The wind over Hollowmere howled like a dying beast.
Alex stood at the perimeter, studying the devastation.
The land was wrong here.
Twisted.
The trees were blackened and brittle, bent as if bowing to some unseen tyrant.
The grass was gone — replaced by a carpet of ash that crumbled underfoot.
And the silence…
It wasn't normal.
It was thick, almost tangible.
The absence of life.
As if the world itself held its breath.
---
Naomi tightened her grip on her axe, scanning the treeline.
"Nothing's moving," she murmured.
"That's what worries me," Alex replied.
Mira knelt by the edge of the nearest blackened tree, murmuring spells under her breath.
A faint shimmer of magic illuminated her hands.
After a few minutes, she stood, face pale.
"It's not just death," she said, voice low.
"It's erasure."
Alex frowned.
"Meaning?"
Mira shook her head.
"I don't know how to explain it. It's like... they were unmade."
Naomi swore under her breath.
"Gods save us."
Alex didn't respond.
He didn't think the gods were listening anymore.
---
They established a perimeter around the ruined village.
Forty soldiers. Ten mages. Scouts on rotating shifts.
No one slept well.
That night, as Alex sat reviewing reports by firelight, Naomi approached with a grim expression.
"We lost two scouts," she said without preamble.
He looked up sharply.
"How?"
"Gone. No signs of struggle. No blood. No bodies."
Alex stood, heart hammering.
"Double the watch," he ordered.
"And pull everyone back to base camp. No solo patrols."
Naomi nodded grimly and disappeared into the night to relay his orders.
---
The next morning, Mira summoned Alex and Naomi to the mage tents.
Her face was drawn, eyes shadowed from lack of sleep.
"I think I know what we're facing," she said without preamble.
She unrolled an ancient map across the table.
It depicted the region centuries ago — before the Fall, before the Ashen, before even Veloria.
"There used to be a city here," Mira said, pointing at a spot near Hollowmere.
"Called Ythos."
Alex frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
"You wouldn't have," Mira said grimly.
"It was destroyed during the Sundering. Not conquered. Erased."
She tapped the map again.
"Some ancient magic — older than Veloria's gods — wiped Ythos off the map."
Naomi leaned forward, scowling.
"And you think that's what's happening here?"
Mira hesitated.
"Not exactly. I think... something from Ythos survived. Something that was never meant to wake again."
Alex folded his arms.
"Any idea what?"
Mira shook her head.
"Only whispers. Legends. They called it the Hollow King."
Naomi snorted.
"Sounds cheerful."
Mira wasn't smiling.
"According to the stories, the Hollow King wasn't a ruler. It was a curse. A parasite that devoured entire civilizations from the inside."
Alex felt a chill creep down his spine.
"And you think it's loose?"
Mira nodded.
"And if we don't stop it, Hollowmere will be just the beginning."
---
That evening, the fog rolled in.
Thick. Choking. Blinding.
Alex and Naomi stood at the front lines, weapons ready.
Mages reinforced the perimeter with runes of warding, but the air grew colder with every passing minute.
The soldiers murmured nervously, clutching their weapons tighter.
Suddenly, a horn sounded — short and sharp.
A warning.
Movement at the edge of the fog.
Figures emerging.
At first, Alex thought they were survivors.
But as they drew closer, he realized the truth.
Their faces were wrong.
Blurred. Featureless.
Their movements were jerky, unnatural.
Naomi cursed viciously.
"Shades!"
The featureless figures surged forward in a wave.
Alex didn't hesitate.
"Hold the line!" he roared.
The soldiers formed ranks instinctively.
The first shades hit like a hammer, but Alex was ready.
His blade flashed, cutting through the mist.
Each shade that fell dissolved into black ash.
But for every one they cut down, two more took its place.
It was like fighting a tide.
---
Hours later, the battle ended.
The shades retreated as suddenly as they had appeared, melting back into the fog.
The camp was a ruin.
Half the perimeter was breached. Several tents burned. Fourteen soldiers dead.
Alex surveyed the wreckage grimly.
"This isn't sustainable," Naomi said, wiping blood from her axe.
"They'll keep wearing us down."
Mira appeared, clutching a glowing crystal.
"I tracked them," she said breathlessly.
"I know where they're coming from."
She pointed toward the heart of Hollowmere.
"The old well. It's a gateway."
Alex nodded grimly.
"Then we close it."
---
The next day, they prepared for a strike.
Alex assembled a handpicked team.
Naomi. Mira. Ten elite soldiers. Two combat mages.
They moved under cover of darkness.
The fog seemed to sense them, thickening with every step.
The well stood at the center of Hollowmere's ruins.
An ancient stone structure — cracked and weathered but still intact.
As they approached, the ground trembled.
A low, droning hum filled the air.
The soldiers tensed.
From the well's mouth, darkness spilled.
Not mist.
Not smoke.
Something heavier.
Denser.
Alive.
A shape rose from the depths.
Not a shade.
Something worse.
It was tall — at least twelve feet. Thin, almost skeletal, but radiating immense power.
Its head was a crown of writhing tendrils.
Its body shimmered between solid and mist, never fully one or the other.
Eyes — dozens of them — opened along its arms and chest, each glowing with sickly green light.
The Hollow King.
---
The battle was chaos.
Alex charged first, sword wreathed in fire.
He struck the Hollow King across the chest — and his blade passed through harmlessly.
The creature laughed — a sound like bones breaking — and lashed out.
Alex barely dodged.
The soldiers engaged the shades pouring from the ground.
Mira unleashed spells of light and fire, trying to bind the creature.
Naomi hurled her axe with a roar, cleaving through a tendril — only for two more to grow in its place.
The Hollow King was relentless.
Every wound healed.
Every spell faded.
Alex realized grimly:
This wasn't a creature they could kill.
Not conventionally.
They needed to seal it.
---
"Mira!" Alex shouted over the din.
"Can you bind it?"
She nodded grimly, already weaving complex sigils in the air.
"But I need time!"
Alex turned to Naomi.
"Buy her that time."
Naomi grinned savagely.
"With pleasure."
She and the soldiers launched a coordinated assault, harrying the Hollow King from all sides.
Alex moved with them, a blur of steel and fire.
The creature fought back fiercely — shades exploding from its body like living shrapnel.
Soldiers screamed and fell.
But they held.
They gave Mira the time she needed.
---
The ritual climaxed in a blinding flash of white light.
Chains of pure magic erupted from the ground, wrapping around the Hollow King.
It howled in rage, struggling against the bindings.
But they held.
Mira collapsed to her knees, blood pouring from her nose.
Alex rushed forward, slamming his sword into the well's stones.
The blade, still infused with fire, triggered the final part of the binding.
The well cracked.
Shuddered.
And then imploded, sucking the Hollow King down into a prison of stone and ash.
The shades dissolved.
The fog lifted.
Silence fell.
---
Afterward, they counted their dead.
Five soldiers lost.
Two more critically wounded.
But they had won.
For now.
---
Back in New Haven, the news of Hollowmere's destruction — and their desperate victory — spread like wildfire.
Some hailed Alex as a hero.
Others whispered that he was cursed.
That death followed wherever he went.
Alex didn't care.
He had seen the Hollow King's true face.
And he knew it wasn't over.
The creature had only been a fragment.
A scout.
The real threat was still coming.
Bigger.
Older.
Worse.
And New Haven was far from ready.
---
Late one night, as Alex sat brooding over maps and reports, a knock sounded at his door.
Naomi entered, tossing a battered scroll onto his desk.
"What's this?" he asked.
She grinned humorlessly.
"Opportunity."
Alex unrolled the scroll.
It was a map — much older than anyth
ing in New Haven's archives.
It depicted lands beyond the known borders.
Lost cities.
Forgotten strongholds.
And at the very edge, scrawled in ancient ink:
The Throne of Ash.
Mira entered behind Naomi, face grave.
"If the Hollow King was just the beginning," she said, "then that's where the real war will start."
Alex stared at the map.
At the unknown.
At the future.
And he smiled grimly.
"Then we better get moving."