Darkness.
Endless darkness enveloped Arata's consciousness.
In that vacuum, he felt as if he were floating in the depths of cold space.
There was a barely audible dripping of liquid and the breathing of some creature.
"Uhh…"
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his body. Arata instinctively wanted to press the wound, but realized he couldn't move his arm at all.
The pain jolted him out of the endless darkness.
His eyelids lifted heavily, and the first thing that came into focus in his blurry vision was a grayish-white stone.
A few weak rays of light pierced through cracks and illuminated a small cave.
"Where… is this?"
Arata turned his neck with difficulty and discovered that he was lying on a simple stone bed.
A strange white cloak was draped over him, and underneath it, his damaged Death Tyrant uniform was gone, replaced by clothing sewn from some kind of animal hide.
Surprisingly, the wounds on his left shoulder, right side, and thigh were covered with a transparent green gel.
The gel was cool, emitted a mild scent, and was slowly healing his injuries.
"You're awake."
A deep and magnetic female voice suddenly sounded from the depths of the cave.
Arata's body tensed instantly, and his right hand instinctively flew to his side, but he grabbed nothing.
"Looking for this?"
As footsteps approached, a slender figure stepped out of the shadows.
Long golden hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, and a pale bone mask covered most of her face.
In the dim light, her emerald-green eyes glinted dangerously.
Her full chest nearly tore through the armor on her torso, but her waist was so thin it seemed it could be wrapped with one hand, blending into a seductive silhouette with accentuated hip lines.
The bone armor on the outer side of her thigh did nothing to hide her allure, if anything, it emphasized the strong lines of her legs.
The future 3rd Espada – Tier Harribel.
Just by those unique body lines, Arata recognized the woman before him at first glance.
However, it seemed she had not yet undergone the Arrancar process, which was slightly different from the figure he remembered.
What she held in her hand at that moment was his own Zanpakutō, Meigetsu.
Arata's pupils contracted sharply, and his newly awakened muscles tensed at once.
Although Harribel was not as bloodthirsty and warlike as the other Espada, that didn't mean she bore any particular kindness toward Shinigami.
After all, the battle between Shinigami and Hollow was a clash between two races.
Moreover, he had just come through a fierce battle, his combat strength was only a tenth of normal, and now even his Zanpakutō was in the enemy's hands.
Out of the dragon's jaws, into the lion's.
"Don't strain yourself." Harribel set his Zanpakutō on a stone slab beside him.
In doing so, she leaned forward, making her chest appear even fuller and more alluring.
"If I had wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have let Apacci save you."
As if to confirm her words, a female Adjuchas with deer antlers on her head walked into the cave.
She held a ball of greenish light between her two horns and visibly flinched in surprise when she saw that Arata was awake.
"Oh ho, you woke up pretty quickly."
The Adjuchas, named Apacci, approached the stone bed and without hesitation lifted the cloak with her horns to check his wounds, wearing a slightly smug expression.
"Looks like my healing ability improved again."
Only then did Arata notice two more female Adjuchas in the corner of the cave, Mila Rose, the lioness, and Sung-Sun, the snake-like one.
All three were subordinate officers who would later follow Harribel.
He hadn't expected that they were already gathered together at this point.
"Why… did you save me?" Arata tried to speak, but his voice was terribly hoarse, and his throat burned as if scorched by fire.
Harribel didn't answer immediately, but instead told Apacci to give him some water first.
Cold liquid slid down his throat, and Arata felt somewhat better.
"Why did you save me?" he repeated the key question. "You and I are supposed to be enemies."
"We sensed the battle between you and the other Adjuchas in the desert," Harribel said calmly, crossing her arms over her chest, which emphasized their curves even more.
"We had already fought with Kadavil. His poison is very special. Even a Vasto Lorde would suffer unbearable pain if stung. And you, a Shinigami, managed to kill him even while poisoned."
There was a barely perceptible trace of admiration in her tone.
"You're very strong," Harribel continued, leaning a bit closer; her loose golden hair lightly brushed against Arata's cheek, carrying with it an inexplicable scent.
"And…" she paused, "you're not like the other Shinigami I've encountered."
Arata's heart skipped a beat. Had she perhaps sensed something?
"Your Reiatsu…" Harribel narrowed her eyes slightly, her voice filled with scrutiny and curiosity, "has a special flavor, just like us Hollows."
What did she mean by that?
Arata didn't even have time to ponder properly, he suddenly felt the atmosphere in the cave grow tense.
He could sense Meigetsu on the stone slab trembling slightly, as if ready to fight at any moment.
In that taut moment, Harribel suddenly turned and walked toward the cave entrance. The straight line of her hips was a sight that nearly made Arata's eyes ache.
"Shinigami, for now you should rest. We'll talk again when you're able to move."
With Harribel's departure, her three subordinates also left the cave one after another.
…
"Huu…"
Arata exhaled deeply, and his body finally relaxed.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous while negotiating face-to-face with a Hollow.
When his mind cleared, fragments of memory just before he lost consciousness began flashing before his eyes.
After killing Motifil and Tuumbu, he intended to use the system shop to exchange a bottle of high-concentration spiritual pressure essence to replenish his spiritual pressure and physical strength.
Before he could use it, he fell into a trap set by Kadavil, who had been playing dead, and was poisoned. In the last moment, he used all his remaining strength to perform Dark Flame Slash and kill his opponent.
Then he completely ran out of strength and fell into a coma.
When he regained consciousness, he had already been brought to this cave.
Arata slowly gathered his thoughts, with an uncomfortable feeling that he had forgotten something important.
Suddenly it hit him, spiritual pressure essence!
He quickly opened the system panel to check.
When he saw the blue bottle peacefully sitting in the system space, his heart finally calmed down.
Good.
He dug through the system logs and discovered that his destiny value had changed significantly again.
System notification: in a fierce battle, you fought bravely, took down three Adjuchas in one strike, saved the lives of many Shinigami and students of the Spiritual Arts Academy, thereby indirectly changing their fates. You earned a total of 1557 destiny points.
[Successfully exchanged B-rank item, high-concentration spiritual pressure essence, cost: 1000 destiny points.]
[Host destiny value: 4553/7451]
Killing Kadavil and the other Adjuchas once again triggered a destiny assessment, which Arata had actually expected.
Compared to the destiny points he first earned for mass-killing the Gillians, the reward this time was about half, but that was entirely reasonable.
After all, you can't fleece the sheep the same way every time.
This is good too, as long as the system continues to give anything at all.
Looking at that number, Arata suddenly felt a surge of emotion.
In less than two days since stepping into Hueco Mundo, he had gone from just over two thousand to over seven thousand destiny points.
Battle truly is the best way to earn.