"Over here," Harribel points to a yawning abyss, an alluring unknown awaits.
'It's dark!'
Noticing Darwin's expression, she explained, "Second Stratos, The Gillian's Rest. It's an extremely dark layer of the Stratos."
Tossing rubble at the Stratos right below them, Appacci disdainfully said, "Look at those weak bastards below."
"You should learn to control your temper, Appacci." Chuckling to her usual temper tantrums, Snake Adjucha suggested. Though, she was left unreciprocated.
"Darwin." Snake Adjucha called.
He responded, "What is it?"
"My name is Sung-sun. I hope you take care of us in times of need."
"That depends. But I can see Harribel is a seasoned leader. If you're looking for someone to rely on, she should be your first choice—not someone you just met."
'Oh… He is quite sharp…' Sung-sun thought.
Just as Lioness Adjucha was going to lash out at Darwin's vague stance.
Sung-sun gestured her to stop, "Wait."
While the answer was ambiguous, she gauged it to be satisfactory as it implies that if they didn't harm him or have intentions to harm—they wouldn't be harmed in turn.
Thinking over the interaction between Darwin and their group, she thought,
'Darwin doesn't seem to have any qualms about us… But it might be different in the future.'
"We will take that into account." Sung-sun replied.
As they jumped down to the Second Stratos, he and his group was met with unfriendly Gillians and red eyed Hollows.
Noticing something was coming out of Darwin's pores, Harribel immediately notified her followers gesturing them to get out of the way, "Move!"
The group moved away from Darwin as they notices something oddly dangerous about his Reishi movements.
An unending violet miasma arose from the pores of his arms. Each hand points at a different direction, aiming towards the unafraid hostile enemies. This was the beginning of a skill he will use quite often.
"Iyono Barrage."
Smaller in size, but were high in number, he locked each blade to each target.
The sound echoes reverberate intensely, a defeaning ripple sliced through air as each blade moved at supersonic succession. The result became more bloodied and brutal, a gore that must be made in order to stand victor.
'Powerful and versatile.' Harribel thought.
The four notices a disturbance in the air, quickly looking at the anomaly at hand, something strange was happening to Darwin's body. A current pulling dead corpses and compressing their bodies into small pills.
He absorbs them through his pores. This had invoked their curiosity at an all time high.
Inhaling in the Reishi, he exhales with calmness apparent in his relaxed expression.
Then, his Reiatsu increases substantially.
The one who was the most shocked was Harribel, 'What an efficient way to grow stronger. This could spell doom, disrupting the balance of Hueco Mundo!'
Harribel reminisced a past historical moment, a moment she wished she had not known. Her chest hung heavy, her breath out of sync, it hurt her greatly.
"Your power—"
Sung-sun used her tail to gently caress Harribel's head.
"Lady Harribel. There's no need to worry about something that hasn't happened yet."
Darwin could tell where she was coming from. He was watching her expression through razor sharp senses, senses he had obtained through evolution.
"I know… This power is extremely powerful."
"I believe you have every right to use it." Sung-sun said, understanding that Darwin couldn't be contained.
'He does have insurmountable potential… But I don't think Harribel should worry as of now…'
Lioness Adjucha nodded to agree with her sister's statement while Appacci was extremely interested in his technique.
"If only I had this." Her desires ran rampant. But then with a light tail whip, Appachi came back to her senses.
"I am terribly sorry, Lady Harribel."
Harribel nods but mentions that it was Darwin she should be applogising to.
But the pride she had couldn't allow herself to apologise to a male Hollow.
She turn her head to the side, red like a tomato.
'This power of mine. Where did it stem from?'
Harribel lighting up a torch with her finger tips, she reassured Darwin, "I will lead the way."
'She has a strong moral compass. It's strange that she doesn't have symptoms of chaotic desires…'
As they continued walking closely to familiar footprints. She noticed unfamiliar footsteps.
Harribel observes closely and tells the others about it.
"There is another footprint not long ago that went ahead, but these seems weird."
The footprint resembled two rectangled. It didn't resemble any Hollow's footprint.
Deeply pondering at these familiar footstep, Harribel made an educated guess on what it was, connecting the dots to a certain being.
"Soul Reaper sandals… specifically geta sandals."
"Well in any case, this isn't a problem we need to focus on." Harribel thought.
She proposed something sparking Darwin's interest, "We should head to something ancient. I sensed it's bizarre location as I was travelling here with my fraccion. But I didn't much thought on it since I didn't know what lurked here. How does that sound Darwin?"
"That's a good idea."
As the group make their way to the ruins, Darwin silently thought to himself.
'What do these scriptures mean.' Authenticity was one thing, but he could tell that this was genuinely ancient.
"Lady Harribel, come look at this wall." Appacci pointed towards the mural with her hooves excitingly.
Harribel looked at the very wall covered in pictures. The dust, the wreckage, she could tell that this historical evidence was in shambles. But there were some that can be identified. Interestingly enough, a part of the wall was erased by cuts as if the individual didn't want the future to see.
The illustration depicted armies fighting one another.
"Hollows fighting Soul Reapers... This is the Great War that was dated back three thousand years ago."
Being a good time to ask, he asked about the Soul Reapers, "Who were they?"
"Soul Reapers are soul beings who kill our kind. They still exist to this date."
'I guess I will eventually meet them.'
She continued, "They have intelligence greater than the average Hollow."
While explaining this, she points at an interesting image.
"This seems to be Vasto Lordes, a couple of them taking in a bigger form than it's humanoid counterpart. To describe the form, there seem to be red lines that resemble veins, scattering across their entire physique. They also have green tattoos appearing under their eyelids."
Darwin responded with an amused expression, "That's fascinating… Oh what is this?" He then points towards an axe-like hand these Vasto Lorde carry.
Harribel observed the axe hand with a sorrowful expression. Placing the tip of her hand upon the individual, she was at a lost for words.
"Are you okay?" Darwin asked.
"It's fine. I was just in a trance. Oh this evolution is called Perdicion."
"Perdicion… How interesting…"
An unknown sensation arised from his empty Hollow hole.
'What was that?! Was it just the wind?!'
Coming back to his senses, Darwin continued listening to her explanation.
They harness the power to manipulate their muscle structure. Not only that, they can naturally use techniques other Hollows even Vasto Lordes cannot."
"That's not all." Harribel added.
She continued, "They can take on the fundamental essence of an ability thrown at them. In ancient times, they call it TrueAdapation."
Sung-sun slithered over next to Harribel, pointing her tail at the embarrassing scene.
"Soul Reapers were fleeing rather than fighting. It seems that they were disadvantaged."
While the four including Mila Rose were staring at the ancient mural. Appachi was wondering off finding other enticing history.
"Everybody, come look at this small pillar," Appacci gestured towards an unknown pillar.
Looking closely, Darwin saw a minute detail on the top.
'There are traces on top of this pillar… Perhaps… someone has taken this…'
"There definitely was something on top of this before. Looks like we were too late to take it." Darwin said.
Harribel asked, "What was it do you know?"
He answered with certainty, "I don't know. They are old traces."
Sung-sun looked at some words beneath the pillar, it read, "Sangre Vene."
'Who was it that took this book?'
"I think we should head towards the Third Stratos, The Bloodied Battlefield."
Harribel quietly muttered, "Hopefully it's not that time yet."
As they make their way to the entrance to Third Stratos, Darwin asks, "This is quite interesting." The sight ahead was that of a cave entrance, eerie and gloomy. He felt massive amounts of Reiatsu and Reishi scattering all over this cave. The sounds of Hollows scream intensify, a hurling of rubble happened to fly towards their line of direction.
"Is this what you mean about the two Stratos fighting one another?"
"Yes," Harribel answered.