Muro De Regla diminishes gradually, with the golden gaze above, flickering between the colours of golden yellow to the unsightly crimson red. The ground beneath quakes, the cogs began to spin, the chains began turn, all this was done in unison.
Immediately, Harribel suggested, "We must jump in now!"
The group springs onto the platform while others follow suit.
Hollow screams elevated dramatically, destruction intensified to new extremes, Reiatsu signatures spread like wild fire. Truly a sight to behold.
Darwin sensed an impending doom looming upon the sky, the red started to synchronise with the environment below.
'No! NOOO—'
His mind jumbled with mixed chaotic thoughts, continuously ravaging his brain without rest. His eyes began to reflect the colour above, a colour so mesmerising and alluding. He grappled his head tightly, puncturing his nails into his skin. His face contorts, he lashes his head upon Muro De Regla shaking up his thoughts. Then he screams a terrifying battlecry sending sound waves across the platform.
Everyone on the platform who came unprepared experienced the same. Some fell into illusions, punching air, thrusting at walls to no avail.
Rose, Appachi, Sung-sun, Darwin, the four had succumb to the rules of the Third Stratos.
Harribel tries her best to keep them sane, she kicks, she smacks, she chokes. All but in vain, she was at her limit.
"Come back to your senses!"
However, just before they fell into a frenzy, a glass broke within their proximity, Darwin's clouded red vision slowly subsided to its natural state, regaining his consciousness.
'How dangerous!' Darwin thought, panting from the horrific state he overcame.
"Are you guys alright?" Worried, Figgs asked the group who was inflicted by the crimson red light.
Sensing his consciousness being freed from anguish. Darwin thanked the person of interest. "Yes. I am are okay thanks to you."
Silently pondering to himself about the entire situation, with an epiphany, he thought.
'Wait… How does Figgs have the consciousness to break the Resting Glass in the first place?'
Putting that thought aside, he observed the rest of his group.
Harribel was the most serene and calm out of the entire group.
'Perhaps she had developed a level of resistance to the crimson lights? This could be an answer as to the previous question...'
"I was originally not affected." Harribel commented.
"I guess we were in the same boat," Sung-sun mentioned slightly drained with the experience.
"My mind wanted me to devour everything at sight," Rose anxiously said.
Appacci on the other hand was right next to Harribel guarding her the entire time while in that state.
"Huh?!" Shocked, her thoughts stablised.
Without a moment of rest, signatures of disturbing amounts of Reishi gathering right behind them.
It was at a moment when they were the most vulnerable.
Cold and unforgiving as steel, the Commander said. "Fire!"
Multiple cero beams targeted their group, specifically Harribel as the main target.
"Sonído." With instantaneous movements, she dodges all the hurtling projectiles with ease.
The rest defended from the onslaught while Darwin's attention was at Harribel the entire step of the way.
'She's fast!'
Releasing her Reiatsu to its extremity, a power burst of aura enveloped the entire platform causing many to look at her direction.
'Such pressure! So this is a Vasto Lorde's true power!'
Harribel charges up an incalculable amount of Reishi upon the tip of her finger. Then aiming at the army with murderous intent, she said.
"Cero."
A colossal yellow beam erupted forward, slicing through the air with an unnerving, bone-chilling force.
The army guarded themselves, but as the Commander looked over his shoulder, he felt a sense of dread like non other.
Everyone behind him vaporised into thin air, not even a speck of ash left.
The Commander and his right hand man knelt down flabbergasted, knowing that they could not leave unscathed without raising their white flag.
"I surrender!" Pained from inner agony, Commander Adjucha shakingly declared.
"Fine... Go to the corner and wait till this madness is over." A soft sigh escaped from her lips.
"Thank yo—" Before they could finished his sentence, a cero beam struck their two heads. Their lifeless bodies fell in quick succession.
Figgs stood idly by, right next to Darwin's group with his merciless steel face. His eyes gaze upon the dead snickering at their weakness.
He asserted, "You shouldn't leave those who can come back to bite you in the neck."
Harribel grips Figg's arm in the heat of the moment. "Why did you do that? They surrendered."
With maniacal laughter, Figgs waved his arm, shaking off her grip and explained. "I said you shouldn't leave losers alive just so that they come back to bite you in the rear."
'That is true.' Darwin mused over thinking Figgs was correct in both rational and logical thinking. But cynical, he still didn't fully trust Figgs.
"Excuse me!" Appacci came up to Figgs stomping her hooves.
Staring directly at Figgs, she stated "How rude of you to talk back to her in that manner!"
"Oh? I didn't know you had dead weight in your group."
"What did you just say?!"
Harribel stopped Appachi from being provoked any further.
Silent, she pondered on what Figgs had said. Then swiftly turning to Darwin's side, she asked.
"Darwin. What would you have done in Figgs place?" Eyebrows lowered, her expression stiff, Harribel awaited for his answer.
It wasn't a question he needed to answer, but it was something she would repeatedly ask if left unanswered.
"I believe im on Figgs' side. But, I sometimes let go those I deem not significant." He replied., with indifference amidst his expression.
Relieved, her tensed expression fades, naturalising back to her normal and stoic demeanour.
Darwin noticed a subtle twitch in Figgs' expression.
'Why did Figgs react to that?'
"Well alright," Scratching his head in embarrassment, Figgs came to a consensus that he would not do such thing again.
On the opposite end of the bloodied battlefield...
Other Hollows flock towards the other side of the platfrom, staying far away from Darwin and his group as much as possible.
But, a dominant Reiatsu had exploded, pausing them in their steps.
"Puny insects!"
A hulking physique, purple in colour, muscular in size, stomped in front of the Hollows, crushing them underfoot.
He radiated his illuminating diamond knuckles and delivered consecutive swift blows upon those who tried to flee from him. He also aggravates every Hollow around him with an abnoxiously loud and ear-splitting battle cry.
"I am Gorr the Dominator. Remember my name, insignificant beings." He said while continuing his onslaught of thunderous punches at nearby Hollows. Weak Hollows disintegrate with a single strike from his fist, an unnerving scene for sore eyes.
Detecting a cero blast towards his line of direction. He back hands the beam, offsetting it into two different parts, brushing across his thick skin.
With a massive crater below him, he leaps and delivers an impactful, double handed axe smash on the Low Class Adjuchas's head squashing its entire body into bloodied paste.
Observing for any contenders, he eyed for a group of Hollows in the distant.
The ground trembles beneath his stride, the atmosphere dispersed with the release of his palpable Reiatsu. Nearby Hollows fall flat on the ground feeling the immense force pressing down against them, giving no permissions to free themselves.
'What domineering and murderous Reiatsu I am sensing! The exact opposite of Harribel's!'
Darwin felt repulsed from the figure charging at them. He could tell that he wasn't but ordinary. He had never seen such a terrifying physique before, it stirred a fiery flame inside Darwin's chest.
Scanning more of the incoming threat. He could see the muscles fibres each contained a portion of his Reishi, supplying the each cell with massive amounts of Reishi dosage. This amplifies the recovery rate of muscle cells without rest while giving him enough energy to channel and produce explosive punches. This being intuitively does this without noticing it at all.
'How shocking...'
The others noticed his prescence as well, bracing themselves against a powerful entity with malignant purpose.
But before any of them took action. Darwin rushed in towards Gorr's direction in hopes to have a bout with him.