10 The Emergence of the Entropy Touch
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In the face of the relentless onslaught, Esteban knew he needed to change the tide of the battle. His first unique hollow ability, Campo del Caos, radiated around him. The battlefield warped and quaked, caught within his sphere of influence, pulsing with iridescent energy, and reality itself danced to the rhythm of his whims.
His eyes flashed with the joy of the hunt as he seized upon the weakest of his adversaries who were also closest to him when he activated it just like he wanted. Dordoni, Gantebaine, Cirucci and Yammy were not prepared for the onslaught.
He descended upon them like a falcon onto its prey, obliterating them in the blink of an eye, consuming their souls in an unholy feast. The pleasure of their spiritual energy filling him, amplifying his own, was intoxicating.
Nnoitra, a grin etched across his face, shouted into the chaotic maelstrom, "So, this is your trump card, huh?", His voice rang out, filled with a blend of amusement and anticipation,
"Heh, this just makes things interesting!", He grasped his massive weapon, unaffected by the manifestation that seemed to bend reality itself and by the quick deaths of the four other Espada.
Grimmjow's cerulean eyes gleamed with fierce determination, "You think this will scare me?", He roared, his voice echoing across the distorted battlefield, "This is just another obstacle to crush!"
Esteban's newfound euphoria was short-lived. Soon, he saw Nnoitra charging towards him, despite chaotic powers shredding his body apart, his grin maniacal, weapon wielded with reckless abandon. He launched himself at Esteban with a sheer brute force that the hollow didn't anticipate, striking him despite the distorted field.
The shock of Nnoitra's resilience, his Hierro barely resisting the chaotic flux around him, made Esteban open his eyes wide. He could hear the Arrancar's laughter as his skin cracked and shattered, the Hierro giving way, but it was the wild, savage joy in Nnoitra's eyes that struck a bit of fear into Esteban's heart.
And from the other side, Grimmjow yelled loudly and summoned all his strength for another Gran Rey Cero, a concentrated blast of spiritual energy that cleaved straight through the chaotic field like a divine blade little but little. The power behind it left Esteban staggered.
And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Nelliel also joined the fray fearlessly. She swung her lance with all her might, and it transformed into Lanzador Verde. The once plain weapon now glowed with a vibrant emerald hue, carrying a force so mighty it could tear the heavens.
"Take this, you will pay for killing these four!", Nelliel cried out gracefully, her face mature-looking and angry. As she let go, the lance spun and built up an incredible amount of spiritual energy, turning into a drill that pierced through the chaotic field with the precision and force of a bullet. The impact was devastating, the force of it nearly knocking Esteban off his feet.
The combined assault from Nnoitra, Grimmjow, and Nelliel was more than he had anticipated. His adversaries had rallied, their combined strength exceeding his expectations.
As their strikes were getting closer and closer, from all sides, Esteban felt a chilling fear he had never known. He really teetered on the brink of death, for the first time since he transmigrated, his reality distorted by the desperate struggle for survival.
His chaotic Reiryoku suddenly resonated with his desperation. A surge of energy unlike anything he'd ever felt before flooded him, and he let out a primal roar as his second innate ability awakened.
As the three assailants stood, watching him with a mixture of satisfaction and apprehension, Esteban felt a rush of energy. It flooded him, and he roared with newfound strength. His eyes blazed with defiance as his second innate ability awakened.
As Esteban stood at the precipice of his demise, time seemed to stutter and halt around him. The ferocious strikes of his enemies – Nnoitra's unrelenting assault, the blistering Gran Rey Cero from Grimmjow, and Nelliel's formidable Lanzador Verde - were gradually eating through his Campo del Caos. His dominion of chaos had proven itself a competent shield, an unexpected revelation amidst the chaos.
However, the nascent realization offered him little comfort as the assaults relentlessly breached his chaotic field, bearing down on him with all their might.
But within the brink of despair, a flicker of hope ignited in Esteban's heart. He knew that his newfound ability could turn the tide of the battle in his favor.
An unyielding determination seeped into his eyes as the air around him began to calm, the riotous energy of his chaotic field retracting and dissipating.
The pulsating, vibrant sphere of his chaos receded, granting him a clear view of the relentless onslaught aimed at his demise. He knew that he didn't have enough power to use both of those abilities at the same time yet.
His eyes were aflame with an eerie, hole-like glow, a vortex of gray spiraling within his entire eye sockets. This change didn't go unnoticed by his adversaries. Their once confident expressions faltered as they registered the unusual spectacle. The intensity of his gaze seemed to be amplifying with every passing moment, promising an unforeseen retaliation.
As the last of his Campo del Caos closed off, the time had come to unleash his most potent ability, Toque de Entropía (Entropy Touch). This was a power that didn't involve grand displays of strength or awe-inspiring spectacles of energy but worked subtly, often unseen, yet was perhaps the most destructive.
Toque de Entropía came to life as Esteban's gaze turned upon Grimmjow's Cero and Nelliel's lance. The vibrant energy of the Gran Rey Cero began to falter, the ferocious blue light started to fade. It was as though the very life was being sucked out of the potent attack.
The attack, which moments ago was a beacon of devastation, now dwindled into nothingness under the weight of its entropy. Grimmjow, stunned, could only watch in disbelief as his most powerful attack was rendered useless.
Simultaneously, Nelliel's Lanzador Verde, a veritable embodiment of her strength, began to crumble mid-flight. The once menacing lance broke down, its green energy evaporating under the influence of Esteban's Entropy Touch. The potent weapon, reduced to harmless fragments, rained down on the desert floor, leaving Nelliel wide-eyed and shocked.
The immediate aftermath was a tableau of stunned silence. The assault that was meant to overwhelm Esteban had been nullified, leaving his opponents to grapple with the impossibility of their situation. The realization that Esteban wasn't just enduring their onslaught but was, in fact, manipulating it to his advantage shook them to their core.
If Campo del Caos represented an uncontrollable radius of chaos, Toque de Entropía marked a paradigm shift in its design - a focused, calculated strike that, instead of creating chaos, exploited the existing chaos of any specific object or being.
It worked by accelerating the entropy, causing even the most formidable structures or techniques to disintegrate rapidly. The attack that was as radiant as a supernova a moment ago could now be reduced to a fleeting puff of smoke.
Esteban's eyes bore into the dissipating remnants of his adversaries' attacks. Each rusted particle of Nelliel's lance, every fading trace of Grimmjow's Cero, echoed the destructive potential of his new ability. Even spiritual weapons, the core essence of a Shinigami or Hollow's power, like a Zanpakuto or a Cero, weren't spared from this targeted decay.
His ability could be as dramatic as causing an enemy's sword to corrode and shatter within their hands or as subtle as a Kido failing to shape properly. More intimidatingly, even a Shinigami or Hollow could be directly affected.
Their spiritual pressure could become unbalanced, and their movements could turn sluggish, almost as if they've suddenly aged years in seconds. The power to manipulate the natural decay of things, of entropy, was now at Esteban's fingertips.
However, the price for such power was steep. The stronger the spiritual presence of his target, the more of his own energy he had to expend. And his reserves were rapidly dwindling.
Moreover, his newly awakened power was still raw, untrained. He couldn't currently target living beings directly, only their techniques and even that with a certain limit. As much as it offered a staggering edge in his battles, it was also a double-edged sword, with his own vitality at stake.
Now, standing amidst the disarray, his body screamed for respite. His energy was nearly spent, his breathing ragged, and his vision blurred. The strength that carried him thus far was ebbing away.
