Hueco Mundo Great Hollow Forest.
Raizen Kō sat atop a massive stone, eyes closed in quiet meditation as he allowed the immense spiritual pressure within his body to circulate through every fiber of his being.
Suddenly, a towering pillar of dark-golden spiritual pressure erupted from his form, rising high into the air like a blazing beacon.
"My King's spiritual pressure has grown at least thirty to forty percent stronger compared to three years ago. At this point, even among Vasto Lorde, he could be considered truly formidable!"
Jiwa Barnes, the bizarre fish-like Hollow, stared in Raizen Kō's direction with complex emotions swirling in his eyes. There was deep reverence within them but even more than that, unmistakable fear.
Beside him, the goat-like Hollow Yuan Puck spoke with open admiration.
"My King, with your current strength, you should be more than capable of heading to Las Noches and challenging Baraggan Louisenbairn for the throne."
The moment those words left his mouth, Jiwa Barnes reacted violently, slapping his tail over Yuan Puck's mouth.
"Shut it, you fool! Baraggan's Las Noches is filled with hundreds of Adjuchas! If My King actually listened to your nonsense and marched in there, are you volunteering for the two of us to fight against a hundred enemies?!"
Realizing his blunder, Yuan Puck immediately stood upright on his hind legs and clamped his front hooves over his own mouth, nervously glancing toward Raizen Kō, terrified that the King might have overheard them.
"Have I… reached my limit?"
Raizen Kō slowly opened his eyes, a faint frown appearing beneath his mask.
Three full years had passed since his Soul Society counterpart had become Fourth Seat of the Eleventh Division. During that time, Raizen Kō's routine in Hueco Mundo had remained unchanged constant battles, followed by relentless devouring.
Unfortunately, most of the Hollows he consumed over those years had been Gillians. True Adjuchas were rare in this region, and encounters with them were few and far between.
At his current stage, Raizen Kō realized that his spiritual pressure had only grown by roughly thirty to forty percent since his confrontation with Ulquiorra three years earlier. No matter how many Gillians he devoured now, his power refused to increase even by the slightest fraction.
It was obvious he had reached a bottleneck.
There were only two possible ways for him to break through this barrier.
The first was to devour a Vasto Lorde.
The second was to devour dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Adjuchas in a short span of time.
"Devour a Vasto Lorde…?"
The moment the thought arose, Raizen Kō shook his head with a bitter smile.
Even finding an Adjuchas in this area was difficult. Where, then, would he possibly locate a Vasto Lorde to devour?
As for the only Vasto Lorde he was personally aware of Ulquiorra Cifer he had already completed his initial Arrancar transformation. Even after three years of growth, Raizen Kō could not guarantee victory in a direct confrontation with him.
Thus, the first option was effectively impossible.
That left only the second method.
And the only place in all of Hueco Mundo capable of gathering such a massive number of Adjuchas in one location was without question Las Noches.
As for the conversation between Jiwa Barnes and Yuan Puck earlier, Raizen Kō had heard every single word. With his current level of spiritual pressure, his senses were exceptionally sharp. He simply hadn't bothered reacting.
Still seated upon the stone, Raizen Kō suddenly turned his head and glanced toward the two Hollows whispering behind him.
The instant his gaze fell upon them, both trembled in fear.
"Perhaps I should simply devour these two wastes," Raizen Kō muttered to himself. "They are Adjuchas, after all…"
He considered it briefly then shook his head.
"Forget it. Even if their spiritual pressure increased tenfold, it still wouldn't be enough to push me to the next stage."
However, what those two had said was not entirely wrong.
With his present strength, even if he managed to defeat Baraggan himself, if Baraggan commanded hundreds of Adjuchas to swarm him at once, Raizen Kō would inevitably be overwhelmed.
"Unless… Baraggan happens to be absent from Las Noches."
At that thought, Raizen Kō suddenly recalled something from distant memory.
In the original timeline, when Aizen Sōsuke and his two subordinates first entered Hueco Mundo, their initial destination had been Las Noches. Afterward, Baraggan already under the influence of Kyōka Suigetsu personally slaughtered the majority of the Adjuchas present there. Only those who had been away from Las Noches at the time survived.
"In that case… perhaps I could take advantage of the chaos and collect some scraps."
"Based on the information from my Soul Society clone, the current point in time shouldn't be far from Aizen's first arrival in Hueco Mundo."
Having reached this conclusion, Raizen Kō wasted no more time.
He rose to his feet and, using Sonido, appeared instantly beside the goat and the strange fish.
"Congratulations on your emergence, My King! Your boundless spiritual pressure shakes me to my core! To be allowed to serve by your side is the greatest honor of my existence!"
Over the past three years, Jiwa Barnes's actual strength had barely increased at all but his talent for shameless flattery had clearly reached new heights.
Beside him, Yuan Puck enthusiastically echoed the same phrase over and over.
"Hail My King!"
"Hail My King!"
Raizen Kō sighed inwardly at their antics.
"If the two of you are truly incapable of proper praise, then from now on, just shout 'My King is awesome.'"
Though neither Hollow fully understood the meaning of the phrase, they accepted the command without question.
"My King is awesome!"
"My King is awesome!"
"Enough of that," Raizen Kō interrupted flatly. "Prepare yourselves. We're leaving."
"Leaving?" Jiwa Barnes asked cautiously. "My King… where are we going?"
A dangerous half-smile formed beneath Raizen Kō's mask.
"Just as the two of you suggested… we're heading to Las Noches."
"Ah! My King, please reconsider !"
The moment he heard this, Jiwa Barnes immediately realized that Raizen Kō had heard their earlier conversation after all.
Ignoring their panic, Raizen Kō seized Jiwa Barnes with one hand and grabbed Yuan Puck by the tail with the other. In the next instant, he vanished in a streak of light, soaring upward toward the vast Desert above the Great Hollow Forest.
"Boom!"
A thunderous explosion shattered the silence of the Desert as a massive surge of sand and dust erupted into the sky.
Immediately afterward, a brilliant pillar of dark-golden light pierced through the ground, shooting straight into the heavens.
Moments later, a bone-spined fish and a fiery-red goat were hurled out of the light, tumbling helplessly across the sand for dozens of meters.
As the pillar slowly faded, a tall, jet-black humanoid figure emerged from within.
It was Raizen Kō.
"Desert… I've returned."
He spread his arms, savoring the sensation of the dry, biting wind against his mask.
Compared to the suffocating darkness of the Great Hollow Forest, he far preferred the endless, pale expanse of the Desert.
"The density of reishi here is exceptionally high. Las Noches must be nearby."
Sensing the rich concentration of spirit particles in the air, a satisfied glint appeared in Raizen Kō's eyes.
At his command, the pale centipede-like armor on his back suddenly began to writhe. It fragmented into countless tiny centipede Hollows, each only a few centimeters long, and scattered in the direction where the reishi concentration was strongest.
These miniature centipedes were new creations of Raizen Kō small clones, but fundamentally different from the Soul Society counterpart known as Raizen Kō.
His Shinigami clone possessed the spiritual pressure of an Adjuchas and a fragment of Raizen Kō's soul essence.
These tiny centipedes, however, were formed from nothing more than thin wisps of spiritual pressure. Their combat ability was negligible barely comparable to that of a newborn Hollow.
But that was more than sufficient.
Their sole purpose was reconnaissance.
Specifically to monitor Las Noches.
And most importantly, to observe the moment when Aizen Sōsuke finally set foot in Hueco Mundo.