HOLLOWKIND

MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY

Chapter 04: The Hollowkind

Muraei woke to screams.

A child's shriek cut through the early dawn fog like a dagger through cloth. Izek was already halfway down the inn's stairs before his boots were fully on, Raian right behind him.

Outside, villagers gathered at the edge of a well, shouting over one another. A woman sobbed uncontrollably. Two men struggled to pull something up from the darkness of the pit.

Raian shoved through the crowd. "What happened!?"

"A boy," someone cried. "He went to fetch water this morning. But only his rope came back up… and this!"

They held up what was left.

A torn shirt, soaked in something far darker than water—something thick, black-red, and reeking of rot. The villagers stepped back, fear etched on every face.

"That scent," Izek murmured, lowering his head toward the well. "That's not blood. That's… decay."

Then he felt it.

Resonant Flow.

But twisted. Distorted. The same unnatural current he'd felt in the gorge—only worse. Feral. Hungrier.

"Something's down there," he whispered.

Raian's eyes locked with his. "It's here too."

---

The head elder convened the town leaders inside the longhouse, begging Izek and Raian to stay and help. Word of their clash in the gorge—and the strange power Izek unleashed—had already traveled like wildfire.

"The disappearances began weeks ago," the elder admitted, voice low. "Livestock first… then people. Always before sunrise. We posted guards. They vanished. We don't know what it is. But it… it feeds."

Raian folded his arms. "Why haven't you abandoned this place?"

"Because where would we run that it couldn't follow?" the elder said. "It isn't human. It's something else. It comes through the earth. It whispers to those too weak to resist."

Izek leaned forward. "Do you know what it's called?"

The elder hesitated… then nodded.

"The old ones called them Hollowkind. Echoes of those who lost control of their Resonant Flow. Their bodies don't die—but their minds are shattered. They become… starved shadows of what they were. Monsters that crave resonance… and devour it."

Raian went quiet. Then: "Then we'll put it to rest."

---

That night.

The well was baited.

Izek and Raian sat in the silence, cloaked in shadows, resonance suppressed. Hours passed. The wind shifted.

Then it came.

A clicking sound. Bone on stone. Wet breaths.

From the well, something climbed.

It wasn't fast. It didn't need to be.

A malformed shape crawled over the edge, dragging something behind it. Something that used to be human.

Its face was stretched, no eyes, just a cracked mask of skin. Its limbs were too long, and its ribs pulsed outward like breathing sacks. From its hunched back, a spine glowed faintly with flickering orange light—Resonant energy turned toxic.

Raian whispered, "Hollowkind."

The creature sniffed the air. Then it turned—

BOOM!

Raian leapt forward first, fists glowing. The Hollowkind roared, its body whipping unnaturally as it dodged. It moved like liquid shadow, splitting into afterimages as it skittered on all fours, clawing at Raian.

Blood flew. Raian grunted, a gash ripping across his chest.

Izek moved next.

A blur of green eyes. His fist slammed into the beast's side—but it didn't budge.

It absorbed the blow.

The Hollowkind's back pulsed—then struck back with a tail of hardened bone. It lashed into Izek's stomach, lifting him and hurling him into a stone wall.

"Izek!" Raian shouted, holding his side.

Izek slumped down, blood pouring from his mouth.

The creature stalked closer, every limb clicking in anticipation. Its mouth peeled open—not jaws, but a gaping spiral of flesh, twitching.

Raian tried to rise. Failed.

The Hollowkind pounced—

And then, time slowed.

---

Izek felt it again.

The weight.

But not fear.

Not pain.

Not rage.

Resolve.

He saw himself dying here. Saw Raian torn apart. Saw the village erased from existence.

He clenched his fist.

No.

Energy surged—not in sparks, but in gravity.

The ground cracked beneath his feet as he rose. The very air around him bent.

His fist glowed white. Not flame. Not lightning. Density.

As the Hollowkind flew at him—

Izek met it halfway.

CRASH!

His fist struck the creature's chest—and everything around them cratered. The Hollowkind was launched back, slamming into the dirt, its twisted body spasming.

It screeched—not in pain, but in fear.

Raian's eyes widened. "That punch... It distorted the air…"

The Hollowkind tried to rise, shaking.

But Izek stepped forward.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Each footfall made the ground tremble.

He raised his fist again.

And struck.

Once.

The Hollowkind didn't scream this time. It shattered.

Bone. Flesh. Resonant corruption—scattered like ash in a shockwave.

Silence returned.

Raian stared. Then he laughed—quiet, pained.

"You're insane," he said.

Izek fell to one knee, breathing hard. "That thing… was like a mirror. Of what we could become."

Raian nodded slowly. "That's the price of power… Lose yourself, and you become something even death forgets."

They sat in silence under the blood-stained moon.

Behind them, villagers slowly emerged. Eyes wide. Silent.

But in the dark… two others watched from the forest.

One wore a mask. The other wore nothing but a smile.

"He's growing fast," said the masked one.

The smirking one chuckled. "Let him. He'll need all the power he can muster."

TO BE CONTINUED