Man of Hollows

A resonant clang echoed from the center of the camp, startling Hill before he could answer Lands' question. The sound was shockingly metallic, like a church bell but... out of tune. It sounded as if someone were slamming a sledgehammer against a mangled gong.

"What on earth is that?" Hill breathed, gasping as he reoriented himself.

"Again with the 'what on earth' stuff," Soleil chided. "You're supposed to say 'What on Igashia,' my fellow earthling."

"Sure thing..." Hill mumbled, looking up at Lands expectantly. "What was that sound?"

"Oh, you must be a really fresh catch!" Lands began, a smirk crossing his face. "Don't worry. If you were in some other company, that bell might have significance for you. But to us, the benevolent Fourth, it means absolutely nothing." He pointed to the glowing fruit in his hand. "To answer your question fully, that sound rings every three hours. Currently, it's breakfast time, so the other companies are going to eat."

"A bell?" Hill mumbled, his thoughts racing. "Is it some kind of alarm—"

His eyes widened as he realized the purpose of the resonant sound. In an underground forest with no way to see the sun, there was no way to track time! Perhaps someone had found a way to replace the much-needed presence of the sun, at least regarding the concept of time.

"Hey! You're pretty smart!" Lands cheered, slapping Hill's shoulder while simultaneously grabbing it and pulling him to his feet. "But now you're going to help me cut open this fruit."

"All right," Hill began, brushing his hands against his pants as he prepared himself. "Wait, how are we going to cut the fruit? Do we have a knife?"

Lands smiled, his dimples growing increasingly prominent. He cupped his hands around his mouth and turned to Soleil, who seemed to have predicted this very maneuver. Her amethyst eyes were shadowed with disgust.

"Oh, Soleil~! May I please have a knife?" Lands sang, making sure to add sufficient vibrato when pronouncing her name.

She rolled her eyes before extending her hand. To Hill's astonishment, particles of light emerged from the air around her hand, converging into the form of a dagger. Within three seconds, a sleek steel dagger had materialized. It was quite simple in appearance, with a smooth handle and a dull blade.

Lands took the blade, spinning it horizontally on the tip of his finger as he flashed another smile at Hill. "And yes, we do have a knife."

He handed both the knife and the glowing fruit to Hill, who took the two objects unconsciously. Hill was still in shock from what he had witnessed. Despite having experienced various degrees of supernatural phenomena within the past ten hours, he hadn't expected a knife to be summoned from thin air.

"H-how did you do that?" he asked with a shaky voice, his eyes focused on Soleil.

Soleil simply glared at Lands before grabbing the broccus weeds and walking outside the tent. Lands shrugged as she left, then sat down and handed the knife to Hill. "I'm guessing you don't know what relics are."

"I don't," Hill replied. "But actually, Soleil did mention something about the First Company having the best relics or something along those lines. I think I understand what she meant now..."

"Yep! They're essentially just items that seem to be bound to our souls. As a result, you can summon and dismiss them however you please. If Soleil wanted to, she could return this knife right back into her soul."

"I see. How do I get one?" Hill asked.

Lands shrugged. "I don't know. Soleil says she got the knife after killing one of the wild beasts that roam this forest. She apparently has several more, too."

Recognition shot through Hill's mind. It was similar to equipping and unequipping items in a video game. But for whatever reason, he felt that if he were to acquire a relic of his own, it wouldn't feel like a game at all.

The preparation of food was as hard as expected, but not for the glowing fruit, which the two other members of the Fourth simply called glowfruit.

The glowfruit was actually like a pomegranate on the inside, with each seed shining even brighter than the outer layer of the fruit. It was easy to prepare, too. All Hill had to do was scoop the seeds out with his hands and place them on three sections of ironwood leaf, which they used as plates. The seeds made soft popping sounds as he separated them from the clear membrane, each one warm and pulsing with light that was sometimes brighter than the outer layer of the fruit.

The broccus, on the other hand, had to be cooked, and Soleil had a weird way of preparing it.

He remembered that she had left the tent earlier with the broccus weeds, and when Hill went to see what she was doing, he was quite surprised.

Soleil had somehow started a strange fire in a pit she had dug. He didn't see a fuel source or any evidence of the primitive method of starting a fire using flint, tinder, and other flammable objects. As a result, the presence of the fire felt deeply unnatural.

The fire was a strange purple color and gave off intense heat. It seemed to be burning everything around it and was causing the ground nearby to glaze over like pottery. Soleil had placed a flat stone above the fire pit. She waited a few seconds for it to get hot enough, testing the temperature by holding her hand just above it.

Despite his distance from the flame, he felt like he was being cooked alive. Soleil was somehow enduring these flames as if it was nothing. 

Hill watched with a fascinated expression on his face as she carefully placed the broccus stalks on the heated stone. The vegetables hissed right away, releasing a sweet smell that filled the air around the tent. Soleil turned them with her bare fingers, like the heat didn't bother her at all—it would have burned Hill's skin for sure. The purple flames licked at the edges of the stone, casting shadows that made her movements look almost like some kind of ritual.

After she was done, she placed the cooked broccus weed on the ironwood leaves beside the glowfruit seeds. The contrast was pretty striking—the dim purple char marks on the green vegetables next to the brilliant, pulsing seeds. When she offered him a taste, Hill noted that the weed tasted like broccoli, but it had this refreshing tang that seemed off to him. Perhaps it was because it tasted similar but so foreign at the same time.

Thanks to their efforts, breakfast was ready, and Hill found himself eating way more than he usually could. Back on Earth, his mother would have a hard time getting him to finish his food because of his bad appetite. He wondered what was so different this time...

Unfortunately, they couldn't enjoy their food for as long as they would've liked. The sound came first— a scraping sound against the ground outside, like someone dragging their feet through the dirt. Hill stopped chewing, a glowfruit seed still glowing between his teeth. Soleil's hand stopped halfway to her mouth, her amethyst eyes moving slowly towards the tent entrance.

The footsteps were slow and appeared to be in no hurry. It was as if someone was taking their sweet time strolling over to them. They stopped just outside the tent flap, and for a moment, the only sound was the distant chatter of other companies going about their morning business.

Then the silence went on longer than it should have. Hill found himself holding his breath, watching as the tent flap stayed perfectly still. Whoever was out there wasn't saying anything—they were waiting. For what, Hill couldn't say, but the way Soleil's shoulders tensed up told him she knew exactly who was standing behind that thin piece of fabric.

A hand finally pushed through the tent flap, moving slowly as it pulled the material aside. The fingers were pale but rough, with old scars across the knuckles. Then came the rest of him—a young man dressed in a muddy outfit of cargo pants and a black long-sleeved shirt that hugged his frame tight. His blonde hair hung in wet strands from beneath his gray beanie, which was pulled low enough to shadow his eyes, but not low enough to hide the cold look in them.

He didn't come in right away. Instead, he stood at the entrance, looking over the scene like he was taking notes on everything. His eyes stayed on Hill a bit too long before moving to what was left of their breakfast.

Soleil scowled, deliberately spitting the remains of a glowfruit seed onto the ground before turning to face the newcomer with obvious hate.

"May I ask why you're here, Commander August?"