Africastrophe IV: Gold is Unbreakable

The choice was clear: kill her or die. However, neither could be done at the same time. Maybe escape is possible. Maybe doing this would have done that and that would have done this, but split second decisions are nuanced and incomprehensible. Refusal to change is a Hollow's weakness. They're stuck in their negativity and usually culled. Only those who have realized what the future holds for them are those that evolve beyond.

He evolved beyond, that Asher. El Dorado had wanted to sit on the pinnacle of life with his Liege, but evolution was beyond him. Stuck in his desire to exist, he froze existence in his image to never be forgotten. Now he remembered why Asher was as much of a fool as he is a genius. What's the point if everything is gone? Who will care? Who will remember?

Kanae would feel the gold splotches on her body bubble before those splotches exploded outward, spikes digging into her skin, attempting to penetrate her body and split her asunder. Still, with that, nothing could have been done to stop her. El Dorado's hands refused to move, knowing he could not kill her if he had not focused everything on his final attempt to bisect her as she tried him so many times.

It is for that reason that she found herself standing before the hulking creature, her blade risen and his form still. Slowly, that mask he wore, its golden splendor, snapped, the clean attack causing one half of it to simply fall to the ground. Red eyes gone dark, she has finally landed the one blow she desired. She had removed his pride as a Hollow.

Blood dripped from where gold had trespassed upon Kanae's body. She was in worse shape than she wanted to be, and was furious a Hollow had once again proven an obnoxious hurdle to overcome. She had felt her sword glide through El Dorado's mask, leaving the result of this battle beyond doubt...or was it? As Kanae watched the light leave her enemy's eyes, she couldn't help but think it strange it's hulking body remained. She knew when a Hollow's mask was destroyed, so too was the Hollow; it's spirit finally allowed to be sent back into the maw of the Soul Cycle.

Eyeing the supposedly dead Hollow suspiciously, Kanae placed her Zanpakuto back into its sheath, never letting her grip fall from it as she did. "This was always your fate, from the moment you stood in my path...oh, I've already forgotten your name." Not wanting to be caught by surprise, Kanae shifted in place then swiftly drew her acid-coated sword a final time and swung it through the air to split the Hollow in two from top to bottom.

No one wants to die, but death is an eventuality. Maybe that outlook isn't correct. What was it again?

"We'll all die someday, but it's what we leave behind that matters," El Dorado spoke to the Hollow he had traveled his home with. "My Liege will leave behind a legacy, but I wonder what I'll leave. Will I be remembered? That's why I'll coat the Heavens in gold, to be remembered forever."

Immortality was never the correct answer to life. Murder is life. Killing is life. Creating is life. Imagination is life. In one's final moments, the door of fate opens, ever action ever taken thrusting before your eyes, and it's your decision to decide if any bit of it was worthwhile. Then, what's the answer when one has found themselves dissatisfied?

A sickly cleave of acid travelled once again to the sullen Hollow, his dying body still receding to the Earth. However, the red jewel imbued in his chest had not died, not yet. An anchor to this world, and a testament to his single desire, it began to glow brighter. As that acid cleaved through El Dorado's body, that jewel had been cut through, perfectly doubled. Yet, it's glow remained.

It sparked and went wary as more splintered cracked its gleam before erratic energy popped free from it like lightning, grabbing hold of the remains of El Dorado. Asher would be displeased if he died like this. He would be displeased if he died like this. Death is a constant, but he can change how he dies and what he takes with him to Heaven..., or Hell.

That's when the jewel exploded, energy spiraling out of control as it forced El Dorado's body back together, stitched like Frankenstein's monster. His golden exterior dented, broken, and falling apart, the maskless Hollow billowed as sharp teeth exploded from his makeshift maw. Power beyond comprehension cracked the world around him. Gold and black ichor conjoined as his face twisted in an attempt to regain his lost visage.

Movements that seemed haggard and barely human, his body fell apart just as easily as it reformed before his looming mass expanded before his crackling red eyes fell to Kanae. Like a shark, he lumbered forward, mouth agape, before he crashed down head first like a wild animal to consume the Gotei Captain. As he did so, parts of his body bounced away, gold splattered everywhere.

Why was it never enough with this freak?! Kanae ruefully glared at the energy extending out as tendrils to grasp the Hollow's split body parts. She leaped backward to avoid being caught in anything dangerous as El Dorado's body was brought back together. Though she would have never called El Dorado human, this disgusting monstrosity formed from its rent apart body was something else altogether. Vicious teeth and a decomposing body painted a picture of death, of El Dorado's and whatever was in its way.

When the Hollow monster lunged forward Kanae braced and raised her Zanpakuto, its edge striking and guarding against the giant teeth seeking to crush her. Though she prevented her demise by blocking, such a large creature's gaping maw could not be defended against easily with a single sword, and this fact became even more obvious to Kanae as she felt scorching pain in her left bicep. With all the strength and speed at her disposal she dislodged the tooth from her arm and her sword from El Dorado's mouth, leaping back to avoid as much of the splattering gold as she could.

A haggard, furious look distorted Kanae's face as she observed the disgusting mess of a Hollow before her. She took only a second to use Kaidō on the terrible wound she'd just sustained, a dull green glow radiating from her sword hand to close the wound and prevent further blood loss. She tried to raise and flex her arm but every movement sent a ripple of pain all through the damaged limb and threatened to tear the injury back open, loosing a barely restrained hiss from Kanae's lips..

Now wait just a second Kanae, last time you said you didn't want to use that. When you're injured I know you lose contr-


To those who laid witness to Kanae's battle with Asher, a familiar scene may unfold before their eyes: a crushing weight without equal would fall upon the battlefield, bringing with it terrible gusts of winds and a horrific sense of dread. From within the epicenter of this terror Kanae's new form would emerge, appearing like a demonic yōkai covered in green scales and with cat eyes staring threats of death into El Dorado. The earth beneath her feet vanished from the world, wholly incapable of even touching the woman made of acid so volatile and caustic it melts even itself away as it falls from her skin. Kanae looked down at her left hand as she lifted and flexed her fingers, the pain and injury her foe had just cursed her with gone from her body. She was now reborn, and either El Dorado or the world would fall first.

Fear struck a cord through reality, life itself fearing the surge of power that has graced Earth. An indomitable presence that shouldn't exist has birth itself yet again, and the world remembers her. Hollow all around basked in this toxicity, losing themselves like drunken sailors. They dwindled and died, taking in this drug. However, they were not safe either. Beings of all shapes and sizes were affected, intoxicated by the Captain's power. Even El Dorado's writhing mass wiggled and shivered from its close proximity.

However, his lost mind could think of nothing more than dining on the plump morsel before his red eyes. This power is something only his Liege knows, and as a creature who will go beyond even Asher, he could not let this chance slip. Broken thoughts that only screeched for a meal took hold of him physically and spiritually. Almost compensating for what he lacked, his body contorted and began to grow further, his maw opening wide as Hollow of all shape and sizes began to appear to the feast, but like a blackhole he began sucking in the environment.

Those incapable of escaping his suction were turned into his meal as his size continued to grow and grow. Not even Kanae could completely avoid the sensation of her soul being tugged by El Dorado's growing power. The gold that once donned him could not resist either, his entire collection that had been slain sailing through the skies towards him to satiate his new hunger. And that's when red bulges appeared along his black mass of writhing skin, and those masses burst, firing deadly beams of Cero all around him, reckless lasers without aim devastating the landscape.

Through demonic eyes Kanae watched with disgust as her enemy continued writhing and changing. Even for a Hollow this thing's vile appearance was noteworthy, nearly bringing the Captain to the precipice of retching. To her, El Dorado had been dead a long time, since he was placed in her path. It was simply time to bring him up to speed.

Increased size didn't bother Kanae, though at this point nothing did. In her mind all there is is the kill; and as she Flash Stepped too and fro, dodging about to avoid the myriad Ceros firing wildly from the Hollow, her thoughts were consumed with just how to make this swine suffer most in its final moments. She continued dancing about, looking for the best opening to engage El Dorado's writhing form for the final time.

There.

As if she'd teleported, Kanae vanished from all senses before suddenly reappearing atop El Dorado's growing frame. Her feet would be like the Sun on his hide, burning like nothing other as air, skin, and even Reishi were all continuously consumed by her presence. Kanae gently laid the tip of her Zanpakuto upon the Hollow, it's presence as all-consuming as her own. In this chaos she was a beacon of calm amidst a storm, only images of inflicting pain in her sights.

Kanae began making her way down El Dorado's back, dragging her Zanpakuto across the Hollow as she did, a relentless assault of brutal foot steps meant to open gaping holes in her foe. She carefully avoided the areas firing off Ceros one after another, keeping to spots on which she could stand and hop from one to another. This dance of death continued until she reached the end of El Dorado's ever-growing and changing body, flipping off it and landing on the ground a distance away which swiftly vanished beneath her. As a cherry on top, she turned in place, raised her Zanpakuto in its true, final form, and swung it through the air, sending forth a violently powerful blast of pressure that would smash into her would-be victim's back with the weight of a freight train.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

However, all he knows and ever knew was pain. A life as a Hollow is nothing but pain. Killing, eating, killing, eating, killing again, eating again: It's all a cycle of death and more death. It's an eat or die world, and as a being eternal, his only path is to eat. Then, with that said, why is he dying?

Gaping holes open down his hide as he's spliced with every step and movement. The lasers fired from his body had no purpose but decimation, but despite his dissected body, they did not stop. Until she fired her true shot, her blade's path retching through his form until it cleaved through and split him asunder; only then did the lasers cease. That's when one would notice the golden environment.

Everything that had tasted his power had turned gold, and as his form began to fall to the ground, melting away, that gold cracked and splintered until breaking, dissolving into Reishi that simmered before it all began to fly, compiling onto El Dorado's spot, becoming one with his melting form, reforging it as his black mass began to bubble and grow larger.

His mouth came first, bursting out from the bulging mass before his claws and arms broke free. Almost like a rebirth, he rose, his form growing even larger until he dwarfed Kanae entirely. His form, still, did not focus on her, thrashing like a mindless beast, stronger than before but still incapable of controlling its power. That red energy from before still spiraled his body though, holding his massive muscles together like improper stitchwork.

Sluggish, he slammed his arms down, causing the ground to erupt before him before his throat began swelling. Literally breaking his own neck as it popped and snapped as more energy built within it, red beams firing from torn tissue, his head faced towards Kanae even without her being his target. No. He only wished to decimate everything, a final attempt to mark the land in his image, even as warped as it's become.

Then the energy moved through him, his bulging neck pulsating as it pushed the lump in it forward until his mouth opened, his jaw ripping and tearing as he forced that mass of energy outward, spilling forth a gargantuan Cero that dislocating his jaw and consumed everything before him entirely.

Kanae simply stood in silence as she watched the gruesome show before her. It seemed like nothing in the entire world, in any of the worlds, could permanently end this disgusting and vile creature. The sudden release of an overwhelming Cero in her direction didn't surprise the Captain, but its scope and scale were staggering in its own right. Kanae swiftly Flash Stepped to her right, every muscle in her legs being pushed to their limits, narrowly escaping the Cero's grasp; yet pain still rang out in her mind, drawing her wicked eyes to where her left arm had just been, a burned stump now all that remained.

Pain and anger sharpened Kanae's senses. She would end it here, there was no more room for playing games; she'd grown annoyed and bored with her foe. In a flash she disappeared and reappeared, now directly next to the mess of a Hollow that was El Dorado. With no opportunity given for the creature to attack again, Kanae immediately set to work by slashing with her Zanpakuto dozens then hundreds of times seemingly simultaneously in a massive acid-coated Sazaeta, each attack's reach extending for a dozen or more meters from her blade. Then, when she was all finished and confident her mission was complete, Kanae sealed her Zanpakuto, her arm having already regenerated, and walked away from this mess of a battlefield.