The air pulsed with weightless pressure, like existence was holding its breath.
The girl—if she could still be called that—floated like a corpse held up by forgotten prayers. Her lips never moved. Her halo spun lazily, bleeding starlight.
Null stared at her stitched eyes.
[Analyzing Entity: Hollow Warden – ???][Warning: This being exists outside of cause and effect. Do not provoke.]
But Null… wasn't wired for obedience.
He stepped forward. The darkness around him warped.
"What are you?" he asked.
The Hollow Warden tilted her head. From her stitched eyelids, faint whispers leaked. Voices. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. All screaming. All familiar.
"I am your first victim."
Null paused.
"Lies."
"I was the first soul you devoured—before time. Before hunger had a name. And now… I watch the cycle."
[Core Instability Increasing.][Past Logic: Cracked. Unlocking Suppressed Data.][You were not born from hunger. You were born from… erasure.]
The Warden raised her hand, and space peeled back like skin.
Behind her, a mural of bone and stardust formed — hundreds of Hollow Sovereigns locked in eternal battle, all wearing broken masks. Some bore halos. Some bore crowns. Others were just… gone, their outlines devoured by something outside the frame.
And in the center: Null.
Sitting on a throne of writhing mouths, watching them all.
"You killed the cycle, Null. You ended it… and then forgot."
His breath trembled.
His hunger twisted, pulsed—resisted.
[You have glimpsed a Truth Fragment. Reality attempts to correct you.][Hollow Mutation Triggered: Sovereign Echo Seed Germinated.]
The Warden approached, and placed her hand on his chest.
It burned. Not with fire. Not with power.
With guilt.
"This is not your world. Not yet. But you're waking up too fast."
"And that… terrifies them."
She snapped her fingers.
Reality folded.
Null was thrown upward—out of the Maw—out of the Sovereign Ruins—into the sky itself. His body tore through the layers of false light until he emerged above the ruins, hovering, crackling with void-static and memory flame.
[You have gained: "Echo Seed – Sovereign's Forgotten Crown"][Effect: In time… you will remember.]
He didn't scream.
He didn't breathe.
He just looked up.
And saw a moon blinking.
It was watching him.
And smiling.