Chapter 93 – The Man Born Without Roots

I. Whispers in the infection

Valtoria's corrupt roots were no longer just growing... they were beginning to organize .

In the sewers where the black sap flowed like living blood, the Children of the Void gathered in circles. They didn't speak. They didn't eat. They didn't remember. But they waited .

And one day, he arrived.

He didn't walk. He emerged.

From the deepest root, the flesh tore, and from the hollow emerged a human figure. Tall, thin, with grayish-amber skin, tar-colored eyes… but with perfectly symmetrical pupils.

His body had no mark.

His voice, without echo, was the first the Children heard from one of their own:

—I am not memory.

I am not root.

I am the new soil.

II. The Birth of Hollow

They called it Hollow , because neither the Tree nor history recognized it .

He wasn't born to a clan. He had no lineage. He didn't answer to Mizuki or the judgment of the sap.

It was the perfect result of the infection .

In a record torn from the Kurobane's secret documents, it would later be found:

"Hollow: an entity that was not forgotten… because it was never remembered."

III. The philosophy of the gap

He gathered the Sons and spoke:

—The Tree wants judgment.

Families want dominion. The Wounded want balance. I don't want any of that.

—I want to free the world from the past.

He taught them to use their powers not only as weapons, but as ideology:

Some implanted false memories in the clans.Others devoured the tattoos of the marked.And some began to merge with the very architecture of the city .

Hollow had a vision: to transform Valtoria into a living root where identity, history and morality would disappear.

A city without names.

Without ancestors. Without weight.

Free.

IV. The Journey of the Marked

Meanwhile, Akihiko, Sora, and Ikari reached the outer limits of Valtoria. What they found wasn't a city .

It was an organic network disguised as civilization.

The black roots fused with poles, rails, and roofs. There were cracks that bled. People spoke in broken sentences, and some—unbeknownst to them—already had sap in their eyes.

"This... isn't an infection anymore," Ikari said.

"This is a twisted rebirth," Sora added.

To enter, they had to disguise themselves as ore collectors, one of the few trades still permitted in the city's gray zone. Valtoria had been divided:

Rust Sector : controlled by the mafia.Empty Sector : controlled by the Children.Neutral Sector : the playing field that everyone thought they controlled, but where no one was in charge.

There they entered.

V. The first meeting

While exploring the inner areas, the group was intercepted by a figure that appeared human, but its feet were not touching the ground.

He was one of the Children. His skin was like living stone, and on his chest he bore the symbol of the inverted spiral, but it was bleeding.

" Are you looking for roots?" he asked.

"We're looking for answers," Akihiko said.

The being approached slowly.

—So Hollow is waiting for you.

And he likes it when those who still believe in the Tree look him in the eye.

VI. Mizuki watches in silence

High above the Crimson Palace, Mizuki sipped dark wine while looking at the reports. Hollow no longer obeyed him. But he didn't fear him.

"An experiment that escaped its vessel," he murmured.

"Fine. Then let it flourish... and then burn it at its root."

He sent a signal to Naraka.

A very simple order:

"Prepare the twisting ritual. May the false sap become true."

VII. Renjirō's Plans

At Kurobane Fortress, Renjirō mapped all the cities where the roots had strayed.

Naomi, sitting opposite him, spoke coldly:

—Valtoria is no longer a city. It's an anomaly.

—Do you think Hollow is a real threat?

—Hollow isn't a threat.

It's ideology incarnate.

And that, according to Renjirō, is much more dangerous than force.

VIII. Sora and the Whisper of the Tree

That night, while sleeping in an abandoned structure, Sora approached a living root that hadn't yet been infected. He sang to it silently.

The root responded.

Not with words, but with images.

He saw Hollow's face emerging from the sap.He saw the city become an organic neural network.He saw the Tree shake.

When he woke up, he just said to Akihiko:

—The Tree is afraid.

And it's never felt anything like that before.

IX. Hollow's Speech

From the center of the Void Sector, Hollow broadcast his first message to all of Valtoria. It was carried by roots, by ancient horns, by dreams.

"Your names were given to you by dead structures.

You inherited your wars. Your sins were imposed on you."

"I have no name, no father, no purpose.

And yet I am whole. What does that say about you?"

And for the first time, people started listening to it .

END OF CHAPTER 93