On the other side of the battlefield.
"My, my, handsome guy, please go easy on me, okay? I'm really scared of pain~"
Giselle Gewelle stood on a sand dune, that sickly sweet smile hanging on his face, the two ahoge on top of his head waving erratically in the wind.
Beside him stood a hooded figure, silent like a rock, eerily still.
One of the Four Elite Guards, Pernida Parnkgjas.
And across from them—
"Tch! One chatterbox freak, one creepy mute playing tricks, plus a half-dead coughing weakling, and a pervy-looking guy."
Grimmjow impatiently dug at his ear, his wild, unruly gaze sweeping over the lineup opposite him, his face full of annoyance and displeasure.
"What kind of trash lineup is this? Fighting a bunch of nobodies like you, I can't even get fired up."
Ever since dropping to tenth place, even though he refused to admit it out loud, he'd been holding a grudge inside.
And now this, he didn't even get matched against the tough ones up front, instead he got stuck with this bunch that looked weak at a glance.
"Ahem! Mr. Hollow, you shouldn't put it like that."
Ukitake Jushiro's face was pale, but he still kept that gentle, easygoing demeanor, habitually trying to probe for information.
"May I ask, what number Espada are you in the Hollow King Palace?"
"Heh! Listen up, Soul Reaper."
Grimmjow raised his thumb and yanked open his clothes, pointing at the number exposed on his back, a ferocious grin spreading across his face.
"This great me is No.10!"
"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez!"
"My! My! So you're the famous No.10!"
Giselle covered his mouth in mock surprise, speaking in a weird, mocking tone, "Two digits must be stronger than one digit, right? After all, the number's so much bigger~ Later, you must go easy on me..."
Whoosh!
Before Giselle could finish that nauseating sentence, a blue afterimage had already torn through the air.
Grimmjow's figure appeared behind him out of nowhere.
"Too much nonsense! Trash!"
Rip!
A claw slashed out like lightning.
Giselle's right arm that had been covering his mouth, along with half his shoulder, was torn off at the root like paper being ripped apart.
Blood sprayed out, stuffing the rest of his mocking words back down his throat.
"Gaaahhh!"
Giselle screamed, clutching his severed arm, disbelief written all over his face.
"Heh! Worthless. And you dare bark in front of me?"
Grimmjow didn't even bother turning back to look at the screaming figure. He shook the flesh and blood off his claws, those bloodthirsty blue eyes gleaming with savage light.
Even if he wasn't as strong as the nine monsters ahead of him, that didn't mean just anyone could come challenge him!
"Other than that guy Rosse, there's no one in Hueco Mundo who can make me bow my head!"
"Come on!"
———
While every battlefield had erupted into fighting, the arena of leader versus leader was strangely quiet.
"Tch! What's with you baldies going silent? Those guys are fighting like crazy over there, and you don't look like you're about to start at all?"
Sarugaki Hiyori frowned slightly, feeling uncomfortable with this completely silent standoff.
She wasn't the type who could sit still.
Compared to standing here staring at each other, she'd rather just go fight.
"We can't beat that one anyway. Someone called the 1st Espada, the strongest under the King, isn't someone you can defeat easily. It's just that she's confident her teammates will win, and we're also waiting for ours to win," Hirako Shinji shrugged.
He glanced at Jugram standing beside him, speaking with a teasing tone.
"Hey, kid, being left here alone to face the 1st Espada, you must have quite a high status among the Quincies too, right?"
"Thanks to His Majesty's favor, I'm currently serving as the head of the Sternritter."
Jugram gave a faint smile, not minding revealing that information.
From the moment the other side knew they were coming, he already realized there was a traitor within the Sternritter.
Since there was a traitor among them, that meant the Hollow King Palace already understood them well, possibly even knowing everyone's abilities.
In that case, there was no point hiding minor details anymore.
"Oh? You're also the strongest under your king. Standing here with people like you, I feel kind of honored."
Shinji grinned, resting his Zanpakuto on his shoulder.
"Your spiritual pressure isn't weak. It's only slightly below that captain named Kyoraku Shunsui. But he's already lost his will to fight," Jugram glanced at Shinji and gave a fair evaluation.
"Haha! Thanks for the compliment! Thanks for the compliment!"
Shinji laughed it off, then looked toward Harribel across from them.
"Since we're waiting for the others to finish, and you think we're definitely going to lose anyway, why not chat with us losers for a bit?"
Seeing Harribel remain silent, Shinji didn't feel awkward and continued.
"As far as I know, six Espada have already appeared. Right now, only No.4, No.6, No.7, and No.9 haven't shown up. Since we're basically dead men anyway, mind clearing up our confusion?", Shinji spoke casually, trying to gather intel.
"Your reactions are all within Lord Rosse's expectations. Lord Rosse asked me to tell you, No.4 is a Soul Reaper, No.6 is a Hollow, No.7 is a Quincy."
Harribel's expression was cold. She didn't even lift her eyelids, simply repeating Rosse's words in a mechanical tone.
"Oh? Then what about No.9? Saying it like that just makes me even more curious about No.9."
Shinji clicked his tongue in interest, committing the information to memory.
He remembered Kyoraku's description. Rosse liked to toy with people, but he also liked telling them the truth.
Letting them know exactly how things were, yet unable to do anything about it.
So what Harribel said was most likely true.
This place wasn't far from Nelliel's battlefield, and he had heard that conversation too.
The 4th Espada had infiltrated Seireitei, not a Soul Reaper, and was most likely a captain-level figure, though he didn't know who.
He didn't know much about the recent captains.
Other than Unohana, that old senior, anyone seemed possible.
The 6th Espada was a Hollow and hadn't joined this battle, meaning they were guarding the Hollow King Palace.
Even with the 10th Espada deployed, the 6th was left behind to guard, which meant Rosse valued their abilities highly.
'Tch! A moment of silence for Urahara.'
'Serves that guy right for not coming with us, saying he'll use a diversion and sneak into the Hollow King Palace to gather intel.'
'Hopefully he doesn't run into the—"
'As for the 7th Espada, since it is a Quincy, that means an infiltrator on Yhwach's side.'
What could he say… Shinji felt helpless.
He truly felt the Hollow King Palace was overwhelmingly powerful.
In both brains and strength, it surpassed all other forces combined.
Just five Espada were enough to block all of them and the Quincy elites.
If you added Rosse and Aizen from Soul Society, then maybe only a fully restored Yhwach, along with the entire Zero Division, could stand against them.
Honestly, Shinji was starting to regret this surprise attack.
They didn't manage to surprise anyone, and might even lose part of their fighting force here.
A total loss.
"You should understand that placing a spy in the Wandenreich is meaningless," Jugram looked at Harribel, expression unchanged.
"His Majesty is about to return. When that day comes, your spy will be exposed. Speak, who betrayed His Majesty?"
"Why call it betrayal? Someone who suffered a crushing defeat a thousand years ago, someone who can only appear in this crippled form even now, why is he worth serving?"
Harribel let out a cold laugh, her gaze turning toward Ishida Uryu, who was still just watching, and the shadow of Yhwach behind him.
"Without His Majesty, there would be no Quincies," Jugram said calmly.
"Then have you ever considered this, if he hadn't waged war on Soul Society for his own selfish reasons, your future might have been better? The Soul Reapers had no interest in you. And before Lord Rosse appeared, we Hollows couldn't defeat you either," Harribel's tone was stiff.
She wasn't good at conversation.
But Rosse had already told her everything beforehand, she only needed to repeat it.
"So what? Being a Quincy means not forgetting your roots. Betrayal is betrayal," Jugram's expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Even if, because of Yhwach's return, your loved ones die from Auswahlen? Even if, with his return, the next step is reclaiming your power and your lives? His power is like poison. When he realizes he can't defeat Lord Rosse, he will inevitably take back the power he placed in you."
"At that point, all of you will die."
Harribel's gaze swept across the battlefield as she spoke words that caused every Quincy present to change expression.
"Join the Hollow King Palace. Lord Rosse can help you escape the effects of Auswahlen. You all know about Kurosaki Masaki, she not only didn't die, she even advanced further."
Even though battles raged all around, with Harribel's strength, her words carried effortlessly into every Quincy's ears.
Even if you didn't want to listen, you had already heard it.
As for what they would think, or what Yhwach would think, who cared?
At the very least, most Quincies were certain of one thing.
Because of Harribel's words, when Yhwach truly revived, he would likely absorb part of their power.
Whether they would be among that part… that was impossible to say.
"My, my, is what that woman said true?"
Meninas shook her slightly numb fists, no longer daring to clash head-on with Lilynette, trying to stall with words.
"It's true. Lord Rosse can easily erase Yhwach's mark. Otherwise, why do you think he's so desperate he'd cooperate with a bunch of ant-like Soul Reapers?"
Lilynette snorted, her tone filled with disdain for Yhwach.
"The reason he gives you power isn't like Lord Rosse, who needs people to handle chores. It's just petty scheming, using your bodies as incubators to grow the power he gives you."
"When he activates Auswahlen next time, he'll take back that power along with yours, principal and interest together. That's the key to his future omniscience and omnipotence."
"Wake up. Your so-called invincible emperor stands on the sacrifice of all of you."
"So what? We believe His Majesty wouldn't do that!"
Bambietta exchanged a glance with Meninas. Her tone remained firm, but no one knew what she was thinking inside.
They weren't exactly die-hard loyalists of Yhwach.
Sure, hearing this from an enemy made it less trustworthy.
But their battlefield was close to Jugram's, and his expressionless face showed no sign of refuting it.
Clearly, that bastard probably knew the truth.
They had been played.
They were willing to follow Yhwach to create a new world, a world for Quincies.
Even if they died on that path, they could accept it.
But if from the very beginning they were destined to be sacrifices, destined never to reach that new world, and that world never included them in the first place, that was something they could never accept.
Sensing the weakening force in her opponent's punches, Lilynette's lips curled slightly.
'Tch! Just as expected.'
'A relic who died a thousand years ago and is still trying to revive, how could he truly win people's hearts?'
'Those followers from a thousand years ago were one thing, but the ones who joined later all has their own agendas.'
Her battle here had already been settled in another way.
As for the Soul Reapers… Lilynette glanced not far away. Kurosaki Isshin and Kensei Muguruma were still lying heavily injured, Mashiro Kuna nearby blocking the aftershocks.
'Those three… forget it. They can't even get close to me.'
'Tch! This is way too easy.'
———
"Askin, don't you brag about your 'lethal dose' all the time? Why don't you actually make the enemy die for once?"
"And you, that washed-up uncle, if you don't want to live, then just die already! Why are you slacking off? Where's your Bankai?"
"And you two, the fat guy and the old hag pretending to be young, can you put in some effort? What is this, scratching her?"
Candice kept firing off lightning with both hands, clashing with Nelliel as if it were a game.
At the same time, she kept cursing the others non-stop.
Though the others were irritated by her foul mouth, none of them argued back.
From the start of this group fight, Candice had been the absolute main force. The rest, including Askin, one of the elites, could only act as support.
Of course, without their support, with Candice's displayed first-class spiritual pressure, even if Nelliel wasn't serious, she'd lose in just a few moves.
"Damn it, how was I supposed to know her ability counters mine this hard? My lethal dose doesn't work on her at all."
Askin was drenched in cold sweat. This was the first time his ability had been completely useless.
Without his ability, at least half his strength was gone.
Relying only on first-class spiritual pressure on this battlefield was useless, he'd just be a punching bag.
"I'm already doing my best. My Bankai isn't suitable for team battles."
Kyoraku Shunsui let out a soft sigh.
He knew it.
From the moment Rosse learned of their plan, they had already lost any chance of winning.
The reason only five Espada appeared was simply because five were enough to wipe them all out.
As for how many of them would survive in the end… that would depend on how many Rosse needed in his future script.
Probably only half of them would make it out alive.
[🎉 Shoutout to "dsfa asdf" for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.