The immense sound could not have escaped Zane's notice, especially since it came from the ruins of the Trial Tower—the place that concerned him most.
His gaze fixed on the enormous, pitch-black pillar. Narrowing his eyes, he watched it force its way outward.
"Ethereal Crystals? No... it's a living entity..."
Zane turned toward the ever-expanding spatial fissure, then descended slowly, his toes pressing against solid ground.
With a flick of his right hand, a long sword of condensed ethereal crystals formed in his grasp. The hilt, the guard, the blade—until at last a crystalline black light flickered at the tip.
His gaze lingered on the black Ether energy. Compared to the chaotic Ether in its normal state, this form was far denser and purer.
The Hollow corruption shell itself was built from this same Ether energy. Nicole's weapon had operated on similar principles: Ether compressed by internal explosions, forming an ever-expanding black "shell" that tore, twisted, and devoured.
Zane knew how to wield it as well.
But more than the energy, he wanted to see what was about to emerge from the fissure—and why it appeared here.
Before his thoughts could settle, purple thunder erupted from the rift!
Bolts as thick as thighs, writhing like dancing dragons, shot toward him. Zane's expression remained steady. He raised his long sword, meeting the lightning head-on.
The colossal impact, amplified by the unstable space, drove him backward. He slid dozens of meters before finally halting.
The lightning struck his blade, then splintered outward into countless smaller bolts that crashed into the ground around him.
Scorched gullies split the earth. The thunder's fury gradually faded. Zane lowered his sword, his sharp gaze fixed on the half-exposed creature.
It had yet to reveal its full form. All he could see were vast, writhing masses of twisted ethereal crystals.
A faint glint lit his sapphire eyes. Suddenly, he raised his sword and cleaved down!
An icy-blue blade of light soared dozens of meters tall, towering above a nearby ten-story skyscraper. The massive arc carved straight into the ethereal crystals.
In an instant, a glacier burst forth where the strike landed, spreading until it swallowed the entire crystalline mass. It stood like a slender mountain, dividing the ground in two.
The writhing crystals froze, the sword light embedded within destroying nearly half their structure.
But before long, the creature began regenerating. The glacier shattered as it moved again.
From the fissure, its ethereal body extended into the world.
"I knew it. How could it be all ethereal crystals..."
A faint smile tugged at Zane's lips. His gaze shifted deeper into the rift.
Amid the black Ether, faint crimson light glimmered.
"Looks like you came here for me..."
"Then let's see what you really are."
Above, a massive cluster of ethereal crystals rose, shaped like a tentacle wielding a colossal hammer.
"Seems it can change form at will."
The crystals came crashing down. Zane sprang aside, landing lightly. The impact resounded, and he lifted his free hand.
"I can do that too!"
Two black orbs materialized instantly. Countless streaks of light wove together in the air, intertwining until they condensed into a crystalline pillar nearly twenty meters wide and hundreds long.
Not a blade. Not a sword. Just the simplest, most brutal spike.
From above, the fissure resembled a crimson-glowing vertical pupil within pitch blackness. The twisted monster stretched outward, occupying nearly a third of the pit.
If the crystalline spike had been laid flat, it would have pierced the entire crater.
With a single motion, Zane slammed his hand down. The pillar plunged like a spear, the rush of wind lashing his face and whipping his hair.
Strands of Ether in every hue spiraled around it like ribbons, dazzling as they fell with it.
The impact unleashed a deafening roar.
The ground quaked violently.
Rubble blasted outward, dust blanketed the sky, and the shockwave scattered floating ruins in every direction.
Zane's sight was swallowed in gray. But he could still perceive the situation at the strike's center—not with his eyes, but through other senses.
"Sealed... but not destroyed."
He raised his sword and strode toward the dust-choked core, preparing to finish it.
...
Meanwhile, in a different, unknown region, members of Hollow Special Operations Section 6 struggled desperately.
"Section Chief! The right flank is weak. Should we break through from there?"
Clang! Harumasa blocked the strike of an Ethereal whose arm curved like a scimitar, then countered with his other blade, cleaving it apart. He turned urgently to Hoshimi Miyabi.
"Break through? Break through to where? Deeper in?"
Miyabi's expression remained composed. A flash of blue sword light erupted, freezing and shattering over a dozen Ethereal. She withdrew immediately, and lightning struck the spot she had just vacated.
Harumasa gritted his teeth at her response, his face grim.
Beside them, Tsukishiro Yanagi and Soukaku also fell back, the group fighting desperately as they retreated through the narrow streets, fending off the encroaching tide of Ethereal.
"This place... it's endless."
Tsukishiro Yanagi muttered. They had been chasing leads on Nineveh, pursuing her to the outskirts of Hollow Zero. But she had suddenly disappeared into a spatial fissure.
Before they could react, thick tentacles dragged Harumasa, Soukaku, and Nineveh into the rift.
Miyabi and Yanagi had no choice but to follow, and the four of them had ended up in this cursed land.
"Hmm. No edge to the sky, no escape on the ground... it's like a loop."
Miyabi looked up, her expression calm. Above them stretched a boundless crimson sky. Compared to Hollow Zero's usual scenery, this place felt like a different Hollow altogether.
The red glow from above bathed the land, shrouding everything in eerie, unsettling light.