The Hollow's words still echoed in my ears, the room wrapped in silence so heavy I thought it might crush us.
'The Hollow Princess...?' I repeated in my mind.
I didn't even know what that ant, but judging by the way everyone froze, it was sothing they all understood and feared.
My gaze flicked to Grandpa Venus. His jaw tightened, and his pupils narrowed like the sharp edge of a blade.
His voice was low, cutting through the silence.
"Who," he asked, "are you talking about?"
The Hollow's smirk stretched wider, his pale lips twisting in mock amusent.
He didn't answer. Instead, the eerie being tilted his head, as though mocking the question itself, and then his feet shifted back.
That was all the warning we got.
The Hollow spun, moving toward the edge of the platform, his sword gleaming faintly under the broken lights.
"STOP HIM!" King Philip's voice roared, shaking the auction hall. His command was like thunder rolling through the chaos. "HOLD HIM DOWN!"
For a brief mont, hope flickered in the air. Dozens of armored guards and nobles surged forward, their weapons gleaming, their magic stirring like a tide rising against the storm.
But the Hollow was no storm.
He was sothing far worse.
The first guard who dared step too close was sliced in half, clean and rciless, his body falling before he could even scream.
The next had his head separated from his shoulders, rolling across the marble floor. The Hollow's blade hacked through armor and flesh as if neither mattered.
Every strike was precise, every movent flowing like water, effortless, beautiful in a terrifying way.
Blood splattered against the white stone, painting the once-grand hall with streaks of red.
The nobles who had tried to prove their courage crumbled one after another, their bodies collapsing before they even understood what they were facing.
I could only watch. My hands trembled as I gripped the edge of my seat, frozen.
My heart was beating so hard it felt like my chest would split open.
This wasn't a man.
This wasn't even a warrior.
This was death itself.
Grandpa Venus didn't wait any longer. Shadows rippled at his feet, stretching out like living serpents that slithered across the platform.
His figure blurred, vanishing for a heartbeat, only to reappear behind the Hollow, two curved daggers shimring in his grip.
The Hollow's sword t his blade in a single ringing clash, sparks flying.
I swallowed hard. My grandpa…I had only just learned what he really was.
All my life, he'd been this smiling, eccentric old man who liked to play mind gas and tease people with his strange ways of speaking.
But just a while back, Sia had whispered the truth to , he wasn't just a king.
He was a shadow assassin.
A natural-born one.
I didn't even know what that ant until now, watching his body split into flickers of darkness and reform in places that defied logic.
His movents weren't human. They weren't even fair. He lted into the shadows, struck with blinding speed, and then disappeared again before the Hollow's sword could reach him.
But the Hollow…he kept up.
Each swing of his sword bent the air, forcing Grandpa to dodge instead of press forward. He smiled faintly as though the danger thrilled him.
Their blades clashed in bursts that made the ground tremble.
And then King Philip joined in.
With a deep breath, the air around him thickened, and simring green crystals burst from the floor like jagged spears.
They twisted, sharp and glimring, forming walls and chains that lunged toward the Hollow.
I gasped. Sia's voice reached my ears, calm despite the chaos.
"That's Jade Manipulation," she said. Her eyes glowed faintly as she watched her father.
"He can shape jade into any form, weapon, or defense. Nothing can pierce through it… at least, nothing ordinary."
I turned to her, shocked.
Her lips pressed into a thin smile, but her gaze didn't leave the battlefield. "I grew up watching it. Did you think my father was just so politician king?"
My mouth opened, but I couldn't reply. My eyes snapped back to the platform.
The Hollow was being crushed. Venus's shadows slithered from every corner, binding his arms and legs, dragging him back into the dark.
Philip's jade spears shot forward in perfect timing, stabbing at the Hollow from angles he couldn't dodge.
For a mont, just a single mont, it looked like they had him.
The Hollow stopped smiling.
His sword humd, a low, vibrating note that made the hairs on my arms stand up. He swung it once, and the shadows snapped apart like paper.
Another swing, and King Philip's jade cracked, splintering into shards that scattered across the floor.
"No…" I whispered.
Venus reappeared in front of him, blades aid for the Hollow's throat.
Sia's dad raised a towering jade wall behind him, sealing his escape. The Hollow should have been trapped. He was trapped.
But then his wings sprouted.
Not feathered. Not leathery. Sothing in between dark, jagged and broken-looking extensions that shimred faintly with the sa pale light as his skin.
With a sudden thrust, he shot upward, his sword blazing as it slashed through Philip's jade ceiling like it was made of clay.
Glass and stone rained down.
The ceiling shattered, and the night sky opened above us.
In one final burst of movent, the Hollow soared into the air, his smirk returning as the broken ceiling frad his silhouette.
His horns glead under the pale moonlight, his figure growing smaller as he escaped into the sky.
"No—!" Philip's roar shook the hall, but it was too late. The jade spears he launched after the Hollow shattered in the distance, unable to reach him.
Grandpa Venus's shadows writhed in fury, stretching high into the air, but they, too, fell short.
And then, the hollow was gone.
The hall was silent. Blood covered the marble, shattered glass sparkled across the floor, and bodies of the fallen nobles and guards lay everywhere.
The only sound left was the ragged breathing of those who survived.
I couldn't breathe. My heart felt like it was clawing its way out of my chest.
That thing…that Hollow…he fought both kings at once, and he won. He didn't even look tired.
Grandpa Venus lowered his daggers slowly, his shadow shrinking back into nothing. King Philip clenched his fists, shards of jade scattering around him.
And ?
I just sat there, trembling, realizing that the world I thought I knew had shattered...just like the ceiling above us.
***
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