Sora was dragged like a rag doll by that massive, multi-eyed hand, her body
tumbling through the concrete stairwell. Her back slamd against the jagged
edges of the steps, the white-hot pain nearly sending her into unconsciousness.
But worse than the physical trauma were the voices.
Hundreds of faces manifested across the undulating surface of the monster's
mass. n, won, elders, children—a gallery of the "Ordinary." Each face was
shrieking, their voices overlapping in a dissonant, accusing choir.
"Why are you so ungrateful?!" "Who did Mama toil for?!" "How could you treat
your mother like this?!" "Do you have any concept of the Od Mama spent to raise
you?!" "Why can't you just be a Good Daughter?!"
The voices were needles, stitching themselves into Sora's brain. On the walls of
the stairwell, photographs began to manifest—thousands of them. Each depicted a
girl. So in Academy uniforms, so in nightgowns, so in that cursed pink
dress. Their expressions varied—smiling, weeping, stoic—but their eyes were all
identical: hollow, lightless voids.
Finally, the movent ceased. Sora was slamd onto the floor of the apartnt's
entryway.
The shifting mass of limbs and organs began to contract, squelching and popping
as it reorganized itself. The screaming faces dissolved back into the black
tissue.
When the distortion settled, the woman in the floral apron stood before her once
more. She knelt, reaching out a hand to steady Sora, her voice dripping with a
sickly, apologetic sweetness.
"Sora, I am so sorry." "Mama was rely overco with emotion." "I never
intended to damage your paraters." "It is only because I possess such
overwhelming affection for you."
Her fingertips touched Sora's shoulder. Sora flinched, her body rebelling
against the contact, but she lacked the strength to pull away. The woman hoisted
her up, propping her against the wall like a discarded puppet. She stood over
the girl, adopting the expectant posture of a parent waiting for a child to
admit a mistake.
"Sora, do you understand why Mama is saddened?" "Mama rises before the sun to
prepare your sustenance. Mama cleanses your garnts. Mama carefully designs
your curriculum." "Mama discarded her own life, her own dreams, to invest
everything into you." "And yet... how do you repay the interest?"
The woman's features began to slip again. Eyes migrated toward her temples; her
jaw lengthened. Black ichor seeped from the fissures in her skin.
"YOU TRIED TO ESCAPE!" "YOU TRIED TO TERMINATE THE RELATIONSHIP!" "YOU VIEW MAMA
AS A LIABILITY!" "YOU PERCEIVE MY LOVE AS A CONTAINNT FIELD!"
Her voice hit a shrill, piercing frequency. She seized Sora by the throat,
hoisting her into the air. A dozen identical faces sprouted from her neck,
shouting in unison.
"YOU SELFISH PARASITE!" "YOU INGRACTIOUS VARIABLE!"
Sora's consciousness began to flicker as the oxygen supply to her brain was cut
off. The edges of her vision turned a sterile, bleached white. The ringing in
her ears drowned out the monster's screaming.
But in this terminal second, her mind attained a state of hyper-clarity.
So this is the sensation of the Void, she thought. Not the grand, heroic end of
the novels. Just a quiet, clinical detachnt.
It was like drowning in deep water. The sounds of the world were fading, leaving
only the slow, heavy rhythm of her own heart echoing in her skull.
Thump... thump... thump...
The beat was slowing. Fading.
In that instant, Sora rembered. She saw Master Vahn's face—"Maintain
hyper-lucidity." She saw Vivi's final smile—"Look after my mother." She saw the
empty desks of her classmates—the ghosts of those who had failed the Ga.
Ah... I really do not wish for termination. I want one more cycle. Just one.
Her life had barely entered its primary phase. There were so many sectors she
hadn't explored, so many flavors she hadn't tasted, so many words left unsaid.
And then, she thought of Bochi.
The strange, naive "girl" who looked at the world with the eyes of a child.
Perhaps she will survive. Perhaps she can extract herself from this nightmare.
With that thought, the tension left Sora's body. If the outco was unavoidable,
she would et it with the dignity of her species.
She used the last embers of her Od to force her eyes open, staring directly into
the distorted, maddened face of the Anomaly. The woman's visage was a map of
insanity. Dozens of mouths were opening and closing, broadcasting the sa
scripted questions.
"WHY WON'T YOU OBEY?!" "WHY DO YOU SEEK THE OUTSIDE?!" "WHY CAN'T YOU BE THE
IDEAL?!" "MAMA LOVES YOU!" "YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING!" "WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY
MAMA?!"
The voices were a physical weight. Sora's mouth curved into a smile—not the
submissive grin of the "Good Daughter," but a sharp, jagged smirk of pure
defiance.
She opened her mouth, her voice a barely audible rasp.
"You... wretched... monster."
The shrieking mouths stopped mid-note. Hundreds of eyes swiveled, locking onto
her with predatory shock.
Sora's face was a mottled purple from lack of oxygen, the veins in her neck
bulging, but her gaze was a piercing light.
"You warp our logic!" she wheezed. "You harvest our souls!" "You devour our
fras!" "But I tell you this, Anomaly!" "As long as a single human heart still
beats!" "WE!" "WILL NEVER!" "SUBMIT!"
The final three words were a roar that tore from her lungs, echoing through the
cramped entryway.
The monster froze. It seed unable to process that a biological unit so close
to termination could still manifest such an intense, unyielding Will.
In the next micro-second, every mouth on the Anomaly's body unhinged, letting
out a deafening, reality-warping screech.
"THEN SUCCUMB TO THE VOID!"
The multi-eyed mass lunged forward, the primary maw opening to swallow Sora's
skull whole.
Sora closed her eyes.
Let it co. At least I had my protagonist mont.
But the clock stopped. One second. Two. Three.
The impact was replaced by a thunderous, structural crash.
BOOM!
The entire apartnt vibrated as if struck by a falling dragon. Sora snapped her
eyes open.
The sight before her was sothing she would carry into the next world.
The heavy iron door of the entryway—the door that had been sealed by black Od
since her "capture"—was currently sailing through the air. It tumbled
end-over-end before smashing into the far wall, disintegrating into a cloud of
shrapnel and dust.
The blood-red moonlight of the city spilled into the hall through the new
breach, silhouetting a slender figure.
A girl stood in the doorway. She was backlit by the crimson night, her
expression unreadable.
"A comndable resolution," the girl stated.
She took a asured step forward. As the dust settled, the moonlight touched her
face, lending her a look of haunting, divine stillness.
It was Bochi. She slowly spread her arms, assuming a majestic, commanding
posture that she had seen Skele-Greed utilize during his diplomatic speeches.
"In light of your spirit... I find myself inclined to intervene. In the na of
my Sovereign."
"I shall bestow upon you the Blessing of the Evernight!"
The mont she spoke, an atmospheric pressure that made the earlier terror feel
like a breeze erupted from Bochi's form. Sora couldn't see the energy, but she
felt the gravity in the room intensify until her bones groaned.
The Anomaly felt it too. It released its grip on Sora, every one of its hundreds
of eyes locking onto the girl at the door.
For the first ti in the Ga, the Anomaly displayed the variable known as
Fear.
Bochi tilted its head, a smile breaking across its face. It was a sweet,
innocent expression—which, given the crushing aura she was radiating, was
utterly terrifying.
"Comnce your prayers, pest."
Bochi reached forward with both hands, her fingers curling into a gesture of
absolute acquisition.
"I am Bochi! Foremost among the Legions of the Evernight!"
"And I hereby decree..."
"...your termination."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> spat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you
User Comments
0 comments from readers