The pitch-black that looms around Darwin, slowly and steadily spread further away, eating the very fabric of reality.
A chilling screech leak from his enormous lips, redness overshadowed his once luminescent green eyes.
His hand gripped the very air as if it had the trait of a solid's tangibility.
The Fourth Stratos shook to an unbelievable degree, sending shivers to all floors.
—-
—[Tenth Stratos]—
A slender, lean figure sat idly by staring into the desolate wasteland. Each new Hollow that appeared couldn't spark his interest whatsoever.
He was bored.
The very Reiatsu he exerts took the lives of many, the lives who he wishes to converse with.
His eyes dull, a dulling which had extended beyond the scopes of time.
In his surrounding vicinity, there lies many finger marks of writing, something to keep him sane from his perpetuating boredom.
[I am not inherently evil. Hollows view me as evil. None who dared come near me survived longer than a mere second. It hurts me more than it hurts others, for I who cannot live with meaning.]
'Why do I subject myself to seclusion?' This mysterious being thought. He was neither sad nor happy. He hadn't grasped the emotions that others experienced.
What does it mean to fight on even grounds when one cannot enjoy such luxury?
What does it mean to have a conversation?
He was naturally tame when it comes to personality.
There wasn't meaning behind the act of violence, which he had thought.
"Maybe it's time for I to split myself so that I can stay in the same realm as other Hollows."
But before he would do such a thing, his 'territory' which he had marked himself upon shook.
It was enticing to say the least.
He furrowed his sore, lazy brows, pinching his nose in quiet ponder.
Then he let out a soft sigh, thinking this might be an opportunity to reconnect with others in Hueco Mundo.
Even if it meant taking another decade to stroll around empty dunes, finding someone strong enough to speak to.
However, he was unlucky, really unlucky…
He scurried towards the weaker sides of Hueco Mundo—not because he was scared, it was because he was clueless to how each place operated.
He was lost.
What was Las Noches? He didnt even know that there were eight more Stratos he hadn't been in.
When he had arrived in Second Stratos eons ago, he didn't want to commit violence without reason, so he punched the white monument thinking there might be a different approach to going deeper.
Then everything spiraled out of control.
Multiple strong folks resided in the Tenth Stratos only to flee from his mere prescence.
This unconsciously made him think that there was no point in putting effort to search stronger individuals.
He curled up like a shrimp, tightly tugging his legs to his chest.
His eyes wane from thought to thought, from question to question.
Muttering to himself, "Why was I alive in the first place?"
But then, a sudden realisation struck him.
"The presence above feels strong. Maybe… Just maybe…"
He got up, practiced his lines he would use to introduce himself to this powerful being above.
"Hey. My name is Coyote Starrk. Nice to meet you."
—-
—[Fourth Stratos]—
—-
"What did you do to me!" Darwin looks outside his mental world to see the destruction caused by ruin.
And yet, the shadow looming over a chair continues to observe, resting their elbows on the knee.
"Such a disturbingly peaceful being you are… How does it feel to obtain power even if you lacked conviction and played the hero who abides morality?"
He felt the prescence in front, powerful, guarded, and yet carried a faint, serene expression.
Darwin gazed back, undeterred by his condescending remarks.
"They say power comes at a cost, responsibility. There is more to me than what meets the eye. Isn't that right?"
He laughed, chuckling to the absurdity coming from the shadow's mouth.
"Well aren't you the funny one."
The shadow stood up, then he manifested a bright green sword to his right hand, thrusting it forward.
"Are you a king or a little baby that needs handholding at all times?"
Its glance, passive in nature, confronting in exterior.
Then the air turned cold, their gaze pierces each other like sharp blades made from the coldest of steel.
Those who stood near would feel uneasy as little bugs crawling behind their spines.
The pressure emitted from them weren't heavy, it was something different.
Earth beneath cracks, then the shadow initiates with a fatal stab, targeting Darwin's lower abdomen.
But, Darwin swerves to the side channeling a powerful cero blast from his hand to the sword.
Clank!
Thunderous in might, the power was enough to push the sword out of the shadow's grip.
"Not bad." The shadow grins, his senses tingling, his insides boiling.
Like a spark of shock—Lightning in signalling.
Darwin's sixth sense caused his eyes to wide eye as he saw the shadow's new form, silent in its slow, meticulous finger movements, deadly in its heavily guarded posture.
'So it wasn't just one…'
An unsettling metallic screech tore through the silence.
From the sides of the shadow, a sliver of crimson light—a ruby glint—emerged, dazzling and dangerous.
A second sword, drawn from its hidden sheath, shimmered under an eerie glow.
Now he stood with two blades—each humming with power, brighter, deadlier, more final than the last.
"Do you know why people seek power?" The shadow didn't wait for an answer. It lunged at Darwin delivering a cross slash at his mid section.
Lurking within their prescence, Darwin's acid continues leaking like a slow-moving flood in all directions, eerie and terrifying.
"Power… is used for fighting for another day, to preserve a future."
Then, Darwin summons two corrosive walls aiming to sandwich the shadow in the epicenter.
The shadow smiled, "But why is it that you are fighting for others sake?"
Like a windmill, the shadow slashed omnidirectionally, cutting the acid walls and even cutting Darwin in front.
Hurdling back, Darwin bumps into a wall behind him.
'A wall?!'
A splurge of blood splatters in front of him as he grips his chest heavy.
'But there weren't walls in this area?!'
Doubt began to manifest, slowly, and gradually like the unrelenting tide against the cracked barrier of a dam.
The shadow looms over his figure, gradually drawing near his sprawling silhouette.
Its gaze shifted, once cold and piercing became saddened and pitiful.
'Why are you looking at me like that?'
Darwin's thoughts echo prevasively, though it couldn't hold a candle to the silent demeaning resonating from each step taken by the shadow.