Bleach: Hollow Reaper

12: Sovereign Scripture

Blue light fills the Forest of Menos. Hollows, both newborn and experienced veterans of the dark underground, flee in terror. A flying, grey, bat-like hollow is suddenly smacked out of the stale air by a large white hand. The flying hollow slams into a nearby crystal tree and falls to the stone below, landing hard. It shudders as it tries desperately to get to its feet and flee from the unknown terror. Try as it might, the moment it lays its eyes on the massive monster hunting it, it freezes in absolute, abject horror.

The creature, obviously a Gillian, is also clearly not. Even intelligent Gillians don't look like this creature. Its body is still wrapped in the familiar black cloak and its massive hands show no massive change. No, its the Gillian's head that shows the most immediate difference. An almost ethereal, blue glow lights the Gillian's head, revealing the strange mask covering its face. Almost jackal-like, its large smile connects from side to side, covering the lower half of its mask. It possesses the same, elongated nose as most Gillian, however the most alarming difference with the mask is the presence of what appears to be another mask covering the first. Covering the upper half of the Gillian's face, is a four pronged mask with two protrusions on either side. The second mask itself also appears to contain four eye holes. Two eye holes show the familiar, beady eyes of the Gillian, while from the holes above the Gillian's eyes, there are a pair of bright, ghostly blue eyes.

The ghostly Gillian stares down at the bat hollow with all four eyes. The bat hollow looks up, desperate to get away but unable to move. The hollow's eyes widen when it sees the Gillian's hand rise above its own head before quickly dropping. The Gillian's head drops first while its body follows soon after. The bat hollow stares at the scene with utter bewilderment until a strange sensation overcomes the flying creature.

For a moment, it feels like its mind is being pulled away. Its vision grows dark and thoughts fade until nothing remains. Its body changes slightly, gaining the same four pronged, four eyed upper mask the now dead Gillian once possessed. A flame-like, ethereal mane flows from the back of its new mask down to its long tail. At the tip of its tail, the blue mane becomes a short, bright flame.

The bat hollow gazes around with all four, light blue eyes, staring towards the ceiling where a small hole is visible, leading to the outside world. It flaps its wings and lifts off from the stone ground, flying straight towards the hole.

                                   ~~~~~

The sands of Hueco Mundo are practically endless, filled with nightmarish creatures. Sometimes, quite literally. An Adjucha flees in terror as something unseen hunts the dark green Hollow. It rushes, out of breath and panicked beyond all hopes of rational thought. It soon comes across a large rock, high enough, it rather foolishly believes, to keep it safe from its unseen hunter.

It leaps, ascending to the top of the large stone with a single attempt. The Hollow turns around to face the way it came, spotting brown spines poking out from beneath the white sands before vanishing beneath the shifting ground. The Adjucha lets out a long, loud sigh of relief. It chuckles, having survived the horrid experience that cost the lives of the rest of its group of temporary companions.

It turns around again, letting the adrenaline fuelling its spiritual body go. Its eyes half closed, barely recognising what happens next. Massive jaws fill its peripheral vision and the Hollow can barely let out a sound as its assailant snaps its jaws shut around the Adjucha's entire body, dragging it down into the sand below.

The sand shifts, rotates and splashes before finally stopping. Motionless, the Adjucha never rises from the sand. In its place, the brown scales resurface, followed by light brown scales attached to a cream-coloured body. The body is muscular and as long as a Gillian is tall while its four, stout legs leave heavy imprints in the sand. Its large tail sways behind it, sending back waves of sand with every movement. The upper half of its massive head is covered in a white mask with green, scale-like markings. Lastly, its reptilian eyes shine with a dangerous, golden-orange hue.