The wasteland stretched endlessly ahead, dry and grey like the memory of something once alive.
Null walked alone.
He didn't need rest. Not truly. But the body, even infused with Hollow Sovereignty, craved familiarity—steps upon earth, the whisper of wind, the ache of long silence.
The world here was a dead thing.
The sun, if it could be called that, was little more than a scorched ember in the sky, casting long shadows and no warmth. Trees were nothing but skeletal fingers clawing at the heavens. The air carried no scent, no sound—only the quiet hum of static that followed in Null's wake, like reality itself was trying to catch up to him.
He stopped.
Before him stood an ancient gate, half-buried in the blackened sand. Its frame was rusted, not with time, but with conceptual erosion—as if history itself had tried to erase it.
And yet… it remained.
[NEW LOCATION DISCOVERED: The Reliquary of Forgotten Truths][Warning: Conceptual Instability Detected. Anchor Points Required Before Entry.]
"Anchor points," Null murmured. "So this place rejects all who don't carry meaning."
The Hollow Sovereign did not carry meaning. He devoured it.
Which meant...
He walked forward.
Instantly, a force surged up from beneath the sands, a wave of resistance thick like honey, pushing against his very being. His body staggered—not physically, but spiritually—as if the gate were trying to remember what he was.
And failing.
Then, the earth trembled.
From the sands rose a figure—wrapped in burnt robes, its face hidden beneath a cracked pilgrim's mask. Chains hung from its limbs, clinking with each movement. Its voice, when it spoke, was dry and hollow.
"You do not belong here, Devourer."
"I once did."
"No longer."
Null tilted his head. "Are you a guardian?"
"I am ash. The memory of a promise. The echo of a vow."
"Then break."
The air cracked. Chains ignited with spectral fire as the Ash-Worn Pilgrim raised its arms. Sigils of law, time, and silence spun around him like a ritual reborn.
[ENEMY IDENTIFIED: Ash-Worn Pilgrim – Class: Conceptual Remnant (Bound)][Danger Level: A+][Special Trait Detected: Memory-Based Immunity]
A bright spear formed in the Pilgrim's grasp—woven from belief, history, and sorrow. With a scream like tearing parchment, it hurled the weapon at Null.
Null didn't dodge.
Instead, he raised his hand.
[HOLLOW SOVEREIGN SKILL ACTIVATED: CONCEPT DENIAL]— Nullifies the first attack based on remembered meaning.
The spear disintegrated mid-air. Not shattered. Denied.
The Pilgrim staggered.
"Impossible. You… remember nothing. And yet… you reject everything."
"That is why I'm hollow."
He moved forward—not fast, but inevitable. His shadow elongated, swirling with static as whispers echoed from the void inside him.
The Pilgrim knelt, placing both hands on the ground.
"Then be bound again!"
Chains exploded from the sands—ethereal, bone-linked, endless in number. They tried to wrap around Null's limbs, voice, even thoughts.
And for a moment—they succeeded.
[WARNING: YOU ARE BOUND BY THE VOW OF RECKONING – SPEECH, MOVEMENT, and POWER RESTRICTED][Countermeasure Suggested: Hollow Pulse Overload or Conceptual Echo Disruption]
Null closed his eyes.
Inside him, the Hollow Core pulsed once.
A heartbeat of silence.
And then—
BOOM.
A shockwave of black light erupted, incinerating the chains in a flash of anti-logic.
The Pilgrim was thrown back, half his body disintegrating into cinders.
Null approached the dying figure. He did not gloat. He did not pause. He merely placed a hand upon its chest.
"Who created you?"
The Pilgrim coughed, black ichor spilling from behind the mask.
"Three Lords… bound by oaths… to hold the gate. They feared you… feared what lies inside."
"And what does lie inside?"
"Truth... the first one you killed."
Null's fingers twitched.
He didn't remember killing anyone like that. Not yet.
The Pilgrim's body began to collapse into ash.
Null let go. There was no satisfaction.
Only inevitability.
[CONCEPTUAL REMNANT ABSORBED][Skill Acquired: Chain of Memory – Temporarily bind enemies by anchoring them to their past failures.][Passive Enhanced: Conceptual Rejection Field (Lv. 2)]
The gate before him shimmered. Its rust peeled away like old skin. Lights flickered between its joints, revealing an ever-shifting mosaic of images—worlds lost, timelines that never occurred, possibilities eaten by the Hollow Sovereign himself.
He stepped through.
And he fell.
There was no ground. No sky. Only mirrors.
Each one showing a version of him that wasn't.
Null the Savior. Null the Monarch. Null the Betrayed. Null the Forgotten.
He saw himself weeping over a grave. Another version bleeding while holding the corpse of a child. One screaming in defiance as blades pierced his back. Another laughing maniacally as he sat atop a throne of bones.
He saw himself… human.
And then not.
[WARNING: SOUL INSTABILITY RISING. MULTIVERSAL IDENTITY CONFLICT DETECTED.]
His breath grew uneven. Not because of fear—but because each mirror resonated with something buried deep in him.
The Sovereign who could unmake time… had once been broken so deeply, he carved out his own soul to stop remembering.
That's why he was Hollow.
Not born that way.
He made himself this way.
To forget.
To survive.
But now, it was coming back.
[Skill Evolved: Sovereign Echo → Sovereign Reflection]— When exposed to identity-based domains or soul-space, gain power from denied versions of self. Duration: 10 mins.]
At the center of the room, a mirror larger than the rest cracked from within.
And something stepped out.
It looked like Null. Moved like him. Even spoke like him.
But its smile was wide. Wrong. Too human.
"I remember everything, you know," it whispered.
Null stepped forward.
"So you're the piece I tore away."
The reflection's eyes glowed gold and black. "Not tore away. Locked away."
It grinned.
"Let's see if you can still kill yourself."
And the fight began.