Chapter 648 The News Spread

In another area of Hueco Mundo, it was desolate and barren, with almost no trace of other Hollows.

Not even the lowest-level ordinary Hollow could be seen on the white sand-covered surface.

This kind of situation could only be due to one of two reasons.

One was that this area had already been visited by Makoto's group... wherever the Godly Hollow Hunter Squad passed, not a blade of grass grew.

The other was that there was a powerful ruler here, so powerful that all other Hollows dared not approach.

This area belonged to the latter.

The ruler was the future Primera Espada... Coyote Starrk.

Starrk walked over to a quartz tree.

He placed a few small, masked animal-like Hollows he had just brought back from outside in front of the girl sleeping under the quartz tree.

These were some little toys he had brought back for the girl to pass the time.

The sleeping girl was the soul that Starrk had split off from himself... Lilynette.

The little girl was curled up in a ball, her green hair spread across the sand, a trace of drool at the corner of her mouth.

Hearing someone approach, Lilynette groggily opened her eyes, rubbed them with her small hands, and yawned. "Yo, Starrk, you're back."

"I heard something interesting, Lilynette." Starrk looked at the little girl, the corners of his mouth slightly lifting.

Lilynette blinked, wiped the drool from her mouth with her sleeve, and asked, "What is it?"

"That guy Baraggan has been defeated."

Lilynette paused for a moment, then tilted her head, looking at Starrk's expression. "Starrk, you actually seem pretty happy about it."

Baraggan had also tried to recruit Starrk before. The King of Hueco Mundo had sent someone to deliver a message, inviting him to join Las Noches, offering extremely generous terms.

But after meeting with him once, Baraggan had voluntarily given up on that idea.

Because at the moment of their meeting, he had sensed that Starrk's strength was not at all inferior to his own.

A being of the same level, or even stronger, could never willingly submit to him.

After all, not even Baraggan himself had achieved self-Arrancarization, yet Starrk had.

That alone was enough to make the self-proclaimed King of Hueco Mundo feel a sense of wariness.

But in reality, Starrk would have been willing to hang out with Baraggan, not as a subordinate, but with the intention of forming a group.

After all, he was tired of being alone.

Unfortunately, Baraggan hadn't had the guts.

Starrk smiled, his voice carrying a hint of anticipation that Lilynette hadn't heard in a long time: "I heard that the Vasto Lorde named Nishikawa Makoto has many top-tier Menos Grandes around him. If the rumors are true, they might not be afraid of our Reiatsu."

Before his Arrancarization, because his power was too immense, the Reiatsu he unconsciously released would crush any other Menos Grandes that came near him.

Those weak Hollows, just by getting too close, would be pulverized into powder by his Reiatsu.

To deal with this, driven by a strong desire, he had split off part of his soul to form Lilynette, using this method to relieve the loneliness that had nearly driven him mad.

And Makoto, as the one who had defeated Baraggan, was said to have several Vasto Lorde-level experts by his side.

Such a being should be enough to stand on par with him, right?

At least, they wouldn't be crushed to death by the Reiatsu he unconsciously released.

Just knowing that there were beings in this world who could match or even surpass him gave Starrk a strange sense of reassurance.

It was a bit like Naruto's feeling toward Sasuke... when Naruto was bearing the bullying from the villagers of Konoha, discovering that Sasuke carried the same loneliness, that feeling of 'I'm not alone' was enough to bring a strange sense of comfort.

"So, you want to go see him?"

Lilynette rested her chin on her hands and asked.

…

In another abandoned forest in Hueco Mundo.

Dead, withered branches twisted toward the sky, like countless skeletal hands reaching for the moon.

An enormous Adjuchas crouched in the clearing of the forest, idly slapping the ground with its tail.

Its body was as big as a small hill. It said to a thin, gaunt Vasto Lorde beside it:

"Ulquiorra, have you heard? That guy Baraggan is dead."

This Vasto Lorde was also quite special.

Because like Starrk, his appearance was almost indistinguishable from a human.

Except for the half-helmet mask with a single horn on the left side of his head, and the two dark green tear-stain lines extending from his eyes to his jaw, there was almost no difference from an ordinary human.

He was the only other Hollow besides Starrk to achieve self-Arrancarization... Ulquiorra Cifer.

Hearing what his companion Yammy said, Ulquiorra's expression remained calm.

He merely let out a faint 'hm'.

In fact, he truly felt that this matter had nothing to do with him.

Whether Baraggan lived or died was of no significance to him.

The two of them basically lived in seclusion in this forest, never paying attention to the outside world.

"If we run into that guy, you'd better teach him a lesson!" Yammy said arrogantly, waving an arm the size of a building. "After all, Baraggan should have been killed by you. That old bastard was arrogant for so many years, and then he gets taken out by some outsider who came out of nowhere. What kind of nonsense is that?"

In Yammy's view, only Ulquiorra in all of Hueco Mundo was qualified to kill Baraggan.

He had seen Ulquiorra's Resurrección form with his own eyes. He firmly believed that power was unmatched by Baraggan.

Ulquiorra remained silent on the matter.

He had always been this way... without desires or ambitions. Starrk's motivation for Arrancarization was to escape loneliness, hence splitting off Lilynette.

But Ulquiorra had chosen to embrace that loneliness. Before meeting Yammy, he had been unable to find a reason to live and had tried to end his own life.

A Hollow who didn't even fear death wasn't likely to be particularly interested in anything.

Yet, at the very moment he was about to end his life, he had unexpectedly achieved Arrancarization.

Even Ulquiorra felt puzzled by this change. He didn't understand why, precisely when he had decided to die, he had gained new power.

But after some thought, he decided to postpone dying for the time being.

After that, he teamed up with Yammy, living in seclusion in this forest, day after day, living a life without any waves.

"I'm hungry. Let's go for a walk."

Yammy patted his enormous belly.

They spent most of their time in this forest, only going out when Yammy wanted to hunt for food.

Ulquiorra nodded, silently leaping down from the rock, and the two left the forest together.

As they walked, Yammy kept grumbling and complaining.

"That Nishikawa Makoto group is a real mess! They've killed so many Menos Grandes that I can't find anything to eat lately. Maybe I should go to the Living World and eat human souls instead."

Ulquiorra commented coldly, "How could mere human souls possibly taste good?"

Ulquiorra wasn't the type to indiscriminately kill innocent people, but he had a natural contempt for humans.

There was no particular reason... he simply saw humans as weak beings.