Blood covered Liliane's hands and white office clothes as she was stitching the stab wound in the abdomen of her worst enemy, Hollow. I came here to kill him. The demon responsible for taking so many lives. It is my duty... So... why am I stitching his wounds?
By the time she finished, it was well past midnight. Liliane glanced at the clock, then at the couch where Hollow lay, his eyes closed but his breathing steady. She stood, brushing off her skirt. "I should go," she said softly.
Hollow opened his eyes, pushing himself to his feet. "I'll see you out."
"You don't have to—"
But before she could finish, his body gave out. He stumbled, collapsing forward, and Liliane barely had time to catch him. His weight pressed against her, and she staggered, lowering him carefully onto the couch.
"Hollow!" she said sharply, but his eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. Panic surged through her as she checked his pulse, finding it steady but weak. The blood loss and exhaustion had finally caught up to him. She stared down at him, her emotions tangled in a web of confusion and frustration.
She covered him with a blanket and sat on the nearby couch to watch over him. How did it even come to this?
One week ago—
The balance of the Spiritual World was determined by the duel between two beings from void and light.
And this was the day the world finally had enough of them.
High above, a sea of glowing blue forests stretched beneath an ethereal sky.
Far in the distance, vast islands hovered in the air, and some had rivers spilling down waterfalls.
Beneath the trees, two figures approached one another.
The first was Liliane, a warrior maiden with snow-white hair and glowing sapphire eyes that matched the halo above her head. She moved with martial grace, each step she took produced life in the ground from her energy. Her slender form flowed like a dancer, wrapped in an ethereal aura of light, pulsing with serenity and strength.
Facing her from the shadows… Hollow.
A human in shape, yet unmistakably monstrous. He had a dark hole in the center of his chest absorbing all light, the mark of every Abyssal's never-ending hunger. With every step he took, the earth beneath his feet withered, and the glowing plants died in silence. His hair fell in dark waves like the midnight sky, but it was his eyes, blood-red, with slitted pupils like a predator. They burned with unnatural intensity.
Two sharp, black horns curved from his forehead.
Hollow grinned, feral and sadistic, as he stepped into view. His voice slithered with anticipation.
"How delightful… You came to play all on your own."
Across, Liliane stood tall, serene as ever. Her tone was calm, but her words struck with iron resolve.
"This is not a game. I'll never allow you to do as you please."
Though her expression remained composed, her stance shifted. She reached for her katana, its sheath shimmering with quiet power. With a flash of light, angelic wings unfolded from her lower back.
"But this is exactly what I want."
Hollow's smile widened, fangs flashed as he drew his own blade in one fluid motion. From his back, black wings snapped open, sleek and predatory, and a thin dragon-like tail coiled behind him, twitching with excitement.
The air around them hummed with unbearable tension.
Then they vanished.
In a blur of motion too fast to follow, they reappeared in a violent clash. Their katanas collided with a thunderous boom, unleashing a shockwave that carved a massive crater into the earth. The very landscape quaked.
Steel ground against steel. Sparks flew. Their eyes locked.
Hollow's crimson gaze burned with unholy glee. The thrill of battle was the only thing he enjoyed, the one thing that made him forget his hunger.
Liliane's were cold, devoid of emotion. She had burned away her humanity to become strong enough to match him.
Each strike tore the forest apart, their katanas flashed like falling stars.
They soared above the glowing woods, wings majestic and menacing.
Liliane's katana blazed, slashing heaven itself, while Hollow split the strike in two. The remnants exploded below, scarring the land.
Their clash was faster than sight, trading blow for blow, light for shadow.
Liliane fired radiant beams, Hollow's shadow claws intercepted, and missed strikes rained ruin across the ground, splitting cliffs and forests alike.
"That's all you've got?" Hollow yelled, voice thick with challenge and delight.
He surged forward, wings flaring wide as he hurled himself at her with a roar. His blade gleamed, coated in seething darkness, as he delivered a powerful strike meant to split her in two.
"Not even close," Liliane replied, her voice calm and cutting.
She ascended with elegance, meeting him head-on. Their blades crashed. She caught his strike and redirected it with precision, striking a weak point in his guard.
In one fluid motion, she spun and delivered a diagonal slash.
The air screamed.
The force of the attack was so immense, the earth far below shuddered, and a mountain in the distance split in half from the slash.
Hollow's arm was severed in a single stroke. A deep hole was left open on his torso where the shoulder had been, black blood pouring from the wound.
He staggered.
Liliane pressed forward, unrelenting. Her sword aimed straight for his head. But just before impact, Hollow laughed, low and wild, and tilted his head aside. Her blade missed by inches.
With his remaining arm, he plunged his katana into her stomach.
Liliane gasped, her eyes wide in shock.
In one brutal motion, he dragged the blade upward, carving a terrible wound across her torso. Blood, red and human, gushed from her body like a fountain.
She clenched her teeth and raised her left hand, gripping her katana with one arm while pressing her right palm to Hollow's face. A sphere of white and blue energy pulsed in her grasp.
Hollow opened his mouth, revealing a growing star of black energy forming inside.
They released their attacks simultaneously.
A blinding explosion split the sky.
Light and darkness collided in a cataclysmic burst, blasting the two warriors apart. Their auras flickered, battered by the force.
From the gaping stump of Hollow's severed limb, black energy twisted and surged, reforming his arm with unnatural fluidity. His form knitted itself back together like shadow returning to shape.
Across from him, Liliane hovered midair, her hand pressed to the wound on her abdomen. A soft white glow enveloped her body, restoring her form, cleansing away the blood as light reknit her torn essence with gentle pulses.
They were whole again, but not untouched. The strain of the clash still clung to their bodies, even as their forms regained their grace.
"Aren't you having fun, Liliane?" Hollow laughed as he hurled a sphere of Abyssal energy.
Liliane dodged with minimal movement to the side, and the blast turned a distant cliff into dust. "There is no fun in all the destruction you cause." She countered with radiant beams.
He met them with black fire while playfully answering. "You say it as if you are not half to blame."
She cut through it with her glowing blade. "I'll do what's necessary to protect everyone."
Their deadly ballet continued, the world below trembling, mountains cracking, forests flattening.
"Come on then! Give me a real fight!" Hollow grinned, eyes alight with sadistic joy.
"I won't stop until you can't hurt anyone," she said, her expression unchanging.
Every creature of the land trembled at their confrontation, while unbeknownst to Hollow and Liliane, the patience of higher forces beyond their comprehension was running dry.
The air trembled with fury. The earth quaked beneath their strikes.
Far away, a group of humans in ceremonial kimonos watched the chaos unfold. Each bore a weapon marking them as Blinders, guardians of humanity. With swords, spears, and other kinds reflecting their disciplines.
From a high ridge, they peered through spiritual binoculars that let them see hundreds of kilometers away. Even then, the fight between Hollow and Liliane blurred into divine chaos. Blinding light and crashing darkness tore through the horizon. Shockwaves rattled the stones underfoot.
"Yup the sector is gone now… and I was just getting used to the peace," one gentle looking Blinder muttered.
"We'll have to throw away all the maps..." Said a cartographer Blinder, looking through his papers heartbroken.
"Every time they fight, it's the same," a young one said bitterly. "They don't care if the world breaks."
"There there now, you should understand Liliane is just doing her best to protect us… Even the Martial Emperor admits that if she hadn't become a Radiant to protect us, we would all have fallen prey to that monster already." An older wise looking Blinder spoke, caressing his brown beard.
"I can barely even remember what life was centuries ago before Hollow showed up," an adult looking man whispered, staring at the smoldering wasteland.
"Yeah yeah, shouldn't we be starting evacuations?" a girl yawned exhausted.
A red-haired veteran hopped from a tree branch she was sitting on. "Let's set out!" Mitzi called, already moving.
Across the hills, the Blinders mobilized at amazing speeds covering fields in steps. They couldn't stop the fight, but they could protect lives.
Squads moved through hidden trails, crossing valleys and canyons with practiced precision. Each team had one mission: evacuate, secure, survive.
"Move fast. We clear this mine before the battle spreads," one ordered, helping workers pack spirit ore.
"Do you really think they'll come this far?" a worker asked, voice trembling.
"We're not waiting to find out," the Blinder replied.
Far above, Hollow and Liliane's battle raged on. Every strike split the land. Mountains cracked, craters bloomed, and the world itself seemed to shudder.
Across the Spiritual World, Blinders watched in silence as the distant sky flickered with destruction. Evacuations continued. Chaos spread, but so did resolve.
The sky grew darker—not from dusk, but from the battle's magnitude.
The horizon turned black. Clouds spiraled into a vortex, twisting reality itself. Then the light died.
A void deeper than night swallowed everything. Time froze.
And in that silence, something vast began to form.
High above, runes carved themselves into the dark, glowing in spirals that spread across the heavens. Lines and symbols merged into the shape of an eye, its center gleaming like the pupil of a god.
Hollow and Liliane stopped mid-battle, staring upward as the impossible unfolded.
"…What is that?" a Blinder whispered.
The circle pulsed, beams of crimson, sapphire, emerald, and gold cutting through the void. Around its edges, colossal shapes emerged—amorphous, divine, incomprehensible.
The Superior Spirits had arrived.
Each radiated an elemental aura: fire, water, wood, wind, earth, light, and darkness. Their forms defied definition, ever-shifting, their mere presence shaking the sky and numbing thought.
"I thought they were only legends," murmured a Blinder.
Hollow stared upward, confusion etched across his face. "What the hell are those things?"
Liliane lowered her blade, her voice barely a whisper. "Are they?... The elder spirits?"
The spirits spoke in an incomprehensible language, but their will was made clear in the minds of everyone: They'd pass on banishment against the beings who have continued to destroy the world.
The symbols aligned. The heavens blazed.
Panic rippled through the Blinders.
"They're banishing them!" someone shouted. "They're exiling them!"
Mitzi stood frozen at the ridge, her heart pounding. Her eyes locked on Liliane, the warrior who had always been a symbol of hope. Without thinking, she dashed at full speed towards her crossing plains towards her.
"Mitzi, stop!" someone shouted.
Too late, by then, she was reaching toward the battlefield.
"LIL—!!"
The circle began to turn. Lines burned white-hot as the center collapsed into a blinding point. Hollow and Liliane, trapped at its core, met each other's gaze.
The air thickened until breathing was impossible.
"Exiling us?…" Liliane whispered, the light wrapping around her body.
"What the hell does that even mean!?…" Hollow growled in defiance.
Light consumed everything in the sky. A silence swallowed the world. In an instant, the three figures vanished into the blaze.
The runes faded. The spirits withdrew.
Then, nothing. The sky cleared.
No light. No sound. No trace. Only calm, endless blue.
The Blinders stood in stunned silence. None spoke. None moved.
Peace had returned to the Spiritual World
While the warriors were headed to their new destiny.