Chapter 12: The Fall of the Last Light

The Hollow does not take. It replaces.

The Palace Collapses

The darkness struck like a tidal wave.

Kael barely had time to move before the world shattered.

The throne room tore apart at the seams—cracks splitting through marble, pillars crumbling as an unseen force ripped through reality itself. Shadows surged, twisting like living things, devouring the light.

Vaeloria's sword flashed, cutting through the black tendrils lashing toward them.

Lysara raised her hands, murmuring a spell under her breath—but something was wrong.

The magic faltered.

It stuttered like a dying flame, flickering against the onslaught of the Hollow's presence. The very air resisted her.

And Kael—

Kael could still feel it.

That cold, creeping void curling through his veins, digging into his bones like roots trying to take hold. Dain had left something inside him.

Something he couldn't shake.

Something that was watching.

"Move!" Kieran's voice snapped through the chaos.

A slab of the ceiling collapsed, missing Kael by inches as he lurched forward, reaching for his blade. The darkness wasn't just attacking them—it was changing the palace itself. The walls rippled, twisting, doorways shifting like mouths opening and closing.

The Hollow was alive.

And Dain was its voice.

"You're only delaying the inevitable." His voice echoed, calm amidst the destruction.

Kael looked up—Dain stood at the heart of the storm, untouched by the chaos, the shadows curling around him like an extension of his body.

His eyes met Kael's.

And for a moment, Kael swore he saw something else looking back.

Not Dain.

Something deeper. Older.

Something that had no name.

A pressure coiled around Kael's throat. His breath hitched—he felt himself being pulled, his vision tunneling, the Hollow pressing in from all sides. The throne room vanished—

—and suddenly, he was somewhere else.

The Space Between

Kael stood in an endless void.

The Hollow stretched infinitely around him—formless and waiting.

He turned, searching for anything, anyone—

And then he saw it.

A figure standing in the distance.

Not Dain.

Not a man.

But the Hollow itself.

It had no true form—only shifting shadows and the impression of something vast, something with too many eyes and too many voices, whispering just beyond the edge of hearing.

Kael couldn't move.

He wasn't sure he even had a body here.

Then the Hollow spoke.

And its voice was not sound.

It was a thought pressed directly into his mind.

"Why do you resist?"

Kael staggered.

He wasn't supposed to be here.

This wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

"You feel it, don't you?" the voice murmured.

The shadows curled around him, reaching.

"The Hollow does not destroy. It does not take. It only offers."

Kael gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to listen.

He wouldn't.

But the voice pressed closer.

"What has the empire ever given you?"

Images flashed before his eyes—memories that weren't his own.

A ruined battlefield. The empire's banners, soaked in blood.

A burning city. Screams rising with the smoke.

A grave, unmarked and forgotten.

"You serve a kingdom that has already abandoned you."

Kael gasped, shoving back against the presence clawing at his mind.

"No," he growled.

The Hollow stirred.

"You will see, in time."

The shadows lurched forward—

—And Kael was ripped back into reality.

The Escape

He hit the ground hard, coughing, the world slamming back into place around him.

The throne room was still collapsing.

Vaeloria grabbed his arm, hauling him up. "What the hell was that?"

Kael didn't know how to answer. His mind was still reeling—his skin still felt wrong, like something had brushed against his soul and left a mark.

Dain watched him from across the ruined hall, his expression unreadable.

"He knows," Kael realized.

Dain had seen what happened.

Had let it happen.

"You're not ready," Dain said simply.

Then he raised a hand—

And the Hollow swallowed the throne room whole.

The world lurched.

A force yanked them backward, the shadows consuming everything—

And then—

Silence.

When Kael's vision cleared—

They were somewhere else.

The Hollow Scar

The air was different.

Cold, but not natural. It clung to his skin, settling into his bones.

They were no longer in the palace.

They stood at the edge of a ruined city—one of the empire's lost territories, abandoned decades ago when the Hollow first emerged.

Except—

It wasn't empty.

The streets were lined with shadows.

Not Hollowborn.

Not people.

Just… figures.

Silent, watching.

Waiting.

Lysara swore under her breath. "Where the hell are we?"

Kael turned. Dain was gone.

But his voice still echoed in his mind.

"You will see, in time."

A chill ran through him.

Because for the first time—

He wasn't sure he could deny it.

Something was changing inside him.

And he didn't know if he could stop it.