Alopex and Skylos

[Lagos Oscuras]

Lagos Oscuras found herself as she usually did in Las Noches, in the growing process of research and growth. She'd done a number of experiments in her hollow experimentation, as well as Hollow Reirokyu. She had worked in the experimentation of plus, humans, and other common subjects of which to test the process of hollowfication. In this process, she could begin building something that Las Noches didn't formally have. A proper army. An organized force. Something that she'd sought since the loss of her followers of Los Ojos. Resting before her were multiple test tubes lined with humans she'd held in captivity, as well as the pseudo remains of hollows within her containers. So tedious. 

Her tail swayed back and forth as she gazed on. It was theoretically easier to create an army as opposed to indoctrinating one. For Las Noches and Hueco Mundo in its very nature was full of contention, violence, and a sense of lawlessness. There were none more than Lagos who knew that better. Every day there were countless Arrancar that thought to challenge her and seek her position. For her? She battled with these lessers, and what she sought now were buffers that would stand in their path. After all. They were largely nuisances. No shred of honor or decency that would keep them from seeking her everything. Some might question then. Why not advance the ranking and hierarchy? Why not seek to advance and take a position from another Espada?

Because she had little desire to ascend and become a higher ranked dog of Kouhai. The comfort of being an Espada was enough. Her privileges were vast, and she had more capabilities to do things that were otherwise impossible. She'd matured, became more mentally stable since the loss of her former master, and what she sought most of all in these days was to progress and develop herself to be the finest possible. However, she knew that there were a number of fallacies in this general assumption. What she needed as of right now were allies. For she had agendas to meet, as well as goals in mind. Namely; to enhance her strength and powers. To complete that lost cycle of evolution that she so desperately needed. Vasto Lorde. 

Taking a momentary break, she'd step out from her chambers into the bright light dome that was this space. Taking a deep breath, she'd exhale. What a horrid place this was. Who the hell wanted to linger in a desert on a bright sunny day? Was that supposed to be a sort of fucking joke? "Soon." Beginning to produce proper soldiery, and with countless trials and errors? She'd begin to perfect the process to produce not just Hollows, but to skip the process entirely to make Arrancar immediately. To be able to develop them from the weakest of stages into good and loyal men. Wasn't that a wondrous thought? To be able to create more of their kind with less need for consumption? To turn a singular soul into an Arrancar. That sounded like a worthy goal. Though challenging. 

[Rio Demonliogalgo]

The bright light wasn't likely to bother Lagos for long as a shadow blotted out the light. "What's soon?" Looming above Lagos was the ominous, massive frame of the Quinta Espada, Rio Demoniogalgo.

Rio wasn't here on any nefarious aims or anything. If Rio had such aims he would already be trashing Lagos's laboratory. If Rio wanted a fight (ignoring that Rio always wanted a fight), he would already be strangling Lagos. Rio was here by chance, and it was by chance that Lagos had emerged from her lab and nearly walked into the much larger man.

Rio was an arrancar with a problem today. A poison burned through him. One born not of the body but of the mind. Doubt. Introspection. For nearly three thousand years, Rio had lived without doubt. Rage and anger had fueled him. Hate had guided him. He had never needed to think twice about anything. When he wanted something, he took it. When he didn't like something he broke it. A simple, hedonistic existence, embracing all the carnal joys of bloodshed and war. But now.... Now.

Thrice now had Rio's rage been stymied. Thrice in recent years had Rio been forced to acknowledge an inferior being rivaled his might. The first of course, being Kouhai himself, the self-styled master of Las Noches. The second, the Captain of the Thirteenth Division, Ludwig. The third now, Kitai Yoru, a man Rio saw as so beneath him, he did not even recall that he had once fought Kitai whilst Kitai had drawn breath as a human. Kouhai was a freak of nature, true, and Ludwig had gotten lucky, accidentally conjuring up flames to battle Rio, but for Kitai, Rio had no excuses, only rage. Thrice had these impertinent worms risen up and stood against Rio, and thrice had they stood their ground. Rio should be better than this. The power earned through three thousand years of battle could not be bought so cheaply!

But Rio could not deny the reality, and so his nights were restless. In his minds eye, past defeats burned as viciously as the flames of the Captain Commander whom Rio had once fought. And ever so rarely in his dreams, Rio saw a face he had not thought of in nearly three thousand years. Skin darkened by the sun, a thick black beard. Scale armor, and a long spear. The face of Rio's killer. Oh Rio had avenged his demise, and it had not been until hours later that he succumbed to his wound, but he saw it in his mind clearly all the same, after all this time. Why now? Why now, did Rio think back to his final and most glorious moment in his mortal life?

Left with too many questions, and a mind that had long since been trained not to look for answers, Rio had puzzled and puzzled his way across the dome of Las Noches, with no goal in mind, until by sheer happenstance, the Noveno Espada had bumped into him as she emerged from her lab.

Rio glowered at Lagos, muddy eyes, like the embers of a home, burned the ground. Even at his most contemplative, rage and anger were visible within the Quinta Espada. The two had never formally associated, to Rio's knowledge, but the Arrancar had lasted longer in her rank than most, and so perhaps it was time to finally broach that discussion.

"Tch. Whatever. It's Lagos, isn't it?" As a fellow Espada, Lagos was at least worthy of having her name remembered by the Quinta, unlike the other trash and refuse that infested the halls of Las Noches. Trash that could not even slow the advance of Kitai Yoru. And where had Lagos been at that time? What had Lagos been doing then?

[Lagos Oscuras]

She'd raised a brow. When hearing the voice of Rio, she'd been rather surprised. However, she soon came to realize that she shouldn't have been. The demon dog. A brazen and angry figure; one she could relate with to some degrees. "It is. And you're Rio." She looked into his muddy eyes with her cerulean blue, and she could share the same somberness and distant contempt that his did. They both generally despised the same types of people. They despised Kouhai by the very nature of what he was; to call himself "King" of the Hollows. King over them. It was anathema. Yet, here they both were; serving the same disgusting despotic tyrant. All for the same reason.

Because only the strongest shall rule.

"I'm building an army." A brief pause. "Not some mishmash rabble of Hollows or Arrancar that have been grabbed from some dull corner of Hueco Mundo. A proper army. One of my own making that I shall train into a fine and disciplined legion. The finest army that ever was or will be." Lagos declared rather firmly. "And when it is done? I'll make attempt to end this anarchic system of reign." Whether she meant the disorganized and chaotic system of rulership of the Espada or Kouhai? That was up to interpretation of phrase. That said, there was little need in her mind for elaboration. She wouldn't have thought Rio of all people to care about those sorts of things.

"...Color me surprised by your visit. Why've you come? I never thought you the type of person interested in fighting "lesser" foes." Deciding to appeal to his sense of warrior's pride, assuming he did in fact come here to kick her ass today, she figured appealing to his sense of ego might be the better approach here. Maybe they held some sick sense of interest in installing one of their subordinates or Fraccion as the Noveno Espada. She'd imagined that a few of the Espada may attempt to do so at some point. To rid her of her position at some point or another. Hence, the making of these forces might prove rather pleasing. After all. To be an Espada was not just about raw strength, though she preferred having it.

It was about influence too. As well as power. To have powerful subordinates of her own to act as a deterrent would certainly prove to be a valuable experience. Quite. Something about walking softly and carrying a big stick. Lagos and Rio were two sides of the same coin in a way weren't they? Both of them were dogs of a different coat, forced under the dominion of the same master, and seeking the strength and power to some day be free of his thumb. It felt like a foolish notion or venture for some; but perhaps that was a sort of intoxicating thing. The pursuit and desire for freedom and power was a common thing. Especially for members of their kind. 

[Rio Demonliogalgo]

Rio's brow raised at Lagos's reply. Building an army? Now that piqued his interest. "You don't fuckin' say." He answered, before Lagos continued describing the army she was constructing. "That's some boasting you got there Noveno. Why don't you show me this army of yours?" Rio asked. "Or at least its makings." He'd cut her the barest of slack there-- she did say she was building it, not that it was assembled. "Gotta say, big as your palace is, you think you got enough space for such an army? We arrancar are destructive bastards." Mostly just Rio, but it's not like a perchance for destruction and annihilation was unique to the Quinta Espada. He just happened to particularly excel at the craft.

"Then you don't know me." Rio replied. "I fight. Period. Weak enemies. Strong enemies. It doesn't matter. I fight and I crush them and I pulverize them. Sometimes they put up a fight, and sometimes they crumple and die. The challenge is nice, but it's the battle that matters, not who it's against." Rio replied. "Besides, while it's all fine to risk your life in battle, it's another to pick a fight you've already lost." Again in his mind, though he saw himself standing shoulder to shoulder with his brothers-in-arms at Thermopylae and chuckled in spite of himself.

"Fuck it, you got me in a better mood Lagos. So show me this army of yours. But when you talk about ending this reign, you mean the shit, sitting on that throne, right?" Rio stated. "Anarchy's where we derive our strength from. The lawless waste where strength decides everything. The strong thrive, the weak die. That's always been the rule of Hueco Mundo, and it's what's made you and me strong. It's why we deserve to rule and stand atop all others. Because we've fucking earned it."

[Lagos Oscuras]

He'd ask to see it. "...Of course not." That said, when she looked out across Las Noches, she was very familiar in knowing that this was Kouhai's domain. All that was within it, he knew, and most things out of it too. Which was why she worked to hide her forces and spread them farther out. Either those creations of her own making, or those that supported her cause. It mattered little. Walking a few feet, she stops when she hears him talk about his better mood. How he talks about the shit sitting on that throne. In which case, she looks about herself, and then slowly towards him.

"Yes." That said, he spoke about how they'd earned their right to rule. They'd battled through the horrors of consumption and anarchy, in which case, she finds herself thinking. "Perhaps, and that helps make strong individuals. However, it's the natural order of things for anarchy to have equilibrium. To return to order. That's our purpose as the powerful. A world with power but no direction is anarchy. A world with power and direction?...Is an Empire." She says, curling her right hand into a fist as she hears the leather tense. Before she walks down. Guides him into a seemingly large expanse of space, where he could see it then. Though, he might find a level of disgust upon the revelation. 

The visage of bodies that lay lined in tubes, a mix of humans, hollow like hybrids, and even some beings that could resemble Arrancar. However, what was more compelling was the presence of greater devices down. Odd seeming visors and helms that lay adorned upon the heads of these bestial horrors. Hollows were creatures of instincts more than they were conscious monsters during their earliest inceptions. Which meant that as beasts, they held behaviors, and a beast could be tamed. "I hold the ability to make some thirty Hollows a day out of any souls that I come into contact with. With some exceptions of course. Or really, as many as I can physically touch..."

"I make them into what they are and use a variety of conditioning methods to make the foundation of my forces. From there?...Consumption. Either each other, the failures, or outside influences. I develop them at my leisure." Which then was the question. By her estimate then? How large was said army? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How many years already had she held such powers? Truly, a horrifying figure if she could disturb the soul cycle in such a manner, as well as the natural progression or appearance of Hollows as it was.