A King Angered

*A century or so earlier.*

It was a relatively normal day in Hueco Mundo, as normal as it could be. Two Menos were guarding the entrance to Las Noches and talking with a group of others, one of them a Vasto Lordes-level Menos. Suddenly, they sensed a strange power that they had not felt ever before. The group looked towards the horizon and saw Rubicaante. The Menos were confused by the Arrancar's looks. On his head looked like the remains of a Hollow and he was clothed much like a Shinigami, except his outfit was mostly white with black outlines. It was the eyes, however, that shook the Menos. They were like the eyes of a shark, gauging its prey. When he was close to the group, he stopped and stared at the Vasto Lordes.

"Move aside," Rubicaante commanded. The evolved Hollows cackled at Rubicaante's order.

"What an idiot!" the Vasto Lordes said, "You wimp! You think you can just come here and order us around. Can't you see who I am?! I'm far more powerf- Are you even listening to me?" The Menos could not believe it, but it didn't seem Rubicaante was paying attention. He was looking around, seeming to inspect the place.

"This land is nice. I'll take it over now." Rubicaante simply stated.

"Wh-What?!" the Vasto Lordes said.

"I hate repeating myself." The future King sighed and punched a hole in the Vasto Lordes. Before it could scream though, Rubicaante tore it apart like wet tissue paper.

"Move aside," Rubicaante commanded again, "or you will suffer a worse fate."

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"Err... M-My Lord? We've tracked those two Me-Menos-"

"Silence," Rubicaante said, a stern expression on his face. He had grown ever more irritated by the minute. Twenty-seven Hollows, two of them Adjucas-level Menos, left the Forest without his permission. Not only did they leave, but they were apparently going to attack Karakura Town. He was using every bit of his restraint to not go to the town himself and destroy the Hollows himself. However, the only thing holding him back was the fact that they might have gleaned extra info that the King would require. However, every Hollow in Las Noches knew that it would be a bad idea to test Rubicaante's patience.

"Send the survivors to my throne room," Rubicaante ordered, "I want to know what they've learned. I want to know how they fared, if they did anything of note. Until then, nothing is done until my say so. Now, find them. Now."

"YES, MY LORD!"

Pereza Milagost had been slumped over in his chair, quietly dozing while the hollow had given his report on the AWOL menos. When the hollow shouted out "YES, MY LORD" as he left the chamber, Pereza woke up with a little jolt, looking up while smacking his lips and rubbing his eyes. "Hmm, is this about those menos running off?" Pereza stifled a yawn. "Must have gotten antsy or something...Not that I would know what that feels like..." Pereza mustered a tiny bit of energy to continue talking.

"Well, not much we can do for the moment...Might as well wait for more news...No use worrying about it too much." With that, Pereza's head slumped forward, and he began dozing again.

Sorva made his way slowly to the throne room with the other surviving hollows. He knew he was in deep shit. Catching the eye of the Primera was a good way to get yourself promoted or killed. And most of the time it meant the latter. However, he wasn't going to show fear or pride when facing the two Espada. Fear would show weakness and get him killed for sure. Pride would show that he doesn't know his place and thus would be killed. I just need to find a middle ground. If I am calm but show respect, he might forgive me on account of the information I bring.

He was guided by some arrancars into the throne room. He had promised himself to not show any fear. But he had to break that promise immediately. It was a lot different thinking about what you were going to do, and actually doing it in the face of the King of Hueco Mundo. He averted his gaze to the ground, slowly making his way to the center of the room.

All the beings in the room just stared at him as he entered. Even when the other hollows who tried to run the moment they saw the Primera were thrown into the room, he still felt frightened and alone. One misstep would lead to his death. He slowly moved his gaze up slightly, still not being able to look up. "Master Primera." It was all he could say. He would wait for questions before speaking again. 'Speak when spoken to' were the key words in this situation.

Denzeru steeped into the throne room, to see what all the commotion was about. The sight was busy; Lord Rubicaante was staring down a lone figure, and Denzeru couldn’t tell if that was for good or worse. He hopes that Lord Rubicaante doesn’t cut him down; we are already low in numbers as it is.

“So this is one of the hollows that left to the real world?” Denzeru said as to announce his presence. He walked next to the other two Espada and looked at the hollow in front of him.

“Well, have we figured out what he’s learned?” Denzeru said obviously hoping to get the situation over with. He looked around the room to find something to satisfy his boredom

"Hmph... 'Master Primera,'" Rubicaante said, as he stared at the Adjucas who would not face him, "It is strange. No matter the creature, whether it be Shinigami, Human or Hollow, will allows remember their place AFTER it is too late. Truly, an odd quirk." Rubicaante sighed and continued.

"You... You dare to come in here, knowing what you did, and address me as 'Master'?!" Rubicaante stated, his anger thinly masked in his voice, "You did not think I was your Master when you left the forest without my permission, DID YOU?! You did not think I was your Master when you attacked Karakura Town without my say, DID YOU?! You did not think I was your Master when you engaged Gotei 13, DID YOU?!" Each "did you" had the lesser Menos flinching, as if the King would launch a Cero through the sheer power of his anger at any of them. "I can only assume Yukus is not here with you due to him being destroyed. Judging from your wounds, I can only assume the Shinigami had a field day with you. I can also assume that the force you led into the Town has been halved at best. Sorva... that was MY force! MINE! YOU DARED TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS?!" The King composed himself, if only a little.

"And now, here you are, like a grovelling animal, not even bearing to look at your King, and only now do you realize your place. Only now, do you call me, 'Master'." Rubicaante continued, his voice enunciating every word. "Are you ashamed? Afraid? Do you know what I could do to you? What I've done to so many others who thought they could betray their King?" Rubicaante smiled a little, knowing that Sorva was probably running through every possibility, each more terrifying than the last.

"Now... I hope that you aren't completely useless," Rubicaante said, still sitting on his throne, "Tell me what you know. And I suggest you be truthful and detailed. Had I not thought you might've had so much as a speck of info, your presence in my throne room would've been deemed unnecessary. So, speak thoroughly and clearly, Sorva."

Pereza had been sleeping before he awoke to Rubicaante's raised voice. Sheesh, why can't I ever get sleep when he's around? Pereza looked in front to see the adjuchas. Huh, so this is the hollow who went to the real world. And now he's suffering the Primera's wrath. Poor guy.

Pereza mulled over his words before finally speaking out. "Sorva," he muttered, remembering that adjuchas' name, "you DID do something quite treasonous." Personally, Pereza didn't really care what the adjuchas had done; he just wanted to make sure that the Primera did not shift his anger towards him. "Also, you brought attention to the Primera and his army. With the Hollow Army being rebuilt, that is the LAST thing we want." Pereza slowed down, knowing that he could not talk much longer with the Primera literally steaming next to him. His next sentence was broken up with mild yawns. "But...enough of that...what did you learn?"

Sorva slowly looked up at the three members of the Espada in the room. He realized that he should be terrified and scared. He was when he first stepped in front of the Primera. But for some reason, his fear was melting away. Perhaps it was because he was truly staring into the abyss of despair and hopelessness. He saw no exit from his doom so there was no reason to be scared anymore. All at once his worries and cares disappeared. Perhaps his brain had just been so overloaded from the sense of power and hostility that the Espada emitted that it just could even accept it anymore. Regardless, he was now thinking perfectly clearly. He would just give his information and then get killed, that was the simple and terrible truth.

"Yukus and I originally got the idea when we were about to consume seven of the hollows that we eventually had join our group. They were weak beings, yet crazed with hunger. We caught them as they were about to leave through a garganta to the human world. We were as hungry as they were and were originally going to consume them. They had no chance to evolve in Hueco Mundo and would have been consumed by someone else. However, Yukus made a joke about how the only thing they would be worth is to be meat shields.

We then got the idea of using them as that. We waited by the garganta, capturing a few of the other hollows who tried to escape to the Real World. Once our force was large enough we made for a hunt in Karakura Town. We originally planned to just kill for a bit, feed our starving stomachs, and then escape. We knew that there were risks involved, but we figured that with a force that large, we would at least be able to hold off attackers if we needed to escape due to problems." He cringed at the thought of how wrong they had been. His introduction probably didn't make the Primera any happier about the whole situation, but at least it showed that the hollows would have been killed anyways and that they hadn't "wasted" soldiers or anything like that.

"We never could have guessed what was awaiting us in the town. From the onset there was a captain class shinigami and some members of his division. His coat showed that he was the 9th captain. I started to fight him while the other hollows started to leave to begin their hunt. The captain seems to use shadows as a weapon. He was able to teleport from his shadow to mine and attack through the shadow. However, it also seems to be a two way path as I was able to send some feathers through the shadow to attack him."

Suddenly a strange human came out of nowhere. Carrying some strange weapon, he started to shoot some of the hollows, killing several immediately. He seemed to be able to make bullets out of reishi. Yukus started fighting him while I continued my assault on the 9th Captain. I was busy with my own battle and so I was not able to see exactly what happened. But it seemed that the human was then able to make cannons out of his shoulders and use them as weapons as well.

At this point the situation was still under control. If it had continued this way we either could have beaten the human and the shinigami or at least left with minimum casualties. But then more enemies came. First another captain, I was not able to see which division he was from, appeared near where Yukus was fighting. However, at the same time another human seemed to appear. However, despite looking like a human, he seemed to have the energy of a Shinigami, and an extremely powerful one at that. For some reason he started fighting with the captain. I am not sure if they are enemies or something, but their battle was a true one.

Then another captain appeared near where the cannon shoulders man was fighting. He did very little but seems to also use bullet like attacks. I am still unsure what exactly happened at this point as everything fell apart in seconds. Yukus was suddenly terribly wounded by a huge explosive attack from the human. Another hollow was killed immediately, while this one took large amounts of damage." As he said this he pointed at one of the hollows who was cowering in the corner of the room, nearly at the point of trying to kill itself rather than then face the espada.

Yukus tried to retreat realizing that we were out manned and in a precarious position. However right as he was about to make it through the Garganta, a huge arrow pierced him. It seemed to be from a Quincy as it was made of pure reishi. And as he fell, another strange human using physical arrows managed to get a killing blow on Yukus.

It was as if our very existence in that city was a giant magnet for every single strong enemy we could possibly attract. Right after, I sensed another strong Shinigami like power nearby. With three shinigami captains, a small squad of lower shinigami, two shinigami-like beings, a quincy, and two bizzare humans all attacking us, we all hastily retreated. The Shinigami let us go easily. They still did not see us to be a credible threat."

He stopped for a moment as he tried to collect his thoughts. This was the most important information, the knowledge that could prove to be dangerous for the hollows if it was ignored. "As we were escaping through the Garganat, we got a chance to sense the power of one of the Shinigami like beings. It took a huge attack from one of the captains and instead of being killed, became much stronger then before. I would say that the power was at the same level of an Adjuca class Arrancar. Not only that, but it no longer felt like a Shinigami's power. Instead, it felt similar to that of a hollow. I have never sensed power like that and never heard of anything like it. I can only assume the other Shinigami like being also is like that. It also seems that they are another enemy of the Soul Reapers as the Captain was truly trying to kill him. However, they are not our allies either as it seems he killed some of the other hollows as well.

This is all the data I was able to get by piecing together my knowledge, and the things I heard from the other surviving hollows." He then calmly closed his mouth. He was sure he was going to be killed right now, and he was ready for it.

Denzeru couldn't find anything to sastisfy his boredom, plus Rubicaante's yelling was distracting his train of thought. Sorva was standing and awating his judgement, but with no fear in his eyes. Either he has accepted his faith, or he was just fearless, Denzeru respected both. Then his thoughts went to what Sorva told them, and the action in the real world made his dreadlocks stand.

Denzeru attention went to the lazy espada near him. He just slept his way through the day. Denzeru throw a rock at him, but to no prevail he just slept through it. Then Denzeru's thought went back to the subject at hand.

"So what should we do with him?" He asked his fellow Espada.

Pereza was in fact not sleeping, but only had his eyes closed, absorbing the vast amount of information that the adjuchas had revealed to them. He heard the the rock slice through the air towards his head, but he brought it to a halt inches from his temple. The rock hovered there for a second before Pereza dropped it to the ground. He slowly opened his eyes to glance at the Tercera who had thrown the rock. However, he was too tired to get worked up, and he wanted to make one last point before continuing his nap.

"...If what you say is true, Sorva, then what you did was actually useful." Pereza scratched his hollow hole and yawned before continuing. "Your impulsive behavior revealed these beings who look like shinigami but have hollow powers. Interesting..." he muttered. "If there are more like this being, then the shinigami will turn towards this new threat, and..." he rubbed his eyes, "...and their attention will shift away from the Primera and His army."

Pereza slumped back into his chair, tired from his exerting speech. He glanced at the Primera through his eyelashes. He had done what he could to defend Sorva, but if the Primera decided to execute him, then Pereza would do no more. Even the Segunda found found it unwise to stand against the Primera when his mind is set on an action, no matter what it is, though it was partly because Pereza didn't feel like putting up with the Primera's wrath. Anyway, it's out of my hands now. Pereza put his head back and closed his eyes, keeping an ear out for whatever happened next.

Denzeru looked at the Segunda who effortlessly tossed the rock to the side. He then wondered of he could be that lazy for the day. He closed his eyes for a moment. The stress of this moment was too much for him, and rather be enjoying himself this moment. Doing things that he could possibly die from. There was nothing more in life but the thrill of living. Denzeru jumped into a chair, and slumped into it. Then he inserted his comment in the matter once again.

"I think Pereza is on to something. During this time we could be building our army, and conjouring defenses. This is great Sorva, you found some great information there buddy." Denzeru said twirling his sword in his hand. He looked at the Primera's expression it didn't change. He had wished he had the power to read his mind, just for a moment, but hey; there's no way he could affect his judgement.

Denzeru sighed and put his hood over his dreadlocks, relaxing his eyes for the moment.