Chapter 5: Embers in the Dark
They were summoned at dawn.
Karen, Leslie, Marie, and Jim stood at the edge of the Translocation Spire, a towering crystalline monument near the eastern cliffs of Soul Academy. Pale soul-lanterns flickered along its base, and above them, a swirl of shimmering runes hummed with quiet tension.
"First-year external field deployment," Instructor Elandra Vale intoned, her white hair catching the morning sun like a blade of snow. "This is no simulation. You will be observed but not rescued. Succeed, or fail. Survive, or perish."
Behind her, a familiar figure appeared from the mist.
Cassandra Ikemba.
Cousin to Joshua. A second-year. Deadly. Cold. And out of place among them.
Karen blinked. "Why is she—?"
"I volunteered," Cassandra said curtly. She didn't look at Karen. "Instructor's orders. Field supervisor. I don't do babysitting, so keep up."
Leslie whispered, "She's like a more glamorous sword-wielding thundercloud."
Marie giggled, despite the tension.
Jim kept his gaze steady. "We'll follow your lead, Karen."
That surprised her. It warmed her, too.
"Let's move," Cassandra snapped.
The spire pulsed.
A flash of blue.
The world folded.
And then they were gone.
---
Location: Hollowreach Forest, Outer Soul Island
The forest was a graveyard of twisted trees and blackened roots, suffocated by a choking mist. The mission was simple in writing: Locate and retrieve an aberrant soul core detected by Soul Academy sensors. Avoid drawing attention. Return intact.
In practice, it was a damn nightmare.
"This place reeks of corrupted energy," Leslie muttered, clutching her short blade.
Karen's Proto-Domain buzzed inside her like a drumbeat, warning her of something deeper—older.
Cassandra stepped ahead, sweeping her Soul Energy in arcs through the mist. Her aura crackled like static thunder.
"We move in formation. Marie, left. Leslie, right. Jim on rear guard. Karen, center."
Karen stiffened. "I should be point."
"You're not ready," Cassandra snapped. "Your Domain isn't stable."
"Actually," Jim said, glancing at Karen, "it held perfectly during combat class."
Cassandra turned slowly. "You've all had one field exercise. I've survived five."
Karen stepped forward. "Then trust us to keep up."
Their eyes locked, and something unspoken passed between them. Cassandra's gaze flicked briefly to the black aura whispering under Karen's skin, and she turned away without another word.
---
They reached the core's location within the hour.
Or what was left of it.
A crater sat in the center of a rotting glade, reeking of burnt soulflame and shattered reality. At its center: a soul core, pulsing erratically like a dying heart. Around it, twisted remains of what once were people. No blood. No bodies. Just shadow-stained robes, their symbols burned away.
"Those were cultists," Jim said grimly.
"The Veil?" Marie asked.
Karen said nothing. Her Proto-Domain quivered violently. It knew.
Then the shadows moved.
Eight of them. Human-shaped but hunched, wrong. Born of soul energy corrupted to the brink. Not quite demons, not quite hollows.
"Fall back!" Cassandra shouted.
Too late.
The creatures screamed.
And lunged.
---
The battle was chaos.
Leslie and Marie fought like a mirror-dance, casting violet Soul Blades that spun like chakrams. Jim unleashed Soul Barriers that cracked like tempered glass when struck, using openings to send piercing jabs through shadow-flesh.
Cassandra was a hurricane—her Soul Saber cleaving through the warped things like she was born for war.
But Karen…
She didn't fight.
She unleashed.
Her Proto-Domain bloomed like a lotus of night around her, swallowing light and bending time. The aberrants that entered her radius staggered, their corrupted forms unraveling into mist and silence.
Karen lifted her hand.
Her Soul-Bound Weapon appeared.
The Abyss (Prototype) — a crescent-shaped scythe forged from darkness and frozen stars.
She moved once.
The field fell quiet.
The monsters died, one after the other, without a sound.
Cassandra stared.
Even the twins were silent.
Jim whispered, "Karen… what are you?"
Karen's breath trembled. She didn't have an answer.
And then—laughter.
A slow, echoing laugh that did not belong to any of them.
From the trees, a figure stepped out.
Voth, the Hollow Knight.
Towering. Cloaked in broken armor that shifted between states. One of the Council of Nine. One of The Veil.
He clapped slowly.
"Well done," he said. His voice scraped like bone on metal. "The Abyss remembers you, girl."
Karen stepped forward, scythe held steady.
Cassandra moved beside her. "Fall back, Karen. Now."
"No," Karen whispered. "I know him. I've seen him before."
"In your dreams?" Voth said. "Or in the soul of the weapon they hid inside you?"
Leslie raised her blade. "Back off."
Voth smiled behind his helm. "I've no interest in slaughtering children. Not yet."
He turned to Karen.
"But remember this: the Proto-Domain is a seed. The Abyss… is its soil. And you, little Lockwood, are its chosen bloom."
The shadows swallowed him.
And he vanished.
---
They returned to the Academy in silence.
Mission complete.
Aberrant core recovered.
But the world had changed.
And as Karen sat alone that night beneath the soulmoon, she felt it.
The whispers growing louder.
The Abyss stirring.
And somewhere deep inside…
She whispered back.
....