Chapter 25 – The Hollow Road

The Hollow City was collapsing.

Riven felt it in the air, in the way the buildings flickered at the edges, dissolving into something not meant for human eyes. The streets twisted, looping in impossible ways, folding over each other like the city itself was trying to trap them inside.

Vex ran beside him, breath ragged, his body half-flickering like he was being pulled between here and somewhere else. Every step felt like it was being stolen from him.

"We need a way out," Vex panted.

Riven didn't answer—he couldn't. His mind was still reeling from the Monarch's voice, still unraveling from the moment the door had opened. He could feel something inside him cracking, something the Monarch had touched.

And it was still with him.

Watching.

Waiting.

Then, the streets shifted again—and they were not alone.

---

The Echoes Hunt

Figures moved in the fog.

Not people. Not anymore.

Riven's stomach twisted as he recognized them—the Echoes. Hollow remnants of those who had once been real. They didn't walk so much as glide, their forms blurred at the edges, as if they had been partially erased from existence.

And they were coming closer.

"Don't let them touch you," Vex said, voice low, sharp with something like fear.

Riven's fists clenched. He knew that already.

The Echoes didn't kill.

They unmade.

He had seen it happen before—someone reaching out, making contact, and then… gone. No death, no body. Just absence, as if they had never existed at all.

And the worst part?

The person left behind forgot.

Riven had watched someone vanish, only to turn around and realize he no longer remembered their name.

The Echoes whispered as they moved, voices stolen from the erased.

"Riven…"

He flinched. The voice had been familiar.

Too familiar.

It had been Nova's.

---

A Memory That Shouldn't Exist

The Echoes lunged.

Riven moved.

His instincts kicked in, his body twisting away as a blurred hand swept toward his face. He felt the emptiness where it passed—like the air itself had been stolen from that space.

Vex fired his sidearm, but the bullets vanished before they could hit. Useless.

"Move!" Vex barked.

They ran.

The city distorted around them, shifting, stretching, breathing. The Monarch was still toying with them, still pulling the strings.

Then—a new path.

A street that shouldn't have been there, leading into a long, dark tunnel. The walls pulsed, the ground cracked beneath their steps, but it was open.

And they had no choice but to take it.

---

The Monarch's Gauntlet

The tunnel was wrong.

Riven felt it the moment they crossed into the darkness.

The sound of their footsteps changed—too loud, like they were stepping on something that shouldn't be solid. The walls curved inward, breathing in a way that made his stomach twist.

Then the whispers started again.

"Riven."

It wasn't the Echoes this time.

It was himself.

He turned sharply, but Vex wasn't looking at him—he was looking past him, eyes wide.

Riven followed his gaze.

And saw himself.

Not a reflection. Not an illusion.

Another Riven, standing in the tunnel's darkness, staring back at him with cold, unreadable eyes.

"You left me behind," the other Riven said.

And then he attacked.

---

Fighting His Own Shadow

Riven barely had time to react before the other him lunged.

He blocked the first strike, but the impact sent a shockwave through his arm—too strong. His double fought like someone who had lived twice as long, someone who had been through more battles than should exist.

Because maybe… maybe he had.

They clashed, blows fast and brutal, each strike mirrored by the other. Every attack Riven made, his double countered. Every movement was one he had seen before—because they were his own.

And worse—the other him was speaking.

Not just speaking—accusing.

"You abandoned me in the Hollow City."

Riven gritted his teeth.

"You should not exist."

"Neither should you."

The words hit deeper than the blows.

Because wasn't that the truth? Hadn't the Monarch already proven that heroes were never meant to exist?

A punch connected.

Riven stumbled, blood filling his mouth. The other him didn't stop, didn't falter. He moved like something inevitable.

Like fate.

And Riven was losing.

---

Vex's Gamble

"Get down!"

Vex's voice barely registered before gunfire roared through the tunnel.

The bullets didn't hit Riven's double—but they did something else.

They hit the walls.

And the walls screamed.

Riven had no time to process before the tunnel collapsed.

The walls cracked, the floor split beneath them, and suddenly—they were falling.

The last thing Riven saw before the darkness swallowed them was his double standing there, staring.

And smiling.

Then—impact.

Pain exploded through Riven's body, the world spinning into chaos.

And everything went black.

---

Waking in the Unknown

He awoke to silence.

A sky that wasn't a sky. A ground that wasn't solid.

The Hollow City was gone.

And in its place…

A world that shouldn't exist.

Riven sat up, heart pounding, as Vex groaned beside him. They were somewhere else now.

Somewhere the Monarch had led them.

And ahead, in the distance—

A tower.

Tall. Endless. Waiting.

Riven's breath hitched.

He knew, without a doubt, what it was.

The Monarch's Throne.

And this game… was nowhere near over.