Bleach: From the moment I was invited by Squad Zero

Chapter 71 All Things Pervade - X

Hueco Mundo is a desolate place that makes one's soul feel parched.

The sky seemed to be covered with a thick layer of ash, and the ground was an endless, pale sea of ​​sand stretching to the horizon.

This is the nest of the unseen.

Two figures, one in front of the other, were moving slowly and cautiously across the soft sand in a certain part of this pale desert.

They were all dressed in standard Shinigami uniforms, with gray-white cloaks over them that provided some spiritual isolation and corrosion protection, in order to combat the harsh environment of Hueco Mundo.

With his Zanpakuto hanging at his waist, his spiritual pressure was restrained, but his senses were fully activated, and his sharp gaze swept over the surrounding situation.

They are members of the "Hueco Mundo Expeditionary Force," a special unit drawn from the elite of the Gotei 13 and stationed in Hueco Mundo for long-term missions, independent of the Seireitei's regular organization.

Its main responsibility is to eradicate Hollows that are overpopulated or too powerful in Hueco Mundo and control their numbers in order to maintain the balance of soul circulation among the Soul World, the Human World, and Hueco Mundo.

And to gather intelligence deep within Hueco Mundo, and to monitor the movements and gathering places of the Menos Grande;

The two maintained a standard reconnaissance formation, with one slightly ahead, keeping an eye on the front and sides, and the other slightly behind, keeping an eye on the rear and the air.

They had just cleared out a nest of small Hollows and were on their way back to their hidden outpost somewhere in Hueco Mundo.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the faint sound of their boots sinking into the sand.

Suddenly, the Grim Reaper walking in front paused almost imperceptibly.

He raised his hand, signaling his companions behind him to stop. He tilted his head slightly, as if listening to something, or perhaps using his spiritual sense to perceive the extremely faint spiritual disturbances in the air.

"What's wrong, Fujita?" the Grim Reaper behind him asked in a low voice, his hand already on the hilt of his sword.

The Grim Reaper named Fujita frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on a relatively flat stretch of sand in the distance, where there was nothing but a few pale boulders eroded into strange shapes by the wind.

"Something feels off. The flow of spiritual particles seemed to have been briefly disrupted just now, very subtly, not like a virtual fluctuation, nor like a naturally formed sand current."

He didn't finish his sentence.

An anomaly occurred suddenly.

A white beam of light, moving faster than Death's dynamic vision could capture, shot out without warning from the shadow of a huge, pale rock, about several hundred meters to the side of the two people!

Its trajectory was perfectly straight, without the slightest curve, yet it moved so fast it seemed to disregard distance.

One moment, the source of the beam was still in the shadow of the rocks at the edge of the field of vision; the next moment, it easily pierced the heart of the Grim Reaper Fujita ahead.

It shot out from the right side, bringing with it a cloud of blood mist!

Before Fujita's wariness could even turn into astonishment, the look in his eyes froze instantly.

His body stiffened for a moment, then, as if all support had been removed, he slumped softly to one side.

"Fujita?! Enemy attack—!" The Grim Reaper behind him roared furiously, his eyes bloodshot, and almost instinctively drew his sword while simultaneously lunging to the side to avoid the attack.

His reaction was incredibly fast, showcasing his well-trained combat skills.

However, it didn't work.

Just as he let out his roar, his fingers barely touched the hilt of the knife, and his leg muscles tensed in preparation for exerting force—

The pure white beam of light, as if it had been calculated in advance, flashed again in the gap before Fujita's fallen body completely blocked the view!

puff!

Same position, same precision, same utter helplessness.

The beam of light pierced through the heart of the second Grim Reaper.

He couldn't even complete the motion of drawing his knife, nor could he take even half a step to evade it.

The roar abruptly stopped, and the shock, anger, and determination on his face were frozen in time.

His body swayed, and almost simultaneously with his companion, he collapsed heavily onto the cold, pale sand, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

Crimson blood gushed rapidly from their chests, staining the white sand beneath them, a stark and striking sight.

rustle----

A tall figure emerged unhurriedly from the shadow of the huge, pale rock.

The newcomer was a man with dark skin that stood out starkly against the pale backdrop of Hueco Mundo. Most striking was his left eye, which was tightly closed.

He has an "X"-shaped skewing tattoo that exudes a cold, mechanical beauty.

He was coldly sweeping his gaze over the two rapidly dying corpses on the ground, as if he were merely checking whether two insignificant targets had been hit.

In his hand, he held a similarly peculiar "weapon".

That wasn't a Zanpakuto, but a sniper rifle that gleamed with a metallic sheen.

The muzzle of the gun seemed to still retain a trace of almost invisible pure white energy.

Lijie Barrow, a member of the Sternritter of the Unknown Empire, possesses the holy script "X" and the ability "All Things Connected".

.

No one knows why this elite member of the Quincy King would appear alone in the depths of Hueco Mundo, far from the Soul Society and the Wandenreich's influence. No one knows what his purpose was in attacking two patrolling Shinigami of the Hueco Mundo Expeditionary Force.

Was it indiscriminate killing? Was it clearing away obstacles? Or was it the prelude to some far-reaching plan?

His pupils glanced one last time at the bloodstains on the ground, his face expressionless.

There was neither the pleasure of killing nor the ease of completing a mission, only an indifference as precise as a machine.

He raised his sniper rifle, its barrel reflecting a cold, hard gleam in the pale sunlight, then ignored the corpse on the ground.

He turned around and walked silently in the opposite direction from the expeditionary force's stronghold.

The figure was quickly swallowed up by the undulating sand dunes and the pervasive white dust, as if it had never existed.

About fifteen minutes later.

Several whooshing sounds came from afar, and three figures dressed in the same gray-white cloaks of the expeditionary force arrived at the scene with lightning speed.

They were clearly alarmed by the unusual fluctuations caused by the sudden disappearance of their spiritual pressure from their two companions.

"Fujita! Mitsui!"

"Damn it! I'm too late!"

"Alert the surrounding area!"

The three expeditionary soldiers quickly dispersed, two of them standing back to back with knives on guard, while the third quickly squatted down to examine his companion's body.

The examiner's expression changed drastically when he saw the clean, penetrating wounds to the hearts of the two men.

"A fatal blow—the lingering spiritual energy fluctuations from the wound—"

He reached out and ran his hand over the edge of his wound, his face growing even paler, even showing a hint of disbelief and horror. "This...this isn't Hollow's spiritual pressure! Nor is it Shinigami's spiritual pressure! This is—a Quincy?! How is this possible?"

I

""

"Queens?!" Upon hearing this, the other two guards were simultaneously jolted, turning their heads sharply to look, their eyes filled with the same shock and horror.

Quincy, a term long considered "past tense" and even taboo in Soul Society history, have somehow managed to have their spiritual remnants appear in Hueco Mundo and kill two elite expeditionary forces?!

"Are you sure?!" a team member asked urgently.

"There's no mistake! This residual spiritual energy perfectly matches the characteristics of the Quincy's power as recorded in history! And it's extremely powerful!"

The team member, suppressing the turmoil in his heart, quickly said, "Immediately transmit the situation here, along with the sample of residual spiritual energy, back to camp as quickly as possible!"

"yes!"