"Such a beautiful sight..."
Shin's eyes lingered on Tyce's back as he disappeared from view. She lifted her gaze forward, though her mind was far away, her expression distant.
A beautiful sight?
If this operation succeeded, then yes—it would almost certainly come true. But if it failed...?
Shin pressed her lips together and drifted back toward the floor-to-ceiling window. As always, she gazed down at New Eridu from above.
"Failure..."
The consequences of failure would be far worse than anyone imagined.
Was this urgency truly necessary?
Yet if Tyce's words were true—if Hollow Zero was truly on the verge of another eruption—then perhaps urgency was unavoidable.
Maybe they could delay? But delay until when?
Her thoughts turned in circles, finally landing on one person. Shin raised a hand to her chin, her gaze flickering.
"Zane... you'll be as reliable as always this time, won't you? Fire Picker... bearer of embers... from the very start, hope has rested on your shoulders."
She exhaled softly, lowering her eyes. The vast conference room stood empty, and in the faint light filtering in from outside, she stood alone.
Her long hair spilled down, the pale pink strands glinting faintly in the dim light. Beyond the glass, the city buzzed with life, while a full moon hung high in the sky.
Yet faintly, the black haze creeping across the moon's surface seemed deeper than ever...
...
"What is the true nature of the Hollow...?"
In a quiet spot near the Outer Ring of New Eridu, Zane sat upon a large boulder. In his hands, five thumb-sized black spheres revolved steadily around a central point.
Cretan, Lamia, Dead End Hollow, Hive Master, Twins...
These were the foundation of his current power—the parts of a formidable war machine. To him, the Hollow was its energy source.
The machine itself was extraordinary, but without energy, its strength would be drastically reduced.
A war machine without its power source might still move, but its limitations would be overwhelming.
And Zane had considered this many times: what if he lost the Hollow?
While his control over the Hollow was strong, making outright theft unlikely, nothing was absolute. He had to prepare for such a possibility.
Besides, losing the Hollow didn't necessarily mean it would be stolen. It could be restrained, neutralized, counteracted in countless ways. He had to be ready for all of them.
Zane had always been one to prepare early. Caution had never failed him.
"If only I could create a Hollow myself..."
He lifted a finger, one of the spheres circling it like a toy.
A black orb shot forth, swelling until it stood twice a person's height before stopping. Under the moonlight, the pitch-black hollow seemed to devour everything around it—even the light.
Yet the shimmering, colorful streams flowing across its surface gave it an almost dreamlike quality.
"Energy compressed to its absolute limit, blackened... yet as it spreads outward, it fragments—like something rests at its very core..."
"What could possibly allow this?"
Zane had wondered this before. To him, the Hollow's ownership came down to one thing—whoever controlled its "core."
The core of the Hollow was undoubtedly its essence, just like the core of an Ethereal.
But he had never seen such a thing. In every Hollow he had entered, the only core was the Ethereal itself, never a "core of the Hollow."
"Maybe if I understood this... I'd know how to create a Hollow myself."
And once he could create one, all his worries would vanish. He would have the power to protect the people he wanted to protect.
Zane rose from the boulder, stepping lightly onto the ground, and walked toward the looming Hollow before him.
There was another possibility too: making the Hollow unnecessary. It wasn't energy itself, only the key to storing and transforming it.
After use, the Hollow had to replenish its reserves from the outside world. It needed to be "recharged."
Zane knew this well. Before taming them, he had already drawn directly from the Hollows—such as within Hollow Zero itself.
He had even tried using the world's natural energy directly. It worked, and it was easy enough to control, like moving his own arm.
But the greatest problem was efficiency.
If he wished, Zane could unleash the full energy of all five Hollows in an instant.
But with the world's natural energy, or with energy not belonging to his Hollows, that was impossible.
"The key is still the Hollow's core.
If a single core existed within the world itself, and I could control it... then the whole world would become a massive Hollow.
Different in nature, yes—but the effect on me would be the same."
Facing the looming Hollow, Zane muttered as the thought took form. Slowly, he raised a hand to his chest.
The steady beat of his heart thudded against his palm. His eyes flickered with a deeper meaning.
"Looks like I'll have to go inside after all."
Lowering his hand, he dismissed the other Hollows into the void. He couldn't take them with him.
"Tsk... If I had a choice, I'd really rather not go in..."
He shook his head. But once he had made his decision, retreat was not an option. He raised his hand and pressed it into the Hollow before him.
His arm vanished instantly, swallowed by the void. Zane's face remained calm as he whispered,
"Cretan... the place of my birth. Don't disappoint me."
With those words, he stepped inside.
The moment his body vanished into the Hollow, it too dissolved into nothingness.
Staying here would only risk discovery.
It trembled once, then streaked across the sky like a meteor in reverse, its black form trailing a tail of prismatic light as it shot into the distance.
...
Inside the Hollow stretched endless nothingness.
Not darkness—pure void.
Zane's eyes were open, yet he saw nothing, as if looking with one eye closed.
And yet it wasn't absolute nothingness. Faint globes of pale light drifted in the emptiness.
"So vast..."