CHAPTER FOUR — WRONG PLACE, WRONG PREY
Smoke drifted through the street like something alive.
It curled around broken concrete, slid through shattered glass, and clung stubbornly to the skeletal remains of buildings that had stood just hours earlier. Sirens wailed somewhere far off, muted by distance and Aether interference, but here—right here—the world felt paused.
Kairos stepped out of the car.
His shoe crunched against debris.
He didn't move at first.
The restaurant was gone.
Not damaged. Not cracked. Gone.
What remained was a collapsed front wall, twisted metal beams jutting outward like exposed ribs, and a blackened interior that still radiated heat. Tables were splintered. The counter he had wiped down every night was split clean in half. The sign lay face-down in the street, letters cracked and unreadable.
His jaw tightened.
He scanned the area immediately, instinctive and sharp. Aether flowed strangely here, warped but settling. He felt for life—flickers, pulses, anything.
Nothing.
No civilians.
No bodies.
Good.
That didn't make him feel better.
He stared at the ruined building longer than necessary, annoyance simmering into something heavier. This place had been routine. Safe. Predictable. One of the few things in his life that hadn't tried to kill him.
Now it was rubble.
"Tch…"
Behind him, Iris stepped out as well, umbrella already in hand. The white-and-yellow fabric gleamed faintly despite the smoke, the Aether Guard crest catching ambient light.
Then a voice cut through the haze.
"Well well… nice."
One of the figures standing amid the destruction straightened, bones popping audibly. Its silhouette sharpened as cursed Aether rippled across its skin.
"Looks like the Aether Guard finally showed up."
Another Hollow laughed—a wet, broken sound—as it dragged clawed fingers across the pavement, sparks flying.
"I wonder," it said, eyes glowing wrong, "how strong I'll get when I eat their hearts."
Three of them.
Kairos finally turned his head fully toward them.
Predators.
He could feel it immediately. Their Aether wasn't frenzied like the one from last night. It was coiled. Directed. Each of them radiated a different texture of corruption—one sharp and slicing, one heavy and smothering, one jagged and pulsing.
Iris stepped forward slightly, placing herself between Kairos and the Hollows.
The umbrella lengthened in her grip, metal segments shifting and locking with a soft mechanical click. Light gathered along its spine, thin at first, then brighter, denser.
"I think," she said calmly, "you three have the wrong idea."
Golden-white Aether spiraled around her, illuminating the smoke in radiant streaks. The ground beneath her feet glowed faintly as hexagonal patterns flickered and vanished.
She tilted the umbrella forward.
"Kairos," she added without looking back, "step behind me."
He glanced at the Hollows again.
Yeah… they're stronger than the one from last night, he thought. Predators, no doubt.
His gaze shifted briefly to Iris.
But she's stronger.
He clicked his tongue softly.
"I guess you'll be fine," he muttered, already turning away. "They destroyed my workplace though… kinda annoying."
He paused for half a second.
"…Would've liked to beat them myself."
Then he waved a hand dismissively and started walking down the street, hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, whatever."
Iris blinked.
Then frowned.
The Hollows burst into laughter.
"You hear that?" one hissed. "He's leaving you alone."
Iris exhaled slowly and rolled her shoulders.
"Listen carefully," she said, voice steady, carrying authority. "The ranks of Hollows are Feral, Hungered, Predator, Marauder, Ascendant, Voidborne… and Core Hollow."
She raised the umbrella.
"And you three?"
Light flared.
"Are just Predators."
Her eyes hardened.
"And I am Rank A. An Aether Guard Captain."
The street exploded.
Iris vanished in a burst of light.
One moment she was standing still—the next she was in front of the closest Hollow, umbrella already swinging. The weapon struck like a staff, wrapped in hardened radiance, smashing into the Hollow's ribs with a sound like a car crash.
Bones shattered.
The creature screamed as it was launched backward, slamming through the remains of the restaurant wall. Concrete spiderwebbed outward from the impact point.
The second Hollow reacted instantly, slashing the air. Crescent-shaped waves of cursed darkness tore through the smoke, slicing toward Iris from multiple angles.
She snapped the umbrella open.
Light unfolded.
A radiant shield bloomed in front of her, hexagonal plates locking together just as the slashes hit. The impact sent shockwaves rippling down the street, shattering windows and blasting debris outward.
Iris slid back a few steps, boots carving lines into the asphalt.
"Annoying," she muttered.
The third Hollow slammed its hands into the ground.
Dark spikes erupted upward in a jagged forest, tearing through pavement and forcing Iris into the air. She twisted mid-leap, umbrella spinning, light gathering at the tip.
She fired.
A beam of compressed radiance punched downward, detonating on impact. The explosion vaporized several spikes and blasted the Hollow backward in a spray of blood and rubble.
It skidded across the street, leaving a crimson smear.
The first Hollow burst back out of the restaurant ruins, chest caved in but regenerating rapidly. Smoke poured from its mouth as it snarled.
"Light burns," it growled, "but it doesn't last!"
It lunged.
Iris met it head-on.
Umbrella and claw collided. Light screamed against cursed Aether as she twisted, redirected, and drove her knee into its abdomen. She followed with a point-blank blast of radiance that sent the Hollow crashing through a parked truck.
Metal crumpled like paper.
The second Hollow appeared behind her, smoke swallowing its form. Blades of darkness erupted from its arms, slashing down.
Iris didn't turn.
She stepped sideways into her own light and reappeared several meters away—Halo Step—leaving afterimages to be torn apart instead.
The Hollow shrieked in frustration.
"You won't run forever!"
"I don't need to," Iris replied.
She planted the umbrella tip-first into the ground.
Light bloomed.
The explosion was deafening.
A column of radiant force erupted upward, consuming the first Hollow entirely. Its scream cut off abruptly as its cursed Aether destabilized, body tearing itself apart in a burst of light and gore.
Silence fell—for half a second.
Iris straightened, breathing slightly heavier.
Then she frowned.
"…That should've been two."
She turned.
Only one Hollow remained in front of her, crouched low, eyes darting.
The other—
Her eyes snapped toward the street.
"Damn it."
Kairos stepped out of a convenience shop down the block, tearing open a snack wrapper with his teeth.
Crunch.
He chewed lazily, blindfold fluttering as smoke drifted past him.
"Sound's dying down," he muttered. "Guess she's almost done."
He took a few steps forward.
Then stopped.
A figure stood in the middle of the street.
Blood-streaked. Breathing hard. Aether pulsing erratically.
The Hollow straightened slowly, lips peeling back into a grin.
Kairos tilted his head.
"…Did she let one of you slip away," he asked calmly, reaching back into the bag, "or did you run off to find me?"
He popped another snack into his mouth.
"An easy opponent?"
The Hollow's expression twisted with rage.
"You're not afraid," it snarled.
Kairos shrugged.
The Hollow screamed and slashed the air.
Dark blades tore forward.
Kairos moved.
Not fast.
Just… enough.
The slashes passed where his head had been a moment earlier, carving trenches into the asphalt. He stepped forward through the gap, crumbs crunching underfoot.
The Hollow recoiled, then lunged again, claws flashing.
Kairos raised one hand—
—and caught the attack.
His fingers closed around the Hollow's wrist with iron pressure.
The creature froze.
"…Huh," Kairos murmured.
He twisted.
The Hollow's arm snapped sideways, bone bursting through skin in a spray of blood. The scream that followed was raw, panicked.
Kairos didn't stop.
He stepped in and drove a punch into its chest.
Once.
Twice.
Each strike landed with terrifying precision, shockwaves rippling through flesh and cursed Aether alike. The Hollow was launched backward, skidding across the ground before crashing into a wall hard enough to crater it.
Kairos exhaled slowly.
"You people really ruin mornings," he said flatly.
The Hollow staggered back to its feet, eyes wide now—not with hunger, but fear.
And the fight wasn't over yet.