Echoes of Hollow

"Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!" Hilary gestured, placing her hands on her cheeks after using the chopsticks to put another piece of tofu in her mouth. "So good!"

Between bites, her eyes discreetly scanned the table, noticing the apparent discomfort not only among the children seated nearby but also the adults surrounding them. However, smiling as she indulged in the many dishes before her, she couldn’t care less... at least, not right now.

"Hmm, strange..." she muttered after drinking the remaining broth from her bowl. She placed the chopsticks on the table, horizontally in front of her plate, and looked at the girl sitting next to her. "You all act just like Hye, even the way you hold the utensils or the order in which you eat..."

"Pardon...?" Eudora's voice was barely louder than a whisper. With trembling eyes, she looked to her mother for some help, but all she received was silence.

"Or maybe that’s normal...?" Eyeing the tray of tacos, her hands moved before she even realized it. "Did you all learn from the same book?"

"Miss, I..."

"Miss?" Hilary interrupted, halting her hand on its way to her mouth. "No, my name is Hilary. You can call me that. 'Miss' is strange."

Eudora glanced sideways again, her brow furrowing, her gaze demanding an answer from Arche, who simply nodded.

"And what’s your name?"

"Uh... Eudora... my name is Eudora."

"Hmm, alright..." Hilary smiled, reached into her pocket, then extended her hand. "Nice to meet you, Eudora."

Eudora froze, staring at the hand in front of her, unsure how to proceed. Swallowing nervously, she extended her trembling hands, positioning them below Hilary’s, only to have a small round object, attached to a short, fragile white stick, fall into her palms.

"Just..." Hilary murmured, leaning closer to Eudora’s ear. "Don’t tell Hye I gave you this, okay? If he finds out I had another one, he’ll extend my punishment."

Clutching the candy with both hands, Eudora watched Hilary’s relaxed expression for a few moments before nodding hesitantly.

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

“It seems this isn't just something that prevents them from revealing information about the organization,” said Hye, while observing the three trembling men, all huddled together and crouched in the darkest corner of the small cave they found themselves in. “Death for leaking information, and it also has a location-sharing function, I suppose... or... before they were caught, the two of them could have already revealed their location. That’s also possible.”

Watching from a distance, Andreas held one of his arms and quickly averted his gaze, always avoiding making direct eye contact with Hye. After shaking his head twice, he looked at Lykos, who, after a brief but heavy sigh, nodded, allowing Andreas to leave the cave and only look back once he was safely outside.

“Sir, we found these two trying to approach the cave from the back of the mountain,” said Lykos, stepping closer to Hye and briefly glancing at the men, causing their bodies to tremble even more. “Since you were no longer here, we deduced that their goal was to reach this man, so we decided to let them stay together.”

Crouching before the terrified men, Hye continued watching them. With no light source present, the darkness was thick, making it impossible to see anything clearly. Yet, seeing those bluish glimmers shining amidst the shadows, the men had never felt so vulnerable... so powerless and fragile.

“I assume you were keeping an eye on the first one the whole time, correct? So, can you tell me if he touched any object?”

“No. From the beginning, he stayed in the exact same spot, curled up in this corner. And when they were discovered, the other two did the same.”

“I see...” Staring at the men, Hye shifted his gaze, focusing intensely on their legs, just above their feet. “Show me.”

To Lykos, the words made no sense, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine their meaning. But for those who had been feeling such an intense and strong pressure on their legs, as if they might be broken or pierced at any moment, pulling on parts of their clothing—two lifting their sleeves and the other tugging aside his shirt—was nothing but natural.

“Two on the wrist and the other on the chest...? I see, so there isn’t a specific location.” His eyes traced the tattoos, analyzing the identical images. “So now there are five, two more than the first, and one more than the second. So, the dead don’t have their number of heads updated. And... I imagine you won’t tell me anything, will you?”

“N-No, we…”

“You can’t, right? Yeah, I know. But... your phones, hand them over. And the passwords, too, please.”

‘Please…?!’ the men questioned in disbelief, fear etched into their faces.

Fiddling with the phones, Hye found nothing—no apps installed, no exchanged messages—nothing but a single number saved in all three phones, labeled the same: "The Body."

“Thu...thu...th…”

“Hello, Lucas,” said the voice on the phone, echoing through the cave and causing the frightened men to retreat even further.

“Huh?”

“You’re investigating me; wouldn’t it be natural for me to do the same? Well, to be honest, I started relatively earlier... But with such a notorious family, it would hardly even be called an investigation, right? HaHa!”

“Are you going to stop sending these people...”

“And if I don’t...?”

“I will…”

“You will...? HaHaHaHaHa!” A loud echo followed the laughter. “Aaahh... You know, Lucas, there’s something interesting about the Hydra: it can’t be killed. No matter what you do or how many you kill, the number will only keep growing.”

“Yes... that’s true for the heads,” replied Hye, looking at the men in front of him. “But you’re different, aren’t you? After all, the body is just one; it won’t multiply no matter how many times it’s cut in half.”

“Oh... indeed... Yes, you’re absolutely right.”

After a deep sigh resonated through the phone, as if in a chain reaction, a green glow radiated from the tattoos, and the men huddled in the corner of the cave began to scream, each feeling excruciating pain, as though their organs were being twisted while their blood boiled.

“As I thought, you really don’t know anything about her, do you...? Well, I wish you luck. But... to make this really interesting, let’s play a game... a bet.”

Lykos turned away, averting his face to avoid watching the situation for too long. Meanwhile, Hye stood up and took a single step back, just enough to avoid getting his shoes stained by the blood pooling on the floor.

“I saw your aunt and that cute little girl, too. So, while you try to find me, I’ll do everything I can to make sure they’re, as you said... cut in half.”

Clenching his teeth instinctively, Hye didn’t even notice that, slowly, his fists were tightening, veins bulging, and the phone in his hand cracking.

“This will be fun, won’t it?! If you win, of course, the ‘chase’ will stop. But if I win, you’ll have to step away...”

With no further sound, no moans or cries, and certainly no more words, after the clattering of shattered pieces on the ground, all that remained in the cave was a deafening silence and the unusually strong scent of blood spreading across the floor.

Looking at his hands, Hye saw them trembling and felt, deep within, the rapid pulse of his heart. It wasn’t fear, he knew that. After all, it was nothing like what he felt when he first met Samael. Turning his back and leaving the bodies behind, his eyes burned, for under the light of the moon, something so intense could only be pure rage.

[Warning!]

[The Void Servant’s Egg, present in the Void Realm, is about to hatch.]