"Cruff, crunch!"
The quiet expanse of the white desert echoed with the sound of bones and flesh being devoured. In no time, the entire two-meter-long lizard Hollow had been consumed by Riku. Yet, despite having ingested such a large creature, a hollow hunger still gnawed at him—he felt as if he could consume a hundred more without feeling full.
After fully digesting the creature, Riku noticed a tangible shift. His spiritual pressure had increased—by his own estimation, by at least one-twentieth. Not only that, but his massive, segmented form seemed to have grown slightly in length and girth.
What caught his attention most was the disproportionate contribution of power: only about 40% of the spiritual energy he absorbed had come from the Hollow's body. The remaining 60% came from the broken fragments of its mask.
"The taste is weird… kinda like compressed crackers," Riku muttered, crunching a last shard between his teeth.
He smirked, the eerie grin stretched across his pale, mask-covered face. The surge of Reiryoku flowing through his monstrous body was undeniable—and addictive.
In the days that followed, Riku continued to roam the dunes of Hueco Mundo's barren wasteland. For half a month, he hunted ceaselessly, devouring every Hollow he encountered. Most were like the lizard Hollow—feral, mindless, driven by hunger. None had developed intellect, not even to the level of basic speech. Riku began to realize how rare his retained self-awareness was among Hollows—an anomaly in itself.
On this particular day, he had burrowed completely beneath the sand, leaving only the top of his head exposed like a lurking predator. His antennae twitched as he sensed spiritual pressure nearby.
"ROAR!"
A shrill, blood-curdling roar ripped through the air. In the next instant, a black and red beam of concentrated energy—blistering with heat—ripped past Riku's hiding spot and slammed into a massive Hollow in the distance.
It was a worm-like creature over forty meters long. The beam seared through its torso and split it in half. The trailing blast scorched the desert, sending up a sandstorm that rocked Riku's concealed position.
"That was… a Cero!"
Though Riku had watched this quintessential Hollow technique countless times in the anime, witnessing it firsthand was an entirely different experience. The sheer destructive force left him trembling beneath the sand.
He turned toward the source and froze.
A towering black Hollow, nearly a hundred meters tall, stood in the distance. White bone spines ringed its neck, and a thick, jagged mask with protruding horns obscured its face. The air around it pulsed with oppressive spiritual pressure that made the sand ripple.
"This is… a Gillian…"
"No… this one is different."
Riku had seen Gillians before. Just three days ago, he'd observed a line of them—identical in appearance—shuffling toward the Forest of Menos, deep in Hueco Mundo. But this one was distinctly larger, and its mask bore a completely unique design. The shape, the aura, the individuality—it was all wrong for a standard Gillian.
"A deviant Gillian…"
Riku's mind raced. According to Bleach lore, Gillians are formed when hundreds of lesser Hollows fuse together. The process usually strips away individuality, resulting in a massive, uniform creature devoid of thought.
But not always.
A rare few manage to retain their sense of self—an extraordinary feat. These exceptional beings possess intellect, and with it, the ambition to continue evolving. This one… was clearly among that rare class. If it continued devouring other Hollows, it might reach the next stage of evolution—Adjuchas—and eventually even become a Vasto Lorde, the peak of Hollow evolution.
Riku's instincts screamed at him to remain still. Compared to that towering figure, he was nothing. He wasn't as pathetic as the worm Hollow that got split in two, but he'd still be little more than a snack—a crunchy, protein-rich treat.
Just then, something unexpected happened.
The upper half of the bisected worm Hollow, somehow still clinging to life, plunged into the sand and began squirming erratically—straight toward Riku's hiding place.
"Damn it, don't come this way!" Riku cursed internally. If it drew the Gillian's attention, he wouldn't stand a chance.
As expected, the massive Hollow noticed. A sinister gleam lit its giant eyes behind the cracked mask. Its expression seemed amused—mocking.
"FWOOOOOSH!"
Before Riku could blink, the Gillian moved—its giant frame vanishing in a Sonído-like blur, reappearing directly in the worm Hollow's path. With a bone-spiked hand, it slammed into the sand and lifted the flailing worm effortlessly.
Then it happened—something that shouldn't be possible yet.
"RAAAAH!"
The Gillian roared. Not a mindless screech, but a conscious, guttural command that echoed across the dunes.
Riku's breath caught.
"A Gillian… using speech?"
According to what he remembered from the manga, only Adjuchas-class Menos and above—or those who've forcibly removed their masks to become Arrancar—retain their voices. For a Gillian to speak meant one of two things: either it had already reached the brink of evolution, or it was a failed Arrancar—one who attempted the mask-removal process and lived.
Either way… it was terrifying.
The monstrous Hollow flung the worm's corpse into the air and fired another Cero, reducing it to ash in an instant. Dust and spiritual particles scattered into the wind.
Riku didn't move. Didn't breathe. Didn't blink.
His first instinct was to flee—but deep inside, another voice echoed louder:
"If I want to survive in this world… I have to become like that."
Seeing the scene unfold, Riku—who was hiding not far away—was struck with a wave of panic so intense that his mind blanked out in fear.
"Don't tell me I finally crossed into a new world, only to die before even stepping into the battlefield?" The thought filled his heart with bitterness.
The deviant Gillian held the earthworm Hollow's twitching body with one hand, peeled back its jagged maw, and stuffed the carcass into its mouth. Loud crunching echoed across the sands as it chewed with disturbing ease.
In just a few bites, the giant earthworm Hollow—easily over forty meters long—was reduced to nothing. Without so much as a glance back, the Gillian turned and began to walk away, its massive form fading into the horizon of white dunes.
"That was way too close… I was this close to getting exposed!"
Riku, still buried beneath the sand, felt the tension begin to ease from his limbs. He was just beginning to celebrate the Gillian's disinterest in his presence when, suddenly, the towering Hollow stopped in its tracks.
The deviant Gillian turned its head. Its enormous, horned mask twisted slowly as it looked directly at the sandbank beneath which Riku was hidden. Even through layers of sand, Riku could feel that mocking gaze—an expression of complete contempt etched into the bony face.
And then, without a word, it turned and walked away.
"It saw me… but chose not to eat me?"
The realization struck like a thunderbolt. Riku's face contorted with a mix of humiliation and relief. He wasn't even considered worth swallowing.
Despite the bruising to his pride, he couldn't help but feel thankful.
"Fine, fine! So that's how it is, huh? Just you wait… One day, when I evolve into an Adjuchas or even a Vasto Lorde, I'll make you feel exactly how I feel right now!"
Staring in the direction the Gillian had gone, Riku didn't dare speak aloud. His voice was only a whisper in his heart—one filled with indignation and burning ambition.
He waited patiently for hours, unmoving, confirming that the Gillian's spiritual pressure had faded completely into the distance. Only then did he cautiously emerge from beneath the sand.
Before him lay the mangled remains of the worm Hollow—the lower half that the Gillian had discarded like leftover scraps.
Though the upper body, where the Hollow mask had been—containing the highest concentration of spiritual power—was completely devoured, the lower body still retained residual Reiryoku. To the Gillian, it was garbage. But to Riku, it was a precious opportunity—a nourishing fragment that could further his growth.
He grinned under his white mask.
"Thanks for the meal, Brother Gillian. I'll be sure to repay you—after I evolve."
In that moment, he vowed that the next time they met, it wouldn't be as prey.