How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Auswählen (Bleach: Quincy SI)

[Basileus_Komnenos]

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Auswählen

Prologue: Are We The Baddies?​

I never could get used to how cold and foreboding this place was.

Up until last night, I was a Soldat, a mere foot soldier serving under His Majesty's Sternritters. Fortunately I was under someone more rational rather than that psychopath Dricsoll Beri.

Looking out the window, I saw the pale ice covered buildings dotting the cityscape below me. The foreboding architecture of this place practically screamed German.

And not the fun kind of Germanic Architecture you'd see in a Bavarian Castle. This was the product of some unholy union between Nazi Germany's Stripped Classicism and some strange variant of High Gothic Architecture.

And while I had to admit this place did look cool it was as though whoever designed this place didn't even try to hide that they were part of some sort of evil empire. It felt like the universe itself was trying to tell me something.

Looking down, I saw the white silver-buttoned obviously military uniform I wore. While it was very fashionable and comfortable, it too felt eerily totalitarian which made me feel a strange sense of dread.

The iconic meme immediately came to mind, and I began to wonder if I was in fact part of the Baddies.

But that couldn't possibly have been true right? I certainly didn't see myself or my fellow comrades as evil.

As far as I could remember, we fought off demonic Hollows who ravenously consumed everything in sight.

Those things were poisonous to us, and had it not been for His Majesty's Sternritters saving me, I too would have been eaten by the Hollow which consumed my friends and family.

Looking back several years ago, the Sternritter with glasses placed that feral monster in some sort of cage.

When I later asked that Sternritter about how he was able to do that, he explained that he was bestowed special power by His Majesty in order to capture and subjugate the enemies of the Quincy.

It was just like how my father described how us Quincy operated. To defend ourselves, and protect other defenseless humans we would take the role of hunting and killing those disgusting cannibalistic creatures that preyed on the innocent.

It would be one thing if a Hollow would have eaten our soul, but things were far worse than that as Hollows were poisonous to us Quincies. Once tainted, there is no second chance for us through reincarnation.

Even Hollowfication would have been preferable, but instead all we would get is a true death as our souls disintegrates from soul suicide.

All beings share a fundamental primordial desire to live. The same is true for us Quincy, but for that crime the Soul Reapers condemned us as evil and tried to exterminate us. Not just once but twice.

But had we simply sat idly by as the Soul Reapers wished, we would have died, and the humans near us would have been consumed by those feral creatures. Perhaps if I hadn't been saved by the Wandenreich, I might have been taken to be a test subject for one of Mayuri's experiments.

After I was brought here away from the prying eyes of the loathsome Soul Reapers, I learned more about the Wandenreich. Contrary to what my family had thought, the Quincy had not been near the brink of extinction, but thrived right under the Soul Society's nose.

The old Lichtreich after being destroyed by the Soul Reapers survived awaiting the return of His Majesty when he would awaken from his slumber as prophesied where he'd ultimately reclaim the world and deliver us to victory.

Speaking of his Majesty, I hadn't really ever seen him in person aside from major events.

The only thing the regular grunts and Soldat really knew of him was of the official directives issued from Silbern.

Despite never really seeing him, the way everyone spoke about His Majesty was quite odd. Sure while he was our King, the way they spoke about him, made him out to be some sort of deity.

Brushing aside the cult of personality that tended to develop around monarchs, that still didn't necessarily mean he was evil, right?

After all, King Louis XIV of France styled himself as "The Sun King" and sometimes dressed up as Apollo, but that still didn't mean he was evil. He was basically like all his other contemporaries but that was far from the likes of a ruthless early to mid 20th Century totalitarian autocrat.
Plus His Majesty had been out of commission for a long time. It's kind of understandable he'd be so grumpy and pissed especially after learning of the destruction of his Empire and the Second Quincy Genocide.

Though with His Majesty the way we were taught to view him as though he were our Father considering how well all were connected to him by blood as the Founder and Progenitor of the Quincy.

Surely a man like that wasn't so bad … right?

I mean His Majesty even went out of his way to give me special powers of my own and a cool new name for that power.


All I had to do was drink his blood and the ritual was completed.


Wait a minute! Why was I feeling a strange sense of deja vu from this?

By drinking His Majesty's Blood, as a Sternritter, I entered into communion with him. This reminded me of a ceremony where Christians drank the blood of Christ in the form of wine.

The thing is that His Majesty was far from what I'd consider to be Christlike.

Though we were all weirdly connected to him from the pieces of his soul we all shared with him. And through a schrift he shared a greater portion of his soul with us.

If he shared pieces of his soul with us wouldn't that weaken him? If so, then how did he get them back?

The wisps of what were once my memories from my past life flared up again in my head as it started aching. From what I could tell, the images were black and white and paneled as though they belonged in some sort of comic book.

I saw a giant Quincy who looked a lot like Thor fighting what appeared to be Soul Reapers. And on the verge of victory, a pillar of light enveloped him, reducing him to bones. The hell was that?!

As if to answer my question, the scene shifted and I saw His Majesty laughing maniacally as a black sludge with what looked like eyes oozed off his body. What the fuck happened to him?!

The images kept shifting until I saw a strange ethereal being, no that wasn't quite right. Whatever that limbless thing was, it couldn't be called a person with those creepy eyes.

Instead of normal eyes, in each eye it had four irises staring into the void. Next to him was a strange monk who was offering it prayers and proclaiming it as a deity. Despite that monk's non-threatening appearance, something about him set off my alarm bells.

I then saw His Majesty standing before that thing, referring to it as his Father before stabbing him with his sword. His eyes were also like that strange entity's only Instead of four irises in each eye, he had three.

If His Majesty was indeed the son of that god, then why the heck was he stabbing him?

The blood ritual … the militaristic Germanic uniforms and architecture …. It all made sense now!

I really am working for the baddies …. and my boss is anime Nazi Jesus!

Author's Note:
The main story thread is on sb

 

[Blasterbot]

self awareness strikes.

 

[Basileus_Komnenos]

Chapter One: Now What?​

The glare of artificial light almost blinded me as I slowly regained consciousness.

Despite how well it was integrated, I still preferred natural sunlight to this. But it was our only source of light in this Quincy Kingdom walled off from even the sun itself.

This Shattenbereich much like this world itself was an artificial space that needed to be stabilized and maintained lest it too fall into disarray. It was another thing that even while living as a normal Quincy, I never really got used to.

But now I feel sick to my stomach.

After all, who wouldn't be overwhelmed after finding out their entire world was a lie? It was more than that, as this world was a mere set piece in an entirely fictional story meant for the entertainment of millions of people.

Everything was all fun and games watching the characters fight in a desperate struggle for victory, but living here among these people who I once regarded as fictional characters on a page and tv screen was jarring.

No, that wasn't quite right. Deep down I knew something was off with my surroundings.

On some deep subconscious level I was aware of the true nature of this world, occasionally having strange dreams and visions from the fragmented memories of my past life.

And no matter what I did the strange sensations of deja vu wouldn't go away.

Despite how much I tried, I simply wasn't able to connect the dots of what those visions and dreams all meant. Living day by day unable to make sense of it all infuriated me as I felt that there was something deeply wrong that only I could sense.

Of course I didn't dare bring it up with anyone lest they think I was weird. Plus I would have been screwed if Lord Haschwalth or any of the other Sternritters got the wrong idea.

These visions and dreams kept intensifying the more I cultivated my power which made me think that there was something purposely keeping me from obtaining this truth.

It wasn't until I finally drank His Majesty's blood, obtaining power from the Schrift engraved onto my soul, that like some sort of floodgate being opened, I gained full knowledge and comprehension of the truth laid out before me.

Armed with this newfound knowledge and understanding, I now was able to make sense of those visions and dreams, and I couldn't help but wonder why it took so long to finally occur.

The more I pondered this, I kept arriving at the same conclusion that this was the result of some sort of seal placed on my memories by some sort of higher entity.

Whoever this mysterious entity was, it clearly stood above the cycle of reincarnation where my soul was sucked into this world. But this made me question how of all things I ended up as a Quincy.

All Quincy were connected by blood through His Majesty Yhwach with each of us having a fragment of his soul as part of our very being. I wasn't originally born as a Quincy, so how did I become one?

Was this a result of his doing?

That shouldn't have been possible considering how I had been reborn before he had regained consciousness from his long slumber.

Though there was the variable "The Almighty" to consider which, I'm not quite sure His Majesty had access to a millennium ago during the war. But even if he did, it was a lesser version which was much more limited in scope than the power he had when he absorbed the Soul King.

Speaking of the Soul King, there was so little about him actually known aside from the snippets in the novels which I never finished reading.

Still I was grateful I finally obtained these memories as without them, I probably would have marched onwards unknowingly towards my doom until I got cut down by one of the Special War Potentials or even by His Majesty himself.

Despite all this knowledge I gained, some of my memories still remained fragmented. Aside from the knowledge related to this world, the memories related to my old world still were quite scattered and fragmented.

When thinking back to my old life, I was able to recall small bits and pieces of it like how I was a Catholic, but when it came to remembering how exactly I died, or what exactly my old name was, it felt like there was some invisible intangible force impeding my path.

The fact that my name was inaccessible to me set off alarm bells in my head as my mind immediately raced back to the vision I saw of the monk sitting beside that thing I now knew as the Soul King.

It must have been the work of that damned monk Ichi- No wait! I shouldn't say his name so casually. Considering how he took away His Majesty's voice for doing the same thing, who knows what he'd do to me.

That creepy bastard gazes on from on high from the Reiokyu observing the world. From there he was even able to tamper with Ichigo's Soul Reaper powers, preventing Ichigo from hearing His Majesty's true name.

Either way I need to find a way to undo that bald asshole's power lest I end up as his pawn. At least His Majesty would be open about his betrayal, the monk however would act like I'm his friend and then throw me into the meat grinder with a smile on his face. I mean that's literally what he planned for Ichigo.

When reflecting on my previous life as a Catholic, if someone told me that there was a chance I'd end up being isekai'd into another world, much less reincarnating, I'd have laughed in their face as the whole concept would have seemed ridiculous.

While I knew the reincarnation of souls was part of religions like Buddhism, reincarnating into another world entirely was something I expected to see in some generic trashy anime where the protagonist is ridiculously OP and has a harem for no apparent reason.

I however managed to reincarnate into one of the worst places possible. As a Catholic I expected to be judged for my sins and hopefully enter Heaven where I'd meet Christ and be in communion with God, but I ended up here.

While I wasn't the most perfect of Christians, what the fuck did I do to end up here?!

Instead of being in Communion with Christ, and entering into His Heavenly Kingdom, I was made to drink the blood of His Majesty, entering into communion and service of Anime Nazi Jesus who was more akin to a Quincy Anti-Christ.

Though I guess I should be thankful that I at least didn't get thrust into the world of something like Berserk or Attack on Titan. I'd take serving His Majesty over dealing with the God Hand or Titans any day of the week.

Speaking of His Majesty, while I can understand and sympathize with his motivations, and actions, the way in which Tite Kubo wrote them, made him into a dark mirror of Christ as would be seen from the point of view or perspective of heretics.

There aren't many options or real ways out now. As a Sternritter, while I'm afforded some discretion and leeway compared to a mere Soldat, or lower level Quincy, my life depends on my usefulness.

As he himself said to me, we Sternritters 'live and die' for his sake. Of course most of us new recruits took this in a metaphorical sense where we'd risk our lives fighting in battle for him.
I didn't sign up to be a living battery for him!

I can't really defect either as that guarantees me getting "consecrated" by the Auswählen's light. Besides, even if I were able to defect, who would I defect to?

The Soul Society? Hah yeah right! As if they would welcome me with open arms. I'd be lucky if Old Man Genocide didn't burn me to crisp on sight. Besides I'd be complicit in this screwed up and dysfunctional afterlife all anchored to an undead corpse.

The way this world was created was so sickening. As a Catholic finding out that God was dead and that the heavens were ruled by his subjects who betrayed him truly was a horrifying revelation.

Whatever vision the Soul King had for this world was clearly polluted and beyond salvaging. Yet there was no solution I could really envision to fix this. The only ones who really were pushing for actual change were Aizen and His Majesty whose plans would cause a massive amount of destruction in their wake.

My thoughts immediately drifted towards Urahara who also researched Hollowfication and invented a Hogyoku independent of Aizen. He also seems to have been discontent with this world.

The problem was that he was resigned to this intolerable abomination of a status quo, something which as an individual, and as a Quincy I simply couldn't accept.

I didn't know what path I should follow, as all routes laid before me almost certainly led to a miserable end where I'd end up as a pawn in someone's larger scheme.

But as if to answer my question, the static from my earpiece blared in my ear.

"What is it?" I asked, in a neutral tone, attempting to conceal my inner turmoil and distress.

"Lord Haschwalth has requested that all Sternritters gather in preparation for His Majesty's Address," the operator said.

 

[Basileus_Komnenos]

Chapter Two: Seiner Majestät​

His Majesty's Throne Room was quite a sight to behold. It was eerily minimalistic while also conveying a strange sense of royal splendor at the same time.

Usually when a person thinks of a Throne Room the first thing that comes to mind is a large brightly colored room, lavishly decorated, with gilded fixtures and ornamentation conveying a sense of opulence and splendor all at the same time.

His Majesty's Throne Room on the other hand was anything of the sort. The room lacked any sort of fancy ornamentation, or the kind of decorative memorabilia you'd expect from a monarch's Throne Room. A throne room after all was a place where a King flexes his power and majesty over his subjects and foreign dignitaries.

Ornate tapestries, art, heraldry and coat of arms all served to showcase a King's personal prestige. The Byzantines even had a hydraulic system to raise and lower the Emperor's throne to awe foreigners. Though from a more modern perspective where minimalist styles were the norm, such large spectacles seemed rather gaudy and tacky.

His Majesty's Throne Room while lacking such displays, it still was enough to convey his presence and power. In a way his minimalist throne room was a flex in and of itself as it showed that he was secure in his position that he had no need to show off his power in such a ridiculous manner.

After all there were no powerful nobles to over-awe, and no diplomats from rival nations to impress. His Majesty's rule was absolute and unquestionable in authority. What more could you expect from a dude who named his own power "The Almighty?"

Despite the monarcho-fascist undertones His Majesty gives off, I can at least respect how despite presenting himself as an all-powerful god-King, he has the power to truly back up such a claim.

King Louis XIV on the other hand, the poster child for absolutism called himself the "Sun King" claiming himself to be the sun that all of France revolved around. But in reality he was a man who created a self-imposed cage of opulence, and decadence and etiquette to keep his nobles in his sight.

It was an unstable and unwieldy system that conveyed his own insecurity about his nobles rising against him. Ultimately the sheer decadence and corruption it fostered led to the monarchy's violent and catastrophic fall.

His Majesty however had no use or need for such a pathetic and tawdry charade.

Within this Kingdom His Majesty was the very embodiment of power itself. This concept could be extended to us, his "children" as we Quincy literally were dependent on him for our own power and strength.

It was thanks to the fragments of his soul embedded within our very being that we had our powers in the first place. This was more so the case with the Sternritter, because of the schrift we obtained from him.

Through the schrift we gained a deeper connection with His Majesty who in turn lent us power to draw out the latent potential within us.

My thoughts shifted to my past memories. I remembered back during the fight between Ichigo and Quilge, he mentioned something about His Majesty being able to adjust the strength of our Blut.

This fact left me with so many questions. I never really got an answer to this in both the manga and the novels, especially since the story was rarely shown from the perspective of the Quincies.

Considering the Biblical themes surrounding His Majesty Yhwach, if the connection between my soul and his were as deep as I feared what does that mean for me?

Could he possibly know about my origins? If he does, why has he kept me around?

If anything a man like His Majesty should know I'm a potential threat to him right?! After all I'm an unknown variable, an aberration in every sense of the word.

Ichigo's mother Masaki was a Hollowfied Quincy, a hitherto unknown and impossible creation defying all natural laws. Instead of letting her live as a Quincy, His Majesty deemed her impure and robbed her of her power, making it his own.

If His Majesty was so selective and ruthless about his "children," then why the hell am I still alive?!

And as if to answer my question, the doors to the Throne Room swung open, as His Majesty and his Imperial retinue entered the Throne Room.

__ __ __​

The white noise of the Solat and Sternritters chattering amongst each other suddenly stopped. A wave of deafening silence swept through the room, punctuated by the sound of His Majesty's footsteps as he descended down towards us.

Back before I regained my memories I never questioned it, but now I saw things more clearly for what they were. His Majesty's literal descent from on high cast him as some sort of divine god-King coming down to Earth to interact with his "children."

Thinking about it in terms of propaganda, it was utterly brilliant! I don't even think His Majesty realized this as he was raised to be this god-like figure since his infancy. I know Kubo loves his word play, but even His Majesty's name was a play on the name of the Abrahamic God.

It didn't help that he was followed by Lord Haschwalth and the other members of the Schutzstaffel, the elites among us Sternritters. With the heavy inspiration that Kubo took from Christianity, it looked almost like His Majesty was Jesus coming down with his Archangels.

Though considering the powers these individuals wielded, and His Majesty's end goal, I think it's more appropriate to describe them as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that St. John saw in the Book of Revelation.

The Catholic in me recoiled at this scene, wanting to openly declare His Majesty as the Antichrist leading us to our doom, but of course if I did that I'd probably end up dead. So I of course held my tongue.

In a way being in the midst of such a being of immense power was quite captivating. His Majesty after all was a figure whose presence almost instinctively compels obedience.

From an outsider's point of view, His Majesty was indeed quite a fascinating character. There was so much lore built around him as a character and in terms of this world's history which he also had a major hand in shaping.

When I was a child growing up in the World of the Living, the way my parents and everyone around me spoke of His Majesty was as though he were some kind of mythic. The tales and poems dedicated to him cast him as a heroic figure set to restore a new golden age for Quincy.

It very much resembled the legends of the mythical King Arthur who was prophesized to awaken from his long slumber and deliver Wales from their enemies, restoring Britannia to them.

After I had been brought into the Wandenreich I was raised to view His Majesty as this Holy Messianic figure who had come to answer our thousand year prayer. Through His Majesty our lost Kingdom would be restored, and our enemies, the accursed Soul Reapers would be crushed.

Prior to regaining my memories, I had desperately sought to become a Sternritter, where I could take part directly in the fight as part of his Vanguard in this Final Holy Crusade we'd wage to reclaim the world and eventually the heavens for ourselves.

I wonder if this was how Ryuken felt before everything was robbed from him. Back during the Everything But the Rain Arc, he always spoke of the honor and his concerns for the future of the Quincy race, paralleling his son Uryu.

Considering how his father Souken was once involved with the Wandenreich, I wonder if he was being groomed to become part of the Sternritters.

Much like with Ryuken, this illusion I held about the future of the Quincies, and the hope I had about His Majesty's return shattered to pieces once I finally regained my memories.

Only unlike Ryuken, I had nowhere to run to. I had unknowingly sold my soul to the antichrist who had me on a leash. I couldn't be like Uryu and play the game of subterfuge as my power while cool didn't allow me to circumvent "The Almighty," the power which controlled the course of fate itself.

Heck even if I could somehow get around it, there was no way I'd just be able to get past Haschwalth or the other Schutzstaffel. Those guys were barely human, literal monsters in the case of Pernida who was the disembodied arm of a god.

How the hell would I fight against Pernida, the thing which only Mayuri won against because he had plot armor as one of Kubos's favorite characters?!

Speaking of Pernida, watching it follow His Majesty's in its pseudo-humanoid form like some sort of mysterious sentinel seriously creeped me out. Everything about it was unnatural and inhuman.

Seeing it up close, it made me wonder how His Majesty tolerated standing near that thing. I certainly wouldn't have been able to sit there all calm and collected while the undead disembodied arm of my father followed me around.

But I shoved all thoughts I had about that matter aside as His Majesty finally took his seat upon his throne ready to address us. And in this world where my life belongs to him, I must hang on each and every one of his words hoping not to draw his ire lest I find myself "consecrated" by his light.

___ ___ ___​

Quilge was intrigued by His Majesty's order for the Sternritters to assemble.

Usually when they received such a summons that meant His Majesty had some news to share with them, or was going to issue some new decree.

Though as of late, there had been rumors spreading among the other Sternritters and even among the Soldat about a new member being inducted into their order.

Like his other fellow Sternritters, he was curious as to who was fortunate enough to be promoted into their ranks.

The Sternritters as a whole were His Majesty's most hallowed vanguard, the Star-Crossed Knights meant to lead the charge into the heavens themselves.

In their Great Crusade nearly a millennium ago, they were meant to cast down the accursed Soul Reapers falsely proclaiming themselves as gods of death and crush those wicked Hollows beneath their feet.

But things didn't go according to plan …

Even now the ghastly sight of that demon draped in fire haunted him. The images of that demonic blade clothed in Hellfire descending upon His Majesty was forever burned within his memories.

After His Majesty fell, the large Quincy host scattered with many desperately fleeing to the World of the Living.

While the Sternritters survived, their Order had been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. All that remained of it were those lucky few who had escaped that slaughter.

Yet those wicked Soul Reapers relentlessly hunted them down.

With the destruction of the Lichtreich, what was left of it fled into the shadows growing in strength and preparing for His Majesty's Return.

The old prophecy detailing His Majesty's return played in his mind:

The sealed Quincy King will after 900 years regain his body, after 90 years his pulse, after 9 years his power, and in 9 days, the world.

After nearly a thousand years, the desperate cry of the Quincy for salvation has been answered. His Majesty has awoken, and soon nine years needed for him to fully regain his power will pass.

Indeed it was in preparation for this final holy war of theirs that His Majesty set his sights on rebuilding the Sternritters, to their former glory no, something far greater than that.

A millennium ago they had all received power from His Majesty and yet they were still too weak to put up a proper fight against the Soul Reapers. Even with the power His Majesty has bestowed upon them it was still no match for their Bankai.
No they needed to be stronger, in order to not just match but surpass the power of those wretched fiends.

"Hey Quilge, who do you think the new Sternritter is?," Lilltoto Lampert asked, interrupting him from his thoughts.

Liltoto had been among the new generation of Sternritters brought into the fold after His Majesty awakened from his long slumber. It was only natural that someone like her would be curious.

"It's difficult to say," he answered honestly.

"The decision of who enters our fold is entirely up to His Majesty. One of the Soldat could be promoted for all we know."

"Then again His Majesty might choose someone from the world of the living," Quilge said, glaring at Äs Nödt who returned his glare with a look of contempt.

Quilge wondered why of all people, a normal Human was given such distinction rather than a pure-blooded Echt Quincy. They were weaker than the Gemischt, those half-breeds who were born from a tainted union with mere humans.

He didn't dwell on the matter further as it wasn't his right to question His Majesty's decisions.

___ ___ ___

​

As His Majesty descended towards the dais, his throne began to materialize. Lacking any sort of ostentatious ornamentation, it was a simple, yet elegant seat that conveyed His Majesty's authority over his kingdom.

All Quincies had an innate ability to manipulate the reishi in the environment surrounding them. They could absorb and combine it with their own spiritual power to form spirit weapons.

But His Majesty was no mere Quincy as he demonstrated a proficiency for subjugating and manipulating reishi to such a degree that he could freely use it to construct whatever he desired.

It truly was the power befitting a king, something which never ceased to amaze Quilge.

The Quincy technique of Sklaverei that he and his fellow Sternritter used was naught but a paltry imitation of the power His Majesty displayed. Indeed, His Majesty's power was so immense that it was instrumental in stabilizing the Schattenbereich itself.

"My Sternritters," His Majesty said, "you will have a new member joining your ranks."

His Majesty pointed toward a lone figure standing in the far back of the room in the shadows, as if he wished that no one would notice him.

"Step forward, my son," His Majesty said smiling.

As the mysterious Sternritter walked towards His Majesty's throne, the gathered crowd of Soldat and Sternritter parted in two. And after he reached the foot of his Majesty's throne he knelt before his King.

Upon seeing his face, Quilge immediately recognized the boy. Many years ago he was the one to have rescued him from the World of the Living from being consumed by a Hollow. In preparation for His Majesty's return, Lord Haschwalth had begun trying to restore contact with the Quincies in the World of the Living.

While the Wandenreich indeed had secret bases hidden within the World of the Living, the hasty retreat they were forced to make left many stragglers behind who were cut off from His Majesty's light.

Left in the dark these scattered remnants of the Lichtreich endured as small smoldering embers, eventually coalescing as a blazing fire defiantly resisting the Soul Reapers. But without His Majesty's guidance and power, these Quincy were crushed and almost entirely exterminated 200 years ago.

Still, the Quincy endured, but were reduced to a pathetic shell of their former selves. After being so thoroughly crushed they had forgotten the basic techniques that defined the Quincy.

When he happened upon that small Quincy settlement those Quincies who should have easily crushed the Hollows before them were being overwhelmed. Indeed instead of proudly fighting and destroying those disgusting Hollows, he found the Echt Quincy cowering in their mansions as they let the Gemischt Quincy fight their battles for them.

Such weakness disgusted him which was why he delayed intervening until he saw someone worthy to fight for His Majesty.

Indeed as those weaklings were culled, the strongest among them survived, demonstrating his right to exist.

Watching that boy fighting desperate to survive, he saw the latent signs of a greater power waiting to manifest within him.

That's why he saved and brought the boy to the Wandenreich where rather than letting his talent go to waste, it could be realized to its full potential and be made of use to His Majesty.

Indeed His Majesty seemed particularly pleased when he looked upon his latest Sternritter. Quilge wondered what that power was.

"My Children, let us welcome your newest brethren, Rudolph Bernhardt," the Quincy King said with a cruel smirk plastered across his face.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Rudolph said, his head still bowed before His Majesty.

"Arise Sternritter V," His Majesty said.

"Go forth and join your brethren, my dear son shrouded in shadows."

Quilge's eyes widened upon hearing His Majesty's words. It seemed the other Sternritters noticed it too, as their gaze immediately locked onto him.

The letter V was reserved for Gremmy Thoumeaux, the monstrous child whose power terrified all those who stood near him. And after the recent incident, His Majesty saw fit to personally intervene, locking him away from everyone else.

Still the absence of that monster in the form of a child, would leave a noticeable void in the Sternritter as Gremmy's power was unrivaled. The fact that His Majesty assigned the boy specifically the letter V signified that he was meant to take Gremmy's place.

Then there was the nebulous phrase His Majesty said. He called Rudolph his son shrouded in shadows. It made no sense to him and made him wonder about the nature of the power the boy had managed to manifest.