Chapter 8: Shadows Beneath Verdant Hollow
The wind howled as Rael stepped over the edge of the obsidian ridge, his boots crunching against shards of ancient glass embedded in the soil. Before him stretched the vast expanse of Verdant Hollow—a once-sacred valley, now corrupted and broken by time. The trees here bent unnaturally, their leaves grey instead of green. Mist hugged the earth like a second skin.
He adjusted the straps of his pack. His robes had been reinforced with runes against spatial interference. His inner core pulsed steadily, fire coiling within his meridians, responding to the corrupted energy with resistance, not fear.
This place wasn't just another ruin.
It was a wound.
He felt it in the air. The spiritual pressure here was inverted—pressing down like a weight, trying to crush his aura. But he forced his flame outward, wrapping it around him like a mantle.
He pressed deeper into the Hollow.
As he moved, the trees around him grew thinner, stranger. Some bent at odd angles, as if warped by energy too old and too foreign for this world. He passed broken statues carved in humanoid forms—warriors with four arms and reptilian faces, long since forgotten by most of the world.
The Hollow had always been a forbidden zone.
Now he knew why.
At the center of the valley stood a black monolith. It pierced the sky like a spear, surrounded by seven floating stones that pulsed in slow rhythm. The moment Rael saw it, his flame recoiled instinctively.
Void architecture.
He crouched behind a cracked stone pillar and observed. No movement. No noise. But energy poured from the monolith like a silent scream.
He reached into his pouch and drew a small silver mirror—a Spirit Sensor. He focused his aura into it, and the surface lit up.
Three pulses. Slow, faint, distant.
But close enough.
Voidborn scouts.
He had two choices: retreat and report—or eliminate them before they set up another beacon.
He chose the second.
He moved.
Silent. Swift.
Like wind cloaked in flame.
The first scout stood near the base of the monolith, thin and wiry, its skin a sheen of dark blue shadow. It pulsed gently, drinking from the monolith's energy like a parasite.
Rael crept forward, then activated his rune.
Flash-Step.
In an instant, he appeared behind the creature, fire coiled in his palm.
"Radiant Embers—Silent Lance."
He struck forward.
A thin spear of golden fire shot out, piercing the voidborn's chest before it could turn. It shrieked silently, its body unraveling into black dust before hitting the ground.
The monolith flared.
Too late for stealth.
From the trees above, two more figures dropped.
Both were taller—bulkier.
One held a jagged glaive crackling with purple energy. The other had no weapon—its hands pulsed with claws that shimmered like glass.
Rael spun, pulling both hands back.
"Ashen Heart—Blazing Wall!"
A half-circle of compressed flame erupted from the ground, intercepting the glaive just as it struck. Sparks exploded. Rael rolled left, dodging a clawed strike that sliced through stone like paper.
He pushed fire into his legs and jumped back, landing on a ledge.
His breath was steady.
They were faster than the last batch.
Stronger, too.
He had to separate them.
The glaive wielder leapt again.
Rael's eyes narrowed. He spun mid-air, ducking just beneath the glaive and slamming his fist into the creature's gut.
Boom!
A burst of fire exploded outward, sending the voidborn flying into a tree that snapped under the force.
The second came from behind. Too fast.
Rael threw up his left arm, summoning a Flame Shield just in time—but the claws scraped through, cutting into his shoulder. He shouted in pain but twisted with the force, spinning behind the beast and unleashing a wave of compressed flame from his elbow.
"Cinder Blast!"
The creature staggered back, smoking, but not down.
He landed hard on both feet and readied his stance again.
He had to finish one fast.
The glaive wielder was already back, circling with the second voidborn.
Rael closed his eyes for a heartbeat.
His core pulsed.
He opened them.
"Let's see how you handle this…"
He leapt forward, charging both fists with flame.
As the glaive slashed toward him, he ducked—
—then surged upward, using a burst of fire under his feet to launch into the air.
Both voidborn looked up.
"Heart of Ash—Crimson Rain!"
He punched down.
Hundreds of sparks exploded from his fists, descending like a storm of tiny meteors. Each ember sought heat signatures—each one locked on target.
The voidborn screeched as the sparks struck.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
Rael dropped in the middle of the explosion cloud, his robe torn, skin singed—but alive.
The glaive wielder was down, twitching, its body half-melted.
The second beast stood, barely—but its legs were cracked, oozing purple smoke.
Rael stepped forward.
"Radiant Embers—Final Spike."
A thin flame formed into a needle in front of him.
He thrust it forward—
—it pierced the creature's forehead.
Silence.
Then its body disintegrated, joining the others in drifting shadow.
Rael stood still, his chest rising and falling.
The area was quiet again.
But the monolith still pulsed.
Stronger.
He staggered over to it, drawing out his talisman set. Each one marked with Ash Binding Seals. These weren't meant for battle—they were meant for sealing void-tech.
He began placing them in a circle.
Six points.
Then the center.
He sat in the lotus position and pressed his palm to the core.
"Seal: Bind the Unseen. Anchor the Hollow. Lock the Flame."
The runes ignited.
Light blazed around the monolith as the stone cracked, groaned, then began to shrink.
It didn't disappear—it compressed.
Until it became a single dark gem, no bigger than a coin.
Rael collapsed backward.
He'd done it.
But deep below the earth… something stirred.
Beneath the surface of Verdant Hollow, under layers of compacted stone and corrupted spirit ore, something massive shifted. It wasn't a beast, nor a voidborn scout.
It was awake.
Rael didn't know it yet.
He lay there, panting on his back, eyes staring up at the swirling clouds above the hollow. His inner core trembled—not in weakness, but in warning. Every fibre of his flame told him that something far greater than those scouts was nearby… watching… waiting.
The void gem—the compressed monolith—floated above his palm, sealed in seven flame layers. Even in its inert form, it pulsed with dense spiritual signatures. It wasn't just a beacon. It was a seed.
And he had cut it off before it could take root.
But had he come too late?
Rael sat up with a grunt. Blood trickled from a wound near his ribs, but he wrapped it tightly with a band of spiritual cloth. His left shoulder still ached from the claw strike. He popped a grade-1 healing pill into his mouth, biting down on the bitter stone.
The heat spread immediately, knitting skin and dulling pain.
He opened his spatial pouch and retrieved a communicator orb.
"Rael to Ember Sanctum."
Static.
He focused more spiritual energy into it.
Still nothing.
Too much void interference. The monolith might be sealed, but its echo hasn't faded yet…
He would need to return on foot to the high cliffs, beyond the Hollow's suppression field.
He stood.
And that's when the ground shook.
Boom…
The vibration rippled through the soil like a heartbeat.
Rael narrowed his eyes. "That wasn't thunder."
He turned slowly toward the direction of the sound.
The trees there were falling—inward—as if something massive were rising underneath them.
Then it burst through.
A shape—no, a form—unlike any voidborn he had seen.
It was not lean and sharp like the scouts.
This one was heavy.
Muscular.
Its body was made of black stone and glowing orange crystal, its chest marked with deep engravings shaped like chains. Each footstep cracked the ground. Its eyes glowed deep violet.
It was Ancient.
Voidbound Guardian.
And it was not a scout.
This thing had remained after the last invasion.
Dormant.
Buried.
Waiting.
Rael didn't hesitate.
He took three steps back and drew both arms up.
"Flame Ward—Full Bloom!"
A circle of fire surrounded him as golden motes hovered in a defense pattern.
The Guardian raised one hand and slammed it into the ground.
The earth split.
A ripple of force surged toward Rael.
He jumped, launching himself with a burst of fire.
Flash-Step!
He reappeared above the Guardian's head, fists already glowing.
"Ashen Breaker!"
He slammed down.
His fists collided with the Guardian's crown in an explosion of flame.
Nothing.
No crack.
The Guardian didn't even flinch.
Its head turned slowly.
Its palm opened.
A pulse of anti-spiritual energy shot upward.
Rael had never felt anything like it. His flame shuddered—then dimmed.
He fell, barely stabilizing in midair.
"What kind of suppression is that…?" he muttered.
The Guardian stepped forward.
It lifted its arm—and a massive stone sword formed in its hand, the blade etched with runes that hummed with alien power.
Rael's mind raced.
He couldn't run.
If this thing left the Hollow, it could destroy towns. Sanctums. People.
He would fight here.
He would end it here.
He bit down on a second pill—this one bitter and spicy, almost burning his tongue.
Flame Surge Pill.
Temporary overload.
He drew the fire into his core.
It spun faster.
Tighter.
He screamed.
"Radiant Embers—Burst Spiral!"
Flames exploded outward from his dantian, wrapping around his arms and forming twin vortexes that spiraled in both directions.
He shot forward like a comet.
The Guardian swung.
Rael ducked under the blade and twisted midair.
He slammed both fists into the Guardian's shoulder.
BOOM!
A deep crater formed in the giant's black armor.
Finally.
Cracks.
He didn't stop.
He landed, spun, and attacked again.
"Flame Chain—Binding Rings!"
Golden fire coiled into a long chain that wrapped around the Guardian's arm. He pulled it with all his force, anchoring it to the ground with spiritual spikes.
The Guardian roared—not with sound, but with pressure.
Rael stumbled, blood dripping from his nose.
But he didn't stop.
He rushed again.
"Heart of Ash—Searing Spiral!"
He punched into the crack.
The Guardian shook violently.
The flame expanded inside its body, heating the crystal veins—
Until they shattered.
Cracks spiderwebbed across its torso.
Rael coughed blood but smiled.
Just one more—
But the Guardian slammed its hand down on him before he could retreat.
Boom!
A crater formed.
Rael was gone.
Dust clouded the battlefield.
The flame chain faded.
The Guardian staggered back, hunched slightly, a hole still glowing in its shoulder.
And then—
From the crater—
A golden column of flame shot upward.
Rael stood there, robes torn, arm dangling, face bloodied.
But his eyes glowed.
His core pulsed wildly.
And from his chest, the faint image of a phoenix-shaped flame spread behind him.
The first manifestation of his Flame Soul.
His voice was hoarse, but steady.
"This world isn't yours."
He clenched his unbroken hand.
The phoenix flame surged into his arm.
"Heart of Ash—Soul Burn Fist!"
He jumped.
Time slowed.
The Guardian raised its arm—
But too late.
Rael's fist struck dead center into its core.
A soundless blast shook the entire Hollow.
The Guardian froze.
Cracks split down its body like lightning.
And then—
It exploded into ash.
The flame pillar vanished.
Rael collapsed to one knee.
His vision blurred.
But the Hollow was silent again.
The ancient beast was no more.
And a piece of Rael's flame… had evolved.