Man of Hollows

"Edarus? Don't you mean, what on Earth? Or even, what on Igashia?"

Hero stared at him with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Hill struggled to speak. "Well, I mean... you asked that question as if Edarus was a planet or something. You know, when you said: What on Edarus happened to you, child? Usually I'd say: What on Earth is going on? With 'Earth' being the planet in question... Yeah?"

Hero turned to Mime and let out a booming laugh. If this place had regular sound dynamics, it would have echoed long and far. His laughter continued on and on, seemingly never ending until he finally came to a stop to gasp for air.

Mime stared at him with a partial smile on her face and her head tilted at a forty-five degree angle. Even she seemed puzzled by Hero's outburst.

Why was he laughing so hard? Hill asked himself. He turned to Mime, who was suddenly looking at him. Smiling awkwardly, he twisted his wrist in a hand gesture meant to signify his confusion.

Mime simply imitated Hero's laugh silently before abruptly stopping and pointing a finger gun to her head. She then proceeded to display her brains being blown out the side of her head while mouthing the word "boom."

What the f—

"Ah..." Hero sighed, having finally recovered from the exertion. His expression, however, was deathly serious. "You see, child, Edarus was my home planet. Unfortunately, many calamities struck the planet and it is currently uninhabitable."

"Woah, so you're an alien!" Hill exclaimed. "I mean, sorry for your loss."

"Careful with your tongue, boy." Hero retorted. "You're an alien as well, in my eyes at least."

Ah, I suppose that's fair. But this means he was pulled from some other world, right? I, from Igashia. Hero, from Edarus. Mime, from the depths of hell.

"You must have been wondering why I was laughing so hard, eh?" Hero asked, his voice completely shedding its giddy edge, yet it still clung to its energy. "To be honest with you, I was struck with an epiphany!"

Mime and Hill leaned in, clearly interested. Their shared curiosity briefly overrode the strangeness of their situation.

Hero began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back. "I told you that Mime and I confirmed with our runes that our physical bodies are deceased, correct? For her," he gestured to Mime, "a suicide. For me, annihilation at the hands of the bastard that destroyed my world. Yet here we stand. As souls. This has been the central paradox, the problem I couldn't solve."

He stopped and looked at Hill with a sharp expression. "An awakened soul, you see, is not like a dormant one. When we awaken, the connection between our soul and our body becomes absolute. It strengthens like a tightening cord. The more powerful the soul, the stronger the bond! It is the source of our strength, but it can also be our greatest weakness."

"What do you mean?" Hill asked, trying to follow the dense lecture.

"It means," Hero said, his tone quite grim, "that if the body of an Awakened dies, the soul dies with it. It doesn't detach, nor does it move on. It is extinguished, pulled into oblivion along with its physical anchor. The only exception is for those who reach the seventh step of purity and transcend into a true spirit form. I... am not a spirit."

Mime dramatically placed a hand on her chest, then pretended to crumble into dust. To fully demonstrate this, she laid on the ground and started doing snow angels. Well, light-eating sand angels, to be more accurate.

The two of them stared at her performance expressionlessly before Hero quickly composed himself and continued.

"Exactly," Hero began, nodding to Mime's performance. "So, the fact that we are here, the fact that our souls are persisting when our bodies are gone... it should technically be close to impossible. It would be incredibly difficult to separate a soul from a body when you're awakened. If you did, you would certainly damage the soul or the body. But... I think that's exactly what happened! My soul has been completely separated from my body, and as a result, has suffered some damage!"

He let the weight of that statement hang in the air before continuing. "I was a fool not to consider it earlier. I assumed we were in some pocket dimension. But there is only one logical explanation for how a soul can exist without its body, especially if awakened." He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the black desert and the red disc. "We are not in a physical place at all. We are in a soul realm."

He then pointed a finger at Hill. "And your question, boy... your question about Earth, and Igashia, and Edarus... it made me remember how I died. The last thing I remember was being annihilated by a spear of light that was the size of a mountain. It was the work of that bastard whom I shall not name, but it makes me laugh seeing how his efforts failed to truly erase me from existence."

"So... that's why you were laughing." Hill mumbled.

"Hah! Of course it was!" Hero replied, his eyes scanning the landscape with newfound disdain. "Anyways, this soul realm must belong to someone of little significance," he mused, mostly to himself. "This realm is truly bleak. Barren, colorless, and utterly devoid of imagination."

Hill followed his gaze, analyzing just how empty the desert was. He didn't really like looking at his current surroundings because of how easily it dampened his mood, but now that it was relevant to the conversation, he felt that he had to.

As he looked around, a thought came to his mind. It was more of a question than an idea.

Hero was able to gather this much information just by asking some questions and by looking at his runes. What if I try to look at my runes as well?

I mean, I know that I can't but... what's the harm in trying?

So, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused his thoughts on those shimmering runes that he had seen in the soul trial. Having painted the perfect mental picture, he made a mental command and willed them to appear before him.

He expected nothing to happen, of course. After all, nothing had happened the other times that he had tried to summon them.

But this time, something strange happened. Opening his eyes, he saw a series of luminous particles swirl out from the outline of his figure. They began to collide with each other before him, merging together in explosive flashes of light.

Hero and Mime had noticed this strange light show as well. They watched with wide eyes and slack jaws as the flashes of light turned into shimmering light pink runes. They then arranged themselves until all three of them were looking at a complex matrix of runes. With a final shudder, they churned into a language Hill could understand.

***

Name: [Hillel Tehom.]

Sex: [Male.]

Age: [16.]

Height: [5'10']

Weight: [105 lbs.]

Title: [None.]

Rank: [Dormant.]

Soul Core: [Dormant.]

Relics: [None.]

Attributes: [None.]

Blessing: [None.]

Blessing Rank: [None.]

Curse: [The Enchained Hollows.]

Curse Rank: [Dormant.]

Soul Art: [None.]

Body Condition: [Heavily Damaged.]

Soul Condition: [Stable.]

***