Black Hollow swallowed Carter whole.
For a moment, there was nothing—no sound, no light, no sensation. Just a weightless drop into a place that didn't obey the rules of the world he knew.
Then the Rift breathed.
Light snapped back in jagged shards, and Carter stumbled forward onto uneven ground. The air was thick, metallic, humming with unstable mana. The sky—if it could be called that—was a swirling dome of violet clouds, rotating like a slow whirlpool.
REI flickered beside him, her glow unstable. "Carter… we've crossed the threshold. Black Hollow is fully active."
Seris stepped through behind them, spear in hand, eyes scanning the warped landscape. "Stay close. The Hollow shifts. It doesn't like newcomers."
Carter steadied himself. The ground beneath his boots felt wrong—like stepping on something that wasn't entirely solid. The terrain stretched in impossible angles: cliffs bending sideways, trees growing in spirals, shadows that didn't match their owners.
"This place is… broken," Carter said.
"Not broken," Seris corrected. "Hungry."
A low hum vibrated through the air, like a heartbeat echoing from deep underground.
REI's glow sharpened. "Spatial instability detected. Gravity fluctuations ahead."
Carter frowned. "Gravity fluctuations?"
The ground in front of him suddenly tilted upward, like someone had grabbed the world and twisted it. Loose stones floated into the air, drifting sideways before falling back down.
Carter stepped back. "Okay. That's new."
Seris didn't flinch. "Black Hollow rewrites itself every few minutes. Don't trust the ground. Don't trust the sky. Don't trust your senses."
"Comforting," Carter muttered.
They moved deeper into the Rift.
---
The path twisted into a narrow canyon of jagged stone. Strange symbols pulsed faintly along the walls—runes Carter didn't recognize, glowing with a sickly blue light.
Carter reached out to touch one.
Seris grabbed his wrist instantly. "Don't."
Carter blinked. "Why?"
"Those aren't runes," she said. "They're scars."
"Scars of what?"
Seris didn't answer.
REI floated closer to the wall, scanning. "These markings are residual imprints of temporal collapse. They were created by something powerful."
Carter's pulse quickened. "The same thing that killed me?"
"Possibly," REI said.
The canyon opened into a wide chamber—an impossible space where the ceiling stretched into infinity and the floor rippled like liquid stone.
Carter stopped.
Something moved in the distance.
A creature—twisted, elongated, its limbs bending in unnatural angles. Its body flickered like a corrupted image, shifting between shapes. Its eyes glowed with a faint violet light.
Carter tightened his grip on his dagger. "What is that?"
Seris lowered her spear. "A Hollowspawn. One of the Rift's children."
The creature turned toward them.
It screamed.
The sound wasn't a roar—it was a distortion, a tearing of sound itself. The air rippled violently, and Carter staggered back.
REI's voice sharpened. "Hostile entity approaching. Prepare for combat."
The Hollowspawn lunged.
Carter moved instinctively—his Divergent Blade aura flaring to life. His body blurred forward, momentum snapping like a whip as he slashed.
Divergent Edge.
A crescent of compressed force tore through the air, striking the creature's chest. The Hollowspawn staggered, its form glitching violently.
But it didn't fall.
It split.
Two identical creatures peeled away from the original, each flickering with unstable energy.
Carter's eyes widened. "It can duplicate?!"
Seris spun her spear, planting her feet. "No. It's not duplicating."
She lunged, impaling one of the creatures through the head. It dissolved into static.
"It's shedding unstable forms," she said. "Kill the core."
Carter turned to the remaining creature. Its chest pulsed with a bright violet glow.
The core.
He dashed forward, blade humming with energy.
The Hollowspawn lashed out with elongated claws, but Carter ducked under the swipe, sliding across the warped ground. He drove his dagger upward—
Divergent Edge — Second Form.
The blade pierced the core.
The creature convulsed, its body collapsing inward before exploding into a burst of static and dust.
Silence returned.
Carter exhaled, lowering his dagger. "That was… intense."
Seris nodded. "That was a weak one."
Carter blinked. "Weak?"
Seris pointed deeper into the Hollow, where the terrain twisted into a spiraling descent.
"The Hollow Beast is far stronger. And far more aware."
REI floated closer to Carter, her glow softening. "Your energy output is stable. But the Rift is reacting to you."
Carter frowned. "Reacting how?"
REI hesitated. "It is… watching you."
Carter looked toward the spiraling descent.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
"Good," he said quietly. "Let it watch."
He stepped forward.
Deeper into Black Hollow.
Deeper toward the truth.