Chapter 56
The void around Nezutsu shimmered and fractured, forming a floating arena of glassy shards — a circular cradle suspended in the Hollow, where reflections danced with no source.
The Faceless Nezutsu stood opposite him, cloaked in white flame, holding a blade made entirely of reflected choices — every decision Nezutsu never made.
"This is not a battle of power," the Faceless One said, his voice echoing from every shard. "It is a reckoning. One of us is an error. One of us must vanish."
Nezutsu summoned the Starforged Relic, its light flickering, uncertain. Here in the Hollow, even certainty had a cost.
The first strike came like thunder.
Mirrored Assault
Glass blades exploded from the void, each one humming with versions of Nezutsu's past:
A blade that whispered: You could have killed the Headmaster.
A dagger shaped like Aeylara's sorrow: You let her fade.
A spear carved from Kaelith's doubt: You never told her the truth.
Nezutsu dodged, deflected, and stumbled. But each strike cut deeper than flesh — they scraped at his identity.
"Why do you fight me?" the Faceless One asked. "I am what you could become. Revered. Obedient. Chosen."
"Exactly," Nezutsu snarled. "You're everything I rejected."
Kaelith Breaks Through
Back outside the door of nothing, Kaelith knelt beside the Muse, her palms bleeding from pounding on the invisible barrier.
"Bring him back!" she screamed.
"He must choose," the Muse said. "He cannot be pulled from the Hollow. He must climb out of it."
Kaelith drew her dagger and whispered a name — a forbidden one etched into her soul from the time before the gods.
A crack appeared in the bone floor.
"Then I'll break the Hollow."
The Truth Beneath the Mask
Inside, Nezutsu ducked under a crescent scythe and plunged the Relic into a mirrored platform. The arena quaked.
Cracks spread across the Faceless One's mask.
And underneath…
A boy's face.
Young. Terrified. Eyes wide with regret.
"You're not a god's servant," Nezutsu whispered. "You're me… before I gave up trying to be what they wanted."
"You don't understand!" the boy sobbed, voice warping. "If you fight them, they erase you!"
"Better to vanish than become their puppet."
Nezutsu stepped forward and extended a hand.
"I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to forgive you."
The Hollow cracked.
The mirrored blades shattered.
And the boy screamed… then merged into Nezutsu's chest, becoming a part of him.
Subplot: The God That Watches
As Nezutsu regained control, a single floating shard hovered before him — untouched.
Within it was a blinking eye — massive, ancient, watching through dimensions.
"They know," Nezutsu whispered. "The Celestarch… the true one… it sees me now."
The shard pulsed once, and the whisper of a voice slithered from it:
"You climb well, little flame. But every ladder has a top."
Escape from the Hollow
Kaelith burst through the barrier, half-mad from rage and fear. She saw him floating, unconscious, shards around him vibrating like dying stars.
"Nezutsu!"
She caught him just as the Hollow began to collapse.
Eshryn appeared moments later, her robes scorched and skin cracked from forcing a ritual breach.
Together, they fled through the unraveling void as reality sealed behind them.
The Stained Book of Names
Back in the corridor outside the void, the Remnant Muse now sat with a tome in her lap — a living book with golden pages.
It bled.
Nezutsu looked at the cover: The Book of Chosen Flames.
"You weren't the first," the Muse said softly. "But you might be the last."
She opened it — page after page of names burned away.
"What happened to the others?"
"They either knelt… or were silenced."
The final page remained blank — still warm.
The ink quivered in the Muse's hand.
"Now, Nezutsu… what name will you write for yourself?"
[TO BE CONTINUED…]