Timeskip
A while had passed since the little skirmish between Barragan's scout and Harribel and Gabriel.
Harribel had been heavily damaged during the fight, meaning she had been knocked out cold for a long time... Half of her mask had almost been fully destroyed.
Circucci had been quite harsh in her fighting style.
Luckily, Gabriel was able to heal her mask before anything irreversible happened.
Even if Gabriel had practically fed Harribel 90% of Circucci's soul, the remaining 10% was left for him to study.
He would twist and stretch her soul in order to find out how it ticked—how she had become what she was and if he could use that power for himself.
Gabriel was not really that pure-hearted. Sure, there was some good in him, but he was still a Hollow.
He had only become this strong after devouring countless souls. He had still used his idle transfiguration to twist Gillian souls, making them more portable and easier to eat.
Did he mention that while in ball form, the Gillian were still alive and were basically in endless suffering? He could hear their screams, yet he chose to do nothing about it.
He had become numb to it all.
And yet, somehow, this woman was stirring things in him that he thought he couldn't feel.
Back to Harribel.
She could be seen lying still on a rather comfortable bed... made out of the soul of a Gillian.
Its ability to speak, communicate, think, sense of self, and emotion—all of it was stripped from it.
Its sole purpose now was to make sure she had a comfortable resting place.
And then, movement.
Harribel stirred.
A sharp inhale filled her lungs as golden eyes fluttered open. She felt it instantly—the sensation of warmth coursing through her body, a stark contrast to the icy numbness she had felt before losing consciousness.
Her fingers curled into the soft grains of sand beneath her, gripping tightly as awareness slowly returned.
"Harribel!"
A voice, thick with relief and a hint of frustration, reached her ears. She turned her head slightly, vision adjusting as she saw Mila Rose kneeling beside her, claws clenched tightly at her sides. Despite the usual gruffness in her tone, there was no hiding the way her eyes glistened.
The lion was happy their master was alive.
"You finally woke up," Sun-Sun remarked coolly. She looked very happy about that, yet she put on a rather calm attitude as she observed their leader. "You were out for an entire week."
A week?
She had been knocked out cold for a week.
She slowly sat up, a frown forming on her lips. Her body felt... whole. She felt like she had gotten even stronger than she was before.
She reached up her hand, her fingers trailing along her now fully repaired mask.
There was no sign that it had ever been broken.
Matter of fact, it felt even stronger than before.
Sun-Sun, naturally being the most perceptive of the group—which wasn't hard considering she was competing with two people who lacked brain cells—
(Hm, it seemed like they could sense her thoughts. She swore she saw skulls in Mila Rose's and Apacci's eyes.)
Anyway, she noticed the way Harribel grabbed her mask.
"Your mask was fractured during the battle," she explained. "It weakened you severely. Gabriel... stabilized your soul."
That name.
Harribel blinked, the last memories before her unconsciousness flashing through her mind. Golden eyes, burning with fury. Flames that danced like living creatures. A touch that healed instead of destroyed.
Harribel's figure now resembled a human more than a Hollow. She still had the standard Vasto Lorde traits, even her Hollow mask was there, yet some of her armor seemed to have taken on a more human-like shape.
There were now openings in her armor, revealing more human-like features—her stomach now partially exposed, revealing the chocolate skin beneath the white plating.
Well, enough about how she had evolved to look like this.
"He's been feeding you Hollows," Sun-Sun continued, as if sensing the question forming in Harribel's mind. "To speed up your recovery."
Mila Rose exhaled sharply, crossing her arms/claws/paws?? in clear reluctance before muttering, "I guess he helped."
This admission seemed to have hurt her, even in her soul. Yes, she sounded ungrateful to the person who had made it impossible for her to regress into a Gillian and had given her the potential to achieve Vasto Lorde... Yes, she knew that.
Yet, the idea of that guy being around Harribel annoyed her quite a bit.
Something about him being near her master did not sit well with her.
At this point, it seemed like she was hating for the love of the game.
Harribel's gaze drifted toward the distance, where the faintest flickers of flame could be seen dancing on the dark horizon.
The grind continued for Gabriel.
BZZZT—BOOM!
That was too slow... again.
BZZZT—BOOM!
He needed more speed.
BZZZT—BOOM!
As anyone with a brain could tell... Gabriel was spamming the ever-living shit out of Sonído.
He wanted more strength.
Fusing the souls of countless Hollows... forcefully evolving a couple of Gillian into Adjuchas... then breaking the masks of those Adjuchas, stabilizing their souls, and then boxing with them for hours on end.
His understanding of their souls was lacking, which meant all the Hollow-Shinigami hybrids he had created were in pain, in endless agony—still mindless.
That didn't matter to him, though. All that mattered was the fact that they were big and strong.
He was using Dordoni and Circucci as examples, practically making an army of those creatures who only bent to his will.
As the merciful king he was... he ended their suffering.
The suffering that he caused.
Yeah, he wasn't going to try and make himself feel better with that bullshit excuse. He wanted strength, and they were collateral damage he was willing to make.
Their suffering meant nothing to him.
He had grown numb to it.
Anything to protect her.
His eyes turn a deep shade of red...
His negative thoughts…..
A/N....hum, I don't think that what his father meant by protect his love ones....oh well.