For several seconds, neither side moved, a certain stillness settling over the clearing.

  Levi examined the man with a considering gaze. Even though he knew Hawke had retired a decade ago, Qorbin had still recognized him as a Mythmaker, implying that Hawke had already been Mythmaker-tier when he was an active adventurer. In the ten years since then, he would've almost undoubtedly grown stronger, especially considering the contract he’d formed with the Hollow, a metaphysical anti-divine being.

  Next to him, he could sense Qorbin was using numerous skills on himself; self-enhancement and augmentation abilities, no doubt. Behind them, Liliya had backed up to a safe distance, though ‘safe’ was debatable, considering how Hawke had a village-encompassing insta-kill technique. While she must’ve received a considerable stats boost from Qorbin due to their apprenticeship link, it was still obvious that this fight was far out of her league.

  Levi supposed a normal person might question why Qorbin had even brought her on this mission, but it really was a rite of passage to toss a complete novice into a situation they were woefully underqualified for to achieve immense exponential growth. Sure, she might die trying, but that was what Qorbin and Levi were there for. Even if she wasn’t involved in the battle itself, the experience she’d gain just from observing alone would be more than invaluable.

  “Come on now, old-timer,” Qorbin grinned at Hawke. “You can’t seriously think you’ll win four against one, can you? Do us a favor and just surrender. I’d feel too bad otherwise.”

  “Ah, about that…” Syto interjected. Qorbin turned to him, confused. “This is rather awkward.”

  Qorbin blinked before a foreboding look crossed his face. “Syto…”

  “My mission here was only to determine whether it was a rogue vampire behind the attacks. Now that I’ve confirmed it wasn’t, I’m afraid I’ll be taking my leave now.”

  There was a moment of silence. Levi, Qorbin, and Liliya all stared at the vampire with no small amount of incredulity. Syto, for his part, looked completely unrepentant, and even a little amused.

  “Are you serious?” Qorbin asked disbelievingly. “We’re about to fight an ex-Mythmaker turned Hollow Cultist. You’re telling me you’re willing to miss out on this fight?”

  Syto shrugged. “It’s out of my jurisdiction. I’m not supposed to interfere with human affairs – and to tell you the truth, I’ve never quite enjoyed fights against Hollow cultists anyhow. Always brings a bad taste to my mouth.” He smiled. “Besides, I’m worried that if we do start fighting, I might accidentally switch sides and join Hawke out of sheer force of habit.”

  “Huh?! The fuck does that mean?”

  Levi couldn’t help but let out a snort. It made sense; Syto wasn’t on humanity’s side, or even their side. He had joined forces with them for the sake of the investigation, but that was only to identify the culprit and ensure the treaty wasn’t at risk. Now that their investigation was over, Syto had no further reason to help them. He and Qorbin were old war enemies, after all, and the vampire had made it no secret that he wanted to continue his fight against Levi. Levi supposed the fact that Syto was leaving instead of outright turning against them was already a gesture of goodwill.

  “Ironwood, Volkov, it’s been a pleasure,” Syto inclined his head. “Best of luck being apprenticed under this impotent drunk. I do hope we’ll meet one day on the battlefield in the future. Qorbin… Break a leg. Or two.”

  As the vampire spoke, a controlled stream of crimson blood steadily crept up his body. With his final words, the blood covered him entirely, forming an elliptical sphere shaped almost like an egg. After a second, the blood splashed formlessly to the ground, revealing Syto nowhere to be seen.

  Qorbin shook his head. “Unbelievable…”

  “So, you were saying?” Hawke spoke up, looking slightly amused. “Four against one, was it?”

  Qorbin coughed. “Ah. Well, you know how things change…” He recovered quickly, a roguish grin cutting across his face. “But honestly, one of me is worth three of him anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. That aside… you gonna surrender?”

  Hawke’s response was to summon a staff into his hand – a mage’s staff. Levi narrowed his eyes; so the Hollow cultist was a mage of some sort. Then Hawke raised his staff into the air and immediately, Levi, Qorbin, and Liliya all tensed up as a terrible, unnatural aura of hatred and malevolence filled the air. Levi’s stomach clenched as his heart rate automatically increased, something primal inside him flinching at the sheer miasma of negative emotions that suddenly pervaded the clearing.

  Okay. If there’d been any doubts before that Hawke wasn’t the Hollow cultist, they were gone now.

  The tip of Hawke’s staff, inlaid with a blackened gem, pulsed with a malevolent light, and a dark purple tendril of magic lazily emerged, splitting up into a dozen strands. With his True Sight, Levi saw how the tendrils corrupted the very air it touched, tainting it completely and leaving behind an unsightly hollow void in the ambient magic of the world.

  Then, the tendrils pierced forward with blinding speed.

  Levi and Qorbin both immediately burst into movement, dodging to either side. Levi took a split second to throw a glance at Liliya, checking to see if she was in any danger. Oddly, though she’d automatically leaped back as well, Hawke hadn’t targeted her with his attack; the tendrils were only after Qorbin and Levi.

  Was it because Hawke somehow sensed that they were the biggest threats? Or was it because she was out of range of the attack? Or was there some other reason?

  Levi didn’t have any more time to ponder on the oddity as he raced across the clearing, moving so fast his feet barely touched the ground as the tendrils shot after him. They were absurdly fast and emanated a corrupted, corrosive aura, so strong that even the grass beneath them withered and died from the proximity alone. Levi had no doubt that if the tendrils brushed up against him even once, there was a good chance he’d die instantly.

  So this was the Hollow’s power.

  Levi felt a sensation blanket over the entire clearing. He raised an eyebrow at the telltale feeling of an anti-teleportation field. So Hawke was trying to keep them from escaping?

  In front of them, Hawke’s staff gave another pulse, the Hollow’s power intensifying so much that the air around the blackened gem started distorting with darkness. It didn’t even require True Sight to observe; just plain regular vision was enough. Levi’s eyes widened slightly; just how strong did the negative emotions have to be to literally manifest into physical form?

  The tendrils shimmered with an unearthly dark light as the increased power coursed through them, before they speared forward faster than Levi could blink. If they had any mass, they would’ve undoubtedly shattered the sound barrier many times over.

  As it was, Levi immediately knew that his body was still too weak and unconditioned to dodge even with his reinforcement turned to the max. Should he use a defensive shield? Or should he try blasting them away with a Sever and Cleave? Decisions, decisions–

  A flicker of movement to his side caught his eye, and Levi relaxed.

  Qorbin appeared in front of him and unleashed a flurry of attacks, his blade gleaming with a dark light. He lashed out with dozens of strikes in less than a second. The tendrils were repelled and deflected as though Qorbin’s slices had formed a physical shield, and they withdrew a moment later.

  “Thanks,” Levi said. “Hawke set up an anti-teleportation field, by the way.”

  Qorbin blinked. “Oh, sorry. That was me, actually; I’d set one up around the forest’s perimeter before I arrived and activated it just now. Didn’t you receive the alert from the System…?” He paused as realization hit, suddenly looking very awkward. “Oh.”

  Ah, of course. Not only was Levi prevented from leveling up and gaining new skills, but the System also neglected to give him valuable notifications. Levi’s left eye twitched.

  “It’s alright, no harm done,” Levi said. “I assume the field is to ensure Hawke won’t be able to escape?”

  Qorbin nodded. “We might not get another chance. We need to stop him now before he kills any more people – or worse, uses a summoning ritual. I don’t think it’ll be very pretty if a daemon gets thrown into the picture.”

  Across from them, Hawke suddenly laughed. The man hadn’t moved from his initial position at all; he’d seemed content to observe the two of them with an almost genial expression on his face. But at Qorbin’s words, Hawke had finally reacted, showing the first outburst of emotion Levi had seen.

  “What’s so funny?” Qorbin demanded.

  “Stop me from using a summoning ritual?” Hawke laughed, a manic, almost hysteric quality to his voice. “The ritual’s already done and complete.” Levi’s eyes widened and Qorbin drew in a sharp, worried breath. “You’re too late, damn you adventurers, you’re always too fucking late!”

  His voice cracked, and he thrust his staff forward in a stabbing motion. His magic responded, the moon getting blotted out by the sudden swirling dense clouds that gathered above them. Levi and Qorbin looked up, and lightning blasted down.

  Hawke continued laughing – only for his laughter to suddenly cut off with a gurgle as Levi slashed his hand upward and cut through the lightning with a Sever and Cleave, splitting the lightning in two. He gaped at Levi. “What?!”

  Levi ignored him. They didn’t have any more time to waste. If Hawke had already used the ritual, if a daemon or gods forbid an archdaemon had already been summoned into this world, then they had to act quickly before more lives were lost. Levi didn’t know why the daemon wasn’t with them right now – but then again, summoners losing control over their summoned entities was a tale as old as time.

  Or maybe Hawkes had summoned it somewhere far away from this town. That was most likely the case; Hawke wouldn’t want to summon a daemon in his hometown, after all.

  Qorbin and Levi didn’t discuss a strategy. They didn’t need to. One of the upsides of fighting alongside someone who knew what they were doing was that words weren’t necessary to communicate. They merely shared a single glance of understanding before Qorbin disappeared, melting into the shadows.

  Levi slashed his hand through the air and his magic exploded from his body. The ground beneath him cracked as an incredibly heavy pressure slammed down over the clearing.

  Across from him, Hawke still seemed to be in disbelief. “You cut through lightning! And this pressure… There’s no way you’re a fresh Institute graduate.”

  The tendrils pierced forward once more, and multiple Sever and Cleaves shot forward to meet them. Unlike before against Syto, however, Levi didn’t bother getting into a contest of magic. Hawke was the one who’d killed five entire villages. Anger and fury swelled up within Levi, and he channeled them into his spell, raising one hand high up and shaping his magic into the form of a silver spear of light.

  Then, he hurled the lance of magic forward. Hawke sent forth a single tendril to intercept it, looking almost dismissive, only for his eyes to widen as the spear glowed and multiplied a thousandfold, the air suddenly becoming so dense that it was like a physical wall of spears had formed. They tore through the tendrils like they were paper and continued onward toward the cultist.

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  Hawke let out a yell and slammed the butt of his staff onto the ground. The earth rose up in three consecutive walls, each reinforced densely with Hawke’s mana and etched with intricate designs. The spears slammed into them, instantly breaking through the first and second only to finally be stopped by the third.

  Levi narrowed his eyes. First lightning, then earth. Hawke must be some sort of elemental mage, then. An Elementalist? Or even a Wildmage.

  Well, no matter. If it was a battle of magic, then… Call it pride, call it professionalism; whatever the case, Levi wasn’t allowed to lose. Not if he wanted to ever live it down afterward.

  Levi sent his own magic upward into the storm clouds above. Hawke’s mana already permeated the clouds, and Hawke tensed up when he felt Levi’s magic intrude. For several seconds, their mana wrestled for dominance. Hawke cursed as Levi ultimately reigned triumphant, and he barely raised his staff in time to cast an iridescent barrier before multiple bolts of lightning slammed down onto him a moment later. The barrier cracked but managed to hold.

  It began raining, but the raindrops didn’t hit the ground; instead, Hawke stared upward with wide eyes as Levi manipulated the water to gather and condense into a single sphere above them, gradually growing in size.

  “What happened to completing the third convergence sigil?” Levi asked. “Weren’t you supposed to drain this village as well?”

  “Convergence sigil?” Hawke frowned. “What are you talking about? This village is my hometown, boy, why would I want to drain it?”

  Levi frowned as well. The image of the sigil had been a coincidence, then? Hawke had targeted the villages at random, and the midpoints just so happened to form a third convergence sigil? What were the odds of that? Well. Levi supposed humans were good at seeing patterns where there weren’t any.

  It didn’t matter. Levi had more important questions to ask.

  “Why?” Levi demanded. “Why kill all those people? Why become a Hollow cultist? You were an adventurer, weren’t you?” He hesitated. “Was it because of the reinforcements that saved Elysia all those years ago–?”

  “Do not speak of those foul bastards,” Hawke snarled, his visage suddenly twisting with virulent rage. “Save Elysia? Don’t make me laugh.”

  Almost negligently, he pointed his staff at the water sphere above. The blackened gem inlaid at his staff’s tip glowed with power before a single fireball blasted upward, twice as powerful as the Elder Wyvern’s attacks. The fireball crashed into the water sphere and instantly vaporized it all, causing tons of clouds of steam to billow outward.

  Instead of aimlessly dissipating, however, Hawke’s staff glowed again before the steam rushed downward in a cyclone toward Levi, so hot and corrosive that it would no doubt strip the skin off Levi’s bones if it hit.

  Levi didn’t even give it a second glance, simply waving his hand across the air. A powerful gust of wind blew the cyclone of steam away, cooling it down back into liquid. Water splashed over the trees of the surrounding forest.

  “If they’d just done their jobs, nobody would’ve died!” Hawke continued, his voice filled with a mixture of agony and fury. “The dungeon break was bad, but it had only been an orichalcum-tier dungeon break. The guards and stationed adventurers at Elysia had managed to hold out for hours – HOURS – before the monsters broke through! More than enough time for higher-tier reinforcements from a nearby city to arrive.”

  His eyes were filled with pain. “The walls of Elysia shouldn’t have fallen. Not a single life should’ve been lost. But instead, when I rushed back from my mission, I was met with the sight of a broken wall, burning buildings, and hundreds of dead bodies strewn across the ground, including my own–”

  Hawke cut himself off abruptly. “I didn’t understand at the time,” he said quietly. “Why were the reinforcements so late? Were the higher-tier adventures delayed somehow? Were there other monsters in the area? I had to find out. I tracked down the reinforcements afterward, and you know what they told me?”

  Levi watched him with an unreadable gaze. “What did they say?”

  Hawke stared at him with a slightly confused, hollow gaze, as if even now a decade later, he still didn’t quite fully understand.

  “They were in the middle of gambling. They were drunk and had lost hundreds of platinum coins, unwilling to leave the game before gaining it back. Can you believe that? They valued their money more than actual human lives.”

  Levi didn’t respond.

  “And you know the worst part? I wasn’t surprised at all.” Hawke chuckled with no amusement whatsoever. “Because I had seen the same thing happen before, hadn’t I? Adventurers who refused to take crucial lifesaving missions because the loot was too low, adventurers who spent time farming monster camps to increase their own levels instead of helping people. I’d seen it again and again throughout my career. Hadn’t thought anything wrong with it – even thought it to be normal. Until that day ten years ago.”

  It was as Levi had expected. There was a reason why the server back in the tavern had looked so resentful and angry when he’d mentioned the reinforcements, after all. It matched with what Liliya had told him about the state of modern adventurers back in the village of Copperton.

  And…

  “Your daughter died in the attack, didn’t she?” Levi asked quietly.

  That question seemed to break through Hawke’s forced calm. The older man’s eyes flashed with anguish. “Her name was Emma,” he whispered. “She was only seven years old.” For several seconds, he was silent. Then, rage distorted his gaze. “You ask why I turned to the Hollow? It’s because of her. This world is broken, Levi Ironwood. And it’s too far gone for us to fix it. So if I must summon an entity to cleanse humanity? Then so be it. Perhaps then the next civilization will learn from our mistakes and do better.”

  So Hawke had used the summoning ritual for the sake of revenge. There had been no greater motive – it had just been the act of a man blinded by wrath and grief. He must’ve already summoned a daemon and released it into the wild.

  A part of Levi was glad that it wasn’t some evil plot. The rest of him, however…

  “Perhaps the adventurers had failed in their jobs,” Levi said. “But you still killed thousands of innocents, drained them of their very lifeblood, to power the ritual. There’s no excuse, no justification. For that, I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you.”

  Hawke smiled. “Do you think you can? You may have some tricks up your sleeves, but I’m a Mythmaker Elementalist. Not only that, but I also serve the Hollow, the direct antithesis to the Goddess herself. What about you?”

  Levi smiled. “I’m Levi, the teammate of Liliya Volkov and apprentice to Qorbin Ravenbane. And, all due respect, but my master was scarier than your master.”

  Then he wrapped his magic around him and teleported.

  Hawke choked on his spit as Levi reappeared in front of him, somehow bypassing the anti-teleportation field. “How–?!”

  He raised his staff, tendrils of dark purple Hollow magic shooting toward Levi, but Levi simply sliced one finger across the air. A tiny Sever and Cleave shot forward and cut through the base of the tendril where it stemmed from the staff – right into a death line.

  Cutting the death lines on the tendrils themselves were far too difficult because the tendrils were too thin and too fast. But the tendrils all had a single source: the base tendril from which they branched from. And it just so happened that the base tendril was both thick enough and also had a single convenient line of death running right across it.

  That was what Levi had just cut. The tendrils were instantly overcome by death and shattered into nothingness, the malevolent sensation disappearing from the clearing.

  Hawke looked even more stunned than before. “Those tendrils were formed from the Hollow’s power,” he said, his voice a rasp. “How did you–?”

  Even through his surprise, the cultist reacted, lightning arcing forth from his staff. Levi was forced to step back, but that was fine. He’d done his job.

  In the shadows behind Hawke, Qorbin appeared in the cultist’s blind spot, having been concealed in absolute stealth. His blade blurred through the air, and Hawke grunted in pain as his staff, along with four of his fingers, fell to the ground. To his credit, Hawke immediately whirled around, his other palm crackling with magic, but at the end of the day, Hawke was a mage and Qorbin was an assassin.

  Qorbin dismantled him like an expert chef breaking down a fish. He didn’t use any lethal attacks; they still needed information on the exact details of the ritual and where the summoned daemon had gone. Instead, he unleashed a series of crippling blows with the blunt side of his blade before Hawke could cast a single spell, each one landing with the force of a cudgel. In less than a second, the cultist was forced down to his knees with both arms wrenched behind his back, secured by an enchanted rope.

  When Qorbin was satisfied Hawke wasn’t going anywhere, he whirled back to Levi.

  “You broke through the anti-teleportation field?” he said incredulously.

  Levi shrugged. “The field wasn’t that well-made.”

  Much like teleportation, anti-teleportation fields very much varied in terms of effectiveness. The anti-teleportation field Qorbin had constructed was makeshift and not very robust; it was clear the assassin had set it up in a hurry. It had only taken Levi a minute or two to analyze the field before coming up with a way or three to slip through. If the anti-teleportation field had been on the same level as, say, the one in the Restricted Sanctum, Levi doubted he would’ve been able to break through.

  It appeared that the people of this world weren’t aware of how to break through anti-teleportation fields, though. It made sense; the magic involved typically required knowledge of imaginary mana theory.

  Qorbin stared at him. “Wasn’t that well-made,” he repeated flatly. “I… You know what, no. I’m not doing this again. Good work, thanks for distracting him.”

  Levi nodded. “Of course.”

  “Now,” Qorbin turned back to Hawke. “What are we supposed to do with you…”

  Hawke narrowed his eyes, but before he could respond, Liliya reappeared next to them in a blur of movement. Hawke stared at her, and all the fight seemed to leave him. He sagged in place.

  “Just kill me,” Hawke said. He’d given up on struggling against the ropes; whatever enchantments they were imbued with, it appeared they prevented Hawke from accessing his magic. Levi made a mental note of them. “I’m not going to tell you anything, and if you turn me in to the authorities, they’ll execute me anyway.” He paused. “Assuming I don’t find a way to escape.”

  Levi and Qorbin narrowed their eyes. Both of them were experienced enough to tell that Hawke was telling the truth. No amount of enhanced interrogation techniques would be enough to make him talk. The look of absolute conviction in Hawke’s eyes was enough to convince them of that.

  “Fair enough,” Levi said. “Qorbin, mind letting me have this one?”

  Qorbin nodded. “Go ahead.”

  Levi stepped forward and prepared to kill the cultist–

  “Papa?”

  Levi, Qorbin, Liliya, and Hawke all froze in place.

  The door to the house swung open and something walked out. It was deformed and misshapen, its very existence so wrong that Levi’s mind hurt just looking at it. It had a head, two arms, and two legs, but each individual part was indescribably grotesque. Levi’s eyes couldn’t even focus on it properly; some instinctual part of his brain refused to register or decipher the image.

  Immediately, Levi knew what was wrong. It wasn’t a physical form issue; rather, it was an issue with the soul itself. The soul shaped the body, and corruption of the soul inevitably led to deformation of the body. No amount of healing or magic could cure such an ailment.

  But whose soul?

  …

  Oh no.

  “Emma?” Hawke turned his head from where he was kneeling. “No – no, go back inside! I told you to not come out!”

  “Papa!”

  With a terrible feeling, Levi recalled Liliya’s words in the fallen village.

  ‘In addition to granting people his power, the Hollow is also capable of summoning entities from beyond this world, most often a daemon of some sort.’

  Most often a daemon. But not always.

  Perhaps at first, Hawke had meant to summon a daemon to get revenge. But somewhere along the way, he’d changed his mind for some reason. Modified the ritual and adjusted the parameters to achieve his new goal.

  Hawke had attempted to summon his daughter back from the dead.

  But of course, true resurrection was impossible. Such a thing went against the sanctity of death itself. Not even magic could accomplish such a thing. But the Hollow had still received the payment of human sacrifice, and the nature of contracts meant he had to fulfill his end of the deal. So he’d attempted to pull back Hawke’s daughter’s soul, irredeemably damaging and corrupting it in the process.

  Which resulted in the broken aberration they saw in front of them now. It – she – stumbled across the porch with shuffling steps, her breathing a scraping rasp. She must be in unbearable agony, but it didn’t seem like she had the awareness to even feel it.

  Liliya looked horrified, covering her mouth with her hands. “Oh Goddess…” she whispered. “This isn’t…”

  “Hawke…” Qorbin looked like he’d aged a decade as he stared at Hawke’s revived daughter. “You didn’t.”

  Hawke ignored him. He was frantically pleading with his daughter now. “Go back inside, Emma. Please.”

  “Papa. Hurts. Hurts. Papa.”

  A strange calmness settled over Levi’s mind as he analyzed the scene in front of him. It didn’t seem like Hawke’s daughter had much sentience or sapience; she was only capable of saying those two words. She wasn’t truly alive; she was nothing but a warped, unnatural facsimile of what life should be.

  He should kill her right now. Hell, when he’d been Death’s servant, his entire job had been to hunt down creatures like her and put them out of their misery. Their very existence violated the immutable laws of life and death, and it was, or it had been, his duty to eliminate them.

  But…

  Levi didn’t want to kill her.

  He was tired of killing.

  Just once, just this once, couldn’t he try something else?

  Slowly, an idea began coming together in his mind. It wasn’t a great idea, or even a good idea. It was a terrible idea, actually.

  Magic might not be able to heal her soul…

  But what about magick?

  “Shit, man,” Qorbin said, rubbing his face with his hand. “That’s not your daughter, you know that right, Hawke? It’s a distorted reflection at best. Her soul might be there, but it’s… Fuck. I… I’ll make it quick, at least.”

  “Wait,” Levi said, holding up his hand.

  “Kid, even you can’t do anything here,” Qorbin said. Then a sudden cautious, almost fearful look flashed across his face. “Can you?”

  Levi was silent.

  6 chapters ahead!