“UWAAAAAAH!” The terrifying howl tore out of the forest again.
This time, something followed it, a massive creature dozens of meters tall, taking shape at the edge of Ace Wayne’s vision.
A black witch’s cloak draped over its entire body.
Pale white hands and feet jutted from its hem.
A gargantuan Hollow Mask dominated its face.
Dead center on its chest gaped a Hollow Hole, and the Reiatsu rolling off it blotted out everything else.
No question about it.
Mirot had fully evolved into a Gillian.
Ace Wayne reached the spot where Lefas had been digging and turned to look back at the massive silhouette looming in the forest depths.
“Pointed nose.
Empty eyes.
That clown Hollow Mask.” He took in Mirot’s shape, and something sparked behind his eyes.
“It’s a Gillian without consciousness.” “An opportunity.” “Lefas — how’s the trap coming?” “Time was too short.
Only the first one’s been dug, and only about six meters.” Lefas had felt that suffocating Reiatsu too.
His voice came out tight with urgency.
“It’s barely been any time since you gave the order.
There was no way to dig faster.” “No choice then.
Abandon the first one.
Put everything into digging the second trap to three meters, then everyone pull out.
Parik, Gis — take to the air.
Start disrupting its line of sight.
And listen — the moment you hear my command, break away immediately and prepare to evade Cero!” “Yes!” “Yes!” The words were barely out before Parik and Gis launched into the air together and headed toward Mirot’s position.
“What’s the status on those two large logs?” “Already brought back.” Jekain glanced at the Hollows beside him who had gone to fell the trees, then turned to Ace Wayne.
“Good.
Sharpen one end of each log to a point — make it very sharp.
Then send four Hollows out.
Have them take up positions in the large trees flanking both sides of the trap.
Fislina, you hide below the trees.
When you hear my command, shoot your webbing immediately and bind Mirot’s eyes.
Cut off his vision!” “Understood!” “Jekain, you’re with me.
We lure it in.
Inora, stay close.
Everyone else take cover in the surrounding area and wait for my command.
Scatter!” WHOOSH!
The group split apart instantly.
Ace Wayne led Jekain and Minola toward the Gillian-class Mirot, because right now, his job was to draw it into the trap.
“UWAAAH!” Mirot had lost consciousness, but it could still feel the Reiatsu of everything around it.
The moment a Hollow became a Gillian, instinct called it toward the Forest of Menos.
It would walk there on pure compulsion, no thought required.
And anything it sensed along the way, regardless of rank, it would attack without discrimination.
This was precisely why mindless Gillians so rarely evolved into Adjuchas.
They had no awareness left.
They could only slaughter blindly, often one another.
Right now, every Hollow in this forest was a target.
And once Mirot finished replenishing itself, that included Ace Wayne’s entire group.
Their Reiatsu would fuel its evolution.
“Hss…” Sure enough, the newly evolved Gillian’s first priority was to replenish what it had spent.
The grotesque mouth on that clown Hollow Mask opened wide.
The entire forest seemed to lurch toward a bottomless void.
Soul Absorption, a technique Menos Grande begin to master, capable of pulling Beast Hollows, Common Hollows, and Elite Hollows within dozens of meters directly into their mouths.
As Reiatsu climbs and rank advances, the pull grows stronger, until it can consume even top-tier High-level Hollows.
The moment Soul Absorption activated, the lower-ranked Hollows within range were dragged off their feet and into Mirot’s maw.
That massive mouth snapped shut on them.
Dozens of Beast Hollows and low-level Hollows were crushed and swallowed whole.
Then a fresh wail split the air, and a dark-red glow began building at the front of Mirot’s mouth.
“Its Reiatsu is rising!” Inora felt the danger and called out immediately.
“Untargeted Cero!
Gis!
Parik, break away, now.
Everyone get clear!” Ace Wayne read the direction of the blast in an instant and shot off in the opposite direction.
Hmmm…
BOOM!
The air compression hit first, a deep, concussive thud, then the explosion followed.
The entire forest shook.
Where the Cero landed, the ground had been hollowed into a massive crater.
The destructive power needed no commentary.
Ace Wayne looked up.
Parik and Gis had both cleared it.
The Cero hadn’t swept toward the trap area, so his group should have come through unharmed.
But that violent surge of Reiatsu had sent a jolt of pure terror through every Hollow present.
He could only hope nobody ran.
“Jekain, release your Reiatsu and start luring it.
Inora, run.
Run toward the trap.
It can’t fire another Cero for a short while.
We have to draw it in before it gets the chance!” Even as he spoke, Ace Wayne let his own Reiatsu off the leash.
Beside him, Jekain and Inora both moved, one flooded the air around him with Reiatsu, the other bolted toward the trap.
“ROAAAR!” Two surges of Reiatsu hit Mirot at once.
One of them carried a familiar signature, and something in the Gillian’s hollow instincts ignited into rage.
Mirot turned and came straight at Ace Wayne and Jekain.
Its strides were slow.
But each one shook the earth beneath their feet, and the force behind it needed no translation.
“It’s coming.” Jekain’s eyes sharpened.
“Good.
Keep your distance.
Lead it toward the trap.” Ace Wayne turned and ran.
Mirot felt their Reiatsu moving and followed without pause, each thunderous step closing the gap.
The pressure of that Reiatsu, the howling that rattled through their chests, it bore down on them without stopping.
Neither Ace Wayne nor Jekain dared slow down for even a moment.
Changing direction was out of the question.
You didn’t turn your back on something like that.
If they faltered now, Mirot would level half the forest.
Before long, Ace Wayne spotted Inora and Fislina positioned beneath a large tree ahead, watching the thing behind him with rigid vigilance.
And just beyond them, the trap.
“Push it over there!” He surged forward.
BOOM!
With a tremendous crash, the mindless Gillian stepped directly into the pit.
Its entire body lurched forward.
It hit the ground hard, and the impact shuddered through the earth in every direction.
“We got it!” Jekain’s voice cracked with excitement.
“Fislina!
Now!” Ace Wayne felt nothing of the kind.
His order came out immediately.
Thwap!
Thwap!
Two clumps of white sticky webbing shot out and struck the eye area of Mirot’s Hollow Mask dead on.
His vision was gone in an instant.
“Sharpened logs!
Both legs!” Whooooosh!
The stakes came hurtling down with a howl of wind, hurled from the trees by two powerfully built Hollows.
Both drove home with wet, solid thuds.
Dark-red blood sprayed in all directions.
“Well done!” It was their first time fighting together, but these Hollows with Sentience hadn’t let him down.
In a matter of seconds they had stripped this Gillian of its vision and its mobility.
“Jekain.
Prepare to attack.
Shatter its Hollow Mask.” “Got it!” Jekain began building his Reiatsu, gathering himself for a killing blow.
“UWAAAAAAH!” Pain, perhaps, or just raw instinct, Mirot let out a thunderous roar.
The dark-red glow flared before its mouth again.
“Ace Wayne!
Watch out for the Cero!” Inora’s shout cut across the noise.
The moment she called it, Ace Wayne felt it too, a massive Reiatsu surge that clamped around his chest.
He roared outward without hesitation.
“Everyone, defend and evade!” Hmmm!
The dark-red Cero compressed the surrounding air and blew it apart.
Mirot was pinned to the ground.
Even lifting its head, the blast radius at that angle was enough to swallow itself whole.
Without consciousness, it had no instinct left to dodge its own attack.
The Cero detonated right in front of its own body.
The shockwave drove blood seeping through its own flesh.
The enormous clown Hollow Mask began to crack.
Even wounded by itself, the attack was lethal.
Because the epicenter of that explosion was exactly where Ace Wayne’s group was standing.
The Reiatsu shockwave swept the entire area in an instant, throwing up a sky full of dust and debris.
“Shadow Step!” The moment the Cero came down, Ace Wayne slammed his Reiatsu to its absolute limit and flashed back a hundred meters.
It wasn’t enough.
The shockwave from the explosion caught him before he could fire a second Shadow Step.
The blast threw him off his feet entirely.
A long moment passed.
The smoke and dust thinned and settled.
Ace Wayne slowly picked himself up.
He turned to look at where the explosion had been.
What had been a stretch of forest, the trap, the trees, all of it, was now a barren wasteland.
A massive crater sat at its center.
Of the Hollows who had fought beside him, only eight were still visible.
He released his Reiatsu and felt outward.
Fourteen Hollows total.
Six were simply gone, not even their remains were left on the field.
Three more had Reiatsu so faint it barely registered; even if they could be saved, recovery would take a very long time.
The rest had each taken some degree of injury.
“Ace Wayne!
Are you all right!” A relatively steady voice reached him.
Jekain.
He had used his own ability to escape the blast, though the shockwave had still left its mark.
“Yeah.
Still alive.” Ace Wayne pushed himself to his feet and looked around.
Parik and Gis had been airborne, so they had only caught the shockwave.
Not too badly hurt.
Fislina was down to two of her eight spider legs.
If she hadn’t spun a layer of webbing around herself at the last second, she would have been obliterated in that Cero entirely.
Lefas was in rough shape.
One arm severed, his tail blasted apart, he lay in a pool of blood dragging in heavy, ragged breaths.
Inora was worse.
Every tentacle had been severed.
Her Reiatsu was pitifully faint.
She had nothing left to fight with.
“Only the four of us can still move.” Jekain’s voice was flat and grim.
The losses were severe, but he still looked to Ace Wayne for the call, because that was what they had left.
“What do we do?” “Cough, cough.” Ace Wayne stood and drove his Reiatsu back to its absolute ceiling.
“We can’t let it fire again.
All-out attack, take it down before it can gather another Cero!” No more hesitation.
He ordered the remaining three Hollows forward, then he and Jekain charged Mirot together.
Overhead, Parik and Gis folded into dives.
“UWAAAAAAH!” Mirot felt the surge of their Reiatsu and roared again, its own Reiatsu spiking hard.
It was building another Cero.
But the previous attack had burned through a significant amount.
The glow at its mouth gathered agonizingly slow.
“Shattering Slash!” “Mountain Crusher!” “Steel Feather Blade!” “Sky Breaker Bullet!” Four surges of Reiatsu crashed into Mirot at once.
The impacts detonated one after another, rolling a fresh wall of dust and debris across the ruined ground.
This was the last strike.
No reserves.
No fallback.
Win, and they live.
Lose, and they’re gone.
➤ Next: A Pyrrhic Victory, Hearts Turned