Chapter 2 – Those Who Devour2.1 – Fracture
"In the Hollow, names matter less than what you're willing to become."
Two days had passed since the Hollowstorm.
Kairo hadn't slept. Not really. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw that last Hollow. The broken memory. The devouring spiral.
He stood in the Spiral Archive's central dome, staring at a floating projection of the Hollow Cradle's deeper levels.
"So this is what she saw," he whispered.
Each layer—each Fracture—had a name:
Layer I: The Echo Wastes
Layer II: The Crownless Fields
Layer III: The Spiral Garden
Layer IV: The Devourer's Root
And finally…
Layer V: The Hollow Sovereign
Tallis approached, arms folded. "Most don't survive past the second layer."
"My sister made it to the fourth," Kairo replied.
"And if she's still down there…?"
"Then I'll find her."
Tallis stared at him, like he was trying to see through the Spiral itself.
"You're going to need a team."
2.2 – The Descent Squad
Mira refused to leave his side, obviously.
"I fell for you once," she said. "Not falling again without you."
Eloen joined too. "You owe me a Hollow kill, Spiral-Boy."
Thorne said nothing, just nodded once.
And finally—unexpectedly—Ryn stepped forward, her Crown flickering like a frozen flame. She hadn't spoken a word. But she didn't need to.
She'd seen something in Kairo. Something dangerous. And familiar.
Tallis handed Kairo a Spiral-marked compass.
"This will guide you through the Fractures. It reacts to Crown signatures—especially broken ones."
"Like Aeris's?"
"Exactly."
Then he held out a warning:
"But if you reach Layer V… you'll meet Them."
"Them?"
"The Sovereign-Class Crowns."
"What the hell are those?"
Tallis's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Crowns that became gods."
2.3 – The Echo Wastes
The descent to Layer I was like drowning in static. Reality bent, colors inverted, and sounds slowed until they shattered like glass. The team emerged into a barren plain of silver sand and petrified trees—each tree embedded with broken Crowns.
Whispers followed them.
Not words. Not voices.
Emotions.
Kairo felt a wave of grief. Then fury. Then something worse—hope, twisted into obsession.
Mira shivered. "This place remembers."
They hadn't gone far before the sand moved.
A creature burst forth—eight legs, four mouths, and a jagged Crown on its back.
A Crownleech.
Eloen swore. "It eats awakened Crowns."
The battle was brutal.
Ryn burned one leg to slag with frozen fire. Mira pinned it with her halberd. Kairo reached in with the Spiral—and for the first time, held back. He didn't devour. He dissected.
The leech imploded.
He dropped to his knees, gasping.
"I… controlled it," he whispered.
Eloen stared at him. "You're learning to use the Spiral."
"I think," he said slowly, "it's learning to use me."
2.4 – Remnants of Her
They found it beneath a shattered tree.
A flickering Crown fragment — barely larger than a stone, pulsing faintly with pale violet light. Kairo felt it before he saw it. His Spiral spun violently as they approached, vibrating like a heartbeat out of rhythm.
"It's her," he whispered. "I know it."
Eloen examined the fragment, brows furrowed. "A memory shard. Dangerous as hell, but it'll show you what she left behind."
"Show me?"
"Or trap you in it."
He grabbed it anyway.
The moment he touched the shard, the world ripped away.
Kairo was no longer in the Echo Wastes.
He stood in a dim, frost-covered hallway made of shifting mirrors. Shadows passed along the walls — distorted versions of his own reflection, screaming silently.
Aeris stood ahead, her back to him.
Older. Hardened. A Spiral Crown pulsing black above her shoulder.
"You're not ready for what's below," she said without turning."But you'll come anyway."
Kairo tried to move. He couldn't.
Aeris turned slightly. Her face was cracked. Bleeding Spiral energy.
"I made it to the Garden," she said."It changed me. I had to leave this behind…"
She touched the wall — and Kairo saw an explosion of memories:
A battle with a Hollow Sovereign
Her comrades falling one by one
Her own Spiral Crown breaking… then reforming
"Don't follow me," she whispered.
"You'll only find the end."
Then everything shattered.
Kairo dropped the shard, gasping.
Eloen steadied him. "You saw something?"
"She's in the Spiral Garden."
"That's… two layers deeper."
"And she's still fighting."
2.5 – The Beast With No Crown
Before the team could regroup, the ground split.
From the sand emerged a massive beast — thirty feet tall, plated in obsidian armor, with no Crown at all.
A Crownless Sovereign.
Tallis's warning echoed in Kairo's mind.
"Crowns that became gods."
But this one… had none.
Mira stepped forward. "It's not just a Hollow…"
Eloen's eyes widened. "It's what comes after one breaks completely."
Kairo's Spiral flared.
"Let's see what it remembers."