Las Noches.
"Bastards! Damn bastards!"
Baraggan's fury had every Menos returning to the palace trembling with fear.
Most of them hadn't even been present when Aizen and the other two Shinigami arrived, so they had no idea what had actually happened.
All they knew was that after returning, nearly every familiar face—whether friend or rival—had vanished.
And now their king was in an absolutely foul mood.
Baraggan, however, had no interest in what his subordinates were thinking.
By now, he had confirmed that the three Shinigami who had come to challenge him were not returning.
He had already swallowed his pride once, intending to feign submission until an opportunity for revenge appeared.
Having prepared himself for that humiliation only for Aizen to simply leave without another word had transformed his anger into something even worse.
When his gaze drifted toward the Menos gathered around the outskirts of Las Noches, a vicious light appeared in his eyes.
He needed somewhere to vent his rage.
Before he could act on that impulse, however, Baraggan suddenly sensed a somewhat familiar presence approaching at tremendous speed.
His head snapped toward the source.
'That insolent bastard.'
He immediately recognized the aura.
It belonged to the Hollow he had repeatedly tried to recruit, only to be rejected every time.
Whoosh!
Baraggan rose abruptly into the air.
The aura of decay surrounding him spread outward, and the nearby Hollows immediately scattered in panic.
No one wanted to come into contact with their king's power.
Once touched by Baraggan's decay, there was virtually no recovering from it. Even the body of a Menos would rapidly rot away and die.
Gripping his enormous axe, Baraggan stared into the distance.
Then a beam of light shot toward him.
It crossed the entire distance in an instant.
Baraggan had only a fraction of a second to react. Reishi burst beneath his feet as he shifted sideways.
The massive beam grazed past him and slammed directly into one of Las Noches' pillars.
Boom!
An explosion erupted immediately, and the resulting shock wave swallowed Baraggan.
"Bastard!"
His rage exploded.
He knew that attack very well.
A Cero.
One of the most basic weapons available to a Menos.
But someone had just fired one directly at him.
That was an open challenge.
Baraggan had already begun imagining exactly how he would torture the offender when—
Boom!
Another beam came screaming toward him.
'How many bastards are planning to challenge me today?!'
Baraggan dodged again.
Then the sky lit up.
A dense barrage of Ceros descended upon Las Noches from every direction.
The palace disappeared beneath the bombardment.
The Menos who had fled from Baraggan's aura were caught in it as well, and casualties mounted almost instantly.
As for Baraggan himself, the intended target of the attack, his situation was even worse.
"It's that bastard."
There were only two ways to produce this many Ceros at once.
Either an enormous group of Menos had gathered together…
Or it was him.
Baraggan could sense no massive congregation of Hollows nearby.
That left only one possibility.
The one Hollow even Baraggan preferred not to provoke had come looking for trouble himself.
Boom!
A Cero struck Baraggan squarely.
The blast carried him backward and sent him flying through the ruins.
Rumble!
Under the relentless bombardment, Las Noches finally collapsed completely.
Baraggan vanished beneath the wreckage.
Far away, Starrk exhaled slowly and lowered his hand.
"That should be enough."
He looked toward the devastated palace.
"Everyone else has either run away or been dealt with. Now we just beat Baraggan and we're done."
"Um…"
Nelliel hesitantly raised a hand.
Starrk looked toward her.
"The man who sent us here… he wants us to bring Baraggan back, right?"
She glanced at what remained of Las Noches.
"If he wanted this place for himself, won't he be angry that you just destroyed it?"
Starrk froze.
"...Probably not?"
He sounded considerably less certain than he would have liked.
If Cyrus really had wanted the palace intact…
"Let's defeat Baraggan first."
Harribel cut through their conversation.
"This isn't an opponent we can afford to underestimate."
She bent her knees.
Then her body became a white blur as she shot toward the ruins of Las Noches.
She had not forgotten what Baraggan's forces had done to her and her companions.
"Right. Let's worry about getting him back first."
Seeing Harribel already charge ahead, Starrk scratched his hair and followed.
Nelliel clenched her fists and glanced behind them.
Far in the distance, their various followers were hiding among the dunes and watching nervously.
A battle at this level was far beyond anything they could safely interfere with.
Boom!
Nelliel turned and rushed after the others.
Before she could even get close, Harribel came flying backward from the ruins.
A thick gray aura spread from the shattered remains of Las Noches after her.
Then Baraggan emerged from the haze.
The skeletal king looked more furious than ever.
"Coyote Starrk!"
His voice boomed across the desert.
"Do you really think I'm afraid of you?!"
Baraggan raised his axe and charged.
Boom!
A Cero flashed.
Baraggan went flying backward again.
That was Starrk's specialty.
A full-powered Cero with virtually no charging time.
Simple.
Efficient.
And brutally effective.
Nelliel hurried over to the fallen Harribel, and the two women ended up watching from the side as Starrk proceeded to batter Baraggan without mercy.
One full-powered Cero after another erupted from his hands.
Neither woman could hide her astonishment.
No wonder almost nobody wanted to provoke Starrk.
How was anyone supposed to defend against something like this?
At long range, there was at least a chance to dodge.
But at close range, when full-strength Ceros could be fired continuously without even a pause between them?
Who could possibly avoid all of that?
"That man…"
Harribel suddenly spoke.
"If Starrk is this powerful, why didn't he dare attack the man who sent us here?"
"Because that man is obviously stronger."
Nelliel answered without hesitation.
Harribel fell silent.
"Looks like he doesn't need our help."
She lowered her weapon with a hint of disappointment.
She had been hoping to settle her grudge against Baraggan personally, but there was simply no room for her to interfere in a fight like this.
Baraggan's power was troublesome enough on its own.
Most of Harribel's attacks would struggle to accomplish anything decisive against him, and one careless mistake could bring her into contact with that deadly aura of decay.
The explosions continued for quite some time.
Then, abruptly, they stopped.
Even Starrk looked drained after unleashing that many full-powered Ceros.
As for Baraggan, the result was obvious.
"That's it."
Starrk turned toward Nelliel and Harribel and waved weakly.
"Take him with us."
Then he dropped onto the sand.
"I need to rest for a while."
He promptly lay flat on his back and stopped talking.
Nelliel flew toward where Baraggan had fallen.
The king of Hueco Mundo lay at the bottom of an enormous crater, the surrounding sand burned completely black.
Baraggan looked almost dead.
He wasn't moving, and his presence had become so faint that it was barely detectable.
His body was also badly mutilated.
It was slowly repairing itself, but the speed made it clear that he did not possess anything comparable to High-Speed Regeneration.
Nelliel didn't waste time.
She grabbed Baraggan by the skull and dragged him out of the crater before regrouping with Harribel.
Lilynette, meanwhile, picked Starrk up and carried him along.
The group had arrived in a rush and left almost as quickly.
Only much later did Baraggan's surviving subordinates cautiously return.
They gathered around the ruins of Las Noches and stared in disbelief at what remained.
Their king…
Was that really it?
By the time Starrk and the others returned to the Rose Hunter, Cyrus was already waiting for them.
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