Chapter 21: The World of Hollow Stars
Darkness swallowed Kai whole.
Not the comforting shade of the Underworld, nor the cold emptiness of a night sky—this darkness moved. It pressed against his skin like a living thing, tendrils of shadow writhing past him as he tumbled through a dimension that felt more like a wound than a place.
His ears rang.
His lungs seized.
His spirit core shook violently, straining against the pressure pressing in from every direction.
Then—
A sound pierced through the void.
—thrum—
A hum. Deep, resonant, ancient. Like the heartbeat of a sleeping god.
The darkness peeled back, splitting open like a cracked shell.
Light blazed through the fissure.
Kai fell.
He crashed onto a cold, metallic surface, the impact shuddering through his bones. The ground beneath him vibrated—pulsing with a low, rhythmic energy. He gasped for breath, staggering to his feet.
And then he saw it.
A sky made of broken stars.
Thousands of fragments—shattered pieces of constellations, drifting like crystalline dust. They spun slowly across a vast, endless expanse, illuminating a world that looked half mechanical, half organic. Obsidian towers rose from the ground like ribs of a titanic beast. Pulsing veins of violet light ran through the terrain, converging at a colossal dead star hanging overhead.
It was beautiful.
It was horrifying.
And it was wrong.
Kai whispered, breath trembling, "Where… am I?"
The air answered with a faint whisper.
Home.
Kai stiffened. His scythe materialized in his hand, instinctively reacting to the voice. But the whisper didn't come from a creature or an enemy. It vibrated inside the world itself—like the land was speaking directly into his mind.
Footsteps echoed.
Kai spun.
A figure was standing several meters away, cloak fluttering in the cold astral wind. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Hooded. A scythe in hand.
A Reaper.
But not like any from the Underworld.
Its armor was etched with luminous cracks, leaking violet smoke. Its shadow stretched unnaturally long—reaching toward Kai like a seeking limb.
Kai raised his scythe defensively.
"Another Riftborn?"
The figure didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't blink.
Then—slowly—it lifted its head.
Inside the hood wasn't a skull.
It was a face.
Kai froze.
A human face.
One with pale skin, sharp features, and eyes glowing like dying stars.
The figure spoke.
"You took long enough."
Kai's throat tightened. "Who the hell are you?"
The figure's lips curved into a faint smile.
"I'm what you could've become. What you might still become."
The air spun violently around the figure, distorting space. Its shadow rose behind it like a towering specter.
The world answered his presence with a new echo:
Riftborn… no…
A pause.
Then the world whispered:
Ascendant.
Kai's grip tightened on his scythe. "Start talking. Now."
The figure stepped closer, darkness trailing behind him like a cloak woven from void and starlight.
"This realm… is older than your Underworld. Older than the Rift. It is the first fracture. The first mistake." His eyes gleamed. "And you were never meant to belong to the Underworld. You belong here."
Kai's pulse hammered.
"And why would I believe anything you say?"
The figure shrugged lightly. "Because you already feel it, don't you? This place recognizes you. Responds to you. Calls you."
Suddenly, the ground beneath Kai's feet pulsed.
Violet cracks spiderwebbed outward.
The air trembled as an immense pressure wrapped around him—not suffocating, but… accepting. Like the world was reshaping itself to accommodate his presence.
Kai stumbled back, horrified.
"No…"
He remembered Lyria's face, her desperate grip. Arlen's loud, panicked yelling. His mortality. His humanity.
Everything that grounded him.
Everything that made him who he was.
The figure watched the conflict in Kai's eyes with an unsettling calm.
"You've been fighting your nature, Kai." His voice softened. "But you can't escape what you are."
Kai raised his scythe. "And what am I?"
The figure didn't hesitate.
"You are the next Hollow Star."
A flash of blinding light erupted overhead.
The massive dead star pulsed—once, twice—and a shockwave rippled across the horizon, bending towers, distorting air, twisting the sky itself.
Kai gritted his teeth as the pressure slammed into him, forcing him to one knee.
"What— is— happening!?"
The figure spread his arms as if welcoming the cataclysm.
"The Hollow Star has chosen a candidate. Its legacy… its power… its curse… is passing to you."
Kai's vision fractured.
Ghostly images flickered in front of him.
Armies of void-wreathed Reapers kneeling.
Worlds collapsing under an endless shadowstorm.
A colossal figure—shrouded in darkness so absolute it devoured even light—raising a scythe that split a star in half.
Kai recoiled.
"No— I'm not whoever that was. I'm not anything like—"
But the figure cut him off sharply.
"You are EXACTLY like him. You have his potential. His hunger. His destiny."
Kai felt a surge of power rip through his core—heavy, ancient, terrifying. The Hollow Star blazed above him, its cracked form glowing brighter and brighter.
The figure's voice dropped to a whisper.
"It begins."
Suddenly the world shook violently, chunks of stone rising into the air as gravity reversed around the Hollow Star. A beam of violet energy shot downward, spiraling toward Kai.
Pain erupted in his chest.
He screamed.
The figure watched calmly.
"This world will shape you. Mold you. Break you."
Kai felt something latch onto his spirit.
Something colossal.
Something endless.
His scream died in his throat as the beam engulfed him.
His vision turned white.
And a voice—deep, resonant, impossibly old—spoke inside his soul.
"ASCEND, HOLLOW STAR CANDIDATE."
And the world shattered.