Gabriel looked at himself. He looked pretty different than he did usually. His newly evolved form seemed to radiate a lot of power.
His Hollow mask had shifted, now resembling a regal crown of bone, while his once feral appearance now appeared more human.
His sharp claws flexed, his now-muscular yet streamlined body adapting to his ascension.
Apacci, who had been staring at him in shock, was the first to break the silence.
"How the fuck did you just become a Vasto Lorde?!" she practically shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You—You can't just—What?!"
How the fuck did he just ascend into Vasto Lorde status so fucking quickly? She refused to believe that it was just as simple as him really wanting it.
If it was, then that was just pure bullshit.
It's not like a Hollow could just say, "I wanna, I wanna become a Vasto Lorde, I wanna, I wanna..." and just become one.
So what kind of bullshit was this?
Gabriel looked her in the eyes before saying, "I wanted to become a Vasto Lorde."
Apacci's eye twitched violently. "You... wanted to?"
"Yeah." He shrugged, flexing his fingers as if testing his new strength. "I figured if I needed to be a Vasto Lorde to kick Barragan's ass, I'd just become one."
The room went deathly silent for a second. Then—
"Oh, you son of a—" Apacci lunged at him, fury written all over her face.
What kind of busted potential was this? She felt like a broken clock, repeating the same thing in her mind again and again.
Gabriel's potential made zero sense.
Mila Rose held the deer back—somehow. He wondered how she could hold her lion paw in such a way.
"Let me go, dammit!" Apacci struggled, arms, hooves... flailing as she tried to get free. "Since when the hell was it that easy?! Do you know how rare it is to become a Vasto Lorde?! We've been stuck as Adjuchas for who knows how long, and you just decide you wanna evolve, AND IT HAPPENS?!"
Gabriel smirked. "Skill issue."
Apacci lost it.
"You little—! I swear to god—" She thrashed harder in Mila Rose's grip, her rage nearly breaking the taller woman's hold on her.
Sun-Sun, who had been watching the whole exchange with her usual composed demeanor, let out a soft chuckle. "Perhaps you simply haven't been trying hard enough, Apacci."
...
Wow, damn. Her Reiatsu was getting pretty high. Maybe she was kinda pissed...
Like, just a bit.
It was no problem, though, considering Gabriel himself knew she stood no chance against him.
For crying out loud, she had been out here grinding and trying to get stronger for hundreds of years, yet this Hollow, who was barely six months old, had managed to become a Vasto Lorde just like that.
That was some bullshit.
Gabriel yawned a bit.
His power felt so intoxicating, yet he felt like he could grow so much more.
His Reiatsu flared even more, the sheer pressure coming off of him intense.
He felt high off this power boost.
He would feel a hand on his shoulder... This would stop him.
"That's enough," Harribel's calm voice could be heard saying.
Shark mommy said stop, and thus he stopped.
Though he was a bit stunned, she would then point at three female Hollows who were now on their knees.
"Your violent burst of Reiatsu is crushing them."
...
...
"Oh..."
Being so caught up in his own power, he hadn't noticed that the three girls were, well, being crushed under the might of his superior Reiatsu.
They looked shaken, as if they had seen death in the face.
"I apologize for my outburst," he said, yet the girls said nothing. They remained frozen as if their souls had been sucked out of their bodies.
As he lightly placed his hand on Apacci's head, she snapped back to reality.
"The hell do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, you're awake," he said, feeling relieved.
"Of course I am," she shot back.
Her fiery personality seemed to awaken Mila Rose and Sun-Sun as well.
Mila Rose still seemed a bit shaken as she looked at him as if expecting him to eat her now that he was stronger than Harribel.
It was as if they knew he had gotten stronger than her—the suffocating feeling of his Reiatsu had given them that idea.
"Stop looking at me as if I am going to eat you," Gabriel said, looking at Mila Rose.
"Not my fault you look like a predator," were the words from the lion's mouth.
"Says the lion," Gabriel retorted.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Mila Rose exclaimed, wearing a confused expression as if she didn't know why her being a lion had anything to do with this.
Wow... anyway, this was some very helpful chat.
...
...
"Dragon-san won't eat us. After all, Dragon-san is a love-struck puppy. He would never dare lower his chances. Am I not right, Gabriel-kun~?"
He didn't even need to look to know who was speaking. There was only one person in this group who would speak like this.
And it was snake lady.
Sun-Sun.
A/N....Yay, Vasto Lorde