'I ruined this World'
The man thought, watching this endless expanse of pitch black Void.
A ridiculous smile appeared on his face,yet, his eye betrayed a proufound feeling of dissapointment and Hollowness.
He shouted at the Chaotic Void,
"I Strove to be your Vessel, on the physical planes, I erected countless mountain of bodies and filled rivers of bodies in your Honor, hundreds, No, THOUSANDS
of civilization fell at my blade's edge, all to Destroy all life, to make in null, Void.
I founded hundreds of cult, made of fellow believer in your superiority. Together, we crushed the alliance's armies and massacred their prized heroes, all, to create Nihility;
As you can see,this . I . Achieved."
The man paused, looking at the again at the dark space, before resuming his speech.
"Yet, after all the Anguish, all the betrayals, all the pain, as I stand before my achieved goal, before the primordial form of every universe, at the beginning and the end of everything, I can assure you I do not feel an ounce of satisfaction. In succeeding—In destroyed all that I had— I lost all purpose, a stringless puppet will never move on its own."
The man paused again, before his face twisted into a grimace of pure anger, with his outrage manifesting on the Nihility. He shouted with a voice on the edge of shattering
"WHY, WHY MUST THIS BE
IS THIS THE COST OF VENGEANCE? YOU GUIDED MY AMBITION TOWARD THIS, ASCENSION AND SATISFACTION, SO WHAT IS THIS ? I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO FEEL THIS WAY !"
The Void finaly reacted, a figure appeared, it's only discernible feature being three pair of Pale eyes.
"It" Spoke
"You, exeeded our expectation, you shouldn't have achieved this, fate would not have allowed it. This is an unexpected development."
"It" started to murmor incomprehensible raving, seemingly to "Itself"
The void reacted, it chased madly against the now broken man.
The man struggled, he trashed against the Void-Tendril, before unsheathing his Sword. He Hacked, Slashed, Thrusted against the Shadows following him.
The battle raged on for a seemingly short yet long time, before the man, unable to maintain this High-Intensity combat, collapsed.
The figure spoke again.
"Fascinating, a lower-being, yet able to unleash force completly overpoweringto some lower class Higher-Beings."
"It" started to chant, and quickly, a large number of white chain emerged for Nihility. They enchained the now pitiful excuse of a human being, binding him in their divine might,then, an Endless, golden tapestry appeared in the Abyss. The figure raised "Their" "Arm", and the man began to float to the tapestry.
Suddenly, the man opened his eyes, they excluded mixed emotions,, a mixture of pain, hatred,sadness and despair, yet they seemed to also contain a hint of spite and a quite yet immovable Determination. He spoke.
"I do not know what you'll do with me, however, I can guarentee that from this point on, you can go fuck yourself if you think I'm gonna obliviously follow your arrangements." He didn't try to hide the obvious venom in his tone.
"Sure."
"What?" The man's expression twisted into confusion as he heard the nonchalant reply
"Do it, Trash against fate, do everything you can to stay free and untethered, I have to admit, even I do not know what consequences what I'm doing right now will have on the future. so I can tell you right now that I don't care, this is my,No, Our last gambit.So, I will choose you. You will be our Last Knight." Nihility replied, "Its" voice seemingly feverish.
Before the man could respond, the God Of Gods commanded the chains, they quickly anchored the man to the tapestry, making only a faint figure appear outwards. Two pale Figure appeared from the void One wearing a white, thorned Crown on "His" head, the other, A giant, pale tree.
"Are you sure of this, Bill ?" The Tree spoke, its voice stern as if "She" was an experienced general, yet it's tone betrayed a trace of motherly concern.
"Don't worry, Mother, I will not mess this up." "Bill" responded tough still with a feverish voice as "Its" three pairs of eyes trembled slightly. The tapestry trembled, before the chains moved. They stitched the gash where the man was placed together with surgical precision.
"His gambling addiction's flaring up, Dear" The King finaly spoke, "His" voice surprisingly soft.
"Don't bring this up again, Father, 99% of gambler quit before hitting it big." The Shade Lord spoke with exitment in "Its" Voice
The two pale beings exchanged a Heavy gaze and a sigh, before turning back to "Bill".
"We'll help you" They spoke in unison as Two white fragment flew to Nihility, with an Orange,Green and red one following behind.
"Thank you." "Bill"'s answer was brief, yet you could hear the gratitude in "Its' voice.
Rivers of "Soul"—Containing a noticeable number of motes of Light— mobilized,Their torent directed toward the tapestry.
"well, Here we go."Nihility spoke this time, seriously.
It was fly or die, either "They" will succeed and ascend, or fail and fade into oblivion.
.....
[....Your Nightmare is Over.]
Zero stirred awake. He Groggily tried to observe his surroundings, yet found out that he didn't "see" anything in the conventional sense. It was [Nothing], not Darkness, but nothingness.
After a while of unsuccesseful attempts at sensing his surrounding, a faint thread of consciousness awakened in his soul, and naturally, a thought formed.
I guess it really was a Nightmare. Was it really like that from the Beginning, or did I make it that way ? Maybe I should've listened to my mother, I should've never picked up a sword, never sought revenge. I should've lived a farmer's life. maybe that way, I'd have been happier
He thought melancholically with a hint of regret.
But Its too late for regret; It has already happened. Is this death ? The eternal end of all thing ? The famed Second Law ? Well, I guess this end is more than fitting for a lonely star like me. So, do I float in this void for eternity till my consciousness erodes from Hollowness with time and I to finaly "die" once again ?
Faced with the possible worst punishment any living being could endure, Zero couldn't help but reminisce about the past.
He had once been the 3rd prince of a kingdom— The kingdome of light, Luminara. A Kingdom full of life, where people lived the Age Of Star, an age of peace, where all of the people could live a peaceful life and watch the road of stars, and have a fuflfiling life of happiness.
Yet that life had been mercilessly snuffed out by the conbined effort of the 7 empires and the Void cult.
He had joined the void cult —Also named wandering Kingdom of hallownest by its own members— to dismantle it from withing. At that time, he had been foolish, Thinking only of revenge against the publicly shunned void cult, never considering the 7 Emperors as the men behind the slaughter. They had hid their tracks well. However, he eventually climbed the ladder of power in the cult and learned of it, furious, he slaughtered them all.
That was his greatest mistake. The mistake that engendred the age of blood, and finaly, the end of the world—Armageddon.
Thinking of this, Zero thought with regret.
How blessed was the age when one could gaze upon the starry sky and read from it the map of all roads—both where to go, and where one must go
And how blessed was the age when the starlight illuminated every path
The age I ended with my very own hands.
Suddenly, however, Zero heard a voice resonate in his mind.
[Aspirant, Prepare for appraisal.]
[You have Slaughtered an unknown number of dormant beasts]
[You have slaughtered an unknown number of Awakeneds]
[You have Slaughtered an unknown number of Ascended]
[You have slaughtered two hundred million Transcendents]
[You have slaughtered one million Supremes]
[You have slaughtered Seven Thousand Sacreds]
[You have slaughtered Seventy Divine Titan ]
[From the ruins of a forgotten kingdom, a prince destined for naught rose from the ashes. He Ascended the ladder of Power and meted his rightful punishment on the treacherous empires. The churches came for him so he slaughtered them, The apostle did too, they were no different. He created Armageddon, He slaughtered and Massacred till he became the nemesis of the Divine. That was until, He Murdered them too…]
[Glorious, Your Hatred truly knows no bounds.]
[Aspirant, Receive your Boons]
[You have been Granted a True name, Hate of the Wo—]
The voice stopped, seemingly frozen. Then it resumed, with a bleaker tone.
[You have awakened your True Name, The Hollow Knight.]
It paused, until it resumed its speech.
[Your True Aspect is ready to evolve]
[Evolve aspect, Shell of a Shade?]
Zero "Stared" blankly at the Runes, unsure of what to do, yet a quite nagging at the back of his mind screamed at him to accept, and so he did.
[unranked aspect is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired]
Aspect rank:[ Divine.]
Aspect Name:[ Hollow vessel]
Zero looked at the runes with his non-existent eyes. It seemed good ? Anything with the prefix Divine couldn't be too shabby, no matter the world, Right ?
Confused by the terminology, He silently summoned his aspect's runes and found the lines describing his aspect.
[Aspect : Hollow vessel]
[Aspect rank: Divine.]
Aspect Descripiton: [You are a Hollow, Purposeless vessel left behind a being Incomprehensibly greater than you. As a Void Being, you mercilessly devour the soul of other to fill the abyss within yourself]
[Innate ability: Soul Devourer]
Ability Description: [You Devour the soul of others to fill your empty shell, Ability only effective by touch.]
Well, Zero watched the runes in shock. If he read that right, he obtained the ability of a void being ! Their ability were the main cause for his success in destroying the world. In the past, he had stared enviously at these VoidBorn and their masterful control of the enemies' souls.
But he also wondered, how would these abilities help him? wasn't he dead ? He quickly concluded that this was a "cocoon", and he'd be eventually released in a different universe. Else what would be the point of this farce ?
Millions of other possiblities flashed in his mind, including this being an illusion, yet the first one seemed more likely.
The Strange spell didn't care about his internal monologue, and instead resumed.
[The first seal is broken, awakening dormant powers]
Zero almost blacked out. It felt like he was being heated in a forge and molded into another shape. This was one of the worst pain someone could feel. With each second, He felt the pain of a thousand men getting their balls kicked full force by a speeding bull.
He'd be panting if he could for sure.
Finaly, his vision came back, and he found himself in... still nothing. A Dark expanse of void, with a singular star of pure white soul floating in the "sky".
His soul sea was as desolate as ever.
The spell's cruel Void awakened him from his daze.
[Awakening Aspect Ability ]
Again ?!
Aspect ability name: [Snail Shaman]
Ability description [Your Control over soul is your birthright.]
Finaly, it seemed it was over. Zero summoned his "runes".
Name: Zero
True Name: The Hollow Knight
Rank: Dreamer.
Void Cores: Dormant
Void Shards: [???]
Well, it seemed he had a Innate mutant core. Rare, but not unheard of. Before, he had a tainted Core, yet he still could ascend to divinity.
A Complete void core should be even stronger. But, what was those rune, just what had the ablity to grant mortal such grand boons ?
Zero Thought suspiciously, There MUST be a drawback.
Free things costs the mosts
Scrolling down, he saw another section.
Memories:[Rusty Nail]
Memory description: [ A nail born from an apprentice NailMaster's Pure and honest wish]
Memory attribute: —
Echoes:—
Attributes:[Mark of Void] [Pure Vessel] [DreamSpawn] [Nephilism]
Before he could even properly read his attribute, the voice of the strange spell cut him off, with an almost hurried voice.
[All power has a price]
[You have received a Flaw]
Holy shit, this seems bad.
[Your flaw is:…]
It paused and resumed swiftly.
Flaw :[Pure Bonds]
Flaw description : [You can only bond once, To a sword, a lover, or anything. You are bound to only one thing in this wretched world.]
Then, suddenly, another deep voice resounded in his mind, The voice of The Lord of Shades.
No cost too great.
No mind to think.
No will to break.
No voice to cry suffering.
Born of God and Void.
You shall Kill the blinding light that plagues their dreams.
You are the Vessel.
You are the Hollow Knight.
Immediatly after, he heard a voice— his own voice, yet it was a young one, seemingly terrified of whatever had happened to him. A voice Still freshly scarred by the cruelty of war.
『All that I could remember was a burning castle』