Waking up as a monster isn't as cool as it sounds.
For one thing, the pain was unbearable. My bones twisted and snapped as my half-Hollow form stabilized. Wings of dark sinew unfurled behind me, pulsing with unstable energy. My claws elongated, my senses sharpened, and my vision shifted into something beyond human. Every sound, every heartbeat, every breath in the Spire echoed like a living orchestra inside my skull.
The beast inside me.....no, not just inside me. Me.
I was no longer borrowing its power. I was becoming it.
I hovered in the Nexus Chamber's upper void, staring down at the swirling rift where the Hollow God's tendrils still writhed. The Crown of Ruin floated nearby, watching me with eerie calm.
"THE AWAKENING BEGINS," it whispered, voice like splitting glass. "YOUR SYSTEM EVOLVES, HOLLOW KING."
The words burned into my mind.
SYSTEM UPDATE: PHASE TWO INITIATED.
HOLLOWBORN ADAPTIVE CORE STABILIZED.
NEW SYSTEM PATH UNLOCKED: HOLLOW KING PROTOCOL.
I convulsed as data streamed directly into my neurons, expanding my abilities beyond anything I had imagined. My strength doubled instantly. My mental barrier solidified against external influence. The energy around me bent to my will like a loyal servant.
NEW ABILITIES UNLOCKED:
Dimensional Rift Walk: Short-range phase shifting through solid matter.
Abyssal Regeneration: Rapid healing, even from catastrophic damage.
Hive Command Subjugation: Limited control over lesser Hollow variants.
Soul Echo Perception: Ability to sense nearby souls and energy signatures.
The Hollow King Protocol.
I wasn't just a survivor anymore.
I was a weapon.
But my mind... my human mind recoiled. Kai was gone. Sacrificed. Consumed. His final words echoed like a curse: Finish it.
I screamed, a guttural roar that shook the entire chamber.
The Crown of Ruin hovered closer, tendrils twitching. "YOU ARE COMPLETE. BOW TO THE GOD THAT MADE YOU."
"No," I growled. My voice vibrated with unstable power. "I bow to no one."
With a flick of my claw, I triggered my Dimensional Rift Walk. My body blurred, splitting through reality itself. In an instant, I reappeared behind the Crown of Ruin and drove my dagger deep into its back.
It shrieked, twisting violently, but this time, I kept hold.
"YOUR RESISTANCE IS FUTILE," it hissed, but I could feel its core pulsing—vulnerable.
Adrian and Zara were still on the lower platforms, fighting off remaining Hollow guardians. Through my newly unlocked Hive Command, I pushed a wave of mental domination outward.
Command Initiated: Subjugate Lesser Hollows.
The winged guardians convulsed mid-air, their attacks ceasing. One by one, they turned toward the Crown of Ruin, awaiting my silent command.
Zara stared in shock. "You're... controlling them?"
"Not for long," I grunted. "But long enough."
Adrian raised his rifle. "Say the word."
"Fire."
The guardians swarmed their former master, tearing into the Crown's outer shell with frenzied precision. Black ichor sprayed as it shrieked and thrashed.
The ground shook again. The Hollow God's rift above pulsed stronger, responding to the Crown's distress.
"THE GATE CANNOT BE CLOSED," the Crown rasped, even as its shell began collapsing.
"Watch me," I whispered.
With one final surge, I drove my claw directly into its core.
The Crown of Ruin exploded in a blinding burst of energy.
The room fell deathly silent.
The Hollow rift above trembled. The God's voice, once booming, now sounded... uncertain.
"THE VESSEL RESISTS... THE DESIGN... FRACTURES."
I dropped to the broken platform below. My monstrous form receded slightly as I forced myself to regain control. The beast was still there, hungry—but now we were partners. I wasn't its prisoner anymore.
Adrian approached, eyes wide. "Elias, what—what are you?"
"Still figuring that out."
Zara ran to the control console, rapidly typing. "We have a window. The rift's destabilizing, but it's trying to stabilize itself using the energy Kai's mind provided. If we overload the core here, we can force it to collapse."
"Do it."
"There's a catch." Her voice wavered. "Once I trigger the overload, we won't have time to escape. The chamber will disintegrate."
Adrian cursed. "So we either stay here and die heroes or let that thing fully manifest?"
"There's a third option," I said, my voice firm. "You two leave. I stay."
"Like hell," Adrian snapped. "We don't leave our own behind."
"Listen to me!" I barked. The power inside me surged again, the Hollow King authority bleeding into my voice. "I can survive this. My system—whatever it's become—can absorb the feedback. You can't."
Zara's eyes filled with tears. "Elias..."
"Go. That's an order."
Adrian gritted his teeth, but finally nodded. "Don't make me regret this."
They sprinted toward the extraction platform.
I turned to the pulsing rift. The Hollow God's eye stared down at me.
"YOU DEFY THE INEVITABLE."
"That's kind of my thing," I muttered.
Zara's console beeped. "Overload initiated!" her voice crackled through my comms. "We love you, Elias!"
The platform lifted them out of the collapsing chamber.
The rift surged violently. I hovered into its center, wings flaring. The dimensional energies lashed against me, trying to pull me apart molecule by molecule.
"NO MORTAL CAN STAND BEFORE US," the God bellowed.
"I'm not just mortal," I growled. "I'm what you created. And I'm your end."
The overload reached critical.
The world dissolved into white.
---
I don't know how long I was unconscious. Could've been seconds. Could've been centuries.
When I awoke, I was somewhere else entirely.
A vast white void stretched in every direction, filled with floating shards of shattered dimensions. Time and space rippled unnaturally. My body remained in its hybrid state, but the pain was... gone.
In the distance, I saw it.
The Hollow God. But smaller. Weaker. Its form was incomplete—a pulsing mass of cosmic tentacles barely holding cohesion.
"WE ARE NOT FINISHED," it hissed.
"You're breaking," I said.
"YOU ARE STILL BOUND TO US."
Suddenly, the system interface reactivated in my mind.
UNLOCKING SYSTEM PATH: ASCENDANT HYBRID.
GENETIC LIMITER REMOVED.
ERROR: MULTIPLE REALITY THREADS DETECTED.
COMMENCING SECONDARY EVOLUTION.
Power flooded my core again. My Hollow and human halves fused tighter. My wings solidified into sleek obsidian blades. My neural pathways expanded. My senses now spanned dimensions.
I was no longer a bridge between worlds.
I was becoming something new.
ASCENDANT HYBRID LEVEL 1 ACTIVATED.
The Hollow God lunged, but I phase-shifted instinctively, slicing through its limb as I emerged.
"NO!"
"Yes," I whispered.
Its remaining tentacles writhed. "EVEN IF YOU KILL THIS FRAGMENT... OTHERS WILL COME. THE DESIGN SPANS REALMS."
"Then I'll burn your design," I said, my voice cold.
With one final surge, I drew all the unstable energy from the surrounding dimensional shards, compressing them into a singularity.
The Hollow God's fragment howled as the singularity collapsed inward, consuming its form.
When the explosion cleared, only silence remained.
I floated, breathing heavily.
SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE.
NEW OBJECTIVES AVAILABLE.
A soft pulse drew my attention behind me.
Floating in the void was... a person.
"Kai?" I whispered.
He was intact—whole—but unconscious, suspended in a protective shell of Hollow energy.
"You're alive," I breathed. "You stubborn idiot."
I reached for him, but before I could, something shifted.
A shadow moved through the void—a figure unlike anything I'd seen before.
Humanoid, wrapped in living armor of blackened crystal, its face hidden behind an emotionless mask. Crimson sigils glowed across its chest.
"You have ascended," it spoke with a calm, artificial voice. "Impressive."
I braced myself. "Who are you?"
"I am designated Arbiter Prime. Herald of the Outer Council."
"Outer Council?"
"The true architects of the Hollow Network. The God you fought was a minor appendage. The real war has yet to begin."
My blood ran cold.
"This was just a prelude?"
"Correct," Arbiter Prime nodded. "And you, Elias Hollowborn, have been chosen for... evaluation."
Before I could react, he raised a hand.
The void fractured again, dragging me into a swirling dimensional corridor.
"Welcome to Phase Three."