CHAPTER 104: THE HOLLOW

When Zephyr eventually woke up again, he felt mostly refreshed and could think a bit more clearly. He cast a gaze at the status panel in the corner of his eye, bringing it into focus.

CURRENT STATUS

Rank: Tier 1

Physical Condition: Stable (72%)

Mental Condition: Recovering (59%)

’Oh? How long did I sleep, Aegis.’ he sent a thought, and immediately, he saw another small section of his vision light up with a digital clock that counted right as he looked at it.

CURRENT DATE AND TIME

Day 113

21:07:08

’A total of a hundred and thirteen days spent in this world... that’s three months, three weeks and two days if I use thirty days to count.’ Zephyr just realized now that he’d never even seen a calendar once all through his time on this planet. He’d seen a clock though, and he knew that their days were twenty two hours here. Aegis had surely taken that into account while counting the days, so he was sure it was accurate.

You’ve been asleep all day, host. Aegis replied to his earlier query.

’Oh?’ It wasn’t as long as Zephyr thought it would be... and he could feel why.

He was extremely hungry! He only woke up because his body craved further nutrients to continue healing.

He immediately stood up from the bed and walked briskly towards the door, but stopped abruptly when he picked up a very slight sound coming from the corridor behind the door. A sound which also stopped immediately he did.

They both kept still, waiting for the other to move, when Zephyr, who was very hungry, couldn’t take it anymore and swung the door open. His eyes immediately locked onto the tray of food the tall woman held in her hands and he stuttered, "That’s—That’s for me, right?"

The tall woman stood rigid with a slight frown on her face. She was stumped as to why Zephyr was able to pick up on her traces again. She had made sure to move very carefully even though she never thought Zephyr would be awake already.

Zephyr had walked up to her at this point and gently relieved her of the heavy tray of food, practically rushing into the room by himself to devour it without any semblance of etiquette. The woman watched with intruige, thinking back to Sage Maximus’ earlier words. Now she was looking forward to seeing what he was capable of even more...

She walked into the room after Zephyr, watching placidly as he gobbled down the food within record time. It was only after he finished eating that he became self aware, feeling a bit embarrassed, but the tall woman couldn’t care less.

"How are you feeling now?" She asked.

"Mostly better... though I think I need more rest."

"You recover very quickly." She pointed out, watching his expression very carefully. But Zephyr had been through this a couple of times now, so he was mostly unfazed. "I know."

"..."

"..."

They simply stared at each other blankly in an awkward silence, waiting for the other to talk.

’Man... she really doesn’t know how to make conversation.’ Zephyr realized.

She stared at him like she wanted something, but didn’t know how to go about asking for it.

And the way she had always been very direct in her speech for the most part. Zephyr knew another comrade when he saw one. This was a certified homebody!

The more he watched her, the more he was certain about his assumption. She looked like she didn’t go out much, exactly like him before he awakened his mana core and got thrown into... all this.

From her eager gaze, to her stiff body posture, not understanding small social cues... ’Like why is she still staring at me so intently—?’ Zephyr nearly spoke out loud.

"Ah! Yeah, I didn’t get your name." Zephyr quickly looked for a topic to start a conversation—any conversation at all.

"Komi."

The irony. Aegis abruptly chipped in, startling Zephyr, who asked for further information, but the AGI refused to give him any answer.

"Okay so, Komi... How long have you been working here?"

"Working?" She tilted her head in confusion. "This is my home."

"This is your home...?" Zephyr slowly repeated. "You’re Sage Maximus’ daughter?!"

"Yeah. Komi."

Zephyr reassessed her again, trying to see if he could find any similarities to the sage. ’How the hell did someone so short produce someone like... her?!’ he could not wrap his head around it. ’ Was her mother a titan or something?!’

"Oh! I can see what confuses you. You must wonder how I am this tall when my father is basically a midget." She nodded like she had gotten to the crux of the matter.

"Do you know what an Oracle is?" She asked with a barely perceptible but present excitement, she’d finally found something to talk about.

Zephyr shook his head in answer to her question, giving her the go-ahead to launch into her explanation.

"In every high-energy world, there are places called Conflux points," she started. "These are points where there is an abundance of mana and a very direct connection to origin. People, regardless of who they are, have an easier time understanding concepts by simply being within the surroundings of these points. Mathematicians would understand the solution to problems that had previously eluded them, painters would gain epiphanies and create masterpieces... And mages would understand spell models they had previously struggled with for years."

"Sounds like a very valuable location." Zephyr chipped in. He could already see what that could cause people to do.

Komi nodded in response to Zephyr’s words, "Wars were fought for them before the arrival of the first Otherworlders, but they were all taken over by them after they seized full control of our world... All except one."

"You have one here at Freehold." Zephyr deduced accurately.

"Yes."

"Hmm. But I don’t feel any different compared to before..."

"That’s because of the Oracle. Over time—it is unknown who came to this conclusion first—some people suggested that rather than having the Conflux spread out its effects over a large number of people, why not converge it onto one singular person... They devised a way to achieve this without any leakage at all. The surroundings of the Conflux point became normal... but the person who had been doused with this heavy energy lost their mind. They became what you Exalted know as A Hollow."

As she spoke, Zephyr drew some correlations to his mana core space and what previously happened whenever he placed his hand directly onto his mana node, connecting directly to the ’source’ above... Was this something like that?

"These Hollows were different from the usual ones—Exalted who had lost their mind to ecstasy during comprehension and tried something dangerous only to lose their minds—They were... conscious, but it wasn’t them anymore. They only spewed weird talks whenever they were spoken to," she shook her head.

"They couldn’t even be killed to release the Conflux Point back to everyone, since whatever the method, they never died. And neither could they be removed from the vicinity of the Conflux Point either. This led to the Exalted enforcing strict measures around these points. They prevented anyone from even getting close to them, and turned them into Treasured comprehension lands where only they and their selected Vassals could have access to... Until a few years after... when a scholar—whose name was never revealed, deciphered the words which the Hollow had been repeating for years."

"...and what were those words?" Zephyr, fully invested in the story she was telling, asked.

"... Hello World."

"He kept repeating Hello World."