"Your Majesty," Sombravida asked quietly, eyes still on Ulquiorra, "do you know how to use that black Cero?"
Barragan's skeletal jaw shifted slightly.
"No."
He did not hesitate.
"I never pursued it. As a Vasto Lorde who once held dominion through Time, I had no need for destructive compression techniques."
Sombravida nodded faintly.
So Barragan never learned Cero Oscuras.
Interesting.
"Then the only path is through him," Sombravida murmured.
Cero Oscuras was not merely stronger.
It was structurally different.
Its compression pattern altered reishi behavior itself.
If he wanted to surpass Gran Rey Cero—
He needed that structure.
Sombravida made a decision.
"Your Majesty. Lend me Respira."
Barragan's hollow flames flickered.
"So you remember cooperation."
A dense wave of decay separated from Barragan's body and hovered beside Sombravida.
Sombravida did not touch it directly.
Instead—
He opened dozens of micro-spatial apertures.
Tiny crystallized folds of space formed.
Respira was segmented and sealed inside suspended spatial fragments.
Controlled.
Contained.
Ulquiorra observed silently.
"You rely on tricks," he said flatly.
Sombravida raised his hand calmly.
"When facing someone stronger, technique is necessary."
The spatial crystals vanished.
Moments earlier—
When Sombravida's hidden Cero had burned through Ulquiorra's torso—
He had inserted microscopic spatial seeds into the wound.
Now—
Sombravida activated them.
Ulquiorra's body froze mid-motion.
A faint distortion pulsed beneath his skin.
"What did you—"
Pain erupted through him.
Respira fragments bloomed internally.
Localized decay spread inside muscle fibers.
Ulquiorra's left arm withered instantly.
Flesh shrank.
Bone exposed.
Without hesitation—
He severed the arm himself.
High-Speed Regeneration activated.
Black flesh regrew over bone.
Sombravida did not move.
"You can regenerate limbs," Sombravida said evenly.
"But regeneration consumes reiryoku. Internal decay will force you to regenerate continuously."
Ulquiorra's gaze sharpened.
He understood.
Sombravida continued:
"We do not wish to kill you. If we did, we would not be speaking."
Ulquiorra's legs suddenly failed.
He dropped to one knee mid-air and fell.
Sombravida had dissolved spatial support in his lower body.
Respira surged through weakened channels.
Ulquiorra clenched his teeth—
Then—
He fired a Cero directly at himself.
The explosion dispersed internal spatial anchors.
The shockwave neutralized much of the decay.
He rose again.
Sombravida exhaled softly.
"Efficient."
Ulquiorra was not reckless.
He understood surgical self-damage as countermeasure.
Barragan snorted.
"Persistent brat."
Sombravida raised a hand.
"We can continue this indefinitely. You regenerate. We apply pressure. Eventually, your reiryoku will drop."
Ulquiorra hovered silently.
The forest wind shifted.
"Take one attack," Ulquiorra said at last.
"If you survive, I will explain."
Sombravida almost laughed.
Tsundere indeed.
Barragan's flames flared faintly.
"Kill him."
"No," Sombravida replied calmly. "He will self-destruct before surrendering."
Ulquiorra did not deny it.
Sombravida stepped forward.
"I will take your attack."
Barragan withdrew slightly, but remained ready.
Harribel shifted position behind Ulquiorra.
Ulquiorra raised his hand.
Dark green reiryoku swirled.
Not Cero.
Not yet.
Then—
Black gathered.
Dense.
Heavier than before.
Cero Oscuras.
Sombravida raised his spiritual pressure to its peak.
Azure-gold flared upward.
He simultaneously activated spatial phasing—
A partial displacement state.
Not full intangibility.
But enough to reduce direct impact.
Ulquiorra fired.
The black beam tore across the clearing.
Impact.
Explosion.
The forest cratered outward violently.
Reishi destabilized.
Barragan and Harribel shielded themselves against the shockwave.
Smoke lingered.
Silence followed.
Then—
"…Impressive."
Sombravida's voice emerged from the crater.
He stood.
Left arm gone.
Chest cavity partially exposed.
Severe burns across his torso.
Blood flowed.
Yet his core remained intact.
Milky-white regenerative reiryoku surged.
His arm regrew.
Flesh reknit.
He breathed steadily.
"Your compression distorts even spatial layering," Sombravida observed calmly.
"Not law destruction. But density overwhelming structure."
Ulquiorra watched him without blinking.
"You are durable."
Sombravida smiled faintly.
"As promised."
Ulquiorra did not hesitate further.
He raised his left hand.
His claw reached toward his own eye.
Barragan stiffened.
But Sombravida lifted a hand to stop him.
Ulquiorra gouged out his left eye.
Crushed it.
Instead of blood—
It dissolved into reishi particles.
They drifted toward Sombravida.
"Shared Vision," Ulquiorra said quietly.
Sombravida allowed the particles to merge into his consciousness.
Darkness filled his perception.
A white void.
Ulquiorra as a childlike Hollow.
Outcast.
Silent.
Feared by his own kind.
He wandered alone.
Deep into a pale desert hollow beneath the forest basin.
There—
He discovered skeletal remains.
Ancient.
Immense.
Reiryoku still lingering.
Not a living law fragment.
But residual compression density.
He lay beside it.
Absorbed slowly.
His mask fractured.
Not through Hōgyoku.
Not through external manipulation.
Through natural reiryoku destabilization.
Arrancar.
Alone.
He tested compression.
He refined it.
He compressed Cero beyond structural stability.
Black Cero emerged.
Not granted.
Not inherited.
Forged through extreme internal pressure control.
Sombravida absorbed the memory completely.
Ulquiorra had not gained Cero Oscuras through "law inheritance."
He achieved it through absolute compression mastery.
Sombravida opened his eyes.
Understanding clicked.
Cero Oscuras required:
Perfect reiryoku compression
Elimination of leakage
Internal collapse without self-detonation
Mask-fracture efficiency
It was technique.
Not bloodline.
Not law.
Technique.
Sombravida exhaled slowly.
"I understand."
Ulquiorra's expression did not change.
"We will leave," Sombravida said calmly.
"As agreed."
Barragan stared a moment longer—
Then turned away.
Harribel followed.
Sombravida paused briefly.
"Your solitude is not weakness," he said quietly.
Ulquiorra did not respond.
He simply turned back toward the gray heart of the forest.
Sombravida followed Barragan out.
Behind them—
The Illusory Forest returned to silence.
Within Sombravida's mind—
The structure of Cero Oscuras rotated.
Compressed.
Layered.
Dangerous.
And learnable.
"I never imagined Ulquiorra's birth was such a story."
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