Returning from his adventure in Naruki, Estarossa strides through La Soberanía, waving at a few Hollows before giving his briefing on what happened in the city. He didn’t detail anything specific about the Shinigami, he just explained how they should now be more on guard for future threats. Any questions thrown his way about how strong the Shinigami in Naruki are were ignored but the pestering wouldn’t stop so he held up his hand. It was missing his glove and the black nail polish wasn’t there either. Gasps were heard all around as they realized that Estarossa lost a limb while battling the Shinigami. That was all they needed to know how strong the Naruki Shinigami were. Estarossa failed to mention that he wasn’t fighting at his full potential but that detail doesn’t need to be told to them. This should be enough to keep the La Soberanía Hollows from causing trouble in Naruki.
With Estarossa’s debrief done it was La Soberanía’s time to tell him about anything going on in Hueco Mundo and they had some alarming news. Kuvello’s Reiatsu spiked twice, the first time was when he was dismissing his underlings and the second time was due to something more disturbing. Everyone explained it as eerie, scary, it didn’t feel like Kuvello anymore. To be exact it felt more like a blend of Kuvello and something else entirely, something they had never sensed before. Estarossa scanned the faces of all the Hollow before him, from Gillan to Arrancar and they all seemed unnerved remembering the Reiatsu they sensed. Estarossa stands up and begins walking off and everyone knew what that meant, he was going to deal with this situation himself. They tried warning him, trying to tell him his battle with Kuvello wouldn't go the way he expected it to, which in Estarossa’s mind he was expecting a stalemate between the two of them. An Arrancar who can endlessly replicate himself and another who can endlessly consume, they are a bad matchup for one another, bad in the sense that their fight just won't end.
Not wanting to hear anymore warnings he waves his hand to essentially tell the pleading Hollows to “buzz off”. The purple haired Arrancar walks quite a distance away from La Soberanía before encountering another Arrancar, one he has never met before, Antonio Todopoderoso.
”Can I help you with something, bud? I’m kind of on a mission right now.”
”O-on your mission to fight K-Kuvello? That w-won’t be h-happening… B-but y-you can help me with s-something, could you look at L-La Soberanía for me?”
Estarossa humors the Arrancar and turns around to see La Soberanía set ablaze, its structures heavily damaged.
”You Bastard! How-”
Power of The Right Eye
”I f-found a future where you had n-not arrived yet and destroyed it.”
Estarossa stood silently, he had no clue how to respond to what he just heard. This Arrancar “found” a future and made it reality? What sort of ability even is that? How far into the future can this guy see and does he already know Estarossa’s next move?
The power of the Soul King’s eye’s allows one to see all possible futures and manipulate them how they see fit, in a way it is the manipulation of Fate itself. However when separated this power is halved. With just the right eye Antonio can see all possible futures but can only manipulate his own actions within them. So in this instance Antonio saw a future where Estarossa was delayed in his return to La Soberanía, long enough for him to attack and destroy it. From there he just had to wait long enough for the future to become the present where his actions had already taken place, resulting in the instantaneous destruction of La Soberanía. Because of his dull nature Antonio cannot explain all of this to Estarossa leaving the purple haired Arrancar befuddled and confused as to what is really happening.
Waiting no longer, Estarossa rushed Antonio only for him to Sonido out of the way, taking to the air and firing a Cero at Estarossa. The ruler of La Soberanía does not need foresight in order to counter this attack, opting instead to use Belcebú to consume the Cero entirely. Antonio may have a god like power but he is dumb, very dumb. Belcebú not only eats anything thrown at Estarossa but it stores it away, and furthermore it analyzes it allowing Estarossa to understand the contents of what he just consumed. That Cero was laced with a strange Reiryoku, one that does not belong to Antonio. This means that “weird future stuff”, as Estarossa would put it, is not his ability. Antonio doesn’t make a move, he watches and so does Estarossa who smirks at him.
”You found a future where I hadn’t arrived home yet, which means you had to search for the right one. Right, I get it, I get it, a little bit.”
Antonio can only alter his future actions, not the actions of others, which makes this power completely reaction based. Estarossa leaps into the sky, ready to attack but Antonio quickly uses Sonido to return to the ground. Estarossa smirks at this and gives chase, over and over and over and over. The sound of static filled the air as the two constantly used Sonido to dance with one another and Antonio is finally starting to realize why his Boss sent him on this mission, it was educational. Valiosa knew Antonio relied heavily on that eye and the powers it gave but lacked actual combat experience on using it. When Antonio confronted Kuvello and threatened to “unmake” him he wholeheartedly believed that he could, but the reality remains that there is a good chance that Kuvello would have beaten him, even without the Left Arm enhancing him. It is also why Valiosa told Kuvello that he may be stronger than Antonio. The dull lad finally begins to realize the crushing reality of his inexperience, that while the future may be limitless there eventually comes a time when an event is fated to happen, something that is inescapable. With the look of concern growing greatly on Antonio’s face it is Estarossa who sums up this situation best.
”Checkmate.”
Their Sonido chase would only last so long before Antonio would run out of possible routes to take and against a warrior who is used to chasing down targets who like to run away he was going to run out of luck fast. Estarossa releases a Anarquía Cero point blank and this one is nothing like the one used in Naruki city. The explosion is massive, it gouges out the sand and annihilates everything in its path. For a brief moment he can see Antonio through the smoke, his skin blasted away, hair fried off, and missing a few limbs. As the smoke clears though, Estarossa only scoffs at what he can see now, Antonio, fully recovered in a cold sweat and panting heavily from his close brush with death. He used the Right Eye to find a future where he was already fully healed to repair himself instantly. He couldn’t believe what had just happened, he has the ultimate power and yet he was almost killed by what he considers to be a “Normal Arrancar”. Estarossa closes the gap, he knows inexperience when he sees it, he can smell it even. He moves in to seemingly punch Antonio and the first future he is able to see is himself being hit in the face and so he counters by putting up his arms to guard.
”Sloppy.”
Estarossa says as he punches the sand instead, this prompts Antonio to open his guard only to get a face full of sand as the shockwave of the punch forces the sand to explode upwards. Antonio closes his eyes and receives a swift kick to the stomach, knocking all the air out of him. As he tumbles on the ground, he forces his right eye open to repair himself, once again, instantly. Estarossa is catching onto how Antonio uses his power, like an early warning detection system. The idiot moves before the action even takes place and since he is set on taking his own action a veteran fighter can easily adapt and make a different move entirely, just as Estarossa had done by altering his punch to hit the sand instead of Antonio. The dull Arrancar starts to wonder if Estarossa has a Soul King part as well because he refuses to believe he is being pushed this much by someone without one. He starts to get frustrated when he hears a voice speak to him…
”Calm down, stop fighting defensively and going for surprise attacks. Just strike head on.”
He heeds the command of the voice, the voice of Valiosa. He calms down and draws his Zanpakuto, he finds it, a future where he stabs through Estarossa’s chest. He charges in and hits his mark, he is ecstatic for a brief second before being punched into the ground by Estarossa. Antonio made another mistake, he saw into the future but stopped the vision too short, he didn’t wait to see how Estarossa would react or respond, if he did he would have avoided that future entirely. Once again he “resets” himself, Zanpakuto in hand only able to standby and watch as Estarossa heals from his wound effortlessly. Antonio made a big entrance, instantly laying waste to La Soberanía and its denizens so what is so different now? Those other Hollows were weak, easily killed, so why is Estarossa presenting himself as an unclimbable mountain? He grits his teeth trying to figure it out, trying to calm his racing mind, trying to tune out Valiosa who is now shouting at him mentally. Why could he kill so many others but not Estarossa? Then, the enlightening moment hits him, his dull mind finally pieces it together.
He walks, not runs, towards Estarossa, looking straight ahead, past him almost as if his mind is in a far off land. The moment the purple haired Arrancar flinches he is cut deeply across the chest. He is shocked by the attack, clutching his chest as he leaps back only to get impaled through his back and out his chest by Antonio’s Zanpakuto. Estarossa looks back but sees no one there, as if the blade had always been there waiting for him to leap back onto it. When he looks forward again his vision is engulfed by a cerulean colored Cero. The explosion sends Estarossa flying back and bouncing across the ground like a pebble skipping across the surface of a lake. Antonio finally figured it out, he was always looking into the future then returning to the present. Once he finally shut everything up, including his own mind he realized that he should only be looking at the future and nothing else. Estarossa stands up, wounded as his skin is horrible scorched but he makes an effort to heal himself the best he can because Antonio is giving him no time to fully recover. In an instant his arm is cut off and Antonio’s Zanpakuto is stabbed through his leg, all while Antonio is still quite a distance away from him.
Estarossa falls to a knee once the Zanpakuto instantly vanishes from his leg, he still hasn’t had a chance to fully heal the wound on his chest, let alone the injuries he suffered from the Cero. He laughs and shakes his head.
”The future, huh? Pure, insanity that is. You’re attacking me before I can even finish the thought of making my own move. Insanity. I’d say that's the power of a god but, the only god I ever knew of was Esmeralda and she couldn’t do anything like this… Oh well…”
Then it happens to Antonio again, he witnesses a fated event, something he cannot alter with his actions alone because in every future all he can see is an explosion. An Anarquía Cero, is let loose once again to cover Estarossa’s next move. He surmised from hitting Antonio in the face with sand earlier that if he himself cannot physically see then he is blind to the future as well and with Anarquía Cero being nothing but a sudden explosion it can act as an instantaneous smoke screen.
”Collapse… Estómago!!
Resurrección
Yellow Reiryoku explodes and extends high off into the sky, blasting away what few clouds exist in the Hueco Mundo sky. The rush of air causes Antonio to squint a bit but a look of horror and shock are etched into his face before the Reiryoku even fully dissipates. He rushes in and in every future he sees himself stabbing Estarossa through the heart and he does so, without resistance. However, his stubbornness to let go of his blade does him harm as Estarossa punches him in the stomach and sends him skipping across the ground next. He pulls the blade from his “heart” and throws it at Antonio who narrowly avoids being hit by his own blade.
”You think that you can just oppress me and others just because you can see the future? You think you can limit my actions and force me to do what you want!? I refuse!”
His voice has a strange echo to it as if it is carried forward not by organs but on the winds of power as if his Reiryoku is manifesting his voice for him.
”No matter what form, no one shall take my Freedom from me. I am Estarossa Sangrados, The Eater of Worlds, Uno Gratis (Lit. Free one), and…
The dust finally settles and his Resurrección is finally clear for all to see…
