Echoes of Hollow

The voice came, clearer than ever, echoing in his mind like a distant thunder. 'Do you want more power?' it asked, its tone resonating with unquestionable authority.

It repeated the question, each word heavy with immense weight:

'Do you want more power?'

Hye remained silent.

"..."

'Do you want to see her again?'

The black-scaled basilisk lunged toward him without warning. It moved as if it could fly, its dark scales tearing through the air like it was mere paper. Stones exploded in its wake, while monsters were shredded like fragile dolls.

Its eyes burned with fury.

To the basilisk, Hye wasn’t just prey. He was something that needed to suffer as much as possible before dying the most painful death imaginable.

"…"

'Do you want to feel that again?'

Recalling the fleeting sensations from those brief moments when he could finally feel, his mother's words echoed more clearly in his mind than ever: "I just want you to be happy, my son. That’s all I wish for."

Where did such words come from? What are they? Now that is irrelevant. What truly matters is the idea that maybe, just maybe… he could understand the meaning behind what his mother had told him and, for the first time, be able to ‘give’ her something even after her death. The comfort of knowing that her words were heard and her wish fulfilled.

"...Yes..." Hye whispered, his voice barely more than a breath.

'Do you want more power to do that?'

"...Yes."

With the sound of a massive, creaking door opening within him, time stopped. The dimension itself shattered. Everything had just been reduced to nothing in a span of time that couldn’t be measured.

The white-scaled basilisk had vanished—there wasn't even a single fang left behind. Meanwhile, the black-scaled one remained suspended in the void, not by choice, but because there was no longer life in that body, which was being simultaneously destroyed inside and out.

"How arrogant can you be, child?"

Hye was different. The very void had shaped itself around him and created a throne.

His voice alone—speaking in strange words, in a dialect unknown to mere humans, words akin to those Lucifer had spoken when he descended to the mortal realm in 2012—was enough to obliterate the basilisk, both inside and out, simultaneously.

Or was it his presence, the same presence that had destroyed the dimension they were in, too weak and small to contain such grandeur?

"Don't ever do something like that again. What you call life or... existence—it should mean more to you. It's something to be cherished and protected. So don't throw yours away so recklessly."

The being stood from his throne. He walked toward the basilisk and stopped before it. "Live once more," he commanded, and soon, the basilisk reformed entirely.

“However, this time, without hatred or rancor. Do not seek revenge or even think about the possibility. In an act of mercy, he cast you into this place, but next time, I fear this will not be repeated.”

The creature shuddered.

'I… died…?' it wondered, memories of an inescapable darkness, an endless void, flooding its mind.

Not even the one who had cast it into that small dimension had such a presence. And to resurrect the dead? That wasn’t easy. Even gods needed time. Yet this being had revived it with just a few simple words?

Impossible.

The man turned, his back now facing the terrified creature. With each step he took, flowers bloomed around him. A new world was being created amidst the deepest and purest void—the home of a darkness that seemed to have a life of its own.

By his sixth step, the white-scaled basilisk had reappeared, along with the monster’s unhatched eggs, starting from its tail and ending at its head.

Seven steps were enough.

Not only was the world larger, but also more beautiful.

A new world full of flowers, trees, and vast land stretched before them. Even if the basilisk tried, it would never traverse the entire place. No one could, except its creator.

It was impossible.

The man continued walking down a dirt path, the body of the white-scaled basilisk floating alongside him.

The void followed him.

The black basilisk looked on, both terrified and awestruck, as the being approached a portal made of the densest, purest darkness—a portal that, unlike the others, could indeed be touched.

So, before such a grand and incomparable power, what else could it do but kneel?

"Could I be a little more… selfish?" the creature murmured hesitantly, instinctively bowing in deep respect to the being before it.

"Speak, child."

The basilisk was startled.

Its head didn’t rise even a fraction; in fact, it bowed even lower. Yet its eyes acted differently, lifting ever so slightly to gaze at the grand, somewhat terrifying figure standing in the distance.

"My lord, if you wish… could you, please… give me a name?"

"I understand…"

Basilisks—flaws in creation. No, unexpected mutations that escape any being’s control.

How are they born? How could a colossal creature with divine blood hatch from a mere snake’s egg?

The first basilisks, as far as is known, appeared in ancient times, before the concept of time had been established for mortal existence, and when the great dragon Ryujin was killed by Izanami.

On that day, the great dragon’s blood formed rivers, lakes, and stained entire oceans. It took, by today’s measures, three times the length of the universe’s creation for these waters to be “cleansed of its essence.”

During this time, strange creatures emerged—massive beings capable of destroying mountains with a simple flick of their tails.

Creatures whose eyes held the terrifying power to turn almost anything to stone with just a glance.

These were the first basilisks.

Beings born from the mixture of a simple snake’s egg with the blood of a fearsome dragon—a blood comparable to that of a god. Their very existence, left unchecked, could bring down entire universes.

But there was another factor that increased this danger: a certain ability, a restriction only discovered during the “Rebirth of Ryujin” and the birth of the three great dragon gods during the cataclysmic battle with Susanoo.

A fight that tore the world apart.

The renegade son of Izanami and Izanagi, the god of storms, Susanoo, fought ferociously against dozens of basilisks at once.

His blows shattered parts of the world, a place several times larger than the first universe of angels, and killed many of his enemies one by one. Yet his greatest mistake came at the end of the battle, after nearly all the enemies had been defeated.

Out of respect, he compared the largest of the three remaining basilisks—the most powerful one until that moment—to Ryujin, the dragon god of the sea. He named it Ryujin, as he did with the other two, Yamata no Orochi, the dragon god of thunder and rain, and Fūryū, the dragon god of wind, based on their special abilities during the battle.

In doing so, Susanoo unwittingly created creatures that even his parents could not easily control.

From that moment forward, those were no longer mere basilisks. By being named, as would happen with the imugis, they transcended their very existence and became true, majestic dragons.

From then on, the battle was over.

Susanoo died pathetically and quickly, his body encased in a massive sphere of water, burned from within by lightning that seemed to come from nowhere, and sliced apart by air currents that manifested at the site. Even his parents could do nothing to save him.

Through Susanoo’s mouth, the three great dragon gods had been born that day.

The world would be divided: in the waters, Ryujin; in the sky, Kiyohime; and on land, Yamata no Orochi. The other realms were left for the remaining gods to rule.

***************

"This wasn’t supposed to happen, but…" the man smiled.

Incomprehensible words slipped from the lips of the one who could once be called Hye.

The basilisk trembled, hearing the echo of his voice as it reverberated only in its ears, its very existence beginning to crack again.

Shadows from the void enveloped its enormous body in an instant. Its final sight before everything turned dark was that beautiful and terrifying figure passing through the black portal.

"Thank you…"

The creature felt something strange, as if something within it had changed. It didn’t know what it was, but it knew something was different. Greater and stronger than ever before.

From that moment on, it had become something entirely new—not like other dragons or basilisks, but something unique.