The house was silent, but the walls breathed.
Revyn's eyes fluttered open to the sound of a slow, wet drip echoing somewhere behind the wooden boards. His limbs were stiff, the air damp and sour, filled with the scent of mold and old blood. He lay curled on a straw mat in a room that should not exist.
There were no windows, no cracks in the ceiling, yet a pale light shimmered in from nowhere. The walls, crooked and weeping rot, they pulsed faintly like a dying lung. And worst of all—he remembered nothing of how or when he got here.
Only his name is what he remembered.
Revyn Hollowbrand.
A whisper crawled across the inside of his skull.
"Awakened. Hollow. Hunger binds."
His breath caught in his throat. "Who said that?"
No response.
He sat up slowly, his body aching with every movement. His fingers, once nimble and pale, were now bruised and inked with something that looked like shadow stitched into his skin. Black veins coiled beneath the surface, just underneath the flesh.
"What the hell is happening to me?"
He stumbled to his feet, bare and shivering. The room stretched further than it should've, its geometry all wrong. When he turned to look behind him, the corners shifted, rearranging themselves — as if the room were watching.
On the far wall, a door had appeared.
A tall, crooked slab of ancient wood, framed in thorned iron. He was sure it hadn't been there when he woke up.
"Leave, or be devoured."
The voice again. Inside, not out. Dry as wind, deep as bone.
Revyn clenched his jaw and stepped toward the door. The air thickened with each step, pressing against him like water. His hand shook as he reached for the handle. Cold. Too cold.
He opened the door.
And the world beyond was worse than any nightmare.
A dead field stretched endlessly. The grass was gray, sharp as razors, and the sky—what sky there was—was stitched with bleeding clouds. Something immense floated above the horizon, like a corpse of a god hung by hooks through the stars. A bell tolled in the distance, but the sound came from the soil beneath his feet.
"Where in the world am I?" He muttered to himself.
Revyn stepped outside. The door slammed behind him and vanished.
He turned around instantly, expecting to feel feal but for some strange reason, He didn't panic. He wouldn't and he couldn't. Something pulsing inside his very being had dulled the edges of fear, replacing it with a low gnawing hunger — not for food, but something deeper. Something... wrong.
His feet moved on their own, through the gray grass and toward the only structure he could see: a crooked, stone tower half-swallowed by the earth. As he approached, the whispers returned — but much louder now, overlapping like a hundred moth wings against a flame.
"Devour. Become. Survive."
A shape crawled from the base of the tower. No eyes, no legs — just a warped body of sinew and stitched skin, dragging itself forward with bloodied arms. It screamed, but not from its mouth — from the open gash where its chest should be.
Revyn froze.
A sudden sound and voice spoke into his head.
{Ding!}
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[Your soul is unmarked. You are Hollow.][To survive, you must Devour.]
The creature lunged forward with the intent to kill.
Revyn fell backward, barely dodging. Instinct screamed. He grabbed a jagged stone and, with a desperate cry, smashed it against the creature's head. Again. And again.
It stopped moving.
Panting, shivering, covered in black-red fluid, Revyn stared at the thing.
Then before his very eyes, The corpse burned into ash and flowed into the wind. Leaving behind a glowing orb, one was bright smokey red.
{Ding!}
[ESSENCE AVAILABLE: DEVOUR?][Y/N]
He didn't understand. He was starving — not in his belly, but in his bones. His skin itched. His veins buzzed. The hunger grew louder.
He tapped the air. Yes.
The moment he chose yes, the world suddenly flickered.
The creature's body cracked like pottery, and a smoky red light bled out. It surged into Revyn's chest, searing, scorching, singing.
He screamed. "Aargh!!!"
{Ding!}
[ESSENCE CONSUMED: "Hollow Tendons" Acquired][Passive Trait: +15% Agility | Limbs stretch slightly farther than normal][WARNING: Corruption +2%]
Revyn collapsed to his knees, gasping.
The taste of the thing lingered in his throat like spoiled oil. But he felt stronger. Lighter.
More… wrong.
He stared at his hands as the black veins pulsed and coiled, writhing under his skin like worms.
This wasn't a gift.
This was a curse.
{Ding!}
[CONGRATULATIONS HOST!]
[YOU ARE THE HOLLOWBRAND NOW].....