Animals Hide When They Hurt

” .mnph.”

In the midst of Menos forest, a place in which stone tree’s rose from the bedrock below to the heavens themselves, there was something amiss. A young girl had wandered into a nest of hollows, her skin the color of freshly fallen snow. Yet she also looked a little, well, odd. Bone protrusions adorned her head and she had a hole permeating her navel, all the markings of a hollow could easily be seen on her, and yet the enraged hollows in the midst of this nest had decided to turn a mistake into a blood feud. It was because of this, to anyone within twenty miles to fifty miles they might be able to hear the dissipating remnants of a world-shaking blast. In this baptism of flame that arose into the sky hundreds if not thousands of hollows merely had been erased in mere moments. These mindless beasts simply hadn’t the power, nor the intelligence to understand what had happened. They simply turned to dust under the onslaught of the light oscillations that had heated up the air around the girl til the point of combustion.

To those that came to behold this sight, something odd would be discernable from the aura the girl had about her. It was indifference, without any hint of malice. Because she hadn’t even the slightest bit of ill will when regarding these hollows. It was simply without the consciousness of her host, which had retreated further and further into the small corner of their shared inner world in which she was still guarding, she had no easy way to gauge her strength. She was a being without a personality, well, rather it was unformed. Since up until this point, she hadn’t needed it, all this hollow had needed was to respect the strength of those stronger than her. It kept her alive after all.

The clear cerulean gaze of hers sweeping up like floodlamps into the darkness that surrounded her before she manipulated and oscillated the light even further. This oscillation though was different, it reflected the light from her current area and re-laid the same picture as the ground behind her. To any that looked unless they had a mental deduction level of at least advanced they would most likely see nothing. Granted, just like anything else this method was not impossible to breach. After all, what she did simply was redirect the image that would be given to the eyes via tampering with the light-waves around her. Mind-boggling sure, but to this entity that was purely one of light it was actually quite easy, child's-play even.

After she had finished this action, the hollow’s gaze shifted back and glanced up at the distant heights above her. Only now did fragments of thought from her host begin to etch themselves into her conscious mind. Protect me . . . Then there was also one more bit of information that had shifted into her mind. ” i need around a month to fully recover, till then i’m trusting you my hollow.” That, was the important bit of information she needed. 1 month. On the 29th of January he would be fully mended from the damage that Mana Asthavon had inflicted upon his psyche. With that, the anxious turmoil in her heart, an unfamiliar and quite honestly uncomfortable emotion, finally faded from her body. For now she cast out her own energy dispersing it within the lights rays to detect life-forms that could be considered dangerous to her.

How did she do this? Simple, light was her, she was light. There was such a complex connection that she shared with light that imbedding her energy and thus expanding her senses was not too much of a stretch to do. But, it also wasn’t omnipotent, she only got a sense of it, she couldn’t get an exact location like a pesquisa from an arrancar could. Yet, it’s all she currently had as she stood there in the dying light of flickering flames and pursed her lips. Then she exhaled and tried again, to formulate words even if she couldn’t get the knack of it yet.

. . . .?

Vaguely she could sense the approach of someone who was stronger than the previous hollows. Her ice-blue gaze lingered, but she hadn’t dropped her guard just yet. Instead, she waited her body standing regally in the midst of the flames. Her eyes devoured the visible appearance of the boy with an animalistic wariness. She didn’t show herself quite yet, and rather with her body swaying softly , shifting from one foot to the other she let them continue to close the gap around her. Closer, closer they came until they got a tad too close.

Her response was to raise her hand, and allow for the light that filtered down from above to turn harsh. A wall of flames would instantly have flared into being. Crimson flames howling into existence, leaving a mirage of heat in the air, and melting the sands beneath it almost instantly. These flames would grow until they had a towering height of forty feet. Their length expanded for at the very least one thousand feet in either direction for an entire length of roughly two-thousand-feet. It was a sight to behold truly, for the heat radiating from this alone was enough to cause common papers and wood to combust, and this coupled with the fact she was currently invisible made it hard to discern her location.

Yet in the air light would begin to condense and conform. It would form clear letters that flowed with a wary slate gray coloration. This coloration was due to the intermittent change in frequency that took place in the light that formed these letters/ They also would have a slightly slanted spidery font, which made it interesting to behold.


It didn’t give the hollows location away but, it was interesting due to the fact that the hollow had already begun metamorphosis in terms of appearance alone when it had been released after azuma had undergone mental strain. Originally, it thought of taking him over, since that simply was the kind of hollow it was. However, it saw benefit eventually in working with it’s host which, was why he hadn’t been forced into a subservient role yet. The hollow hadn’t done much yet but, it had watched the boy before the rippling colors seemed to change and another line of letters floated from the ethereal yellow-hued flames.


It piqued the hollows interest, as a being that naturally followed, sought, and yielded to strength it was interesting to hear of hollows with other methods of survival, yet it was not enough for this hollow to drop it’s guard just yet. Instead it remained where it was hidden from all sight for the moment, while the final sentence floated out from the flames.

Nothing, nothing escaped her truly watchful gaze, as she took in the way that the boy reacted to the flames. It seemed that he had something against flames, to the point that it led them to vanish with some variant of high-speed transportation. Unfortunately for her, the boy hadn’t gone as far as she wanted him to. This little display originally was meant to scare him to the point he had fled for the hills! However, it seemed things just simply didn’t want to go the way this hollow planned them to go. A soft rumbling growl echoed in the hollows throat as the female appearance that it had donned for some god-forsaken did not negate the fact it was still at heart a raging, and untamable wild beast. Even if it’s tendencies seemed to be demure to some, just from her ravishing looks alone!

But, even for an injured beast such as her, she was still capable of finding amusement in a situation. While her cerulean gaze watched rudi’s ever changing expressions, the smallest of smiles tugged at the corner of her snow-white lips. It was cute in a way, for how the male had read the words aloud, it seemed this time the hollow might not be blatantly bullied for it’s inability to speak in it’s current state. Though, this positive assessment was only negated as the male had primed their sword. Even a mindless beast could discern such actions as they happened, so the seemingly small motion was instantly honed in on by her twitchy fight or flight instincts. She reacted in a restrained manner.

Light condensed and formed a blazing beam that shot from her palm into the hollow that had been lurking somewhat outside their ranges. How the hollow had sensed them was in a fairly unique way. For all intents and purposes this hollow was still very much so a wild animal, one that could pick up the slightest bit of killing intent directed upon it. The hollow that it hit was the adjuchas, and the impact was startling. The adjuchas’s hierro turned pure orange before it exploded into ash, it’s body vaporized by the concentrated rays of light that slid from her location. Only now did words slowly form in front of Rudi once more.

”..Blood? You are a blood user?

Images flitted unbidden into the hollows head, it was some of azuma’s knowledge and as it permeated the hollows brain it caused it to calm some. For once the hollow thought possibly this being wasn’t here to harm it. That this could be a faster path towards recovery of it’s host. It was only for this reason that the rippling distortion of light ceased and the hollows feminine form was brought to the surface. Those piercing sapphire-like irises scrutinized rudy, there was a wild, untamed intelligence in them. For now the hollow stood there without doing much of anything, the crater it had been hiding in from the blast of light had also been exposed, the smoldering wreckage full of radiation from the gamma and different forms of radiation that existed in the rays of light this hollow wielded. For now it only had one important question


The words spread with a vibrant green hue, as green signified curiosity and wariness at once. Now the hollow awaited a suitable reply from the young chap.

At Rudi’s reply the hollow arched a brow. So this individual's name is rudi? that was the first thought that slid through the hollows head. The second was He’s Friendly. This thought caused for the hollows rigid posture to relax marginally, however it was far from accepting of the hollow before it. Rather, it was still very wary of the creature. Yet in it’s mind it knew, if nothing was ventured nothing would be gained, this was simply how reality worked. So it took a step, it’s toes pressing against the cool stone that flickered with flaming corpses. Walking from the confines of that crater it made it’s way over to the small boy that stood before it, stopping roughly three strides-length away from him. The hollow’s finger beginning to trace the air to form more letters that had been comprised of varying wave lengths of light.




This was the reason that the hollow continued to slaughter hollows. It was gathering the energy in the same way any other hollow would. Devouring souls was something even an inner hollow could do for one simple reason, despite being within a vizard a hollow was still a hollow. Right now it needed that energy to begin aiding the host in casting off the damage to the hollow’s hosts psyche. Only then did the hollow raise its right hand, silently communicating with the vizard’s inner spirit. It was either this or once the host teetered on that brink, this hollow was fully ready to devour the male and become the king. But, as a primal being that acknowledged only strength, it wanted to beat it’s host when they were at their peak condition. This was why the host wasn’t wary of this hollow, because this immense otherworldly being wanted to beat it’s master fair and square.

The hollow could feel the raw energy radiating from the boy, it was vast but it was harder to gain energy from a powerful being than countless smaller ones. It was why for now the hollow formed a sword of light, roughly ten feet in height with a hilt that made it look like a biblical star, resting the burning tip into the ground from it’s light-manipulation. The sizzling from the sword melting the earth was audible and the orange color of the ground being super-heated was visible. A clear indicator of just how hot this white-hot blade of energy actually was. The hollows free hand did slide down to pat Rudi’s hair though. Not because the hollow was trying to be nice, but rather in a purely exploratory sense. It didn’t often get to have excursions to the material plane that other spirits existed in, it mostly remained within it’s own portion of azuma’s inner-world.

Of course the boy could freak out and sonido away, her touch wasn’t all that fast and was easy to see. But the hollow was already looking around to pick which path it was going to go down, because the impending slaughter was growing closer and closer. This hollow only had a certain amount of time before the mind of it’s host deteriorated even further. It couldn’t let that happen for many reasons, one being no one could destroy its host other than it. It was this kind of basic instinctual pride that drove it now as it’s blade flickered in the low-light setting, a clear flash of flame in a sea of twilight. Two hollows that got clipped by this blade instantly had been set ablaze as the inner hollow devoured their souls before the vassals that held them turned to ash.

The next sentence that floated in air was a clear blackish-red, the color of hunger.

This boy had something off about him, or at least that was what the hollow’s rather animalistic instincts screamed at it. Just from a careless brush-up with the boys horns she had felt the steady thrum of energy that lay within it. The amount held within was not small, and caused the tranquil face of the hollow to distort into a thinly veiled mask of surprise. Despite the boys diminutive stature, and smaller reserve of energy, there was an astounding amount of energy within his horns, to the point that it made her wonder exactly why this energy vastly out-stripped the boys own energy reserves.

Despite her frosty exterior, the boy seemed to snuggle into the hollows touch. It was strange, that this boy felt so comfortable around a vicious apex predator such as Shadow’s Light. Yet, even under the animalistic emotions that flowed through the hollow’s head, it still let it’s free arm drape around the boy’s shoulder, pulling him into a lone-armed hug that lasted for a fraction of a second before being broken. The hollow’s cerulean gaze lingering of the distance as it awaited the answer to the question that it had asked of the boy.

His answer was rather ingenious in a way, to get the hollows it simply had to make sure there was enough bait to sustain them. After it had gently released the boy and her body became fuzzy before fading out entirely. This was not her teleporting or using a high-speed movement technique, this was raw speed that allowed it to quickly transverse the rocky landscape, slashing and crippling menos as it went in a circular pattern, dragging some down with it as the hollow made it’s way closer to the center of the crowd, hiding it’s energy until it was almost just a whisp, untraceable in this graveyard of crippled menos.

When Rudi asked how many the hollow needed, Shadow’s light traced the words in the air, causing for the darkest shade of red yet to lay suspended the color of day-old dried blood as it’s hunger set in.

”..Thousands”

This was the truth, the hollow before rudi needed thousands of these souls before it would even begin to aid its host. As the words began to fade, the cries of hollows echoed out within the ten mile radius around them. There was at least ten thousand of them beginning to converge on their weakened and defenseless brethren. They hadn’t gotten here yet, but the sound of their claws scraping and scrabbling on the rocks was audible due to their sheer numbers, Shadow’s light eventually heard rudi ask yet another question, but this was the only one so far that caused the hollow any real heartache. It didn’t have a name in the traditional sense of the word, it’s name was derived out of the function that it served when tora lionus created it for the sake of the experiment known as Azuma Lazarus. So it’s answer that it sketched took maybe half a minute to trace in the air, and naturally was a tad complex.

”I am a being that hides in the shadow’s and yet illuminates the darkness to cast it out. I do not have a name in the traditional sense of the word, i merely have a name that is derived from fact and purpose. It is Shadow’s Light, because i lurk in the shadows, hidden and not meant to be seen, or heard. Yet my power defies that, contradicts with my very purpose and existence, for i shine brightly. Hence such a contradictory name.”

After such a satisfactory explanation, the hollow even felt a small swell of pride blossoming in its bosom. If for no other reason than the fact it had been able to explain it’s name with such eloquence. This hollow though eventually shied away from rudi, because it was used to the immaterial plane of ones inner world. This exterior material place was . . .different. It hadn’t quite gotten used to it yet either.