Averruncus

**Averruncus** (アーウェルンクス, *Āuerunkusu*) is an ancient Arrancar, and the first Vasto Lorde. He was sealed away in eons past by the earliest incarnations of the Zero Division. He is the head of the renegade group known as the Ala Alba. Averruncus is the main antagonist of the fifth universe.

## Appearance

Despite being a naturally created Arrancar, Averruncus form is extremely humanoid. The Vasto Lorde has a slender, yet still muscular, structure, possessing a soft face and short height. His hair is stark white, and cut shorn, with wide, stern blue eyes. Typically, Averruncus rarely smiles, wearing a stoic facial expression - as noted by Marx Dagonet, Averruncus choosing to smile is a sign of impending doom.

Averruncus' *estigma* takes the form of a spiked, crown-like adornment covering his head, with a particularly large spike jutting out from his left cranial side, taking the shape of a horn. His Hollow hole is on his sternum.

Predating Sōsuke Aizen's rebellion by uncountable millennia, Averruncus' sense of dress does not match with that of the rebellion army. Instead, Averruncus wears long, flowing white robes, accented with shades of violet and gold.

## History

Averruncus is an existence dating back to the churning days of the First Era. Before the Soul King, when Hollows materialised and threw themselves into the swirling cycle of chaos and souls, a sole Menos - not the first of its kind - rose above the ranks of mere Gillian and Adjuchas. This being would go on to become the first Vasto Lorde, the ultimate of the Menos lineage. Continuing to grow with power unchecked, this being walked the Earth before the Hollow who could come to be known as Baraggan Louisenbairn would devour its first soul. This being, whose name would be lost to time and history, would go on to devour more and more souls, until eventually, in an encounter with a particularly resistive Hollow, its mask was cracked. Rather than regenerating this, as the Vasto Lorde could do, it felt the shift in its reiatsu, and began to tear its own mask afresh. This being would become the first Arrancar, an evolved Hollow that was close to another type of being.

Sensing that these "other" beings might exist, this new being, this Arrancar began the slow and deliberate process to destabilise the reishi binding the already loosened and swirling void of worlds. This technique, a boon of its new transformation, caused untold havoc, threatening existence. It was then that a lone monk appeared before the Arrancar. Deeming it a threat to the foundation of creation, the monk declared that it could not abide the Arrancar's existence - that it had gone beyond what was allotted to simple Hollows. The Arrancar, however, felt the vast reiatsu of this monk, and knew it was one of the souls it craved - a being like itself, and declared that it would devour the monk, and all those like him, to attain a perfect state of being, and satisfy the emptiness within its soul.

The Arrancar and the monk began to do battle; a furious storm of black clashing against white. Throughout the conflict, souls were lost, torn asunder and devoured. However, the monk was the victor in the end, depriving the Arrancar of its name, and sealing it away within a Kyōgoku under a new name - **Averruncus**. There, the Arrancar would sleep, unable to be killed by the monk, but unable to die, until an upstart Quincy disturbed his bindings with the death of the one who had come to be called the Soul King.

## Trivia

* "*All things return to nothing.*"—Sara
* Averruncus' artwork was commissioned by the author from Antonio Malara.
* Averruncus has minor religious references in his creation:
	+ The name **Averruncus** was a god of averting harm in the Ancient Roman religion.
	+ His *estigma* is inspired partially by the crown of thorns, a woven crown placed on the head of the preacher  Jesus of Nazareth before his crucifixion. It is also partially inspired by the generic depiction of the being known as Satan, with one of the thorns morphing into a traditional demonic horn, as well as a halo - which was the original inspiration before settling on a more crown-like shape.
	+ As with Lucifer, Averruncus "rebelled" against a higher power - in Lucifer's case, the God of Abraham, in Averruncus' case, Ichibē Hyōsube - and was punished for his misdeeds.