Chapter 7: The Siege of the Hollow Court
At dawn, the wyrm stirred.
It coiled its massive, armored body around Leo, Fang, and the smoldering remnants of the forest it had torn apart. The air stank of ash and ozone. Cracked trees steamed where embers still clung. Far above, thunder rumbled from a sunless sky.
Leo stood at the wyrm's snout, his hand resting gently between its eyes. It no longer radiated the frenzy of a bound beast. Its breath was steady, thunderous. He felt it now — the true bond. No chains. No submission. A pact made in the fire of battle.
[New Beast Bonded: Wyrm of the Ash Spine][Name Designation Available: Enter Custom Title]
Leo paused, then entered: "Coal."
The wyrm's massive head dipped, as if acknowledging its new name.
Fang sneezed beside him. A spark jumped from his fur. "You sure you didn't just tame a volcano?"
Leo smirked. "I'll need one. If what that Hunter said is true, we're being hunted by six more."
"Six?" Fang growled, ears flattening. "Of course. Because taming monsters wasn't hard enough already."
Leo knelt, dragging a claw through the dirt, sketching a crude crown with seven fangs.
"One down. Two collected. And now… we head for the Hollow Court."
Fang's eyes narrowed. "You really want to go there?"
"I have to," Leo said. "The second fragment's signal is coming from inside it."
Fang was quiet for a moment. Then: "You know the stories. The Hollow Court is a ruin now — cursed, broken. A kingdom that vanished overnight."
Leo looked out at the horizon. Smoke curled from the jagged silhouettes of towers far in the distance.
"Then I'll walk into that curse," he said. "Because someone left a crown behind."
Three Days Later
The Hollow Court wasn't just a ruin.
It was a graveyard.
Leo stood atop Coal's massive back as they crested the last ridge. Below, the crumbled spires of a once-great fortress stretched like broken fingers toward the bruised sky. The outer walls had collapsed centuries ago, leaving behind scattered bones, shattered armor, and broken siege engines half-sunk in the soil.
Statues of knights and beasts lay shattered, faces weathered into anonymity.
And above it all, suspended in the air like a bleeding wound — a rift.
Crimson light pulsed through the tear in space, crackling with arcs of mana. It spiraled down into the ruins, where a massive throne of root and rust still stood.
Leo whispered, "The Hollow King never died."
Fang's tail twitched. "He just… broke."
They stepped into the court.
As soon as they crossed the outer gate, reality shifted.
The air grew colder. Sounds dulled. Light bent strangely, as though the laws of physics had been rewritten by someone mad. Leo's breath came out in visible puffs, even though it wasn't cold.
Every step echoed like a drumbeat in a cathedral.
A whisper crawled up from the stones.
"Another one… seeking fragments…"
"Do you not hear them screaming?"
"The crown feeds… on pain…"
Leo shuddered. He glanced at his interface.
[New Zone: The Hollow Court][Warning: Cursed Terrain – Mental Fortitude Check in Progress… Passed.]
Coal grumbled. Even the wyrm felt it — the pressure, the presence.
They moved deeper.
Twice, they passed murals etched into obsidian walls — scenes of a once-glorious kingdom. Taming ceremonies, ritual duels, and the coronation of a child with a jagged silver crown.
But in the final mural, the boy was missing his eyes.
And his beasts… were eating his council.
Leo pressed on.
At the center of the court stood the throne.
And seated upon it, unmoving, was the Hollow King.
Not dead.
Not alive.
Somewhere in between.
His body was desiccated, wrapped in rotting silk and rusted chainmail. Antlers had burst from his skull, twisted with mana. His fingers gripped the throne's arms like claws. And hovering just above his brow was a fragment — not floating peacefully, but tethered to the rift above by chains of red light.
[Crown Fragment Detected: Fragment Three – "The Grief Fang"][Claiming requires: Overcoming Residual Will of the Hollow King][Optional Objective: Free the Hollow Court]
Leo stepped forward.
The Hollow King raised his head.
"You wear the First," he croaked. His voice was dry stone sliding against itself. "But do you bear it?"
Leo said nothing.
"I tried to rule. I tried to save them. But the Crown… it always feeds. It whispers. It twists."
"Will you be stronger?"
Leo drew the Obsidian Heart. "Let's find out."
The Hollow King stood.
Chains burst from the ground, writhing like serpents, and the rift above screamed.
From the ruins, the Wailing Guard rose — spectral knights clad in flame-eaten plate, their eyes hollow sockets leaking darkness. They charged, weapons drawn.
Fang leapt forward. "I got left!"
Coal roared and unleashed a wave of molten breath, sweeping the right.
Leo activated Dominion Pulse, pausing a full wave of lesser wraiths.
The King advanced slowly, every step resonating with pressure. He raised a hand — and a phantom beast emerged. A stitched chimera: lion body, spider legs, hydra heads.
Leo's interface glitched briefly.
[Enemy: Revenant Sovereign – Power Level: Unquantified][Weakness: Crown Fragment Link – Disrupt to weaken Will Core]
"Break the chains!" Leo shouted.
Fang blinked behind the King, severing one of the glowing red tethers with his claws.
The King screamed — a sound like ten voices crying out at once.
Leo sprinted forward, ducking under a spectral blade, using the Obsidian Heart to fire a pulse of black energy at the second tether.
The rift above flickered.
Coal rammed into the throne's base, shaking the entire structure. Dust and bone rained from above. The Hollow King staggered.
Leo leapt, grabbed the final chain, and shouted, "Obsidian Severance!"
The chain shattered.
The rift collapsed, folding in on itself like crushed paper.
And the King… collapsed.
He fell forward.
No longer screaming.
Just… silent.
A whisper escaped his lips.
"Free…"
The Crown Fragment dropped into Leo's hand.
It was cold. Heavy. And it wept.
[New Crown Fragment Acquired: 3/7 – The Grief Fang][New Passive Ability: Echoes of the Past – See trauma memories of bonded beasts to deepen bond faster][New Beast Command: Soul Merge (Cooldown: 1 week)]
The Hollow Court shook.
Not collapsing — awakening.
Greenery burst through cracks. The cursed air lifted. The sky turned pale and soft.
Leo fell to his knees.
Fang licked his hand.
Coal wrapped around the throne like a coiled mountain.
"Three down," Leo whispered.
"Four to go."
Far away, in a citadel of black glass, six figures stood watching a mirrored pool.
One of them — cloaked in wind and bone — growled.
"He's moving faster than expected."
Another — a woman with silver hair and flame tattoos — smiled.
"Then it's time."
"Let's release the Twilight Bloom."