SOMETHING WICKED [02]

"Ah, but a shadow is difficult to seize by the throat and dash to the ground..."

The Godking looking on with anticipation, an unfamiliar male shape calmly emerged from the darkness. Though he appeared physically young, his aura was honed and mature -- almost ancient. Jet black hair poured over the man's neckline, stopping just short of his shoulders. The man's attire was simple and subdued; a basic white button-up shirt and dark wool pants. He was ordinary, with the type of face one might faintly recall but never be able place definitively.

As he reached the room's center, the man gazed up at the raised thrown of Hueco Mundo's ruler, his eyes nonchalantly meeting the Godking's.

"You needn't trouble yourself attempting to remember me -- we've never had the pleasure of meeting."

"Though even if we had...", he continued, a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth, "I fear that you'd have some difficulty recalling it."

"You see, it's exceedingly difficult to truly obscure greatness; to utterly subdue ambition; to hide in plain sight..."

His eyes momentarily shifting to the Godking's secretary, the man smiled faintly.

"...however..."

"It is precisely because I've conquered these 'difficulties' that I am standing here now, enjoying a personal audience with a Godking."

"Perceptive...", the man thought to himself -- the Godking had correctly deduced his composition with just a glance. Impressive, but not totally unexpected. He was, after all, the ruler of an entire plane of existence.

"'Worried' ? Hoh, surely such silly notions are beneath somebody of your status, Luucio-sama. "

The mysterious guest paused for a moment, the smile slowly fading from his face.

"Worry is derived from fear. Fear, in turn, is derived from uncertainty...", the man explained, as if reciting a favorite verse from a poem. "...I was never worried, because in no uncertain terms..."

"I've always known exactly what was going to happen here."

The air in the room suddenly felt saturated, as if the very weight of the man's words had become something tangible.

"It is as you've said, Luucio-sama. Certainly, you could kill me; strike me down without a second thought; hang my corpse from Las Noches' walls -- but then what ? Will one more nameless addition to the boundless pile of bodies you've left in your wake be enough to sate your hunger for destruction?"

"What is the life of one shinigami when weighed against the entirety of Soul Society?"

Pausing for a moment, the man ran his hand through his hair. A familiar smirk soon found its way back to his face.

"That is what I'm offering you, 'Godking of Hueco Mundo'."

"I see. To have so quickly deduced my point of origin, and even and the method I've used to travel here -- truly your wisdom knows no bounds, Luucio-sama."

The Godking's spiritual pressure was dense and crushing -- the mysterious man felt as if a mountain rested atop his shoulders. Even so, he showed no apparent signs of duress, only smiling calmly as the weight increased with each passing step.

"However..."

The man's hand slowly moved to the sword sheathed at his side.

"If an arm is the price required to hold your attention, then allow me to oblige..."

In an instant, the man disappeared completely from view, as if the very space surrounding his body had collapsed in on itself. This was no flash step, no sonido -- there was no movement at all. One moment he was there, the next -- gone.

The Godking's secretary barely had time to blink before the man reappeared again, standing in exactly the same spot as before he had vanished.

Only -- something had changed.

The girl's eyes widened sharply as the man tossed a severed arm onto the floor before the Godking. Her reflexes were quick -- it hadn't taken her long at all to figure out that the arm now lying on the ground had been attached to her body only a few seconds ago. She fell to her knees as the shock of the attack suddenly set into her body. She'd live, of course. Hollows were resilient creatures, after all. If she was lucky, she'd even be able to reattach the severed limb before any meaningful rot had set in.

"Forgive me, Luccio-sama, for not speaking more directly..."

"Though your analysis of my origin and methods has thus far proven accurate, you've unfortunately mischaracterized my nature."

"'Traitor','rebel'...strong words with even stronger connotations -- but these words describe somebody whose vision is at odds with the natural order. On the contrary, my vision is to restore the world to its natural state; to bring about true natural order..."

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

"Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, the Material World...three islands floating in a sea of contrived, separatory politics. Natural selection cannot work so long as these three worlds remain inaccessible to each other, and so it is Soul Society's vision that lies at odds with the natural order -- they are the traitors."

"Though I make no promises that Soul Society's inhabitants will simply lay down their weapons and surrender, what I can say unequivocally is this:"

"...the strong will survive, and the weak will perish..."

With his speech ended, the mysterious guest waited patiently for the Godking to respond.