Chapter 40: Resurrección: Segunda Etapa
"Look at you, what are you saying?"
Ren's voice, now cold and hollow, echoed from the darkness of the portal. It held none of the calm warmth of the swordsman, Yoriichi. This was something else. Something dead.
"If I am not alive, how can I be standing here? Your words are illogical."
Ren emerged fully from the Garganta, his feet touching the scorched, ruined earth. He stood tall in his pristine white Arrancar uniform, hands in his pockets, his expression one of complete, inhuman emptiness.
Clap!
Ren snapped his fingers, and the black, tearing portal—the Garganta—quickly zipped shut behind him, sealing itself with a sound like tearing fabric.
Bang! Bang!
Seeing Ren appear, alive and utterly unharmed, the Magic Dragon's massive, wounded body couldn't help but retreat two steps. Its golden, reptilian eyes were wide with a terror that surpassed even the pain of its wounds.
"Impossible!" Alazam roared, his voice cracking. "You couldn't possibly withstand my Roar! Nothing could have survived that! My Roar annihilates everything!"
Ren nodded, his cold green eyes sweeping over the apocalyptic destruction. The crater, the molten earth, the annihilated city...
"Yes," Ren's gaze returned to the dragon, his tone purely analytical. "As expected of a Giant Dragon's Roar, its power is indeed terrifying. A direct impact would have resulted in my annihilation. But if an attack cannot be blocked... why would I allow myself to be hit?"
When Alazam was gathering its power in the sky, Ren had used the abilities of his Ulquiorra Cifer form. As an Arrancar, he possessed a universal skill: Garganta.
[Akarin's Note: Garganta (Spanish for "Throat") is an ability from the Bleach series, primarily used by Arrancar and Hollows. It tears a hole in the fabric of space, opening a portal to the void between worlds, which they can use for travel or, in this case, to hide in a pocket dimension.]
Ren had used Garganta to temporarily tear space and hide in the spatial rift, completely dodging the cataclysmic blast. After the Roar ended, Ren returned.
This move had one drawback: its activation speed was relatively slow. Fortunately, the Magic Dragon's wind-up for its Roar was also quite long, so it was enough for Ren to hide in the spatial rift.
The surviving humans—Erza, the King, Arthur, and Clay—stared in disbelief. The man who had been a god of fire and swordsmanship was gone. In his place was this cold, pale creature who spoke of tearing space as if it were a simple matter. They were overjoyed that he was alive, but this new, cold form was deeply unsettling.
"Alright," Ren's hollow voice stated, breaking the silence. "Let's quickly start the second round."
He looked down at his white uniform, a flicker of something—perhaps annoyance—in his dead-pan expression. "This sealed state is not ideal for combat. And my time is very precious."
Alazam, who had been reeling in terror, seized on this. He saw the new form, felt the different spiritual pressure. It was heavy, yes, but it lacked that burning, searing quality that had terrified his very soul. The Yoriichi form was gone.
"Hah... Hahaha!" the dragon's pained, wheezing laugh began. "This is your new form? You've shed that burning, dragon-wounding power for... this? You look weaker! That swordsman... that was a threat. This... this is just an insect in a different shell!"
Ren remained unfazed. "Weaker? A meaningless observation. You merely haven't seen what this form is truly capable of."
He raised his hand, and his Zanpakutō, Murciélago, appeared in his grasp. He pointed it forward.
"Confine, Murciélago."
[Akarin's Note: Murciélago (Spanish for "Bat") is the name of Ulquiorra Cifer's Zanpakutō (his sword). "Confine" (Tozase) is his release command to enter his first Resurrección.]
"Om—————!!"
A black, oppressive spiritual pressure surged from Ren, shooting straight into the sky. The air thickened, becoming heavy with a tangible, crushing despair. The sky, already dark, became overcast, and a large amount of black, spiritual rain began to fall from the sky.
Everyone present had seen this scene before—when Ren had annihilated the five 9-Star beasts—but each time they saw it, they were incredibly shocked.
Soon, the anomaly disappeared, and Ren transformed into his first Resurrección state. His white uniform was gone, replaced by a long, tattered white coat. Two massive, black, bat-like wings spread from his back, and the hollow helmet fragment on his head was now complete, with two long horns.
The Magic Dragon Alazam saw Ren in this form and recognized it.
The dragon gnashed its teeth, and a sneer of sudden, dawning realization spread across its face.
"Hah! This form! I've seen this one!" Alazam roared, a new, desperate confidence in its voice. "This is the form you used against those 9-Star beasts! Your swordsmanship in this state is pathetic, and your strength is weak! You are no match for me at all!"
The Magic Dragon's mind, now cleared by its near-death experience, was working frantically.
"And you... you still can't use that burning-sword technique, can you?!" it taunted. "You're just a flying insect! I'll just stay in the air and bombard you with Roars! What can you do?!"
"Hmm, you're right," Ren, now hovering with his new wings, replied. "If you were in your peak state, I definitely wouldn't attack in this form. But your logic has a flaw... you are severely injured right now."
Ren's green, cat-like eyes narrowed. "Also, who told you that this form of mine is weak? Ulquiorra is the strongest Hollow in my heart, and I won't allow you to insult him."
"However," Ren continued, his voice dropping, "since you think this form is weak... then I'll bring out an even stronger form."
Ren softly chanted: "Resurrección: Segunda Etapa."
[Akarin's Note: Resurrección: Segunda Etapa (Spanish for "Resurrection: Second Stage") is Ulquiorra Cifer's unique, second-stage release, a form even his creator, Aizen, was unaware of. It massively amplifies his power, speed, and regenerative abilities.]
Om——————!!!
An even more terrifying spiritual pressure—an abyss of pure, nihilistic emptiness—erupted from Ren. A bluish-black spiritual pressure radiated around him, impacting the surroundings with the force of a physical explosion.
"Ugh ah ah ah ah!!"
Many of the survivors on the wall cried out, shielding their eyes, not from light, but from the sheer, soul-crushing despair that pressure emitted.
Ren's first Resurrección form dissolved. His upper body clothes slowly disappeared. His abdomen to his legs, as well as his arms and back, were covered in sleek, black feathers. The lower part of his robe split into two halves, like black coattails.
His wings fully spread, more demonic and defined. The bat claws on his feet elongated. The horns on his helmet grew longer and sharper, curving upwards. A long, impossibly thin black tail grew from behind his buttocks, whipping through the air like a lethal scorpion's stinger.
His feet also transformed into sharp, bird-like claws. And most terrifyingly, a black hole—a Hollow hole—appeared on Ren's chest, right over his sternum, through which the dark sky behind could be seen.
"This… this is… Mr. Ren?" the King stammered, his mind utterly broken by the transformations.
Everyone was somewhat frightened by Ren's new, truly demonic transformation.
"Kid... do you think just transforming makes you my opponent?" Alazam roared, but there was a new tremor of fear in its voice. It was scanning Ren, analyzing... and then, its eyes widened in triumph.
"I remember now! Your spiritual power... your magic! It can't sustain this form for too long! When you fought those beasts, you were exhausted! You only used that form for... what? A minute?!"
After being severely injured, the Magic Dragon's mind seemed to have cleared up a lot. It was desperately recalling Ren's previous performance in the demonic beast tide, connecting the dots.
Ren, in his new, terrifying form, hovered, his long tail lashing. He nodded. "Yes. With my current spiritual power, this form... can only be maintained for a little over a minute."
The Magic Dragon was overjoyed upon hearing this. The terror was instantly washed away by a manic, desperate glee.
"One minute? Hahahahaha!!! ONLY ONE MINUTE?! Kid, it looks like you're destined to die here today!! All I have to do is survive! I just have to survive for one minute! After one minute, I'm going to torture you properly! I'll make you wish you were dead but unable to die!!"
The Magic Dragon was extremely excited. It hated this human who had severely injured it. A mere human had made it, Alazam, taste fear. It vowed to get revenge for this great humiliation.
"One minute!!"
Upon hearing Ren's words, the human side couldn't help but feel a new wave of despair. Could he really kill the Magic Dragon in one minute? If the minute ended and Ren still hadn't defeated it, then all of them would be doomed.
Ren said indifferently, his new voice echoing with a slight, demonic reverberation:
"One minute... to deal with you? It's enough."
Almost as soon as Ren's words fell...
"How boastful—" Alazam was still laughing.
Whoosh!
Ren's figure vanished. He didn't fly; he used Sonído. He simply ceased to be where he was and appeared directly in front of the Magic Dragon Alazam's large face.
The dragon's eyes couldn't even track him.
Ren's body rapidly spun in the air like a black, feathered drill, and he delivered a devastating axe kick straight to the Magic Dragon Alazam's face.
Bang—————!!
The Magic Dragon Alazam's massive, building-sized head snapped to the side. Its entire colossal body was sent flying sideways, crashing through the ruins of the city wall.
"Ugh ah ah ah!!"
Ren stomped hard on the air itself, a foothold of solidified spiritual pressure, and his wings beat once. He was a black comet, instantly crossing the distance.
In the blink of an eye, Ren caught up to the flying dragon, then kicked downwards with his clawed foot.
Boom—————!!
"Wah ah ah ah ah!!"
The Magic Dragon Alazam let out a painful scream, its entire body plummeting to the ground, creating another huge crater. Ren's attack had landed squarely on the grievous, burning wound that Yoriichi's Thirteenth Form had left on its back.
Before the Magic Dragon Alazam could even react, Ren dove past it, grabbing its long, spiked tail with both hands.
"Get up!!!"
Then he spun forcefully. Ren, a being of human size, began to spin the colossal, multi-ton dragon around and around, a black-and-purple blur of motion.
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh!!"
Immediately after, Ren let go. The Magic Dragon's body flew directly away, a missile of its own making.
Boom—————!
The Magic Dragon's body crashed into a small mountain in the distance, creating a large, spider-webbed crater in the mountain's face.
"Wah ah ah ah ah!!"
The Magic Dragon coughed up torrents of blood. Its body was already severely injured from the Yoriichi fight, and Ren's continuous, overwhelming physical attacks were adding more injury to its wounds. The brutal, blunt-force trauma was rupturing its already-damaged organs.
If it weren't for the tenacious, legendary vitality of dragons, it might have already died by now.
Looking at Ren rapidly approaching again, a black speck of death in the sky, the Magic Dragon opened its mouth in a panic and spewed out a violent, desperate dragon's breath.
Swish swish swish!!
Ren didn't just dodge. He moved in flashes, a series of high-speed Sonído steps, zigzagging through the air, completely avoiding the beam while rapidly advancing.
[Akarin's Note: Sonído (Spanish for "Sound") is the high-speed movement technique used by Arrancar in Bleach. It is the equivalent of a Shinigami's Flash Step or a Quincy's Hirenkyaku.]
In a flash, he was once again in front of the Magic Dragon.
"You damned... little... insect!!"
The Magic Dragon lunged at Ren with its claws, but it grabbed nothing but air.
Ren's figure appeared above the Magic Dragon, hovering, looking down with those cold, emotionless green eyes. His long, black tail whipped anxiously behind him.
He pointed his index finger at the dragon's heavily wounded back.
Black, volatile energy, crackling with green-black lightning, began to condense at the tip of his finger.
"Cero Oscuras."
[Akarin's Note: Cero Oscuras (Spanish for "Dark Zero," Japanese for "Black Hollow Flash") is the Cero used by Espada in their released state. It is significantly more powerful and destructive than a normal Cero, described as being "black as night."]
[Akarin Note:
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