Threads of the Soul

Chapter 480 - 480: Empty Inside

"Nothing left to save? We already knew that! There should be nothing left of you!" Hunter exclaimed, still held aloft by Seth in his distraction.The man talking made Seth remember his situation and, after being deposited on the ground once more, Hunter grabbed Woe by the shoulders and shook him roughly. He was shoving Woe around as he thoroughly and carelessly searched the boy for any sign of damage or the crystals that should have replaced his being.

The fact that if he found what he was looking for and accidentally touched them would spell his death was completely secondary to solving this impossible mystery. Yet no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find anything.

Eventually Woe had to push him away, as Hunter muttered to himself,

"How did you... It shouldn't be possible. No mutation has survived direct contact... so how..."

His rambling questions would not get an answer. Partly because Woe wasn't entirely sure himself how he had done it, partly because of the ear piercing scream that erupted from one of the tunnels.

It echoed around the large chamber, making it impossible to tell where it came from, until people began to pour from the western tunnels in droves.

The Guards immediately jumped into action, working to control the stampede of 'Prisoners with Jobs' as well as to break up some fights that had erupted. Despite Hunter's claims of their pacified nature, many of the prisoners quickly used the panic to act on the impulses they previously were forced to suppress.

Pickaxes were driven through skulls, neighbours were pushed from ledges and old grudges were finally settled with chains wrapped around their throats. It was a full blown riot. The only consolation was that the Guards were the only ones using any abilities, and they had no hesitation in cutting or gunning down those who disobeyed their orders in attempts to sow chaos.

More and more bodies piled out from the tunnels in panic, enough that anyone who fell to the ground was quickly crushed and trampled under foot.

"What is it? Is it a mine collapse? Or is something attacking?" Seth shouted over to the Hunter as he sent his [Little Prick] flying, spearing it through the throat of someone that was trying to kill one of the guards while they were distracted helping someone.

Usually Seth would be more lax in dealing out death penalties and would give them second chances, that was what he had sworn to himself when he first started taking lives. But as far as he was concerned, this was their second chance and those that fell from his arrow all deserved it.

Hunter didn't immediately answer Seth's question, instead turning to one of the guards that was standing in the mouth of the tunnel, ushering people through. The two of them exchanged a few hand signals, the worry etching across Hunters face as he spoke with his comrade, before his face paled completely.

He turned slowly to Seth, uttering a single word.

"Hollow."

It might have been brief, but it was all he needed to know. Still conducting his arrow through the room, and keeping an extra close and fearful eye on the tunnel that was spewing people, Seth did something extremely unorthodox for himself.

Other than the threads connecting himself to the arrow, he rapidly started to disconnect himself from everything. He severed every connection to every puppet that was linked to him, shoving them onto Corvus, Scar or whatever [Spirit Animal] was closest to the puppet. The only explanation he gave his other selves was the same single word, Hollows, before even that connection was stifled.

He couldn't completely cut it like the others, but he could shove it down deep inside of himself so that it became nearly undetectable. Every one of his actions screamed of fear, and for good reason.

Seth had encountered Hollows only once before, nearly 8 months ago when he was still one person. It had been a routine hunt that led them to the ruins of a warehouse belonging to an old delivery company, Jungle.

They had thought at the time that this beast leading them to the warehouse was like finding diamonds underneath the gold vein you were mining.

Unfortunately, it had nearly gotten them all killed.

Hollows are named as such because they are, in essence, hollow and soulless husks. They are aberrations that could spawn from someone with an abysmally low soul score, thus they were mostly found in Offices, Warehouses and in the houses of those who played League.

They were aberrations that literally fed on souls, much like Seth himself did, except they didn't wait until the thing was dead to start eating. To them, Seth was a literal bucket of noodles waiting to be slurped up. They were his mortal enemy.

Even now, with his threads completely restrained, just the sheer magnitude of power contained within his soul was a beacon to them.

'Of course it had to be fucking Hollows,' Seth cursed to himself, as the first of the wretched creatures drifted from the caves.

It looked like a human, still dressed in the tattered suit it had worn in life - although it was probably less tattered then. It's skin was pale and sunken, clinging to its bones as if it was completely starved.

There was nothing but black, empty sockets where its eyes should have been, and instead of walking it floated a few inches off of the ground. It seemed completely innocous, floating around with its skinny body contorted in pain with its mouth hanging open in an eternal scream.

But when it got close to someone, those skinny arms showed the strength they hid. They latched onto the prisoner, one hand around their throat and the other on the top of their head.

The prisoner, a woman with green skin, screamed as her essence was rapidly devoured by the Hollow. Streams of azure wisp poured from her mouth and eyes, flowing through the air and converging into one which was then eagerly slurped up by the Hollow.

Her skin lost its emerald lustre, becoming a pale and sickly green, and she rapidly deflated. Her eyes shrivelled up like raisins and disappeared within her skull. Her body writhed in pain as it rapidly shrunk, withering a thousand years in a second, until it froze in whatever twisted position she held at the time.

As soon as the wispy streams ended, the Hollow released her and discarded her soulless husk to the side, immediately floating off to find new prey to satiate its hunger.

After a few seconds, the shrivelled up husk of a woman twitched, before levitating off of the ground. It lifted itself into a standing position, her toes brushing against the ground, before she too floated off to find something to replace her lost soul. Her face twisted in horror, agony and the endless scream of every Hollow just like her.