The hollow ones

The world twisted.

Ellie felt her body pulled forward, like she was falling through layers of reality. The moment her mark touched the door, everything ripped apart—sound, light, even the weight of her own existence.

Then—impact.

She hit solid ground with a gasp, the breath knocked from her lungs.

Sam landed beside her, groaning. "Okay, I think I'm gonna puke."

Malcolm stumbled to his feet, knife still clutched tightly in his hand, eyes scanning their surroundings.

Ellie blinked, trying to adjust to the sudden shift.

They weren't in the ruins anymore.

They stood in a vast, open space, surrounded by towering obsidian pillars that stretched high into a sky that wasn't a sky at all—a swirling void of shifting shadows and faint, distant lights.

The air was thick, heavy, filled with a low, almost musical hum that vibrated in their bones.

And ahead of them—

A massive black fortress.

Its walls pulsed with veins of glowing white light, shifting like they were alive. The structure was ancient, but not ruined. It stood intact, waiting.

Ellie's mark throbbed painfully.

Something here recognized her.

Sam exhaled sharply. "Where… the hell are we?"

Malcolm took a slow step forward, his grip tightening on his weapon. "I don't think we're in our world anymore."

Ellie's heart pounded.

She didn't know how, but she could feel it—

This place was connected to the Hollow.

But it wasn't inside it.

It was something in between.

A bridge.

Ellie turned to look behind them—and her stomach dropped.

The door was gone.

Just an empty stretch of smooth, black stone where they had fallen through.

Sam swore under his breath. "Tell me we're not trapped here."

Ellie clenched her fists. They had to find a way out.

Before something found them first.

Then—

A sound.

Low. Echoing.

From the fortress.

Malcolm moved first. "We need to move."

Ellie took a deep breath, forcing the rising panic down.

One way or another, the answers were inside that fortress.

And so was whatever had been waiting for them.

The Fortress of the Lost

The sound echoed through the obsidian landscape—a deep, vibrating hum, almost like a pulse. It came from inside the fortress.

Ellie's breath was unsteady, but she forced herself forward. They had no choice. The door was gone. The only way now was ahead.

Malcolm walked beside her, knife still in hand. "Stay sharp."

Sam muttered, "Trust me, I wasn't planning on relaxing."

They crossed the threshold into the fortress. The air shifted immediately.

The moment they stepped inside, the weight of the world pressed down on them.

Ellie staggered, her mark flaring with heat.

Sam cursed. "What the hell is this place?"

The walls pulsed faintly with white veins of light, shifting like living stone. The fortress wasn't just ancient—it was alive in a way Ellie couldn't fully understand.

The corridor ahead stretched endlessly, the architecture twisted and impossible—hallways bending at strange angles, doors floating in midair, staircases leading to nowhere.

It was wrong.

Malcolm's jaw clenched. "This place defies reality."

Ellie barely heard him.

Something was calling her deeper inside.

Her mark burned again.

She took a shaky step forward. "We keep moving."

They walked in tense silence, their footsteps echoing.

The deeper they went, the stronger the pull became.

Then—

They reached a massive door.

Unlike the others, this one wasn't floating or broken—it was intact, sealed shut, and covered in symbols identical to Ellie's mark.

Her heart pounded.

She reached out—

The second her fingers brushed the door—

A wave of memories crashed over her.

Visions of the Past

Ellie wasn't in the fortress anymore.

She was somewhere else.

The world around her was distorted, a vision playing before her eyes.

She saw figures, wrapped in dark robes, their faces obscured. Chanting.

A ritual.

A woman stood at the center—the same woman from the ruins. The one who had called Ellie Chosen.

Ellie saw her lift her hands, and in her grasp was something blindingly bright.

A shard of pure light.

But as the ritual continued, something went wrong.

The light shattered.

Darkness ripped through the vision, consuming everything.

The woman screamed.

Then—

Ellie was back in the present.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, her knees buckling.

Sam grabbed her arm. "Ellie! What happened?"

She could barely answer.

She had seen it. The beginning of the Hollow.

And she had seen the shard of light.

It was still here.

Somewhere inside this fortress.

Ellie looked at the massive sealed door.

She knew now—this door led to the answers.

But also—to something much, much worse.

The Awakening

Ellie's breath was unsteady as she stared at the massive sealed door before her. The symbols glowed faintly, pulsing in rhythm with the burning sensation in her mark.

This was it.

The door held answers—but it also held something else. Something waiting.

Malcolm ran a hand over the markings. "This door… It feels old. And dangerous."

Sam exhaled sharply. "Yeah, no kidding. So, uh… do we open it? Or do we run the other way?"

Ellie swallowed hard. She already knew the answer.

"We open it."

The second she placed her hand against the surface—

The markings flared violently.

A shockwave of energy burst outward, slamming them all back.

The fortress rumbled, the very walls shaking as the air thickened with something ancient.

Then—a sound.

Low. Echoing.

Something was waking up.

Ellie's pulse pounded as the symbols on the door shifted, twisting, rearranging into a shape she almost understood.

Then—

The door split open.

A roar erupted from the darkness beyond.

And then it came.

A figure emerged—not a Hollow Beast, not a shade, but something far worse.

A Sentinel.

Tall, humanoid, but wrong. Its body was carved from obsidian, veins of white fire running beneath the surface. Its face was a blank mask, smooth and featureless except for the hollow voids where eyes should have been.

Ellie's heart stopped.

This thing was powerful.

It stepped forward, and with every movement, the ground trembled.

Then, its head tilted toward Ellie.

And its voice invaded her mind.

"You should not be here."

The words were not spoken—they pressed into her thoughts, filling her mind with a sense of overwhelming weight.

Ellie staggered back, clutching her head. "What… are you?"

The Sentinel's eyes burned white.

"I am the Guardian of the Rift. Keeper of the Forgotten. And you… are an intruder."

Malcolm moved fast, drawing his knife. Sam reached for his gun—

Too late.

The Sentinel lifted one hand—

A wave of force erupted outward, sending them flying.

Ellie slammed into the wall, pain bursting through her ribs. Sam hit the ground hard, groaning in pain.

Malcolm barely had time to recover before the Sentinel moved.

Fast. Too fast.

It was on them in an instant.

Ellie forced herself up, her mark burning, instincts screaming—

Then—

Something inside her snapped.

A surge of power flooded her veins, different from the Hollow's corruption—this was something else.

The moment the Sentinel struck—Ellie raised her hands.

And stopped it.

The air around her warped, a field of blinding light erupting from her mark, halting the Sentinel's attack inches from her face.

The Sentinel froze.

Its hollow eyes narrowed.

"Impossible."

Ellie's vision blurred, her body burning from the inside out—

Then, the mark changed.

Its darkened edges fractured, revealing something beneath—not just Hollow corruption, but pure energy.

For a brief moment, Ellie understood.

The Hollow had chosen her.

But she wasn't just its victim.

She was something more.

The Sentinel hesitated.

And in that instant—Ellie attacked.

The force exploded outward, slamming into the creature, sending it crashing through the fortress walls.

Ellie collapsed to one knee, gasping for breath.

Sam coughed. "Holy… What the hell was that?!"

Malcolm pushed himself up, eyes fixed on Ellie's glowing mark. "You tell us."

Ellie looked down at her arm.

The mark was different now.

And deep inside her, she could feel it.

Something had awakened.

And it wasn't human.