Pernida Parnkgjas

is a Quincy and a member of the Wandenreich's Sternritter with the designation "C" - "The Compulsory", as well as one of Yhwach's. It is also the left hand of the Soul King.

Appearance
Pernida wears a long white cloak fastened at the front with three buttons and with a black Hagal rune on its side. The cloak obscures its face with shadow, leaving glowing eyes.

As the left hand of the Soul King, Pernida's body consists of an enormous left hand with chains linking its fingertips together and a large eye with two pupils and irises in the center of its palm. Upon breaking the chains, Pernida gains the rest of its body in the form of a large arm, which has tendons, muscle, and bone spilling out at the end. In this form, Pernida is incredibly tall, to the point where it easily towers over human-size combatants like Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa.

Personality
Pernida is somewhat cocky and arrogant, claiming that the size of its enemy means nothing to it. It also displays this when facing Mayuri Kurotsuchi, whom it taunts by asking if it should make him more nervous during their fight and imitating Mayuri's laugh after overcoming his modified Bankai. Despite being the left arm of the Soul King, Pernida firmly identifies itself as a Quincy, and becomes irritated when this is mocked, taking great pride in being one. This pride is such that Pernida will not forgive anyone who insults the Quincy.

History
Pernida alongside Gerard Valkyrie were Quincy that were not bestowed any special powers by Yhwach as they had their abilities from the onset. They were the only ones out of all the Sternritter who already possessed their abilities. Because of this, rumors of them being the Left Hand and Heart of the Soul King, respectively, were spread among their comrades. Eventually Yhwach bestowed a Schrift upon them in recognition of their status.

The Thousand-Year Blood War arc
When Senjumaru Shutara kills Nianzol Weizol, Yhwach summons Pernida alongside three other Sternritter to fight the Royal Guard for him. When Senjumaru summons a massive guard to battle the Sternritter, Pernida uses The Compulsory to compress it. When Lille seemingly shoots Senjumaru through the head, he has Pernida compress the body into a ball to remove it from Yhwach's path.

After Ōetsu Nimaiya confronts them, Pernida watches as Gerard and Lille attack him, only to be swiftly cut down. After Lille is cut down, Pernida attempts to use The Compulsory on Nimaiya, who immediately stabs it with Sayafushi.

Soon afterward, Pernida is resurrected through the power of Yhwach's Auswählen. It uses its power to break open the Cage of Life. Later, while Yoruichi Shihōin is attacking Yhwach, Pernida appears on Yhwach's command and warps Yoruichi's arm with The Compulsory. When Pernida falls off the crumbling palace, Gerard Valkyrie catches it and brings it with him to more stable ground.

Later, after Yhwach completely absorbs the Soul King, Jugram Haschwalth informs Pernida and the others of this before bringing them to the Soul King's chambers, where they find Yhwach oozing darkness. Due to Yhwach's immense power, the top of the palace shatters, forcing the Sternritter to move to pieces of rubble for safety.

Afterwards, Pernida is present alongside Haschwalth and the other Sternritter when Yhwach explains the name of his new palace, Wahrwelt, and how it will be the cornerstone of their new world. Later, Pernida and the other Schutzstaffel head out into the city.

Pernida is confronted by Kenpachi Zaraki, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and Nemu Kurotsuchi as Kenpachi decides to kill it despite Mayuri's objections. Pernida injures Kenpachi's right arm, but he responds by cutting its head, which begins to expand.

Pernida uses The Compulsory to further twist Kenpachi's arm, forcing him to rip it off, before reducing it to a puddle of blood. After briefly wondering how to slash it without getting close, Kenpachi leaps forward and cuts partway through Pernida, only for it to warp his legs. After incapacitating Kenpachi, Mayuri reveals the true nature of The Compulsory, and when Pernida extends several shadowy tendrils toward him, Mayuri releases a liquid all over them, causing Pernida to scream in pain as Mayuri explains how he exposed its nerves. As Pernida pants, its cloak begins to come apart.

As Mayuri asks it to donate its body to him for experimentation in order to honor Kenpachi's sacrifice, Pernida shreds its cloak in anger, revealing its true form as the left hand of the Soul King. After gaining the rest of its body in the form of a large arm, Pernida attacks Mayuri by sending more shadowy tendrils toward him, only for Mayuri to block them with a strange shield and claim his happiness at the situation overrides his curiosity as to why the left hand of the Soul King is working for Yhwach. Hearing this, Pernida wonders aloud what Mayuri means by happiness, which surprises Mayuri as the tendrils begin to surround him. Pernida unleashes a barrage of tendrils from behind its body, and when Mayuri addresses it as the left arm of the Soul King while telling it to show him more, Pernida states that this is wrong, for its name is Pernida.

Pernida states its name once more, prompting Mayuri to claim he is the one who will name it because he found it. However, Pernida claims it does not understand before proclaiming that it will not forgive Mayuri because he is an enemy before sending its nerves into the ground, which Mayuri notes is proof that Pernida can control inanimate objects as well. Leaping to avoid the ground rupturing underneath him, Mayuri grabs onto a building with Jabarakaina, but Pernida throws him off by pushing out the side of the building facing him before crushing him between two giant hands made of stone. However, Mayuri escapes unscathed by having his luminescent armor explode, and as he falls toward Pernida's nerves on the ground below, Mayuri presses something on the backs of his shoes, causing him to stop and float in midair on Reishi. To the surprise of Pernida, Mayuri reveals this is the Quincy movement technique, Hirenkyaku, before deciding to take a sample and blowing off Pernida's pinkie with a remote explosive, causing it to scream in pain. As Mayuri splashes the pinkie with a preservation fluid, he is caught off-guard when nerves extend from the pinkie into his arm, and as his arm bursts, Mayuri quickly stitches it back together while rearranging its anatomical structure before claiming that Pernida cannot take control of him so easily.

Mayuri admits that it has been a while since he operated on his arm, prompting Pernida to ask him if he is nervous as its severed finger grows into another hand that leaps toward Mayuri, who blasts it away. As Mayuri notes that it will be hard to take pieces of Pernida back if it keeps reproducing itself, Pernida removes its middle finger, which begins to grow additional fingers. Recalling how he once read that the right arm of the Soul King is responsible for "stopping" and the left arm is responsible for "advancing", Mayuri activates a modified version of his Bankai, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō: Makai Fukuin Shōtai. Explaining how this is a modified version of his Bankai that can give birth to other Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō, Mayuri has his Bankai create a Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō with visible veins across its body, which Mayuri reveals is a version with nerves on the surface of its body. Pernida attempts to take control of the Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō, but Mayuri explains how the nerves are divided into 70000 layers, which will peel off if taken control of, as the Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō devours Pernida and its clones.

Once inside the Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō, however, Pernida destroys it with a barrage of Heilig Pfeil before reminding Mayuri that it is a Quincy. When Mayuri mocks the idea of the left hand of the Soul King claiming to be a Quincy, Pernida expresses annoyance at Mayuri mocking the Quincy before creating five Heilig Bogens above its fingertips and firing at Mayuri. With its nerves connected to its Heilig Pfeil, Pernida infiltrates and destroys Mayuri's left arm before redirecting an arrow toward his back, though it is intercepted by Nemu Kurotsuchi.

After regenerating his arm, Mayuri jumps off the tower he and Nemu are standing on and rockets toward Pernida, who begins unleashing barrages of arrows at him alongside its clones. Mayuri and Nemu enact a plan to kill Pernida and its clones by coagulating their blood, and after Nemu injects one of the Heilig Pfeil with the agent, the nerves connected to it transfer the agent to the clone controlling it, which is frozen up along with the other clone. However, when the agent begins coagulating Pernida, it simply rips off the infected thumb and informs Mayuri that this is not enough to kill it, prompting Mayuri to note that it sounds like Kenpachi before realizing that Pernida can evolve by absorbing information from objects which it touches with its nerves. As Mayuri deduces that Nemu's speed will not be enough to outpace Pernida if it has evolved to Kenpachi's level, one of the clones sheds its infected skin like the modified Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō could.

As Pernida prepares to attack Mayuri, its hand is blown apart when Nemu bursts through it, rescuing Mayuri in the process. Soon after, Nemu confronts one of Pernida's clones and blows a hole in it using Gikon Jūrinjū. However, the clone survives and uses The Compulsory to tear Nemu apart before reforming. After gaining a tongue and more eyes, the two clones begin devouring Nemu's remains, only for Mayuri to take her brain and counter The Compulsory with his Reiatsu before explaining how Nemu's brain controlled her uncontrollably multiplying cells as the clones self-destruct from regenerating too much. As the clones burst apart, their pieces hit the ground before exploding.

Powers & Abilities
Evolution Governance: Pernida governs progression and advancement through evolution, the enhancement of oneself and others via accelerated evolution, which it displays with the various adaptations it employs in order to survive combat situations.


 * Organic Evolution: Pernida can evolve by absorbing and consuming organic biomass and gaining the abilities, traits, and attributes of the being the biomass was from.


 * Adaptive Replication: Pernida can evolve by absorbing information from objects it touches with its nerves. In doing so, it evolved itself to the power level of Kenpachi Zaraki and replicated the layer-shedding ability of the Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō created by Mayuri Kurotsuchi's Modified Bankai.


 * Anatomy Manipulation: Pernida has complete control over its anatomy, which it can freely alter and manipulate. It can grow additional appendages, remove sections or otherwise manipulate its parts.


 * Self-Replication: Should one of its fingers be removed from its body, Pernida can create a clone of itself from that finger. This involves the finger sprouting additional fingers and eyes before growing into a full hand and arm, which is distinguishable from Pernida itself by the fact that it only has one pupil in its eye and no Hagal rune on its wrist. These copies can also use The Compulsory and create Heilig Bogen and Heilig Pfeil on their own. These clones can also reform from extreme damage, such as having their body torn to shreds, and can remain sentient and use their powers even in a state of severe dismemberment; this is achieved by having even more eyes and fingers appear on the dismembered parts.


 * Regeneration: Pernida can regenerate its parts and any fingers it loses, intentionally or otherwise.


 * Reconstitution: Should its body be destroyed, Pernida can completely reform and reconstruct itself in a short period of time.


 * By shooting its nerves from its fingers and extending them into its opponent's body, Pernida can forcibly control their movements. Using this power, it instantly crushed the body of one of the Soul King's giant soldiers and condensed the corpse of Senjumaru Shutara's body double into a compact ball. When using this power, the shape of Pernida's head distorts temporarily, becoming larger. It can also use this power to severely warp individual body parts, such as the arms of Yoruichi and Kenpachi Zaraki; in the latter's case, it eventually reduced the arm to a puddle of blood, and would have warped Kenpachi's entire body had he not ripped his arm off. If it infiltrates a victim's entire body, Pernida can tear them to shreds near-instantaneously. It can also send its nerves into inorganic objects in order to control and shape them, which Pernida usually does by creating giant arms and hands out of the ground and nearby buildings to attack its opponents with. In addition, if one of its fingers is severed, Pernida can have it use The Compulsory remotely, which involves an eye opening on the knuckle of the finger before attacking the target. This ability is not actually a true Schrift granted by Yhwach's blood, but an ability Pernida has always possessed.

Reishi Manipulation: As a Quincy, it primarily absorbs spiritual energy from the atmosphere and combines it with its own spiritual energy to form weapons. It has an easier time collecting this energy in environments with higher concentrations of Reishi, such as in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo.


 * Hirenkyaku Expert: Almost immediately after being called by Yhwach, Pernida appeared behind Shunpo master Yoruichi Shihōin, catching her off-guard, and attacked her before she could react.

Spirit Weapon

 * Pernida's preferred weapon takes the form of a large traditional bow and arrow, which it forms between its ring and index fingers and fires with its thumb. It can also create five smaller Heilig Bogens above its fingertips in order to fire more arrows at once.


 * Pernida can gather Reishi from the surrounding environment and condense it into arrows before firing them from its bow. Its arrows are very large and powerful, a single one having destroyed an entire tower, and can be imbued with Pernida's nerves in order to infiltrate a target from a distance; this also allows them to be redirected if they miss Pernida's target.

The Compulsory
Nerve Exposure: The Compulsory can be countered by exposing Pernida's nerves, which causes it intense pain.

Anatomy Change: If the anatomical structure of a limb invaded by Pernida's nerves is changed, it can no longer be controlled.

Reiatsu Defense: The nerves can also be forced back by concentrated Reiatsu.

Trivia
In its debut appearance, Pernida was originally depicted with an arm, but later once it's full appearance was revealed, it instead had no limbs and was itself a giant arm.