"It's alive again..."
"A Shinigami's powers are way too useful..."
"Thank you, Lord Katori!"
Under Nanatsuki's healing, the Beast-Hollow Trio recovered rapidly.
The awe in their eyes deepened.
A Vasto Lorde that even Harribel couldn't defeat… had been killed with a single kick by this Shinigami!
They couldn't help but envy her—Harribel's teacher was such a terrifying powerhouse.
Once Nanatsuki finished healing Harribel and the Beast-Hollow Trio, the group prepared to leave.
Nel and Harribel needed to find a location with high Reishi density and relative safety for training.
"That Redshark King's territory might be perfect. That area's marked as a high-spiritual zone," Nel said as she pulled out the map Yoruichi had given her.
The map included rough indicators of Reishi concentrations, clearly marking both high- and low-density zones.
"The Redshark King was a Vasto Lorde. He had the power to secure a prime location," Nanatsuki noted as he glanced at the map. The Reishi density in that territory was almost equal to Las Noches, and no nearby place came close. It was ideal for Nel and Harribel's training.
"It's unclaimed now. A perfect fit for you two."
"Then let's go there!" Nel agreed.
The group set off for the Redshark King's territory.
Though Hueco Mundo was mostly desert and badlands, not all of it fit that mold.
This territory was a barren mountain.
Looking up at the peak, they saw light white smoke curling into the sky—it resembled an active volcano.
"Is that a volcano? The Reishi density here is so high!" Nel exclaimed curiously.
"The Forest of Menos is beneath this. There shouldn't be a volcano here," Nanatsuki replied with a chuckle.
"I'll take a look at the top."
Driven by curiosity, Nel flew to the crater rim.
"It's not lava—it's not a volcano!" Nel shouted.
The others followed her up.
Nanatsuki peered inside. At the summit was a lake.
Steam drifted from the lake's surface. What they had seen earlier was the vapor rising from the lake.
This region had extremely high Reishi density, and many small animal-type Hollows lived here.
When the Redshark King was around, these small creatures were his reserve rations, so he had left the ecosystem untouched.
"This place is amazing!" Nel's eyes sparkled with satisfaction. "Let's stay here, Harribel!"
"It really is a good place..." Harribel agreed. She had wandered Hueco Mundo for years and visited many locations, but none matched this.
"Why is the water giving off heat?"
Nanatsuki frowned slightly and reached into the lake to test the temperature.
It was warm—roughly 60 to 70 degrees Celsius.
"It feels nice! Is this a hot spring?" Nel also dipped her hand in. Given the durability of Hollow bodies, that level of heat didn't feel scalding.
"Water doesn't heat up for no reason."
Nanatsuki's gaze sharpened.
He extended his spiritual perception downward, trying to sense what was beneath the lake.
"I don't sense much..." All he could feel was a few small animal-type Hollows near the surface.
Below that, the Reishi interference from the lake made his sensing imprecise.
"I'll go take a look."
Nanatsuki's curiosity was piqued. He decided to investigate the cause of the heat.
"I'm coming too!" Nel followed quickly.
Seeing the others head into the water, Harribel and the rest jumped in as well.
Once submerged, Harribel felt a faint happiness rise within her.
Her Hollow form was that of a humanoid shark—she felt naturally at home in the water. Sadly, aquatic environments were rare in Hueco Mundo, almost impossible to find.
Nanatsuki's entry startled a school of fish-type Hollows.
These creatures had no intelligence and were akin to regular fish from the World of the Living. When they sensed unfamiliar spiritual beings approaching, they instinctively scattered.
They were among the lowest-tier life forms in Hueco Mundo's ecosystem.
Their food consisted of lake sediment or even smaller Hollows.
A patch of waterweed floated in front of Nel. She reached out and pinched it—only for small tendrils to sprout from underneath and shoot a water jet as it darted away.
The weed-like creature was actually a Hollow too.
Its body was one to two meters wide, making it a predator in this lake. It fed on the fish-Hollows.
But faced with Nel and the others' overwhelming Reiatsu, it dared not move. It played dead, disguising itself as algae.
As Nanatsuki dove deeper, he noticed a faint red glow below.
"What's that glowing down there?"
He was puzzled. The red light stretched out in wide patches—it looked like clusters of some unusual Hollow species.
The deeper he went, the hotter it became. But to them, the difference between soaking in boiling water and a hot spring wasn't much.
"Is that... lava?" Nanatsuki's brows furrowed.
Lava flowed across the lakebed. That red glow he had seen came from molten rock.
That explained the lake's temperature—heated from below.
"Why would there be lava under this lake?" Nanatsuki's suspicion grew.
The others had followed down and were equally surprised by the presence of lava.
Beneath the desert layers of Hueco Mundo lay the Forest of Menos, which itself extended downward like stratified layers.
But this lake in the barren mountain hadn't reached those depths. The appearance of lava here was clearly unnatural.
Just as Nanatsuki considered swimming along the lava's flow, he sensed a Reiatsu pulse coming from beneath it.
That energy was growing stronger—it felt like something ancient was waking up.
At the same time, the lava began flowing in a new direction.
It split and flowed to either side.
Then, the lava crust cracked open. A deep trench appeared where the flow once was.
Strangely, the lava didn't pour into the trench—it continued to move outward along the sides.
The change intensified. The trench widened rapidly.
It was as if an earthquake were shaking the lakebed.
Creatures in the water panicked, fleeing upward.
Fish-type Hollows leapt from the surface, stranding themselves on the sandy shore, then quickly burrowed underground.
Moments later, Nanatsuki saw what lay within the rift.
"That's... an eye?!"
The trench in the lakebed wasn't just a crack—it was an eye slowly opening!
The lava hadn't flowed into the eye. In fact, the molten rock seemed to be part of its "skin."
"This Reiatsu... it feels strange… not quite Hollow, not quite Shinigami… more like Quincy?"
Nanatsuki's alertness spiked instantly. He readied himself for battle at a moment's notice.