Welcome to Gaia! ::

| C I L L I A N__✥__F O L A M H |

Before his Gran Rey Cero could be fully charged, what could only be described as a magnitude 9 quake shook the ground around him, sending more sand and debris onto him. With a growl and another Sonido, he reappeared higher, where the sand would not submerge him. That was when he spotted another familiar presence. The Tree's granddaughter had come and join them. As the Ternary had feared, Cillian had shifted his attention to her, thinking that they needed more incentive to release all inhibition.

Before he could make his plan become a reality, however, the Ternary appeared, having caught on to his bluff. "Make me," was his only response to Marta Nicole's indignation. Making use of the Hilos he had planted into Marta Nicole's leg, Cillian was startled to learn that all three of them not only shared an identical Reiatsu, it was deeply linked to all three consciences. The Ternary were brimming with new found powers, Segunda Etapa within reach, but would they have the resolve to tame it? "I believe it's time you stopped holding yourself back." And by 'yourself', he meant the Quinta's extension, the twins.

Even if they had come so far, Cillian was not about to pull back. 'Going easy' on someone was not something that was familiar to Arrancars such as he so he would not feel the slightest unease if he accidentally maimed the Ternary in the process of their training. It was a world where the quick learners get to live while those that were slightly slower served as stepping stones.

Still, he waited for her to attack first instead of striking while she talked simply out of curiosity as to what move she would pull. The javelin throw was one that he expected so he leaned sideways as son as it left her hand. In the same movement, Cillian brought his tail upwards, intending to have it slam down onto it when Zyne would fly pass it, but that was before the Quinta called out a new name.

Salte didn't have to be told twice. She sprang from her perch and began following the herds of hollows that were beginning to trickel in. They were the speedy ones, the forerunners of the pack that was coming. They all bounced leaped and sprinted in a panic. The crowds becoming thicker as the pressure slowly but stedily grew. What ever the onld man was doing didnt seem to be working, but salte knew the old man was a lot tougher than he looked, and that she was the squishy one. Graefully leaping among a flock of hollows she became the leader, guiding them to the dunes. She had not often come this way, it had been some time since she was last out of the forest of stones, but her senses were honing in on what the others were after. Using their instincts she led them forward. Without a leader the hollows followed without question, fear and panic drove them to latch onto whatever source of stability.

As Salte dissappeared with the point of the soon to be stampede, a spinning object ejected itself from the ceiling dropping into the herd. Sticking into the sand it split open releasing Arbutus. The hollows charged past his position, moving just out of the way enough to pass. The Old Man's expression was grim, Things were only beginning, but the steady stream of creatures great and small was oddly organized. He sensed Salte's retreating signature and smiled when he noticed that she was the one leading the herd. That ought to keep the damage to this zone to a minimum.

On that note, he laid a hand on one of the massive quartz trees. A flood of sensory data flowed into Arbutus. It had been an age since he had been here. As he absorbed the information from the trees, he observed the battle going on. Seemed the Cero was pushing the triplets, of course! their segunda Epata! Arbutus nodded at their warning.

"Our aggressors are no more, but I fear I resorted to a method far more damaging. You no doubt felt the effects of my final blow, but the damage reached too far. I have weakened the very barrier that holds the Sea of Purity at bay. My plants are stemming the tide but it will not last, we have days if not hours before the dam bursts and this area is awash in pure reiatsu so dense its a veritable fog."

Abutus watched as his grandchildren were literaly dragged off. Removing his hand from the trees he gave one final command to them before using his sonido to follow the others. He grunted, his sonido was a rusty thing, his size and the limited space of the forest of stones made it less than useful for him. The tall elderly arrancar seemed to shimmer, splitting into three ghostly images of himself before all three vanished.

---

After the master of plants left the trees began to react. They began absorbing the rising ambient reishi and funneling it away. Above ground the trees that poked up through the sands began letting of reishi. like vents it was helping lessen the explosive pressure of the coming wave. In the forest of stones itself, the plants that had inhabitied Arbutus' large territory were barricading the breach in the sekkseki stone. Piling rocks and tearing up portions of existing formations to transport it to the broken expanse. This was helping limit the spread, but it was like placing sandbags when the tsunami was already present. It was buying time.