The cavern did not simply shake.
It convulsed.
Like a living world choking on something too ancient, too vast, too wrong to contain.
The Hollow Star's scream tore through the floor—an impossible sound, a sound with weight, a gravitational roar that bent the passing fragments of light and space around it. The pulsating "ribs" cracked. The rivers of crimson energy boiled.
Lumeria shielded her face with a wave of starlight.
Flare dangled upside-down from Hayate's shoulder, dazed.
And Hayate…
Hayate walked.
Forward.
Into the storm.
Into the collapse.
Into the war, his past self had sealed away.
The Hollow Star's aura pushed outward, a spiraling tide of vacuum that devoured everything it touched. Stones crumbled into dust. Shadows were erased. Even Lumeria's celestial barrier flickered under the pressure.
Hayate didn't break stride.
He stepped into the Hollow Star's gravitational field… and nothing happened.
It couldn't pull him.
It couldn't devour him.
It couldn't touch him.
Because a predator cannot consume an equal.
And the Hollow Star recognized him first.
Its countless hollow eyes snapped onto him all at once.
—"Sovereign…"—
Its voice was a black hole given form.
—"Have you come… to die?"—
Hayate spoke calmly, his tone cold as the void.
"No. I came because something belonging to me woke up a boisterous neighbor."
Flare revived just long enough to scream:
"WHY WOULD YOU TAUNT THE VOID MONSTER!? APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW—NO, NEVER MIND, APOLOGIZE IN MY NAME TOO—!!!"
The Hollow Star lunged.
Its massive, starless maw tore open, stretching wider than physics allowed. The ground tore like fabric. Obsidian split beneath Hayate's feet.
Lumeria shouted:
"Hayate, STOP—!! That thing is NOT a creature! It's a—"
She couldn't finish.
Because the Monster of Oblivion reached Hayate first.
A thousand tendrils of empty cosmic light lashed toward him.
And then—
Hayate vanished.
No flash.
No explosion.
No motion blur.
He simply moved past its attack faster than the air could register his presence.
The Hollow Star froze mid-lunge.
The cavern held its breath.
A single black line cut across one of its tendrils.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOM—!!!
The tendril exploded into fragments of hollow light.
The shockwave rippled through the cavern, knocking Lumeria backward and hurling Flare through six complete somersaults.
Hayate stood behind the Hollow Star, expression unchanging.
The monster's countless eyes focused on the severed tendril.
Then back at him.
—"Impossible…"—
Hayate raised a hand.
"Get used to disappointment. I'm only getting started."
The Hollow Star shrieked.
The sealed Heart of Oblivion pulsed in resonance.
And the dungeon roared.
DING—!
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Warning: The sealed Sovereign Core is destabilizing.
Resonance Level: 41% → 62% → 79%
Host's Suppressed Power Reactivation: 12%
Hollow Star Awakening Rate: CRITICAL
Flare pointed at the System panel floating behind Hayate's head.
"WHY IS EVERYTHING RED!? RED IS ALWAYS BAD! EVEN MY EYES ARE SEEING RED, AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE BLOOD PRESSURE!"
Hayate ignored her.
The System continued:
[New Temporary Quest Unlocked]
Quest: Subdue the Hollow Star
Objective: Prevent its emergence before it fully reconstitutes.
Reward: Partial Reintegration of the Sovereign Core.
Penalty: Universal-scale collapse.
Time Limit: 07:13 minutes.
Lumeria sucked in a sharp breath.
"T-Time limit!? That thing becomes FULLY ALIVE in seven minutes!?"
Flare screamed again:
"WHY DOES EVERYTHING TRY TO WAKE UP AROUND US!? DO WE SMELL LIKE ALARM CLOCKS!?"
Hayate's aura darkened.
No.
It didn't darken.
It deepened—like a star collapsing inward, condensing into something denser, sharper, far more lethal.
He looked up at the monstrous form emerging behind the core.
And for the first time…
The Hollow Star hesitated.
—"Sovereign… you carry only a fragment of your former self… yet your presence…"—
Its hollow eyes dilated.
—"…is still absolute."—
Lumeria's gaze sharpened.
"No… that's not fear. It's recognition. It knows what you were capable of."
Hayate didn't glance back.
"I still am."
THE COLLAPSE BEGINS
The cavern ceiling split apart.
Stardust and cosmic debris rained like meteor ash.
The "ribs" of black crystal cracked, and an entire portion of the floor sank inward as if reality was caving into a different dimension.
Rivers of red energy surged into new channels—forming a massive ritual circle beneath the Heart.
Lumeria paled.
"The seal is failing! If the Hollow Star breaks through, EVERYTHING above Floor 6 will collapse!"
Flare's voice echoed through the chaos:
"WHICH INCLUDES US! US! I AM TOO CUTE TO BE OBLITERATED—HAYATE DO SOMETHING!!!"
Hayate stepped forward.
He didn't power up.
He didn't shout.
He simply willed his aura to expand.
And space obeyed.
A massive wave of Devouring Star energy surged outward, ripping gravity apart around him. The Hollow Star reeled backward, its entire torso glitching like a corrupted celestial file.
Lumeria whispered:
"…Even sealed… he's overpowering it…"
Flare clung to Hayate's neck and yelled:
"YES, YES, GOOD JOB! NOW PUNCH IT HARDER! PUNCH IT HARDER UNTIL IT GOES BACK TO WHATEVER BLACK HOLE THERAPY IT CRAWLED FROM!!"
The Hollow Star stabilized.
Then it expanded—ripping its form wider, revealing more of its true mass.
A colossal silhouette emerged behind it, dwarfing the rib-like cavern.
A second head.
A third.
A fourth.
—"Sovereign."—
—"Child of Oblivion."—
—"Reclaimed fragment."—
—"You cannot stop what was born to devour you."—
Hayate exhaled slowly.
His eyes sharpened—cold silver, threaded with black constellations.
"The last time we fought," he murmured, "I died."
Flare froze.
Lumeria froze.
Even the Hollow Star paused.
Hayate took another step.
"But that was before I learned something important."
He raised his hand.
Power spiraled around him—quiet, controlled, lethal.
The Devouring Star Sovereign was not a destroyer.
He was a consumer of calamity.
"I don't need my full power to kill you."
His aura detonated outward—
—BOOOOM!!!—
And the real battle began.
THE FIRST STRIKE OF OBLIVION
Hayate blinked.
Just once.
Thousands of afterimages erupted from his body in a fan-shaped burst of speed, each one delivering a strike of devouring energy into the Hollow Star's forming heads.
CRACK—!
CRACK—!
CRACK—!
Each head split open with fissures of black light.
The monster shrieked in simultaneous voices.
Lumeria's eyes widened.
"He's… forcing the Hollow Star into instability! He's interfering with its reconstruction!"
Flare shouted:
"GOOD! BREAK ALL ITS HEADS! BREAK ITS BUTT TOO IF IT HAS ONE!"
The Hollow Star retaliated.
A tidal wave of hollow gravity surged forward—a catastrophic implosion meant to erase matter.
Hayate raised one hand.
"Collapse."
His Devouring energy met the hollow implosion.
The two forces collided—
—AND SPACE ITSELF SHATTERED BETWEEN THEM—
A shockwave of broken dimensions spiraled outward, ripping the cavern floor into floating platforms of obsidian and crimson energy.
Lumeria created a barrier.
Flare clung to her hair this time.
The Hollow Star's massive bodies reformed again, faster, adapting, learning.
—"Sovereign… you are incomplete…"—
—"Your core is sealed…"—
—"Your death is inevitable."—
Hayate's expression didn't change.
"Then try."
And he punched.
One strike.
One movement.
But the entire cavern folded inward from the shockwave.
The Hollow Star slammed backward into the fractured heart-crystal, cracking both itself and the seal at once.
Lumeria screamed:
"STOP! YOU CAN'T USE THE CORE AS A WEAPON—IF IT SHATTERS—!!!"
Hayate knew.
He didn't care.
Because behind that fearsome cosmic hostility…
The dungeon whispered something else.
Something deeper.
Something truer.
The core wanted him.
It was calling to him.
And every strike he delivered sent a ripple into it.
A resonance.
A reunion.
The Hollow Star recognized it, too.
And panicked.
Its thousands of eyes widened.
—"NO—!! Do not awaken fully! If you do—if you merge with that core—"—
Hayate stepped forward.
His aura surged.
The Heart of Oblivion pulsed in response, matching the rhythm of his heartbeat.
And the Hollow Star screamed the truth:
"You will become the Sovereign again!"
The cavern erupted with impossible light.
Lumeria gasped.
Flare fainted again.
Hayate walked directly toward the core as the Hollow Star scrambled to stop him.