X-treme Lazarus Evo [Kizuna, Safira]

Reconstituting herself was not slow but it was not immediate either. Atziluth made it easy for her to float adrift amongst the chaos of a soul, the wildcard that wore her a brand of Balaam. It was fortuitous that she had placed it upon Kizuna when she had. It would need to expand beyond just one though lingered on her mind. Being inside her like this was an experience she imagined would overwhelm a weaker mind or soul.

It was unbearably hot and humid, each breath she took felt like it was as much liquid as air. The feeling of suffocating without ever passing out. The darkness was enough to deprive her of sight and her skin felt like she was bathing in a warm and viscous ooze with everchanging currents like an ocean that moved like the winds did.

She had no measure of time, time felt as chaotic as everything else in here. It felt like an eternity inside Kizuna until enough of her reformed to differentiate where she stopped and Kizuna began, before that she felt like she was covered in cracks and holes where the other made herself at home inside. When she and Kizuna were joined with Beriah there was an awareness. However, in here she imagined she could easily be lost among the souls that Kizuna had consumed, if not for what differentiated her from others.

"I hope you didn't think the worst, Kizuna."

The pulse of her spiritual power spoke for her rather than plain words. The very act of doing so caused her to spin out, up and down became left and right, there was no point trying to keep her bearings in this womb, this cradle of life and sanctuary, that she had made inside of the other woman.

It was good that Kizuna had expected this little outreach. Better still that it could be an internal dialogue. After all, while she had the means to replace her lost body parts, that didn't mean that Kizuna had already effortlessly returned her jaw to normal. She wasn't going to bleed out, but she was still lacking in half of her face. Thankfully, she didn't need it for this particular conversation.

"Nah. If you were actually in that kind of danger, I didn't think you'd go testing your luck."

Safira certainly didn't strike Kizuna as the type to suddenly develop a thirst for combat. Sure, she was arrogant, but she wasn't stupid, in her experience. Being better than other people meant being the person who survived, after all, so that confidence didn't make Kizuna think her current superior was going to go around getting into fights she couldn't win, and then seeing them through to the end.

"So, how long until you're back to normal?"

She had not anticipated the shinigami to be so tenacious, she was well aware of how many resources that she had wasted. However, Safira's the condition to her "victory" was to kill quantity over quality. It did not matter if there was ten powerful shinigami in the world, they could not be everywhere at once, the pawns were the most valuable piece on their chessboard. It's why she had targeted them specifically - even if she had to suffer this state as a result for it.

The day belonged to her.

"I cannot tell you, I have nothing to measure time right now. I cannot even determine at what point I regained awareness within you, but I am glad that you are alive. If you died, it would be very unfortunate."

It was amusing to think the death of Kizuna would've spelt her own.

"I hope you don't mind hosting me like this. For the moment I would like you to keep this as our little secret."

"Right, sure. Not like I've got any reason to go around telling people you're hanging out in here for now, so go ahead."

If Kizuna could go about her work like this, then that was pretty much all that mattered to her. She had research that needed doing, refinements that needed making, and she definitely wasn't going to sit around and wait for shinigami to come knocking on her door before she started making up new moves. No, she imagined this was probably going to be the start of a whole lot of hostilities, but she liked that.

"Anything you need me to be doing so this all works out right?"

"Good, I'll be sure to reward you well for your service."

She did appreciate her, this new relationship was much more beneficial. To both of them she liked to think and Safira wanted to reinforce that to the other woman. She wasn't dull, just unruly, and why fight against it when she could cultivate all that wild energy into something of true value.

"I would ask the many souls you've consumed to stop trying to smother me. It would be a lot more comfortable inside you but I doubt you have any control over them."

A trivial thing but she imagined Kizuna would like something of substance. Something more than playful banter. The purpose of the destruction she had caused.

"As for what I need otherwise, we killed many shinigami and they have been sequestered to their realm which works in our favour. All foundations to pave the way for my era of light. I hope you wish to turn this world onto its head, Kizuna. I plan to destroy it and build a new one in its place."

"Sick. Thanks."

Well, it didn't seem like Kizuna could exactly go throwing herself into danger in the immediate. That was fine, kinda, though she would have liked to start limit testing again. Oh well, not the end of the world. Bringing a hand to her chin, which thankfully still existed in this mindscape, she thought about the future.

"You know I hate the status quo more than anything. Not a chance I'd let things settle down for long. So if we need to keep those losers on their toes, that's doable."

"Exactly but we'll begin with Hueco Mundo. This place is quite dull, don't you think? It's been like that for an eternity. I want bring an end to the everlasting night but my greatest obstacles to that are Kurosaki and Criella. Fortunately, only one of them has any vested interest in Hueco Mundo. As long as Kurosaki can continue with his quest for those fables there should be nothing to worry about from him. It's the ice queen that needs to shatter."

She explained the situation as she understood it. If the wheel of fortune turned in her favour then Criella's knight would have died in Soul Society but Safira didn't count on chance. No matter what way she considered it, a conflict with Criella would always end in a stalemate. If she could utilise the same trick she did with Kizuna, the fusion, with someone like Kurosaki then whatever hollow was born from that union would surely be unstoppable. Even against the knight's raw power, alas, she did not imagine she could convince him into such an arrangement.

"Having crushed the shinigami's numbers, I'll begin by building my own on two fronts. At the moment, stacking the board with pawns is the best course rather than trying to check the stronger pieces at play."

It crossed her mind to ask if she had recovered from the battle but she could not tell if it had been hours or weeks, she would have faith in Kizuna's nature that a fast recovery would be a priority and so it didn't need to be asked in the end.

"Not a fan of the ice age?"

It made sense that a serpent wouldn't be fond of the cold. Personally, Kizuna thought that the ice queen was an interesting enough sort, at least for the time being. There was just as much value in one tyrant as there was in any other, after all. They'd destroy, they'd conquer, they'd change the world in their image.

And, of course, in time they too would fall.

"Well, that's not really my forte, you know. Not making pawns, anyway. You wanna get your pawns made into something a little more dangerous, I can do that. After I get repairs made, anyway. Still missing a few pieces out in the real world."

"What does a frozen tundra offer that's different to this barren desert? She offers nothing of substance, delude yourself all you want. Even if the ice queen succeeds, she brings nothing different to what came before her."

That's where she did.

"That is fine, pawns have potential which I am sure is why they're your favourite piece. In your place, could you convince someone to gather them? What could I offer you in the meantime to expedite your recovery, better yet, your growth? I did offer a reward and I intend to continue with my apotheosis. This is not the extent of my potential, I reject the idea that it is."

Her path was towards supremacy but she had been defeated by those shinigami. She was not complete yet. An incomplete deity. If she wanted to overturn this world from a veil of darkness and ignorance towards the light of her truth, she could not settle here.

Change was change, as far as Kizuna was concerned, and she had no issue with what it did or didn't offer in the immediate. If there wasn't massive change right away, there would be eventually. But she was still perfectly fine with this.

"Mm, sure. I know that little shit Klein is trying to put something together, but he doesn't talk to me about whatever research he's doing. You'll get better answers out of him when you're back. Besides that, hm... I'll see what I can do. The only thing I need is a better way to replace my missing parts. No lower jaw right now."

It was easy enough to modify her tools to replace something besides arms, but that didn't mean she wanted to put in that much work if there was some easier means of bypassing it.