Chapter 5: Echoes of the Forgotten

The metro tunnels stretched endlessly, a maze of decay and darkness. The air was damp, filled with the scent of rust and old electricity. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped in slow, uneven beats.

Riven and Vex walked in silence, moving cautiously through the abandoned station. This place was a relic—forgotten by the city, ignored by history. It made sense to hide here. To stay where the erased had once walked.

Vex's wrist console pulsed softly, scanning the underground network. The portable drive he had stolen was feeding data directly into his systems, sorting through layers of classified intel. Hollow Monarch activity, missing persons, erased events.

Then—a hit.

Vex stopped abruptly. "Wait. Got something."

Riven stepped closer. "Another vanishing?"

"Yeah. But this one's… different." Vex frowned. "The system flagged it as an anomaly. The person was marked for erasure… but something interrupted it."

Riven's pulse quickened. "They survived?"

Vex hesitated. "Maybe."

Riven didn't wait for more details. "Where?"

Vex pulled up a projection. A map of the city flickered to life, marked with scattered red zones. But one section pulsed yellow.

"A safehouse," Vex muttered. "One of the last underground hideouts for powered individuals." He tapped the display. "Whoever's left there might have answers."

Riven nodded. "Then we move. Before the Monarch finishes what it started."

---

The safehouse wasn't far—but getting there undetected was another challenge.

The city wasn't the same.

Something had shifted. The streets felt thinner, like space itself was folding inward. Buildings that should have been there were gone. The skyline looked… wrong.

Like it was forgetting itself.

Riven moved quickly, keeping to the shadows. Vex followed close behind, his console scanning constantly.

Then—a presence.

A faint hum in the air. A glitch at the corner of Riven's vision. Something watching.

He turned sharply. Nothing.

But the feeling remained.

"We're not alone," he murmured.

Vex nodded. "No, we're not."

They pressed forward. The safehouse was close—a run-down factory at the city's edge, half-swallowed by time. It was one of the last places heroes had gathered before the vanishings had accelerated.

Before the Hollow Monarch had started rewriting the world.

The entrance was hidden behind a rusted security gate. Vex hacked the lock. A soft hiss, a click. The door opened.

They stepped inside.

And the world tilted.

The factory was abandoned, but not empty.

The walls were lined with holograms flickering in and out of existence—as if the memories of this place were fighting to remain.

Shattered weapons, broken masks, torn hero insignias lay scattered across the floor.

Riven felt a sharp ache in his chest.

This had been a battlefield.

Vex swept his console over the room. "Someone's still here."

Riven scanned the shadows. Then—movement.

A figure, slumped against the far wall.

Alive. Barely.

Riven moved fast, kneeling beside them. It was a woman—young, early twenties, her body wrapped in a tattered coat. Blood crusted the side of her head. Her breathing was shallow.

She was phasing in and out of reality.

Riven reached for her—his hand passed through her for a split second.

His stomach twisted. She was half-erased.

"Vex," he said sharply.

Vex scanned her. His face darkened. "Shit. She's in-between. The Monarch started erasing her, but something disrupted it."

Riven gritted his teeth. "Can we stop it?"

"I—I don't know." Vex worked frantically. "She shouldn't even be here. This is—this is unstable."

The woman's eyes flickered open. Panic. Confusion. She grabbed Riven's arm.

And suddenly—

The world collapsed.

---

Riven wasn't in the factory anymore.

He was nowhere.

A vast, endless void stretched around him, thick with whispers. Memories, thoughts, names echoed and faded.

Then, in the distance—it appeared.

The Hollow Monarch.

It did not walk. It did not stand. It simply was.

Its body shifted—a void wrapped in unraveling threads of existence. Its face was nothing, just a hollow space where something should have been.

And yet—it spoke.

"You are not real."

The words tore through Riven's mind.

"You were never real."

The void tightened. The world pulled at him, trying to erase him.

Riven fought back.

He clenched his fists, forcing his mind to hold steady. He wasn't going to disappear. Not like the others.

Not like this.

"You don't get to decide that," he growled.

The Monarch tilted its head. Its body glitched, flickering between dimensions.

Then, a single hand reached for him.

The moment it touched him—

Riven's body burned.

A white-hot agony ripped through his soul. His memories flickered, pieces of his life vanishing, twisting, unraveling.

The Monarch was undoing him.

And then—

A shockwave.

The vision shattered.

Riven gasped, slamming back into reality.

He was back in the factory. The woman had collapsed, her breathing ragged.

Vex was yelling. "Riven! Riven, what the hell just happened?!"

Riven couldn't answer. His body was shaking, his mind spinning.

But one thing was clear.

The Hollow Monarch had touched him.

And something inside him had changed.

---

The woman stirred weakly. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"They're… not done…" she choked out.

Riven leaned closer. "Who? Who's left?"

She shivered violently, struggling to hold onto existence.

"Not… erased," she rasped. "Not yet."

Vex's eyes widened. "You're saying—there's still more survivors?"

The woman nodded. Then her body flickered violently.

Vex swore. "We need to stabilize her. If she phases out—"

Too late.

She vanished.

No sound. No trace. As if she was never there.

Riven clenched his fists. His body still ached from the Monarch's touch. He felt different. Wrong.

But it didn't matter.

They had a lead.

There were still others out there.

And the Monarch was coming for them.