The battlefield.
The billowing dust and smoke gradually settled, and four figures lay sprawled across the ground.
If not for the faint rise and fall of their chests, anyone would have assumed they were dead.
On the other side of the field, the massive silhouette had gone completely still.
They’d won.
Just moments ago, the combined attacks of Wayne’s group of four had gone out almost simultaneously with Mirot’s Cero, and the enormous surge of clashing Reiatsu had kicked up a shockwave that flattened everything around them.
Had Mirot fired his Cero first, all four of them would have been annihilated instantly.
In the very second before that Cero could be unleashed, Wayne hit Shadow Step and shot forward, closing the distance to Mirot’s face in an instant.
He raised his hand and drove a Shattering Slash loaded with every scrap of Reiryoku he had straight down onto Mirot’s Hollow Mask, shattering the Cero mid-charge.
Then the attacks from Jekain and the other two crashed down hard on Mirot’s head.
In one instant, the Gillian-class Hollow Mask split clean in two, the skull beneath it was cleaved apart, and Mirot stopped moving forever.
“Hah…
that wasn’t easy.” Wayne lay on the ground, gasping.
The Shadow Step and Shattering Slash at the last second had drained his Reiryoku sharply.
But good enough.
They’d survived.
“Hah…
with this, nothing in this forest is a threat to us anymore.” Jekain lay on the ground beside him and turned his head, giving Wayne a rueful smile.
“But the losses were severe.” Wayne forced himself upright through the pain and looked out at the battlefield.
“We lost so many.
This can only be called a pyrrhic victory.” “That said, at least we’re alive.” Jekain pushed himself up despite his body’s protest.
Nearby, Gis and Parik swayed to their feet as well.
“Well…
fair enough.
Then let’s divide the spoils quickly — before the surviving Hollows in the forest come to their senses and we have another fight on our hands.” Wayne eyed the Gillian-class Hollow Mask broken in two before him and couldn’t help licking his lips.
At the same time, he shifted his angle, keeping Jekain and the others in view.
They’d just fought side by side, but that didn’t mean he could afford to stop watching.
“Your command is our will, my king.” Unexpectedly, Jekain kept his earlier promise without a word of hesitation.
He gave a small nod and knelt.
After this battle, Jekain had submitted completely.
Had Wayne not led them through that fight, they would have been reduced to Reishi the moment Mirot’s Cero landed.
Even now, Jekain could have turned on him and seized the Gillian-class Hollow Mask for himself.
He didn’t.
Because he believed, firmly, that under Wayne’s lead, it wouldn’t be long before each of them advanced, one by one, and became the true apex of this forest.
“Good.
Bring the injured over first, and we’ll share this Gillian together.” Wayne made no move to refuse the show of loyalty.
He could survive in this forest alone, but with subordinates like Jekain at his side, the road ahead would be a great deal smoother.
“Yes.” Jekain rose and joined Gis and the others, carrying the barely-conscious Inora, Fislina, and the rest over to the corpse.
They all began absorbing and devouring Mirot’s remains.
Wayne, meanwhile, adjusted his Reiatsu and walked to the body.
He reached out and tore off the Hollow Mask, a slab of material nearly as tall as he was.
“I’m taking these two large pieces.
The fragments are yours — use them to recover.” He said it to Jekain, then turned and walked toward the deep crater the Cero had blasted into the ground.
Jekain understood, gathered the scattered mask fragments from around the site, and distributed them to everyone, pressing them to swallow quickly and heal.
“My king.” Just before Wayne stepped into the pit, a weak voice reached him.
Inora, badly injured and barely upright.
“A Gillian-class Reiatsu is enormous.
Their Hollow Mask won’t dissipate quickly.
Don’t consume it all at once — your body will burst from the strain.” “Understood.
I’ll compress and adjust as I go.” Wayne gave a light nod, dropped into the crater, and found a comfortable spot at the bottom.
He lifted the massive fragment of Hollow Mask in both hands and bit down hard.
In an instant, an extraordinarily dense flood of Reishi poured into his body.
Warmth surged through him all at once.
He suppressed the urge to bite down again immediately.
First, recovery.
He let that initial rush of Reishi work through the damage in his body, and within just a few breaths, his depleted Reiryoku began to flow again.
Then, following Inora’s advice, he started compressing.
Reiryoku pushing inward, soul density rising, all while he kept biting steadily into the Hollow Mask in his hands.
Time passed.
He didn’t keep track of how much, or how many bites it took.
But eventually, both massive pieces of Hollow Mask were gone.
The Reishi was so dense it nearly split him open from the inside.
It flowed through him in heavy, coursing waves.
Wayne closed his eyes and began the long process of digestion.
Once those eyes shut, time ceased to exist.
Reiryoku Compression was like condensing water vapor inside a bottle.
Apply enough pressure, force it all together, and the vapor becomes droplets.
Then the bottle has room again.
Fill it with more vapor.
Compress again.
Repeat the cycle, over and over, until the droplets fill it to the brim.
That is when compression is complete.
Advancing as a Hollow was like swapping that bottle for a larger vat.
The higher the density of one’s Reiryoku at the moment of advancement, the stronger the foundation, the lower the risk, and the wider the gap between you and every other Hollow at the same level afterward.
That was the true value of Reiryoku Compression.
But Wayne had no intention of stopping where other Hollows stopped.
Most were content to compress until their Reiryoku was dense enough to advance or control freely.
He understood, from years spent in cultivation games, that laying a proper foundation was the most critical step.
So he chose something different.
Through sheer force of will, he drove those dense Reishi droplets further, compressing past the point most would stop, pushing toward the absolute extreme.
Perhaps that would trigger a second qualitative shift.
If it did, his Reiryoku wouldn’t just grow; it would be elevated into something qualitatively superior.
Mind made up, Wayne settled in for the long process.
His body changed as the compression deepened.
The several-meter frame he’d grown into during the fight gradually shrank, condensing back down until it settled at roughly his original height, around 178 centimeters.
But what was inside grew fuller and more substantial with every passing moment.
This feeling of accumulating power.
He could get used to it.
Time flew.
The long process of compression and refinement accelerated his mastery of Reiryoku faster than anything he’d experienced before.
But a Gillian’s power was still finite.
Eventually, the last trace of the two Hollow Mask pieces was gone.
Wayne’s eyes snapped open.
The aura around him had changed.
He could feel it instantly, a shift that ran through his entire being.
He leaped out of the crater.
When he landed, the ground cracked beneath his feet.
He looked himself over.
The chitinous layer he’d had before was gone, replaced by hardened bone.
His defensive capability had grown by a significant margin, no question.
The five blades of his right claw caught the dim light as they cut through the air, cold-edged and sharp enough that a single swing felt like it could tear the air itself apart.
His left fist held a different kind of power, dense, explosive, coiled.
Wayne rolled his shoulders and let a quiet smile settle at the corner of his mouth.
“My king.” The moment he cleared the crater, voices rang out in unison.
Before him, Inora, Lefas, and the others were all kneeling, heads bowed.
By the look of them, the injuries from the battle against Mirot had fully healed.
“You’ve all improved considerably.” Wayne looked over the kneeling Hollows.
He could feel it clearly, each of their Reiatsu had grown, every one of them at a different level.
But one presence was missing from the group entirely.
“Hmm?
Where’s Jekain?” He counted the Hollows before him, seven, some crouching, some prostrated, and Jekain was nowhere among them.
Silence.
No one answered.
That made Wayne go still for a moment.
He was about to speak when a deep, resonant voice came from somewhere behind him.
“My king.
I am here.” Wayne turned.
What he saw was an enormous black silhouette standing well over twenty meters tall.
The voice had come from the very top of it.
He tilted his head back and found, at that summit, a massive Hollow Mask shaped like armor plating.
“A Gillian?” Wayne stared.
“Jekain — you advanced?” “Yes, my king.” The massive form curved slightly, a bow as best it could manage.
“Two days ago, a hunt gave me enough accumulated strength.
I went to the southern part of the forest to complete my advancement while making sure everyone here was safe.
When I found I still had my consciousness, I came back.” “No wonder I couldn’t sense your Reiatsu.” Wayne exhaled.
“You’ve already far surpassed me.” He felt no fear at that.
Jekain’s Reiatsu was now several times his own, but the deference in that deep voice was unmistakable from the first word.
Betrayal wasn’t something he needed to worry about.
“So.
How long was I under?” “My king, your absorption took a full month.” Inora answered quietly.
“That long.” Wayne looked back up at the towering form of Jekain.
“So this is what a Gillian with retained consciousness looks like.” “Yes, my king.
It is thanks to you that I survived that crisis and had the fortune to reach this point.” Jekain’s voice was steady, but there was weight behind it.
“However, my king — I ask your forgiveness.
I can no longer remain by your side.” “Oh?” Something clicked.
“The Forest of Menos?” “Yes.” A low, measured answer.
“After advancing, I began hearing its call.
Only because I retained my consciousness could I stay here at all.
But as my Reiryoku is consumed and time passes, the pull grows stronger.
Had you not emerged from seclusion today, my king, I think two more days and I would have reached my limit, and been unable to stay any longer regardless.” Wayne filed that away.
Useful information about Gillians, straight from one.
“Then go, Jekain.
Go to the Forest of Menos.” A long pause.
“…” The massive form was still.
After a moment, Jekain spoke.
“My king, I am sorry.
I have not yet fought for you even once.” “No.” Wayne smiled.
“Perhaps we can still be together a while longer.” “Huh?
My king, I don’t follow.” Jekain’s tone shifted, genuinely puzzled.
“What I mean is, you won’t be the only one leaving.” Wayne looked at the group around him.
“All of us.
Every one.
We’re going with you.” He paused.
“We leave now.” A ripple of surprise moved through the gathered Hollows.
But they obeyed, and they moved.
After emerging from absorbing and refining Mirot’s Hollow Mask, Wayne had issued the order without delay.
All nine Hollows, himself included, were leaving this place behind.
He explained his reasoning as they walked.
“After the last battle, Mirot devoured the majority of the powerful Hollows from this forest’s core through Soul Absorption, and Jekain’s advancement must have consumed no small portion of what remained.
In barely a single month, within this one small region, two Gillians have appeared.
I’ll ask you plainly, how much prey is left in this forest for us to hunt?” He let that sit for a moment as they walked.
Around him, the others were quiet, thinking it through.
“Rather than fight the other high-level Hollows here over a food supply that keeps shrinking, we abandon it entirely.
We find a new region, one we can claim as our own.” “But entering unfamiliar territory…” Lefas spoke up.
“How do we ensure the region is manageable?
How do we stay safe?” “That’s exactly why I said we travel with Jekain.” Wayne glanced back at the towering silhouette moving beside them.
“We can’t hold him here as a permanent fighting force, he needs to reach the Forest of Menos, and he’s going regardless.
We don’t know exactly how far that route takes him, but along the way he’ll inevitably pass through regions dense with Hollows.
At those points, a few Ceros from Jekain will clear out any threats, and we take the territory.” “My king,” Jekain said, “and what of me during all this?” “You keep walking straight toward the Forest of Menos.
The call won’t cloud your mind, you have your consciousness.
All you need to do is send a few Ceros into each new region as we pass through, and then keep going.
We’ll settle in and survive, and you continue on your way.” Wayne paused, then added: “We stay in that new region until the next Gillian is born.” “The next one?” Inora’s voice sharpened.
She had caught something in those words.
“My king, are you saying…?” “That’s right.” Wayne nodded.
“From here on, I want every one of you to advance to Gillian.” ➤ Next: The Plan — All Advance