the ggodsent: faith breaker

Nabill took notice of the woman barring his path. Neither one of them spoke to their foe. He noticed that she was regal and that she stood with a posture similar to that of a falcon ready to dive on a hare. Already he could tell that a single misstep any enemy took before her was their last. This was not a quincy like the older ones who were weak and feeble. This was not a human who was cowed by fear like most others. This was a knight, and a commander of power that could match even a shinigami captain. 

But a shinigami was not a hollow or arrancar. A captain was not an espada. 

“What do you place your faith in?” 

A wind blew and brought a leaf that danced between the two warriors. It was a sign, Nabill knew; a sign saying that once this wind died that the leaf would touch the ground and that the battle would begin. 

“You are verbose,” Nabill said. “I do not like it.” 

Rolling his shoulders, the arrancar turned on a heel. Both of his arms disappeared into the sleeves of his kosode and came out the front, allowing the garment to fall about his waist. There, tattooed in old English between his shoulder blades, was the number zero. 

“Remember this number, Knight-Commander Frohn,” Nabill called out. “For it is the number of the beast—of the Cero Espada, Nabill Ggodsent.” 

He reached for the upper katana on his hip and turned to look over his shoulder. “I ask you again, Knight-Commander . . .” 

Nabill loosened his zanpakutou in its sheathe. 

“ . . . What do you place your faith in?” 

And then he was gone. Before an eye could so much as blink he was before the woman, one sword drawn and swinging through the air to remove the woman’s head from her shoulders.