"Cierva!"
"Leona!"
"Anaconda!"
Light bathed the cavern and three shockwaves repelled the abomination, it was launched to the back of the cavern.
The tri-colored light faded and the three girls stood in the air in their Resurrección states.
Appacci's body was covered in brown fur, her feet were replaced by hooves, she grew a set of white deer antlers, both her eyes became amber in color and had a red outline.
Mila Rose's body was covered in bone like armor; her right shoulder had a lion head ornament that held down her now red cape while on her left arm a shield grew shield that seemed to be made of spinal bones that contorted onto a fierce lion eye.
Sung-sun had the appearance of a Naga where her legs were replaced by a long serpentine tail, she gained three more pink marks under her left eye, her mask fragment grew and covered the back of her head. Her neck had a necklace of dark fur or feathers.
The monster regained it's composure and saw how its foes changed, it worried not and charged ahead. The three girls dodged with such an afterimage of each was left behind, the monster then saw them appear behind it and then attacked, they disappeared and reappeared behind it.
"Ha! The thing's too big and slow to catch us!" Mila rose shouted as she evaded an ethereal arm at the last moment without worry.
"The big lug is just way too slow!" Apacci used her speed to get in close to the monster right in front of one of its eyes. A hand came to smash her into a bloody puddle with ludicrous speed and force—however the strike never landed on the furry girl, instead only the beast received the blow.
The monster reeled back in pain, its other kaleidoscope eyes turned blood shot as it oozed black liquid from its now destroyed eye. The horrifying beauty it had was destroyed, the other membranes of the monster were covered in its blood like a large scar.
Hsss, the sound of snakes hissing filled the cave as the body of the beast was soon overtaken by a wave of snakes that bit and coiled around any part of the monster that they could.
"Can we call our pet to finally put an end to things!" Sung-sun called from above the other two members of her team. The other two gave a word confirmation, all of them took deep breaths and grabbed their left arms with their right hands and pulled.
Skin, flesh, bones and nerves were separated crimson, dark pink and yellow spiritual energy built up in their severed limbs and then like a magnet to a steel object they came together.
"Quimera Parca!"Tres Bestia shouted as the fusion of their arms came to an end with a blinding white light that even forced their opponent to cover its eyes. From the light a massive beast stood it had the skull of a deer, muscular human torso, a long black mane, deer legs and a serpent tail.
"RAAAAH!" The monster roared and caused a shockwave that even pushed away the three arrancar women, the monster moved with freighting speed for its size and tackled the many eyed monster.
"Damnit! Ayon is still way too much for us." Apacci complained as she now without her left arm saw how their pet tore into the abomination beneath it. The slashes from the beast's clawed hands did not affect the chimera hollow, its regeneration was rendered useless due to the speed and strength the hollow fought with.
"Does he seem different to you two?" Mila asked as she observed Ayon pick up and throw the monster like a wrestler, he then beat on his chest then put his hands to his hips and bellowed out in the form of a laugh.
"Hold on, is he fighting like Ben?!" Sung-sun had to shout at her sisters-in-arms. The chimera hollow then charged while his hand glowed with magma red and a large cero was formed and grew while he approached his prey.
"Okay, girls, time to take cover!" Apacci shouted, then they all flew to the opposite side of the cave and used Hierro to grow scales and increase their defense. Soon a bright red explosion occurred that seemed to rock the foundations of the very world.
Soon all that was left was a crater and Ayon alone inside with half a book that radiated a dark and malevolent aura.
"Is that the true form of that beast?" Sung-sun released the Hierro she created to observe the odd object, her spine tingled as she approached it.
"It might be? Let's get out of her—" Mila was cut off by Ayon who grabbed the mysterious book without care or regard, which left the hollow's technically masters dumbstruck. The dark aura burst out into a veil of shadows which covered the entire cavern and seemed to wrap around the four beings present and fade away.
...
Harribel's breathing was ragged as she kicked away the black knight again off into the horizon, she only had one question on her mind.
Why wouldn't he die? No matter where she struck he would simply get up, grasp his damned wooden blade and rush at her once again and they would repeat their song and dance once again. However this time Harribel had enough she fired off a golden energy projectile to halt the rush of the knight, not the beast.
A knight had reasoning, morals and honor this onyx armored man before her had only skill and strength nothing else—
"Arthur!" And a habit to occasionally yell out that name she assumed it was a name. Harribel held her sword pointed at the now downed man, grabbed her right hand with her left, took in a breath and shouted.
"Tiburón!
Golden spiritual energy, blood and water all rose in a violent whirlpool that seemed to carry force greater than anything on the planet. These three forces swirled into a pillar and then dispersed by a slash that carved away a section of the ground beneath.
From the pillar Harribel stood, her once elegantly done hair became a mess, a crown of shark teeth adorned her hair as her mask fell away instead her regular teeth became sharp as she grew pointed fins by her ears.
Gills showed themselves on the sides of her neck, she wore a dark scales themed wet suit underneath a golden suit of armor that covered her from shoulders to her toes. Her shoulders had shark themed pauldrons, her sword became a shark tooth blade.
The gravity in the area rose drastically, the knight seemed to lumber towards the woman , a low growl escaped the mouth of the knight as the chains behind him in a new display rose, then shot forward. The more savage appearing Espada tried to bat them away, however the chains coiled around her blade, red cracks appeared on the jet black metal.
Harribel's own blade began to become black in color and show those same cracks, it was not simple corruption or erosion it felt like the knight was trying to make her weapon his own. He , however made a fatal mistake: her weapon was a an extension of her very soul, so the knight inadvertently created a connection between them which brought the battle to a stop.
In the physical world that is inside the mental one, however the story was different.
Harribel in her mind saw a little boy who was raised by a woman in a lake. The boy later in life after hearing rumors of a great knight set out to meet him, this knight was the king of land and upon the moment the boy saw the knight he knew he wanted to stand by the king's side. Soon the boy, now a man acknowledged by the king, joined his circle of the most trusted and powerful knights of the realm.
Adventure after adventure, his fame alongside his brothers-in-arms grew, however he felt as though there was something wrong with his lord. Any request of the people his lord and then he himself would fulfil, soon his lord took a bride and one of his brothers left their order. In these dark times the man leaned on the bride of his lord, a forbidden romance blossomed, the kingdom slowly grew more restless as the days went on as their order crumbled.
Eventually his affair with his lord's woman was discovered he hoped to be admonished to be punished, however nothing came of his lord was a saint any crime to him was nothing, his king was perfect. Too perfect.
A battle occurred, he was away in a self imposed exile, the battle was led by one his former brothers, their order shattered because of his disloyalty and his king died. The kingdom which he spent years in order to help build fell to ruin, in the smoldering remains of his once home he went mad a path of blood was left in his wake.
Harribel in the physical world had a sullen face.
"Poor thing, I'll put an end to your existence here for you!" The golden haired woman reeled back her sword and drew in the knight who attempted to erect a defense, however thanks to her transformation the espada's physical prowess was elevated to a totally new level.
His arms were chopped off by quick and precise slashes, then a kick to the sternum shattered his chest armor now laid out on the ground armless the knight tried to move forward and growled.
"Arthur."
"So that was his name, Arthur, right? It doesn't now honestly, however if you can understand me I will let you atone, there is no forgiveness for what you did, however you can try to live up to what those people stood for." The knight stopped his movements; he seemed moved by the arrancar's words, chains extended from his back, grabbed the golden haired woman's sword and pointed it directly above where his heart would.
"You sure?" Harribel asked the down man and her conformation came in the form of the sword ticking against the onyx armor. She no longer hesitated and plunged her sword through his back, he shuttered and stopped moving, the woman felt sorry for the knight she thought she could convince him to join her.
She attempted to pull out her sword then she felt a portion of her spiritual energy be absorbed!
"What the—" Harribel was able to pull out her sword, however a full ten percent of her overall power was taken. The body before her was wrapped in a bubble of rushing water as the rolling green meadow around her became flooded as water seemed to pour down from the sky in the form of pillars.
Harribel scratched her head that she could survive underwater, and she was sure Ben could too, but her girls could not say the same for themselves.
The ground beneath her rumbled and then it erupted into a sphere of water Harribel swam alongside the current in hopes of evading any damage.
"Lady Harribel!" Then like the sweetest music she heard the distorted voices of Tres Bestia she rushed into the center of the sphere to find the girls all missing an arm, their giant chimera pet and a red crustacean humanoid with an hour glass badge for a belt buckle.
The girls ran towards her as their pet simply sat down behind the crustacean like a dutiful protector. The girls hugged her and she reciprocated and tightly at that.
"It's good to see you three in one piece, however let's save the reunion for later. Ben, let me lend you a hand in getting us out of here." Harribel stuck her sword into the sphere of water and soon its durability increased tenfold and soon the meadow became submerged and then like glass shattered.
Which left the water sphere back in the ancient temple, the sphere soon disappeared and the five person and one chimera team fell to the floor. Ben reverted to human form, his right arm still damaged which caused Harribel to rush over to him.
"What happened?!" Harribel looked over the damage and to her it looked severe; she thought Ben was practically immortal!
"Haha, well—" The young green eyed young man was interrupted by the metal footsteps and cold voice of another man.
A man walked into the light; he wore armor as blue as the bottom of the ocean, his visor was a bright golden yellow and in his hand he carried a trident with odd symbols engraved on the shaft.
"That would be my fault, my lady." The knight approached Harribel and took a bow before her, the act left Tres Bestia and their pet confused while Ben's eyes seemed to take on a murderous look.
Harribel squinted then like a lightbulb switching on and remembered, "You are the black I fought I thought took your life. What happened also, what was the purpose of you taking my spiritual energy?"
As Harribel asked, Ben looked over her shoulders with dark eyes the aura emitted by him scarred off the girls and their pet who grew fond of the young man via the collective feelings of his masters.
"To answer my lady, I needed you to stab me through the heart so I could create a servant contract with you and rid myself of the madness enhancement. Our contract has not been fully created yet, please check your left hand for the command spells." Harribel did what she was asked and sure enough a faded tattoo was on her hand.
"Why did you do this? Did you not want to simply die instead?" Harribel was curious as she and the knight seemed to be ignorant of the alien shape-shifters' dangerous aura.
"I was inspired by your power and words so I want to serve for as long as you wish as your servant if you would have me. To show my sincerity I will tell you my true name..." The knight rose and removed his mask and a handsome face with grey eyes and purple neck length hair was revealed.
"My name Lancelot—" The knight seemed to have received some form of karma as Ben interrupted him.
"Lancelot? Like Lancelot of the Lake? The man who slept with king Arthur's wife Lancelot!?" Ben looked on dumbfounded like the girls and Ayon seemed disinterested.
"Yes, that is true. And now wish to serve my lady overhe—" Lancelot stopped as he and Ben's eyes met he seemed to finally sense the lethal presence of the young man.
"Hmm, fine you can serve me..." Harribel confirmed, Ben took on a neutral face as Lancelot seemed ecstatic.
"Thank you my Lady!" The knight shouted and got one knee and gestured for Harribel's hand. She offered it and soon, crimson light shone then a tattoo of a shark with a crown in three segments appeared.
"The contract is sealed, saber class servant Lancelot at your service." The knight of the lake spoke as the young intergalactic hero shouted.
"How are you a saber if you're carrying around a trident!?"
...
Above the desolate forest the purple light and white flame were present and conversed.
"Well that was anti-climactic. But, that move that Ben used was really cool!" The white flame sounded like a love struck school girl.
"I told you that servant couldn't do Tennyson in, and he will undoubtedly become even stronger after this. Get rid of everything I will meet with Aizen and then those mages to tell them of what we witnessed." The purple said in its distorted commanding tone.
"Alright master!" The white flame spoke with mock enthusiasm as the purple light disappeared, soon the flame scattered and then the whole area was enshrouded by an ethereal white flame.
...
Las Noches
"So you returned." Aizen sensed the purple light's presence as soon as it arrived.
"Yes, and I found your subordinates and Tennyson." The purple light spoke in a matter of fact manner.
The brown haired man squinted his eyes, "Hmm, that is good news I suppose, however my plans have been pushed back well behind schedule and the DNA you gave me for my troupes is taking too long to incorporate. I think it is only fair if you sweeten the pot as they say?" Aizen tried to scope out his allies' motives and interests.
"Well, alright I guess I gave you more credit than you warranted after all you originated from humans. Here are half the plans for a device that should accelerate your ascension to godhood." The purple light drew in size and then launched a rolled up scroll at Aizen.
The white clad man scanned the plans and nodded happily, "Are you not concerned for your own wellbeing when all is said and done?" Aizen needed to scope out the light even more so he gave the light his incomplete hogyoku plans for the new DNA he was pumping into the arrancar.
"Haha, no I am quite confident in my own odds of survival, however I must cut our meeting short places and periods to be after all." The light vanished and left Aizen there in the dark room by himself.
"Periods?" Aizen muttered as he tried to understand what the light could have meant.
Above the clouds in the eternal night of Hueco Mundo the purple light appeared and stared down at the castle of Las Noches.
"My dear Sosuke Aizen, continue on your path, for however you can travel after all. Time is on my side!" The light cackled into the night before disappearing once more.