Five.
Two.
Finally—
It returned close to its original size, though slightly larger than before.
Its fangs had grown sharper.
Its reiryoku denser.
It was now firmly a high-class Hollow.
Sombravida nodded.
"Good. Stable compression."
"Bawa~!"
The mudskipper suddenly expanded again to around ten meters, then shrank.
Sombravida understood.
"Size manipulation. Expansion and compression linked to reiryoku control."
A defensive ability.
Possibly also a transport function.
Interesting.
"Let me ride?" Sombravida raised a brow.
"Bawa!"
Nel jumped onto its head immediately.
Sombravida followed.
Harribel hesitated briefly, then joined them.
"Go."
"Bawa!"
Despite its wobbly movement, the creature's head remained surprisingly stable.
Its speed was impressive — not Sonído-level, but extremely fast for ground traversal.
Nel laughed freely.
Sombravida watched quietly.
He would need Bawabawa at least Adjuchas-tier before true battlefield exposure.
Otherwise—
Even ambient Vasto Lorde pressure could shatter it.
He could not constantly shield it with anti-pressure domains.
"East," Sombravida instructed.
Nel redirected the creature.
As they traveled—
Sombravida activated his Void Domain.
His and Harribel's spiritual pressure vanished completely.
Only Bawabawa's high-Hollow-level presence remained visible.
Bait.
And it worked.
Several Sub-level Hollows detected the lone moving spiritual signature and attempted ambush.
Each time—
Harribel intervened.
Sombravida was watching.
Testing.
Would she hesitate to kill?
Would she defy orders?
The first time, she paused.
The second time, she did not.
She understood now:
Protection required elimination.
A centipede-like Adjuchas lunged from a ridge.
It never saw Harribel emerge from concealment.
One strike.
Clean decapitation.
The mask fell.
Sombravida kicked it toward Bawabawa.
"Eat."
The spiritual density of a mid-tier Adjuchas mask far exceeded Bawabawa's current tolerance.
But Sombravida did not stop it.
He wanted to observe the limit.
Halfway through consuming the mask—
White evolution light erupted.
Gillian-class cocoon behavior.
"Bawa! Bawa!"
The creature trembled anxiously.
"Focus," Nel soothed it gently.
But Bawabawa shook violently.
Then—
It enlarged suddenly to nearly twenty meters.
Instead of stopping—
It swallowed the rest of the Adjuchas body whole.
Sombravida's eyes sharpened.
It was force-feeding evolution.
Dangerous.
Most Hollows would lose identity and collapse into unstable Gillian fusion.
Yet Bawabawa endured.
Its body expanded again, near rupture—
But stabilized through size manipulation.
Sombravida's interest deepened.
"Leap evolution…"
Rare.
Extremely rare.
Only Hollows with abnormal core compatibility could attempt to skip stages.
But one Adjuchas corpse was insufficient.
Sombravida vanished.
Returned within seconds.
Holding two additional Adjuchas masks.
"Yes," Nel guessed correctly. "The prison."
Sombravida had established controlled incarceration for captured Adjuchas — periodically weakening them to prevent reaccumulation of reiryoku.
Two were executed instantly.
Efficient resource recycling.
He tossed the masks.
Bawabawa devoured them greedily.
Now—
Forty meters.
Reiryoku output surged violently.
Yet—
It did not destabilize.
Its size manipulation allowed pressure redistribution across mass.
Sombravida smiled faintly.
"As I suspected."
Its ability was not merely expansion.
It was capacity scaling.
Instead of spiritual overload causing explosion—
It converted excess density into physical scale.
Pale blue light intensified.
The giant body began shrinking.
Ten meters.
Five.
Original size.
Then—
Smaller.
Infant-sized.
Compressed into a pale blue cocoon.
Harribel watched silently.
She had witnessed Gillian cocoons before.
But skipping stages—
Directly attempting Adjuchas-level transition—
That was nearly unheard of without centuries of cannibalistic accumulation.
Sombravida folded his arms.
"It succeeded."
Or at least—
It had entered metamorphosis.
Its spiritual pressure signature now stabilized at early Adjuchas threshold density — though fragile.
"Among Hollows," Sombravida said calmly, "only one in hundreds of thousands attempt leap evolution successfully."
He looked at the cocoon.
"Three Adjuchas masks. Not enough for high-tier emergence. But sufficient for early-stage Adjuchas."
That was acceptable.
He did not need Bawabawa powerful.
Only durable.
Resistant to Vasto Lorde-level pressure.
Harribel glanced at Sombravida.
He had raised a low Hollow deliberately.
Invested in it.
Protected it.
Strength used to cultivate.
Not simply devour.
Her evaluation of him continued to change.
The cocoon pulsed gently in the sand.
Evolution was underway.
Visit patreon.com/ShiroTL to gain access to 40+ chapters