🌌 1. THE SKY THAT NEVER DAWNS
The first thing Mira noticed was the silence. Not the kind that soothed — the kind that suffocated. She stood in a ruined field near the outskirts of Nareth, her crimson cloak trailing behind her. Beside her, Kaen gripped his sword tight, muscles tense, breath steady.
But the air was wrong.
The sky above them had stopped moving — painted in an endless swirl of twilight violet, as if time itself refused to touch this cursed land.
"Third village," Kaen muttered, nudging a corpse with his boot. "Same sky. Same emptiness."
Mira knelt beside one of the fallen. A Hollowborn. Its body cracked with soul-fire scars, mouth open in a silent scream. Eyes turned to glass.
"These used to be priests…" she whispered. "Something — someone — is hollowing them faster than we can stop it."
The Soulbrand on her palm pulsed faintly, glowing like embers beneath her skin.
🔥 2. THE WHISPER RETURNS
She didn't tell Kaen, but the voice had returned.Not a voice from around her.A voice within.
"Ashes… ashes… burn them all…"
The same haunting whisper that echoed in her dreams — always followed by flames and screams. Her head throbbed, the brand burned, and her vision flickered with a memory not her own:Ashara, blade in hand, standing over a city of flame.
"I see what you've hidden from me, goddess." Mira's grip on her staff tightened.
Kaen looked at her, concerned.
"It's starting again, isn't it?"
"Worse," Mira said. "It never stopped."
🕯️ 3. THE ROAD TO SOL'ZARETH
Their next destination was Sol'Zareth, an ancient sunken city buried in the Hollow Realms — once a holy temple, now drowned in shadow and fog.
The path was littered with whispers and dying wind.
They encountered a cloaked traveler — Satherin, a blind man sitting near a half-burned shrine. His mouth was dry. His skin marked by runes that no longer glowed.
"Ashara's heir…" he rasped. "You seek the Vault, don't you?"
Kaen stiffened. Mira nodded slowly.
Satherin handed her a shard of obsidian etched with a spiral rune.
"This will open the flame gate," he said. "But beware… the trial ahead is not of fire. It is of truth."
His eyes — though blind — seemed to pierce her soul.
"And truth burns far deeper."
⚔️ 4. AMBUSH IN THE FOG
That night, as they reached the outer mists of Sol'Zareth, the Hollowborn attacked.
Not monsters. Humans — twisted beyond recognition. Glowing blue veins, soul-fire erupting from their mouths. Their words were broken prayers.
"Ashara… Kaen… burn… save us…"
Kaen's blade moved like lightning. But one of them — a girl no older than 10 — whispered:
"You left us behind… Kaen…"
He froze.
That's when the soulsteel dagger hit him, piercing his side. Blood burst from his mouth.
"Kaen!!" Mira screamed.
Her rage surged. Her hair ignited into blazing flame, eyes burning golden.
With a cry that wasn't entirely hers, Mira unleashed a nova of sacred fire, disintegrating the Hollowborn in a wave of ash.
Her soul felt like it was splitting in half.
But Kaen… still breathed.
🌑 5. THE FLAMEBLADE CALLS
Deeper into Sol'Zareth, they found the Shrine of the Forgotten, where the flame gate awaited.
Mira pressed the obsidian shard to the seal.
A pulse. A sound like a heartbeat.The gate opened, revealing a floating sword made of light and ash — Ashara's First Flameblade.
A whisper echoed through the shrine:
"Only the soulworthy may claim the flame."
Mira reached out.
A shockwave blasted through her body.
Suddenly, visions engulfed her:
A war between gods.
Nytheris, the Hollow Flame, rising from the void.
Kaen's former master — a fallen priest of Ashara — kneeling before darkness.
Mira, as Ashara, burning a sacred city… with no regret.
"Who… am I really?"
She collapsed to her knees.
Kaen caught her.
🔥 6. THE HOLLOW FLAME DESCENDS
The shrine trembled. The air turned ice-cold.
Then — the sky tore open.
From the rift descended a god cloaked in black flame — Nytheris, once a guardian, now corrupted by voidfire. His eyes glowed like dying stars.
"You survived her judgment…" he said. "But your soul is still hers."
Kaen stood tall, despite the pain.
"You won't touch her."
Nytheris raised a single hand. Kaen gasped, clutching his chest — his soul shuddering.
"You carry the priest's guilt," Nytheris whispered. "That alone should have killed you."
Mira stood, fire swirling around her.
"I don't care who I was. I know who I am now."
The Flameblade snapped into her hand. It burned with white fire — something pure, something divine.
"I am Mira of Ashara.The Hollow ends with me."
🩸 TO BE CONTINUED...