Chapter 65: Adjuchas
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Chapter 65: Adjuchas
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"Voices," He muttered, dragging a hand down the side of his face, smearing blood and grime across his cheek, "Then you. Somehow… you're even more annoying. You're a fucking miracle!"
The Adjuchas twitched, muscles bulging under its white carapace. Akashi's eyes, their sclera now dark as pitch, did not waver.
"It really hurt, you know," He continued, cracking his neck with a slow tilt of the head, "Darkness wasn't like this. It used to be quiet. Peaceful. Now it's just… endless whispers."
That was the difference. He was starting to understand it. The darkness inside him; Kurayami; was never meant to be solely despair.
It had voices, yes, but they were his own, his thoughts. Darkness wasn't inherently pain.
That was only the burden he'd layered on top. Kurayami was meant to be the void; a quiet place, not a prison of screams.
No, maybe Kurayami is merely a concept of Darkness, all things that constitute Darkness are Kurayami, but why had he only delved into Negativity?
Hueco Mundo was the perfect place to understand that. And this Adjuchas, screeching and twitching before him, would be the first offering in that revelation.
He vanished with a Shunpo.
The Adjuchas screeched in fury as Akashi reappeared just beside its blind spot.
A dark lance was already formed in his hand; Kurayami's tip gleamed with corruption as it drove into the Hollow's flank.
But the beast twisted with unnatural speed, the lance grazing rather than impaling, tearing off a massive portion of its armored shoulder instead.
The Adjuchas retaliated with a claw swipe that cracked the air. Akashi bent backward, the talons cutting through strands of his hair as he countered with a reverse slash.
Kurayami shifted mid-motion from lance to blade, arcing upward in a dark-slicked crescent that bit into the creature's forearm.
"Cero!" The Adjuchas roared, charging its mouth with a blood-red sphere of energy.
Akashi dropped to the sand, using Kurayami's shield form to block the blast.
The explosion sent him sliding back, sand flying in all directions. The shield hissed with steam, but held firm.
Akashi rose from the smoke like lightning and flung the shield forward; Kurayami shifted mid-flight, transforming into a chain-scythe.
He jerked the weapon back, and the scythe carved a ragged line across the Hollow's chest, cleaving open more of its white plating.
The Adjuchas growled and lunged, ignoring its wounds. Its speed was terrifying, claws rending the air with sonic shrieks.
Akashi Shunpo'd backward, the monster on his heels. He ducked one swipe, twisted around a second, then snapped Kurayami into spear form again.
The two collided in midair, spear driving deep into the beast's shoulder while a claw slashed across Akashi's ribs.
Blood burst from both of them.
Akashi didn't even flinch. He drove the spear deeper, twisting the shaft before disengaging with a mid-air spin and sending a black arrow flying into the Adjuchas' knee; Kurayami already reforming as a bow.
The creature buckled but didn't fall.
"High-Speed Regeneration," Akashi murmured under his breath, "Tch."
That's one of the most annoying things he'd had to deal with, how superior the Adjuchas' regeneration was, though Akashi's Kaido wasn't too far off.
And it never stopped, every injury he took would cause a green aura to surround the injuries, healing them, although slowly.
Akashi wasn't yet used to healing himself amidst battles.
He Shunpo'd again, right beneath the Hollow's jaw.
"Then I must cut you before you become anew."
His sword met flesh once more, drawing a horizontal gash across the beast's face.
The Adjuchas howled, staggering back. But its regeneration was fast. Flesh knit. Bone reformed.
Akashi pressed harder. His attacks became more manic, more fluid. He exchanged flesh for flesh; light slashes on his limbs for gouges in the Adjuchas' chest.
A Cero clipped his shoulder, vaporizing cloth and searing flesh, but he twisted in midair, black lightning erupting from his next strike.
Raikōhō infused Zanjutsu; it blew the Adjuchas off its feet, flinging it into a small dune.
Still, the Hollow didn't die. It rose, furious and panting, body riddled with wounds.
No wound came easy. Almost every single one was a trade, for the Adjuchas wouldn't just sit there and allow Akashi to slice him.
It bellowed, commanding the Gillians nearby to intervene, "Die!!! Shinigami!!!!!" It screeched. Like the sound of the immortal mosquito that always disturbs your sleep.
They began to move.
"Pfft hahahaha, It's funny that you want to end the battle so soon," He laughed gently, yet the Adjuchas could swear it was the most terrifying expression he'd seen yet.
And then, from Akashi's shadow, the horrors erupted.
Cthulhu emerged like a growing storm, its massive, malformed limbs writhing with ink-black slime, face unreadable beneath tentacles and glowing void-eyes.
Zena dove from above, shrieking with hellish fury, wings tearing apart Hollows.
Nuckelavee galloped across the sand, trampling mindless beasts beneath monstrous hooves.
Dullahan and Gluttony joined the fray, forming a ring of death and dread around Akashi and his target.
The Gillians paused. Even they, mindless as they were, hesitated before such pure malice.
The Adjuchas froze in place, his three limbs braced, "W-What is this…?! What are you?"
"I have noticed that hollows fear my horrors. Have you felt it too?" Akashi asked, walking toward him, "I'm curious how they seem in your senses... To me, they seem lovely."
The horrors tightened the circle as he spoke. There would be no running.
"You think I fear you, Shinigami?!!" Roaring, the Adjuchas lunged, unleashing another point-blank Cero.
'No, I was just curious,' He mused in his mind, even the Voices unable to stop Akashi's endless curiosity.
Had it not been for the circumstances, he'd have tea with the Adjuchas and find a way to dig any hint of knowledge from it.
Akashi caught the energy blast on Kurayami's shield, barely holding steady as he was hurled backward.
The sand behind him exploded in a crater.
Akashi rebounded with a flash step, his blade trailing darkness. He slashed, sliced, twisted, always giving up skin to take deeper chunks.
The Hollow's regeneration was no match for the sheer pace of his assault. Its leg gone, face cut, body bleeding ichor; Akashi pressed forward like a force of nature.
"You bastard!!" the Hollow spat, "You're a madman!! You think you can outlast me!!!?"
Akashi smiled, blood dripping from his lip. "Maybe not," He whispered. "But I win."
Behind the Adjuchas, something moved.
Cthulhu's arm, massive and thick with shadow, lashed forward like a whip. It slammed into the Adjuchas' back, dragging its claws deep into its spine.
The Hollow screamed in alarm, but it was too late, "Despicable Shinigami!!!"
Akashi was already there.
With one clean motion, his blade took its head.
The body twitched, then collapsed, head still screeching as it rolled in the sand.
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