Who even needs goals to move forward?

"...Huh?.. I am... Alive?... But I feel strange... Huh, is it me? Why am I seeing my body from this angle? And what is this strange chain coming from my chest? So many questions, and not a single answer..." The man, though no, already a soul, was thinking about the strange things that happened after his death. Though the strangest thing was precisely that these things were happening after his death. He thought, thought, thought... However, after some time in which he had time to think eight times about everything that had happened to him recently, curse every religion he knew for deceiving him, and pine away, he noticed something strange: mouths (?!) appeared at the end of the chain that hung from his chest and started devouring the chain. "Hmm... That hurts. And it's slow. And I'm both curious and scared to see what happens when they finish devouring the chain..." A minute passed. Two. Three.

***

It's been an hour. The chain was almost over, and the pain had become so intense that a normal person would probably be writhing in agony by now, but.... "Hmph, and this has become annoying..." He wrinkled his nose slightly. Yeah, it had been a long time since he'd felt pain like this... "Oh, it's about to end." There was indeed only one link left of the chain, which was being devoured by the remaining mouths at a tremendous rate. There was a little bit left, and... - Argh! Damn, that really hurt! What is that!!! He screamed as a through hole formed in his chest, and a white substance came out of his eyes, mouth, nose and ears, beginning to rapidly envelop his body... "Oh, shit..." From the pain that overwhelmed his body, and the emptiness that flooded his soul, he passed out...

***

A creature wandered across the white desert. It wasn't human, but it wasn't an animal either. It was... A Hollow. It had just been attacked by another hollow, which this newborn had easily defeated. Defeated and devoured. Yes, that's the order of the world: the strong devour the weak and become even stronger, and the weak die. All the inhabitants of this world adhered to such rules, believing them to be true. And who knows, maybe they weren't wrong?.. - Food... This hollow was abnormally strong for someone who had just been born. He was so strong that most likely no other hollow of the same stage of evolution, no matter how strong, could compete with him. It was for this reason that he couldn't get enough of them. He paused, feeling something pleasant.... - Hmm? The smell of... FOOD!!! He rushed towards the reatsu, a sensation he mistook for a smell. A few minutes of running later, he arrived. The source of the reatsu that attracted him was... A huge hollow cluster, consisting of at least several hundred, if not thousands of these monsters devouring each other. The newborn hollow that had just arrived in this place became excited. - FOOD! It rushed into the pile, indiscriminately devouring everyone around it. He devoured and devoured and devoured until... He was all alone. When it was all over, a strange feeling came over him.... - I want to... Sleep. And he lost consciousness. As he fell, a strange energy began to envelope his body. After a few seconds, he found himself in a black cocoon, frozen in unconsciousness.

***

The Forest of Menos. This, in far future, will be the name of the place under the sands of the vast desert called Hueco Mundo. It is the place where all the hollow ones who have become a gillian, a cluster of many hollow ones in one soul, go. This one was no exception. *crack* The cocoon cracked, revealing that it contained a hollow that had already completed its transformation. *rumble* The cocoon finally shattered, flying away with the wind and releasing a newborn Gillian with a strange mask unlike that of a hollow of his evolutionary level. A different mask from the others was a trait of gillians who possessed intelligence. His mask was white, had flat protrusions coming out of his temples towards the back of his head, bending slightly away from his head. The mask had slits for eyes, and a huge fanged grin cutting across his entire face from ear to ear... *rumble* "Damn, this feels like shit." He got to his feet and started looking around. All he saw was this: some strange crystals growing out of the sand, resting against, and most likely holding up a kind of "Ceiling" that was... Compacted sand? At the very least, it looked like it. The "Ceiling" had holes in it, letting light in the "forest". Because of this, the Forest of Menos had pretty good visibility, which was obviously better than total darkness. After seeing what he could, Gillian concentrated on his senses, instinctively sending out scanning waves of reatsu. After a while, he turned towards the other gillians whose reatsu he had just detected, and walked. Yeah, he didn't run. The Gillians' bodies, characterised by their enormous size comparable to a fifteen story building, were not prone to fast movements. Moreover, this Gillian was at least twice as large as a normal Gillian. It wasn't normal, but that was the way it was. "Found it!" Accelerating as fast as his clumsy body would allow, Hollow approached the group of eight Gillians. They simply walked forward, skirting the occasional obstacle and ignoring everything else. The abnormal hollow watched them for a while, just to satisfy a spontaneous attack of caution. He gave his verdict: "No reaction. No danger." And he walked over, biting the head off one of them. The others didn't react, and he continued to do it to all the others. After a few minutes, he was done. Yes, that was how simple and uncomplicated his first gillian hunt had gone. However, though he rejoiced because of such ease, deep inside he remained disappointed... Until he sensed another group of Gillians. He opened his mouth, and licked his fangs. Together with his disproportionate smile, it created a truly creepy sight. Without paying attention to anything, the huge hollow set off in the direction of his fellow creatures. He could already feel their taste in his mouth...

***

A long time passed. The abnormal hollow got tired of counting its victims after their number passed one thousand three hundred and sixty-three. Or was it sixty-five? He had forgotten. But really, it didn't matter. He felt that something was about to happen. However, no feeling could make him stop hunting: every time he thought about it, his intuition and instincts paired up to scream at him to devour. To devour as much as he could, to become the strongest. Yes, because only the strongest were worthy of.... What? Something on the edge of his mind was scrambling, but Hollow couldn't catch this undoubtedly important thought. As he once again pondered, frozen in place, he felt another Gillian not too far away from him. With part of his mind continuing to think, he went on autopilot towards the reatsu of his fellow creature. After a brief moment of walking, he arrived at his destination. Into his field of vision came a gillian, slightly larger than usual, with a strange mask: it lacked the standard nose that everyone else had, the shape was also not up to the standards for common gillians. However, albeit a little surprised, the abnormal hollow continued walking directly towards him anyway, ignoring his suddenly awakened caution. For which he quickly paid the price: the gillian with the strange mask looked at him, and began to gather reatsu into a ball in front of his face. A little confused by the strange manipulation, the abnormal hollow kept pacing anyway. When the concentration of energy in the ball became maximum, gillian released a beam of concentrated reatsu directly to the abnormal hollow in his mask, and... *explosion* The whole place was covered in smoke. The hollow with the strange mask was satisfied: even though this gillian was abnormally large, he was still extremely stupid. Such an easy victory- "Annoying." The smoke cleared with a wave of the abnormal hollow's hand, revealing a view of a... A completely unharmed gigantic Gillian. He extended his hand towards his prey, who had applied some annoying trick. The hollow, who had poured almost all of his reserve into this Cero, froze in place in surprise, not having time to react when the abnormal hollow's hand landed on his head. A second passed. A second one... The hand clutched the prey's head, and yanked sharply upwards, separating it from its body. The abnormal hollow devoured the most annoying prey of all time. An overwhelming feeling took over him, he swayed, and after a few clumsy attempts to regain his balance, only making things worse, he-. *rumble* He fell. His body was huge, so the rumble was intense. The nearby crystalline 'trees' crumbled from the shockwave, and the 'ceiling' held up by them collapsed right onto the hollow's body, only to, along with everything a few hundred metres around, turn to dust from the spiritual pressure emitted by the cocoon with the hollow evolving into an Adjukas inside.

***

Hollow, who had no name yet, appeared in a strange place. He looked around: ahead was a vast land covered with grass. The wind rustled quietly, swaying the grass. The sun was shining moderately. The rustling of leaves behind him was heard. Hollow turned around, and was momentarily speechless. His eyes widened. Comparing the two, the hollow no longer thought the vast field was large. The tree behind him was simply staggeringly huge: its height, when expressed in metres, was probably an astonishing five-digit number. Its roots, which he had previously mistaken for mountains, peeked out from the ground, completely covered in grass. Its branches, full of foliage, spread out for kilometres around. Hollow could only see the sun because he was simply too far away from the tree, and his shadow couldn't reach him. - Amazing... He, with eyes open with shock, savoured the view of nature. He walked for a few hours, or maybe even days: the sun was not moving at all, so there was no way to tell. When he finally got close enough to the tree to stand in its shade, and was a calmer after surprise, he sensed something was wrong. Focusing, he began scanning his surroundings for sources of reatsu. There was no one or nothing around, but the bad feeling only intensified. Just as he began to think of a solution to the problem, his body began to disappear. In a matter of seconds, he disappeared completely, leaving no trace behind....

***

A very strong adjucas appeared in Hueco mundo. Everyone in the area felt it as a wave of strong reatsu was felt throughout the Forest. The nearest hollow instantly ran in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the newborn adjucas examined his new body with interest. It didn't look much different from how it did when he was a lowly hollow in the bottom of the food chain: he still was a big cat-like creature, but more compact now. All that had changed was the quality and quantity of reatsu. Yes, the difference was striking, considering the fact that even fairly strong adjucas ran away in fear as soon as they sensed him. If things continued like this, he wouldn't be able to hunt, which meant he'd regress. He didn't delve into how he knew that, he was just looking for a way out of the situation. "If everything runs away as soon as they smell me, then..." He strained his brain, trying to think of a way out of the situation. "Then... Then I just need to not let them sense me!" He had an idea. And he liked solving his problems with brains, even though not as much as with fangs. But it was still nice: feeling like you could come up with a solution to a problem without having to move at all. But he knew there was something that was even more satisfying. The hunt. Oh yes, once he hid his reatsu, he would go hunting... He stopped suddenly at that thought. "How... How do I do this...? He tensed up again, trying to fish out something useful in his mind. He couldn't find anything. However, despite that, he was still burning with determination to hide his reatsu. Obeying the sudden prompting of his intuition, he tried to sense his spiritual energy. And almost immediately, he was able to do so! Then, overjoyed at his success, he tried to channel all the spiritual energy that was flowing out of him uncontrollably back into his body. It was a mistake: he didn't like the pain. He grimaced: his body felt like it was about to explode. However, with relentless determination, he continued to pump energy into his body. He also immediately channelled whatever energy he released subconsciously every second into himself. His body was burning with the overflowing power. His muscles tightened with incredible force, his bones cracking. When about a third of his reatsu had already been channelled into his body, he... Fainted. Losing consciousness in the middle of a place crawling with hollows that were just waiting for a chance to devour you was a very bad idea, but an abnormal hollow didn't even want that, especially because.... *explosion* His spiritual energy, which he had been holding in his body with sheer control, with the loss of his consciousness, and with it the loss of control, burst out, creating a huge explosion and then scattering around. For this reason, there was not a single hollow left for many kilometres around. The abnormal hollow, at the same time, was just laying on the sand. Laying, laying, laying, laying.....

***

After some time, during which the abnormal hollow never got up, a trio of adjucas appeared near him. However, despite their huge amount of reatsu, which could be felt by anyone who came even a few kilometres closer, the abnormal hollow didn't even move. Of course, because their reatsu... It could barely compare to what he had managed to cram into his body, that is, a third of the maximum. However, as soon as they began to gather their spiritual energy into one huge ball directed at him, the abnormal hollow, sensing their intentions and the danger emanating from the ball, instantly woke up and rushed at them with all his might, at the prompting of his intuition and instincts directing the maximum amount of reatsu he could control into his body and compacting it there. Yeah, that's what he was missing... Compaction! Joy filled his mind, but he was immediately distracted by the danger, that is, the three adjucas and the blob of their spiritual energy in front of him. All of this happened in a matter of moments, so the trio of hollows barely had time to react, releasing a cluster of their spiritual pressure at their abnormal creature. The attack caught up with him almost instantly, and.... *explosion* It exploded. Everything around it was covered in smoke, and the shockwave threw the three hollows back. A few seconds later, while they were still recovering, the smoke cleared due to the reatsu wave, and they saw... A burnt, but otherwise unharmed, abnormal hollow. After such a show of strength, they simply gave up, not even resisting as he began to devour them. After finishing his meal, he waited for his body to regenerate the damage, which didn't take even a minute, and ran towards the hollow he had just sensed. Well, "ran" would be an exaggeration... *rumble* He made a leap, and immediately crashed into a crystal "tree". Why did that happen? Because, due to the presence of a huge amount of incredibly compressed reatsu in his body, it was constantly reinforced, thus increasing his physical strength to unbelievable values, even for a hollow. However, this amplification had a downside: because of this enormous amplification, the body could not withstand it: muscles would tear and bones would crack, almost crumbling under the pressure. The abnormal hollow again had to take some time to recover. Once his muscles and bones had recovered enough to not crumble/tear from a careless step, he slowly stood up, and took a cautious step. That step carried him several hundred metres forward. The muscle did tear. But not badly, and he didn't crash this time.... Like this, taking careful steps and recovering, the abnormal hollow gradually adapted his body to its new strength....

***

Some time passed. Once again, the abnormal hollow took a step. But what made this step different from the others was that... His body did held up: his muscles hadn't torn, his bones hadn't even cracked. It was a success. With joy, the hollow took another step. Nothing again. And another. And another. And another. And another... Adjukas, who had decided to go out hunting saw this, and quickly decided that this "Forest" wasn't so good, and it was worth getting out of this place... But was crushed by the abnormal hollow, still bouncing around happily. After feeling some resistance on another jump, the abnormal hollow looked around, and immediately noticed the corpse of the Adjucas he had accidentally killed. Looked around. Glanced at it. And ate it. Why waste food? As he ate, he calmed down and returned his thoughts to the hunt. Scanning the surrounding area, he sensed a huge cluster of hollows at the edge of sensitivity. Instantly preparing himself, he made another jump, this time with all his might, and... Leaped the entire distance, which was several tens of kilometres in a few seconds. Due to his surprise, he didn't stop immediately, accidentally blowing additional holes in several gillians, and crushing some Adjucas on landing. Looking around, he saw: thousands of Gillians fighting amongst themselves, and five adjucas, in addition to the one he had crushed, frozen in surprise. Four of them stood opposite the fifth and the sixth, henceforth a mangled corpse. Fully understanding the situation, the abnormal hollow began to absorb the dead adjucas. There was a silent pause, if you ignore the Gillians fighting around. A second passed. A few more. The abnormal hollow, busy devouring the body, stared at the frozen Adjucas with a question. - What's up? Is something wrong? The Adjucas froze. Such insolence they had never seen before. - Oh, you *****! I'm gonna eat you! I don't know what's wrong with you, but I can't even feel your spiritual pressure, so you'll be my food! One of the four Adiucas shouted. The abnormal hollow didn't like the way he was being treated, so he got a little angry, and.... With a jerk, he bit the cocky adiucas' head off. Took a sip of blood. Turned round to the other three. A chill ran down their backs when they saw the look in his eyes. They turned around to flee, but found themselves decapitated in the next instant. The abnormal hollow began to consume them. Finished, he looked around and noticed that the last adjucas had already fled. Deciding not to chase him, Abnormal hollow yet again looked around and saw that there was still plenty of food around him. A massacre had begun. The abnormal creature, still without a name, was devouring everyone else. Devouring, devouring, devouring.....

***

The Gillians just ended. The realisation of this fact made the abnormal hollow freeze in place, and start searching for the next prey. The search was unsuccessful: it seemed to have destroyed all the hollows in the area. But that wasn't really important: he just needed to get farther away. With his speed, it wouldn't take long...

***

Okay, it took a while... He had long since left that strange "forest". There had still been some tasty group of adiucas on his way out, yes... Now he was running again through the vast desert, whose pale sands seemed to glow under the eternal moon that, like an all-seeing eye, was visible everywhere you went... Abnormal hollow, quite tired(!), sat on the sand, looking at the eternal companion of Hueco mundo. He felt hungry, but felt no prey around him. If this keeps up, he may easily regress.... Yes, another reason to hunt - regression, which is almost equivalent to death, could happen to every hollow that ate at least one soul if it doesn't hunt further. However, if the hollow rises to the last stage of evolution, and becomes one of the strongest, he will no longer be affected by regression. Yes, that is the abnormal hollow's immediate goal: to become the strongest. And for that, one must hunt... He rose up from the sand, and tore towards the reatsu he had just smelled. Even if it took a thousand years, he would do it. After all, he is worthy...