Chapter 338: One Year Later
Time flowed slowly in Hueco Mundo.
For the shinigami and the hollow alike, the concept of time—months, years, even decades—meant little. They were not like humans, fragile creatures whose lives flickered out in less than a century. No, these beings were born of eternity, tethered to the ageless cycle of death and rebirth.
It had been over a year since Yamamoto Genryūsai led his devastating incursion into Hueco Mundo. That grand, fiery assault had left scars on both worlds.
Since then, the Soul Society had gone unnaturally quiet. No expeditionary forces, no follow-up attacks. Meanwhile, under the cold, meticulous rule of Mazuru—the new self-proclaimed king of Hueco Mundo—the arrancars had also refrained from launching any major offensives into the Human World. What unfolded between the two realms could only be described as an uneasy truce.
But it was a fragile peace. Everyone knew it.
The noble clans of the Soul Society—especially those still bitter about the destruction of Central 46—would never forgive Mazuru. Not for murdering the highest authorities of their world. Not for the humiliation he had inflicted upon them by defeating Yamamoto Genryūsai himself.
The only reason Mazuru remained unchallenged was the immense psychological blow he had dealt to the shinigami during that war. That single defeat had shattered their confidence, leaving them paralyzed. But time was a healer, even of shattered pride.
And as the months passed, the Soul Society’s confidence began to return. Slowly but inevitably, they would come for him.
That was the unspoken truth behind the calm.
Deep within the vast deserts of Hueco Mundo, a lonely figure walked across the pale white sands.
Her name was Roka Paramia—an arrancar once created by Szayelaporro Granz. She had never been designed for combat or conquest. No, she was an experiment, a puppet forged in the mind of a scientist obsessed with control and data.