Grand Ascension-Chapter 53: Hollow Court

The temperature in the room dropped. Pressure increased in the room, its weight landing on every present object.

Cracks reverberated across the room as tables and chairs struggled not to break. Celine and Ryan felt themselves bow in front of this pressure, no way to control themselves.

Stood next to them, Mark’s knees buckled. He almost fell but grit his teeth and forced himself to stay up. The most pressure was on him because he was the one who mentioned the Hollow Court.

The Hollow Court is a taboo subject for practitioners and is avoided by most.

It is a mystic liberation movement dedicated to reuniting humanity with its forgotten spiritual heritage.

They believe the Veil, the barrier and mechanism separating the physical world from the Deep, is humanity’s greatest tragedy. That it was all a plan of those ancient elite families to monopolize spiritual power and suppress the masses.

They truly believe that the Veil does not protect humanity, it enslaves it, severing people from their ancestral connection to the entities, gods, and forces that once walked alongside them.

Said like this, one would not understand why they were a taboo and mentioned as dangerous. But if you dig deeper and search how they offer said liberation, your stomach is going to turn.

Mentioning the Hollow Court on its own is a taboo, yet mentioning it in front of Jorg, a member of the Suppression Bureau, Head of the Veil Enforcement Bureau located in Naija City, who has lost his family to the acts of members of that cult was worse.

Mark knew what he wanted.

As petty as it seemed, he did not want Makun to walk free from here. Not only because he lost, but he deeply believed Makun was a disaster. Most Berserk Warriors were. The concept of being a Berserk Warrior on its own was troublesome. One who could attract so many entities was worse.

Jorg looked at Mark deeply then.

The room snapped back to normal. The pressure that washed over everything vanished as if it was never there to begin with.

Gasp!

Celine gasped heavily after the pressure vanished. At her side, Ryan steadied himself while Mark managed not to fall to his knees.

I’ve let my emotions get the best of me Jorg sighed.

He was a cold individual, very controlled and nonchalant. But whenever someone mentioned the Hollow Court, he flared up.

Those memories haunted him to this day. He had enacted his revenge against the individual, but he despised those who belonged to the Hollow Court.

Jorg’s hand, hidden beneath the desk, slowly unclenched.

"You accuse an individual who just underwent initiation of being Hollow Court. On what evidence do you make such claims?" He spoke, reverting to his usual tone.

Mark had expected Jorg to be shaken. That was why he mentioned it in the first place. But the pressure emitted by a third-grade Adept had still surprised him.

He could feel his belly turning inside, fear slowly getting a grip of him.

"He... he hosted too many entities. A-and his Core stabilized, continued forming itself after exiting the Deep." Mark stumbled on his words, coming out in mumbles. "No normal Initiate can do that."

Jorg shook his head. "Berserk Warriors are unstable by nature. Entity attraction is a feature of the sub-route, not proof of allegiance." Jorg narrowed his eyes. "What do you have against him?"

By now he had kind of figured out what was happening, but he could not just brush aside what his underling who went on the terrain said.

He had to take everything into consideration.

"Nothing, sir, I have nothing against him." Mark thought "Sir we found two Items on him that solidifies my thoughts."

Mark nodded to Ryan, who went to retrieve the book and the pendant Makun had placed in his sports bag that remained untouched even after the bench was blown up by Mark’s bullet.

"Sir, I have tried opening this book. However, it remained closed and I could not have access." Mark said, pointing at the book. "Then there was the pendant, sir. A device that helps locate someone." He held the bracelet in his other hand.

"I truly believe the book has information on the Hollow Court, while the pendant was for his allies to locate him. He should be investigated, sir."

Mark concluded, while Jorg at the same time shook his head.

It was common for officers, be it in the Veil or behind the Veil, humans, to abuse power, and this was one of those cases.

He could not open the book but concluded that it was full of information on the Hollow Court.

Jorg stretched his hand slowly in the open, gesturing for Mark to give him the book and the pendant. However, as soon as he got the book and pendant, he was surprised.

Jorg’s jaw tightened. The pendant was a Great family design. The book was sealed with resonance binding, a technique only three organizations in the USA could perform. And two of them were not doing it on stuffs like books .

He had seen the pendant before on someone in particular at meetings held by the higher ups, and the book, which seemed like something everyone could get at first, was actually quite complex. He had heard of the whole process that went behind this. The book was not given to people like that, and it was not really sold. Even he could not tell the true goal of these artifacts. There was always careful preparation before one of these artifacts were given to someone. As for the pendant, there existed many devices for frequency location, but this exact design, he had seen it before on a woman.

"You guys get out," he said.

"But, Chie—"

"Out!" Mark wanted to protest but was cut short by Jorg.

The team of three withdrew and left Jorg in the room.

He picked up the phone and called.

Cliiiiing. Cliiiiing.

"Hello, Jorg?" A soft, calm but clear voice sounded from the phone.

It was Yime who spoke.