It was a Kalki.
Not just any Hollow...but the sa one that had stolen the Hollow weapon in the greatest auction in the Century!!
And now, for so unknown reason....it was here.
Bearing down on us.
I froze.
It wasn't long before shadow in the sky wasn't just a shadow anymore.
It was real, descending fast, blotting out the sun with its spiked outline.
My breath stopped for a second as the shape broke through the clouds, and a monstrous figure cut straight down like a blade from heaven.
The air whizzed with every step he took on nothing, like reality itself didn't know how to hold him.
When his feet finally hit the stone courtyard, the entire Roro estate trembled.
Dust rose from the cracks as everyone close stumbled back, and all eyes turned to the place where he landed...right in front of Pixie's unconscious body.
My heart started beating faster.
Too close.
He was too close.
I forced myself to look at him, and instantly, I wished I hadn't.
The Kalki was huge.
More than six feet tall, his fra lean yet terrifying, wrapped in so black, skin-tight armor that looked less like tal and more like a second skin.
The surface was slick, shifting, reflecting faint streaks of red. His shoulders were broad, chest armored with ridges that seed carved from obsidian.
anwhile, two large horns curled at the ends grew backward from his skull, sharp and twisted like broken branches reaching for the sky.
His face was a pale, with blood-red eyes that burned holes into anything they landed on.
And in his right hand, he carried that sword...
It wasn't like the blades I'd seen humans wield.
This was obsidian made into death, longer than a man's arm, black as night, with veins of scarlet light crawling across its sharp edges.
Even from where I stood, I could feel it. The weight, the hunger.
That blade wasn't just forged, it seed almost alive.
But none of that compared to the look in his eyes.
He wasn't angry, no...
He was terrified.
The monster who could scare the world with just his appearance looked at Pixie like he had been signed to a death sentence by her. The Kalki's sight locked onto Pixie's still body, and in an instant, that fear twisted into sothing worse.
A coarse voice tore out of him, breaking the silence:
"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER!"
The sound rattled in my bones. It wasn't like a speech.
It was a scream wrapped in thunder, a voice that carried across centuries, scratching at the inside of my skull.
His words weren't even words, they seed sothing else entirely.
They were laced with an old, forgotten rhythm, every syllable cutting like a blade.
"She is our Princess!" he bellowed, his horned head snapping between us, those burning eyes that seed to be promising us murder.
"What vile sin is this, to let her fall so, to let her lie broken upon this blasted planet?!"
The entire estate went still.
Not one moved.
Not one blade rose.
Even Dario, who had just been ready to slit my throat minutes ago, stood frozen, his dagger trembling in his grip as he seed to be waiting for sothing.
The silence was suffocating.
Because now, the war between us didn't matter.
Not when a monster like this was standing in front of Pixie.
Grandpa Venus was the first to move.
His lips pressed tight, eyes cold as he raised a dagger that suddenly appeared inside his hand.
His voice carried calm authority, though I could hear the steel underneath.
"…He knows her," Grandpa muttered.
The words made my stomach twist.
Knows her?
How could this monster know my Pixie?
I took a half step forward, my throat dry as I tried questioning the Kalki. "What the hell are you talking about? What do you an princess?"
The unknown being's head snapped towards .
And for the first ti in my life, I felt what it was like to be a prey.
His eyes bored into , so heavy and sharp that I couldn't even breathe. I had faced humans. I had faced death.
But this…this wasn't the sa.
This was like staring into an abyss that hated .
"You…wretched human," the Hollow hissed, his old tongue dripping with venom.
"Stand not before . I see your filth. I sll your cri and know this–"
He raised his blade, the red light crawling faster across its edge, the very air burning in its presence.
"Before the sun falls today, I shall hack you limb from limb, and bath your broken bones in the ashes of regret."
Dario teleported instantly, appearing closer to Pixie, with his dagger raised as he went for the creature's neck. "Like hell we're letting you near her!"
The Kalki tilted his horned head toward Dario, his expression twisting into raw hatred.
"You dare? You mortal gnats dare stand 'gainst ? You, who let her fall so low?!" He scread again, louder than before, so loud that windows across the estate shattered into shards.
My teeth ground together, fists tightening.
I couldn't understand it. Why was a Hollow screaming about Pixie? Why was he calling her a princess?
But right now, none of that mattered.
What mattered was simple.
He wasn't looking at . He wasn't looking at Dario. He wasn't even looking at Grandpa Venus, the strongest person in our family.
No.
All his focus was on her.
Pixie.
The girl who was unconscious, and helpless, lying in the dirt.
And in his red, burning eyes, she wasn't prey.
She was his everything.
My chest squeezed with sothing unknown as I took another step forward, planting myself between closer and closer to her.
"You're not touching her."
The Hollow's eyes twitched, that obsidian blade humming inside his grip as his voice dropped into a hiss.
"Move, worm. Or be crushed beneath mine wrath."
Behind , I could hear my family shifting. Soldiers, elders, even Dario, they weren't looking at anymore.
They weren't even looking at each other.
They were looking at him.
And I realised then…
Right now, we were united.
Our grudges, our rage, our doubts, none of it mattered now. Because standing in front of Pixie wasn't a human, he wasn't a family feud.
For he was a monster bigger than any of us.
He was a Kalki.
One that had stolen the Hollow weapon from the greatest auction in history.
One that now scread about how we had wronged his "princess."
And one that was ready to burn the world if we didn't move aside.
I swallowed hard, my voice dropping low as I held my hands tighter, feeling Damien stir in the back of my mind as the villain making seed to be spiralling for so reason.
"N-Noa-Noah...there's sothing we forgot about..."
I grunted, feeling a sense of foreboding at this idiot system's words.
"...open the system interface and check the missions tab—"
"We've been assigned a penalty by the God...Noah."
***
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