Hueco Mundo Deserts
- Thread starter Adonai
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Sanity Slipping
How long did she and Shiro move between dimensions? Dozens of times? Hundreds? Millions? It is certainly unknown to her as it was an experience beyond her human comprehension. What is beyond the understanding of the two Arrancar that triggered this event and the two humans who were caught in it is that they placed the humans in a strange loop of dimensional travel. Making them loop through places that have different dilations of time meaning by the time Victoria and Shiro finally arrived in Hueco Mundo nine days had already passed but for them the trip felt instant. For the first five hours Victoria stared at the empty night sky, no stars, just void. It was haunting, maddeningly so. As a human from the modern era the absence of stars may not seem like a big deal due to light pollution but some twinkles can still be seen through it. Even the light pollution itself is something to look at. But this was nothing, the embodiment of the word nothing itself loomed over her and time and time again as she lay there, it crushed her mind.
Another five hours pass, she manages to sit up, opposite of the black sky is a stark white ground, sand stretching out to the horizon to meet with the black. This, while not completely comforting, was not as mind shattering as the sky above. She looked to her left, sand, then to her right, more sand. She looked behind herself now and saw more sand but in the sky there was a moon, but it was wrong, the phase of it was the inverse of the one in the human world. She rubs her eyes hard, standing to her feet finally then stopping to look around once more. Sand dunes, rippling waves of sand like ocean water in a freeze frame. She believes herself to be dead and having been sent to limbo for her sins while being alive. She hears the distant roar of a Hollow and it spurns her to move on, to where, she doesn’t know but moving away from that roar was the best thought she had.
Stumbling across the sand, her eyes shooting left and right looking for a structure to hide in, be it building or cave. The roar echoes again but now there seems to be more that have joined its horrifying chorus. She starts to run, tears in her eyes, chest tightening, breathing becoming ragged. She falls to her knees, one hand clutching her head the other on her chest, she opens her mouth to let out a cry of fear, anguish and pain but nothing comes out, her vision becoming hazy as she looks at the sand. Trillions of grains of sand multiply over and over as she feels herself wobbling left and right, head pounding until the unholy choir of roars ring out again. What her mind does not allow her to do, her body does for her as fight of flight overpowers her mind breaking and lets her continue to run. It all looks the same, all sand, white below and black above with a thing imitating the moon above it all. Running just to run she falls down a dune slope, tumbling for who knows how long.
Finally reaching the bottom she looks up to where she tumbled from, was this dune as big as a mountain or was it just her skewed perception messing with her. Her body begins to stir again, urging her to move, to survive, and that's not all, something in her soul stirs as well. Something that cradles her mind like a set of calming hands carefully holding something fragile. As much fear as she has in her bones she also feels a strange comfort trying to probe its way into her mind and soul, like a homecoming. Fullbringers powers are more closely related to that of Hollows more than anything else and because of that similarity her powers are surging more than normal, it is what pushes her to keep moving, despite how her sanity wants to slip away from her. She keeps moving and finds a cave to hide in, a smaller, fearful Hollow locks eyes with her and her it. It opens its mouth to speak only to be instantly squashed by a giant golden hand. Taking comfort in its death and the new comfort of her hiding space she curls up in a far corner of the cave, a death glare locked on its entrance before she destroys it with her Fullbring. She rests for the rest of the ninth and tenth day.
Present Day
The sand shifts and churns but eventually bursts forth, crawling out of the cave entrance is Victoria Remeltindtdrinc, well rested and her mind mostly intact. She looks around and tries to sense her surroundings but sees and feels nothing, in her immediate area that is. But there is a place that is lit up like a beacon on her spiritual senses. Little does she know this place is Las Noches. She wants to get closer to at least get eyes on the place but with rolling sand dunes of various sizes it is unknown how long it will take her to reach it without using Bringer Light. It could be minutes, hours, days, or worse, months. During her walk she remembers that Shiro was caught with her as well, she hopes he is okay but given the type of person he is, he should be doing just fine. He is more ready and willing to fight than her.
Itami
Member
Day Nine
For nearly nine full days, there was nothing.
No ground. No sound. No light.
Just that endless fall.
The kind that claws into your chest and loops through your mind like a warped sample stuck on repeat.
At some point, Shiro stopped screaming. Not because he wasn’t afraid—but because the sound didn’t matter anymore. It was swallowed, like everything else, by the void.
And then—suddenly—impact.
The fall ended with a muffled crunch, his body half-buried in white sand that stretched to infinity beneath a black, starless sky. Above him, the moon hung still and lifeless, like it was watching but didn’t care.
Hueco Mundo.
He didn’t know the name yet, but he could feel it in his bones. The pressure. The weight. The way the air pulsed with static, with death.
Everything here felt wrong.
By the time Shiro managed to stand, his hoodie was torn, boots caked in fine sand, and his face mask hung loosely under his chin like a failed effort at normalcy. His phone was long dead. His body ached with fatigue, but something worse gnawed at the back of his skull—is this where she went?
Was Victoria even here?
Or had the portal taken her somewhere else entirely?
He wandered for hours—maybe longer—before stumbling upon a shadow thicker than the night.
The desert didn’t sleep. It just... waited.
Shiro had been walking for hours. The skies above were an endless abyss, that pale, unmoving moon leering down from on high. Sand shifted beneath his boots in rhythmic crunches, broken only by the occasional distant wail, or the unnatural chirp of a creature hiding just beneath the surface.
He didn’t know what direction he was headed anymore. It all looked the same. White. Black. Empty.
That was when he felt it.
Pressure, light but sudden—like something tapping the air itself. He turned.
Two figures stood behind him, standing crooked in the distance, like half-forgotten memories dragged into flesh. Hollows, but not like the others. Odd. Sentient. One stood tall with a spiral mask like a conch shell, the other low to the ground, arms too long, eyes blinking across its body.
“You smell weird,” the taller one rasped. “Not alive. Not Hollow. Not Shinigami.”
The smaller one chittered. “Maybe he’s a Vizard? No... too soft. Maybe... a mistake?”
Shiro stared at them from beneath his hood, the wind pulling his scarf just over his chin. He didn’t answer. Who knew what his voice would do her, so he kept silent.
That silence didn’t sit well with them.
“You don’t talk to us?” the taller one snapped, tilting its head like a crow. “Disrespectful.”
The shorter Hollow began to slink forward on all fours, gurgling deep in its throat. “Maybe we’ll break you and listen to what spills out.”
Shiro tensed. One hand lifted, not in threat—but reflex. A warning.
"Get lost."
He didn’t mean to say it. It slipped out—just a breath. But the air around him twisted.
The wind slammed outward in a tight, invisible wave. Sand burst into the air. The hollows both froze mid-lunge—completely still. Not from choice. From command. The sands settled and they looked at one another and then slowly wondered off in opposite directions.
Shiro’s eyes widened. No strain. No pain in his throat. He’d barely even raised his voice.
He stood there alone again, hand still half-raised. The world around him hummed, like the echo of his word was still moving.
For the rest of that endless night, Shiro practiced. Whispering. Speaking. Talking aloud to no one. He didn’t shout, didn’t scream—just tested. He could talk here.
Early Day Ten
He’d gone deeper into the dunes now, dragging tired steps across endless ground, no sign of Victoria. His voice was steadier now. His resolve, too.
That’s when it returned.
A figure rising from the sand.
The taller Hollow from the night before. The spiral-masked one. It screamed, charging toward him.
Shiro didn’t flinch.
“Freeze.”
The Hollow stopped mid-step. Its limbs locked. Its scream halted in its throat.
Shiro stepped forward, slowly, lifting one hand toward the Hollow’s mask. His fingers hovered near its chin, and his voice dropped into a whisper.
“Help me find her, our friend. Victoria.”
As the word passed from his lips, crimson reiatsu radiated from his mouth, warping the air in front of the Hollow’s face like heatwaves on asphalt. The light coiled inward, sinking into the mask, dragging the creature’s mind along with it.
The Hollow’s stance eased.
“She is your friend,” Shiro said again, quieter this time. “You’ll help me find her.”
The Hollow blinked once. Then twice.
“Yes,” it said. “We’re looking for her.”
Present Moment
The two of them marched across the dunes—Shiro in his shredded black layers, and the Spiral-Mask Hollow beside him, muttering names, directions, and occasional nonsense. They were focused. Hunting.
Until the sand exploded upward ahead of them.
A brute of a Hollow—massive, armored in obsidian carapace, its mask jagged and gnarled—emerged with a scream that split the stillness. Adjucha.
Shiro didn’t hesitate.
“Blast away!”
The pressure ruptured outward—twisting space as the command hit—but the Adjucha only staggered, barely fazed.
It rushed forward.
Shiro stood firm, yelling again: “Get Crushed!”
Another wave. Stronger, this time from above, bringing the Adjucha to it's knees but it still quickly stood back up. The Adjucha snarled, slowed slightly, dust kicking up around its limbs.
The Spiral-Mask Hollow turned and bolted.
“VICTORIA!” it screamed into the air, over and over, a high-pitched echo tearing through the dunes.
Shiro kept up the barrage, shouting, forcing back the beast inch by inch. His throat was raw now, but not from injury—from pushing the boundary. He wasn’t strong enough to destroy it. But he could hold it off.
“Blast. Away!”
Each word shook the ground more violently as Shiro hoped he could continue to out bringer light this thing's natural hunting instinct, The strain on his voice was apparent now. There was still plenty of limitations on his voice.
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