Chapter 62 – What Lies Beneath
Part 2: Echoes That Remember
The Hollow didn't scream.
It whispered.
And the whispers crawled down the walls.
Serika and Luceris stood back to back, eyes locked on the thing rising from the earth. It didn't move fast. It didn't threaten. But it didn't blink.
Its voice sounded like it came from beneath its own skin.
"Who wakes the throne that bled the sun?"
Luceris drew his blade. "You have two choices. Crawl back into whatever hell you came from—"
"Luceris," Serika said sharply. "This thing... isn't here to fight."
The figure lifted its head. Beneath the iron mesh, its eyes weren't eyes—just memory. Streaming, blackened echoes of something long dead and still angry.
"He steps where only kings once bled.The last of the Hollow. The one who was not mourned."
Serika tightened her grip on her dagger.
"Where's Ariz?"
Inside the mirror, Ariz didn't see Serika. Or Luceris. Or the Hollow.
He stood in a world without sky.
Just pillars. Shadows. And a throne built of screaming bone.
Atop it sat a man who looked like him, older, taller, wrapped in royal black—a crown of obsidian and silver resting against his brow.
His eyes glowed the same violet as Ariz's.
"I am what you may become," the echo said."Or what you may destroy, if you are weak."
Ariz stepped forward. "Is this a test?"
"No. This is a warning.""The blood you carry was not made for peace.""It was made to rule. Or to end everything."
Back in the real Hollow:
The echo creature raised its hand.
Chains wrapped around its limbs like ancient scripts. Its fingers touched the stone—and the world trembled.
Luceris backed up a step.
"Serika. This thing—this isn't a summon. This is an echo like Ariz's."
"No," she said quietly. "This one's broken. But it still remembers him."
"He carries the crown of the lost. The hunger of the void.We kneel not in fear.We kneel because we were once commanded."
And the creature dropped to its knees.
Bow drawn not to Luceris.
Not to Serika.
To the empty space where Ariz had vanished.
Inside the mirror, Ariz stood inches from the shadow of himself.
"Will you take the burden?" the figure asked."Will you let this world burn again to keep your promise?""Will you sit upon the throne you were born from?"
Ariz looked up.
Then answered:
"Only when it matters.Only when no one else deserves to."
The mirror shattered.
Back in the chamber, violet light pulsed out of the tomb.
Ariz stepped through the fragments, eyes glowing. Calm. Taller, stronger than when he left.
Serika took one step toward him.
Stopped.
"You... alright?"
He nodded once.
Then looked at the kneeling creature.
"Get up," Ariz said. "The war's not over."