Ben wished he could have said that the trip towards the mineral site was pleasant or relaxing however he would have lied. The alien whale flew through the sky with the four arrancar women on his back; their destination was the mountain towards the south.
Hueco Mundo was divided into five regions, the central region where the castle of Las Noches resided. To the east were the quicksand planes where many Hollows of amphibious and marine appearance as well as nature resided. The southern region was where the great mountains were found, said mountains were the result of massive quartz trees that grew to the point that they could reach the clouds in the eternal night of the world.
The south was home to a variety of large furred appearing Hollows. To the west were the ashen planes no one knew why exactly, however to the west was a scorching hell and the only residents there were the lizard-like Hollows. And lastly to the north was a massive quartz forest that was home to all the insectoid hollows, Lilynete had told Ben about all of this when they travelled on a hunt.
Ben made guesses about where each Espada could have originated from; the only one that he guessed correctly was the top two espada's point of origin, the central region.
Ben heard Harribel and the other girls make ideal small talk. It was cute in the giant whale's opinion. The three girls, Tres Bestia, acted like attention seeking children there were scuffles, but like a dutiful mother their Espada broke it up. It made the trip all the more entertaining, especially when they did not look him in his large eyes with their 'I'm warning you face.'
It felt as though he was being targeted even more because he was a whale! It had to be a form of discrimination, but how could they? Was it because he was a sort of a sea faring mammal and the three of them were all land faring ones? Did they feel jealous of the fact he and Harribel shared an affinity to the water?
Ben stopped his endless guesses and focused on their route. He could stay as an alien form as long as he wanted with master control active so timing out was not an issue. The only time that he timed out or returned to his human form any more against his will was when he was exhausted or critically wounded. Azmuth told him that was because the healing process and stamina recovery process was increased while he was in human form, because the nanotechnology inside of him, apparently he had that.
Could work without the need to be concerned about any DNA corruption.
"Ben, dodge left." Harribel's voice reached his ears or whatever audio receptors Cosby had, he followed her command and maneuvered gracefully to the left. The instant after he dodged a column of golden spiritual energy passed his original position.
"A Cero?! Who the hell is so stupid to fire on lady Harribel?!" Appacci yelled as she moved her head from every which side in order to track down the source.
"Let's go and track down the bastard!" Mila Rose did not care for her own well being, rather she wanted exact revenge on the fool who attempted to strike down her Espada.
"Stop for a moment, we have no idea where that cero came from or if whoever shot it has help." Sung-sun reminded her fellow fracción, this caused an argument to erupt between the three that Harribel responded to with a disappointed shake of her head.
"That wasn't a normal cero who ever fired it has to be exceptionally strong-"
"Damn straight!"
Harribel was cut off and Cosby folded in on himself due to a punch that was delivered to his underbelly the massive whale was launched away while the arrancar women took flight.
"Ok I won't lie, that was a bit funny, but I wanted to do that. So show yourself right now!" Appacci yelled as she and the other two drew their swords while they stepped in front of their espada who remained behind them.
Harribel knew they should be fine, she trained them after all her main concern was their latest ally who seemed to have taken a strong blow. She closed her eyes, and expanded her senses searching for his spiritual energy.
Only shoot them open and draw her sword from her scabbard as her sword was not particularly long rather it was unusually wide while also lacking anything in the middle, it seemed to only consist of the sword edges.
The gravity seemed to increase as Harribel released her spiritual energy that cloaked her body in a yellow aura. She pulled back the blade in her hand as she gathered energy in the blade's empty middle section and then she swiftly swung. A large yellow blade projectile struck the ground with devastating force that caused a large cloud of dust to rise up, Harribel flew down with hypersonic speed.
Her three subordinates were left in the air bewildered, until the gravity seemed to increase once more for them.
"Damn that chick is scary." Tres Bestia directed their gazes above to see a mass of wriggle tendrils that seemed to swim in the air rather than fly.
"This spiritual pressure." Mila Rose muttered underneath her breath to ensure only her comrades heard.
"Vasto Lorde, has to be if he was able to knock back Tennyson like that." Appacci said in response.
"It's just one Vasto Lorde against the three of us. It should be simple enough, unless you two think you lack the ability to." Sung-sun said in a teasing voice as her smiling face behind her long sleeve.
The other two gritted their teeth as they all rushed to the seemingly overconfident mass before them swords drawn, for Sun her blade resembled a sai, for Appacci she wielded two chakrams with three protruding blades each, and lastly for Mila Rose weapon took the form of a broadsword.
They moved at speeds which destroyed the sound barrier behind them.
"Oh, seems like you ladies want to get to know me? Y'all don't mind if I break your bones beforehand right?" The Vasto Lorde flew in their direction, extended his tendrils and then spiritual energy cloaked them, he spun in the air like a cork screw turning into a red coloured drill.
The three women looked on with confident smirks on their faces as they released their spiritual energy and blocked the attack.
"Oh, no, who will protect me now?!" The beast spoke in an over dramatic masculine voice, as his three opponents began to rip and slash his tendrils off.
Mila felt a chill, then heard.
"Light hammer!" A pillar of rainbow coloured light and a great shock wave made the girls and their opponent fly away.
The three women were stunned in the air by awesome power, however their foe seemed to be anguished by something.
"Cameleo, no!" The monster attempted to fly away however a multi-coloured blade projectile stopped him in his tracks.
"You know what smart move, sadly it had no effect on me!" The one who launched the blinding attack came into view, it was a tall humanoid with a white singular eye the being looked as if he was made out of minerals and magenta crystals. The most striking feature of the being was the hour glass badge of its waist and the blue-ish green diamond straight sword in his left.
"Wait a minute, hourglass...wait Tennyson is that you?!" Appacci roared her question into his direction.
The alien waved to her and said in a casual tone as if fighting for his life was a normal occurrence.
"Hiya, there girls sorry I couldn't make it back earlier needed to wipe this thing up and while I'm like this call me Chromastone!" The alien first pointed to his blade then himself, afterward his eye seemed to take on a more serious look as he stared down below himself.
"Seems like that wasn't enough to keep that guy down. Why are lizards always so durable? I call cheats! Wait a minute, a Humungosaur is a dinosaur which means I'm also a cheater, damn it!" The alien mumbled his last sentence as an emerald cero came flying towards him with frightening speed.
The alien seemed to turn his head and ask 'really?' as he held out his right hand touched the orb of awesome power and absorbed it completely unharmed.
"What the-?!" A high pitched voice came from below the alien, who heard and then flew down with speed that overcame any jet or missile developed by humanity, he reached the ground in mere moments.
The alien sensed that light was being distorted before him and then fired another blade projectile to the north of himself. And there he saw a humanoid chameleon with a white mask over it's head and various colourful markings for the beings body.
The chameleon nursed the wound that Chromastone had given him; it was not that deep; however, he would not be mobile for a bit. The alien attempted to approach his downed foe but was bombarded by ceros from above and from his side.
"Don't touch him!" Oddly enough a bear like Vasto Lorde and the clump of tendrils that fought Tres Bestia came at Ben, but before he could ready his sword each of their original opponents came and blocked their path.
"How foolish to turn your back on me out of all of everyone." Harribel was unscathed and then delivered a fierce slash to the mid-section of the foe; her subordinates followed behind as they moved with blurred speeds as they chopped off the mass' limbs.
Thus the five person group stood over three downed Vasto Lorde, which only left them with one question. Why were they here together?
"Do Vasto Lorde still need to eat other hollows to retain their strength?" The Crystalsapien asked the third Espada who was the most to know.
"No, the final stage of Menos evolution is a fundamental change in their nature and power. We may not have the need to eat however that does not mean others do not. So anyone who has reached the final stage often has a very solitary nature, for their own safety." Her tone was somber and the other three arrancar women seemed more sullen, 'it was the cycle of life' his mind told him.
"Ok we can handle this mystery later let's go-" And for what seemed like the usual for everyone now the gravity increased however the oppressive force was completely different from the three downed Vasto Lorde.
"Is this a high grade?!" Harribel shouted in surprise then she calmed herself and remembered what was at stake here. "Everyone prepare to leave!" She directed and everyone followed, however their flight was stopped by enormous vines that sealed off their escape routes.
Chromastone and the third Espada flew around with god-like speed as the slashed and fired energy blast to protect Tres Bestia, whose vision was filled with rainbow and yellow colours.
"Damn can't let them get hurt and I can't seem to cut these vines...wait vines! I'm such an idiot." Chromastone filled his diamond sword with his energy and threw it at the three girls. "You three grab onto that thing that is about to heat up!" Mila Rose grabbed the sword and soon the three were surrounded by a rainbow barrier, then with a flash of light the crystal alien was replaced with Heatblast.
"Harribel! Go to the girls, I'm going to turn up the heat in here." The alien attempted to warn his comrade who glanced at him with playful eyes and what he assumed was also a smirk underneath her mask.
"Thank you for the concern-" Soon the third ranked arrancar released a massive torrent of spiritual energy and pressure that made it feel as though they were face to face with a star. "However, I can handle it." She said with a cool calm expression that spoke volumes of her confidence.
"That's hot." The alien said in a hushed whisper as the flames of his body ran cold and turned blue signifying his shift into 'Supernova mode.' Soon the area was filled with two bright flashes of yellow and blue light. The proof of this massive display of power was the large hole and field of molten glass.
As the alien and arrancar caught their breath more vine tentacles shot from the ground and then emitted a violent purple light. The next moment the group and the tentacles disappeared from sight.
Above the clouds unseen and sensed by anyone present a purple light was above the area.
"Hmm, perhaps I should not have done that mad man this favor? Whatever, doesn't matter. After all nothing, those fools from the Mage's Association can kill the idiot especially with someone he seems to have eyes for around him." The voice chatted to no one in particular and then vanished.