Wukong's eyes maintained their crescent amusement, unfazed by her provocations. The monkey twirled about his cloud, an apple practically summoned into his hands.
"Kehehe, by no means is the lack of freedom ideal, but I've no issues maintaining myself. The monster in the waters keeps to himself, but I have no troubles finding a sparring partner elsewhere in this realm. I'll admit, the lack of Qi Alchemists is a bit of a disappointment, but it is of no matter; I think I'll find myself burdened less by these circumstances quite soon, rather."The monkey finished his piece and took a bite of his apple, moving into a prone, more comfortable position, his eyes locked onto the west as if a show were soon to begin. In contrast to his relaxed posture, Yuel was still visibly on edge, though she was successfully soothed by Ulv's words. Her attention redirected to the woman, intentfully listening on her response with great interest.
"My inner world? I guess that makes sense? But I'm not very spiritually inclined, so even though I've heard of sub-shinigami before, I didn't think that sort of circumstance would apply to me."Yuel's surprise stuck around a bit, but quickly rotated into some excitement. After all, for as long as she's remembered, the girl had always desired power of her own. From the first time she saw Azure, captivated by his power, to moving to Karakura and acquainting herself with a plethora of superpowered individuals enrapturing her with their prowess. Now, for the first time, she was being told that there might be potential power lying within her? Wait, no, hold on, Shadin said something similar one time, but when Yuel pestered him to continue, he brushed it off.
"I-I see... then there is a seed within me! I wonder then why there are so many beings within me then... wait! Wukong! You must be my zanpakuto spirit then, right?"Her question was only met with uncontrollable cackling, deep desperate breaths inbetween, as if the monkey was going to die from laughing. Instead what gave her a response was the full emergence of the behemoth to the west. The water-level of the entire ocean sunk considerably, in its place the view of a behemoth eastern dragon risen from its slumber. Its massive azure body with patches of golden scales and hairs flared with immense energy on the scale of some of the worlds most magnificent powerhouses. The piercing strength of its luminous golden eyes practically scorched all in its view. Of course, all of these features in its spiritual power usually meant very little to the spiritually inept Yuel--but, this time was different. Why?
"Wha... I.... I can feel it. I can feel it? Is that what this is?"Yuel's tension relaxed immediately when the beast entered her view; instead, she was utterly captivated by it. The immensity of its size, the beauty in its iridescence, its absolute majesty, and most importantly, the blissful, overwhelming feeling of its spiritual energy. The Duulheim was, for the first time in her memory, experiencing spiritual pressure, and in all honesty, it was overpowering. It felt like this crushing force of gravity, demanding every fibre of her being to hug the ground beneath her--and at the same time, it was like some ecstatic beacon of heat and warmth calling to her, and without even realising it, the charmed Yuel was walking forward.
"This is spiritual energy? Wow... it's, amazing? I'd ask why I can feel it, but..."She paused her words as well as her steps. Though it seemed like she randomly stopped walking, Yuel knew that the place she was standing on was the edges of her white world. Even though it was usually infinite, this time around any step further would be leaving her white world and entering the realm of the dragon and its oceanic world.
"But I don't think I need to. I know why, and it's because..."Yuel stretched out her hand forward and balled it into a fist. Along this motion, Ulv would recognise the subsequent reaction as the realisation of her Tulpa, the same space-altering effects applying to her hands, as if she were grasping the film of a barrier before her and sliding it off the invisible wall of her white world. Thereafter, Yuel start walking forward again with her hand still outstretched, this time beckoning for the behemoth to come closer, within her reach. It offered no response and stayed put, not even looking at the girl.
Instead, its eyes were fixated on the woman a distance behind her. There was no emotion in its expression, not that a dragon's expression was easily read. However, the power of its stare was intense; the piercing glare easily induced a feeling of all-knowing arrogance, different to the one Wukong offered. This one felt more like simply existing within this world and being under its eyes read every piece of your being, everything laid out to bare.
"It's because you're mine. It's not Wukong--it's you, that's my zanpakuto spirit--right?"Through her Empathic Heart, Ulv would be able to see the blank listlessness in Yuel, or rather, calmness. In fact, even without Empathic Heart, the air around the blonde changed significantly, and her demeanor as a whole seemed grander. If Ulv were in front of the girl, she'd find a similar piercing gaze in her eyes, akin to the dragon's.
"All of this is mine. I remember now. It's because of you. You're the reason I'm like this."A change of air around a person was a figure of speech, but for Yuel, this was literally happening--once more courtesy of the recent Tulpa she learned, simply much more powerful within this world. Enough that, similar to the way Ulv manipulated the wind, a gust brushed along Yuel's body and lifted her forward towards the dragon.
"It's time for you to pay me back. What is your name, serpent?"Largely out of her usual character, Yuel's words were striking, spoken with heavy authority. Her demands were not met, however; a snort of air escaped the dragon's snout in a scoff, and instead of responding, the creature motioned back into the waters, as if to return to its slumber. Unfortunately for the dragon, Yuel wasn't intent on letting it do as it pleased.
"Stop."Her previous words of authority only extended as far as that--words. This time was different. At her command, the world listened, and the waters froze in time,preventing the dragon from re-entering their depths.
"You will no longer run from me."Of course, a dragon was a proud being; a mere command and show of force wasn't enough to submit to. In fact, it was understood as a provocation. The behemoth turned its focus back in her direction, not at Ulv this time, but properly at Yuel. The world rumbled, and the spiritual pressure it exuded skyrocketed.
"Uh-oh. That's my queue, I look forward to seeing what remains of you!"Wukong quickly gulped down his apple and stood up properly on his cloud, hastefully flying away back into the skies a great distance away from the white world. Soon after, the build up of spiritual pressure actualised into energy, and a massive beaming pillar of energy tunneled its way towards Yuel, who was completely defenseless, and by extension Ulv. Having only now realised how ahead of herself she'd gotten, as if the girl regained herself and her former character, in futility the young Duulheim closed her eyes and put her hands up to block the oncoming blast that seemed like it would vaporise all in its path.