The Hollow Awakening

The dead moved.

One by one, the lifeless bodies scattered across the village square rose to their feet, their limbs jerking unnaturally. Their empty eyes burned with an eerie violet glow, flickering like dying embers in a storm.

Liora's breath caught in her throat.

"This isn't just reanimation," she murmured.

Alaric, sword drawn, took a step back. "Then what the hell is it?"

She swallowed hard. The way they moved—not mindless, not like the undead she had fought before. There was something else inside them.

Something watching.

Then came the voice.

"You cannot run from the Hollow King."

It came from everywhere and nowhere, vibrating through the air like the last breath of a dying world. Liora's hands instinctively ignited with dark energy, shadows curling around her fingers like living tendrils.

She could feel it now.

A presence.

A cold, suffocating weight pressing down on the very fabric of reality.

And it was aware of them.

The reanimated villagers twitched, their movements disjointed, unnatural—like puppets pulled by unseen strings. Their heads snapped toward Liora and Alaric, their bodies moving in eerie unison.

Then they charged.

Alaric met the first wave head-on.

His runed sword sliced through the air, cleaving the first corpse in half, but it didn't fall. The severed body simply twisted, snapping back together like reality itself was being undone.

Alaric cursed, narrowly dodging an incoming clawed hand.

"They're not staying down!"

Liora gritted her teeth. She reached deep into her magic, pulling at the threads of death itself.

She had controlled the dead before. Commanded them.

But this—

These weren't just bodies. They were something else.

Something claimed.

Still, she had to try.

With a sharp exhale, she thrust her hands forward, sending a surge of necromantic force outward—an invisible wave meant to sever their connection to the force controlling them.

The effect was instant.

A dozen corpses froze mid-step, their heads snapping back violently as if something was being ripped out of them. For a fleeting moment, Liora felt the grasp of the Hollow King's power, cold and endless.

Then—

The controlled bodies collapsed.

Alaric didn't hesitate, taking advantage of the gap. His sword flashed, cutting down two more as they lurched forward.

But the rest…

They didn't stop.

The ones she had freed remained still, but the others? They adapted.

The Hollow King was learning.

Liora barely had time to react before three corpses lunged at her, their speed suddenly inhuman. She barely dodged, twisting her body just in time to avoid a clawed hand raking past her face.

Alaric cursed. "We need to get out of here!"

Liora agreed. This wasn't a fight they could win.

Not yet.

She pivoted, raising her hand, and slammed her magic into the cobblestone beneath them. The ground ruptured, sending shards of stone flying as a wall of blackened mist erupted between them and the advancing undead.

Alaric didn't wait for permission—he grabbed her wrist and ran.

They sprinted through the twisting alleys of the ruined village, the whispers of the Hollow King chasing them like a phantom wind.

"You will kneel."

"All things serve the Hollow."

"Even you, Necromancer."

Liora's grip tightened around her staff.

She wouldn't listen. She couldn't.

The voice wasn't just words—it was an invitation. A slow, creeping pull against the edges of her mind. An offer.

It wanted her to give in.

To submit.

They burst out of the village ruins and into the open gray fields beyond. The sky above churned, dark clouds swirling unnaturally.

Liora risked a glance back.

The village was shifting.

The Hollow King's influence wasn't just raising the dead—it was reshaping the very land itself. A kingdom rebuilding itself in its master's image.

If they stayed any longer, they'd never leave.

Alaric pulled her forward. "Move!"

They ran.

And behind them, in the ruins of the forsaken village, something ancient stirred.

A figure stepped from the mist, draped in shadows darker than night. It did not chase.

It only watched.

And in the depths of its hollow, empty gaze, Liora felt one undeniable truth:

This was only the beginning.