(Davian's P.O.V)
I could feel the light disappear as Respira devoured me.
Time energy swept through my body and begun to take everything away.
It gorged on my flesh and bones, ravenously fed on my life force, stealing vitality and replacing it with an emptiness that reminded me of death.
I could only watch as the last ray of light disappeared, that being the red gem I kept on my chest pocket.
It's dying glow dimmed and I was plunged in unknowable darkness.
All alone.
I couldn't even sense my Zanpakuto.
The plan had failed. I had been...wrong.
(General P.O.V)
A Zanpakuto was eternally linked to it's Wielder. They would exist in the same reality and state. Life in life and death in death.
In the void of nothingness, a space in between worlds where reality met unreality, a pair of glowing Torquoise eyes opened, gazing at the only other thing in this space.
A soul.
(Chase P.O.V)
My master is insane.
Something that I normally wouldn't complain about because I was bat shit crazy myself.
If it wasn't for the recklessness attached to his brand of insanity.
I indulged in his foolishness and now he was dead. Well, as effective as that was on someone like him.
He didn't know his true power and if I had my way, I would make sure he learned some discipline before accessing the terrifying amounts he would eventually call on.
Without discipline, that would only end one way. Terribly.
So why allow him to die? Or as close to it as he could get?
Because, he needed to learn about consequences.
I didn't need a reckless, insane and suicidal master.
I could take insane and suicidal but not reckless.
WE needed to learn.
His physical body wasn't strong enough to tank an attack from an Arrancar of Barragan's level.
Not to mention, the hollow was much much stronger now that he was fused with a divine being.
Davian couldn't sense it but the fact that he even managed to last this long under the effects of Barragan's spirit pressure was a miracle in and of itself.
The very fact that my Master had gone into the fight with full confidence in his victory DESPITE knowing he was outmatched, only made me admire him more.
That said, the fact that he decided to go into the fight DESPITE my telling him not to, made me frustrated at his impulsiveness.
For all his surprisingly keen intelligence and shrewd mind, Davian failed to think things through at times.
"GOOD GRIEF. WAS HE ALWAYS THIS RECKLESS?"
Ah and so the hidden guest decides to reveal his presence.
"You tell me."
I snorted.
"You've been with him the longest."
"BUT YOU KNOW HIM BEST. I'M JUST A GHOST FROM HIS PAST. ALL I CAN DO IS WATCH. BUT FIRST, LETS GET SOME LIGHT IN HERE."
(General P.O.V)
Next to the torquoise eyes, a green glow lit up in the darkness.
The glow came from Chesha Neko's sheath, floating around the soul in a cycle that was shared by the Torquoise eyes.
(Chase P.O.V)
I had secrets.
Secrets that Davian was not ready to know. One of them being that he was far special than he could realize.
There was a reason why he defied death.
There was a reason why she couldn't keep him for herself.
And this was one such secret. What he called his 'Fullbring' was something more than that.
"You know what we need to do."
I told the Spirit contained in the sheath.
"This stunt he pulled wasn't supposed to work, but we both know Davian is special. The only thing he's missing is...us."
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I added, hoping...no, knowing that the spirit inside the sheath understood the seriousness of the situation.
He sighed.
"Fine. You know I always have his back. At least as long as I'm here. He's gotten better at using my gift. Soon he won't need me and I'll move on."
He said morosely.
I didn't know what to say to comfort him. My mind was occupied with my Master's well-being.
"What do you need me to do?"
He must have sensed my apparent apathy for his situation as he got right down to business.
"A transcendent spiritual entity requires full harmonious synchronization with his soul. Davian effectively aged himself up to a point where he's grown past that point."
He had skipped all the steps. See, reckless.
"He has not mastered Bankai or Shukai, all he has is unfocused amounts of energy. Amounts of energy that can warp reality as he sees fit. If we don't want him to destabilize his soul energy and blow up...we need to fuse all our energies into him."
"How is that going to help exactly? That kind of power on top of our own, would crush his body in an instant."
The spirit highlighted the main issue.
Luckily, I had a solution for that.
"Not with the Sheath working to buy him some time."
The spirit hummed in realization.
"I see. That could work. However, he will need to finish the fight fast. The longer it goes on, the less damage to his physical body I can heal."
The spirit stated.
(Davian's P.O.V)
How long have I been here?
It feels like years.
No, more like decades.
Alone with my thoughts. Alone with my nightmares. I could feel myself slip away. Slip into the emptiness of...
"Oh please. How dramatic. It's only been 2 minutes in real time."
Wait, who's that?
Chase?
Chase!!
Oh god, am I glad to hear your voice!
"LISTEN UP FOR WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME."
My Zanpakuto announced.
"DEATH IS NOT TO BE FEARED BY THE LIKES OF US. YOU WANTED A TASTE OF TRUE POWER, RIGHT? THEN EMBRACE IT."
What was he talking about?!
Embrace it?
"DID YOU FORGET? YOU'RE NOT NEW TO THIS. DEATH HAS TRIED TO CLAIM YOUR SOUL BEFORE AND FAILED."
Yeah...
He's right.
I am the Spirit King. I am the Grim Reaper. I am Death.
I reached out and defied the Darkness pulling onto my soul. I reached out without hands and grasped the power I knew I could instinctively call on.
There wasn't a massive surge of energy.
One minute I was non-existent. Dead. And then the next I was back.
I was alive.
Not just alive but time had stood still. Literally.
I could feel the zone around me lag forward slowly to allow me to center myself.
Reikaku spread out, covering everything. By everything, I mean the entire universe.
There was so much pain.
In the future, the earth had literally gone to shit. There was some kind of zombie plague sweeping across the continents that was responsible for the death of a majority of people.
The population was down to a few hundred million people and past the solar system, there was so much more...life.
So many souls, with feelings of laughter, misery, purpose and those without across numerous alien planets...it's too much...
Too much... information. I...
A cooling sensation appeared from within my soul. I looked down at my chest and saw a green glow. It felt...homely and alive.
I reduced Reikaku's zone, relegating it to only scan everything inside the city or around it.
Something that allowed me to see Cheshire, helping a woman out from the ruins of a destroyed building.
Not to mention another woman watching our fight while hiding behind the fallen pillars of the palace.
Most of the city had suffered under Barragan and I.
And I speculated we would destroy even more now that I could actually fight back.
I warped space, instinctively pulling on it's soul and appeared behind...
Hila. Her soul spoke to me. That's new.
I touched her, sending her away. Sending her back to the past.
Then space opened up to me once more and I appeared before Cheshire and...Mera, Queen of Atlantis, daughter of Xebelian royalty, from the Dimension Aqua, a pocket dimension whose entrance is the Bermuda triangle.
What a proud soul. But she told me a lot of what was happening here. Which explains the state of the outside world.
Barragan and The Light had found a way to weaponize the Trench. A species of merfolk that were known for their viciousness and staggering numbers.
With a cursory glance at Cheshire's soul next, I sent them back into our real timeline.
On another thing, I couldn't feel my own spirit energy anymore.
The comforting warmth usually present on my chest was replaced by a heat that pervaded my entire body.
I looked down at my form.
Would I always grow to be this big. How old was I?
A query to my Zanpakuto went unanswered. That would normally be worrying but... something told me, it was as it should have been.
Like the green glow on my chest that obviously belonged to Chesha Neko's sheath, Chase was closer to me now than he'd ever been before.
One thing I could tell was that I didn't have a lot of time in this form.
I had to finish this fast. My opponent had caught on to the fact that something was not right.
Especially when I used his own weapon to block his attack.
"Impossible!! You can't be him! I just killed you!! How did you survive Respira?!"
He barked out.
Now that I had more power than I knew what to do with, I would make sure to make my own revenge fun.
I twirled his Battle Axe before throwing it towards him at high speeds. To his benefit, Barragan dematerialized in a fast Sonido from the path of the Axe.
Only for my palm to plow into his face, pushing us through the city's sky line and towards the dome of energy separating the city from the megatons of water surrounding it.
The dome rippled dangerously behind his back, cracks appearing on the dome's surface.
"What was it you said?"
I asked him, leaning closer.
"Oh yeah, the lesser never learn their place. Will you learn your place, king of Hollows?"
"I will...kill you! Respira!!"
Barragan snapped angrily, calling onto the dark miasma to devour me.
The time erosion covered my body but lacked purchase.
"Tsk...you should know, that won't work on me any more."
I shook my head at him.
"But...but how? Everything dies! Everything..."
His jaw hang open in shock.
"What are you?"
He enquired shakily.
My smirk sent shivers across his entire boney body.
"If you're done freaking out... I'm going into kick your ass now."
I was looking forward to this.
My first backhand dislodged his entire head and pulverized the rest of his body.
The battle axe on the ground cracked and simply disintegrated.
I stopped and blinked.
What the fuck just happened? Did he...did he just die?
There was barely any power behind that strike! I had held back 99% of my full strength. The damage I could actually inflict was more than the planet could handle. I think.
Fuck that. He's not getting away do easily after everything that's happened. I focused on time and then rewound it.
The ash drifting in the air combined to form small bone shards that then combined to form a skull wearing a gaudy golden crown before the rest of his body reformed.
"I died..."
Barragan muttered, stunned.
"I died and you brought me...back."
He was staring at me in a strange expression. I didn't know how I could even read his face with the lack of facial expressions.
"That's right."
I informed him.
"You didn't think you'd have it..."
Then he did something even stranger.
Barragan bent a knee in subservience.
"I understand now. I understand my role. It was never to rule. I beg you to forgive me, Lord Death."
I didn't let any of the shock I was feeling appear on my face. Inside I was entirely stunned.
I hadn't accounted for this. How could I? From what I knew, the Old Hollow King was a stubborn and prideful individual. It didn't make sense that he would kneel before me.
Or did it?
I mean, he was the king of Las Noches before Aizen came into the picture. And then Aizen simply dominated him, showed him who was stronger.
Barragan naturally bowed then. It would make sense that before an even superior foe, he would similarly bow his head.
Now the question is...what should I do?