Hollowfied

Cassius awoke in the manor's medical wing, the beeping of machines a quiet, rhythmic pulse beside him. Vitals were monitored, and fluids were steadily administered. The air smelled sterile, too clean, and unfamiliar instruments surrounded the bed like cold, metal vultures.

Tech.

The kind his family never used.

Not because it was illegal. But because it was forbidden by belief. Their religion condemned dependency on machines, especially for healing. Cassius didn't need a lecture to know what that meant:

He was in serious trouble.

He tried to move his head. It felt like someone had stacked iron plates on his skull. His neck resisted, muscles aching from even a twitch. But somehow, he still managed to turn just enough to see his mother seated beside him, his siblings standing close behind her.

You'd expect him to say something soft. "Thanks, Mom," or maybe, "I'm sorry…"

But no.

Cassius blinked slowly, then whispered, voice hoarse, "Is it true…? Can I… really get a resonance?"

The room stilled. Cedric, Liora, and Avaia all looked to Selene, curious, concerned, maybe even hopeful.

Selene hesitated.

Then she swallowed hard and met his eyes. "Yes. But… it's almost impossible."

Her voice was gentle, but firm. She spoke like a mother trying to prepare her child for something irreversible.

"As you know," she continued, "Hollows have frailer bodies than even the sickest humans. Their bones are thinner. Their organs weaker. Their lifespans short. The only things stronger are their senses."

She reached out and took Cassius's hand, her fingers trembling just enough for him to feel it.

"You can get a resonance. But it comes much later, if at all. And... when it does, it's not a gift. It's a curse. Hollows are born from the blood of a fallen angel, mingled with human impurity. That mix..i-it corrodes them from the inside."

She looked at him fully now. No lies. Just truth. Raw and brutal.

"I... You won't live long," she said, voice cracking. "It's a miracle you've made it this far. The only reason is because we're nobles. We have access to healers, medicine, money. Without that, you wouldn't have survived your first year."

Her words hung in the room like smoke.

Cassius didn't blink. His mouth was slightly open, but his eyes… they weren't focused on her. He wasn't looking at anything. It was as if he was staring into something else entirely. A future. A void. A reckoning.

Then he spoke. Quiet. Desperate.

"W-well… we haven't done the ceremony yet. F-for me. I could still have something—just a spark. Please... If I'm going to die... I want to know. Even if it's just a sliver."

Selene didn't respond immediately. She stared at him, caught in a conflict no parent wants to face. But a dying wish is a powerful thing.

Finally, she nodded. "Very well. I'll arrange it. But it'll be private. And it will be tonight. Rest up."

With that, she stood, motioning for the others to follow her. They left quietly, the door closing with a soft click.

Once they were down the hall, Cedric leaned toward her and asked, "Do you think it'll work? I mean… my attunement's fire. Liora's is aegis. Avaia has a summon-type. But… none of that will help Cassius."

Avaia, quiet and kind as always, looked up and said softly, "Mother… I don't think you should lie to him. He's—"

Selene cut her off without breaking stride.

"I wasn't lying."

They all stopped.

"It's true Hollows can develop resonances," she said. "But if they do… it's not like us. They don't just attune. They become something else. Something worse."

She turned to face them, her expression unreadable.

"It's like watching a person become the avatar of death itself."

That silenced them. Completely.

Without another word, Selene walked away, her steps already heavy with the weight of what came next.

She had a ceremony to arrange.

***

9 HOURS LATER.

The children were still out cold, scattered in their beds like thrown laundry, when Selene burst into the room, the door slamming against the wall.

"Get up."

Her voice snapped like a whip.

Oh, they got up.

Cassius groaned, rubbing his eyes, slow to move, but his siblings were already awake and scrambling. Excited. Hopeful. Desperate. Cassius had a chance to avoid the cruelty this world had written into his blood, and none of them wanted him to suffer.

A pentagram had been drawn into the earth. Flames burned from every corner, flickering unnaturally in colors no campfire had ever seen. Runes that they couldn't read glowed in the soil. Several priests, not the usual ones, stood hooded around the ring, one holding a black tome and whispering in a dialect that sounded older than language itself.

"What the hell is this?" Cedric muttered.

"This isn't the ritual we did…" Avaia whispered, clutching her sleeves.

Cassius didn't care. He was beaming. Eyes wide, heart pounding like a drum in a war camp. Finally. He nearly skipped into the circle before the lead priest snapped, "Stand still. Don't move."

Cassius obeyed.

The priest began chanting. The fire pulsed. Selene watched silently, arms crossed tightly across her chest. Cassius looked around, searching for his father. Nowhere in sight. Probably asleep, as always.

But Liora wasn't calm. Her instincts itched. Even at five years old, her Aegis resonance flickered to life, glowing softly around her in faint geometric shields. She wasn't sure why, but something in the fire felt… wrong.

And then it happened.

A blast of heat erupted from the center of the pentagram, an explosion of force and pressure. The shockwave knocked the priests off their feet and sent Selene sliding back into the dirt. Cassius hit the ground, his ears ringing. Cedric caught himself mid-fall. Avaia screamed, shielding her face. Liora's shield flared bright and shattered. She collapsed, burnt and shaking. Avaia caught her just in time.

Smoke swallowed the clearing. The fire turned blue, then black, and in the center of it all, rising like something pulled from the underworld itself—

A demon stood smiling.

Twisted flame danced off obsidian skin. His horns curled like broken branches, and his voice sounded like laughter inside a throat full of glass.

"Oh, how good it is to be back," it crooned. "I greet thee."

The children tried to scream, to call for help, but nothing. The air stole their voices. It smirked.

"Let's get this over with," the demon yawned. "Where's the sacrifice?"

It glanced around, then noticed their panic. A slow, horrible grin stretched across its face.

"Oh… you didn't know what you were getting yourselves into."

It sniffed the air once, then again, and paused, eyes narrowing. It looked down.

"You," it growled, pointing a claw at Cassius. "You smell like him."

Cassius blinked, dazed. "Him…?"

"I presume you want a core?" the demon chuckled. "Lucky for you, you're already cursed. I won't even need a blood price."

"Wait—WAIT!"

But it was too late.

The demon stomped on Cassius's leg with monstrous force, cracking, and his scream shattered the silence.

Across the manor, Dorian awoke.

Something ancient inside him snapped into focus. He bolted upright, heard the scream again, then launched himself down the hallway barefoot, his hand already reaching for his blade.

By the time he hit the back door, Cassius was writhing on the ground in the demon's grasp, glowing black runes crawling up his spine like a parasite. The air smelled like sulfur and blood.

Dorian didn't hesitate.

He charged.

The demon looked up only to be blinded. A flash of pure white light burst from Dorian's hand like the sun itself had blinked. The creature shrieked, stumbling backward as Dorian crossed the yard in a single heartbeat.

Light pulsed again, and his armor gleamed. Not plated steel, resonance-forged silk, woven with divine essence. Support type or not, it made him fast, untouchable.

The demon slashed but missed. Dorian slid under the strike, twisted, and sliced low. His blade caught the demon's thigh, glowing with purification sigils.

Smoke hissed from the wound.

"You—" the demon snarled.

Dorian didn't speak.

Instead, he summoned Lumen Steps, a flash-resonance technique. The world flickered as he disappeared and reappeared behind the demon in less than a second. The creature turned too late.

Radiant Cage.

Lines of light shot outward from Dorian's palms, boxing the demon in with a lattice of glowing resonance. The field didn't hold it long, but it held long enough.

The Wolf stepped in. One blade. Two strikes.

A shoulder.

A knee.

Then, as the demon roared in fury and pain, Dorian whispered under his breath.

"Eclipse Bind."

His sword surged with luminous energy, not destructive, but absolute. Like the light of judgment itself.

He plunged it into the demon's core.

The beast screamed a sound that didn't echo, but imploded, as if space collapsed around it.

It's last remnants of its life, it said, "So..you were a Valerius..to bad for the boy he already has demonic blood running in him now-"

Light poured from its eyes, mouth, and chest. It clutched the blade—then fell apart. Not in blood. Not in ash.

Just… gone.

Silence.

Dorian stood still, chest rising slowly, sword dimming as the last of the light faded from its edges.

The grass under his feet was scorched.

His son lay crumpled nearby, glowing faintly.

Selene approached from the side, face pale, lips parted. "That… that wasn't supposed to happen."

Dorian turned slowly. "You summoned a demon for a hollow."

"I—"

"You gambled his soul for a chance."

She looked down.

Dorian sheathed his blade. His hands trembled as he knelt by Cassius, checking his pulse.

Alive.

But changed.

The resonance was in him now.

And it didn't feel like light.