I forgot to add this little thing. A picture of how Nephelont looks in this world. (see here)
While I want to draw him myself, making him using a character creator tool that is built around this world's theme is more appropriate in my point of view.
I found the tool on an r/HollowKnight post called "Vessel Maker Megathread V5". The Vessel Maker tool is linked there.
Without further ado, please enjoy.
(Line Break)
(Nephelont's PoV)
As I walked alongside my unexpected companion, we came upon what looked like the remains of a once populated town. In the middle of the remains stood a few structures that were holding on. I approached the only person I sensed from that distance. There was only one other presence in town, inside a building with a closed door. It helped make me hopeful when I saw a light and a bench beside them.
One thing worth noting, the houses were modeled after the shells of bugs, enlarged to a comical degree.
"Ho there, traveller." The person said, sounding like an elderly man. There was some modicum of joy and liveliness in his voice upon seeing us. "I'm afraid there's only me left to offer welcome. Our town's fallen quiet you see" He sighed.
Seeing that neither me nor the creat- No, it's high time I call them a child. They and I seem to have the bodies of newborns judging by this elderly man. Anyhow, he continued talking.
"The other residents, they've all disappeared" He said wistfully, a great sense of loss in his voice. "Headed down that well, one by one, into the caverns below" He pointed at a well far off into the distance, with a hand that looked chitinous like that of a bug. "Used to be there was a great kingdom beneath our town. It's long fell to ruin, yet it still draws folks into its depths" He sighed again. "Wealth, glory, enlightenment, that darkness seems to promise all things. I'm sure you too seek your dreams down there"
"I do" While I could not speak with my voice, I don't have one, I could vibrate the air around me to imitate that. Uncle Henryk insisted I learned it to distract monsters or people. 'I miss the days I pranked people with this little trick'
"Well watch out. It's a sickly air that fills the place. Creatures turn mad and travellers are robbed of their memories. Perhaps dreams aren't such great things after all..." The elder said with a tired voice, bringing to mind a dream I have once forgotten, a dream of drawing my blade in challenge of something.
"I shall head the advice, elder" I said, bowing my head slightly as I passed by him.
"I hope to see you two here again. The place would be less lonely then" He said, his voice sounding the least bit less burdened.
I suddenly remembered a pretty important thing. I stopped and turned around, dodging the child walking behind me.
"Before I forget, when does the sun come up, and for how long?" I said.
"Sun? What is that?" The elder said in wonder.
"A bright source of light in the sky, one that comes and goes. Maybe you call it a different name around these parts" I said.
"Haven't seen such a thing all my life I'm afraid" The elder said apologetically. He nodded his head to a lamp nearby, filled with glowing butterflies. "These blessed creatures, lumaflies, are the only source of light I know around these parts"
"Whatever this sun is, I hope you find it some day" The elder said as he turned back to face us.
"I shall return with stories of the land below, elder" I said, flying to where the child went. He was in a hurry, it seems. 'Being in the company of another is better than treading the unknown in my lonesome'
As we approached, details about the well became more apparent. It had a chain hanging from it, helping those who wanted to go down and come back up.
"Shall we go?" I said to my companion, whose only regard for my words was a nod before jumping down, completely disregarding the chain.
'The child did it so confidently. Did they do this before?'
I flew down gently, landing beside the child. They were waiting for me with their little head raised to look at me. Their gaze lingered for a moment before the child started looking around.
As I did the same, I noted that the place was littered with what looked like carriages made of bugs' shells. 'Considering the elder is likely some form of bug or insect, a species belonging to this world and not mine, this may not be so strange. The place could be filled with nothing but bugs for all I know' I thought as all life I could sense in my range were bug-like or plants.
I also noticed how this place was made entirely of mostly-sound bricks, hinting that it was built by a civilization and not some backwater society.
'A kingdom awaits us, as the elder said'
Be it a kingdom or an empire, I will need to take what I need from it and find any clues as to how I could find this world's sun.
On instinct, I immediately started probing the critters crawling and flying across this section of "The Forgotten Crossroads," or so a sign has named the area.
The child trailed behind me, doing much the same. The only difference was that he shoved some smaller shells into their cloak.
'Why?' I wondered about their uses but it eluded me. I had no inkling of it.
There was also a rock somewhere close to where we descended that the child destroyed for more of the shells.
We kept exploring and killing any that tried to obstruct our path. As we did so, I attempted to assume my dragon form in one of the bigger rooms but was unsuccessful.
'Only my nature as a spirit seems to be intact. Is it my soul that was imprinted by that skill, and thus maintained the ability as the skill's description said? Then, is it because my draconic nature is merely the result of a skill and not my own being?' I thought, feeling a pit form in my chest.
'No, I shall forget that concern. I will return to my nature once my falna is restored completely' I reassured myself and marched on.
I refocused. The Forgotten Crossroads around us started with an expansive horizontal room. While it was large, there were only three exits, one we already came through. Between the remaining two, one was to the east while the other was to the west.
"Let's go in that direction" I pointed to the east. While looking at me, the child tugged at my cloak and pointed to the west. Thinking it over for a moment, I relented. 'I'll follow them until we need to go our separate ways'
We went west. The exit led to another large room, though this one extended down. From what my winds felt, there were giant fly-like bugs flying around, crashing into things and bouncing to fly in another direction. There were also some of the whiter crickets crawling around some surfaces below us.
Through what I felt, I also gleamed suspicious cracks in a lower ceiling right above the tunnel we entered through. I sent some of my wind up there, discovering a space the only entrance/exit of which is the one I perceived it through.
I flew up and into the room. I discovered some stone outcrops with the smaller bug shells the child gathered. I broke them and gathered the shells for that child. I then witnessed the sight of a mysterious, glowing tree that was pulling me toward itself gently, as if asking me for something.
'I know that pull. It's a spiritual pull, one that I only felt from other spirits, including demi-spirits. Is this tree a spirit?' I gazed upon it as I heard the sounds of scratching as the child attempted climbing up to this room. 'I'll have to come back later, once I've discovered what tree this is and how to make proper contact with it'
I flew back down and stood on the ground. The child didn't seem to like it very much when I was the only one flying. I handed them some shells to appease them a bit.
Gazing at the extra shells now in their stubby little hands, the child seemed to be satisfied with the bribe.
'I kept most of what I found up there, but what are they even used for?' I thought while titling my head. The child mirrored me and tilted their head.
"We should go" By now, I started hearing a voice. Something, possibly someone, is alive in the room to the west of this one.
I floated with the child before taking them with me on a short flight to the room with the noise.
As we entered, we came upon mounds with many holes in them, as if something was burrowing into the stone. All were empty but one, where a grub with aging silver hair was at the top of the tallest mound.
The aging grub stared us down for some time, focusing on our eyes. He then sighed with what sounded like relief.
"You are free from the infection, travellers" He said, anxiety choking his voice. "Can I ask for your help? For a reward, of course"
I looked at the child, who was still looking at the old grub. I nodded.
"Wonderful!" Some liveliness returned to his face and voice. "Something came about and kidnapped my precious children. I want you to help them find their way out of captivity. When they are released, the would know the way back on their own. For every child you bring back, I will give you a reward larger than the last"
I nodded before going out of the room, following the hasty child. I could hear the old grub's thankful words as we left.
We started descending through the vertical expanse of the room, with me noting the disconnected ledges leading to other rooms. Most were reachable from the rafters scattered near them, but one wasn't. It was also the only one blocked with a wall that looked as suspicious as that ceiling.
I tugged at the child's cloak, pointing at that particular tunnel. The child looked at the rafters, piquing my interest as they navigated their way up before jumping and hugging the wall down.
'Clever' I thought while floating to the tunnel and breaking the wall with the child's help.
The tunnel was surprisingly well-lit despite the clear lack of lumaflies in it, or so I thought. There seems to be a scarcity of them, but not a complete lack. Regardless, I flew over the spikes, slowly floating behind the child as they made their way on some footholds between the spikes.
At the far side of the tunnel, we found a ledge above us with a statue, the purpose of which I didn't understand, and vertical shaft filled with spikes. The child held their weapon at the ready and rushed at the spikes. It was an intriguing sight to witness the child wedge their weapon between the spikes and use that as their method to fling themselves up and above the spikes, where a flat surface was.
Looking down, the spikes were only on the walls and not the ground on this side. We both walked into the next tunnel. It led us to a room filled to the brim with spikes, with another room below it that had little to none of them. The child and I made our way through, taking in the haunting visages of what I assume to be the shells of the late inhabitants of these rooms. The decay led me to believe that the previous inhabitants were long gone, with none left to roam the place.
Imagine my shock when one of those same inhabitants jumped at us out of nowhere and started shrieking. They also started spewing this ominously orange spit at our direction. It skittered above a raised piece of land, refusing to come down.
The child didn't hesitate to start whacking it with their mostly blunt weapon. Seeing its sickle-like claws inching closer to the child, I stepped in, bashing them away with my own weapon. I managed to sway them to the ground as we both jumped out of the way of the remaining claws.
Seeing us run away, the bug jumped at us.
'Poor choice' I would have grinned if I could, as I blasted it with wind from below, blowing it into the ceiling. The shrieking bug hit the ceiling hard enough to produce a reverberating sound of a dull thud. Orange goo splattered across the ground, with me shielding us from whatever it was with a wind barrier.
As it fell, the shrieking bug flailed its many short limbs in a failed attempt to grasp any stone jutting from the walls. We rushed to get away from the spot where it landed, quickly rushing back in to whack it some more. We successfully created cracks in its shell, making the orange goo seep out from its wounds.
The bug shrieked furiously, spitting a large amount of goo that would cover the entire room, leaving us no room to run. Sadly for the shrieking bug, I was there. Another wind barrier covering me and the child solved this problem.
The shrieking bug made another, smaller spit as it jumped back on the raised bit of ground. It started pacing back and forth, all the while spitting orange goo repeatedly.
While I was able to either dodge or block most of them, I got careless and was hit with the splash of a ball of goo against the ground beside me. The moment it touched me, I felt some faint whispers in the distance. Something, no, someone was talking to me, promising me all that i ever dreamt of if I follow the voice. A whack from the child snapped me out of it.
I looked angerly at the goo, wiping it away with the blunted edge of my weapon.
I was incensed. Locating its eyes, I brutalized them with sharp blades of wind, making them ooze more of the orange goo. As it stands, I've come to believe this one either has the orange goo for blood or the orange goo is infecting it in a way, which is the more likely possibility. Other kinds of bugs had the same orange goo threatening to ooze out of their eyes, though the elder and the grub did not.
I started to suck the air from around it, creating a vacuum where it stood. Since neither the child nor I needed to breathe, it was a good method to deprive our opponent of one of its resources.
After some rounds of it trying to attack and us delivering some strikes in, its movements slowed. Once it completely stopped, the child made sure to tear it apart piece by piece.
Once I calmed down and focused, I noticed the whispers not disappearing with its death. I also noticed the child's lack of reaction to touching the goo.
Then, all of a sudden, motes of light gathered to form what looked like a broken mask piece. The child approached the floating, broken piece and touched it without a shred of hesitation. The broken mask piece exploded into motes of white light that gathered around small cracks and groves in the child's hard head, closing and mending them.