CRASH.
The wall behind the pillar disintegrated. The stone roof groaned, and a shockwave of raw, absolute authority slammed into the room. The lesser Oni were driven into the floor, their bodies pinned by a weight that defied gravity. Even the Generals stumbled, their knees buckling under the sudden, suffocating pressure.
"What is this?" the Blue boss hissed, its eyes widening. "There was no other soul reported in this gate!"
"Insulting!" The Red boss roared, his massive form trembling with rage. "To interrupt in the middle of our entertainment! General! Get rid of the intruder!"
The Red General holding Minoru dropped him like trash and blurred forward as a mountain of muscle charging through the settling dust toward the silhouette in the breach.
The figure didn't flinch as a cold, hollow voice cut through the cavern, "Impudent. Who gave you permission to approach me, trash?"
THWIP.
A ball of red light screeched through the air, vibrating with a high-pitched, lethal frequency that obliterated him. Where the General's head had been, there was now only a shower of mist as the massive body collapsed, sliding lifelessly onto the ground.
A heavy silence fell over the chamber. Minoru, coughing blood, his arm and leg shattered, squinted through the settling dust. 'Reinforcements? An S-Ranker from the Association?'
As the dust cleared, the figure came into view. He was pale, dressed in a sleek white outfit that seemed to defy the filth of the dungeon. A fragment of a bone-white mask sat perched on his head like a crown. He stood with one arm outstretched, wisps of crackling red static dancing around his fist, the remnants of the Bala that had executed the General.
The man turned his head around with his emerald eyes scanning the battered raid team.
"Oh," the stranger muttered, his voice devoid of any warmth. "So those are the people I felt."
He shifted his gaze back to the bosses on the altar. His eyes narrowed, and his lip curled in a display of profound revulsion.
"How utterly disgusting."
The Blue General, fueled by a mixture of demonic instinct and rage, didn't hesitate. Even missing an arm, it blurred across the chamber as a streak of blue malice aimed directly at the stranger's back.
"Look out!" Minoru choked out the warning.
BOOM.
The impact created a shockwave that blew the remaining dust from the ceiling. When the haze finally settled, the raid team gasped in unison. Ulquiorra hadn't turned around. He had simply raised his left hand, palm open, catching the General's massive fist with the casual grace of someone swatting a fly. The stone floor beneath them had cratered into a spiderweb of deep fissures, yet Ulquiorra hadn't even taken his right hand out of his pocket.
"You possess no concept of your own insignificance," Ulquiorra murmured as they all heard the coldness of his tone.
Without a trace of effort, he pivoted and his wrist flicked like a whip. The General was launched across the cavern, hurtling toward the altar like a cannonball. A High Oni standing guard swiped a massive claw, smacking the General aside mid-air with a dismissive grunt.
"Such insolence," the High Oni hissed, his eyes burning pure anger. The lesser demons in the room, witnessing the effortless display of power, cowered into the shadows, shivering.
Ulquiorra ignored the creature entirely. He turned his back on the altar and drifted toward Minoru. He looked down at the bloodied, broken leader of the raid team with detached curiosity.
"You are the leader of this team?"
Minoru stared up at the pale, hollow-eyed man, his brain struggling to process the surreal encounter. "Y-yes... I am."
"What country am I in? Korea or Japan?"
Minoru blinked, his jaw slack. "What?"
Ulquiorra's expression didn't shift by a millimeter as he asked again, "The location. Answer me."
"Japan," Minoru stammered out with his pulse racing.
Ulquiorra sighed, a soft, dry sound. He moved away toward the center of the room, his mind racing. 'Well, that's unexpected.'
He stopped mid-stride, his head snapping toward the wall on the left. The stone began to groan, vibrating as if something immense were pushing against the other side. The rock face didn't just crack; it began to glow with a violent, searing crimson light.
BOOM!
A beam of red energy tore through the masonry, obliterating the wall in a wash of light. Amidst the swirling debris and smoke, a figure sauntered through the wreckage, laughing with a reckless edge.
"Knock, knock! I hope I'm not interrupting anything unimportant here."
The room fell silent as the dust cleared again. Standing there was another man with vibrant blue hair and a predatory, feral grin. A jagged mask fragment hung off his jawline like a row of bone-white teeth, and his eyes, the eyes of a beast that scanned the room with dangerous hunger.
Grimmjow's gaze swept over the cowering Oni, the hulking Generals, and the broken raid team before finally landing on the pale man in the center. He let out a sharp laugh.
"How's it going, brother?"
Ulquiorra didn't look back at him as he looked at the bosses once more, though the corner of his lip curled into a subtle, almost imperceptible smile. He shrugged, his posture remaining perfectly rigid.
"You know. The usual."
Grimmjow scanned the altar with a dismissive flick of his eyes. "Two bosses? I thought there was usually just one."
Ulquiorra with his arms still in his pockets and his expression shifting in boredom once more replied, "I am just as surprised as you are."
The Blue Boss slammed a massive fist onto the altar, the stone cracking under the weight. "Insolence beyond measure! You walk into your graves and dare to speak of boredom? You are surrounded; there is nowhere to escape!"
The Red Boss leaned forward, his mouth stretching into an unnatural grin. "Your false confidence is a pathetic mask, little insects. You think your meager strength compares to the masters of this gate? Your resistance is as futile as a drop of water in a volcano."
The two bosses erupted into a maddening, booming laughter that shook the foundation of the dungeon. The raid team huddled in the debris, trembling in total despair, watching as the Red Boss began to chant in beast language, a swirling sphere of crimson flames, the size of a car, ignited above his head. Simultaneously, the Blue Boss chanted, and arcs of violet lightning snapped into existence, coiling around his massive horns like snakes.
With a unified roar, they unleashed their fury. The fireball and the lightning bolt screamed toward the brothers below, carving trenches into the stone floor.
Minoru's jaw dropped, "Those spells... they're high-level mana bombardment! Move!"
But neither brother moved or even payed him any attention. Not until the attacks were inches from their faces.
Ulquiorra lazily backhanded the lightning bolt, dissipating the high-voltage energy with a flick of his wrist as if he were batting away an inconvenience. Beside him, Grimmjow didn't even look at him as he simply wound up and punched the massive fireball. It detonated into a harmless shower of sparks against his knuckles.
"Who the hell are these two?" Minoru whispered with a trembling voice. His team watched in stunned silence, their minds failing to comprehend how two beings could casually swat aside spells that can vaporize entire platoons of A-Rank tanks at the very least.
Ulquiorra's voice was chillingly calm, "It is futile to use your powers against us. Your magic spells lack the density to even graze our skin."
Grimmjow wiped a speck of ash from his jacket while smirking at the bosses. "Exactly. If you want to get rid of us and crack open our bones to suck the marrow, you're going to have to get your fat asses off that altar and do it yourselves."
The taunt hit like a physical blow as the bosses' faces contorted with pure, unadulterated rage. They turned to their remaining Generals and High Oni, barking in a frenzy of spittle and fury. "What the hell are you looking at my face for?! Kill them! Kill all of these humans!"
The Oni horde surged forward on command. Minoru and his surviving hunters tried to rise, clutching their weapons with broken fingers, but as the Generals and High Oni closed in, the sheer, crushing weight of the monsters' aura forced them back to their knees. Fear, cold and paralyzing, drained the last of their strength.
Ulquiorra glanced at Grimmjow. "Take care of the rest of them, would you, brother? I have a meeting with those two."
Grimmjow's eyes widened at the order, "What?! How come you get the bosses and I'm stuck with the small fry?"
"Oh, that's easy," Ulquiorra replied, already beginning to drift toward the altar. "I'm the eldest."
Grimmjow lunged, a frustrated kick aimed at Ulquiorra's head, but the pale Espada used Sonido to vanish, leaving Grimmjow's foot to connect squarely with a Red General that was speeding at them. The impact sent the massive demon flying into the wall, crushing the stone.
Ulquiorra leaped toward the altar as three High Oni punched the space he'd occupied, turning the ground into a crater.
Grimmjow landed in the center of the room, now surrounded by the five High Oni's, the remaining Generals, and over a hundred lesser monsters. He grinned as he pointed his palm directly at the center of the horde, a condensed, violent crimson light gathering in his grip.
"Well then," Grimmjow growled, the energy swirling into a lethal point. "Let's clean up here, shall we?"
"Cero."