Another two months passed with three months left before the deadline.
Adam was cooped in his room, lit up by four sets of blue fire torches made of condensed Reishi in the form of a flame.
For the past months he had been making a lot of progress in mastering Quincy technique, Hollowfication and the Arrancar project. Everything went swimmingly except for the Hogyoku.
The problem he encountered with Hogyoku is, against his assumption, it wouldn't devour Mimihagi to increase the potency of the Soul King's divinity.
After a long and grueling experimentation and research to figure out why. He reached a simple and basic explanation. Mimihagi contain more divinity than the Hogyoku so it couldn't devour it. So, Adam spent the past month tearing apart the Mimihagi and slowly feeding it to the Hogyoku.
The Hogyoku had transformed twice as the Soul King's divinity grew ever stronger. From a purple sphere to an eye and finally an orb of multiple eyes that honestly looked and felt creepy considering that thing would constantly be in his chest or floating in his chest cavity when he put on his Hollow transformation.
Also, he gained extra power from that. First being the Authority of Stagnation or basically Chronokinesis on steroids because it can force not just time to stop but even concept to stagnate. For example extending life by putting the concept of death in stasis. Yeah, pretty OP but it is also incredibly costly to use. Secondly, is Shadow. He could manipulate shadows from creating objects like weapons to opening a portal to travel between shadows. A much more versatile and useful ability than Stagnation. But the most important thing is, the Immunity to The Almighty.
Adam is very ambitious and he planned to devour even Yhwach. What he fears isn't the Future Sight aspect of The Almighty. But the Future Alteration aspect of The Almighty. He already gave a first layer of safety net which is granted to all outsiders like Adam. The absence from the fate and destiny that Adam innately possesses since he is not from this world renders most prophetic ability useless against him and makes all vision about him to appear as a blank. Second is Kyoka Suigetsu's Hypnosis which is mentioned to affect even Yhwach. Lastly, his new found immunity after allowing Hogyoku to fully assimilate Mimihagi.
"It's time." Adam declared before he left his lab.
———
Stood inside the dark void, Adam opened his shutted eyes. His pupils are black as the void around him.
"Hmn. So, there they are hiding." Adam mutters as millions of visions appear in his mind which will break the mind of any normal person from the sheer influx of information alone.
Then the void split open and Adam exited in the heart of the Quincy last refuge, Wandenreich.
His arrival is silent like a shadow. None noticed his presence yet which is problematic. He needs a way to make everyone look at him.
Adam then starts rapidly drawing in Reishi from his surroundings which gather and form a spinning blue halo above his head. His goal is to attract as much attention. Especially from the stronger members. Which is why he is currently rushing towards Silbern in the middle of Wandenreich.
Within the halls of Silbern, an echoing explosion was heard when Adam slammed himself into its wall and found several Quincies in white uniform scrambling orders to the lower ranking soldiers to identify the chaos only for the source of the chaos to storm himself into the headquarters itself.
"Who are you? Daring to cause such havoc in the royal capital?" A Sternritter with a red mohawk demanded an answer only for Adam to smirk at him mockingly.
"Your death." Adam replied calmly while biting his thumb to shed some blood and formed a claw-like hold before he muttered, "Gran Rey Cero."
A ball of condensed golden Reiryoku converged at his palm and swirling rapidly before shooting out a pillar of golden beam that evaporated the Soldats while the Sternritter managed to use Blut Vene before he was slammed by the beam and into the wall before disappearing deeper into the castle.
"Huh? Not dead yet." Adam looked surprised when he didn't receive any notification about the Sternritter's death.
Then, more Soldats start pouring into the hall which leaves Adam frowning since they are weak and honestly a hassle to kill since they didn't give much reward really for the effort.
Adam then reached for something on the side of his waist where Kyoka Suigetsu appeared.
"Shatter." Adam mutters.
Then, the Soldats suddenly start killing each other while screaming about Hollow invading Wandenreich.
"Aren't you glad to have me, Master?" Kyoka Suigetsu asks when she suddenly appeared through her own power instead of Muramasa.
"I know. I know. Kyoka Suigetsu is the best Zanpakuto. No need to make me sing you praises everytime. You already know that you are the best." Adam said with a sigh as he walked through the broken hall of Silbern littered with dead Soldats.
"But hearing it from Master's mouth fills me with much excitement and eagerness to serve Master more." She said, basically implying that he should stop complaining and shower her with more praise before she starts sulking and seals her power again.
"Yes. Yes. Kyoka Suigetsu the best. Waah… Haah… such a needy Zanpakuto you are." Adam said with a deadpan face and a flat tone as he encountered another group of Soldats trying to stop him.
"Hmn. Hmn. That's the spirit. But need to work more on your sincerity and expression, Master." Kyoka Suigetsu commented with a few nods.
"Right." Adam sighed at the reminder that this will be a constant thing as long as he wishes to use Kyoka Suigetsu.
"Halt, you filthy Hollow!" The Soldats ordered but Adam thought of an idea.
Adam conjured a Quincy bow, Heilig Bogen, which caused the Soldats to be shocked that a Hollow can use Quincy technique.
"Impossible!" "Abomination!" They cried. "Kill it! We cannot allow this abomination to exist!"
They charged and attacked. Only to realize too late Adam had already left and they were killing each other the whole time.
———
After passing through several roadblocks, Adam finally found some Sternritter. Or all of them minus the higher ranking one, gathered to stop him.
Also, Adam saw one of the walls was punched through with the red mohawk Sternritter being treated on the spot and at the verge of death from the look of his state.
"I don't know what kind of Hollow you are and have the gall to waltz into Silbern. But this is the end of the line for you." A towering Sternritter with three pointed hairstyle and beard, said while cracking his fist and then vanished and reappeared in front of Adam with a powerful punch to Adam's face.
Adam simply stared with disinterest as blue veins spread around his face before the punch landed. Which shocked the Sternritter enough that he didn't notice a jet black blade stabbed his gut.
"Devour." Adam said before the Sternritter turned into a shriveled corpse and discarded to the side.
"So, who's next?" Adam taunted them while mentally relishing at the significant raise in his power after devouring the Sternritter and making him eager for more.
"This.. a Hollow and Shinigami?!" The Sternritter all looked in shock and didn't seem to notice Adam using Blut Vene previously. Maybe because their line of sight was obstructed by the now dead Sternritter.
"No one? Hmn. I will make my move first then." Adam shut his eyes for a moment before his Reiatsu exploded out like a rolling thunder that created a wide column of Reiatsu pillar expanding from Adam and covered an area of several dozen meters where his Reiatsu is so dense they become tangible.
"Awaken, O Dark Celestial Void of Predation." Adam chanted and opened his eyes again at the end of his chant and grinned. "Bankai."
His Reiatsu pillar vanished like it was merely an illusion. Which left many dumbfounded and some who realized what's happening panicked as moments later a dark pitch black sphere appeared in the center of their formation. It started as nothing but mere black sphere until split second later, a powerful suction force pulled everything and even the very light itself, distorting and rending the very fabric of space asunder.
The Sternritter hastily muster Reishi to use their technique to flee but only to realize too late that the sphere devours all the Reishi around it leaving them dry without any Reishi to muster. A death sentence to any Quincy as Reishi is the foundation of their power. Without Reishi to muster, they are the same as the powerless mortal humans.
As easy as that, the powerful Sternritter that can give even a Shinigami Captain a run of their money, utterly powerless and helpless like a meat on the chopping board. Had they been a Shinigami that uses internal power, they might still be able to fight. But the black hole is the very antithesis of Quincy's strength that relies heavily on surrounding Reishi which in turn have nonexistent internal power.
One by one, they are being devoured by the black sphere that rapidly expands as it consumes more Sternritters. Adam strolled into the hall without care until he arrived on a particularly tall and well endowed female Sternritter with pink hair.
"You, Meninas McAllon. Do you wish to live?" Adam asked casually like he is asking insignificant questions while deciding the life and death of a person.
"Eh?" She sounded surprise when Adam decided to spare her.
"I know that you are the most human among all Sternritter here." Adam said as he filtered out the good and bad Sternritter after devouring a small portion of their memories to evaluate them.
"What if I say I know about the future and what it holds for you and all low ranking Sternritter that loyally follow your king, Yhwach." Adam said and placed a finger on her forehead and gave her a particular memory of Yhwach sacrificing the low ranking Sternritter using Auswählen.
Meninas looked shocked and doubtful of the memories but Adam reassured her.
"Hmn. I have a similar ability as The Almighty to peer into a certain future although limited." Adam revealed as he did gain it after Hogyoku absorbed Mimihagi. Though, as he said. It's a very limited and flawed Future Sight ability.
"This… is true?" She asked, still in disbelief. But her loyalty did waver because the scene looked very real to be fabrication.
"Well, it's up to you. It's your choice. Honestly, me sparing you is just a whim because I pity someone like you for wasting your loyalty to be used and discarded just like that." Adam shrugs while mentally being interrogated by Kyoka Suigetsu.
After a few moments of contemplation. She gave in and renounced her loyalty to Yhwach.
"Well, I don't know if you are being genuine or not." Adam mutters while rubbing his chin and looks at the creepy fat old man with a long white beard and wearing sunglasses.
Adam pointed at the old man and ordered Meninas. "Kill him and I'll believe your defection." He said and handed her a handgun.
Meninas held the pistol with hesitation as she aimed at Pepe. Her eyes flicker between her target and Adam who is observing her with an unreadable expression a few times before she gulped and made her decision to pull the trigger. Even herself find that particularly Sternritter unsavory and decided that sacrificing that kind of person for her life is better than dying.
After that, she returned the gun back to Adam and fidgeting, hesitating to say something but Adam noticed and ordered her to talk.
"Uhm, can you spare my friends too? They are bad people, I know. But they aren't evil, I promise. So… please spare them. I beg of you." She bowed down as far as her body allowed.
Adam gave it a thought. Compared to Meninas, the rest of her friends are sociopaths just to explain in brief. He honestly rather devours their power than sparing them. But when he thinks about the future, maybe sparing them wouldn't be a bad idea after he fixes their personality. Having more able hands for his future battle might not be bad considering what enemy he would have to face.
"Fine. I will spare them. But make sure to keep them in line lest I change my mind." Adam said before he snapped his finger and devoured the rest of the Sternritter that not even a hair is left behind as they become the nourishment for his power that nearly doubled.
The five he spared were swallowed by shadow and transferred away as this place was about to turn into a real warzone as the higher ranking Sternritter and the Grandmaster in particular made his appearance.
—————