Zero Hollow—the oldest, largest, and most lethal Hollow still persisting within New Eridu's territory—was the codename given to that calamity.
All the major Hollows currently known across New Eridu had, one way or another, developed from "offspring Hollows" spawned by Zero Hollow. And Zero Hollow itself was the prime culprit behind the fall of the Old Capital, Eridu.
The survivors of New Eridu would never forget how Zero Hollow turned an entire metropolis into a nightmare made real.
They would never forget, either, the price they paid to halt its expansion.
And so—filled with hatred—they nailed Carlos Arna, the key figure behind the Helios apparatus, onto history's pillar of shame. After all, those who crawled out of hell needed a target—some outlet to pour out their grief, pain, confusion, and rage—before they could wipe their tears and keep walking.
Wise and Belle had suffered their share, too, before they finally pulled themselves out of that whirlpool of hatred.
Now, with enough experience—and enough opportunity—accumulated at last, they once again set foot on the road to uncover the truth behind that mystery shrouded in fog.
Scott Outpost stood before the Great Rift—an advanced frontline base of the Defense Force.
And when you arrived here, the first thing you saw wasn't the busy Hollow investigators.
Not the rigid soldiers on guard.
Not the researchers.
It was Zero Hollow itself.
A monstrous thing beyond comprehension—like a sleeping dragon from myth, sprawled across the earth, leaking uncanny Ether-light. Its outline wavered constantly. Even from this distance, it demanded awe—an instinctive human fear when facing something vastly larger than oneself.
But Wise and Belle felt no fear.
They were the legendary Proxy duo—Phaethon.
Through Eous, they'd delved into more Hollows than even Chiya's "accidental connections" could begin to count.
And this investigation mattered—because it was tied to clues about their teacher.
They had no reason to retreat.
No reason to be afraid.
"Belle," Wise asked quietly, "when we go in—are you doing the talking, or am I?"
"I will!" Belle said at once. "You sound like a robot half the time—android brooo—ow!!!"
Wise flicked her forehead.
"Bro! You actually hit me! I'm telling Chiya!"
"Shut it. Chiya won't take your side."
Then Wise's expression tightened slightly.
"But… speaking of Chiya—I just remembered something."
"Yesterday, I think he asked me to go rescue him."
"Looking at Nsergia's 'bad women with ill intent' theory… yeah, that was probably what happened."
Wise rubbed his chin, then lifted a brow—his face turning strangely… suggestive.
"Belle. You know the story of White Album, right? So later, don't go saying—"
"Nsergia! Beat him up for me!"
"Mm neh." Nsergia's voice was bleak—but firm.
"Belle, this time I'm siding with Wise."
"Don't let good stuff flow to outsiders. Have some shame, Belle!!!"
While the two humans and two Bangboo bickered, an investigator from the Hollow Investigation Association swept a subtle glance their way, speaking in a low voice to a colleague.
"Clove—honestly, sending a rookie like Banji into Zero Hollow already makes me nervous. And now they're recruiting untrained civilians too?"
"They're young. How are they supposed to handle Zero Hollow?"
"The Association makes it sound nice—'independent investigators'—but isn't that just 'cheap labor'?"
"Enrique," Clove replied, "it's not just the Association. The Defense Force and H.A.N.D. are expanding civilian recruitment too."
"As long as we get results from Zero Hollow, a small compromise in procedure is a negligible cost."
"Negligible?" Enrique shook his head, worry still heavy on his face.
"If people full of courage and resolve are all fed into the frontline…"
"…what's left behind?"
"Nothing but bloated idiots and vermin."
"Enrique! Watch your mouth!" Clove hissed.
"Important people from Section 6 are here today. If you're careless and let something slip, you'll get suspended!"
"I know where the line is," Enrique muttered.
Wise and Belle kept their faces under control until they'd fully turned their backs to the pair.
Then Belle whispered, furious, "Do they think we can't hear them?"
Wise hesitated, then answered with absolute seriousness:
"Uh… I think it's like 'lovers see beauty in everything.' When two people are whispering, their volume tends to rise without realizing."
"Correct," a calm voice cut in.
"As you were talking, your voices did gradually get louder—like you were treating my tent as your home."
Belle instantly turned into a blushing tomato.
Wise kept his usual deadpan Nokia face.
The woman who'd spoken let out a soundless sigh.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Lei, a researcher with the Wistar Society."
"Lei. Short for Lei. My colleagues call me Lei. You can call me Lei."
"Don't make that face like 'that changes nothing.' In fact, it changes nothing."
Without waiting for a response, Lei's gaze dropped back to the stacks of reports on her desk. Her brows were tightly furrowed.
"Anyway, I'm not one of those Association clerks who make you queue at a service window."
"As long as you can bring my lovely observation data out of the Hollow and deliver it to me…"
"I don't mind treating you as my second dearest partners."
Wise raised a hand, polite but curious.
"Sorry—this might be a bit rude, but… could I ask who your 'dearest partner' is?"
Lei didn't even blink.
"The Bangboo next to you belongs to him. Why are you asking something so obvious?"
"Unless you kidnapped this Bangboo off him?"
Her head lifted at last.
Behind her glasses, a chill flashed across her eyes.
At the same time, the Defense Force officer in the tent—Commander Roland—also turned an icy gaze toward them.
"N-no! Of course we didn't—"
Lei suddenly snorted, then broke into a smile.
"Relax. No need to explain."
"If you had the ability to take that Bangboo away from him, I'd have seen you in the Zero Hollow exploration teams long ago."
The air in the tent lightened instantly.
Roland went right back to "human-shaped machine mode," and spoke flatly:
"Nsergia. Long time no see."
"Aren't you going to say something to your old friend?"
Nsergia's eyes lit up like a storm warning.
"Mm neh mm neh! Mm neh neh!!"
"You—back then, you and that shady 'doctor' used my master's weakness to force him into doing all kinds of things!"
"You made him strip—marked him with your 'color'!"
"And now you have the nerve to show up in front of me?!"
"MM NEH!!!"
"Want to test whether my elbow strike is strong enough?!"
Roland paused.
"…Nsergia. About that incident, I'm sorry."
"And don't bring up that person anymore. She's no longer in the Defense Force."
"Also—since I taught him a few things as his instructor…"
"I think you ought to show me some respect. And some gratitude."
Then Roland's tone shifted—sharp, almost too accurate.
"Enough unpleasant memories."
"Where is he?"
"Why is it only you here this time?"
"Don't tell me you failed to protect your master… then watched other bad women take advantage…"
"…and had no way to stop it, so you ran to Zero Hollow to slaughter Ethereals and escape your own pain?"
"..."
Nsergia went dead silent.
"Silence doesn't—"
"Ah—Lei!" Belle cut in smoothly, yanking the conversation off the landmine with sheer social intelligence.
"So, is there anything you need us to do? We're really capable!"
Wise shot Belle a grateful glance.
Even though she was internally screaming since when did Chiya get connected to a cyberpunk lady like this?!, Belle still managed to rescue the situation.
Lei adjusted her glasses again.
Seeing Nsergia's body color rising from snow-white toward molten red, she sensibly dropped the topic.
"Fine."
"Right now, I do have an urgent job for you."
"A data station near the edge of Zero Hollow was hit by a roaming Ethereal group."
"We need manpower to retrieve the observation data."
"The route is simple. The plan is clear. The threats are defined."
"Perfect as a first assignment for 'newbies.'"
Inside Zero Hollow, Section 6 was in pursuit of an "extremely dangerous" mutually-beneficial symbiotic Ethereal cluster—
Nineveh.
"Chief—could you maybe spare a thought for my fragile patient body?" Asaba Harumasa complained while moving at high speed.
"If we keep going like this, you'll all just watch me collapse, point weakly forward, and whisper…"
"'Don't stop…'"
"…and then die on the spot."
"Harumasa," Tsukishiro Yanagi replied coolly, "you're not even out of breath yet."
"Don't waste the health you fought so hard to get."
"Those meds the kid made are precious."
Harumasa's mouth quirked.
"Miss Tsukishiro… why does it feel like you're even closer to Dr. Chiya than I am?"
"And 'that kid'—seriously?"
"After you 'adopt' little Soukaku, are you going to turn the weak, helpless, easy-to-push-over Dr. Chiya into your kid too?"
"Keep him curled up in your arms all day?"
"Harumasa! Now is not the time for jokes!" Yanagi snapped.
"And he wouldn't agree!"
"He's a very independent—very strong—kid!"
"…Yanagi really does have that idea," Hoshimi Miyabi murmured.
"Miyabi, even you—"
Miyabi abruptly stopped and raised a hand.
The Section 6 members—who'd been varying between confused, amused, and helpless—snapped instantly into serious focus.
Miyabi stared ahead, then suddenly changed direction and sprinted off in pursuit.
"Yanagi. I can feel Nineveh just changed course."
"You catch up. I'm going on ahead."
"Wait, Chief!" Yanagi protested. "The terminal shows Nineveh hasn't changed direction—how are you—?"
"…A strong one's intuition," Miyabi replied, and vanished with a few massive bounds.
Yanagi could only sigh—then turned her gaze toward Harumasa, who was clearly preparing to "rest."
Her eyes were… dangerous.
"Harumasa," she said evenly, "it seems I've approved too many sick-leave requests lately."
"After this mission, for one full month, I'm not approving a single medical leave."
"What?!" Harumasa yelped. "Miss Tsukishiro! But Dr. Chiya's special medicine doesn't—"
"I'll ask Chiya whether he can make more for you," Yanagi said, cutting him off.
"So don't worry."
"—Why are you looking at me like that, Harumasa?"
"N-no reason, no reason," Harumasa said quickly.
"Miss Tsukishiro, I understand. I understand."
What exactly did this guy "understand" now? Yanagi frowned, forcing down the faintest trace of guilt.
Harumasa, meanwhile, was grinning like a fox.
Seriously… if you want to see Dr. Chiya, just go. Why make excuses?
"Oh!" Soukaku chirped brightly. "Harumasa! Your smile looks like strawberry daifuku! What bad idea are you cooking up now?"
"Cough—cough!" Harumasa choked. "Soukaku! Don't say things like that!"
"Let's hurry and catch up to the chief!"
Soukaku, your intuition is correct, the narration seemed to sigh, but not right now—please.
Feeling Yanagi's gaze sharpening by the second, Harumasa hurried to the front to serve as the vanguard—
and wailed silently in his heart all the way.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 20
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 20
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